Thank you [Applause] I’ll see you seven you’re awesome [Applause] I noticed a lot more countries represented in freestyle than ramp I’d always followed Ram skating because it seemed more exciting but as I watched the freestyle I thought about how much practice it must have taken [Applause] The Brazilian skaters had matched uniforms and seemed to understand what it meant to be a team they stayed in Monty’s backyard camped out in tents they called it Fort Brazil foreign They closed the ramp during freestyle the second layer of plywood used to cover the first layer splintered first contestant now There was one thing my parents always taught me well make that two things don’t play with matches and we’ll make that three things one matches um look both ways when you cross and one other one I guess that doesn’t have anything to do with the women’s freestyle
But whenever I see a good looking girl it always reminds me of things my folks say [Applause] I think there should be more girls skating because well because they’re fun to watch April’s grandmother owns one of the only skate parks in the U.S in Upland California she was the top amateur female freestyler in the NSA when she was only 13. I mean April was not her grandmother Another good thing about the girls they really stuck together and of course one stood apart Gogo from Switzerland was the grandma of skating at 23 and it was no secret she would win the women’s freestyle Hi zavor I can’t joined horses and teach people how to ride horses and they’re just do skating beside my world when I skate more in the summer I don’t skate at all in the winter because our horse is ready for the spring so I don’t got some time to skate at all just
In the summer but I don’t have my work in the summer so I just trained the horses over the winter and then I have time off so it’s pretty good I don’t work between April and September nothing to skating and just enjoy life and everything in warm-ups GoGo would wear her old
Skate shirts that she cut up they barely covered the essentials she said she didn’t do it to be sexy it was hot in her country and it was the only way she could get a tan like that they were pretty interesting it made her even more fun to watch the playground [Applause]
The best seats in the House for the event of the night [Applause] We just perform places like this it’s usually not this big once in a while to try to promote the sport of freestyle skateboarding I haven’t seen about five years now you can buy a radio and it’s a freestyle boy and that’s all it takes try to skate like their own you know
Don’t copy anybody and you’ll skate better foreign [Applause] Harris was a local favorite and a talented skater unfortunately he didn’t have a great week at Expo it’s a sport that takes a lot of timing and balance and practice just kind of you want to get good you got to put a lot of time into it you got to practice
At least two hours a day and just have a lot of fun what you’re doing I just want to go out there and have fun I’m doing kind of a show to the audience I just not worried about it’s a competition I just try to put it in mind it’s a show
And I’m trying to escape my best [Applause] I think Diane desiderio is the best looking professional female skater in the world come to think of it she’s the only pro-female skater in the world [Applause] I’ve been skating off and on for about 11 years I would say two years ago actually I just got back into it I’m happy I did because a lot is that has happened to me like meeting a lot of people and traveling I’m up here I’m having a good time Foreign First generation skaters and I’ve been around every year I’ve never quit so I’m probably the oldest one out there still competing on an everyday basis [Applause] yes he’s definitely the man to beat he’s the man to watch and the man to enjoy so he used to be on our team he’s I used to be Florida state champion uh Pro Division and he was just a little kid on our team he used to look up to me and
The next thing I know this guy’s world champion when I get second I was like any first for me in a contest he’s just he’s just not much better I was talking before about how ramp and freestyle skaters live Separate Lives when Rodney skated the ramp Riders would
Stop everything and just watch you feel it that’s when you make it oh of course you gotta try it over but you can try forever I mean infant in my ears if you just don’t feel it you’ll never make it [Applause] it doesn’t make it a career often they
Lose themselves in it and I see it happen to a lot of my friends they get soft they get too used to pounding on the back and they blew it um me I want to go as far as I can but there are times when I sort of have to
Fall and hurt myself to realize how much it means to me you know personally Rodney used to ride ramps till he broke his wrist his parents didn’t want him to skate anymore but he made a deal with them they’d build a practice area in the backyard and he’d only skate freestyle yeah
Sometimes he goes out in the middle of the night and skates in parking lots his favorite is the back lot of a church Rodney puts Education First he’s studying pre-med at the University of Florida maybe he’ll specialize in skateboard injuries [Applause] and this is just semi-finals you’ve got
