Yikes - A $10,000 Game Of S-K-A-T-E

First of all, in case you've been under a rock, Kevin "Spanky" Long won the Tampa Am 2003 Contest. Brian Schaefer, Ryan Clements, and I are now in Long Beach, CA at ASR. I just spent the last four hours watching a $10,000 game of S-K-A-T-E put on by es Footwear. In summary, it was insane - or like Nate Sherwood put it, "It was intense - like camping!" Get it? Ha ha - blah. Anyway, the last three people standing were Paul Rodriguez, Diego Bucchieri, and Eric Koston. After Diego was eliminated, Paul and Eric went at it with every super tech trick you could think of done both regular and switch. In all that madness, I can't even remember what trick Paul used to knock Eric out, but he ended up taking the loot at the end of the day. Check out photos and video to the right with more to come in the next few days - everything you're used to seeing at ASR - busted products, skateboarding demos, parties, etc. Sal Barbier has my vote to annouce the Pro Contest for sure - that was the most entertaining announcing at a skateboard event I've ever sat through - all with no cussing if you can believe that.

Check back in a day or so for more updates. I'm going back to join the good times and parties now. Type at you nerds later.

Rob Meronek

Eric Koston

Geoff Rowley skates by while Arto Saari throws down a move in his round

Rodrigo Tx

Rene Rene

Paul with his big check

Paul Rodriguez

The Karate Kid tracking board shows who eliminated who

Video of Koston's last trick that got him an "E"

Eric Koston - switch hard flip when both he and Paul had "SKA"