Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
Video by Joe Pelham and Steve Buggicia
Reynolds and crew were here all weekend hanging out and skating
Every Contest starts out with the fetus division. These kids are fearless. Cameron Miller is tiny, but he knows not to touch the nose on blunt fakies
When Dustin Drakesmith found out he got 4th in the 9 to 12 Division, it looked like he just stuck his finger in an electrical socket. He was hyped. Glad you had a fun time and ripped in your runs, Dustin
Blunts - okay. Airwalks - hmm, okay I guess. Blunts combined with airwalks - not okay, even if you're David Gonzales. I hope you understand that I'm laughing the whole time I type silly opinions and banter like this. It's just enterhatement. I liked Alejandro Burnell's airwalk so much I asked him if could shoot a photo
Cameron Balliette is about 35 years too young to be doing early grabs - ha. Looks good, though, and it got him 2nd place in 8 and Under
Austin Butler rides for "You Scared" clothing. He ain't scared to deck check. Cutoff shorts sure have taken a solid spot in the skateboard fashion world this year
Max Renner's only 5 years old and he's about to reach the coping. I bet he probably has a cell phone with girls' numbers in it already, too
Zion Wright dog pissed his way to 5th in the 9 to 12 Division. I think he may have actually made the Bennie look sorta good, or at least fun
Cameron Miller's hiked up pants from knee pad clamping reminds me of early 90's vert skaters
Dakota Hunt is far from locked in tight on this 50-50, but he's going to commit 100% anyway, as everyone seems to do when they're pre-teen
I always wanted a nice downward pointing, clean looking ollie like Clint Bestwick here. I got stuck with the flat ones
Dustin Drakesmith - extra hyped boardslide
Jake Mannino - switch frontside 180 on his way to 12th in the 9 to 12 Division
Look at that front foot. Wouldn't you abandon ship at this point? Not Logan Reeves. He's 100% committed and took a 100% pile up one second after this photo was shot. High fives to everyone going for it like this all day long
Clint Bestwick won the 9 to 12 Division. This is a half cab
Pre-teens start out with funny looking kickflips, then they grow up and get good looking kickflips, then they're going to turn 30 and be back to funny looking kickflips like me. Except, I've always had funny looking kickflips. Brennan Campbell is lucky he's going to grow out of his soon
Maybe Dustin Drakesmith had his finger in the electrical socket before this funny looking kickflip. As with all these kids, I'm sure we'll see an amazing improvement by the the time the next Contest rolls around
Kevin Sikes has nothing funny looking. It's all proper, like this nollie bigspin
I think Tyler Hunger's legs are a foot longer than the last time I saw him. Funny looking kickflips are almost faded away for him. I missed the photo, though. Tyler, if you're going to combine the kickflip with this 50-50, make sure the kickflip is at the beginning and not the end if you want to look more grown up. 50-50 kickflip out is the classic tyke move. It's like the tech blunt nosegrab
Noah Berger has a nice downward pointing ollie, too
Who dat? Extra funny looking kickflip
Based on the place he got, I'm guessing Patrick Fischbach might not have made this 360 flip in his run
Jacob Portillo has either lost weight or gained pants. That's a frontside 360 nosegrab
It was white hot outside when you were not in the shade. That's Frosty's hot dog line. I only eat hot dogs when I'm at Skatepark of Tampa
Laura Fong-Yee wins practice every time. Then when it comes time for her run, it's like she's getting shot at, bailing everything. This is a lipslide, made only during practice
Alex Bibiloni went right back behind the Snack Bar counter serving pizza after this rock fakie on the bank to wall
Laura Fong-Yee - ollie, during practice, of course
Maybe everyone did the class pictures formation because it was back to school time?
