Saturday, February 21, 2009

Here we are in snow covered Golden Valley, MN. Its hard to believe that this is Micah's 50th competition! After an 8 hour trek from KY to WI, Orlando drove us in with fellow rider Zach Kral (World record holder for most consecutive kickflips--1546!). We arrived around 11:30am and checked into the Super 8. Right when we walked in we ran into two of Micah's GA ripper friends Hayden Victor and Austin Gordon. We had met them at Camp Woodward last year. After getting settled we spent the day at the park. It was busy as usual. Zach worked the street a lot. I video'd him doing a kickflip front boardslide. Micah had to wait until evening to compete. By afternoon we met up with William Penniman and his family. After the 5:30pm riders meeting, the mini semi-final runs were on. You only got one run, with a first wall rebate (if you fell on the first pass you got to start over). William, who had not even ridden the mini because it was so busy (like 5-8 people in at once!) qualified 7th to make the finals Sunday. Micah skated against 26 of the best experts from the CA, GA and MN qualifiers and placed first in the semifinal round. He said, "I was relaxed because I told myself that I wanted to skate well and have fun, but if I did not make the finals I wasn't going to worry about it." Well, we'll see what happens in the finals. Jamie Foy (who dominated Micah in fingerboard skate at lunch -- a real nice and talented kid) placed 2nd in the semis. At Progresssive in GA, Micah got 2nd in the semis, and Jamie 1st. Click here for competition updates, pics and video. Click here for a video of the mini semifinals.