kingpins of the bowl

Mike Sciacca

Overall 2003 Soul Bowl champion Brian Patch flipped and twisted,

maneuvering easily in an unfinished Philips Key Ring Soul Bowl on

Friday.

Patch, 32, who lives on the border of Huntington Beach and

Westminster, got a first-hand look at a stadium where he will

showcase his skateboarding talents this weekend.

The grandstands were empty Friday, but come the weekend, they will

be at full capacity, with onlookers watching several of the world’s

top skateboarders and BMX riders vie for a combined purse of $50,000.

“We have a great time out there,” Patch said of the competition,

which he termed, “friendly.”

“We all get along great and we really are friends,” he said. “It’s

a total friendship thing. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be doing this.”

Patch has been skateboarding for 22 years. He turned professional

10 years ago, when he moved out to Southern California from his

native Indiana.

He has traveled the world showcasing his skateboarding talents,

and for the past three years, he has reigned as Soul Bowl overall

points champion.

Points are garnered throughout the competition season.

This year, points are earned at Soul Bowl competitions in London

and Huntington Beach.

He finished fourth in a Soul Bowl competition held in London

earlier this year.

“I’ve spent the last 22 years skateboarding, and that’s the only

way you can train for an event like this,” he said. “You can’t

prepare for a Soul Bowl just a few months here, or there. You gain

experience through years of skating, and that’s where your

preparation comes from.”

One of Patch’s close friends and riding buddies is Omar Hassan,

30, who has won the Huntington Beach Philips Key Ring Soul Bowl event

the past three years.

“The Soul Bowl is always a fun event,” Hassan said. “It’s done in

jam session format, so all of us friends are out there, showing our

stuff, all at once.

“I have a lot of my friends out in the crowd, too, which makes it

that much more fun. It’s just one of the more fun events around.”

By reigning in the sport for the past three years, Patch and

Hassan will be the two to beat this weekend.

“I think the thing that Patch and I have going for us is a lot of

experience with these bowls,” the Costa Mesa resident said. “This

contest really is about using the whole ramp and the corners.”

The Philips Key Ring Soul Bowl combines the two disciplines of

vert ramp with skating in a bowl.

Patch uses two skateboards for competition that have a larger

wheel base and wide trucks for stability that are tight, so they

don’t tip.

“Bowl skating is unique in that, in comparison, it’s like going to

see a normal movie, and putting on 3-D glasses when you get there,”

Patch added. “That’s how different and unique it is from regular

skating.”

Bikers John Parker of Arizona and Kevin Robinson of Rhode Island

are among the invited competitors.