Looks like class pictures are still in session back there. Those are the 8 and Under winners
How is everyone so well behaved for the class pictures? Here are the 9 to 12 Division winners
Dustin Drakesmith, electrified
Top five in the Girls' Division was only four people, so good-bye Girls' Division. You're skating with the dudes next time
Class pictures session is no longer well behaved now that there's a product toss
Kevin Sikes - lazy 360 flip
DJ AlBow is not good enough for Shane Carter and his headphones
Who dat? The slob air is usually reserved for skateboarders old enough to be having a mid-life crisis
Andrew Reynolds and the Altamont team came this weekend just for the Contest. Thanks for backing it. They'll be back next year, too
All of the trophies were signed by the Altamont team
Kanaan Dern is smith grinding to 5th place in the 13 to 15 Divsion
Sam Rooks is smith grinding in the 13 to 15 Division, too
This is Frosty's boy, Devin Bagnoli, lipsliding and looking like a baby Tyler Bledsoe
Kevin Sikes - kickflip frontside boardslide
Shane Carter - peace sign, dreadlocks, one love, one non-funny looking kickflip
Kanaan Dern - frontside nosegrind
13 to 15 Division winners
16 and Up Division winners
Will Watson - backside bigspin
Damn, forgot your name, man. Who dat? Some people like Nick Trapasso make the bad gear look good. Other people, however, make the bad gear look even worse
While all of this was going on inside the Park, Andrew Reynolds was outside getting photos with kids, signing phones, and even answering some kids' phones. That kid right there asked Andrew why he hasn't frontside flipped El Toro. Andrew's reply: "Because that would hurt"
Garrett Hill, thanks for signing autographs
Andrew Reynolds and Bryan Herman, out of focus like my mind. It's been a long day
Jereme Knibbs - frontside 360
Ray Ray - backside bigspin
I'm counting on the rest of the Skatepark of Tampa Documentation Team to have footage of all the skating I missed. That's Steve Buggica and Joe Pelham who will be coming through with footage soon
Ray Ray - 360 flip
The peace sign is the photo gesture of choice. Thanks for the mic entertainment, Jorge and Body. Bryan Herman and Brian Schaefer, thanks for gracing us with your presence
One last peace sign from Garrett Hill and we'll see you next year. Thanks so much, Altamont
Sponsored Finals
1:Jereme Knibbs. Sponsors: SPoT, Toy Machine (flow), Dekline, Pig Wheels. Age 17 from Tampa
2:Alex Pellegrino. Sponsors: DVS (flow), Powell(flow), Bones Wheels (flow), Ninja (flow), Destructo. Age 14 from Tampa
3:Paul Torrento. Sponsors: Vans(flow). Age ? from Longwood
4:RayRay. Age 17
5:Dylan Perry. Sponsors: SPoT, Etnies, Alien, Bones, Destructo . Age 21 from Tampa
6:blake carpenter. Sponsors: stoneedge . Age 17 from flagler beach
Sponsored Qualifiers
1:RayRay. Age 17
2:Jereme Knibbs. Sponsors: SPoT, Toy Machine (flow), Dekline, Pig Wheels. Age 17 from Tampa
3:Dylan Perry. Sponsors: SPoT, Etnies, Alien, Bones, Destructo . Age 21 from Tampa
4:Paul Torrento. Sponsors: Vans(flow). Age ? from Longwood
5:blake carpenter. Sponsors: stoneedge . Age 17 from flagler beach
6:Alex Pellegrino. Sponsors: DVS (flow), Powell(flow), Bones Wheels (flow), Ninja (flow), Destructo. Age 14 from Tampa
7:Alex Brawley. Sponsors: DVS (flow) , Street One. Age 17 from Naples
8:Dalton Dern. Sponsors: Etnies, Venom Energy Drink, Pro Tec, Kona Skatepark, Stone Edge Skatepark. Age 17 from Orlando
9:Christopher Jata. Age 23 from Springhill
10:Jacob Portillo. Sponsors: XLR8 Skate shop. Age 18 from DeBary
11:Jacob Sykes. Sponsors: Kona, 8103 Clothing, DGK flow. Age 18 from Jacksonville
12:Sean Jeffries. Age 19 from Lakeland
13:Mike Espinosa. Sponsors: Nike, JSLV, Westside, Bones, City Stars. Age 21 from Springhill
14:Dylan Durkin. Age 15 from Cocoa Beach
15:Will Watson. Sponsors: 8103 clothing,Sunrise,Monavie. Age 21 from Jacksonville
16:Tommy Presley. Age 23 from Zephryhills
17:Brent Sowinski. Sponsors: Westside, DC. Age 19 from Clearwater
18:Yonis Molina. Sponsors: Westside, 8103, Cons, Force, Bones. Age 21 from Port Richey
19:Justin Atchley. Sponsors: compound boardshop. Age 15 from Sarasota,FL
20:Wyatt Woodward. Sponsors: Team Stoneedge. Age 18 from Daytona Beach
21:Matt Benevides. Sponsors: Westside. Age 16 from Port Richey
22:Jimmy Mastrocolo. Sponsors: Westside, Element, Nike. Age 17 from Port Richey
23:Anthony Henderson. Age ?
