GvR
Girls Street 2005
Article by Lena N.
Photos
by Brian Nguyen
Oct.
22, 2005: The girls came out to a rare gloomy Southern California day for the last girls skate competition of the year, Etnie’s
Goofy versus Regular. Not only would it be the first time girls would compete
at EvG, but also the first place prize money of $3000 would be the largest given in the history of girls skateboarding! So the competitiveness was intense from the beginning with the girls pulling everything
they had on the 40,000 square feet of rideable terrain.
In
Heat #1, Vanessa Torres, Amy Caron, Evelien Bouilliart, and Alex White battled it out in an 8-minute skate jam. I’ve never seen the girls skate better and with such smooth as icing style as well. Vanessa Torres was pulling a bag full of tricks everywhere: fs tailslide off the ledge, crooked grind on
the flat bar, fs 50-50 to 180 out, fs bluntside on the flat bar, ollie over the barricade, and fs smith grind off the 11-stair
handrail! I mean holy shit there’s a lot of stuff you can do in 8 minutes, but I was getting dizzy from the excitement. Amy Caron was the same with everything from ollie to manual on the >20 ft manual
pad to feeble grinds on the flat bar to nollie heelflips off the bank. I was
also excited to see Ms. Evelien Bouilliart from Belgium skate ever since I heard her win second at the X-Games last August. She didn’t disappoint me. With
50-50s and feeble grinds off the 11-stair handrail, feeble grinds off the flat bar, and fs lipslides, she represented a small
part of Europe very well.
In
Heat #2, Lauren Perkins, Jessie Van Roechoudt, Elissa Steamer, Lacey Baker, Kenna Gallagher, Ariel Lockshaw, and Stefanie
Thomas battling it out for 10 minutes. Lauren Perkins really got her feeble grinds
down because she pulled three of them on the flat bar! Jessie Van had a lot going
for her with a nollie fs tailslide off the ledge, hardflips, fs nosegrinds, and half cab boardslides. Elissa Steamer, the obvious favorite in the crowd, started with a 20-foot 50-50 grind on the ledge, bs
nosegrind, ollie off the double set stairs, ollie over the 11-foot handrail and showed the other girls who’s the wisest
of them all. But 13-year-old Lacey Baker showed the crowd what the future of
girls skateboarding was headed with kickflip onto the manual pad, fs 5-0 off the ledge, ollie to a 30 ft manual, and fs tailslide. It was my first time seeing Ms. Kenna Gallagher skate and she was pulling a load of
variation all over the terrain, with bs 50-50s, trey flip on the flat, smooth ollie to manual over the center piece, and a
fs power grind on the quarter pipe.
The six
girls who made it to the finals were Vanessa Torres, Amy Caron, Elissa Steamer, Lauren Perkins, Lacey Baker, and Evelien Bouilliart
and they battled it out again in 10 minutes. The best part? Vanessa Torres’
fs smith grind off the 11-stair handrail! Yeh shit went down today and $3000 went into VT’s pocket for her great skating.
Final Standing:
1. Vanessa Torres ($3000)
2. Amy Caron ($2000)
3. Elissa Steamer ($1500)
4. Evelien Bouilliart ($1000)
5. Lauren Perkins ($600)
6. Lacey Baker ($400)
7. Jessie Van Roechoudt
8. Kenna Gallagher
