Today (Sunday, May 9th, 2010), Enemiez held their "Best Foot Forward" contest at Major Taylor in Indianapolis, Indiana. Sorta...
I arrived at around 11:30 or so... which was supposed to be "late", given that the promo for this event clearly stated that it would be starting promptly at 11:00. Well, when I arrived, there was no "event" happening yet. Just, a bunch of skaters skating. Which was just fine by me, because it gave me a few hours before "the event" actually got started (at almost four in the afternoon) to shoot some photos. Apparently, Enemiez isn't as "organized" as they'd like to think they are, but whatever. Their loss was my gain, nevertheless.
With the almost five hours of "practice" time available, I got a rare opportunity to shoot some of Indianapolis' heaviest and burliest, doing what they do best. Here's some of the better pics from the day:
Jesse Kirby, backside 5-0 on The Widowmaker (the centerpiece quarterpipe at Major Taylor, where most of these pics were shot). Jesse arrived just as the camera was running out of battery juice... so, this is the only shot of Jesse that I got. Sorry, man.
Jeff Holcomb with a stand-up frontside 5-0 (top), and a classic smith (bottom). Jeff was kind of hard to nail down, because he was all over the place with highly unpredictable runs... very, very spontaneous. He did those stand-ups all day long. I only shot about 50 of 'em... yet, I managed to miss the few backside tailslides that he managed to pull off, right in front of me (because, he pulled 'em out of his bag right when I least expected them). Jeff's easygoing, confident, and relaxed style is a real treat to shoot. I'm a lucky man.
Charles Six got a lot of tricks nailed down during the "practice" sesh... including (top to bottom) an ollie indy to fakie, a blunt to fakie, and a kickflip to fakie. The kickflip took a few tries, and Charles was starting to get a little pissy... but, I don't think he realized how good they looked, from my vantage point. Charles looks clean as hell, even when he's bailing... our boy's got impeccable style, which is emphasized by the fully tucked, noseboned ollie-to-indy over the island in the last photo.
Just as I was arriving at Major, Eric Bose sauntered up to me (like he usually does whenever we're at Major at the same time), and pointed Chris Pannel out to me right off the bat. He said something like, "That dude almost never skates here, unless there's a contest or something. But, on those few days that he actually skates the place...? He skates it like he owns it." I'm paraphrasing... but, it's not that far off from verbatim, either. Eric doesn't fuck around with this sort of stuff, so I made a careful note to keep my eye on this dudeman. And, he truly ripped. It was quite a sight to behold. He doesn't just "skate" the place... he fuckin' manhandles it. Check it out: The top photo looks like a straight-up tailslide, but it's actually a 5-o to tailslide, which he did about a dozen times, back to back. The ollie blunt popout's the same sort of gig; that kind of popout requires some brute force, coupled with a whole lotta finesse. The back lip... I mean, look at how far he extends that shit! After all that, the frontside air and the melon over the bump were just bonuses. If you think these look good, man... I have another 20 or so, just like 'em. Chris is a destruction machine, no doubt about it...
... and then, this dude shows up, straight outta nowhere, and puts another whole slant on the entire session. This is Scott Anderson. His look, his skating, his style... all, completely unmistakable. There's just nothing else like it. The guy shows up, and just starts blasting. Fuckin' full-on. He never said a word... the true definition of "Letting the skating do the talking". And, his skating just never shuts up. That lien to tail up there? He pulled those virtually every single time... that's another trick that I probably shot 20 of. And, reviewing the photos... it was really hard to pick "the best one", because they were all so consistently good. The frontside air is one of the best I've seen in a while, with that fully-folded, tuck-knee stance. The third pic is a fingerflip lien to tail... but, it much more closely resembled a fingerflipped Madonna, with the ridiculous front-leg-extension going on. The handplant isn't the best of photos... I should have shot that one from the other side of the quarterpipe... but, I hadta toss it in there, anyway. You just don't see those at MT that often, so it's kind of a treat. And, lastly: That blasted method over the bump... completely out of hand...
All in all, it was a pretty grand day to be a skateboarder. Thanks to Enemiez for showing up five hours late, and then barging in on a raging photo session to sticker the park with their politiganda. One of the Enemiez dudes actually got pissed at me, for stealing a waiver to use as a scratch-pad to get everyone's names. Really, douchebag? We're gonna get on someone's shit over a piece of fuckin' paper?! Okay, all goofballs, make a note of this: Never, ever piss off a reporter for a skateboard magazine. That just results in bad, bad press. Which Enemiez probably has enough of already, I'm sure...
But, the skateboarding kicked ass. As it always does. See ya next year! And, I promise: I'll even bring my own piece of paper next time...
