etnies Goofy vs. Regular 2007: Finals

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

I think Nyjah's dreads are getting thicker than his arms. That's a kickflip

Everything Tyler Hendley does is huge, just like his shorts. This is a nollie bigspin over the living room furniture

If this sofa was at SPoT, it would get slept on as much as it got skated. That's Darrell Stanton on a back smith

Team Managers are in interesting positions at all your favorite skate companies. The TM for DC recently switched over to etnies. Now Sean Malto rides for etnies. The TM for Fallen is now the TM for DC. So who from Fallen is going to ride for DC now?

Brother Darkness destroys it on regular street type tricks, but then when he tries stuff on tranny and grabbing, it's looking a little strange

I saw David Loy's mom this weekend and she is smokin' like a California wildfire. This is a hurricane

This is Luan De Oliveira. Yesterday we were all wondering who this was. Now everyone knows. He's from Brazil and is one of Flip's new riders. He will live up to your expectations. This is a switch frontside big spin

The pre-teen idol has a huge kickflip

Remember the good old days when the website was the color of Terell Robinson's hair?

Tyler Hendley's parachute shants come in handy while descending from this tall one foot

Kurtis Colamonico - famous stars and lipslides

Fabrizio Santos' new board company is called Forest. This is a frontside nosegrind

Collin Provost is growing up and getting really good. Imagine if he still skated vert. I wonder why he quit?

If you like a good dose of skateboard drama, troll the Slap messageboards for a photo and lots of crap talking about an altercation with Jereme Rogers and Kenny Hughes. Kenny was making fun of Jereme's "I fear no man" tat on his neck and things got a little salty after that. This is Jereme on a switch 360 flip

It's always good to see Rick McCrank. He ripped all day but the only photo I got was this smith grind

Leo Romero - back lip

Chad Fernandez had an afro horse mullet. This is a noseblunt slide

Andrew Reynolds - frontside flip lipslide on the furniture

Andrew Reynolds - backside 360

Chad Fernandez - fakie lipslide

Darrell Stanton - nollie backside 180

Andrew Reynolds - nollie inward heel

Andrew Reynolds - frontside flip over the hubba

Jordan Hoffart - frontside flip over the furniture

Louie Lopez is another little Flip ripper. This is a frontside big spin

Luan De Olivera - switch frontside flip

Nick Fiorini - nollie noseslide

Ryan Sheckler - backside flip with a little sketch at the end. Maybe he should get a spotter

Now there's something you don't see everyday. Darrell Stanton - miller flip

Andrew Reynolds - switch backside heelflip with a contest landing

I'd like to see this guy's footage

If I start dating Gretchen Sheckler maybe I can get my own show on MTV. Life of Ragin' Asian. I still haven't watched Ryan's show, but I got the latest update from Gretchen. Apparently, Ryan has met a girl that "gives him a run for his money." Teenie boppers everywhere are bummed

Little Baker guy Rammy Issa is a super nice kid

Alex Olson did a frontside feeble grind to frontside 180 out on the furniture during Best Trick, but it was too crazy to shoot photos of it

Antwuan Dixon says he's got a house in Tampa now. I guess he's coming to Tampa today so you'll probably see him at the Park later. That's a bucket of beer he's got there. The taps from the party the night before in the parking lot were still working

It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day in southern California. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, it was about 82 degrees, and there was relatively no humidity. Add in some of the best skateboarders in the world and you have an entertaining way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The Finals started just after 2pm with one-minute runs. There were 10 Goofy skaters and 10 Regular skaters that qualified from Saturday and then each “team” got their five superstars that were hand-picked by the “captains.” Goofy’s head cheese was Dave Swift from The Skateboard Mag and Regular got Mark Whitely from SLAP. Goofy went first because Regular won the coin toss. The format was a bit confusing and relatively technical, but maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention and spent too much time enjoying the social environment.

