More Skate News
Posted 07/27/2007 by Vans UK
This weekend some UK Vans representatives headed over to Prague for the legendary Mystic cup. The weather was hot as hell as were the women! James Gardner was the only one to have to qualify on Friday as it was his first international comp, the others went straight through to the heats. He cruised the course and chucked in some laughably bad bonelesses but staying on combined with his "I couldn't care less" approach obviously appealed to the judges and he made the cut. In the heats Ben Grove and Kris Vile both fell a couple of times but still did us proud, Grove pulling a sick back tail on the biggest of blocks and Kris nailing a transfer out of the driveway into the big flat bank (I didn't see anyone else even attempt this and he nearly flipped it in practice). Ross McGouran was suffering from exhaustion/injuries as he's been on the go all summer, this showed as his normal consistency was lacking. In strange twist James became the highest placed UK rider in 35th (which is a lot better than it sounds, especially when you consider it was out of 80 of Europes top skaters), once again injury prevented him throwing down the rail tricks which definitely would have seen him into the semis, flip consistency and well chosen lines made him stand out from the crowd.
On saturday night there was a very heated bowl jam where Aaron Sweeney stood out a mile. This lunatic is fast gaining a powerful rep, his latest fan is Tony Trujillo who bought him a beer afterwards! 540's over the hip and general craziness saw Aaron finish in 13th place just missing the cut into the final and only one or 2 places below such luminaries as Rune Glifberg and Sandro Diaz. 'Ave it Gyppo Army!
After a charged final the weekend was rounded of with a best trick comp down the big rail where Ben Grove drew first blood with a front board and walked off with a little dough.