Day by Day at Tampa Pro 2002 As seen and experienced By Rob Meronek, computer nerd assisting the judges with calculating scores,
doing the website, helping with registration, and just general lurking around during the week.
The Photos and Stories Below Cover From Thursday to Sunday, March 17th
8:00 AM, Sunday
Yesterday was one of the busiest days so far. There was a lot going on with both vert and street along with a video premiere
in between and after. I thought I was ready to rock as far as partying in Ybor last night but a little while after I got down
there, I realized that I've gotten three hours of sleep a night for the last week from trying to hang out too much.
Anyway, I went home and got some rest and I'm back on point today. It actually feels wierd to feel good this week.
Before I left, I saw
Kareem Campbell, the DVS crew and lots of other
heads hanging out for the St. Patty's Day Parade thing that goes down in Ybor every year. The last thing I saw
was a bunch of the under-21 SPoT staff and locals on the balcony of Empire, a local club in Ybor which I'm pretty sure is 21 and up
on Saturday. I posted Saturday's photos in the section below for Saturday.
These photos below are from the awards last night for vert.
Brian Schaefer with the trophy girl.
Champagne flies...
Sandro Dias wins the vert finals and gets soaked.
Anthony Furlong about to get some love from the trophy girl.
2:00 PM, Monday
If you average all the scores for each skater from Friday or Saturday, it ends up being a little higher than sixty points.
The average score in the semi-finals is around 70 and for the finals it was around 80.
Obviously, the skating all day Sunday is much more solid and way harder to judge.
The Shorty's Best Trick
contest went down like this.
First Place went to Mike Vallely for
doing a no comply tailslide, an invert to fakie, a 3 foot air to disaster,
and a crazy Spider Man plant on the wall.
Second Place went to Chany Jeanguenin
for going from the quarter pipe to backside lip revert,
from quarter pipe to sugar cane, and from quarter pipe to sugar cane revert.
Third Place went to Aaron Suski
for a frontside tail slide, backside revert out.
Fourth Place went to Dan Drehobl for doing a
frontside 180 rollout frontside half Cab in, a nose blunt slide
stale fish grab in, and a double foot boneless to fakie.
Fifth Place went to both Patrick Melcher
and Chris Senn.
Patrick did a nollie backside tailslide revert and Chris
did a half flip casper stall, a frontside 180 to nose stall fakie, and a 180 nose grind from the quarter pipe.
Eric Koston ended up coming out on top for the
Street Finals.
I recorded the full first and last runs of each skater in the "low quality" mode that you can download below.
Chany Jeanguenin's sugar cane during the Shorty's Best Trick Contest.
Not such a good seat.
First and second place winners Eric Koston and Andrew Reynolds.
Mike Vallely's wall jam during the Shorty's Best Trick Contest.
Fifth place winner Paul Rodriquez with Brian Schaefer.
Rodrigo Tx on a big switch pop shove-it
Chris Senn took this casper half flip thing back in during the Shorty's Best Trick Contest.
Even the trophy girls got soaked in champagne.
This girl with Jim was wild enough to make it on to "Let's Party" Thrasher shirts.
Mike Vallely's invert fakie during the Shorty's Best Trick Contest.
The Gonz's bonless during the Shorty's Best Trick Contest.
Chris Senn's noseslide during the Shorty's Best Trick Contest.
Saturday, March 16, 2002
12:30 PM
I made it to the art show last night. Below are some photos I took.
A board from Nick Halkias' collection - old Gator.
A board from Nick Halkias' collection - old Jeff Grosso.
A carving into the bottom of a deck by Chris Deacon.
The bathroom had this crazy red light in it so I took my own artsy photo of myself.
This is Nick Halkias with some of his collection behind him.
I heard Paul Machnau pushed his way through the
crowd right after his run and puked up his lunch. At least he made the cut.
The second heat is on right now.
Kyle Berard, last year's winner, and
Billy Lane both had perfect runs and will probably be in the cut. Look for photos and video later.
6:30 PM Results for Street and Vert Prelims are up now. Vert finals are just about to start.
9:00 PM
Everything for today is over. The New Deal Video Premiere is going on right now. Here's what happened during vert best
trick:
First: Jake Brown did a nollie frontside 540 tail grab.
Second: Micael Simao did a 540 ollie nose grind over the channel.
Third: Mike Frazier did a frontside blunt slide over the channel.
Fourth: Matt Dove did a switch nosegrind shove it.
Fifth: Darren Navarrette did a backside crail slide revert over the channel.
Here's some photos from the day on Saturday. I'm sure there's plenty of errors because I did this so fast, so let me know
if you find anything wrong. I'll put up videos in about an hour.
Some of the highlights include Andrew Reynolds having two perfect runs - both of his runs could have won him the golden ticket.
Billy Lane is hurt and looks like he won't be able to skate in the semi finals today. Ryan Clements told me they're going to
take alternates so 17th place from yesterday is stoked. That's Patrick Melcher and Carlos de Andrade - two people who deserver to
be in there, especially Carols.
