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Journal 2007
CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED NEWS AND EVENTS
Oregon Trifecta
August
10-12th - What is the Oregon Trifecta? Three contests in three days
at three different skate parks in Oregon. This is a really fun and crazy contest
set in the northwest. You not only get top pro cement park and pools riders, you
also get females, locals, and the ledgendary skateboarders.
The first contest was at Lincoln City on the coast of Oregon. This park starts off with a 3 foot mini bowl and flows around and up into a 9 or 10 foot bowl with a vert brick extention.
This contest is always interesting, because unless you live in the area or travel up there early with time to practice, you never know what could happen. On the day of each event the girls start off the day. They only get a limited amount of practice and then go head to head in different heats of 5 or 6 girls and then the top 6 go onto the finals.
There were 22 girls competing in three different heats. The top 6 girls from the
heats went into the finals. The finalists were made up of Holly Lyons, Jodi McDonald,
Nicole Zuck, Annie Sullivan, Amelia Brodka, and Julie Kinstand. The heat went off
well with great skating, fast lines, and even some collisions in the jam format.
The second day was at Pier Park outside of the Portland area. This park was amazing.
One side has two 9 feet round bowls going into the full pipe. The full pipe has
a whole in it with stairs to get so that you can get out. The stairs go up the full
pipe and over vert by about 2-3 feet. On the other side of the pipe is a square
11 1⁄2 foot cement vert ramp bowl. This place was big and smooth! Only 11 girls
even attempted this park due to it’s mass. Holly skated it really well and placed
3rd after only getting about 10 practice runs.
On the third day, the contest was at Battle ground in Vancouver, Washington. It
was sprinkling in the morning and nobody really knew if the contest was going to
happen or not. The girls and the masters ended up getting to skate, but the pros
went to an indoor bowl this guy Tobin had in Portland.
Full results on World Cup:
wcsk8.com/2007/events/GoldenOtter
wcsk8.com/2007/events/CrownRoyale
wcsk8.com/2007/events/CornCup
X Games 13
August 2-5th - Friday, August 3rd was a Full Day dedicated to Women in Action Sports.
All
the girls invited to compete at X Games 13 skated unreal. Our own Holly Lyons had
several solid runs in the finals featuring inverts, indy airs, frontside and backside
airs. Holly really stepped it up for the contest, and we’re very happy with her
top 5 finish.
Commenting on the strong field in the finals at The Home Depot Center was gold medalist, Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins who said: “If I was a judge, I would have just quit.”
Lyn-Z was right. I was scoring on my own and I couldn’t tell who took first place. I had it either being, Lyn-Z, Mimi Knoop or Cara-Beth. Lyn-Z landed two kickflips during the competition, and also came so close to landing several McTwists, plus she pulled off a lot of other tricks. Mimi is skating at such a high level right now. She just placed 1st at the US Open/Soul Bowl contest in Huntington Beach the week prior to the X Games. Mimi pulled off fastplant, frontside invert, and multiple disasters. And Cara-Beth is Cara-Beth, I’ve never seen CB have a bad day. I think she’s the best skater in the world. So like Lyn-Z said, “If I was a judge, I would have just quit.” Anyone of those three girls could have taken first. Here’s the run down. Taking gold was Lyn-Z, silver was Mimi Knoop, Cara-Beth took bronze, in 4th place was Karen Jones from Brazil, 5th was our own Holly Lyons, 6th place was teen prodigy Apryl Woodcock, and in 7th was legendary skater Jodi McDonald. Just being invited to the X Games is a huge honor as they only invite the best skaters in the world. So congratulations to all of 2007’s X Games athletes!
The week prior to the X Games at the Home Depot Center, I was able to attend a few practice sessions with the girls. I don’t think any of them skated a vert ramp like the one used in this years X Games before. ESPN moved the vert ramp from indoors at the Staple Center where it’s been for the last few years to outdoors at the Home Depot Center where it was very hot. Basically the vert ramp was huge and straight with two offset extensions towards the ends, with scary looking rollins at both ends. During the practice sessions, one thing that I noticed was how these girls really pull for each other. Even though they were going to compete in just a few days, these girls were helping their fellow competitors with technique and cheering them on until they pulled off a certain trick. It was really, really cool. I wish everyone could have seen the way these pros acted towards each other, and the day of the contest the respect towards each other continued.
On X Games' Saturday, Holly Lyons was joined by Cool Girl Skateboards’ and etnies teammate, Alize Montes at the Home Depot Center to teach young girls how to skate at the etnies girls, get on board clinic. All of our team members love to give back, and big thanks to etnies for organizing the clinics for them to do so.
On a side note...2003 was the first year that the X Games invited the first women pro skaters. A lot has changed since then, and for the better. Back in ’03 Cara-Beth Burnside took 1st place and the prize purse for first for the women then was $2,000, compared to Bucky Lasek who also took 1st place for the men’s vert and took home $25,000. Now in 2007, Lyn-Z Adams placed first and took home $20,000! The total Ladies Vert Purse was $54,000. And we can thank the Alliance for that. www.wcsk8.com
Frank Davern
Photos by CoolGirlSkateboards.com unless otherwise noted.
