Blind wins the Vans Downtown Showdown! Is it their year or what? After taking 1st place honors in Thrashers king of the road, they now take the 1st place team trophy at the Downtown Showdown. Their team really must mesh well together. And I’m super stoked to hear that Jani was voted the contest MVP because the dude deserves it and it’s awesome to hear someone out of the usual taking honors in something. Many people don’t even know he’s pro. He is a pretty low key dude who rips harder than anyone else out there.

What about the obstacles? They were outright legit this year. As simple as the “3 pump dump” obstacle was you can tell it must have been the most fun to skate. Just trick after trick on those triple pyramids is tempting. “The Dive Bar” setup was sort of sketchy. It looked rad but notice all the near death experiences everyone had on it. Jake Duncombe pulled out a gnarly lipslide down the other end of the ramp which was crazy. Plus he pulled off the win in the “five points of pure evil” obstacle” with that massive transfer of his. And as difficult as it looks to skate for me, the “Lunar Eclipsy Hubba” seemed to have had more tricks pulled off on it than all the other obstacles. That one must have been the hardest to judge because dudes were pulling some proper tricks on the ledge and stairs simultaniously. I liked Billy Marks kickflip fastplant on the star in the middle of the stair set. That and Brian Anderson’s massive 360 flip.

Overall too many people were ripping during the contest. I would have hated to have been the judge for this competition. But Blind had the overall points by the end and won the whole enchilada! Good show!

Tags: vans

Posted by Ruben 'Studdard' Najera on Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 in Skateboarding.

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