Girls' Gospel Archive:
Check out previous sermons of the Girls' Gospel

Quote of the Month.
"So, is Red Bull really like Viagra?"-- A girl fan watching Ben Hinkley win silver at the X Games.

And you thought it was over. The Gospel bond, girls, is far stronger than any sort of silly acquisition by some silly magazine or on-line site owned by some silly company called Times Mirror. Besides, it's summer. Time to scatter to the winds--bike, surf, skate, climb, wakeboard, for goddess-sake. I do thank you for all your emails this summer. It's nice to know that many of you find surfing as difficult as I do.

Did I tell you I took up skateboarding? Got completely inspired after watching Cara Beth Burnside at the Summer X Games women's exhibition June 26, and naively thought, "I can do this, too!" Words of warning: If it's your first time on a skateboard, don't drop into a vert ramp, you'll go whipping out the other side (as I did). Based on advice from Donna Vano, in-line skating legend, snowboarding queen, and the organizer of the women's skate exhibition at the X Games, "try stepping in from the bottom, and practicing gliding back and forth until you get the feeling of rolling up and down the walls."

Tara Dakides

OK, so the Summer X Games can be a little cheesy, what with all the TV-tattooed torture, but, as Tara Dakides said, "Having girls skateboard at the ESPN Games is cool because lots of girls are skating and getting a chance to be recognized."

But, as some of you may know, women's skateboarding has yet to be included as an official event at the Summer X Games. ESPN officials claim there aren't enough good female skaters for a legit competition. But they did allow an organized exhibition in-between men's BMX vert and the barefoot waterski jumping (now that's a wacked sport). To the surprise of many whom attended, (especially the ESPN-folk) the vert ramp was packed with fans, as more than 10 women skaters popped in for some sweet exhibition-ism.

Jodi MacDonald, Cara Beth Burnside, Juliann and Bethany Andreen (a mom and daughter team), Tara Dakides (who also competed in the Snowboarding Big Air), Heidi Fitzgerald, Rebecca Burnquist (sis to legendary Bob Burnquist), and Jen O'Brien were among the line-up.

Cara Beth Burnside

Of course, Cara Beth and her handplants, 360's, and McTwists, ruled, but Jen and Jodi also pulled some moves, like lofty 360's and various tailgrabs to stoke the fans into a spasmodic frenzy. Sure, some of these girls weren't as good as others, but the camaraderie was as thick as the heat in San Diego. Photographer-turned-commentator, Patti Segovia, did a fine job of pointing this out, as well as calling the women's performances, and noting the temerity it takes to even get out there and drop-in in front of such a large audience. Surf Diva, Izzy Tihanyi, took off teaching surfing for the weekend, to host a live commentary from the top of the ramp.

After the exhibition was officially over, it was tough to get Cara Beth off the ramp. Said the Eveready Bunny, "I like where you can just keep going and going. [With] skating, I can just jump back in on my board and, you know, barely catch my breath. You just jump back up on the ramp real fast, and hop back in...and then go for the tricks."

As for the Snowboarding Big Air event, check out Alison Berkley's insightful reportage at 98Xgames, A, and then come on back here for some more poop on the women's event.

At 110 feet high, 360 feet long, covered with 360 tons of shaved ice, the monolith called "Mount X," was about as oxymoronish as a big air snowboarding ramp can be on a sandy beach in San Diego. Yet the ladies, including Tina Basich, Tina Dixon, Tara Dakides, Jennie Waara, Kelly Kaye, and Janet Matthews, were undeterred. If there was any problem, it was the heat, which Tina B. said was "swelteringly unbearable" at the top. I can imagine. It's not often riders climb with boards a hundred steps in snowboard boots, pants, long-sleeved shirts, and a helmet, in 90-degree heat. But it was obvious from practice that this was an "invertation" to greatness in women's big air herstory.

Tina Basich took off first, pulling what she called a "mystie something or other with an invert thing." Known for stomping backside 720s (with which she won the gold medal at Winter X Games in Crested Butte), Tina surprised everyone with the Mystie. Although Kelly Kaye pulled impressive 360's with a mutegrab, and Jennie Waara's height during her 540 spins was so high that one wondered if she'd land in Mexico, their performances weren't good enough compared with the inverts everyone else was doing. Defending gold medal champ Tina Dixon started with a 360 tail grab until she realized that Janet Matthews' and Tara Dakides' backflips were probably going to take the medal spots. Next go 'round and Tina D. was lifting off with back flips of her own. Tara Dakides' in the finals went for a backflip with a grab and most likely would have medaled if she hadn't biffed the landing.

So, there you have it. A little Gospel from a momentary gathering of the summer snowboarding seedlings in San Diego.

Other news: Check out the summer book of the month: "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood," by Rebecca Wells. It's about four women who became best friends ever since they were kicked out of a 1984 Shirley Temple look-alike contest.

Site of the month: http://www.bust.com--they get all sassy when it comes to dissing fashion mags' "Fun in the Sun" themes.

Next up: News from the Hood, industry update (Does Hayley Martin from K2 have a boy or a girl?), backstage with the Lilith Ladies (which you'll also be able to see on http://www.WigMag.com come August 15), and the dope from downunder: New Zealand, Australia, South America.

Don't forget to send bits of news from your tip of the planet. I mean, I can't be everywhere, nor do I get paid enough to call everywhere. Plus, I'm out learning how to skateboard, so I really don't have time to fact check, which means I'm probably going to take your word for it. (Let karma deal with liars.) As you know, I'm always at [email protected] or better yet, www.wigmag.com.

Girls' Gospel Archive: Check out previous sermons of the Girls' Gospel