Don’t let the word am fool you, the kids at the Damn Am are the best of the un-professionals and no doubt you will get to know much more some of these rippers well in the near future. One hundred and eighty kids were whittled down to thirty six for the 2 18 man heats in the semi finals today, then down to 12 for the finals. So you could say David Loy had his work cut out for him, this was not just like 20 kids but 180 son…damn.

Volcom lent the use of their parking lot as they always do in October. The event was run by the good folks at the Skatepark of Tampa. Not only does SPOT run a good show but Brian Schafer, Ryan Clements and Vern are darn funny to listen to as the mc the event. This event is super fun to watch and with free food and beer it is no wonder that veterans like Ronnie Creager, Tosh Townend, Jay Adams and tons more heads come out to see the who the next big deal may be. The skaters came from all over too, all over the world. Holland, Brazil, California, Minnesota, Florida were just a few of the locales represented in the finals alone. There was more than bragging rights and money on the line too since the top 12 get to go the finals in Tampa on December 5th thru the 7th as well.

Winning the best run of three format basically took sticking a run with your best tricks or possibly a bail with a lot of hard tricks. The results match what happened pretty well. There surely were some skaters that choked and could have done better, maybe next year.

The best trick finals were super hectic, maybe too hectic as kids were pretty much landing on each other. Even Ryan Clements said “This is the most ridiculous best trick jam we have had yet” There were people in there with no business and clogged the system; making a trick was more from negotiating the traffic jam. Twenty minutes of madness, dozens of dudes and like 10 makes, too crazy.

If you missed it live or online, check it next year

P-Stone from Thrasher came down from San Francisco to film the ams; he even dressed for the occasion

A good portion of the course

Rob Maatman won the Amsterdam Am and came over from Holland. This gap to back smith was so sick!

Felipe Ortiz kickflips to crooked in practice, this kid did not even make finals and he can crack tricks like this

Colin Provost front feebs to front 180 out, it takes some intriguing body language to pull that trick. Colin is an all around ripper, seen ripping trannies at the Basic Bowl and beating Ryan Sheckler in a street contest

Kechaud Johnson with a giant kickflip into a top 5 finish

Nick Merlino pulls a switch heel down the double set in the semis

Kechaud Johnson nollie to front feebs

Kyle Walker kickflips the 12 foot gap

Go spread some Helloween terror this Friday night

Curren Caples is a good looking kid that rips, he kinda reminds me of a young Jay Adams, here is a gap to front lip

David Loy skated so much faster than anyone. He has been around and tricks like the transfer to back smith on the bank to wall helped him get the win

David Loy had at least one run in the finals with no bails. Here is a crazy transfer from the quarterpipe to nose grind on the bank to wall

Andrew Cannon, the oldest am in the world and dressed as wet Willy to boot

Abdias Rivera kickflip shifty

Felipe Gustavo nollie back one into 3rd place overall

Cody Davis was not as big and gnarly skate wise as say David Loy but his board control was spot on enough for 2nd place, frontside hurricane

Felipe Gustavo nollie back one into 3rd place overall

Louie Lopez did so well in the qualifiers that he got to skip the semi finals and move right into the finals

Tommy Fynn - back blunt

Kyle Walker – feeble

The SPOT crew and judges watch Rob Maatman do a tre flip

Timmy Knuth also got to skip semi finals by doing so well in qualifiers, he ended up in 4th place overall

best trick mess

in all the best trick craziness I failed to get this cat’s name, if you know it, let us know

Grant Muller switch Dolphin flips in the best trick contest

Damn Am Results

1 David Loy, Santa Ana, CA
2 Cody Davis, Ramsey, MN
3 Felipe Gustavo, Brasilia, Brazil
4 Timmy Knuth, Melbourne, FL
5 Kechaud Johnson, Dallas, TX
6 Louie Lopez, Hawthorne, CA
7 Shawn Hale, Joplin, MO
8 Rob Maatman, Holland
9 Kyle Walker, Moore, OK
10 Tommy Fynn
11 Will Marshall, Canada
12 Donvan Piscopo, Covina, CA

