(continued)
The local Phiily crowd knew who was who!
As the time got closer to the start ..... what blew us out was how many riders used the entire course with big transfers followed by sick rails
- right onto all kinds of potential marble bench grinds – the natural concrete / marble course was AWeSOME!! 
anyway – everyone was warming up:
.... then - maybe less than 30 minutes before the first heat went off – Rodil de Araujo Jr from Curbita, Brazil, comes out of no where … and starts almost full out – to blow the course wide open!
And as I said – it was wicked hot … everyone was dripping wet – the pavement was unforgiving ..
and there was no relief at the start … only the crowd caught the break under the trees.
de Araujo cut a perfect run - he used the entire Plaza as his course and finished with a final score of 89.6.
He said really respected the challenge here in Philly having captured the gold in Skateboard Park in 1996, 1997 and 2001.
Wagner Ramos, brazilian from Cascavel, who never won a medal in X Games before,
come in the second place, also cuttin’ a flawless run, with 83.6 score and the second best trick, Nollie
flip down the stairs - The crowd went wild!!! It was his First X Game medal.
Wagner Ramos( right )
Taking the Bronze – with ANOTHER FLAWWLESS RUN was Kyle Berard from Virginia Beach, VA. 
I mean think about it – 3 skaters – each cutting perfect rounds – freakin’ Awesome!!
Like how hard it must be to judge these guys!! His “on the money” trick of the afternoon was grinding up the center stair rail.
Chris Senn (left)
Kerry Getz, Josh Kalis & Ricky Oyola, Philly fan's FAV's of the day, no medals .. but
they gave the Philadelphians "a few mad-phatt hometown heros".
Dayne Brummet in front of City Hall (left)
The day couldn’t have been better … I don’t really remember the ride back NJ ..
I just kept replaying the runs in my head ..
sweet .. thinkin’ …
or ... now back to "SPLINTERS"
Catcha there . . .
