Venice, CA
Normally, July 3rd at Venice Beach is no more extraordinary than any other day of the year. With the Independence Day holiday looming on the horizon, fireworks were the last things on the minds of 144 hungry skaters that gathered on the basketball courts at Venice Beach for the Active Boardshop éS Game of SKATE, presented by Boost Mobile. With the normal offering of acrobats, jugglers, clowns and beggars, Venice provided an interesting backdrop for skaters like Prince Gilchrist, Joe Varella, Matt Lemond and others to showcase their flatground skills. Paljum Tschering, an early favorite from Tibet, lost in a heated semi final game to Carlos Lastra but this wouldn’t be the last we heard from Paljum. As we approached the home stretch, SoCal locals Joe Varella, Chris Angeles, Alex Lopez and Carlos Lastra were our final four skaters standing. Arizona transplant Carlos Lastra held off Alex Lopez and showed the crowd his frontside pop shove-it late flip to give Alex an “E” and take home the top spot.