SAN FRANCISCO -- It was a case of "What will they do next?" There was never a question of who would win gold.

The X Games vert doubles competition is nothing more than a playground for Tony Hawk and Andy Macdonald. Saturday afternoon, the pair won their third straight gold.

But that didn't make the contest any less of a show-stopper. Watching Hawk and Macdonald share a halfpipe never gets old.

	Lasek does a hand-plant on Patch's head during their silver-medal routine in the halfpipe Sunday.

Tricks like a huge 720 by Hawk over Macdonald, while he's doing an indy-360 spin, or an inventive 50-50 grind with a board transfer on the halfpipe coping, keep each gold-medal winning run fresh.

In yet another flawless routine that X Games fans have come to expect from the two vert gold medalists -- Bucky Lasek's emotional vert win Saturday night broke their hold on singles gold -- Macdonald and Hawk were unmatched in both precision and innovative combinations.

But like any great performance, the stars of the show saved their best tricks until the end. Hawk hit a huge 720 while sailing over an indy-360 spinning Macdonald. That move was followed shortly thereafter by Hawk grinding 50-50 toward Macdonald, who held his board on the coping for Hawk to jump onto and complete his grind across the top of the halfpipe.

"We just try to keep it refreshing," said Hawk, who took bronze behind Macdonald and Lasek in the vert singles. "We've been working on (the 50-50 grind move) for about a week before we got here. We tried it a couple of times. I've got to tell ya, it wasn't working out too well in practice.

"Actually the 720 (over Macdonald) was something we decided to do just before we dropped in. We did it once in practice, just to test it. But it was the first time we did it since the X Games a couple of years ago, but he did something else below me. I think he did an indy 360. I don't know. I didn't see him. I hope he did."

Macdonald indeed landed that indy 360. And in the first run, Macdonald executed his own board transfer with Hawk. As Hawk held out his board, Macdonald swooped in to grab it and put it under his feet with one hand, while his other hand held onto his own board up the other side of the pipe.

"We just try to put something new together. Try to think of something different year to year," Macdonald said. "We just try to 'one-up' it with the board pass. We've done the board pass in past years, but this year I learned how keep my own board with me and do a second board pass (back to Hawk) on the second wall.

"Each of our runs were different. We had two runs planned out, which for me is hard because I tend to get them confused. That can be dangerous. But it came together."

Lasek and Brian Patch, who earned silver, also included some unique moves in their final run. Patch sat down on the top of the wall as Lasek did a 360 over him. Patch then jumped on his board from a sitting position the second time Lasek soared over him.

Lasek even pulled off his now golden frontside 540 over Patch. But as a whole, Lasek and Patch didn't quite have the synchronicity that Macdonald and Hawk displayed. Along with their board transfers, Hawk and Macdonald hit mirror-image 540s and chased each other around the halfpipe hitting grinds and kick-flip tricks in perfect rhythm.

"I figured I had to give (some gold) to them," joked Lasek. "I didn't want to sweep it. I don't want people to think too highly of me.

"We didn't know what to work with. So we just kind of just thought of stuff as we went along. We really didn't have anything original to close with. I think that's were we lost out."

The bronze medals went to Mike Crum and Rune Gifberg, who passed Bob Burnquist and Lincoln Ueda on the second run. The pair didn't have any board transfers, but did pull off some high-flying 540s over each other and didn't fall like several of the teams.