Once again, the ladies took vert skating to a new level at the Vans Triple Crown Finals, held at its new home, Huntington Beach State Park, on Sunday, September 26. Eight ladies of various ages laid down sick lines during their intro runs as well in the jam session. They've been pushing their limits at every competition in 2004, and this contest was no exception. It was a rush just to watch this awesome exhibition of talent and skill.

I thought Cara-Beth Burnside had first place sewn up for sure as she banged out a huge bag of tricks nonstop and had one awesome run after another. But the judges gave Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins the top spot for her solid runs and lethal kickflip Indy. She also gets props for working on a kickflip fakie on the roll-in, though she couldn't get it quite right to roll away. Mimi Knoop had a great showing for third place with her trademark back-to-back handplants and a huge ollie over the channel.

Coming all the way from Muenster, Germany, to join the SoCal crew was Tina Neff. Tina's been working hard on using the entire ramp during her runs, as she's used to skating a very narrow ramp back home. Her hard work paid off in a fourth-place finish -- she landed a fakie pivot and a nosegrab body varial, as well as working her way across the ramp with frontside and backside airs.

Holly Lyons headed into fifth place with her signature smooth style, and all the way from Delaware, Catherine Ashley skated into sixth with big backside airs. Seventh and eight places went to Ciara D'Agostino and Liz Brandenburg with some cool tricks and solid runs.

Sitting on the sidelines was 12-year-old Apryl Woodcock, who took some seriously promising practice runs but backed out of the comp at the last minute. She tore up the bowl and got first last weekend in the Am division at the inaugural Wicked Wahine Bowl Series contest in Glendale, California. I can't wait to see her skate the pro comps in the future -- she'll be giving the big-name girls a run for their money.

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Congratulations to all the ladies for putting on a great show and being an inspiration to girl skateboarders everywhere! Look for the upcoming broadcast of the Vans Triple Crown finals on NBC in the near future.