X-Trials Connecticut - Vert Photo Gallery 1
X-Trials Connecticut - Vert Photo Gallery 2

       
DAVE OSATO - Busting out the first ever bunnyhop tailwhip drop in. (click to enlarge)

Vert is something that you simply have to be nuts to do correctly.  This of course applied to over two dozen riders that all were trying for the final two qualifying spots at the X-Games.  Despite this being called 'day 2', the qualifiers for Vert actually went down on Friday afternoon between the flatland qualifiers and the flatland finals.  Qualifiers had a few things going on that made it good - most notably was the absence at the contest of Rick Thorne, Ryan Nyquist, and Dave Mirra.  Probably due to the fact that all three of them are already qualified at the X-Games.  This left a lot of pros competing that had not made the cut yet.  Koji Kraft was one that needed to qualify to get his shot to compete for a qualifying spot - but he simply didn't put together two solid qualifying runs because of injuries and only managed 12th spot.  This means that he won't be at this years X-Games unless he gets a special invite.

For those ten that did qualify for the finals, eight of them were all looking to get one of the two spots to the X-Games.  This meant that a bunch of new faces were going to be going all out to get a spot at the big game.  All bets were off.

Saturday morning rolled around and we made the usual stops at Dunkin Donuts and I finally got some new video tapes at a local K-Mart.  Then we made it to the contest area which was looking like it was going to product another hot, but dry day.  No rain is always a good thing, but 90 plus degrees outside with a full-face helmet was enough to leave some of the pros complaining.  This wasn't really to bad overall though since there weren't any major complaints about the ramp, and the light breeze that came in every now and then wasn't enough to screw up the riders.

Josh Harrington wins the award for most bummed rider...  He was injured during practice after qualifying for the finals and couldn't ride - that left him walking home with tenth place - sad.

There were just a few tricks that really stood out in the event for the day and one of those tricks were owned by the guy who got eighth place, Dave Osato.  He didn't have the height and tricks overall to push his placing any higher, but he did have the steel gonads to throw down the first ever bunnyhop tailwhip drop in on a vert ramp.  He had tried it during qualifiers and nearly died, but put together perfection for the finals to hit something new.

Eduardo Terreros did not really have the huge tricks, but he made up for it by doing the tricks he could do at least five feet higher than any other rider.  We are talking about airs that were pushing close to 15 feet.  It was really easy to tell that he was going much higher than the other guys, but the lack of tricks held him back from placing better than the number four spot.  It was still good enough to land him the last qualifying position to the X-Games.

The second to the last X-Games qualifying position went to the Canadian Beast - Jay Miron.  He had pretty much avoided the ESPN contest circuit for the entire year, and during qualifiers it looked like he had missed a lot of practice time.  Finals were a different story though as he went full tilt and was hitting tricks back to back like it was nothing.  It did show that he was a little rusty, but he did hit an incredible backwards nose-wheelie all the way across the deck and back into the ramp.  He had tried the trick about thirty times in practice and only hit it once, but it only took one try during the finals to nail it perfect.

Second place went to the guy who qualified first, Kevin Robinson.  Kevin is really making this a habit with his trademark corkscrew flairs, which he hit back to back.  He also hit a clean no-handed corkscrew and what looked like a cross-handed to no-handed corkscrew.  Definitely a top placing run, but one spot away from first.

Simon Tabron has tricks that can win contests regardless of what anyone else does.  But he has to pull them all, which is what usually holds him back.  Not today.  Simon was going big and hitting some big tricks back-to-back like it was nothing.  But first place took something extra...  So for his first run he threw down a perfect 900.  That left one run and a need for a trick better than a 900.  Okay, maybe there is no better trick.  So Simon added a little alley-oop action to the 900 and nailed it perfect.  The crowd went nuts, and the contest ended with little guess as to who won.  Simon was stoked.

RESULTS