Vert Points and Counterpoints
By: Paul Zitzer – A vert skater may be the only thing in the world as proficient as a computer in terms of figuring out year end points scenarios. They’re like a bunch of padded up Rain Men. “Definitely have 260 points…need 90 more to win…definitely like to skate slow around the driveway…” Truth be told, much of vert skating these days is geared toward generating points, and points directly correspond with the amount of dollar bills one can stack up in order to eat. Now please, do not get me wrong, I’m not saying the skaters up on the pipe are money-grubbing vert bots, not at all. What I am saying is that if you want to survive in the world of pro vert 2009, you have to be able to deliver big scores in contests. That’s why you don’t find me up there on the pipe high fiving my vert bros and whooping it up. I simply couldn’t generate the requisite digits. “We’re sorry sir, our records show you only have 42 points. We’re going to ask you to step down from the pipe.”
So now that you know what’s important, lets take a quick look at some scenarios for the battle for the vert Dew Cup that’ll go down in Orlando. The first thing you need to accept is that there are only four people who’ve posted enough points in the first three events to still have a shot at winning the Dew Cup this year: Bucky Lasek, PLG, Andymac, and Sandro Dias. What about Perelson you ask? He’s in, um, let me check my stats…11th…not even close.
Let’s start with Dias. For him to even have a shot at the Cup, he has to place top three in Orlando. But even if he wins there (and he hasn’t won a Dew stop since the 2006 Vans Invitational), he’ll still need Bucky, PLG, and A-mac to finish no better than 6th, 5th, and 4th respectively. Ummm, don’t hold your breath?
For the top three dudes their scenarios for capturing the cup are pretty straightforward: If Bucky, PL, or A-mac win Orlando, they automatically win the tour. With Bucky and PL currently tied for points at 266 (Bucky is winning the tie breaker at this point because he has two wins to PL’s one) and A-mac only four points behind them, it’s anyone’s game. If none of them win however, there’s like a million different ways it could go, but, I’m not going to go into that here–you’d have to have a vert skater’s mind to understand all the intricacies.
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