Entry into the darkest passage... The beginning...
Posted 10/14/2007 08:42:00 by i am vans
And by tomorrow, most traces of the destruction will have been neatly swept away into nothingness. This includes any human trace as well, for after the 85,000 dollars in prize money are handed out in totality, there's no reason for anyone to hang around. Large checks are swiftly cashed, and celebrations begin in distant and not so distant taverns, fueled as much by the energy of the event as a few high octane beverages. But, this part of the story is highly unimportant in direct comparison to what occurred earlier today...
Friday night brought rain to Hollywood. An all-night soaking had the Dagger-based ramp building crews rolling out metric miles of plastic sheeting to keep their works dry. By dawn this morning, the clouds had emptied themselves of excess water, but hung around for effect. Christie Van Doren could be seen regularly glaring at the sky, as if warning the clouds against any further disruption. As luck would have it, the skies held steady, and crews began arriving early in the day and assembling their collective strategies. Hired gun master photogs MRZ and Garrett Shigenaka arrived and set up to provide the visual documentation that will soon appear here on the Vans site for your viewing pleasure and DJ Smokey started dusting off his collection of rare and strange vinyl to accompany the coming mayhem. All of the ingredients for a day of chaos were quickly assembling and that familiar competition wind began to blow.
At 5:00 the madness began. The first obstacle up was the Creature "Darkest Passage Into The Depths Of Doom And Despair". Earlier in the day, Creature's own Stu Graham had taken a direct shot to the dome, courtesy of the evil saw blade mounted above the entry/exit tunnel of the passage, and wore a star-shaped dent in his forehead as evidence. This was a foreboding hint of things to come and the Creature obstacle lived up to it's name within minutes of the opening shot being fired. Omar Hassan was just getting warmed up and on an early pass though the tunnel, he was leveled by a 2x6 support beam bridging the tunnel's entrance. The gaping chasm that opened up across Omar's scalp quickly soaked the street with blood and the slow-acting paramedic crews finally stepped in to staunch the flow and get Omar to the hospital for repairs. Thankfully, Omar is as tough as they come and he returned at the end of the night with 27 staples holding his head together, and wearing his characteristic smile.
Once everyone was able to catch their breath, the Creature obstacle was ready to receive more victims. The riders, however had other plans and rode it with a vengeance, as if to punish it for felling a comrade. A few standout stunts included Slash's front feeble over the door, and Adam Alfaro's nosegrind transit of the same space. Johnny Layton also made a strong showing with massive air variations over the hips. Creature's Al Partanen did his part to inflict some damage. Backside bonelesses over the skull splitter opening, back smiths, and a multitude of hip transfers and nosegrind transfers over the front door led to his 3rd place retribution. Young Tony Cervantes representing the Zero mob, came out with his guns blazing, taking an assorted aerial assault approach over the hips, throwing a Miller flip over the doorway of doom, and a 360 flip to cap it off. Tony wound up in 2nd place, ready for much more action. Tyler Mumma is one of the most stylish young killers out there, and his recent contest placings and accomplishments bear out the fact he has a lot more than just style going on. It's fitting that Tyler is Omar's team mate on Black Label, and revenge is sweeter than molasses. Tyler delivered with a massive variety of tricks over the death door, including crail reverts, feebles, tail grab Smith grinds. 5-0's and more. Tyler handled 1st place with authority, and the curtain came down on Creature's deadly debacle.
We've got much more coming up, keep it right here, we're about to go EMBARKO deep on all of y'alls...
-BLKPRJKT
Friday night brought rain to Hollywood. An all-night soaking had the Dagger-based ramp building crews rolling out metric miles of plastic sheeting to keep their works dry. By dawn this morning, the clouds had emptied themselves of excess water, but hung around for effect. Christie Van Doren could be seen regularly glaring at the sky, as if warning the clouds against any further disruption. As luck would have it, the skies held steady, and crews began arriving early in the day and assembling their collective strategies. Hired gun master photogs MRZ and Garrett Shigenaka arrived and set up to provide the visual documentation that will soon appear here on the Vans site for your viewing pleasure and DJ Smokey started dusting off his collection of rare and strange vinyl to accompany the coming mayhem. All of the ingredients for a day of chaos were quickly assembling and that familiar competition wind began to blow.
At 5:00 the madness began. The first obstacle up was the Creature "Darkest Passage Into The Depths Of Doom And Despair". Earlier in the day, Creature's own Stu Graham had taken a direct shot to the dome, courtesy of the evil saw blade mounted above the entry/exit tunnel of the passage, and wore a star-shaped dent in his forehead as evidence. This was a foreboding hint of things to come and the Creature obstacle lived up to it's name within minutes of the opening shot being fired. Omar Hassan was just getting warmed up and on an early pass though the tunnel, he was leveled by a 2x6 support beam bridging the tunnel's entrance. The gaping chasm that opened up across Omar's scalp quickly soaked the street with blood and the slow-acting paramedic crews finally stepped in to staunch the flow and get Omar to the hospital for repairs. Thankfully, Omar is as tough as they come and he returned at the end of the night with 27 staples holding his head together, and wearing his characteristic smile.
Once everyone was able to catch their breath, the Creature obstacle was ready to receive more victims. The riders, however had other plans and rode it with a vengeance, as if to punish it for felling a comrade. A few standout stunts included Slash's front feeble over the door, and Adam Alfaro's nosegrind transit of the same space. Johnny Layton also made a strong showing with massive air variations over the hips. Creature's Al Partanen did his part to inflict some damage. Backside bonelesses over the skull splitter opening, back smiths, and a multitude of hip transfers and nosegrind transfers over the front door led to his 3rd place retribution. Young Tony Cervantes representing the Zero mob, came out with his guns blazing, taking an assorted aerial assault approach over the hips, throwing a Miller flip over the doorway of doom, and a 360 flip to cap it off. Tony wound up in 2nd place, ready for much more action. Tyler Mumma is one of the most stylish young killers out there, and his recent contest placings and accomplishments bear out the fact he has a lot more than just style going on. It's fitting that Tyler is Omar's team mate on Black Label, and revenge is sweeter than molasses. Tyler delivered with a massive variety of tricks over the death door, including crail reverts, feebles, tail grab Smith grinds. 5-0's and more. Tyler handled 1st place with authority, and the curtain came down on Creature's deadly debacle.
We've got much more coming up, keep it right here, we're about to go EMBARKO deep on all of y'alls...
-BLKPRJKT