Wors by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
Aaron Suski - frontside noseslide
I gave Aaron Suski one of those surfer accidents - 360 flip with an arm bitten off
Brian Sumner - backside flip
Can you believe Nyjah Huston still has a few years left before becoming a teenager? As usual, he's doing grown up tricks like this back smith across the ledge
Sean Malto is Girl's new am. He rips and has a fantastic hard flip. This is a smith grind across the ledge
Know your pro skateboarders. How many can you pick out of this line-up?
Corey Duffel - 360 flip
Look around on the internet for video footage of this. It was pretty insane. Chris Cole - double backside flip
It's amazing how Chris Cole can do anything on a skateboard but not look all robotic or whatever. This is a perfectly executed backside 360
It only took Bryan Herman a few tries to make this kickflip frontside nosegrind
Bryan Herman catches his hard flips at 90 degrees kind of like a backside shifty flip
Angel Ramirez - backside tailslide
Angel Ramirez - back smith
We got started a little bit late because the Zero team was running behind schedule. They had just flown back to California from Canada the night before, so they didn’t get to stay near the event site. This meant that none of them even got any practice time. I was walking Jamie Thomas around to the different obstacles and explaining the format to him and he said, “I think that we should just leave.” I knew he was being sarcastic, but at the same time, seeing all of these obstacles for the first time with about 1,500 people standing around and getting no practice probably threw a bit of pressure towards the way of the Zero team.
The Tylenol Street Gap got things started off properly. It was the least intimidating obstacle of the Showdown, but things still went off with a bang.
Baker
Bryan Herman
– He ended up winning it by knocking out so many difficult tricks, including his head on the side of the building. With a bleeding wound, Herman managed to take it with a
kickflip fs nosegrind
on the ledge sticking out as the banger with me.
Antwuan Dixon
– Antwuan may have skated, but I don’t remember what he did.
Birdhouse
Brian Sumner
– Sumnermate nailed all of the classics over the gap with a pop-shuv,
bs flip
, and a nice looking impossible.
Jereme Rogers
– Jereme did more switch tricks on the ledge than I can remember, but I specifically recall switch frontside tailslides and smiths.
Sean Malto
– He must have done something since he ended up in 6th place, but you got me on what it was.
Toy Machine
Billy Marks
– I know that Billy did a great 360 flip over the gap. Matt Bennett – His bs 180 nosegrind-come out forward was killer.
Foundation
Corey Duffel
– Corey did a kickflip over the gap going the wrong way, which was super-gnar, along with fs 5-0ing the ledge the wrong way, too.
Angel Ramirez
– Angel subbed for Ethan Fowler who looked pretty rough that morning. I don’t know if he was sick or hungover, but Angel did a sweet
backside smith
in his honor.
Zero
Chris Cole
– Ryan Smith was supposed to skate this one with him, but it ended up being just Cole out there representing Zero. That’s okay though, because he
backside double kickflipped
over the gap, along with 360 flips, frontside flips, and so on, earning him a second place finish.
Almost
Chris Haslam and Cooper Wilt tied for last. They were both working on stuff, but I don’t recall anything getting landed.
Element
Jeremy Wray
– The fs 360 ollie is a go-to trick for JWray and he did it over the gap with ease.
Nyjah Huston
– The little rasta-man is unbelievable. He had killer bs tailslides across the ledge and a bs 50-50 kickflip out, amongst many more moves.
Back out to LA for yet another event, but the Downtown Showdown is always a good one. Taking place on the “streets” of a Paramount Pictures movie set, prepare to be entertained…
Vans came up with one helluva concept with their Downtown Showdown and we’re stoked to be a part of it...
What's Up at SPoT: Random Posts From Over the Years
I've been posting random ramblings to this What's Up blog on the SPoT site since 1999. Here's a random list of some of my favorite posts over the years...Rob.
The SPoT crew did a demo at a hockey game yesterday. It turned out to be a pretty good time with some ripping skating. Check it out: Red Bull Demo at Ice Palace.
Actual skateboarding photos are coming soon, I swear. The Adio demo yesterday was great. Photos from that will be up tomorrow. For now, check out how Sink, Shannon, and I
snuck into the VIP section at the Wu Tang show last night. We sure felt cool.
P-Stone's redit of Stalker Steve's High Ollie Jump Attempt is much funnier with the Hollywood effects like slow-mo and the Chariots of Fire theme song. It's one of those videos where you just start laughing to yourself when you think about it. I couldn't believe how the entire building was chanting, "Stalker! Stalker! Stalker!"
Bryan Herman
Antwuan Dixon
Brian Sumner
Aaron Suski
Jereme Rogers
Sean Malto
Billy Marks
Corey Duffel
Angel Ramirez
Chris Cole
Jeremy Wray
Nyjah Huston