To be back here Saturday I’ll tell you [Applause] next Daniel Gessner what first turned me on to skateboarding was the thrill of the simply of the simple flowing motion just the rolling I’m trying to achieve um a dance like Grace and expression something that’s quite a bit different from anything
Anybody else is doing and I I really downplayed the board manipulations that almost everybody else specializes in Foreign [Applause] It doesn’t matter where I place of course I would like to beat Ronnie I only beat him once and I guess I would be the guy who could beat him but he’s really really strong foreign Primo has a two foot long braided ponytail some don’t notice it because he tucks it in his shirt Foreign Was the world record holder in 360s and he uses it a lot in his routines Foreign ERS the full spectrum of Human Condition being shown here in the sport of skateboarding We will go through one run both answers and professional freestylers since it was a last day the officials didn’t waste any time moving on to the next event I would never have guessed so much skating could be squeezed into one day we’re ready to get underway up first Hometown representing deep Canada [Applause]
I just wanted to come in and maybe get over 80 because it sounds better so I only skate if I’m having fun if I get up and I have a bad day go back to bed or something or go snowboarding so I think it’s a positive attitude if it’s not fun anymore then
That’s when I think it’s time to give it up like I’m not nearly as good as skaters a lot of these guys but if I stand my board I have a really good chance it seems some practice you see this they pull off really hot tricks but they can’t do them in competition
Because it falls that makes me happy consistency seems to be the most important part right now and once you make a couple of your harder tricks that sets the roll up for the next ones and what you you know what I try to do is to set up my tricks so I
Start off with something a little more easier flowing just to kind of get me going you start out with something too hard and you miss it then it you know it gets you down for the whole rest of your routine but it’s a lot easier to recover in your
Routine when you’re about Midway through it if you step off on something you feel well you started out fine you can end up fine that’s it [Applause] obviously there’s a lot of Showboat tricks that are being done the audience likes but there’s not a lot of technical difficulty in there because you’ve got to be able to flip the board count the revolutions and either land on the bottom or top and be it under control if
You’re doing circumsticks you’re not going to get a lot of scores from these judges they know what they’re doing you really can’t mix hard drugs with this kind of riding it takes too much of a reaction quick reactions and being right there it’s more of a purest sport
Believe it or not but this is one of the most healthy things I’ve ever participated in in my life thank you go go wasn’t the only skater who had a tough time in the finals a lot of the amateurs just didn’t do as well as they
Did in the semis both Pro and am freestyle finalists only got one run instead of the usual two I wondered if some of them weren’t used to that kind of pressure it might have made an even better test of overall skating ability Foreign [Applause] [Applause] Teach me [Applause] You could see that some of the pros were feeling the pressure too more than the ramp Riders the freestylers knew this was the world event and they would never skate before this many people against this competition again [Applause] [Applause] Foreign I looked around at some of the freestylers getting ready and could feel this incredible tension building just watching Rodney psych up made me nervous [Applause] Foreign Pierre Andre is in the French army and couldn’t leave his duties to attend Monty wrote a letter to Pierre’s commanding officer but didn’t hear anything until Pierre showed up at Expo the letter must have worked Please please [Applause] A briefcase with him he’s a real businessman and understands where he can go in skateboarding he has calendars laid out telling where he has to be charged with his sales on him and a day planner he did some of the stunt skating in Back to the Future Foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] And that’s fine [Applause] hey I want to see your left our last second round of applause [Applause] yes it is please welcome from the United states.com [Applause] [Applause] Foreign [Applause] Foreign [Applause] [Applause] Foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] all right before obviously they were associated I’ve had no idea [Applause] it’s sore or not 100. [Applause] foreign [Applause] Diane and Primo are a husband and wife team and let me tell you I was sorry to hear she was married they performed the routine at SeaWorld she could look at my routine and tell me you know if it’s if I’m facing the wrong way towards a crowd
Or different tricks that I need to put in and take out so it’s really health she’s like a coach too she’s always helped me out she’s a women’s professional only one in the world [Applause]
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