Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Ronnie Creager - backside nosegrind backside 180 out with a fakie manual thrown in as a bonus

Ronnie Creager - switch flip nose manual

Dennis Busenitz - nollie heelflip nose manual

Joey Brezinski - fakie ollie fakie flip out

Joey Brezinski - inward heelflip manual shuv it out

Tim O'Connor - back smith frontside 180 out

Every show has some new kook that thinks his product is the new rollerblades. By the time the next shows comes around, fool and his life savings are parted and a new even more busted product is born by the next washed up executive trying to cash in on "action" sports

Former SPoT local Stefanie Thomas now works at Crimson Skateboards with Kris Markovich

Darren Harper and Felix

I'm a fan of the costumes and wacky gear thing at all our events. This time, it was all white Matix suits. Schaefer and I look clean enough to get into heaven. I don't want to go

Dennis Busentiz - bsts

There are lots of Dennis Busentiz photos. At 100 miles per hour on every trick, he was the most fun to watch skate. This is a back smith

Clements was the Sorcerer Lord of the Lines announcer

When Schaefer's drunk, he picks dudes up. When he's sober, he picks girls up

Turtledega Nights at the DVS booth involved numbered turtles placed in the center of this ring where they were all let go at once. If the turtle with your section's number on it made it out of the circle first, your whole section got free beer

Nice turtles

Marketing tactics by some companies include hiring models dressed extra slutty to attract attention to your booth. It works. You should do it for your booth

The girl on the right is looking extra mean, so there's even less of a reason to look at her face

Darrell Stanton has to get a pose in

Darrell Stanton - one more with an alternate view

Brian Schaefer - chick sandwich

Tim O'Connor - back smith frontside 180 out

The scene at the Lord of the Lines contest

Nate Jones - bsts shuv

Darrell Stanton - nollie pop shuv 5-0

Dennis Busenitz - frontside nosegrind

Dennis Busenitz - backside noseblunt slide at full speed

Matix gave us $1,000 in cash to just give out for random stuff. We gave Eli Reed $40 for just hanging out here. Other uses of the funds included $20 to make Nate Sherwood go away (it's a joke, we love you Nate), $100 to Dylan Gardner for having a shiny gold front, $100 to Danny Montoya for a switch backside 180 nose manual 180 out, etc.

Ronnie Creager won it and got ten grand

The Contest is over and now it's time to get the party really started. First crew I run into - the Mexi Twins, Abdias Rivera and Angel Ramirez

Joey Tershay's new truck company is Ace. That's a sample right there

Tyler Adams Hawkins has a bionic leg and some kind of new gang symbol going. Yo Milligan!

I am counting down the minutes until I spend a week in Australia next month with P-Stone, the best travel companion ever

Chris Pastras - thanks for letting me into the WESC party. It was the only one I didn't get denied from

Slacking again on the foot fetish shots. This was the first one of the night

That's Jim Shubin from WESC and Eunjoo Kim from etnies. We're all so happy to be working in the sketchy skateboard industry

Graham Bickerstaff went and got all clean cut

It was your usual “bro/bra” type situation. Hands were shaken, “hellos” were exchanged, and for better or worse, brands were being represented. That can be sort of a double-edged sword because as much as we like to see the cool, new gear, there are just as many companies repping the worst $h!t that you’ve ever seen in your life.

There was one brand in particular that hit a whole new level of retardedness. Is that even a word? It doesn’t matter because it describes their product so damn appropriately. Since we, SPoTlight Productions, actually contract for ASR, I’m going to have to let the brand go unnamed, but let me tell you this...the owner strongly resembled one of those fast-talking, New Yorker guys that’s trying to sell you an old car.

He wouldn’t leave us alone about trying to get his riders (if that’s what you call them because their gimmick literally takes no skill) a chance to ride the mini-ramp. We were resisting and then he threw around some weight (money) and we had to let them get their shot on the ramp.

What a joke it was as these three kids flopped, fell, and embarrassed themselves while Captain Jock was yelling, “Go higher! Drop in! Skate!” and the kids were obviously not having a good time.

I wanted to tell him that if he paid me $10,000 that I would save him the $100,000 he’s going to lose on his stupid-ass company.