US Open/Soul Bowl of Skateboarding
July
27-29th - This years Soul Bowl contest in Huntington Beach, CA. was
a huge success once again! The weather was great. It was sunny and warm, there was
loud music blasting, and people everywhere in their swim suits having fun on the
sand. There were different action sports booths set up all over the beach, Moto
X demo's going on through out the day, the US Open of Surfing, and the Soul Bowl
of Skateboarding.
On Friday, the Soul Bowl Skateboard contest started off with the ladies. There were 2 heats of girls and the skating just gets better and better every year. All of the girls were charging super hard and getting in as many runs as possible. The crowd was stoked and the energy was high. There were 12 girls, 6 in each heat. Girls were doing inverts, 50-50's, rock n rolls, fast plants, boneless', nose grinds, airs, and more.
After all the dust cleared, the results were in. The top 5 girls were as follows. In first place was Mimi Knoop with really long and strong runs, 2nd place was Lyn-Z Adams, 3rd was Julie, 4th was Holly Lyons, and 5th was Karen Jones from Brazil.
Saturday's event was the Masters competing in the Soul Bowl, and Sunday has the Pro contest with BMX competition as well. Check out this event if you are ever in the area. It is always great weather, with lots of cool people everywhere having fun on the beach in sunny southern california. It doesn't get much better than that.
Supergirl "Actionista" Launch Party
July
19th - The action sports community, pro-athletes and celebrities came
together on Thursday, July 19 to celebrate the launch of the Supergirl “Actionista”
capsule collection at Los Angeles-based Nine Star and to show support for Boarding
for Breast Cancer(B4BC). Event Raises Over $6,000 for Boarding for Breast Cancer.
Holly's clothing company, SK8GRL was honored to co-create a tank top and T-shirt
design for Warner Bros. and the re-imagined S-shield, which is the universally recognized
symbol of strength and leadership and is a powerful symbol for today’s action sports
girl. Sk8grl/Supergirl tanks and T-shirts sold exclusively at Nine Star.
The evening’s festivities kicked off with pink carpet arrivals and professional
surfer and event MC, Holly Beck introducing the extraordinary group of action sports
athletes on the host committee which included: pro surfers Serena Brooke, Leilani
Gryde, Mary Osborne, and Courtney Conlogue; snowboarder Roberta Rodger; and pro
skaters Holly Lyons, Lauren Perkins and seven year old skateboarding prodigy Alize
Montes.
Special guests Brooke Burke, co-host of CBS’ Rock Star, KayCee Stroh from High School
Musical and Lauren Strom from Flight 29 Down also came out to show their support
of the Supergirl empowerment message and to help raise awareness about the mission
of B4BC.
“It was fantastic to acknowledge the female action sports athletes as role models
and figureheads of empowerment for young girls,” said Justine Chiara, Executive
Director of B4BC. “The event was an awesome opportunity for our organization to
reach out to young women about how important an active lifestyle and early detection
are in the fight against breast cancer.”
Throughout the evening, guests got an exclusive opportunity to purchase products
from the limited-edition Supergirl collection with partial proceeds benefiting B4BC.
The collection includes: shoes by etnies Girl; halter sundresses by FEW; flip-flops
by Havaianas; t-shirts and a bikini by Rip Curl; a tank top and t-shirt by Sk8grl;
a t-shirt by Surf Diva, custom surfboards by Guy Okazaki and one-of-a-kind Supergirl
artwork by Colleen Hanley.
A highlight of the evening was the Supergirl fashion show where models showcased
the complete collection for the cheering crowd. A raffle was also a high point benefiting
B4BC. Featured items on the raffle included limited-edition Supergirl skate decks
autographed by the host committee plus a hand-painted skate deck and a Guy Okazaki
surfboard painted live at the party by San Clemente-based surf artist Colleen Hanley.
DJ Katrina spun music throughout the night while guests snacked on Wahoo’s tacos
and Sambazon acai bowls. Go211.com, the premier community hub for action sports
athletes and enthusiasts, was also onsite providing an opportunity for party goers
to join their online network.
For the latest information regarding Supergirl, visit
www.beasupergirl.com.
Warner Bros. Consumer Products represents Supergirl on behalf of DC Comics.
About Supergirl:
Warner Bros. has re-imagined the S-shield, the universally recognized symbol of
strength and leadership and created a powerful symbol for today’s action sports
girl. The collection of merchandise captures and recognizes the empowerment spirit
of these girls whose independence and creativity represents a style all its own.
About Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Warner Bros. Consumer Products, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is one of
the leading licensing and retail merchandising organizations in the world.
About DC Comics
DC Comics, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company, is the largest English-language
publisher of comics in the world and home to such iconic characters as Superman,
Batman, Wonder Woman and the Sandman. These DC Super Heroes and others have starred
in comic books, movies, television series (both animated and live-action) and cyberspace,
thrilling audiences of all ages for generations. DC Comics’ Web site is located
at www.dccomics.com.
About Nine Star
Nine Star Inc. is Southern California’s premier retailer of skate, surf, snow and
bmx goods. With locations in Los Angeles at Olympic and Sepulveda and in Mission
Viejo at Crown Valley and the 5 in the Kaleidoscope Courtyards, Nine Star offers
expert staff, music, art exhibits, a mini skate ramp, shop services and a media
lounge.
