All for one and one for all at the Women's Vert Finals

Aug 04 2006 / Los Angeles, CA

In a closed meeting with Cara-Beth Burnside yesterday, ESPN President John Skipper agreed to some critical changes for Women's Skateboarding at the X Games, doubling the total purse for this year's Vert and Street contests and agreeing to televise highlights from the jam format contests. Burnside is President of the Action Sport Alliance, and has worked tirelessly to promote the sport.

PHOTO GALLERY  Check out the X Games Women's Vert finals. VIEW GALLERY>

"We finally got to the top person, and he listened," says Burnside.  "He gave us his full attention, and then he agreed to make some changes." Those changes boosted the first place prizes for each of the women's events to $10,000, and also mean there will be at least some televised highlights from the final.

Burnside went on to win today's event, followed by Mimi Knoop and Karen Jones, but all of the competitors celebrated the victory. After skating in matching Alliance t-shirts for the contest with the word "UNITY" stamped on the back, the competitors celebrated their solidarity and thanked Burnside, O'Brien, and Mimi Knoop for helping to get them organized.

Burnside was the most consistent rider in the field and also launched many of the highest airs. Knoop's runs were highlighted with handplants and a big stalefish launch from the loveseat. Brazillian skater Karen Jones made her mark with big, smooth airs, and for carving huge swaths of the ramp in each of her runs.

The 30 minute jam format meant each of the competitors were able to take many runs, allowing the women to use all areas of the ramp and to make multiple attempts at landing difficult tricks: on her fourth attempt rolling in from the channel and launching off the quarter-pipe loveseat, O'Brien landed a smooth grind on the recessed curved wall. Afterwards, she proceeded to blast all over the ramp, taking the longest and smoothest run of the entire 30 minutes.

2005 Silver medalist Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins was out with an injury this year, but provided commentary for the event. Bob Burnquist, watching on as his partner Jen O'Brien broke out tricks honed on their backyard ramp, also provided commentary.

"It's a big family event for us," said Burnquist, clearly beaming and psyched to be able to bring his daughter Lotus out to see her mother compete.

In a press conference after the event, the three winners answered questions about the recent developments with ESPN but said they prefer to emphasize the simple fact that women's skateboarding has officially arrived.

"When you're focused on competing, it's like being in a different world," said Jones. "I can't even hear the music or the crowd, and just being on the ramp with so many great skaters makes me skate so much better. Imagine what will happen to women's skateboarding as the incentives for girls all over the world to be at events like this increases: When a lot of us start to have the time, money, and resources to really focus on skateboarding, there's no telling what you'll see. By next year, it could be a whole different world."

– Colin Bane