So at this point, each of the 30 skaters (15 Goofy and 15 Regular) had skated two, one-minute runs and Goofy was ahead by eight points. That’s when everyone realized that either team could take it, but the Jams would be the final decision-maker. With each five-minute Jam the skating got better and better…the teams were literally trying to one-up each other in the name of friendly competition.

Regular went first and then it was Goofy, then Regular again, and the fourth Jam was rounded out with Goofy. There were a few stand-outs from each squad, but everyone seemed to be pulling their weight and taking it to the next level, when necessary. But there was no stopping Regular. They just dominated in the Jams, putting them far enough ahead where there just wasn’t much that Goofy could do.

As for the Results…this part is actually kind of difficult to explain, but I’ll give it a shot. If you were on the winning team, you automatically placed higher than the highest score on the losing Team. For example, Terrell Robinson placed last for the Regulars, but he was still 15th, which was ahead of Jereme Rogers who got 1st out of the Goofy skaters, but 16th place overall. Like I said…a bit confusing, so here’s the simple breakdown:

• 5th (20th) – $1000 – Chad Fernandez – don’t call it a comeback, but damn Chad is ripping. I don’t think he’s got a single paying sponsor, but he’s giving it his all
• 4th (19th) – $1000 – Danny Cerezini – got to always love the former Flip gone Blind phenom…great style
• 3rd (18th) – $1000 – Tyler Hendley – I don’t think you could have tried any harder than Tyler did. He pushed everything to the next level including the double porpoise flip down the 11
• 2nd (17th) – $2000 – Nyjah Huston – you know what to expect when Nyjah shows up. It’s show time! And he’s one of the most consistent skateboarders out there
• 1st (16th) – $2000 – Jereme Rogers – switch everything, every try is Jereme’s M.O. He’s got a switch bluntslide down the big rail no problem

• 10th – $1000 – Kurtis Colamonico – the heavily-inked young man held his own
• 9th – $1000 – Tulio De Oliveira – Brazil to MN transplant
• 8th – $1000 – Billy Marks – cab kickflip is his new move
• 7th – $1000 – Fabrizio Santos – qualifying first is a curse
• 6th – $2000 – Ryan Sheckler – when the cameras are off and he’s not on TV, Shecks is a regular old skateboarder. It was nice to see him there smiling and having a good time
• 5th – $3500 – Leo Romero – if you don’t love Leo then you don’t know what it’s like to watch proper style and execution of maneuvers. Leo can even make noseslides look good
• 4th – $3500 – David Loy – local contest champ knows how to skate a park with the best of them and always has the right moves at the right time. He graduated from Hometown Heroes to GvR this year
• 3rd – $6000 – Sean Malto – bs smith 180 out on the big flat bar, bs overcrooks on the big rail, and of course the killa’ hardflip down the 11 rounded out Sean’s expertise
• 2nd – $11,000 – Rick McCrank – McCrankers was freaking McRipping! He’s the OG ATV and keeps getting better and better with his full cab bs nosegrinds every try on the ledge
• 1st – $15,000 – Luan De Oliveira – who the hell is this? Well, let me break the news to you…this is Flip’s newest weapon and you’re going to be hearing a lot about this kid in the near future. He’s seriously unreal

• Goofy MVP – Tyler Hendley (additional $2000)
• Regular MVP – Rick McCrank (additional $2000)

And there was a Best Trick thrown in there on some orange couch with two flat bars stuck in it, too. It was a bit tough to view because of so many photographers and filmers up in there, but here are the results:

• 3rd – $500 – Alex Olson – fs feeble to fs 180 out
• 2nd – $1000 – Kurtis Colamonico – kickflip bs noseblunt
• 1st – $2000 – Danny Cerezini – nollie heel fs boardslide

As for the betting pool…I WON! But the odds were so much in favor of Regular that I only won $50 on my $100…and got my initial bet back of course. I’m not complaining though ‘cause it sure beats losing my loot.

Thanks to the crew at etnies for hosting such a fun event. Good times and great skateboarding…GvR keeps getting better each year. Those Jam sessions are still some of the best skateboarding I’ve ever witnessed in person.

Ryan