About Boarding For Breast Cancer (B4BC)
myspace.com/boardingforbreastcancer
Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC) is a nonprofit, youth-focused education, awareness
and fundraising foundation designed to increase awareness about breast cancer, the
importance of early detection and the value of an active lifestyle. Boarding for
Breast Cancer was inspired by Monica Steward, who started her battle with breast
cancer at the age of 26.
Supergirl and all related characters and elements are trademarks of and © DC Comics.
Pro
Tec Pool Party
May 12th - This marked the 3rd annual Pro Tec Pool Party contest at Vans skateboard park in Orange, California. The contest went off as usual and everybody was skating great! Cara-Beth Burnside won the pro girls division, Rune Glifberg won the Pro division, and Chris Miller won the Masters division.
The highlight of the evening was when Holly Lyons was awarded the overall 2006 #1 Pro Women's Bowl Rider by World Cup Skateboarding.
Holly was honored along with Rune Glifberg, Steve Caballero, and Benji Galloway as the overall title winners. (pictured here)
The
plaques were very special because they had each winners names, along with their
contest results engraved in the plaque for all of 2006.
In '06 Holly traveled thousands of miles, spent months away from home, and we just wanted Holly to know that all of her hard work is very much appreciated. So from all of us here at Cool Girl Skateboards, congratulations!
Cool Girls' Team Pro Holly Lyons is the first girl on our team, and what we hope
to have team riders be, ranked #1! Holly Lyons you rock!
Frank Davern
Cool Girl Skateboards
Sk8grl Lifestyle Brand
Spring 2007 - Holly gets questions from girls around the world on Cool
Girl Skateboards about skating, etiquette,
and what to wear. She saw the need for female skaters to have their own style,
place, and voice so she decided to launch
her own clothing company for girls who skate and love the lifestyle. www.sk8grl.com
LA Times' West Magazine
May 6, 2007 - Holly Lyons was the Cover Girl for the GIRLS RIP
issue!
West Magazine featured a four page 'Dress to Skate' story about how skate girls are softening their tough-as-nails looks. But whether you're a tomboy or a girlie-girl, it's all about being taken seriously.
What
kind of girl is attracted to skating?
It takes a certain type of female to skate. The fact is that 99% of females probably
don't skate once they get hurt. It's somebody that can take a slam and it doesn't
bug them. You enjoy testing yourself physically and pushing yourself mentally. I've
broken lots of bones.
Holly Lyons
GL - Girls' Life Magazine
Spotlight Interview: Holly Lyons
May 2007 - Think you’re a Cool Girl? Well this chick certainly
is! We got a chance to sit down and talk with Pro Skateboarder Holly Lyons about
skating, gettin’ girly and following your dreams. If you want to talk to a truly
inspirational leader then read below! We’re gonna go hit the half pipe...
Read the full interview here: girlslife.com
San Dieguito Career Day
March
28th - Holly Lyons was asked to speak to two classes for the Carrier
Community Connection Day at the San Dieguito Career Day. This gives the students
an opportunity to listen to and be able to ask professional people from various
types of work what it's like. They then have a better idea of the work and lifestyle
opportunities in the future.
This is the second time in the last couple of months that Holly has been invited to speak at schools, and let them know what life is like for a professional female skater. There are always pro's and con's to every profession. Holly talks about both and also adds some stories and answers questions.
This is a great opportunity for kids of all ages to see what life is like past school. There were also Lawyers, Doctors, Politicians, Engineers, Nurses, a Yoga Teacher and more.
Holly loves giving back and sharing her stories. She likes to inspire kids to follow their own dreams, listen to themselves, and know that there is a way to make a living no matter what it is that you love to do. We want to thank Holly once again for taking time out of her BUSY schedule to talk to the kids and make a difference for them while they are growing up.
Frank Davern
Cool Girl Skateboards
Art For Life
February 1st
-
What
if you could own a skateboard deck that was painted by some of the worlds best skateboarders
and also help save lives at the same time? Pretty unbelievable, right? Well, believe
it. In order to raise money to help people with cancer, Grind for Life (with the
immense help of a number of amazing companies...thanks to Creative Deployment) called
upon many of the world's top skateboarders to donate hand painted/carved/collaged/etc...
decks to be auctioned on Ebay (100% of the profits will go to cancer patients in
need of support). Alliance members CB Burnside, Mimi Knoop, and Holly Lyons (pictured
here with Rerun) created boards along with other notables such as Chris Miller,
Jason Lee and many more.
The decks will go up for auction on Ebay.com on Sunday (Feb. 4th). Please bid and bid well; every deck will help bring healing and joy to people with cancer!
Grind for Life is a Non–Profit organization that aids families affected by cancer
through skateboard contest series, demos, appearances and other fund raising efforts.
Check them out at grindforlife.org
actionsportsalliance.com
grindforlife.org
Journal 2006
Jefferson Career Day
December
12th - Youth are inherently curious about what they will be when they
grow up. Many students never actually talk first hand with a pilot, doctor, professional
skateboarder, or plumber to find out just what they do on a daily basis. Exploring
their career options at an early age helps widen their reality base of the world
of work.
With this goal in mind, I was asked to be part of Career Day on Tuesday, December
12, 2006 at Jefferson Leadership Academies in the Long Beach Unified School District.
