george crosland photo blog

Vert
1) PLG
2) Diego Menezes
3) Sandro Dias
4) Mathias Ringstrom
5) Neal Hendrix
6) Alex Perelson
7) Anthony Furlong
Adam Taylor
9) Buster Halterman
10) Lincoln Ueda

Street
1) Greg Lutzka
2) Milton Martinez
3) Rodil De Araujo Jr.
4) Dayne Brummet
5) Felix May
6) Mario Saenz
7) Tulio Oliveira
Christian Huerta
9) Julio Cosio
10) Max Barrera

The X Games let the Legends of Vert hit the ramp before the pros. What a treat to see all these guys together. I mean Tony Hawk, Cab and Duane Peters in the same session. It was enough to give you goosebumps. Whether you skate, snowboard, or maybe even surf, these guys came up with sooo many of the basic and not so basic tricks

Chris Miller and Christian Hosoi pretty much invented modern style. Many guys before Miller had tons of style but Miller and Hosoi combined modern tricks and style. I mean every skateboarder and snowboarder will try to emulate this style but none of them will ever pull it off

“Skateboarding and punk rock - Fuck Off!” You can walk around the mall or skatepark today and see kids trying be like Duane Peters. NO ONE is as punk as DP, not even Sid Vicious. Like Dave Duncan said “Said Viscious took the easy way out, he killed himself, Duane is still around” Duane was flipping off the camera every chance he got. Duane also brought the Indy Air air, layback and other tricks. By the way, there is no such thing as a frontside Indy. Indys can only be backside…but I digress, Duane about to drop in

l-r, Tony Hawk, Ben Schroeder, Christian Hosoi, Chris Miller, Lester Kasai and Steve Caballero

Ever heard of the Mctwist? Well, Mike McGill her invented it in Sweden in 1983 or 1984 and unveiled in competition at the Del Mar skate ranch. The world changed forever on that day

Tony Magnussen

Ben Scrhroeder has to be the biggest, strongest most powerful and biggest trainwreck of a skater. If gets on a board something good is going to happen. Christian Hosoi records this egg plantas Tony Hawks wife (and 1000’s of others) look on

The Caballerial, invented by Steve Caballero here. Imgaine the world with out 360 ollies

Tony Hawk did 720’s when he was like 14 years old and he can still do them at almost 40. Think about it, only a handful of skaters in the world can do a 720 on vert today, let alone at age 14 over 20 years ago. Hawk invented like every other trick these guys did not invent

Mag and Cab doing doubles and look how stoked the crowd is

The Master of Disaster doing and Invert to Revert at the X Games - fuck yea. If you EVER get a chance to see Duane skate - do it

Let’s close this gallery out with Tony Hawk

Shaun now is not only a Winter Olympics gold medalist but also a summer X Games gold medalist as well. Pretty amazing stuff if you think about it. It all came down to the second to last run too.

The Games ramp had been moved from indoors at the staple center to outdoors at the Home Depot Center. It was hot as heck. The heat combined with the very large amount of time between runs I believe led to a large amount of bails. I do not think anyone made it through the first round with a complete run. By the end of the second run the medalist were PLG, Mathias Ringstrom and Alex Perelson. Wait, who is Alex Perelson? Alex is a 16 year old, 5’6”, 125 lb ripper from San Diego and he was sitting in third place at the X Games after round two. All the heavies (Bucky, Bob, Rune, etc) all bailed in their third runs too. It all came down to Shaun White’s last run to knock the 16 year old out podium contention. Shaun made his run and got the gold and knocked Alex down to 4th place. It was history in the making folks and it all came down to the 2nd to the last runs of skateboard of the thirteenth X games

The vert ramp crowd

This is who Alex Perelson is. A young ripper from San Diego that skates a Claremont. He used to be influenced by Neil Blender and Darren Navarette, now I think his influence comes from the many pros that visit the park. Fourth Place in the X Games – sick

PLG put together a sick run for sure but he really won simply by completing his last run

Andy Mac does a nice little front blunt on the offset extension. Andy is usually Mr. consistent and even he was bailing

Here is what the ramp looked like. Basically a straight vert ramp with two little offset extensions on either end

