The images below can also be viewed as a slide show.
Maybe the vert skaters that didn't come were busy filming for their vert video part that everyone in skateboarding is so highly anticipating? Nah, that can't be it. Mark Appleyard and Geoff Rowley are here and they're filming for Extremely Sorry. Maybe that video isn't as important as the new vert video that's going to change skateboarding
At least there were 30 kids in the Am Vert Contest. Unfortunately, the bottom 15 or so was
a kickturn contest so we're going to have to cut that out for next year and wait for them to get a few years older. This backside disaster Dalton Dern is doing is one of the only lip tricks besides a 50-50 that was done in the Am Vert Contest. Lip tricks are hard. Learn them from Mike Frazier
One of my favorite photos of the weekend is from the Am Vert Contest and it's Zach Miller here doing an Indy nosebone
Chris Gentry
This is my favorite photo from the Street Contest. Tony Manfre came from the kahuna and ollied out to this backside tailslide on the bank to wall. One day far in the future, Tony Manfre is going to be Team Manager of the Year. He always emails me ahead of time to make sure everything's squared up with his registration prior to making the trip to Tampa
Did you see Stefan Janoski's girlfriend at the Party? She's bangin' like a Stefan switch flip. Apparently she's some kind of model in NYC
I think the last time I saw Dylan Taylor skate was when he was part of the kickturn contest. He's growing up and ripping now
Man this trick is so confusing to imagine yourself doing it. Mike Frazier - switch hurricane fakie
Mike Frazier - backside tailgrab, shoe included
This is Aquil Brathwaite's first pro contest. He's pro for City Stars now
I still get nervous like a little kid when I'm around Mike Carroll. I can't just walk up an introduce myself when we're
at the bar or where ever. Thanks for coming to our Contest, Mr. Carroll
Darrell Stanton doesn't even need to look where he's going. That's how you skate a pro snake session. UPDATE: Oops, I made the politically incorrect mistake of getting my black dudes mixed up. That's Aquil, not Darrell. Sorry about that
Adam Dyet - kickfrip meron
I got a nice email from Sam Beckett thanking us for doing the Am Vert Contest. Nice dude with a big ol' kickfrip meron. Bring that back next year if we can find any sponsors that want to sink massive amounts of economic waste into a skateboard contest that skateboarders don't support
Ronaldo Gomes won the Am Vert. Thanks for all the help with Spanish translation during registration for everyone with "no speeka Engrish" status
Seems like everyone does 540's now, but not like Pedro Barros and his stale ones
I think Nick Dompierre is the originator of the Tampa Kit
Chaz Ortiz is in that weird phase where his board company hasn't formally announced him as a pro, but he's pretty much pro and skating pro contests. There's no looking back now. Chaz Ortiz is skating like a pro and in fact is pro
Billy Rohan is always one of the first to sign up for Tampa Pro each year. Thanks for coming, Billy. That's a crooked grind pop-over
Jani Laitiala is one of my favorite Euros. Lately he's been killing it and having a great time all around the world at events we do. Tampa was no exception. This is a nollie backside heelflip
Like DGK, Dirty Ghetto Kids, there should be a company called CCVA, Clean Cut Vert Adults. You won't find the CCVA in the streets and now, not even in the plain old skate parks. Thanks for keeping it dirty with us, Jackson Curtin. That's a kickflip wallride
I bet more people would probably show up if we had the contest at Jordan Price's backyard vert ramp. He might be the only kid in the country with one
Maybe we should pour a ton of loot into getting the vert ramp moved and rebuilt in Ybor City at a bar/club scene to make it extra cool so the Vert Contest would have it's own special setting and venue with a much larger crowd watching and being exposed to great skateboarding. Then we can personally email all the top vert pros to let them know what's up a few months before the contest so they can add it to their schedules. That should really get anyone who truly loves skateboarding to show up. Maybe we'll do that next year. Oh wait, we did that last year. Same pathetic turnout. I don't think we've done enough. We should move the ramp to the Grand Canyon and issue parachutes with entry
I heard PLG was pretty bummed about yet another year without any vert support. Thanks for coming year after year anyway, PLG. See you next year. Well, maybe
Mikey Taylor is one of my new favorites after seeing him skate in person so much all week. Up until a few months ago I had never even seen him in person
It's always hard shooting photos of Dennis Busenitz. He doesn't have to try tricks over and over to make them and he pretty much decides what he's doing as he's cruising 100mph around the course. This is a kickflip
This was also Danny Falla's first Tampa Pro Contest. Welcome to the pro ranks, Danny
Ed Selego - noseblunt slide
I think this was Keegan Sauder's first time in Tampa Pro, too
Wow, that's how you ollie out of a smith grind. Justin Strubing is going up the escalator on it, too
Mikey Taylor - nollie frontside boardslide
Robert Lopez is now pro for Substance Skateboards. We have to send them an invoice for banner space from all their giant stickers they tagged the Park up with. Maybe I'll just add it to next year's entry fee? This is a kickflip over the rail. Thanks for coming all the way from Puerto Rico, Robert
Reese Forbes still has the snaps. Now we just need Quiksilver to uncancel the Reese Forbes High Ollie Challenge
Reese Forbes - ollie up the stairs
Thanks for coming all the way from Australia, Chad Bartie. That's a bsts
Dennis Busenitz - 360 flip
Tony Manfre - frontside flip
P-Rod had this switch frontside bluntslide on lockdown. In his run in the Finals, he tried to finish it off with a shuv it out of this, but didn't make it. That would have put him in first
John Rattray - 360 flip
T-Bone - gap lip
Peter Ramondetta - feeble grind across and down
Anthony Shetler - nollie nosegrind
Ed Selego hit me up yesterday for a Contest spot then showed up today and did one of the hardest tricks so far of the weekend. Too bad this was after time in his run, but Schaefer still threw out a hundo for it. Ed is off Habitat by the way. Who's picking up?