Best Trick
1 Daniel Espinoza, front blunt kickflip to fakie
2 Ryan Reyes, smith kickflip out
3 Moose, cab flip
4 Cody Davis, front board kickflip
5 Grant Muller, switch dolphin flip

Jani Laitiala Wins Vans Downtown Showdown

What, Yani, that guy who has a cd out that your Mom puts on every time she makes love to your Dad? Uhh, no, Jani Laitiala is a pro from Europe who beat some heavies at Paramount Studios at the corner of Melrose and Gower in Hollywood, CA. According to Jani you pronounce his name like Yaw-nee; he said “don’t even worry about the last name”. No Ryan Sheckler or Chris Cole were not there but the list of riders was long and deep on talent anyway. Long and deep being especially relevant terms since the contest venue was a set of New York city located less than a dozen blocks from Laurel Canyon, where the porn industry basically started.

So what is the Vans Downtown Showdown anyway? Basically Vans and partners arrange to take over the New York set at Paramount and throws a huge contest/party. Skateboard companies build 4 obstacles of their choice and teams compete for the overall prize. Seeing as the sport is skateboarding, some teams get into it and others are basically drunk the whole time (guess which teams win). It is a contest but is one of the loosest pro contests on the circuit. You can shoot wherever, there were free drinks (with alcohol) free food, good seats for everyone that was 21 and lucky enough to get in. It was kind of like if you threw a giant party in your backyard with the worlds best pros, lots of friends, security and a movie set I guess. Anyway it was a lot of fun and really amazing to see pros of this level in such a casual atmosphere, in California. Now that I think of it, pretty much all the Vans contests are kinda like this – big names, little rules.

Girl Three Pump Dump

The first obstacle consisted of 3 hip wedges set on a slightly downhill street with a jump ramp at the end. Scores were based on performances that hit all three hips. Even though the atmosphere was casual, once the 30 minute jam started it was all go. Things got hectic as 27 of the worlds top pros hit the wedges.

Welcome to the Vans Downtown Showdown, welcome to Hollywood, welcome to Paramount studios, land of dreams. Even though Rick McCrank hails from Canada he is legend enough to start things off here. Rick was killing it all night. He is over thirty and could sit back and enjoy what he has accomplished in his career but no once a ripper, always a ripper

Here is McCrank killing it

Bam! Start off with the winner of the Three Pump Dump, Jani doing a backside flip I think. You could get so close to the skaters it was so easy to get a board in the face here. Fortunately no one did, just some boards to the shins

Girls newest pro Andrew Langi was banging it all night, I am pretty sure he deserved to be in the top three, unfortunately it was a team event and they only gave prizes for the #1 individual performances. Tre Flip with style

Let me introduce you to Jamie Tancowny. This kid tore shit up. I used to see him at Black Box when I had a friend that worked there. Jamie was always ripping and smoking, same thing he did at the Showdown as he got the award for top am

Someone from web land asked “who is the guy with the white dress and black hat” That would have been Grant Patterson who is part of the Blind winning team. According to Blind’s website it said Grant is an am, of course that was updated in like 2006. It also says he is from Canada, likes to smoke and hang out with his girlfriend, sounds pretty emo. Since when is it cool to smoke, that is idiotic, if your gonna smoke, at least smoke weed like David Gravette

Billy Marks smokes too, and gambles and rips

Girl Three Pump Dump Results
1 Jani Laitiala $2,500
2 Billy Marks $1,500
3 Rick McCrank $1,000
4 Andrew Langi
5 Alex Olson

Girl Three Pump Dump Team Results
1 Blind
2 Toy Machine
3 Girl

The next 30 minute jam took place on the Black Label Dive bar which was basically two wedge jumps placed with a bar you grind or many across. Some chose to go slow and tech while others went balls out and flew over the bar. Most went the middle route and did some sort of grind or slide on the grinder bar. This was maybe the scariest of the obstacles. One wrong step and your face would drop maybe 8 feet to the asphalt, with speed. Luckily the worlds best know where to put there feet, do not try this at home

