Words by Cody Whitman
First off, big ups to Christina from DC for hooking us up with full access to cover the event. As usual we were last minute but she was cool enough to accomodate us. I've been looking forward to this since I saw the footage from King of NY, it just makes sense that they would continue in the skate mecca that is Los Angeles. I have been a little salty on contests of late. I've seen too many contrived themes, over-hyped setups and annoying MC's to last me the rest of my days. It was refreshing to see someone actually get it right, although (to take nothing away from DC) it's kind of hard not to when you're skating at one of the most storied spots in all of skating. What Guy Mariano did to the bank to bench and Kareem Campbell did to those poor picnic tables back in the day can only be described as murder. This place is legendary and Saturday did nothing but add to Lockwood's legend.

The event started early as did the unbearable heat. Nothing like a black-top playground on an intensely hot day, and I wasn't even skating. The kids didn't seem to mind though as MC Ray-Ray struggled to keep skaters from sessioning during the heats. DC brought some features (kicker, a few fun boxes, a few rails) to add to Lockwood's legendary banks, benches and picnic tables. It was the bank to bench that took center stage for the finals as judges thought it fitting to hold the finals at this singular feature. Vincent Alvarez thrashed the spot and took home 600 bones, a phone and most importantly 10 points in the King of LA series. We'll start hammering away at the footage Monday morning and should have some video up from both of the weekends events by Tuesday. I'll also post a bunch more photos on my blog ASAP. Result for both events are as follows
Lockwood
1. Vincent Alvarez
2. Austin Gillette
3. Jason Vanzan

Bancroft 
1. Josh Grossguth
2. Vince Alvarez
3. Rudy Felix