Looks like the Kiddie Course isn't going to be done until tomorrow. Here's some photos from our first session on the main course and some random bar antics at Skateboard Industry Night in St. Pete: A New Course and a New Bar Scene.
You can get a fisheye's view of the completed street course on the SPoT Facebook Page. If you're a fan of SPoT on Facebook, you already know that we sometimes do special sales and give out coupon codes there. Maybe there might be a special just for Facebook fans next week? Who knows? Maybe. The kiddie course isn't done yet. Photos from that coming up in a bit.
On the Win an All Expense Paid Trip to Tampa survey thing, I should have added, "Stay away from the Skatpeark of Tampa Party Team" as one of the options to prevent your skateboard career from derailing. When you come to Tampa, it's easy to get spinning in the party tornado, especially when 200 of your homies are all in the Ybor hotels or the Ho Jo. If the sauce is not your scene or you're trying not to make it your scene, a nice hotel for a decent price just a few minutes up the highway from SPoT is Days Inn. If you're just looking for a lower price room, a cab ride from there to the tornado in Ybor is probably about $15 or so. There's also another Days Inn on Dale Mabry that's across the street from Mons Venus. They don't serve booze there, just boobies. Boobies never hurt anyone's career. Anyway, you have some time left to enter the Tampa trip giveaway which comes with a hotel room and $500 spending cash, among other things. Since you're not skating, we will see you at all the parties that you get passes to.
I went out to shoot photos of the Kiddie Course construction and spotted Kris Markovich hanging out. Here's what things look like as of now. Gotta go, I have a conference call with 25 people from Fuel TV. 25 people??? Yep, mindblowing. It's about the live HD webcast for Tampa Am. They should put this phone conference on live webcast.
If your company has products on our site, you're welcome to a free ad in our banner pool. On your company's product page, only the ad from your company will show up. On all other pages like articles, photos, and skater profiles, your ad will display randomly from the pool of ads. The size is 970x100 and no animation is allowed. You can update it as often as you want. Email them to me at rob@skateparkoftampa.com. Below are some samples from a few companies that have sent some in already.
The main street course is done and skateable today. The kiddie course should be done late tomorrow or Saturday. Check out some construction progress: Street Course Construction and Completion 2009.
If you're in St. Pete tomorrow night, join us at Durty Nelly's for an event that The Finest Skate Shop is putting on called Skateboard Industry Night, appropriately abbreviated as SIN.
The winners for the Globe Cruiser completes have been picked. I know at least one of them is a local - Yonis came out on top. See you on the Booze Cruise this Friday. The first $600 worth of sauce is all on me. The trucks on these boards are called "Slant" as in my eyes. Sick.
What song is this in this Tampa Am promo video? That one dude, you know, the guy who will be at Tampa Am 2009 on December 3 at SPoT then
on Friday, December 4, doing a show in Ybor for our 17-Year Anniversary Party at Czar. Yeah, him. Oh, and there could be a little bit of ripping skating going on.
Today the staff at SPoT got started on putting together all the skateboard parts collected in the Shop all year long. Through your discarded skate stuff and contributions from your favorite skate companies, we build as many completes as we can and give them away to as many kids as we can find in the underprivileged neighborhoods in our area. We call this charity Boards for Bros. Check out a few photos from what we did today: Boards for Bros November 2009 Assembly.
If you haven't entered the Globe Cruiser Board giveaway yet, you have one more day for that. Tomorrow, all the emails go into a spreadsheet and get sorted random. The top two get a Globe Cruiser complete. On Friday night for the Booze Cruise, the first $600 of sauce is paid for by eBay shoe nerds who bought some of my old Dunks.
One commenter suggested we change the website every year like we do the street course. As soon as we get one of me for every construction dude out there, we can make that happen. Check out some street course construction that just started. In case you don't know, we have completely changed the street course every single year since 1993 when this place was born. This is the first year we've had a slab of granite, however.
Stalker Steve took some nice chill shots at the Harvest Jam this weekend. The skate ones are sort of like the bennihanna of photography, not that mine were any good either. I know we both can do better than that. Check them out: Stalker Steve at the Harvest Jam 2009.
A known hater on the Skatepark of Tampa Facebook page also has photos from the Harvest Jam. Thanks Kirk Hallinan. I'm putting you on the next cover of Frontside Grind Magazine.