Jamie Krooks on the dive bar. This was one f-ing hard obstacle

Holy Jake Duncombe! Jake freakin ollied the whole kit and landed lipslide on the jump ramp, which was about one foot in front of my face – fuhhh doot, gnar. There was camera – skater contact at this obstacle. Josh Harmony slammed his face into someone’s lens and it looked like it hurt

Sean Malto backside over crooks in a gnarly spot

Black Label Dive Bar Results
1 Jamie Tancowny $2,500
2 Sean Malto $1,500
3 David Gravette $1,000
4 Colin Provost
5 Rob Loriface

Black Label Dive Bar Team Results
1 Zero
2 Girl
3 Blind

The Creature Pentagram was the favorite. The tranny and bank masterpiece had so many lines, anyone could find stuff from tech to a vert skater. Not many did transfers, those that did scored well. All the top three did transfer lines

The Creature 5 points of Evil obstacle from up above

Omar Hassan cock blocks Eric Koston’s attempt to transfer. Stefan Janoski and Tyler Mumma were not so lucky, they later had a full on collision that took Mumma out for a bit

Johnny Layton krooks through a corner while Josh Harmony back tails to 180 out

Clank! Al Partenen airs to truck via transfer over one of the 5 points of the pentagram

Jake Duncombe was the only one to succeed at a big transfer. Alex Olson and John Ponts tried some bigger transfers but never made em

Or you could get tech like Rick McCrank demonstrates

Alex Olson hits eject on a giant transfer ollie attempt

Creature Pure 5 Points of Evil Results
1 Jake Duncombe $2,500
2 Rick McCrank $1,500
3 Al Partenen $1,000
4 Jani Laitiala
5 Andrew Langi

Creature Pure 5 Points of Evil Team Results
1 Blind
2 Girl
3 Creature

Street skaters only came out for the Eclipsy. After three previous jams, things slowed a little bit but not much. Most skated opted for the star. Very few hit the curved rail. Everyone had fun as the crowd got drunk and night got cold

The Nuge

The Foundation Lunar Eclipsy obstacle

Don Nguyen demonstrates how to nollie off a set of steps, up and over a sketchy and small star shaped obstacle, bonk the front wheels on it and proceed to land and roll away

That Yanni guy switch heel flips the fosko obstacle

Billy Marks does a kickflip foot plant, anyone doubt why he won this obstacle?

Nollie inward heel anyone? Billy Marks bets on orange and says I will take that

The sole member of the Habitat team at the Showdown, Stefan Janoski and they (he) did not even get last

Foundation Lunar Eclipsy Results
1 Billy Marks $2,500
2 Jani Laitiala $1,500
3 Ethan Fitzpatrick $1,000
4 Josh Harmony
5 Devin Appelo

Foundation Lunar Eclipsy Team Results
1 Toy Machine
2 Blind
3 Girl

Like the set of Seinfeld in LA?

Sean Malto, Jamie Tancowny and David Gravette. David said he wanted to buy a bunch of weed with the money, at least he has goals he can achieve

Jani Laitiala and Jamie Tancowny, top pro and top am. Jani was a super nice guy

Team Blind, l-r, Grant Patterson, Jake Brown, Jani Laitiala, Morgan Smyth, Jake Duncombe and Kid Rock, no wait Rob Loriface. Sorry Rob, you did not get to bang Pam Anderson with hep C, no wait Rob maybe it is good you did not do that like Kid Rock

Overall Team Results
1 Blind $30,000
2 Girl $15,000
3 Toy Machine not sure like 5 k or something
4 Zero
5 Creature
6 Element
7 Black Label
8 Habitat
9 Foundation

Top Pro
Jani Laitiala $10,000? Maybe

Top Am
Jamie Tancowny $5,000

Full results
www.skateparkoftampa.com

Holmes - classic

There was crew of ripping groms there. This bowl is not easy to skate, to tight, coping sticks out to far and just overall wonkiness. This kid makes it look easy though

Super Smooth boneless

Tyler Mumma an all terrain ripper

Dave Reul is like the the king of Orange County

Another ripping grom

Christian Hosoi is the man! He is a survivor from being on top in the 80’s to being in prison and coming back and being positive about life and still ripping. One time I was at a party in Orange County in the early 90’s (when vert and skateboarding in general had died) and Christian was at a party at 4 am and I was thinking what the heck is he doing here. It was a downfall for him. ANyway he is on the right path now, rips and is the nicest dude to talk to