The goal was to have the students interact with a wide variety of professionals
and occupational groups. This will create an understanding that will help them prepare
for their future career paths. Students in 6th through 8th grade signed up to see
which occupations seemed interesting to them. I was told that kids curios about
being a professional skateboarder was filled up first.
I spoke to three different groups in Mr. Goodman's classroom. I told my story of how I got into skateboarding, what has been my driving force, and all the ups and downs that come with being a professional athlete. Including injuries, contests, traveling, sponsorship and more. At the end of each class, the kids asked me questions, and we brought posters to hand out, and the kids lined up for autographs and stickers.
It was really fun being able to share my experience with all the kids at Jefferson. I think they thought it was cool to see a girl skater, and that not just guys can grow up to be a pro. I got the chance to meet some of the other presenters of the day, which was really fun. I think this is a great event for the kids, so they can see that there is an infinite number of ways to make money. The important thing is that you can find a job out there, or create one that is perfect for you. A job that you make money at, and can also have fun at.
Holly Lyons
Kronik Energy Desert Dog Bowl Bash
October 28-29th - The 1st annual Kronik Energy Desert Dog Bowl Bash was held in Peoria, Arizona, at the Rio Vista Skate Park, October 28th thru the 29th. This event celebrates the skateboarding boom that has thrived in the wake of concrete parks and replicates backyard pool skateboarding … commonly referred to as “bowl” skating, in public.
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This event was a huge success, featuring the best female skaters on the World Cup circuit. We asked one of the organizers if the event will be coming back to Rio Vista Skate Park next year, and she said the Desert Dog Bowl Bash would most likely travel to different parts of Arizona every year. The Rio Vista Skate Park is a clover shaped bowl with a deep end, and stairs in one of the two shallow bowls.
Qualifying was on Saturday. The 18 female skaters competed for the five open spots in the Sunday finales. Holly Lyons was pre-qualified to be in the finals from being the World Cup point’s leader from the past events. This is the first time in history that a female has been pre-qualified for a contest. The day started off with an open practice, and then three 20 minutes heats. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen so many of the world’s top female skaters all in one place, and these girls didn’t disappoint the fans. Cara-Beth was skating great doing feeble to fakies, inverts, airs, and 50-50’s all over the deep end. Mimi Knoop was charging with big ollies, grinds, and a nose grind from the deep to the shallow. April Woodcock is a natural on a skateboard. She was doing backside disasters in the deep and shallow bowls, rock n roll slides, and more. Nicole Zuck was grinding with smooth style all over the place, and Cressy Rice was going front side and backside over the stairs. By the end of the day the World Cup judges announced the qualifiers. Moving on to Sunday finals were Cara-Beth Burnside, Mimi Knoop, April Woodcock, Nicole Zuck, and Cressy Rice.
Sunday started off nice enough with a cloud cover, but soon became heated in the
hour warm up. Being the last event of the year all the skaters wanted to kill it.
The girls started off with a judged run and then a 15 minute jam. Every girl was
skating great and it must have been hard for the judges to make a decision. Everybody
had an idea of who placed where, but to everybody’s surprise, the judging was different
than what was thought. Cressy Rice placed 6th, Holly Lyons placed 5th, Cara-Beth
Burnside placed 4th, Nicole Zuck placed 3rd, Mimi Knoop placed 2nd, and 14 year
old April Woodcock won the event!
The Kronik Energy Desert Dog Bowl Bash is the 7th and final event in the 2006 World
Cup Skating North American Concrete Bowl Series, which features the best skaters
in the world.
Holly was crowned the World Cup Bowl Champion for 2006! She placed
first at the Goofy vs. Regular Contest in Lake Forest, Ca., and also won the Tim
Brauch Memorial Contest in Scotts Valley, Ca. Holly has constantly placed at the
top of every contest entered, including this years X Games 12, in Los Angeles, Ca.
Holly’s dedication to skateboarding has paid off, as she is also ranked 2nd overall
in the World Cup
Vert rankings for 2006.
Frank Davern
Cool Girl Skateboards
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The Ladies: Holly, April Woodcock, Mimi Knoop, Kim Petersen, Nicole Zuck
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Some of the legends of skateboarding.
Jeff Grosso, Lance Mountain, Holly, Steve Caballero |
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Holly and Patti the women skater on the cover of LIFE Magazine in 1965
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Holly and Dave Duncan, ledgendary skater and the voice of World Cup Skateboarding
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Holly and Brian Patch
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Holly with Nicole Zuck and Omar Hassan
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Chris Senn and Holly
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Holly and Rune Glifberg
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Rerun, Holly, Ciara D'Agustino, Alize Montes, and Gwen Markus
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Etnies Goofy vs. Regular
October 20-22nd - This is the annual Goofy vs. Regular skateboard
contest at the Etnies skateboard park in Lake Forest, Ca. This year also marks the
20 year anniversary of Sole Technology (the parent company), so Etnies had a huge
party, and the Beastie Boys played in the parking lot of Etnies on Saturday night
after the street qualifiers.
This isn't any parking lot by the way. It's huge and they put a full stage in the
parking lot, with multiple beer stands scattered around with free beer flowing during
the concert. It doesn't get better than this. My friend and I got up to the 2nd
row of the concert. He's a tall guy, so I got on his shoulders and I was right there
with the Beastie Boys......ah it was great!!
Oh yeah, so back to the contest that I had on Friday.........
