I decided this year to wait with any posting about the Thrasher Magazine Skater Of The Year 2009 award until the actual announcement was made – I mean, we could all guess but the actual decision is made somewhere else. And this year’s winner is in some ways a surprise and NOT a surprise.

Chris Cole is the second skater ever to take home the award twice (he was Skater Of The Year in 2005) and to be honest, he does skate at another level as well. He has been super busy, winning contests (Wallenberg, Maloof Money Cup and The Battle At The Berrics 2), putting together video parts (Zero Skateboards “Strange World”), basically being incredibly productive while at the same time showing the amazing skill and control he has with his board. All I can say is congratulations for the second award and keep on making us all shaking our heads at the insane tricks you keep landing!

» check out the commentary over on “Boil The Ocean”
» Thrasher Magazine website

Who’s the man? Chris Cole is the man and then some on top of that. Insane and you just have to watch the video to understand what I’m trying to put into words. As the Thrasher site is being bombarded with hits as of today I am going to show the YouTube version. The link to Thrasher’s page is below whenever you want to watch it in top quality!

- The Wallenberg 2009 highlights over at Thrasher Mag

The SLAP site is pretty overloaded at the moment so here’s the simple trick – I embedded the feed straight off of USTREAM. So no missing out on the action! Get there now!

The adrenaline is starting to pump through the veins of a bunch of skaters who will be participating later today – that’s Saturday, May 30th 2009 for those of you reading this in the future – in the Back To The Berg contest at the Wallenberg High School in San Francisco, California. Only a select few have pulled off the insane jump down the Big Four and today $10,000 bucks are for grabs again. It’s nice to see that the money is not the main incentive here – going down in the history books at a contest which makes skateboarding good again is what it’s about here.

Thrasher Magazine has put together several animated photo sequences so make sure you visit the Thrasher site by clicking here. I just added my favorite three sequences. And I have to say it again: Elissa Steamer is definitely one of my heros for even trying it!