Rune Glifberg sizes up the ramp

This may be a fakie to fakie 540 by Mr. Bucky Lasek. Either way it is crazy. Bucky ALMOST took it in his third run but fell a few walls before his 45 seconds were up. Even if Bucky did make his run I am not sure it would have taken Shaun’s run. We will never know though. Bucky was recovering from something like a month or so ago so maybe that affected him

Bob Burnquist also fell victim to the bailing syndrome but not here. I did not even know what this is, some of frontside spinning handplant. Bob is a true nut and a true joy to watch. Bob could barely get up after some of his falls in the Big Air, let alone skate in the X Games but sure enough – here he is

Rune Glifberg ollies on the offset extension

Shaun White warms up with a heelflip to fakie. Shaun said that “Pretty much my goal was to never do a straight air”

Shaun signs an autograph during practice

Shaun does a frontside 5 on his way to victory at the X Games. Shaun has done a lot of skating with Tony Hawk over the years. Shaun trains at Tony Hawks’s facility in Vista on the old huckjam ramp. Shaun even has a similar style to Tony Hawk. So it was really cool to Tony that Shaun won. “To finally see you make it in this arena is amazing” is one of the things Tony Hawk said to Shaun

I have been backing Mathias Ringstrom for years. That guy has put out some amazing things in the past, just not at the X games. Today he put one of those runs together that was certainly worthy of X Games Bronze

Rune Glifberg with a massive front heelflip – straight to hell!!

Here is another look at Alex Perelson. You know what, with all the current skaters approaching their mid thirties it is real good too see from fresh blood

Bucky Madonna’s onto the offset extension. Bucky always comes up with creative tricks

Shaun White with a bad ass looking slob. Shaun’s winning run included but was not limited to: heelflip 5, 720, stale front 5, front 5, fakie to fakie 5, varial heelflip and more

Mathias answers back with a sick melon grab

Shaun in turn answers back with a 720 and takes it all for his efforts. Do you think spinning 1080’s on a snowboard helps him spin 7’s on a skate? I don’t know do you think having sex with a Playboy Playmate would rule? Shaun was spinning 720’s like they were a set up trick. Congratulations Mr. White!

Results
1) Shaun White
2) PLG
3) Mathias Ringstrom
4) Alex Perelson
5) Andy MacDonald
6) Bucky Lasek
7) Rune Glifberg
Bob Burnquist
9) Rob Loriface
10) Sandro Dias

MEN’S STREET FINALS

1) Chris Cole 94.33
2) Greg Lutzka 93.42
3) Jereme Rogers 87.42
4) Ryan Sheckler 87.17
5) Tommy Sandoval 86.25
6) Paul Rodriguez 86.0
7) Mark Appleyard 84.92
8 Eric Koston 82.75
9) Andrew Reynolds 80.50
10) Nick Dompierre 78.42

Name / Hometown / Score
1. Marisa Dal Santo / LaGrange, IL / 86.08
2. Elissa Steamer / San Francisco, CA / 80.33
3. Amy Caron / Huntington Beach, CA / 80.16
4. Lacey Baker / Covina, CA / 71.41
5. Evelien Bouilliart / Aaler-Oost, Belgium / 65.75
6. Vanessa Torres / Silver Lake, CA / 62.66
7. Lauren Perkins / Huntington Beach, CA / 60.08
8. Leticia Bufoni / Sao Paulo, Brazil / 58.16

“That Was The Worst Fall in the History Of Skateboarding” That is exactly what Jason Ellis said as the X Games Big Air event came to its conclusion. Skateboarding Big Air was the first event of X Games 13 tonight. Danny Way was out due to surgery, who stepped it up and why was it a very emotional event? Read on…

The venue moved from outdoors at the Home Depot Center back to the Staples but indoors. Can not believe they actually fit this thing inside.

The X Games are always a hassle with the traveling to LA, tight security, limited shooting options, traffic and parking issues. However, even with the problems, it really does feel lucky to be able to witness what goes down here. Every year some amazing things happen

Jake Brown with a giant backside air in practice, this whole article is dedicated to Jake, he is the man!