Us girls were the first to skate, then the Masters, and then the Pros. There were
a lot of girls, which is great. We had 3 heats of six girls in each heat. I skated
in the 3rd heat, and so I didn't watch the other heats. My friend was visiting from
India, so I wanted to talk to her before I skated.
My heat was cool, there was a lot of fast skating and a couple of doubles runs, which are always fun to watch. Unfortunately due to time, we were unable to have a finals, so we all just skated in our heats and got judged.
I was happy to end up in first place once the dust cleared. Since I didn't watch the other heats, I had no idea where anybody was placed. 2nd place went to Cressy Rice who is a really good pool skater from AZ, and Heidi got 3rd.
Holly Lyons
To check out full results, go to: gvr.etnies.com
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Keep-A-Breast Kings & Queens
October 7th - This was the first ever 100% skateboarding KEEP-A-BREAST art show. Curated and photo documented by photographer Desiree Astorga. Holly Lyons was honored to be one of a few female skateboarders to have a cast mold for the KEEP-A-BREAST art show in San Francisco, Cailfornia.
Matt Dove painted Holly's cast and did an amazing job. Other castees are the singer Pink, Bam Margera, Elissa Steamer, Jen O'Brien and more. Each cast will be up for auction from Oct. 17-26th to raise money for the Keep-A-Breast foundation.
Official website and bidding will take place at: www.keep-a-breast.org
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8th Annual Tim Brauch Memorial Contest
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| L to R: Tim's Dad and Mom, Holly (1st), Annie Sullivan (2nd) not shown, April Woodcock (3rd), Joel the owner of Sessions |
September 23-24th - This year marks the 8th Annual Tim Bauch Memorial Skateboard contest at the Tim Brauch Memorial skateboard park in Scotts Valley, Ca. This park is dedicated to an amazing skater and a very special human being. His life ended long before it should have, but due to the love and respect that so many others have for him, his spirit lives on through this annual event.
After last summer's contest another skater named Eric Costello was skating the park and rolled into the big bowl. His helmet wasn't strapped on and he fell, hit his head, and lost his life. It is always horrible to hear of, or know of another skater who has lost his life, so it's really important to wear a helmet and be aware. May you both rest in peace!
On Saturday, they had the amateur street contest. Each year the kids are getting better and better. It is so much fun to watch and see how the kids just give it there all and rip. Cool Girl Skateboards team rider Alize Montes was the only girl to compete against the boys and she killed it. She dropped in on the biggest transitions in the park and was consistent throughout both her runs.
Sunday's event was the bowl contest for the Ladies, Grandmasters, Locals, and the Pros. There were 13 girls in the ladies event which is much better than last year, and the level of skating has really improved. There were two heats of girls and then a final heat with the the top 6 skaters.
Three of the Cool Girl Skateboard team riders were there representing; Alize Montes, Lexi Barclay, and Holly Lyons. Alize and Lexi were doing doubles runs and kept it going for a really long time, airing over the hips, and carving. Holly was killing it and qualified second going into the finals. Lexi placed 7th just missing the cut, and Alize placed 11th which is amazing when you realize she is 6 years old and going up against some of the best female skateboarders in the world.
In the finals, the ladies had a 10 minute jam and it was heated. At times there were 3 to 4 girls in the bowl skating. Every girl wanted to get some. April Woodcock placed 3rd and was ripping with rock n roll board slides on the vert wall, along with many other tricks and a really laid back style. She is a natural on a skateboard. 2nd place went to Annie Sullivan who did a rock n roll on the vert wall and 50-50's. At the end of the contest, Annie slipped out on a back side air over a hip and compound fractured her wrist. With the help of the staff they had her fixed up in a home made splint from a Red Bull box and on the way to the hospital in no time. 1st place went to Holly Lyons. She was skating great with back side and front side airs on the vert wall, 50-50's, along with strong carve lines all over the bowl.
Next up was the Masters division that once again proved to be one of the most exciting rounds of the weekend; they gave it their all with multiple three, four, and five person runs.
Just prior to the pro contest was a chance for the locals to get into the action, with the top four being able to compete with the pros. Saturdays grom winner Curren Caples took the first qualifying position followed by Tommy Werner, Alex Foy, and Chris Moon. The Pro's where broken into 4 heats all of which there "loaded", unfortunately Josh Borden went down hard on a tail slide breaking his femur. But it was the finals that saw the most action. Locals like Josh Mattson, Raven Tershay, Issac Yanez, and Zach Richeson gave it their all against some of the worlds best bowl skaters like Benji Galloway, and Tim Johnson. The battle raged until dark, and then everyone sat patiently as the judges worked out the final results.
Frank Davern
Cool Girl Skateboards
The official website: www.timbrauch.com
Ladies results: www.wcsk8.com/ladies
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A Quest for Insight feature in 'Concrete Wave Magazine'- Fall, 2006
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Slam City Jam, Calgary, Canada
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| Holly (2nd), Vanessa Torres (3rd), Karen Jones (1st), Amy Caron (4th) |
Aug. 25-27th - This was the first year that Slam City Jam was held in Calgary, Canada and it was fun. The people of Calgary are a really cool! I flew in a day before the contest, and experienced a nightmare flight on the way there. Our plane waited over an hour to take off the ground due to another flight that was all messed up, and some of those people got on our plane. Then all of our connecting flights left without us, because we were so late. Somehow that's not fair. By the way I don't recommend US Airways....at all!! I had to sit in the airport for over 8 hours. People watching only goes so far, and reading after and hour or two got old. I wrote some words of wisdom for myself, that's always fun, then I walked around for a bit, and checked out some magazines. I caught up on a bunch of other people's lives that I don't really care about, but if I had to pick one of those mags., I would say I like People Magazine. LOL.