24:JP MESSNER. Sponsors: V-Town Surf and Skate. Age 16 from Venice
25:Nick Blanco. Sponsors: 8103 Clothing, Square One. Age 18 from Jacksonville
26:michael fish. Sponsors: none. Age 18 from tampa
27:JAMIE FOY. Sponsors: ISLAND WATER SPORTS, FORCE TRUCKS. Age 13 from FT LAUDERDALE
28:Gio GEORGALLIS. Sponsors: sunrise . Age 15 from Jacksonville
29:Steven O'Donnell. Age 16 from Viera, Fl
30:garrett miller. Sponsors: Covert skate shop. Age 15 from winter springs
31:AJ Flores. Sponsors: skatelab. Age 17 from JACKSONVIlLE
32:nathan kirkland. Sponsors: kona. Age 18 from jacksonville
33:David Morefield. Sponsors: . Age 19 from cocoa beach
34:Nick Zizzo. Sponsors: Circa Combat, Brotherhood Skateboard shop, Rob Hoovas. Age 17 from Fo Town, FLa
35:David McMinn. Sponsors: Square One. Age 18 from Jacksonville
16 and Up
1:piro sierre. Age 18 from pasco
2:Cory Falls . Sponsors: GSZ. Age 16 from Melbourne
3:John Dilorenzo. Age 16 from Jupiter
4:Dimitri Constantine Rangos. Sponsors: none. Age 18 from Tampa
5:Connor Askew. Sponsors: Orlando Skate Park, Schtank Skateboards. Age 15 from Orlando
6:Shawn Mashcer . Sponsors: GSZ. Age 16 from Palm Bay
7:Favain Rubio. Age 17 from Jacksonville
8:jonathan morefield. Age 13 from cocoa beach
9:paul holt. Age 16 from holiday
10:Jeff Ray. Sponsors: Food Apparel. Age 16 from B-Town
11:Cody Harper. Age 17 from Tampa
12:Jimmy Lashley. Age 16 from Naples
13:Kyle Chambers. Sponsors: GSZ. Age 18 from Palm Bay
14:Christian Patterson. Age 16 from Bradenton
15:Michael Magalhaes. Age 16 from Stuart, Florida
16:Spike Lamy. Sponsors: Worship Skateboards (flow). Age 16 from Brooksville Florida
17:matt flanagan. Sponsors: mellow skateboards, food apparel, yardskateshopRIP. Age 18 from Bradenton
18:Michael Wolfe. Sponsors: GSZ. Age 18 from Melbourne
19:Josh Vincente. Age 16 from Tampa
20:Brandon Baker. Sponsors: Beamer Sunglasses . Age 18 from Tampa
21:Christian Baker. Age 16 from Tampa
22:Isaiah hunter. Age 18 from Tampa, florida
23:Blake Kovarik. Sponsors: GSZ. Age 16 from Palm Bay
24:andy james. Age 20 from new port richey
25:marshall nicholson. Age 17 from fort myers
26:Kwayne. Age ?
27:Marlee Miller. Sponsors: Dread or Dead. Age 16 from Port Richey,FL
28:brian orourke. Age 16 from titusville
29:laroi wright. Sponsors: modern cultures and awkwa apperal. Age 16 from jupiter
30:steven jolly. Age 99 from tampa
31:Michael Pellegrino. Age 16 from Tampa
32:Robert keeney. Age 16 from titusville, fl
13 to 15
1:DANIEL ARIAS. Sponsors: SHRED-SHED AND VENGEANCE CLOTHING. Age 14 from STUART
2:matt finley. Sponsors: skates usa. Age 15 from lake worth
3:Salomon Cardenas. Sponsors: Street One. Age 15 from Naples
4:kevin sikes. Sponsors: F54, Go Skate . Age 15 from Deltona
5:Kanaan Dern. Sponsors: Orlando Skatepark. Age 15 from Orlando
6:Devin Bagnoli. Age 13 from Daytona Beach
7:Devin Apello. Age ?
