Vans Combi
Nora popping the hip into the round. Photo by mrz.
November 2011 was the last one and Brent, Mike, Kevin and myself happened to be down in Los Angeles for it, the last Girls Combi Pool Classic that is. Last Saturday the 2013 edition of the classic went down. I was bummed that I didn’t get to skate with all the ladies this year. In 2011 is was so fun to hang with all of them and more importantly, to skate with them. Over the year and two months I had kept in touch with a couple of friends I’d made at the 2011 edition and had noticed that the ladies had improved so much.
For me Saturday had started with some shovelling of snow and then a fun session at the Pear Camp with some friends. The session ended early which ended up being perfect for me. I would now get the chance to watch the 2013 Girls Combi Pool Classic off Ustream. One of my friends, Nicole, was streaming video from her phone and allowed her friends to view it through Ustream. The quality wasn’t even close to the quality of the live stream of the Protec Pool Party but I was happy to be able to watch the ladies kill the Combi.
All the girls in the 14 and under division finals ripped up the Combi better then 99% of Quebec skaters. In Quebec we just don’t get to skate anything as big and fast as the Combi. These girls had no fear and seemed to enjoy the contest motivation to skate at their best. There might have been a lot of pink being worn but, this was no beauty pageant. The sound of grinding trucks filled the Combi, not some weak talent show. I didn’t get to see the Master’s division but I did get to see the complete finals for the 15 – 27 pro division. My friend Nora Vasconcellos, who I’ve post about before, came out of the blocks with tons of speed and power. She’s come a long way since the last event; she now lives in Socal which has vastly improved her skating. She skated the Combi like Chris Miller. Her airs off the hip into the round stoked me so much. Lizzie Armanto had more of a Tony Hawk approach to the contest linking many technical tricks in a rows. July Lynn is a local Combi skater that skated with tons of speed and she has got a great bag of tricks. In the end Nora took first in front of Lizzie and Julie in that order. I was so happy for Nora. She’s worked so hard over the last year to get this first place. Enjoy your time at to top Nora. I can’t wait to see all her new tricks in person next month.
Here is a link to the different podium placings of the Vans site. Here is another blog posting that my friend Ozzie (Blue Tile Obsession) made about the contest.
way to go Nora , i knew it was only time untill she clibed to the top