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The 5th Annual Pat Wachter Bowl Contest |
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Women's Division |
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There was some worry that the women’s division might not happen at all due to the lack of skaters. Many female skaters could not make the trip this year. Luckily enough, they had just enough. That meant all the women would be taking home some money! Everyone wins! Shayna-Raye Funderburk had been there since the park opened working on her runs and getting more use to the bowl. She had some nice lip tricks down. Brooke Crawford made it over once again from Atlanta. She is always so fun to watch skate, so I was happy to see her there (and her dad is great to hang out and skate with too! haha). No stranger to contest and often competing against Brooke, Hanna Chumley made the trip over from Georgia as well. Brooke was throwing in her frontside grinds and airs but had some trouble staying on today. This seemed like Hanna’s turn to shine as she put together consistent runs. These girls skated hard, so it would be up to the judges. | ||||||
Veterans' Division |
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Next up was what this year they were calling the "Veteran's Divison". Call it the "Masters". Call it the "Legends".
Call it the "Old Guys" or "Old Timers". Whatever you call it, this was the home of the 35 year old and up crowd. This is the group who cared
more about skating together in a fun session and stoking each other than anything about a contest or doing tricks to win money. Everyone in the group stepped up and skated well, but one stood out early from the crowd. Long time pro skater, Syndicate skateboards owner, incredible artist, and Georgia skate legend, Don Hillsman II made his appearance. During practice runs, Don seemed off and had some trouble finding his lines and tricks in the bowl. Maybe it was all part of his hustle (haha) because when contest time came, Don seemed like a man possessed. It was like something had lit fire to him, and he was an anti-bail machine. He was doing and landing things most folks would bail in a heartbeat. He did a backside ollie with half of his back foot off the deck. He did a big backside airwalk with his feet back on the board about 6 inches apart in the middle of the deck! He did one of the saddest, tweaked out Sad Plants stalled for so long you thought time stopped that would make all the invert-heads proud. Let’s just cut it short and say…Don put on a show! |
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