Senn-a-matic Masterpiece in X Games Street
by Lee Crane
Chris Senn skates with power and authority. It's that simple.
From the beginning of the X Games competition he proved that street skating
is in no danger of becoming freestyle on a slope. With a perfect mix of
kickflips, heelflips, threes, wall rides, and rail slides Senn was able to
edge Andy Macdonald by three-quarters of a point in the second run of the
finals to take the gold medal. "I'm just here to have fun," Chris said. "We're
not here to win. Today, I had fun."
Silver medalist Andy Macdonald may not have won, but he definitely
walked away with the trick of the day. Near the end of his second run in
the finals, Macdonald worked his way back to the starting platform and turned
around. The entire crowd knew what he was going to do. They'd seen him practicing
a rodeo flip all morning and not once did he land it. With the surge of the
crowd Andy pushed off and jammed full speed at the big box. He grabbed, began
looking over his shoulder, and rotated all the way around. In practice he
couldn't nail the landing, but under the pressure of the finals he stomped
it and rode away. (Sound Off:
Do you think Andy's Rodeo was enough to beat Chris? Or
were the judges all over it?)
"Earlier in the day I couldn't quite get the speed," Andy
said. "The ground here gets a little soft with heat. I got enough speed this
time and pulled it. That was the first time I've landed it. I was
lucky."
Macdonald credits his training at Woodward Skate Camp with
learning how to pull the rodeo. "At Woodward we have a box with a foam pad
landing so I got to work it out over and over until I was getting around,"
he said.
Senn made the finals by placing third behind Macdonald and
Moses Itkonen in the prelims. He was injured but not ready to slow down.
He slid out on one of the ramps and tore a gash into his left hand. Blood
spilled, but Senn wasn't ready to quit. "It didn't really bother me," he
said. "I cut my hands all the time."
Brian Patch started the finals off by dropping in with a 50/50
down the platform hand rail. And work the entire course well. The judges
game him a score of 88.25. Pat Channita busted out a heelflip over the rail,
a 360 heel flip and a backside boardslide on the smaller handrail but a fall
put his score down to 83.75.
Riding well in practice and the prelims, Frank Hirata fell
apart in the first run of the finals missing pretty much everything he tried.
He ended up with a 77.75 first run score. Andy Macdonald and Willy Santos
both had solid first runs. Andy hit a big varial off the center box and worked
the rest of the course. Willy Santos, who chose to start on one of the smaller
ramps to the left of the start platform, started his run with a tail slide
to 50/50 and continue with a flurry of technical flippers. Through their
runs were very different Santos and Macdonald both scored 81.75.
Lofty kickflip master Geoff Rowley looks like he has magnets
in his feet. He worked the course and moved into third with an 82.25.
For his first final run, Chris Senn dropped in off the 12
foot vert wall and mixed in a wall ride, 50/50 on the long rail and worked
the spines. And moved into second with a 86.25. Andrew Reynolds knocked him
of that spot with a 86.75.
In the second run Brian Patch started off with a backside three,
followed up by a 50/50 on the little rail and an Ollie 180 back up to the
starting platform. In the most spectacular rail of the day Brian took off
and 50/50'd the start rail all the way to the end and off into the course.
The crowd went out of control. He did fall several times and didn't better
his score from the first run.
From there on in it was the Macdonald and Senn show. The only
guy to come close was Bob Burnquist who nailed down a 88.25 in his second
run. That tied Brian Patch's first run score, however, Brian's total was
higher so he ended up third.
Skate action continues with vert practice today, prelims on
Wednesday and finals on Thursday.
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