2004 O. U. T. Championship III
Competition Report
By Mulla
Once again the skate gods blessed us with another beautiful and perfect day - 75
degrees and sunny. The contest had 64 - pre registered competitors and about a
dozen on the waiting list. This event has grown significantly each year and this year
the hype was on. I witnessed many people working on their flatground tricks instead
of riding the course weeks before the contest.
We did our best to hype it up by pledging 100% percent of the entry fees back into
the cash purse and even got some help from Dan Ludlow who donated 300.00! -
what a nice guy! We tried to stoke out the competitors by hooking everybody up with
a competition t-shirt, bbq, and drinks, even their very own VIP area to chill out in.
We also tied into this day our 8th year anniversary party, our annual Josh Updike
Memorial and we welcomed home soldier of the Iraq war - Jeremy 'FreighTraiN'
Wolfsteller. It was good to see Josh's family again, some of the nicest people and I
know the FreighTraiN still has it. All in all good vibes and I was ready to see some
flatground battles.
From my point of view this is one of the easiest events to run that we do. You don't
have to worry about judges, scorekeepers, timers or anything like that. You just gotta
pick the date and have Steve throw on his referee shirt - and its game on!
Placement in the bracket is totally random, everybody picks a number and that's how
you do the first round. Some claimed other brackets were easy and others were
harder. I suppose their right - but you still have to play the game. Some were quick
and others went on for almost 10 minutes.
In this type of contest it's hard to get lucky, either you have it or you don't. You needed
to have a deep bag of tricks to get through the second round. It was amazing to see
the age ranges of this 16 group of guys. The youngest being - Max Moss, who had a
great run but could not edge out Randy Korwin to make it to the 3rd. The oldest
being - Dan Jackson, who easily put down mnskateboarder.com CEO Dom Hess.
The elite eight were as follows - Jake Smith, Wes Hickman, Eddie K., Jr. Mint,
David Jaimes, Munzy, Randy Korwin and Tom Roar. Each of these guys all had
a fantastic day to get to this round. These were definitely the matches to see and the
highlight of the competition. It as like watching a game of chess unfold. The
opponents would strategize trying to find their foes weaknesses. Maintaining the
offensive position was key. Steve got stricter and everything had to be landed
completely clean.
David Jaimes charged his way into the championship match. I think he only got 2
letters against him all day. He popped everything and was even riding with what
looked like a broken arm. Tom Roar was the Cinderella story of the day. Nobody
could believe this young kid was skating for the O. U. T. Championship's 500.00
dollar first place check. Roar is a contender, a gifted and dedicated skater - who I
believe has the potential to go anywhere he wants with skateboarding. Roar puts in a
lot of hours down here and it's been paying off for him big time.
It was however David Jaimes' day - this kid good probably knew the morning he
woke up that he would take home the crown. Nothing fazed him - he had every trick in
the book. His confidence and style was downright robotic, but you knew he was
human because of the cast he had on. After he took Munzy out - I called it and told
Sheggeby that he was going to win.
It was only a matter of time, actually it did go to 3 matches - but Jaimes eventually
took out Roar and its another one for the history books. Special thanks to everybody
who participated and volunteered to make this a special day for everybody involved,
especially for us here at the 3rd Lair. It feels good to be doing something that you love
to do and its been 8 years and counting. Skatepark years are like dog years, so we
feel like its been about 56+. Speaking for all of our employees and owners - we feel
privileged to be doing what we're doing and we appreciate all of your support these
past 8 years.
Thanks again to everybody who helped out - the DJ's, letter card holders,
BBQers, Benson, Gareri the ref - and all of you for coming and caring!
Hope to see you next year!
