Skateboard Vert Demo
By Erick Hilton

Glifberg demo

Alongside the Surf contest, BMX hits and expo area was a Vert ramp where many top skaters got together to hold a demonstration for the crowd and vote on the winner amongst themselves. On hand where top athletes like Colin Mckay, Rune Glifberg, Lincoln Ueda, Omar Hason, Mike Crumb and Tas Pappas. About fifteen skaters shared the ramp for 30 minutes while each of them tried to put together the best run or trick. Tas Pappas was going for kick-flip varrial-no grabs on the vert and Colin was searching to connect with the ollie-flip up the wall he had at the Gravity Games. Rune was launching out of the ramp above the heads of his peers at every drop-in and Crumb was sliding along the copping dodging shoes.

The skaters were fun to watch as they watched each other and waited to drop in. Once they got in sink, they knew their turn and cheered each other on to connect with the ramp. The only problem the skaters were having to climb up the ladder if an athlete got caught underneath. The ladder looked to be wearing the athletes out over time. After the 30 minute demo, most of the athletes rushed over to the long jump, where they rolled in at 40+ feet and hit a wood ramp to go over 25 feet to a tabletop landing. All of the athletes were having fun on the jump. Colin was going for snowboard like methods, Rune tried a tail-grab and Tas tried 360 tail-grabs. The crowd was stoked on it as they never stopped cheering and wouldn't leave until they new the jumps were over at 5 PM. Once over, they got warm welcomes for autographs, pictures and interviews.