Words by Ryan clements, Photos and captions by Rob Meronek

I can’t stop thinking about the saying...be the ball, Danny. It’s from Caddy Shack, but Consolidated Skateboards has been using it on stickers to make fun of Danny Way and his Mega-Ramp at the X-Games. I think that I said it about 100 times while I was at the Big Air Contest (that’s the official title, I think).

Andy Mac backside 360's the big gap

Ok, the take a mega poop pics are not that good. The damn crapper won't even stay on your ass. There was crap all over the ramp like giant whitie tightie skid marks after this accident

Do you really want to see a bunch of photos like this where the skater is the size of an ant and the setup looks like a flea circus? Yeah, me neither

Pierre Luc high above the quarter

I don't even know who that is doing a backside air on the quarter, but it gives you some perspective on how big that thing is

They had to be taken from one end of the ramp to the other in a pimped out golf cart

Danny Way's Christ Air that cost Ryan $600

So here’s the deal: For the first time that I know of, you could actually legally bet on a skateboarding event at Sports.com. Once I heard about it, I had to do it. I had been asking anyone and everyone who they thought was going to win the event. I watched the practice sessions, talked to the team managers and other ‘officials,’ called Andy Mac, and I even got to eat dinner with Pierre Luc the night before. With all of my info, and considering that Danny Way had a partially broken foot and was walking around with a cane on Saturday, I just didn’t think that Danny could pull it off.

Pierre Luc had 7-1 odds and Andy Mac had 6-1 odds at the time I placed my bet. Even though we were only betting on 1st place, I still put $300 on each of them. So I was in for $600 at high noon on Sunday, with a potential maximum return of $2100 if PLG ended up in 1st (minus the $300 spent on Andy Mac). This risk tapped into my emotions, too, because it now became the most important contest that I’ve ever watched. The area that I was hanging out in was the “Industry Section,” or whatever, so every time one of the contestants would pull a line I would hear, “Looks like you made a good bet,” or some other comment. I was loving it…it was truly exciting.

But let’s not forget how gnar it is to even skate this monstrosity. Much respect to anyone that can do anything over even the small gap, much less the bigger gap. Both are insane. And then when you’re flying down the landing ramp you’d better be ready for the 30’ tall quarter-pipe that you’re heading ‘Mach-5’ towards. Each of the six finalists got five attempts at making their “line.” Half of your score was the gap and the other half was your quarter-pipe trick. Here’s how it ended up:

6th – Bob Burnquist – The only reason that Bob didn’t win is because he didn’t pull his entire line. He’s got kickflip bs 180 Indy grabs on lock over the gap, but couldn’t quite pull his 15’ high gay twist handflip deal on the quarterpipe.

5th – Rob Lorifice – He’s only 17-years-old and can do fs 360 varials over the gap and huge airs on the quarter-pipe behind it.

4th – Bucky Lasek – If Bucky could have landed his 15’+ kickflip Indy to fakie on the quarter then, he would have been a candidate for 1st. He had to settle for 4th with a fs 360 over the gap and I can’t remember what on the quarter.

3rd – Andy MacDonald – Andy nailed a 360 judo (been a while since I’ve seen that one) over the larger gap and a 20’+ bs air on the qp. He ended up exactly two points behind Danny.

2nd – Pierre Luc Gagnon – PLG is one of the most modest, nicest guys I know. At dinner the night before, when he knew that I had money on the deal, he actually said, “I’ll try not to let you down.” How cool is that? His line was a bs 360 melon over the big gap and then a one-footed mute on the quarter that was well over 20’. I was so confident that my money was in the bank that I was about to call Sports.com and tell them to cut me a check and mail it to Skatepark of Tampa.

1st – Danny Way – You bastard! Danny is a machine and he must have removed himself mentally from the pain of a broken foot (or taken a shot of Cortisone). On his first three runs he didn’t have jack, and PLG had already pulled his line, so I was hyped. Even though as a skateboarder I wanted to see Danny pull his stuff, my greedy side wanted PLG to take first. But on his fourth run, D-Way landed a perfect fs 360 over the big gap and then a Christ air to method air on the quarter that was just so damn high and perfect that it was a tough argument to claim 1st place wasn’t his. Danny WAS the ball.

So I’m down $600. No big deal really. It was totally worth it. I’m curious what the odds are going to be next year. Or maybe we can get some Tampa Pro odds going in Vegas, huh?

This is the time of my article that I would normally thank everyone that hooked me up, but this event really wasn’t like that. I’m not saying that I didn’t have a great time, because I did, but the good time was compliments of all of the amazing people that I hung out with and talked to this past weekend. Thanks.

Ryan