The chosen venue was the somewhat new “Show Grounds” at Sam Houston Race Park, which is a bit of a drive from pretty much every part of Houston. I was a bit curious about this new venue, having never been there before. For those who have never been, it is basically a giant parking lot . What makes it special is how it is run. There is still ample parking, plenty of restrooms, and of course concessions. The onlly problem I found was the lack of shade, but during the Houston summers shade is pretty much impossible to find most places.

Upon arriving I noticed all of the sponsors had booths set up to display their products. My personal favorite was the Jones Soda tent, offering up free Jones Soda on tap! After several refills, a DJ took the stage and attempted to entertain the mostly young crowd by spinning pop punk records while creating a video show at the same time, aside from playing old Green Day tracks it was a pretty lousy set, but fortunately it wasn’t very long before the afternoons main attractions took the stage. That stage being the vert ramp and a couple of ramps for the motocross riders.

The show started with all the skaters, and a bmx rider, dropping in and warming up a bit. Jason Ellis, with a hands free microphone attatched to his helmet, mced the rest of the event.

After the warm up, each skater took a turn showing off to the crowd, which applauded every trick these guys pull off throughout. The main attraction, of course, was Tony Hawk. The pro skater turned cash cow guru put a decent show, but nothing like what you would see in the X Games let alone his video games.

Next up were the two motocross guys on the tour, giving the skaters a break. These motocross guys are insane, and pretty much gave the finger to physics. After a few runs, the skating resumed with everyone skating at the same time.

The most entertaining part, for me, was when it was announced that MTV was onsite filiming an episode of their show “Made” featuring a girl from Houston who wishes to beome a skater. She was brought out (with MTV fliming the entire thing) and asked if she wished to skate with the pros, and then promptly said no. Personally, I think if Tony Hawk and Co. ask you to skate with them and you want to be “Made” into a skater, you should probably take them up on their offer.

After the “Made” let the crowd down, the skaters picked it back up and finished up the show with one last jam, with everyone taking turns skating at the same time once again. A few more tricks, another couple jumps by the motocross riders, and a few more falls ended the show, leaving all the youngsters shouting for me. But since this wasn’t a rock and roll show, there was no encore. So these young skaters were left to go home and try these tricks out for themselves (maybe even on their new $120 dollar piece of wood).