O.K. so I arrive in Canada at almost 1 in the morning. I was supposed to be there at 2:21PM a much more normal time, but that's life sometimes. They at least bumped me up to first class which really is the only way to fly!! So, I went to my hotel and then off to Stampede Park where the contest was the next morning. I had no idea where I was going, and was still a bit foggy from my long day before. I skated to the C train and luckily met a really sweet girl there who helped me get to where I needed to go. Thank God, I was lost. I made it there by noon and we didn't compete till 3PM. Everybody asked me what took so long, and then when I explained I was told of more horrible airplane experiences than what I had just had. We got a good laugh, and then I skated for a while.
The event wasn't as big as it has been in the past, but it was a lot of fun. We skated on the Tony Hawk Boom Boom Huck Jam Ramp. That ramp is the best! Karen Jones of Brazil won the event with the big bag of tricks she has. I placed second, Vanessa Torres who is an amazing street skater placed 3rd, Amy Caron placed 4th, and Nugget placed 5th.
The bleachers were full and the crowd was going off. They had a lot of energy and it was great that so many people were hyped on girls skating. That's what I like to see. Hopefully the more that girls are seen in skating or in any kind of individual sport, the more we can inspire other girls to go out there and follow their dreams. That's what it's all about, passing love and inspiration around!
Holly Lyons
Oregon Trifecta
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| Lincoln City - Lexi Barclay, Holly, and Duane Peters |
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| Newberg - Holly (3rd), Amelia Brodka (1st), Nicole Zuck (2nd) |
August 11-13th - The Oregon Trifecta is three contests, in three days, at three different skateboard parks in Oregon.
It is skateboard craziness at it's best! Guys don't wear any pads or helmets, they're crisscrossing all over, and it's just raw skateboarding all day, everyday. It's so much fun to watch, let alone be a part of. Lexi's brother collided with another guy and broke his collar bone. Jimmy the Greek also broke something in his elbow and I heard he needs surgery. Duane Peter's was going off, and Rune was killing it. I love watching him skate! This is the first time I've made it to this event, and I had a lot of fun.
I showed up at Lincoln City after a full day of driving from the San Francisco area to Oregon. It was the day before the contests at Lincoln City, and there were already a lot of people there skating around. The next morning we got about and hour or two to skate with a million other people, and then the ladies went first. After us were the locals, then the Masters, and the Pros at the end of the day. There were multiple heats of girls, and then 7 of us made it to the finals. It was a challenge to skate somewhere I've never been before, and after a short practice to compete. It was a lot of fun though and I placed 5th after the first day.
The second day was at West Linn which is a gnarly L shaped snakerun. Gnarly because there are blind spots and collisions are probable. It has an over vert calm shell on one side and a bowl at the other end, with hips in between. It was really fun and everybody again, skated super good. Tim Johnson was trying to do a 360 into a different small bowl and Rune through a couple 540's padless. It was great! Steve Caballero was super smooth like always and watching all the older guys rip is so inspiring.
On the third day we skated Newburg. Newburg has a vert bowl section and a big open flow course. The concrete was the smoothest at this park, yet there is no shade at Newburg, so if you go there in the summer, bring yourself some form of sun protection. It is hot! This park is really fun though and has so many lines because of all the space they have. Again, there were multiple heats of all divisions, and everybody was charging. At the end of the day, I placed 3rd at Newburg. There were a lot of people that charged so hard for three days straight, that they were probably happy to chill for a day.
This was the Third year of the Oregon Trifecta, and if you live near any of these parks, and you are around next August, I would recommend that you go and check it out. The energy is high and skating is off the hook!
Holly Lyons
X Games 12, Los Angeles, California - Staples Center
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The Staples Center
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Vert Finals' Competitors
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L to R: Tina Neff of Germany (6th), Karen Jones of Brazil (3rd),
& Holly Lyons of the USA (5th)
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August 3-6th -This was the 12th year of summer X Games and the fourth year at the LA Staples Center and the Home Depot Center. This year the events were Skateboarding, BMX, Moto X, Surfing, and Rally Car racing. The only girls event that X Games had this year was skateboarding. Only 16 girls in the world were invited to skateboard at X Games. Eight girls on street and eight girls skated the vert ramp contest. This was also the largest prize purse to date! The ladies purse was hugely bumped up from what it has ever been in the past thanks to the Alliance. The Alliance is a non-profit organization set by professional female skaters to promote women in skateboarding, to make a positive difference for the future of the sport, and to inspire younger girls.
This year's X Games vert ramp was different than any other vert ramp made before. Picture this...on the left hand side of the ramp was a huge euro gap with a rainbow rail on it. That led into a wide 14 ft. flat walled vert ramp that then led to a huge flat wall drop in. On the opposite of the flat wall drop in, there was a 15 ft. extension that had a shorter cheese wedge quarter pipe sticking out. Past that was the rest of the flat walled vert ramp. If this sounds confusing to you, think about how it was when we all got there to see it.
