Ozzie Ausband

Converse CC Ben Raybourn Triumphs

Ben Raybourn - cradle crail enroute to Chuck Taylor 20K

The throwdown at CCC yesterday was pretty unique. Brian Schaefer and the SPOT guys pulled off one hell of an event. The top twelve riders were all heavy threats and with very few exceptions, the final contest order was anyones guess. Ben Raybourn is a really inventive, smooth and stylish ripper. He utilized the bowl like very few others. With the exception of Kevin Kowalski, Ben was the only rider who really dissected the shallow end, its hips and transfer lines from  shallow to shark to cradle. These two riders actually developed lines unseen before this years finals. The sun was crushing everyone all weekend. The stands were packed. There wasn’t enough water in the world it seemed.

The masses baking under a brutal summer sun

Ben Raemers takes a break during finals practice

In the end, it came down to some ungodly skateboarding. Ben Raybourn must have decided to take the whole cake because he lit the place up with some of the most amazing skating that I saw all weekend. Other standouts were: Kowalski, Raemers, Fletcher and Barros. Lance Mountain rolled hard with the young guns and proved to be a crowd favorite as well.

Lance Mountain- stands one up under scrutiny

Curren Caples flew in the finals with smooth style and perfect FS flips

Greyson Fletcher- backtail

Ben Raybourn. A well deserved CCC Cup and some Converse Cash

Thanks to Stephen Luther and Converse. Thanks to Brian Schaefer & SPOT. Thanks to everyone that came out. Thanks to all the riders who were ripping and congratulations to the finalists. Yeah Ben! Awesome!. Thank you to MRZ and Arto Saari for the images. Skate- Ozzie