Tim Brauch Memorial Bowl  - Scotts Valley, CA

Pros:
1.    Benji Galloway - $1000 – Bacon Skateboards, Kronik Energy Drink, Ninja Bearings, Type S, Nash Motorcycles, Knuckle Clothing – Vancouver, WA
2.    Tim Johnson - $600 – Bacon Skateboards, Soledad Clothing, Type-S Wheels, Vox, Kona Skatepark, 187 Pads, Randoms – St. Marys, GA
3.    Joshua Sandoval - $400 – Scum, Deville – Fullerton, CA
4.    Sergie Ventura - $300 – Type-S Urethane, Rockstar, Hurley, Hosoi Skateboards, Etnies, Randoms
5.    Josh Balogh     - $200 -  Lake Cunningham Skatepark – San Jose, CA

Grandmasters:
1.    Christian Hosoi – $600 -  Quiksilver, Vans, Ninja, Khiro, Indy, Hosoi, Rockets, Nixon – Huntington Beach, CA
2.    Steve Caballero –  $400 -Vans, Powell, Sessions, Indy, Skull Candy, Autobahn Wheels, Pro Tec – San Jose, CA
3.    Duane Peters – $300 - Emergency, Indy, Draen, Khiro Skates, Skull Candy – Costa Mesa, CA
4.    Jason Parks – $200 -  Factory Boards – La Mesa, CA
5.    Greg Aguilar – $100 - San Jose, CA

Locals:
1.    Nate Linford – Halfpint Skateboards, Santa Cruz Sk8 Shop – Sunnyvale, CA
2.    Morris Kyle -
3.    Josh Balogh – Lake Cunningham Skatepark – San Jose, CA

Girls:
1.    Julie Kindstrand  -  $500 - Pocket Pistols Skateboards, Attic Skate Shop, Adio Shoes, 187 Pads, S-One Helmets, Madrid Fly Paper – Santa Ana, CA
2.    Megan Brown -  $300 – Gridlock Boards & Wheels – San Bernardino, CA
3.    Annie Sullivan -  $200 – Sector 9, Osiris, Zola Acqai, Fi-Hi – San Diego, CA

X Games Mexico

Street

1. Greg Lutzka
2. Chaz Ortiz
3. Tyler Hendley
4. Paul Rodriguez
5. Milton Martinez
6. Mario Sanez
7. Dayne Brummet
8. Felix May
9. Eric Koston
10. Terry Kennedy

Utah is run by Mormons so you would think the skateparks would suck - wrong. Utah has some pretty sick parks. South Jordan near Salt Lake is a favorite. Recently though a park was built near Park City, In Heber City to be exact. Probably the most unique thing about is the street area(s). There are kind of 4 different sections that could be skated seperatly or together. The aperk is open till 11, free, no pad nannies. It was definitely worth the detour from Salt Lake

Snake run into the street area

Street

Street section into the little pool shallow end to launch you back up

Big Ol Kidney

Deep Combi Pool

The medium bowl - so sick for all the scooter kids in town

I was there for way too short of a time. If you want to see more, check out Ray Zimmerman’s story here

http://www.concretedisciples.com/cd_articles/cd_articles4.php?articles=788″

Just randomly was watching the Search for Animal Chin on Fuel Tv the other night. There is a scene where Tommy Guerrero, Lance Mountain, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill search for Chin at Chris Bosrst’s ramp in Bakersfield. Also at the session were Ray Underhill (rip) Adrian Demain and a few others. The very next day I asked Adrian to do a trick from the movie. He said when he did this trick in the movie he was actually trying to do a version of the rocket air but never got enough airtime. The kids at the ramp (in 2008) were so stoked on Adrian’s new old trick. They were asking him if he just made it up and so on. Little did they know it was over 20 years ago when he did it