But I sound like I’m complaining and bitching, and I’m certainly not. There was certainly plenty of proper business going down in addition to some really fun events. So here they are…

Both ASR and Surf Expo have been hosting some damn good events at their shows for the past couple of years. This ASR, Matix stepped up and came up with the Lord of the Lines Contest. The idea is so simple and fun…I just love it. Here’s the breakdown…

Three obstacles:

- Manual pad
- Flat bar (choose either the square or round)
- Up ledge

The objective was to hit those three obstacles in a row and put together the best line possible. It was a pro-only event and there were about 15 entrants that skated in one of four, 10-minute Jams. Then the top three overall were taken to a Final Jam.

Guys that ripped that didn’t make the cut:

• Danny Montoya – on the manny pad he had the switch bs 180 to nose manual 180 out, but couldn’t get past the switch bs tail on the flat bar
• Adam Dyet – he’s always got something for every contest format and can do a kickflip bs tail on the up ledge without flinching
• Malcolm Watson – don’t you just love this guy. Malcom has the biggest smile and a bs kickflip fakie manual on lock

When it came down to it, it could have been anyone’s game. The Final Jam was 15-minutes long, which left plenty of time to earn the title of “Lord.” Here’s how it broke down:

• 1st - $10,000 – Ronnie Creager – the switch flip nose manual nollie flip out definitely helped out ol’ Ronnie. At 33-years-old he never ceases to amaze me
• 2nd - $3000 – Joey Brezinski – coming in second to Ronnie ain’t too shabby and Joey was as stoked as ever. It’s like they designed this Contest specifically for him…I kept calling it the “Joey Brezinski Challenge”
• 3rd - $1000 – Dennis Busenitz – he places top 10 in nearly every event we do, so it seems like we’re giving Dennis a check at least once a month. Of course his line was faster and more gnar than anyone’s, but the tech beat out the speed this time around

Foundation Skateboards ain’t scared to come out with a new video on a regular basis, are they? It was getting hyped up all day at the Show and Abdias was kind enough to give the Skatepark crew VIP Passes, but I guess everyone had access to them because there were several hundred “VIP’s” out front. Mr. Tod Swank himself was manning the door and yelling at everyone to get back. At one point I almost threw in the towel and went to dinner, but then I finally was granted access and made it through the near riotous crowd.

When I arrived in the theater there wasn’t a single seat available and everyone was smoking cigarettes like it was their last chance to do so before death. And remember, you can’t smoke anywhere indoors in California, but that was completely and utterly ignored. I grabbed a spot on the stair while theater security was having a fit. It finally got started and the crowd when ballistic…

Parts that I particularly remember:

• Corey Duffel – they should have another High Ollie Challenge because I think that Corey would definitely be a contender. He goes bigger, higher, faster, and farther than anyone and his choice of obstacles to skate is down right scary
• Ethan Fowler – is it okay to say that in the past I haven’t been the biggest fan? Not that I don’t respect the guy, but that’s just my opinion. So that opinion has now changed because I saw him at the theater and I was thinking that he would have some half-assed, bull$h!t part, but I stand corrected. Ethan had the closer and he deserved it…dude is killing it
• Abdias Rivera – last but not least we have lil’ Abubu. And I’m not just mentioning him because he’s our boy either. I’m stoked that someone is legitimately backing him and I see a bright skateboarding future for him. His part was sick and creative and he’s as humble as they come

Go buy this video and watch it before you feel like jumping down gigantic stairs, gaps, and rails.

• KR3W/Supra Party – I should have gone to this one and gotten completely wasted and tried to fight the staff and called them a bunch of “pussies.” Nah. That’s actually a bad idea to do anywhere
• King of the Road Premiere – Thrasher parties are always great, but our flight times just didn’t agree
• Agenda – it’s a trade show that is right around the corner from the ASR Show, but apparently it has some really cool stuff to check out
• The Star Bar – this is the trade show cool-guy hang out and I tried to get in one night, but the place was so packed that you had to wait until someone walked out before you could get in. Fun

Overall it was another great time and another great Show. I think that one of my favorite aspects was the fact the that Show ran Thursday – Saturday as opposed to Friday – Sunday. Rob said, “It’s better to ruin your week than ruin your weekend.” I couldn’t agree more. Thanks to Tony E. and the crew at Matix and the ASR Staff for making it all possible.

Ryan