2011 AIL Championships

I was recently fortunate enough to enjoy a weekend at Californias Woodward West, for the Amateur Inline League 2011 World Championships. Friday night brought a mellow evening session with the likes of Brian Aragon, Dave Lang, Chris Haffey, and Matt Farnsworth and the We Are ONE Skate park crew from Utah. We had a great session on the launch box, shot some photos and then headed up to the lodge to celebrate in the name of another gathering of rollerbladers for the Armature Inline League World Championships 2011.

Saturday morning was filled with energized skating and positive encouragement all around as everyone warmed up for their divisions. Rollerblading icons Arlo Eisenberg and Matt Mickey were in attendance to keep things real in the name of rolling; Matt was also keeping things hyped on the mic and distributing the world famous, home made, Intuition Cookies. Mad support for the up and coming rollers was shown during the beginner session, during which everyone stopped skating to watch the likes of Danielle Montgomery, and the Velasquez twins, among others, throw down.

Beginner:

1st – Danielle MontgomerY

2nd – James Whelan

3rd – Mason Sieber

10-15 Intermediate:

1st Julian Budge

2nd Ethan Quinn

3rd Austin Montgomery

10-15 Advanced:

1st Johanny Velasquez

2nd Parker Richardson

3rd Troy Porretta

16 & Up Intermediate:

1st Nathan Genda

2nd Robert Rohlf

3rd Phil England

The Vert contest was short but sweet, with contestants from as far as Japan. 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd went to Hiroshi Minami, David Jones and Brandon Davis. The woman’s division was full of sick skating from the likes of Becci Walace, Coco Sanchez, Rosie O’Donaghue, Fallon and Aarin Gates; with 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd going to Aarin Gates, Fallon Heffernan and Rosie O’Donaghue of Ireland. I missed a good portion of this skating so no pictures, sorry girls.

Once the Advanced division began, the level of skating went through the roof in the Hanger’s street course. More than forty rollers skated two 45sec. runs each to place in the top ten and advance to the Elite division heats to battle it out for $1200 in prize money put up by Intuition Skate Shop and the AIL. The top 10 advancing skaters became AIL Elite.

16 & Up Advanced (Turn AIL Elite)


1st – Brett Urbas – Detroit, Michigan


2nd – Kazuho Kumazawa – Japan


3rd – Daniel Gorman – Dublin, Ireland


4th – Rick Rodriguez – Northridge, California


5th – Tony Rivituso – Las Vegas, Nevada


6th – Damon Franklin – Tehachapi, California


7th – Chris Calkins – Venice Beach, California


8th – Carson Starnes – Atlanta, Georgia


9th – Chad Tannehill – Taft, California


10th – Chris Napoleon – Las Vegas, Nevada

All of which skated hard against the AIL Elite such as Haffey, Shima, Richard Johnson, Dave Lang, Brian Aragon, John Vossughi, Julian Bah and Jeremy Townsen. Top riders of the Elite division were 1^st Chris Haffey, 2^nd Dave Lang and 3^rd John Vossughi.

Arlo announced the 2011 industry awards, awarding the 2011 AIL industry Recognition Award to Kato Mateu for the for his work with the WRS. For his positive contributions to rollerblading in addition to his talent on blades, Brian Aragon received the AIL Skater Recognition Award and Brian Shima was entered into the AIL Hall of Fame along with the likes of Randy Spizer, Chris Edwards, Arlo Eisenberg, Jon Julio, and Dustin Latimer. But the unsung heroes of the AIL are Pam and Richie Velasquez, whose passion for rollerblading and motivation to spread the love of rolling has brought numerous years of epic skate park series contests to the amateur level of the inline community.