At a mere 14 Chaz Ortiz won the 4th stop of the Dew Tour this past weekend in Salt Lake City Utah. So that brings up the question, where will he go to next? Skateboarding seems to be getting as image conscious as say the fashion industry. You gotta ride certain brands, have a certain look or you can be doomed to a life of demos and contests only. Sucks but it is partially true. Most kids get into skateboarding because it is something that supposedly allows you to express your individuality. For the most part that is true but go down the wrong path with your image and it is contests for life. I first saw Chaz skate at the Volcom Damn Am about 2 years ago and thought “that kid is good if only he can get some power”. Well at the age of fourteen he is getting his power, if things keep continuing on the path that they are he will be good enough to not have to create some image and say f it all and do whatever he wants. Chaz has been coming up the Dew Tour ranks this year but in Salt Lake he beat some pretty heavy riders to take an un-disputed first place. It would be cool to see how he could fare against Chris Cole or any number of other guys.

Let’s see how he did it. The format was there were qualifiers on the weekdays. The finals consisted of the top 12 and they got two runs each. Of those 12 the top 6 were placed in a 7 minute jam. The best of the first 2 runs counted as 60% of the score and the final jam counted as 40% or so it was overheard. Usually in the top 5, P-rod was having an off day and taking some bails, of course an off day for him is a super good day for most skateboarders but he only got 8th overall. Greg Lutzka qualified 3rd for the final jam but ended up 4th overall. Rodolfo Ramos qualified 5th or 6th for the final jam but consistency paid off and he got 4th overall. Ryan Shckler bailed on his first of 2 runs but his run was so tough that he ended up in first. Chaz had no bails his first run but had a less challenging run and ended up tying Ryan for first after run one. They both stepped it up a bit more but Ryan did not fall on his second, more challenging run and was first going into the final jam. In the final jam it was neck and neck until about halfway through when Chaz walked away with it. So nice work Chaz.

The Salt Lake stop was sponsored by Toyota and you could drive around in a “Lutzka tuned car” which is probably not a big deal if you are all over 30, driven a million miles and jaded but surely the young kids were stoked on it

The course looked fun - picnic tables, jersey barriers and the first time in the arena for the Dew Tour. It was the biggest crowd for a street skate contest at the Dew Tour so far. A lot of the Dew Tour events are sold out but this time more seats were available for street. BMX, usually indoors was outside, hmm does that mean skateboarding draws more people?

P-rod - not having problems here

Chaz Ortiz kickflips to front lip. You think this is hard wait till you see what he does at the end of the event - some Rodney Mullen type stuff on a rail

Sheckler girls, this picture either stokes you or make you super bummed

Rodolfo Ramos with a big ollie up and over the gap to lipslide

Adam Dyet is from Salt Lake and had a lot of fans in the arena. I asked him if he slept in his old bed at his parents he so, they live too far from downtown and he stayed in a hotel

Adam Dyet - 5-0

Goo Goo Ramos does a super solid front 190 to switch over crooks, you could here the clank throughout the venue

Sheckler gets the big transfer. Later on in the contest this gap is where things changed. Sheckler and Ortiz were both trying to back 180 flip this transfer and Ortiz got it first, Sheckler did not even try the back 180 flip transfer after that

Sheckler - kickflip to back lip

P-rod - switch front flip

Kurtis Colamonico blunts to fakie

Greg Lutzka - 270 to blunt

Carlos De Andrade - Tre flip

Sheckler up and over

Chaz Ortiz - kickflip to front board to kickflip out, this pretty much sealed the deal for Chaz

Chaz with a nollie 270 to back lip

Ryan - right after finals but before the winner was announced

Dyet

Chaz, right before he was announced the winner

and right after he was announced the winner. So he goes back and tells his friends, yea I won 15k and Ryan Sheckler this weekend and asks them what they did and they will say, oh played video games

Of course Salt lake is home to the center of the Mormon religion and here is the Temple. Just some local stuff

1 Chaz Ortiz
2 Ryan Sheckler
3 Rodolfo Ramos
4 Greg Lutzka
5 Carlos De Andrade
6 Austen Seaholm

Oregon has endless parks, unfortunately for me this is the end of the line for my Oregon explorations. I could be happy spending days each of the parks, skating, shooting and so on. Met some cool people skated so much good stuff.

