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| 2009 WILD IN THE PARKS - STOP 8 |
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The 8th stop of the 2009 North American Wild in the Parks tour brought us to Portland Oregon’s Department of Skateboarding on Saturday, July 25th!
The Department of Skateboarding (D.O.S.) is Portland’s only indoor skatepark and is a refuge for skaters during the cold and rainy winter months. D.O.S. is snug, but full of everything you’d need to lose track of time. The main area consists of a first-rate street features, while a bowl and mini are just a few feet away. Of course no visit to Portland would be complete without also stopping by the legend known as Burnside. Located just a few minutes away from The Dept, we rolled by the still-untamed beast and were immediately reminded of how gnarly and unforgiving the terrain can be. Respect!
The 4th annual Portland Wild in the Parks started with a bang just before noon with the 14 & Under division! From year to year, it’s super cool to see the groms steadily progress. Though the competitors were bigger and a year older, we were able to recognize most from past WITPs. Among others stepping up their games, Ben Sauer and Alex Rodriguez were on patrol and hunting for victory all day. We saw frontside flips down the 7-set in zone 1, Three-flip manuals on the step-up in zone 2 and a huge heelflip down the steps in zone 3!
The 15 & Over division contained some insane skating and even a few feel good moments. On top of the list was 1st place winner Tyler Keup (pronounced “Kype”). We’ve been watching this dude progress for years and each time he gets better and better. Despite a super competitive field, Tyler came out guns blazing and destroyed everything in sight! Including Mr. Keup’s tricks, we were privy to a switch three flip, back tail bigspin out, nollie heelflip and even a b/s bigspin transfer to the bank! Nice work boys!
The Pro-Am division was up last and left everyone slack-jawed! For reasons unknown, it seems the level of talent in Portland is always ridiculous and these guys didn’t pull any punches reminding us of this. All the Pro-Am skaters charged the three WITP zones and completely tactically annihilated them! That caliber of skating is amazing to watch, but nearly impossible to duplicate or keep up with on the mic. Needless to say, I won’t be surprised to see some of those guys on the podium at the $20,000 WITP Champs (Arizona, Sat Sept 26)!!
A huge thanks to Kyle Reynolds, Tyler, Bird, Shaun and the rest of the DOS crew for all their stone support! Thanks also to Pat Magee, Colin and Gar Wright for judging as well as Ryan “Beavis” Oldham for helping Snail and Tommy hold things down in the tent zone. As always, thanks to Electric and Vestal for graciously supporting the event with product.
Results:
14 & Under:
1st: Ben Sauer
2nd: Ben Campbell
3rd: Alex Rodriguez
4th: Joey Carnera
5th: Austin Young
6th: Dalton Marshall
7th: Zack Hutt
15 & Over:
1st: Tyler Keup
2nd: Doug Valdez
3rd: Eduard Goncharuk
4th: Marq Cooper
5th: Thomas Bell
6th: Zach Vanderdasson
7th: Austin Beckwith
Pro-Am:
1st: Anthony Grant
2nd: Arto Gordillo
3rd: James McCoy
4th: Tyson Reynolds
5th: Rob Rickaby
6th: Nick Propios
7th: Oudalay Philavanh
Electric’s $50 “Hype of the Day”: Kyle Panciano (b/s biggie into the bank)!
For Wild in the Parks coverage and updates, check out The Weekly Update on Fuel TV.
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