Pierre Luc And The PRO-tagonist
LG Action Sports Championships Skateboarding Street Finals Recap
By Chris Mitchell
(October 28, 2005) The crème de la crème of the skate vert world was in Manchester, riding for $100,000 in cash. With so much money on the line, anything could have happened at the 2005 LG Action Sports World Championships. So it came as no surprise that the guys who we expected to throw everything down came up short, and the guys who had nothing to lose pulled through.
Lincoln Ueda , who never makes finals, snuck in, and wowed the audience with his huge, stylish airs, but couldn’t stay on his feet, so ended up in tenth. Sandro Dias, still suffering from a shoulder injury uncharacteristically bailed a kickflip indy in all three runs. Buster was one of those underdogs who threw everything he had, but just couldn’t pull it off, and so ended up in 8th.
Tas Pappas rode amazing. He dropped in off the roll-in to an enormous 10-foot backside air, straight into a 9-foot 540. He tried the kickflip varial backside 360, and, if he had pulled it, he would have made top three for sure, but it wasn’t meant to be for Tas .
Mathias Ringstrom has always been tech, but in the last few years, he has becoming a really powerful skater as well. 20 seconds into his first run, he hit a screw head that was sticking up in the ramp. It was an unfortunate circumstance, but Mathias handled it like a true pro and skated two more great runs to finish 6th.
Anthony Furlong has been on a tear lately. He has one of the best madonnas in the business, and he is super-consistent. He didn’t fall in any of his runs, nailing kickflip variations, and he even managed to step it up a foot or two as he went.
Rune Glifberg has a deep bag of tricks, but he played it safe. He didn’t try the kickflip back lipslide, for example. He rolled in to 9-foot frontside airs and showcased a few of his less risky tricks and finished 4th.
Andy Macdonald was another rider who took no risks. He didn’t do the tech combos for which he is famous. Instead, he put together a run with three or four 540 variations and some tech liptricks: an alley oop frontside 5/0 and a frontside bluntslide.
It’s always good to see guys who don’t have big sponsor backing get a piece of the pie. The underdog award went to Chris Gentry , who barely squaked his way into the finals in the first place. He stuck enormous 540s and powerful airs, and finished with the silver medal.
Pierre-Luc Gagnon waited until his third run to make his break, and then put together one of the most complicated runs the sport has ever seen, mixing 720s with nollie heel flip indys. “He showed why he is one the vert world champions right now,” said announcer Scott Taylor. He takes skating seriously, mixing power and tech to create something that is amzing to watch.