Andrew Reynolds fs flip
Andrew Reynolds fs half Cab flip
Matt Beach has some fans
Billy Lane 360 ollie
Billy Lane fsbs
Billy Lane heelflip
Brandon Turner back fs flip
Brandon Turner back 180 kickflip melon
Mike Carroll kickflip over the box off the pyramid
Christiano Mateus 540
Colt Cannon 3 flip
Colt Cannon fs flip
Colt Cannon ng
Mike Crum stale
Darren Navarrette kickflip mute
Elissa Steamer kickflip mute
Elissa Steamer fsns
Fabrizio Santos kfbsls
Fabrizio Santos kickflip
Mike Frazier fakie alley oop backwards five-o - or something like that
Mike Frazier fs air
Mike Frazier invert
The Gonz chillin'
The Gonz with Mic-e Reyes, plus Dave Pleshaw
Neal Hendrix stale
Jarrett Berry crooks
Jarrett Berry fs 270 over the hip
John Buchanan fs180ng
Jonas Wray 3 flip
Kyle Berard back 180 flip
Lincoln Ueda 540
Lincoln Ueda body jar - HUGE
Lincoln Ueda lein air
Brazilian nose grind
Pierre Luc 540
Pierre Luc Indy
Reese Forbes bs 180 flip
Smith grind
Peter Smolik fs flip
Aaron Suski bsts
Aaron Suski kickflip
Here's some video from Saturday
Andrew Reynolds' first run
One of Brandon Turner's runs
The Gonz's first run
The Gonz's second run
Kerry Getz's run
Eric Koston's first run
Eric Koston's second run
Jeff Lenoce's run
Mike V's run
Mike V big wall plant
Nate Sherwood's run
Friday, March 15, 2002
9:15 AM
The nightlife last night wasn't too insane so far. Just as Brian and I got to Ybor, we saw
Mike Vallely
and Jason Rothmyer heading home. Matt Dove and
Darren Navarrette were heading to the Masquerade.
At the Sushi bar we had dinner at,
Ronnie Creager,
Josh Kasper,
Clyde Singleton and others were around.
Schaefer had one of those classic fall out of your chairs accidents right in the
middle of the restaurant. We hung out with the DVS crew
and some skatepark locals at the Orpheum before going home. Just my personal prediction, but
Jonas Wray
is probably not going to make his heat today (last guy, first heat) based on how wasted he was last night.
Other than that, the partiers didn't seem to be out in full force last night. Look for some skating photos and
video of people's runs in a few hours.
12:15 PM
So I guess Jonas didn't make his run. The first heats just ended and it looks like either
Gershon Mosley or
Roger Mancha is on top
as of now.
Check out one of each of their runs by clicking below: Gershon Mosley First Run Gershon Mosley Second Run Roger Mancha First Run
Also, check out part of Ryan Johnson's run. Right after doing this switch 50-50 on the big wall, he
busted a huge Cab over the pyramid. He is definitely one of the fastest skaters of the contest.
Click here to see the video.
2:15 PM
The third heat just ended. Looks like Caine Gayle
might be a golden ticket holder so far. Photos and video
will be up right after results are announced.
4:00 PM
The Friday Prelims are done. You nerds online get the results about 30 minutes before everyone else. They're going to read
these results
here around 4:30 or so. After that, I'm in chill mode and will put up all the photos and videos I took tomorrow.
The top 16 people from this day make it to the Semi Finals on Sunday. Caine Gayle goes straight to the finals for qualifying first.
7:00 PM
Here are photos and video from Friday. Let me know if I got anything wrong. Sorry my captions are so hurting - I'm tired.
Click on a skater's name to see their results, info and mug shot. Click on the photo to see a large view.
This is Rocky. He and his crew along with his crazy Dracula
looking snaggle tooth pit bull are camping out under the vert ramp
each night here at the park. That could be why he's among the few people that are here at 9AM to skate.
It's about 9:30AM now and Rocky along with John Comer,
Pat Channita and others are already ripping. The photos to the right
are John going from quarter to Smith grind on the new wall and Joshua Beaudry 360 flip tail grabbing the hip.
If you're planning on watching the contest on the live web cameras, check out the flyer being passed out that has the
schedule for the weekend on it. The best times to tune in will be on Sunday from 11AM to 3PM.
It's almost noon - sticker and banner work continues and a few more people are skating now. These photos from left
to right are Chris Cole on a big kickflip,
Gershon Mosley back tail sliding the flat bar to fakie,
Jeremy Wray frontside
tailsliding the flat bar, and Ronnie Creager doing a switch crooks.
On the right is a video of Gershon doing a big back 180 flip on the new pyramid hip.
Schaefer and I just went up in the lift as high as it would go and took these photos. That thing is sketchy and shaky from that
high up - pretty scary. Look for more skating photos to be up in a few hours.
Looks like there's maybe fifty or so people skating the course right now. To the left is a video of
Andrew Reynolds back 180 flipping the pyramid. The photos are Andrew on a huge frontside flip over the
new pyramid and Rob Dyrdek doing a frontside 180 nose grind 180 out.
Also, here's an update on the art thing being painted on the side of the mini ramp. The close up shows
that it says "Sidewalk Surfing Park of Tampa" on there. I'll leave the comments on that one up to you guys.
Check out the video to the left of Chris Cole - half Cab kickflip over the pyramid.
The vert session was
a lot bigger today also. So far there are 21 guys entered for vert. The photos to the right are Phil Hajal on a melon 540,
Mike Crum doing an invert,
Lincoln Ueda with a heel flip Indy,
and Jesse Frisch doing an Indy fakie.
You can keep posting the hater comments to try and entertain us, but I just have one request - use a little creativity
and try to keep it PG-13. Otherwise, I just have to delete it. If you can't rag on someone without using cusswords
and the word "fag" in every other sentence, then you're probably under 13 anyway. Have fun.
Email Rob@SkateparkOfTampa.com for questions about the event or the photos and video below.
All photos, video and captions are by Rob Meronek with Editor in Chief Ryan Clements' review.
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.
