Missing the Tournament

by Crazy Ivan

Well, I was hoping to post a riveting recap of the action today after the tournament was over.  I probably still will, but it won't be a first hand account.

Unfortunately I'll have to miss the tournament.  I was there for the beginning, before the games began, but once Monk, Mav, Kid, Myachi Man and Animal showed up we realized that we'd have to send somebody back to HQ.  A lot of the players were saying that they were planning on heading to HQ later on and many of them won't be able to wait until the tournament is over.  Also, Kid was saying that a few kids had showed up earlier in the morning thinking that the contest was being held there.

So I drew the short straw and had to head back to the office.  I'm chilling there now, wishing that I could be up there watching the action unfold.  There were already a bunch of contestants there when I left.  Gearz was the first one I saw, but the Kidz Crew was already inside jamming out (and spreading the word to all the other customers at Funky Monkey).  Before long Knock Out and Smaster showed up.  Gold came a bit later.  A couple of the local maniacs trickled in and a few showed up from Jersey.

There were at least 20 participants there when I left and there may have been a few more coming.  I left right before noon (the scheduled start time) so there was plenty of time for a few late arrivals.

The prize wheel was a big hit as soon as Kid Myach busted it out, as was the new Golf hole.  Turns out that it makes sacks like the General, the Push Pop and the Boneyards all that much more valuable because they slide really well on the surface of it and make it much easier to sink a shot.  Luckily we had a lot of people come in with their whole collection so plenty of them had good slide sacks.

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all winds up and I don't want to make any predictions now, but I saw some incredible freestyle skills this morning (Gearz has gotten way better since the last time I saw him, by the way).  I also saw some pretty sick Golf skills out of many of our Long Island maniacs and with the paddles there everyone was rocking out some big air catches.  Should be a spectacular tournament.

We're also providing a little free entertainment for the waiters at the restaurant next to the Funky Monkey.  They saw Gearz throwing down an Instep>Duck>Instep and went crazy.  So, of course, when Maverick got there I asked him to throw down a quick shred for them.  He proceeds to hit the most incredible foot jam I've ever seen him pull off and the crowd erupted.

The first half hour was a lot of fun so I can only imagine how much fun it'll be once the games begin.  I'll get a debriefing from all the guys this afternoon and I'll fill everyone in on the details.  I'm sure you're just as curious as I am about who's going to win that Clear so I'll alleviate the suspense as quickly as possible.