There were 8 of the top female vert skaters in the world invited to compete. Six of the girls were from the United States, one girl was from Brazil, and one from Germany. All the girls were skating amazingly as said by many, and the results were as followed.
1st place and a gold metal went to Southern California local Cara-Beth Burnside. She had powerful lines, big airs, and lots technical tricks. Mimi Knoop placed 2nd with equally powerful runs, olling up and down the euro gap, lip tricks, and inverts. 3rd place and a bronze metal went to Karen Jones of Brazil. Karen also had so many different tricks all over the ramp it was great. 4th place went to Jen O'Brien. She dropped in on the massive flat wall doing big front side airs, front side grinds, ollies and 50-50's. 5th place went to Holly Lyons. She skated great with inverts on the flat wall and the cheese wedge, front side and back side airs, along with long consistent runs. 6th place went to Tina Neff from Germany. 7th went to Jodi Mc Donald, and 8th place went to Annie Sullivan. X Games just keeps getting better and better every year!
I wasn't there to see girls street skateboard event, but if you want to find out more about that event or the rest of the X Games, go to: www.xgames.com
US Open of Surfing & Soul Bowl of Skateboarding
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July 27-30th - Wow, was it hot! All I can say is..."It was really, really hot and incredibly humid." Other than that, it was another great contest put on by World Cup Skateboarding. The Soul Bowl is an 11ft. wooden vert bowl with a 13ft. extension, and a hip to air over.
There were four divisions of skaters: The Ladies, the Pros, the Masters, and the Grand Masters. In the ladies division there were 2 heats of 5 Girls. There was supposed to be the 2 heats and then a third and final heat of the top 6 females. But, it was so hot we just skated our first heat and the judges ranked us. Nobody wanted to do a finals jam. I mean it was really hot! There was a little wind if you were walking around Huntington Beach, but inside that bowl skating with the bleachers on all sides and banners up, the wind was pretty well keep out. It was like being in a sauna skating that bowl. In the first heat of ladies was Holly Lyons, Jen O'Brien, Karen Jones, Nicole Zuck, and Mandy Esh. In the second heat was Cara-Beth Burnside, Mimi Knoop, Anne Sullivan, Ciara D'Agostino and Cressy Rice. All the ladies were skating really well with all kinds of different tricks and unique styles. Cara-Beth won the contest by charging hard in her usual style doing big airs, all kinds of lip tricks, a gay twist, and inverts. Mimi Knoop placed 2nd with front side and backside nose grinds, airs, inverts, and many other tricks. Jen O'Brien placed 3rd with long smooth runs using the all the corners, airs, and front side grinds. Karen Jones from Brazil placed 4th with front side and backside tail grabs, lip tricks, a half cab, and lots of other tricks. Holly Lyons placed 5th with 50-50's on the elbow and flat wall, inverts, along with back side and front side airs all over the bowl. Congratulations to all the girls for skating their best in the hot and humid weather! Check out the official website of the Bank of the West Beach Games, the Us Open of Surfing and Soul Bowl of skateboarding. bankofthewestbeachgames.com
Interview in 'Skratch Magazine' by Avra Kouffman -June 2006
Interview in Skatch Magazine by Avra Kouffman. June 2006.Interview
in Skatch Magazine by Avra Kouffman. June 2006..
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The 2nd Annual Pro Tec Pool Party
May
13th - the 2nd Annual Pro Tec Pool Party took place at the Vans
skateboard park in Orange, Ca. This is a 13ft. round and square bowl, with lots
of hips, a shallow end, and roll in that is also a channel. There were 3 divisions
of skating: The Girls, the Masters (pro's from the 80's and 90's) and the Pro's
of today. I thought that last year's contest was intense with amazing skating, but
this year the snaking and charging was off the hook!
This contest is such a fun event, and a huge deal in Professional Pool skateboarding. The practice sessions leading up to the contest are really fun and everybody is so stoked on everybody else. This event brings together the pioneering pro's of the past, the pro's of today, and the best female skaters in the world.
The Girls started off the event at 3:30PM. Every girl wanted to get her runs in and it showed. It was some of the best skating I have ever seen. Every one was dropping in and colliding with each other, and just ripping. It was great, and the audience was going wild! Every girl out there wanted to get some for sure. I've never seen it this heated before, and everybody agreed this was the best girls contest to date! After all the dust cleared and the judges had made their decisions out of the 10 girls in the finals, the top 3 went like this.
Placing 3rd was Holly Lyons. Doing stand up 50-50's, inverts, front-side and back-side airs. Her runs were long, consistent, and very graceful. 2nd place went to Mimi Knoop. She is a great skater too, doing inverts, nose grinds, and ollie's, along with some front-side airs. 1st place went to Cara-Beth Burnside. She was skating great doing rock n' rolls on the steep hip, inverts, huge airs all over the round and square bowl, 50-50's, and grinds everywhere. Congrats to all the ladies for skating better and better every time I see them skate!
The Alliance was able to get more prize money for the girl's through one of their sponsors, Xooma Worldwide X20. This was the biggest prize purse to date for women's skateboarding. Even bigger than the X Games. Hopefully this will be a standard that is kept and keeps going up in the future.
