Words and Photos by Cody Whitman
The following are a few of the photos I shot at this weekend's Free Flow event at the Magdalena Ecke YMCA in Encinitas. Good times all around. Our boy Chris Mendes showed up and after seeing him skate at three or four comps in the last month, I was sure he was going to take this one with ease. Not so fast. This particular park is "owned" by local Taylor Smith who won the Encinitas stop last year and came in third at the Free Flow Finals in Portland. Our good buddy Zach, who manages the tour, told us that Taylor was beating eventual winner David Loy up until the last two minutes. Long story short, this kid can skate and Chris Mendes had his work cut out for him if he wanted the free trip to Orlando, location of the Free Flow and Dew Tour finals this year. Both Smith and Mendes eased their way into the finals as it was always going to be a two man show. Even though Mendes threw his patented nollie inward heel flip to revert (WTF, sequence above), Smith put together more tricks as his familiarity with the course became apparent. I know he threw more technical tricks but the ones I remember most were his huge air out of the quarter and a buttery smooth kick flip to boardslide on the blue rail. Props to everyone who came out and all the park employees - you guys are lucky to skate this thing every day. Below are some captions for the photos.

1.) Banquet Community Director Aissam Dabbaoui, that's a hell of a lot of Banquet going on in that pic.

2.) Zach from Free Flow talks with a camera man from the local news, somehow a Banquet sticker ended up on his back. Who did that?

3.) Banquet camera man Matt Besserman walking away from newsman, perhaps Bessy is the sticker bandit.

4.) Here is a photo from the Junior Jam. These kids are all like 6,7,8 years old and rip. Wait until the footy comes out from the weekend, little Pierce dropped in to the quarter from the top of the fence. Little kids are rad.

5.) Winner Taylor Smith. Look out, this kid is good and he clearly knows how to ride contests. He's got to be a favorite for the Free Flow Final (say that three times fast) in Orlando.

6.) Brendan Anderson just emailed me and let me know that he is the person killin' it in this pic. Good looking out Brendon, come to the Orange event Wednesday and we'll give you a hoody.

7.) It took me a few days but I found out who this is. Mark Hill emailed me and let me know that this is Jake Hill. Well Mark, your son has hella style, look at that pic.

7-15.) This is Chris Mendes' sequence of the nollie inward heel to revert, just sick!!!!