Cam's skate contest ... it was his first "real" skate competition. And he did AWESOME. Have to give some details to lead into the contest a bit ... The competition on was open to all groups - including non-members of the skateboard school. All participants in the Intermediate and under all received a prize for competing. The Advanced and Expert competitions were actually judged and placed accordingly. Cameron decided that even though he was not in the Advanced group for his lessons each week, that he wanted to compete in the bowl competition. He wanted to see where he stood with everyone else. So the week before the contest - yes, in one week - he learned 4 or so new tricks to use in the contest. Friday night at his lesson and again for about 20 minutes or so on Saturday before the contest, he worked on his routine (run). So the tricks that he used in this contest, he essentially learned in one week. The other competitors have been in the Advanced group all year. Saturday morning we talk to the Skate manager and let him know that Cameron wanted to compete in the Advanced competition. Jeff was wary, and thought that it might be too much for him, that these guys knew a few more tricks than him. It had been quite a while since he had seen Cameron skate, so Bryan filled him in on what he had accomplished this week, and the tricks that he was pulling off. Jeff was surprised/impressed/etc., and absolutely agreed that Cameron should compete. So, he and his friend that is in the Advanced group were the youngest by far - the other kids he was competing against had at least 4 years on them. He was nervous up until Saturday, and in fact, did not want anyone coming and watching him. It was his first contest and he wasn't sure how it would go. So for those of you who wanted to attend, I apologize for that! However, he did later say that he really enjoyed the crowd cheering him on, and welcomes anyone to his next contest!
This particular area of the contest that he was competing in was the bowl. It was a half hour total, each skater took turns. When they fell, they got back in line and the next kid would go. Cameron had about 3 or 4 runs and did great. He had a great attitude (an area we have been working on a lot lately!) and was really focused on what he was doing. Without elaborating on all the tricks he pulled, (mostly because I'm not sure what they're all called ...) I will tell you that he placed 5th! He did so great and Bryan and I could not have been more proud. There were 9 total competing, and when they called out 9th place, and then 8th, up to 5th, he just had this huge grin on his face knowing he beat out these other kids - kids that had much more time and experience on him. He was a tad disappointed, thought for sure he would have placed fourth based on the competition, as did we, but still excited for him. The skate manager, the other coaches, and even the facility owner's wife came up to us and said they could not believe how well he did, and they had no idea he had worked so hard to land those tricks. :) At his first practice after the competition, the skate manager came up to Cameron, congratulated him on Saturday's run and said he was so impressed. He also told Cam that if he would have landed the 360 (the final fall in each of the video clips below) and handplant that he had tried (I didn't get this one on tape) in the competition, he would have definitely placed first! Like I said, we were incredibly proud! Hopefully you can see the video clips below ... it was tough to get a good spot to be able to tape the entire routine, mostly because of the logistics of the skatepark.
Okay - you might want to turn your volume down just a tad, the sound is HORRIBLE! (Although you can hear a little bit of the announcer and how excited he was when Cameron landed some of his tricks.) I was standing next to the loudspeaker for the music, and combined with the people and the announcer, well it didn't turn out pretty. :(
1 comments:
Congratulations Cam! I am so proud of you! Wahooooo!
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