For two men the trip has begun; Pierre Luc Gagnon (Montreal, Canada) and Ryan Guettler (Queensland, Australia) captured first place titles in Skateboard Vert and Big Air BMX Triples, respectively, and amazed the audience with the skill and big tricks they had come to see. In Big Air BMX Triples the competition was intense right from the start. The degree of difficulty displayed in the early rounds of the head to head format challenged the men to push themselves harder than expected, resulting in more risk and yet, also more rewards. The contest began minus one competitor, hometown rider Tom Haugen, who took a nasty spill during the warm-up practice session, resulting in his opponent’s, Daniel Dhers’ (Caracas, Brazil), automatic advancement to the semi-finals.
Dhers was seeded second and expected to be a finalist, but in the semi-finals Dhers’ too suffered a contest-ending mishap, allowing his match-up, Guettler, to advance. In the finals, T.J. Ellis (Moreno Valley, Calif.), Ryan Guettler and Rob Darden (Greenville, NC) had two runs each to prove their worthiness. 
Ellis captured the crowd’s vote with the double back flip, triple tailwhip combination he executed in his first run, but Guettler’s 1080 to double tailwhip received the judge’s nod and the gold medal. Guettler had recently lost to Ellis when each had previously performed the same run of tricks, but tonight Guettler’s execution prevailed. “I thought I had lost,” said Guettler in shock after his win. “I thought he had beaten me again after hearing the crowd’s reaction. I knew I was going to have to step it up in my last run. But, I choked and had to rely on my first run, and tonight it was enough. “
Ellis finished in second and Darden landed in third.
Two athletes made the Minneapolis ASA ASWT stop
their debut in pro competition. Zach Miller (Del Mar, Calif.) faced the Skateboard Vert ramp and Colton Satterfield (Salt Lake City, Utah) took on the Big Air BMX Triples course for the first time. The ASA Action Sports World Tour enjoys programming on a variety of domestic networks including, CBS Sports, VERSUS, FUEL TV, and Fox Sports Net, as well as distribution internationally via 32 network partners. Stay tuned to ActionSportsTour.com for the TV schedule for the 2009 season. Next week the ASA Action Sports World Tour visits Chicago, Illinois’ Sears Centre Arena for the third stop of the season on Friday, May 1st. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.com.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.