éS Game of SKATE — Santa Cruz, CA, Jun 15, 2009
With the van fully loaded and our trailer in tow, the Game of SKATE crew left Orange County Sunday afternoon and worked our way up the California coast to our first hotel of the tour in Gilroy, CA. If you didn’t already know this, Gilroy is the garlic capital of the world and the smell of garlic is sometimes overpowering, if not nauseating. Waking up early Monday morning we made our way over to Santa Cruz for the 3rd Game of SKATE with our partner, Bill’s Wheels. Bill’s Wheels has been serving up skateboarding in Santa Cruz for over 30 years and the éS Game of SKATE crew was stoked to be in a city that is steeped in skate history.
After an amazing breakfast burrito at The Chill Spot, and a short trip out to the new Wormhoudt Skatepark (closed for maintenance..who closes a skatepark the first week of summer?), we returned to Bill’s Wheels and
prepared to get our SKATE on. Despite being in a new location for 2009, and the impending bad weather, a few familiar faces in the crowd made this feel like any other Nor Cal éS Game of SKATE. By start time we registered a total of 67 skaters, and with an ever-so-slightly dripping sky on a Monday afternoon, we were under way!
Not to be deterred by random drops of rain, Mark Suciu was quickly making his way to the finals despite a strong showing by the Bill’s Wheels employees and local Santa Cruz skaters. Adam Lindsey, Ralph Morales, Max Matteson just to name a few, were holding it down for Santa Cruz. Alex Lopez came out from San Francisco and skated well but lost in the semi-finals.
The final 4 skaters were Josh Paz, Calvin Luu, Jose Cortez and Mark Suciu. In the end it was a switch heel that felled Jose; a switch fs shove it took out Calvin, and in what I can only surmise was a tribute to Santa Cruz’s old school skateboarding history, Mark won the game when Josh failed to land a fs gazelle – a trick more commonly known today as a fs nollie 360.
Congratulations to Mark Suciu on his 3rd trip to the finals and special thanks to Bill’s Wheels, Skullcandy, TransWorld and éS Footwear for making it all possible!
Photos by Phil Blair