The Legend of "The Slide" Run
“Coming up next for his 3rd and final run in the Canterlot High Gravity Games vert competition is Bert ‘The Slide’ Boneless. Once again he hails from…..”
That announcer’s talk became a blur to me. Here I am in my final run of the Canterlot Gravity Games competition in front of a couple hundred people. My last two runs were solid, the most solid runs I had done up to that point. Nothing too crazy was done. A few 360 frontside indys and a few frontside feebles to keep the judges entertained. I did manage to pull off a McTwist, but the landing was a bit sketchy landing halfway down the ramp.
It was neck and neck between me and my rival, Griff “The Cab” Aerial. Griff and I would always have these clashes in competition to see who can outscore the other. While it was never a personal rivalry, it was definitely a notorious one. It started two years ago when I came into the vert skating scene, winning my first ever competition by beating him by 3 points. It was all friendly banter between us both after the competition, but in the next competition it got intense. It seemed that Griff had pushed harder than ever with that competition, as he pulled off the highest air and pulled off the cleanest 720 in that run. Griff had one 1st place by a landslide, leaving me in 2nd. And it would switch around from week to week with every new competition as we continued to push ourselves to our very best.
In his run today, Griff pulled off his signature trick : the Half Cab Impossible Vert. A full 180 degree spin in the air without grabbing the board while at the same time wrapping the board around his back foot once before catching it with his front foot before landing. Much like the name implied, it was impossible for other skaters to replicate. Skaters who would often try to pull off an Impossible Half Cab on vert would either lose the board halfway through the spin or hit the coping and completely wipe out.
While Griff may have had his signature trick down for all to see, I had been working on a trick of my own; the 900. Two and a half spins frontside. While the trick was nothing new for people who did mega ramp competitions, vert was unclaimed territory for the 900. Many skaters wouldn’t dare to attempt it due to how blind you are in the spins. I, on the other hand, was not afraid to attempt it.
The first attempt I did resulted in me hitting my ankle on the coping and getting it sprained. But that still didn’t stop me from trying over and over again till it hurt. I had come close a couple times, but would always get caught on the last half spin and bail. It was always that trick that haunted me in the back of my mind. I always told myself that one day it will happen when I least expect it. It was feeling like one of those days today.
“And now, for his final run: Bert Boneless! Let me hear you make some noise for him!”
The crowd’s cheer brought me back to the reality of the situation I was in. The final run of my day. Griff was up 26 points from the three judges. This could be my chance to pass up Griff once again and draw out this rivalry. Or, I could try my luck at making Canterlot history.
“Remember to pump and tuck. Remember to pump and tuck.”
That’s the advice I kept repeating over and over again in my head as I made it to the top of the deck. To try and get rid of all of the distractions, I pulled off the gloves I had been wearing for gripping the board in Varial spins. It probably wouldn’t make a difference whether I took them off or not, but I just needed to give myself the mentality that it could make a difference.
I placed the tail of my board between the coping and my back foot to get ready to start my run. Possibly the greatest run of my life if I don’t screw it up on the spin. I just kept repeating the same advice over and over again until I was ready.
“Here goes nothing.”
Placing my front foot on the front of my board, I began leaning in to drop in on the half pipe. I began pumping as soon as me and the board were vertical along the wall of the ramp to gain some speed. I managed to make it down and move up the ramp wall. As soon as I came near the top, I ollied and frontside grabbed and aired out before landing back in the pipe. Nothing too out of the ordinary for a vert competition. A lot of guys do it to gain some speed for some tricky maneuvers.
The crowd slowly began to get more and more anxious the more I aired out and pumped some more for speed. I was probably throwing away my chance at winning the competition by doing this, but that hopefully wou;dn’t have mattered with what I was planning on doing next.
After my last pump to air, I decided it was time to go. As soon as I landed back in the pipe, I pumped as hard as I could to get the right amount of speed for the launch. If all went to plan, I would have enough airtime to pull off the two and a half spins. All I needed to do was make sure to tuck and whip my left shoulder as hard as I could to get the speed in the spin. Sounds easy enough, right?
Suddenly, the wall of the ramp was there. I felt my whole world slowed down as I focused on the ramp wall. As I approached the coping, I lifted the nose of my board to get the launch right. The board began lifting off the ramp as I reached down to grab it frontside. Tucking down, I began by whipping my left shoulder frontside as hard as I could.
Immediately, I felt my body whip around into a frontside spin. I remembered how difficult the trick was when I was in the spin and couldn’t see the ramp. The crowd went anticipatingly quiet as I was spinning. Right as I reached the peak airtime from the ramp, I was already in one and a half spins. More than halfway there.
Only thing was, now gravity was ready to pull me back down. I kept myself tucked in as I kept the rotations going for the spin. I had lost track of where I was for a second before focusing in on the beginning of the second spin. All I could hear now was my beating heart as I was hoping to land the 900.
As I cleared the second spin, I was finally able to see my landing zone as I was finishing my half spin. There was not a lot of time to react. All I could do now was hope that I landed stable enough for a clean roll away. The world went numb as I braced for the landing.
Suddenly, the sound came back as I planted the landing perfectly and rolled away to the other side of the ramp. The audience had erupted into cheers from the stunt that they had just witnessed; The first ever 900 performed on a halfpipe. The other skaters watching from the deck of the ramp couldn’t believe what they had seen when I had landed it. Griff was left with his jaw wide open as I came back down from the other ramp.
I slowed down as I came from off the second ramp and stood on the ramp to celebrate landing the trick for the first time. A bunch of fellow skaters slid down the ramp and crowded around me to celebrate with me.They lifted me up to show their appreciation of the impressive feat I had pulled off. Griff had even come down to congratulate me on pulling off the 900.
I don’t remember if I won the competition that day, but it didn’t matter to me if I had won or lost that event. I had pulled off one of the most legendary tricks that Canterlot had ever seen. And there was no one who could take that away from me.