Bucky Lasek is My Hero!

Matt and I had an awesome time at the Gravity Games in Cleveland this past Saturday. We got in just before noon and paid $10 for parking. That was our first sign of price gouging for an event. After getting wrist banded and finding some restroom facilities, we made our way over to the Bike Street Preliminaries. We both had slathered on the sunscreen since the sun was really beating down, but there was a nice breeze coming off Lake Erie. It was the perfect kind of day, although we heard it had been terribly hot the other days of the Games.

Ryan Nyquist tried to pull off some cool tricks in practice that used the judging stands, but wasn't able to get his dismount down. He did manage to pull off some amazing tricks. I believe one he pulled off after his run was done was a backflip and double bar-spin truckdriver. I'm stealing this from the finals story on the Gravity Games website. That sounds like what he did, but I'm not certain. Nyquist was in first after the pre-lims ended.

Properly sunburned, Matt and I took off to get some grub and decide whether to leave the games to get dinner with our friends, Heidi and Kevin. As we rounded the corner by the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, our decision to stay put was finalized when we saw how many people were already sitting in the stands for the Skate Vert finals. Mind you, it was just after 3PM and the skate practice didn't start until 6:30, with the Finals beginning at 8:30PM. After a few attempts at trying to reach Heidi, we grabbed some over-priced cheeseburgers, water, a Gravity Games baseball cap to cover my sunburned face and listened to the soundcheck for Filter.

People in the stands for the Skate Vert Finals were cool. I talked to this older guy for a little bit about his kids, our job and Cleveland nightlife. The stands were full a little bit after 4:30PM. Kids started swarming anyone that was coming out to practice once 6:30 hit. We had decent seats, about 5 rows up from where the drop-in is located. If you click on the link I provided above for the Vert Finals and look at the second picture which shows the whole ramp, Matt thinks you can see me in the stands (left side, wearing a white shirt, going straight back from the drop-in). The vantage point we had made it difficult for me to figure out when a skater had fallen since we couldn't see down our side of the ramp. All I do know is that Bucky Lasek is awesome! I'm also a big convert when it comes to Sandro Diaz and Bob Burnquist. I think they rank up there personality-wise and they have a cool skating style. I was a bit disappointed in Andy McDonald, but it's all good.

Next month, Matt and I are hoping to get tickets to see Tony Hawk at SUNY-UB. That would seriously rock!