Next up was the Master's division. 3rd place went to legendary skater, Steve Caballero. He's always fun to watch. He's just so smooth, and stylish. Front side inverts, a variety of other inverts, boardslides, airs, and more. Second place went to Jeff Grosso. He was skating great with the loooongest 50-50's in the world, inverts, smith grinds and a variety of other great tricks. And the master of all masters won again, Chris Miller. Wow, he is amazing! I think Chris is one of the most respected skaters, and even the pro's favorite pro. He is so graceful, fluid, stylish, and just destroyed the Combi Bowl! He does the hugest ollie transfer airs in the world from the hip into the bowl, board-slides, over head high airs, and my favorite trick which is the blunt slide around the square corner....gnarly!
The pro's finished out the night, and it was heated! 3rd place went to Brian Patch. He was killing it as always with lots of lip tricks, back-side 360's to gay twists, airs, and more. 2nd place went to last year's winner, Rune Glifberg. He is so much fun to watch! He has a lot of inventive tricks like an ally-oop air on the hip, 540's in the square bowl, and lots of other flip tricks, and huge airs. 1st place went to Omar Hassan. He was on fire! He got lots of runs in, and was staying on. He was doing long board-slides, big airs, flip tricks too and lots more!
Congratulations to all the winners of the Pro Tec Pool Party!! This is pure skateboarding
at it's best. This contest is the start of all the World Cup events for the summer,
and it went off! For more info and official results, go to:
vansevents.com/poolparty
wcsk8.com/06ProtecPoolParty
Click here to see Holly's intro run.
Danny Way Bomb drops the guitar at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas
April 6th - Danny Way out does himself again. So, my friend invited me last minute to go and check out Danny Way bomb dropping the guitar from 82 ft. at the Hark Rock Cape in Las Vegas. I thought to myself, o.k. I could stay here and skate, or I could go to Vegas and see something I will never see for the rest of my life...hard decision. I hit the road. It was a 4 1/2 hour drive and worth every minute. Danny set a new worlds record and landed the bomb drop twice. It was from 82ft. onto a 60ft. quarterpipe. The other guys were dropping in from the 60ft. quarter pipe and doing at least 15ft airs off the 30ft quarter pipe across the parking lot. It was insane!
That night I was super fun too. I went to Bam Magera's party, met Bam, and saw Juliette Lewis play while chilling in the front row, VIP style. She is such a good performer. Her energy was awesome! We then went back to the Hard Rock and partied in Danny Way's Hotel room, which had a bowling alley and a sick hot tub in it. Good times were flowing everywhere and the Daggers where in full effect too. Viva Las Vegas!!
WOODWARD WEST
March 24th-26th - I had the opportunity to go and skate at Woodward West with some friends. It's an awesome place to go. This is the off season so we were lucky to go and have the whole place to ourselves. One of my friends builds the website for Woodward, and is an ex-pro skater named Owen Nieder. He grew up skating with Tony Hawk at Del Mar. I also went with Tony Magnussen part owner of Osiris shoes, Dave Hackett a legendary skater, Bob Lloyd, Josh Nelson, Erin aka Fudge, and his pro BMXer friend from Germany, Timo.
Woodward is a skateboarders dream. There are multiple parks inside and outside, super fun foam pits, dirt jumps for BMXers, climbing walls, a huge place for gymnastics, and lots more. Check out the web site. If you can get your parents to send you there this summer I think you will for sure be a happy camper!
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Left to Right: Josh Nelson, Dave Hackett (in back), Owen Nieder (in front), Fudge,
Tony Magnussen, Bob Llyod, and Holly
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Holly doing a front flip into the foam pits. It's so much fun here!!
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John started a skateboard club for kids four years ago. He had two kids at the start and now it's up to over sixty kids ever week. Every Saturday he and the rest of his crew meet and coach kids so they can learn to be the best skater they can be, they also get to travel together and check out other skateboard parks too.
John called me up and asked if I would want be one of the three judges for the event. I was more than happy! I love grass roots and amateur contests, I actually put on three contests of my own when I lived in Lake Tahoe. Amateur events are where kids build great memories they can keep for the rest of their life. They make friends, win trophies, and it helps build their confidence not only in skateboarding but in life too.
The whole day went really smoothly and the contest was run really well. Every division of kids had their coaches out there helping them with a game plan for their runs. There were also multiple cameramen shooting the kids, so they can watch the footage later and see what they did well and what they can learn to do better.
Mostly all of the divisions were boys except for one, the 8-10 year olds. One girl named Alyssa Baniaga charged super hard in her age bracket and took home the gold metal trophy. The best part about it is that this was her second year in a row beating out all the boys and winning gold. Congratulations!! I would love to see more and more girls go for in skateboarding. From watching Alyssa it goes to show you that you never know how good you'll be until you try!
This was the first time I was a judge at a contest and I have to admit at first I was a bit nervous. I didn't want to mess up and ruin a child's life forever. It ended up being really fun though and I told John I would love to come out again and help.
I think it's a great thing John Gleason and his crew have going on. They go out of their way every week to change and improve these children's lives. There is nothing more rewarding in life than that. I want to give a big hug and thanks to everybody that day that worked so hard to make it a success. See ya next time!
Holly Lyons
>>read about Holly's 2005 journal