Words by Ryan Clements
Footage by Colin Clark
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
2010 was off to a mellow start, but that all ended with this year’s first trip of many to California. The reasons for this trip were multiple...the ASR Trade Show, CrossRoads (which was right next door to ASR this year), and of course the Damn Am Awards 2009.
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but a few years ago we used to have a lot of free time at ASR. Nowadays it’s meetings, seminars, and work, work, work. From the time I land in SD to the time I leave, there is never a moment where a meeting isn’t planned or an event isn’t being set up. Not complaining…just saying.
So we’ve been working with ASR for over 10 years and always try to come up with some sort of skateboarding event to break up the monotony of heading booth to booth. This time around we paired up with Volcom and came up with a $10,000 purse. How do you come up with a $10,000 purse for a mini-ramp jam? I’m not quite sure nowadays, but ASR and Volcom made it happen.
The plan was no plan at all. We were just hoping that some legit dudes would show up and skate. But Schaefer did a damn good job of recruiting heavy hitters from next door at CrossRoads and it was on. There were actually more rippers than we expected and the idea of splitting the skaters into heats was thrown around, but soon decided against because Jake Phelps and the Anti-Hero crew was in attendance and we knew that they would think we were kooks if we made it less gnar.
In addition to handing out 50’s and 100’s to anyone that pulled something sick, there were jams on the plastic barrier, Volcom Stone, and overall ramp. Here’s who got what:
Overall Ripping
1st – Brad McClain - $800 – who is this dude?
2nd – George Evans - $500 – kickflip from extension into ramp
3rd – Shawn Hale - $300 – killing it
4th – Gershon Mosley - $200 – bs heelflip 360 two feet out
Barrier
1st – David Loy - $1,500 – fs blunt on barrier and lipslide from barrier to lipslide on extension
2nd – Willy Akers - $1,000 – fs tailslide to fakie on barrier and fs smith on barrier to tailslide on extension
1st – Shawn Gutierrez - $1,500 – Consolidated’s finest did a fs 5-0 off the Stone
2nd – Andrew Langi - $1,000 – fs smith to fakie on the Stone
3rd – Div - $500 – straight from Scotland to bs tailslide off the Stone
The Damn Am Babies were checking people in to skate. Everyone on our staff has to work.
Even when Schaefer is dressed white collar, he's still blue collar.
Philly locals, Fred Gall and Vern Laird.
This maniac simply goes by Div.
Imagine the chaos of a snake session on this thing.
Bill Weiss and his 540's were the side show. Good thing he had clothes on.
George Evans later made this kickfrip meron in clean, but I like the collision one better.
I wonder what Jake Phelps is saying to Steve Rodriguez from 5Boro.
Andrew Langi - smith stall to fakie.
Schaefer gave Jake Phelps the Breath of the Year award and this mint.
The Hager twins both rip the skate life and the nightlife.
I'm still waiting for the day Curren and Louie both grow two feet overnight and shave their heads.
Sean Gutierrez won first and $1,500 for this 5-0 in.
It's now after hours and we're in a bar with dark red light. Mike Franklin still has that tat.
Another legit photographer - this time it's Shad Lambert.
Colin Clark and I are now just getting lost around the show and the city looking for anything to shoot photos of that will give me ammo to talk crap on. I wonder what Larry David would say to this kid.
There must have been a special on haircuts. Chase Webb got one, too.
We're now on San Diego street lurk, taking photos of random strangers. Interesting styles the ladies have going on here with many more of the smoking than you'd expect, especially in uptight California.
The Rodney Johnson family was out for a Sunday stroll. Wait, it's not Sunday, it just feels like Sunday because right now Colin and I don't have a single thing to do in the middle of the day.
This entrance to San Diego's Gaslamp District is across the street from the Convention Center.
How to make a Smart Car look dumb.
San Diego has the best bums out. This dude has the shopping cart version of a pickup truck.
Bungee guy and his man purse could hop curbs but the train tracks were too much for him.
There's usually free beer, but we ran into this area of the show where there was free champagne instead. Where are we?
Things are getting weird...
Oh, it's a fashion show!
I wonder if it took her an hour to figure that outfit out like it does most girls.
This little girl is leaning what it's going to be like in the harsh world of skin and thread deep beauty. It's the same way in the sketchy skateboard industry.
Super hero tight pants - I don't know about that style in jeans.
More super hero pants, this time they're not jeans.
This girl looks good. I'm flipping my hair and shooting with a pinky in the air for my new fashion photographer career.
Wow, it's just like at the strip bar when there's a lap dance special and they call come out at once.
From runway models straight to Duane Peters, you get it all at ASR. There's the reason they call these laybacks.
The Convention Center has some dangerous full pipes.
Let's come back and I'll shoot a sequence of you dropping in.
So we killed an hour and now it's time for the CrossRoads Best Trick to start. We have Frank Gerwer's nose and Jake Phelps on the mic.
Then the sword rail came out and everyone had to size it up, including Jamie Thomas.
Brandon Turner did switch crooks right out of the gate. Damn, look at that huge, wide light stand back there.
David Reyes - frontside feeble.
Andrew Pott says, "Long hair don't care!" I agree.
Chris Cole did about 10 amazing tricks in a 20 minute time span. It was hard to get photos. This switch frontside 180 5-0 is all I got. See you at ASR/CrossRoads in August.
Colin Clark Footage from the CrossRoads Best Trick
After spending over a month getting lost in Europe and showing all my American friends all the weird little things that are funny to me there, I thought I'd do the same thing in reverse for all the new Euro friends I made while out there.
The SPoTlight Productions and Skatepark of Tampa crew just arrived in San Diego for ASR, Crossroads, and the 2nd Annual Damn Am Awards going on tonight. Here's a few photos of what's going on so far.
This most recent trip to San Diego ended up being more eventful than some others in the past, so be prepared for some serious name dropping included with the usual good times.
It’s that time of year again when the skate industry gathers in sunny San Diego for what is known as ASR, where buyers from all around meet with company representatives to take care of business…
So right when we landed I called my friend Kevin Marks. For some reason, he kept calling me all week saying, "I'll pick you up from the airport and we'll go skate my ramp."...
This year, the game took about two hours. Last year, it took four. People were getting eliminated kind of quick in the early rounds. After it got to the fourth round, things really got interesting...
