The 2015 El Gato Classic - Legends Weekend.

Eddie Elguera getting ready to kick off the "Legends Give Back" evening

Eddie Elguera & Christian Hosoi

Steve Alba with some of his new pieces at the art show

Jeff Ho with his distinctive art

Christian Hosoi with his amazing art

Eddie Elguera

Jami Godfrey

Chuck Hults

Dave Duncan

Eric Dressen

Jim Gray

Steve Olson

Eddie Elguera

Mario Raposo

Doug Saladino, Jami Godfrey,  Howard Hood  & Christian Hosoi

Jami Godfrey

Christian Hosoi

Sergio Negal

Brad Bowman

Jim Gray

Scott Hostert

Spidey De Montrond

Marty "Jinx" Jimenez

Bill D'Angelo

Tony Hawk

Lester Kasai Flying high

Jami Godfrey

Dinner table with the Balma family, Lisa Kudra and Cindy Whitehead

Dave Duncan & Steve Olson

The Elguera family who threw an amazing event!

John Woller & Kevin Staab

Jami Godfrey, Spidey De Montrond & Jim Gray - these boys clean up real nice!

Randy Aparicio,  Roland Coballis & Shreddi Repas

Steve Alba, Paul Schmitt, and Abraham Luna

The man with the golden locks Jim Gray, and the always stylish Christian Hosoi

Our hosts, Eddie Elguera and his gorgeous wife Dawna Elguera

Photographer, and all around great guy Orlando Welsh and Diana Cole

Larry Balma and John Lucero

Tony Hawk, Brad Bowman, Dawna Elguera, Kevin Staab, & Eddie Elguera

All Photos By Lorrie Palmos

Once again Eddie Elguera, Dawna Elguera, their family, and an army of amazing volunteers, pulled off another absolutely great event. The El Gato Classic "Legends Weekend"  in Palm Springs, California was jam packed from Friday through Sunday with skate related events throughout the day and evening. It was an event you didn't want to miss!

Friday night started off with "The Legends Give Back" in downtown Palm Springs. Ninety skateboards and S1 Helmets were given out by the legend skaters to kids in need. Nothing better than seeing kids get skateboards for Christmas, and it was nice to see a lot of the legends there giving back.

From there it was on to the beautiful Hard Rock Hotel for the evening art show, signing of boards, and party. The event was free, open to the public and it gave people a chance to see & purchase art by some of their favorite skaters, Jeff Ho, Craig Stecyk,  David Hackett, Steve Alba, Steve Olson, Neil Blender, Steve Caballero, Eric Dressen, Lance Mountain, Christian Hosoi, Pops Hosoi, & Jason Jessee, and do a bit of a "meet and greet" to get the weekend started off.

Saturday morning brought clear blue skies and temps in the mid 70's, a perfect day to be outside at The Palm Springs Skatepark for the Legends Skate Jam.  The guys skated hard throughout the day and it was great to see the younger generation of skaters (including Brighton Zeuner) do a demo while the legends looked on.

Saturday evening's VIP dinner was held at the gorgeous Riviera Hotel were everyone had a chance to mingle, catch up with one another,  and best of all, meet a lot of great people who came from all over the world to talk, have dinner with, and also get autographs and photos with the legends. The food, the venue, and the company was all top notch. Dennis Ogden showed old movie clips from Marina Skatepark on the big screen & the Tony Hawk Foundation was presented with a check for $7,000 from the El Gato crew to help continue their wonderful non-profit work building skateparks. 

Sunday was the half-pipe demo that was also open to the public - Tony Hawk, Christian Hosoi, Kevin Stabb, Neal Hendrix, and more, skated all afternoon and put on a great show for the crowd. Eddie Elguera unfortunately had to sit this one out due to a slam at Saturdays event. There were concerts by Agent Orange, Powerflex 5 and One Less Zero to wrap up the day.

Everyone left feeling tired, happy, and raving about the weekend. Now that's a GREAT event!

If you didn't make it to this years event, now is the time to start planning for the next one!  It really is the best skate event of the year.

So great to see all my old OG skater friends and nice to meet all the people who traveled from all over to be there as well!

Huge thanks to the Elguera family and complete El Gato team for an amazing weekend & for inviting me,  photographer Lorrie Palmos for providing all these great photos and Jim Gray for helping me caption them!