By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In Japan, the Yasutoko brothers are national celebrities known for their high-flying, ankle-grabbing in-line skating stunts that regularly land them mainstream media gigs.

Here in the United States, the average sports fan might struggle to correctly pronounce Eito and Takeshi Yasutoko's names. But it won't be difficult to see why the international stars are carrying the sport of in-line skating this weekend at the Mobile Skatepark Series at Sawyer Point.

"They've done more to help rollerblading stay alive and attract new people than anyone in the last three years," said Mark Shays, vice president of Aggressive Skating Association Events, whose company is putting on this weekend's competition. "They're the torchbearers."

Many of the best athletes competing in BMX, skateboarding and in-line skating at Sawyer Point are foreign-born, including Brazilian Fabiola da Silva in in-line skating and Australia's Jake Brown in skateboarding. But the Yasutokos consistently put on some of the best vert ramp performances of any athlete in the Mobile Skatepark Series.

"They're the best two vert riders in the world, period, of any of the three sports," Shays said. "I've emceed demos where the more celebrated names of skateboarding and BMX are there, and their jaws are on the floor watching the Yasutoko brothers soar."

About 12 feet is how high above the ramp Eito, 20, and Takeshi, 17, usually fly as they twist, spin, flip and grab their way to title after title. In the last two years, they've lost only to each other. Eito won in Cincinnati last year while Takeshi finished fourth. However, Takeshi would finish the season as the top-ranked in-line skating athlete in the world.

They are expected to compete for the top two spots in Saturday's vert finals at Sawyer Point.

To the casual viewer, the differences between the brothers are subtle. But in-line skating judge Chris Mitchell, who is also Eito's roommate in Los Angeles, says the Yasutokos are the best in the world in different aspects of the sport. Takeshi is a technical expert who can complete a grind all the way across the top of the vert ramp. He's also the only in-line skating athlete to do his signature trick known as the Viking Flip.

Both brothers perform the most difficult tricks on tour, but Eito is known for throwing bigger tricks throughout his run. His main trick, the California Roll, involves 1,080 degrees of rotation on a sideways axis.

"When he's on, Eito can really dominate," Mitchell said. "They both have a wow factor that we look for, that other skaters don't have."

The Yasutokos developed their skills in early childhood, inheriting a love of in-line skating from their father, Yuki, a former professional disco roller skater in Japan. He now owns Good Skates, a major skate park in Japan where the Yasutokos train.

They broke onto the worldwide in-line skating scene as preteens in the mid-1990s, doing tricks that the pros at the time had never seen. During the last three years, the brothers have dominated the sport, continually showing up with new tricks.

"In a lot of ways, the Yasutokos are what have kept rollerblading in the X Games," Mitchell said. "They give credibility to rollerblading because they're looked at and recognized by people other than just rollerbladers.

"The Yasutokos are something people look at and say, 'Holy crap!' "

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com