What a year for rollerblading! 2004 will forever be remembered as the year of the Yasutokos. Not a single vert comp slipped past the Japanese brothers from Takeshi’s gold medal at the X Games in LA to Eito’s win at the Bath Festival in England. Meanwhile on street, the battle raged between Stephane Alfano who took 1st at the Cincinnati MSS, Brian Aragon who won the NY IMYTA and Chris Haffey who dominated the LA IMYTA.

The vert field took everything up a notch with Takeshi finally nailing the double flat spin at Asian X and then unveiling a surprise double Viking Flip at X Games. After a disappointing crash on the park course at Latin X, a fall which forced him to pull from the vert comp, Marco de Santi recovered and spent a lot of time at Woodward regaining his double flat spin and double back flip. And Eito has figured out a line which includes his California Roll 1080, double back flip, double back flip 180 and double flat spin, making his the most lethal arsenal of all.
Proving that he is not just a one trick pony, Marc Englehart really stepped up his skills this year with a flawless double flat spin. This trick as well as his patented “Snakebite” and a spanking new level of confidence helped him nail down two 2nd place finishes, in Bath and Niagara Falls. And who could forget his epic slam at X Games, the 1440 in an attempt to win gold for his father’s birthday, which made ESPN’s crash reel a little more exciting.

Brazilian vert rookie, Vinicius Rosa, was an unknown when he showed up at the X Games, but after throwing a California Roll 1080 and some very technical lip tricks, the other competitors unanimously voted to accept him into the pro ranks.

Carl Hills stepped out of the vert mold to take 1st place at the Niagara MSS park competition. “Spanky” was excited by his first park victory and planned to take the momentum into his park run in Sacramento, but crashed in warm-up and suffered a broken pelvis and arm.

The park field had some surprises as well. Randy Marino showed up in Cincinnati after a season on the snow and showed everybody a whole new style of rollerblading, snowboard style. 2003 X Games gold medalist, Bruno Lowe, spent the summer touring Europe for his new video and has enough new tricks under his belt to take home any medal he wants. After a few lackluster IMYTA showings, JC Rowe pulled through at the Niagara Falls MSS to take 3rd place. And Jeff Stockwell, who somehow managed to miss medaling at any events this year still pulled some of the most memorable runs at IMYTA and MSS.
But it was Richie Veleasquez who really shone in the park course with some of the most exciting runs in the field. In Sacramento, he pulled a 360 over the box to disaster topside soul, which would have broken many of the younger competitors. He walked away from his victory at Sacramento and into the arms of his wife, who is just months away from giving birth to twins.

In the women’s comp, Fabiola continued to kick ass in vert, finishing in the top ten of every competition she entered, including a silver medal at the X Air in New Zealand. She posed for FHM magazine, due on the stands any minute now and is currently in negotiation with a Hollywood producer who wants to make the movie version of her life.