Holly Farms is in SW Portland, just off the I-5 and built by Dreamland. It sits in a little park just like the swings; no fence, no real rules, just a little skatepark, no big deal. Pretty much every town should have parks like this. It is shaped like a donut with a little spine in the middle. It is kind of a challenge to ride. At first it seems kind of like a stupid design but the more time you spend there the more you see the lines. It is not straightforward like say a kidney, then again you may not get as bored as a kidney

The roll in into the Holly Farms Bowl had some sick lines in and of itself. So funny there was someone skating Holly Farms that I had seen the week prior almost 300 miles away at Brookings

You could skate these brick banks for hours at Holly Farms

Tigard is another Dreamland piece of work, recently finished. The flow area has this little double section that offers a ton of transfer lines.

Here is the left side of the flow bowl. It backs up to a mini bowl and the skateable dinosaur. Man I wish I had more time to get some decent photos on the trip

Some ledges drop you into the big square bowl with ALL sorts of crazy obstacles; brick banks, a volcano with a top the goes a round, transition to banks, a dinosaur hip, a square bowl and more!

You could air this hip and tap the dinosaur – so rad

The Volcano (the top of it spins) the steep ass brick banks and on the left the beginning of the big ass bank wall

wtf? A square corner craziness at Tigard

Pier Park is a GNARLY park, tons of vert in this bowl and you could spend tons of time figuring this out. There is smaller stuff too but it was getting time to move along

Benji Galloway at Pier Park, this photo was stolen too I did not take it but still wanted to share it with you. If you were going to do a skate trip Oregon should be one of your top picks. I have only scratched the surface here too there is way more

Bad Ass is this this photo of Mike Barnes going frontal through the corner at Tigard! It shows the gnarliness of Oregon. The photo was taken by John Yonker and stolen from Concrete Disciples, they got a good little article on the Trifecta comin up
Check out concretedisciples.com

I continue on with the Oregon series. Part 4 was snowboarding, part 5 was the Dew Tour Vert. Portland Oregon is one of the cities with possibly the most amount of skateparks per capita in the US. It has a goal of having 16 skateparks in the city limits alone, plus many suburbs have parks (like West Linn, Newberg, Battleground, WA, etc) of their own. This plus the fact that Portland has some “edge” to it and is an arty forward thinking town makes it a prime place to visit, hell, to live. The rain is the only drawback but the rain is what makes it so beautiful and I think the rain is what makes it more arty and social so whatevs.

“I am so sick of the fucking Portland skateboarders, they think they are so punk and shit, they just think Burnside is the shit. They are a bunch of dirtbags, you hang out them and next you know your wallet is gone” That quote is not from me. I experienced nothing but cool people up in Oregon. There are rumblings around Burnside though being a locals kind of place. Sorry to admit I don’r know about that

Burnside is pretty much the Grandfather of modern transition skating. Burnside came about in the early 90’s right when vert was dying. Burnside was the first real, free cement skatepark. Since then there are free cement skateparks in every town and kids take the parks for granted. Transition riding is booming. Imagine if Red and crew never took the effort to build Burnside. Would we still be stuck with just vert and street skating?

Someone could pretty much make a book on Burnside, there has been so much that has happened there. Unfortunately my little article will be grossly in-adequate. Speaking of gross, this little bowl had a small puddle of yellow liquid at the bottom. Was it pee or Easter egg die?

As you can tell in the photos, the park was pretty empty. This was about 9 am on a Saturday morning

Glenhaven is a fairly new park, located off 82nd street just North of I-84. It is pretty small but has something for all, street, bowl, banks, mini bowl, tons of fun

looking down the street rat area

The mini bowl

The peanut bowl was steep but fun. Check out the bench with the whoop de doos. Dreamland makes every inch of a park skateable…it’s the details

the street area

GNARLY kink, Oregon parks dare you to step it up

another view, again , this was early in the morning and bikers were having at it

these banks alone could provide hours of fun at Glenhaven

on the little qp end section. Glehaven is long and narrow. It has flow, you could skate the street/flow area without putting a foot down. The two bowls sit next to the street/flow area