Luckily for me, the team didn't get to the plaza until 7pmish as they got stuck in traffic, coming from London. It was the Friday of all the schools breaking up and getting out of London on a Friday, anyway, is a total nightmare!!! Myself, I didn't finish work until past 7pm, so, seeing as I thought I would miss the whole thing, was quite pleased they ran late! Thanks to those who stayed all day to catch the team skate!

The other downer was that Rick McCrank could not make it over in time and Conhuir Lynn had missed his flight! Also Keegan Sauder was nursing an almighty ankle tweaker, with the bruising really coming out while he sat out the session. That left Tony Cervantes, John Rattray (who was also carrying an injury in the shape of a busted wrist, which he had cut the plaster cast in order to skate on it- top pro!) and the UK's Seth Curtis (who was running the tour).

Due to the lack of riders, obviously, the 'demo' became more of a little session and plaza 'check out' between the three pros. Firstly, the vert wall got a battering from Tony Cervantes with a couple of wall rides, a bigspin and a wallie - melon grabbed to flat!

He then moved onto the 'big-3', which, I thought, was surprisingly early but then remembered we are dealing with Zero here!! Sizing them up, he popped a massive ollie first go and then attempted the tre down 'em. Landing a couple but not quite riding them out, he took a breather. On his return to the 'big-3', later, he got the crowds going with a massive airwalk and a melon grab 180 down them!

As for Rattray, if anyone wasn't convinced on his massive amount of ability, due to his last video part in New Blood, they would have been convinced by the end of this little session! The bloke is awesome! I remember the last time I saw him skate at Radlands about 6 or 7 years ago, doing a UK DC team demo and he ripped then! He certainly is a good catch for the Zero team and it showed just watching him take some almighty slams, avoiding landing on his plastered wrist and taking every slam on his shoulder!!! He must have been aching like hell the next day-or maybe not- he skates for Zero and he is Scottish- say no more!!

Anyway- he was ripping round the plaza like a maniac. Making the big-3 look like a kerb and finding nice lines everywhere. Massive nollie down the big-3 to super fast nose manny on the 'octagon' to backside 180 down the gap-2! Ridiulous! To name just one.

He even tried to backside wall ride the big bank at the end of the circular steps- all the way down/ clearing the double set!! As for his bowl sessions- they were of course mental! Not forgetting his nollie nose manny all the way down the big curved ledge!

We were also treated to the appearance of another ex-Blueprint rider- Ben Grove, who was ripping round in his normal way- wrecking the place! He also gave the big-3 some hammer and mastered the big curved ledge with a kickflip to manny all the way down!

As for the locals, Simple's Lil James was really showing he can mix it up with the big 'uns. Nice line of kickflip down the big-3 to ollie down the gap-2!

Click for clip of Tony Cervantes- airwalk/James flipping the big-3.

So, another good day at then plaza. Weather was good and the skating was better! Although we weren't treated to a full team, it's still a treat to get the pro skaters in Stoke and let's face it we are getting a real spoiling up to yet!!!

Mark.

All photos: Peach.