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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!