I was recently fortunate enough to enjoy a weekend at California’s Woodward West for the Amateur Inline League 2011 World Championships. Friday night brought a mellow evening session with the likes of Brian Aragon, Dave Lang, Chris Haffey, and Matt Farnsworth and the We Are ONE Skate park crew from Utah. We had a great session on the launch box, shot some photos, and then headed up to the lodge to celebrate in the name of another gathering of rollerbladers for the Amateur Inline League.
Saturday morning was filled with energized skating and positive encouragement all around as everyone warmed up for their divisions. Rollerblading icons Arlo Eisenberg and Matt Mickey were in attendance to keep things real in the name of rolling; Matt was also keeping things hyped on the mic and distributing the world famous homemade Intuition Cookies. Mad support for the up and coming rollers was shown during the beginner session, during which everyone stopped skating to watch the likes of Danielle Montgomery and the Velasquez twins, among others, throw down.
Beginner:
1st – Danielle MontgomerY
2nd – James Whelan
3rd – Mason Sieber
10-15 Intermediate:
1st – Julian Budge
2nd – Ethan Quinn
3rd – Austin Montgomery
10-15 Advanced:
1st – Johanny Velasquez
2nd – Parker Richardson
3rd – Troy Porretta
16 & Up Intermediate:
1st – Nathan Genda
2nd – Robert Rohlf
3rd – Phil England
The Vert contest was short but sweet, with contestants from as far as Japan. 1st, 2nd and 3rd place went to Hiroshi Minami, David Jones and Brandon Davis. The Woman’s Division was full of sick skating from the likes of Becci Walace, Coco Sanchez, Rosie O’Donaghue, Fallon and Aarin Gates; with 1st, 2nd and 3rd going to Aarin Gates, Fallon Heffernan and Rosie O’Donaghue of Ireland. I missed a good portion of this skating so no pictures, sorry girls.
Once the Advanced division began, the level of skating on the Hanger’s street course went through the roof. More than forty rollers skated two 45-second runs each to place in the Top Ten and advance to the Elite Division heats to battle it out for $1,200 in prize money. The top 10 advancing skaters became AIL Elite.
16 & Up Advanced (Turn AIL Elite) :
1st – Brett Urbas – Detroit, Michigan
2nd – Kazuho Kumazawa – Japan
3rd – Daniel Gorman – Dublin, Ireland
4th – Rick Rodriguez – Northridge, California
5th – Tony Rivituso – Las Vegas, Nevada
6th – Damon Franklin – Tehachapi, California
7th – Chris Calkins – Venice Beach, California
8th – Carson Starnes – Atlanta, Georgia
9th – Chad Tannehill – Taft, California
10th – Chris Napoleon – Las Vegas, Nevada
All of which skated hard against the AIL Elite such as Haffey, Shima, Richard Johnson, Dave Lang, Brian Aragon, John Vossughi, Julian Bah and Jeremy Townsend. Top riders of the Elite division were: 1st Chris Haffey, 2nd Dave Lang and 3rd John Vossughi.
Arlo announced the 2011 AIL Industry Awards, awarding the 2011 AIL Industry Recognition Award to Kato Mateu for his work with the WRS. For his positive contributions to rollerblading in addition to his talent on blades, Brian Aragon received the AIL Skater Recognition Award and Brian Shima was entered into the AIL Hall of Fame, along with the likes of prior recipients Randy Spizer, Chris Edwards, Arlo Eisenberg, Jon Julio, and Dustin Latimer. But the unsung heroes of the AIL are Pam and Richie Velasquez, whose passion for rollerblading and motivation to spread the love of rolling has brought numerous years of epic skate park series contests to the amateur level of the inline community. — Scott Moffat
All photos by Scott Moffat
