How many vert contests do we have in Europe? Not all that many. It was good to see some of the vert elite show up in Berlin but the airlines had screwed up a lot of bags so not everyone had their own bike, clothes or equipment to ride to their full potential. Austin Coleman's clothing bag didn't show up so he had to borrow shoes and clothes from fellow riders and sponsors. Steve McCann did not get ANYTHING from the airlines when he arrived and borrowed a bike (Cueson's), pads and helmet so he could even roll in. It's hard coming over just for a weekend because of the time change, different food and all that but not having your bags arrive really sucks. But anyway, the riders that flew in the furthest (
Steve McCann, Vince Byron, Austin Coleman and
Coco) all transfered to the finals by beating the Europeans (
Zach Shaw, Benny Kopp, Jann Valenta). Only exception here is
Zack Warden (USA) who did a $ 100,= USD canonball on vert and a barspin to tailwhip, but still got beat by
Francesco Zurita in the first elimination round. But seeing vert on the program was rad, and they'd built a whole new vert ramp too.