8:Shane Carter. Sponsors: Newblood Skateshop. Age 15 from Titusville
9:Sam Rooks. Sponsors: GSZ, CBS, Orgin Trucks. Age 14 from Cocoa Beach
10:Michael Carranza. Age 15 from Lake Worth
11:Brian(Yoda) Upapong. Age 14 from Orlando
12:eric testerman. Sponsors: none. Age 13 from eustis
13:josh wade. Sponsors: none. Age 14 from lakeland
14:Jared Barker. Age 14 from Tampa
15:Jamie Ceruti . Sponsors: GSZ . Age 15 from Cocoa Beach
16:Riley Grubb. Sponsors: GSZ. Age 13 from Palm Bay
17:nick donnell. Sponsors: vengance clothing. Age 15 from Kissimmee
18:spencer evans. Sponsors: cove skate and surf,krown skateboards. Age 13 from Brandon
19:Haze Miller. Sponsors: Dread or Dread. Age 13 from Port richey,FL
20:devin murphy. Age 13 from new port richey
21:Javier Leguillow . Sponsors: GSZ. Age 15 from Palm Bay
22:Manny Amerelli. Age ?
23:Ricardo Maldonado. Sponsors: Mellow Skateboards, Thumbs Up Clothing. Age 15 from Palmetto
24:Jake Blue. Age 13 from Bradenton
25:Chris Mata. Sponsors: Street One skate shop (flow). Age 13 from Naples,FL
26:isaac gentile. Age 14 from Tampa
27:Gus Baker. Age 13 from Naples
28:Reyce Haynes. Age 14 from Tampa
29:Trevin Reese. Sponsors: none. Age 14 from Brandon
30:RONNIE GERONIMO. Sponsors: OLD SCHOOL COMPOUND. Age 13 from LAKELAND
31:Logen Branch. Sponsors: (Parents) Garage Door Professionals, Inc.. Age 14 from Lakewood Ranch
32:Xavier Oliveras. Age ?
33:Cameron Hunt. Sponsors: none. Age 15 from Tampa
9 to 12
1:Clint Beswick. Sponsors: GSZ. From Palm Bay
2:Dakota Hunt. Sponsors: GSZ. From Palm Bay
3:Cameron Miller. From Clearwater
4:Dustin Drakesmith. Sponsors: GSZ. From Longwood
5:zion wright. Sponsors: modern cultures and awkwa apperal.
6:Tyler Hunger. Sponsors: The Compound; Navigator Trucks (flow); Deville Wheels (flow) .
7:Alejandro Burnell. Sponsors: Peter Glenn Sports.
8:Noah Berger. Sponsors: GSZ.
9:Brennan Campbell. Sponsors: Ghetto Skateboards, Lonan Clothing Inc, 688. From Clearwater
10:Andrew Harned . Sponsors: GSZ.
11:Jake DeGeare. From St. Pete
12:jake mannino. From springhill
13:Mark Robinson. Sponsors: GSZ.
14:Taylor DeGeare.
15:Christian White. From Okeechobee
16:Steven Leonardi.
17:Logan Reeves. From Longwood
18:Jesse Alderman.
19:Hunter Hall. Sponsors: GSZ. From Palm Bay
20:jonas kaiser.
21:Travis Marquart. Sponsors: None.
22:Wyatt Soares. Sponsors: none.
23:patrick fischbach.
24:demerius berkeley. Sponsors: none. From wesley chapel
25:Keegan Branch. Sponsors: (Parents) Garage Door Professionals, Inc.. From Lakewood Ranch
8 and Under
1:Austin Butler. Sponsors: YOU SCARED, GLOBE. From Naples
2:Cameron Balliette. Sponsors: Old School Compound. From Lakeland
3:Connor Hunger. From Sarasota
4:Braden Hunger. From Sarasota
5:Max Renner. From Wellington, FL
6:Braden Smith. From AF Brat (currently Valrico)
7:Trip McKinlay. Sponsors: none. From Sarasota
Girls
1:Stacie Roberts. Sponsors: Airspeed, Stone Edge, Autobahn (flow), LVBC. From Daytona Beach, FL
2:Alex Biblioni. From Tampa
3:Laura Fong-Yee. Sponsors: Old School Compound. From Tampa/Miami
4:Meagan Guy. Sponsors: GSZ. From Palm Bay
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.