Young Rob Loriface is showing some true promise as a skateboarder. Rob locks into this kickflip to Indy in practice

PLG with a kickflip180 over the gap. This trick put PLG onto the podium, 3rd place to be exact

Atiba Jefferson, one of my favorite skate photogs, hands down, was there shooting

Here is Jake Brown again, with another monster air

Hawk and Sal on top of the deck

Bucky Lasek qualified first for the finals. Here he is doing a front 3 over the gap to air to fakie. Bucky could not quite pull his frontside 5 rodeo which may have put him on the podium

I high-fived David Spade. David was sitting right in front of me. He was very personable; greeting and posing for photos with anyone who asked. Unlike Jason Lee a few years ago who was bitching at people for taking his photo, still like Jason though

PLG – 19 foot method air

Here is where it really got interesting. This very run you are looking at a photo of ; consisted of Jake Brown doing a backside ollie 360 over the 70 foot gap right into a 19 foot 540 put Jake in the Gold Medal position. That’s right Jake was going to win the 2007 X Games

Bob Burnquist immediately answered Jake with a switch back 180 into this giant 540. It was not enough to put Bob over the top; he sat in the silver position with PLG owning the Bronze. I believe this was the 4th of everybody’s five runs. The best score wins

Stephen Baldwin was in the house. The media section must have been near the VIP section

Here is Jake’s 5th and final run. He did the unbelievable…a 720 over the gap (seen here). It was insane, everyone in the house was screaming. What was amazing was the fact that he was already in first place or as PLG said “Jake had nothing to lose”

What happened next is unclear. I feel that Jake was so stoked about doing the 720 that he got kind of got dis-oriented…he shocked himself maybe. He went up the quarter pipe and went off with no control what so ever and Jake has too many skills to be so outta control. I could be wrong, we may never really know

We do know that Jake went straight from 40+ feet up straight to the position you see right here which is to say he landed from a 40 foot fall right on the flat – No Transition. He actually “bounced like a skydiver” according to Bob Burnquist. The house went from screaming for his 720 to totally silent, I mean SILENT. PLG thought he was dead, so did many others. Jake did not move for a few minutes. The Staples Center sat silent for that time. Then Jake twitched and everyone screamed. People were crying, freaking out. Jake actually walked off the ramp. Jake is one tough fucker, like a Tasmanian devil. PLG said that “Jake probably broke the ramp” It really was insane, look how distraught the other two people in the photo are

PLG, Bill Weis, Rob Loriface, Buster Halterman, Bucky Lasek, Jason Ellis and the medical crew check out Jakey

Then, right after Jakes run Bob had his moment. He said it was so tough to go. Not only was he extremely scared but he did not really want to take away Jake’s Gold. Then he said Jake would not want a Gold medal unless he knew everyone gave their best and then Bob went for his final run. Bob pulled a switch back 180 right into a frontside 540. The crowd erupted. It was a surreal moment. Bob said it “was bittersweet” He also said that “If Jake did not walk off the ramp I would not have gone”

That was it, the last run. Bob took it

“What did I do over the gap?” – Jake
“You did a 720” – PLG
What did I do on the quarter?” Jake
“Nothing” – PLG
Here is Jake right after he got off the ramp and he was joking around

“That was the worst fall in the history of skateboarding” – Jason Ellis holding Jake’s board

Bob, found it hard to smile but after all he did just win gold

The sun sets over Olympic Boulevard, Los Angeles USA. This is right across the street from a car wash were Chad Muska is photographed doing an insane tail drop in the new Skateboard Mag. The first day of the X Games is over

Results
1 Bob Burnquist
2 Jake Brown
3 PLG
4 Buster Halterman
5 Bucky Lasek
6 Rob Loriface

Is it Possible Shaun could win the X Games, the Olympics of skateboarding? Maybe, he beat Bucky in front of Bucky’s hometown crowd

Vert
1 Shaun White
2 Bob Burnquist
3 Andy Macdonald
4 Bucky Lasek
5 PLG
6 Alex Perelson
7 Jake Brown
9 Jean Postec
9 Buster Halterman
10 Mathias Ringstrom

Street
1 Ryan Sheckler
2 Greg Lutzka
3 Carlos De Andrade
4 Rodolfo Ramos
5 Mathieu Therres
6 Austen Seaholm
7 Kurtis Colamonico
8 Dayne Brummet
9 Mike Peterson
10 Fabrizio Santos
11 Jereme Rogers
12 Tuilo de Oliviera