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.
As usual, it's a real interesting time dealing with footage from all walks of life for kids wanting to get into Tampa Am. Here's a short story and some footage from one kid that really proved my decision wrong on telling him he's not ready yet: A Random Kid's Story on Getting Into Tampa Am. I got word from my friend Andy at Nike that P-Rod has been following his footage on YouTube. Uh, I guess I stand corrected? I don't know, you decide.
Remember what good times you had skating back in the day? The road trips, the contests, new friends, random adventures, and more.
No, not THAT far back in the day, more like back in the Satur-Day, like last week,
when what seems like a distant memory now, this thing called the Johnny Romano Skate Jam went down. I sent Stalker Steve
to take over behind the lens for me on that trip. He took nearly 100 photos and sequences, but came through a little late.
He's also got a full story for you: .
This sequence
of RayRay is pretty gangster. RayRay will also be skating Tampa Am for the first time this year.
You should be picky about what you wear. Be picky about how your shirt fits. Be picky about how the length of your pants are. Be picky about how your hat looks and more. Be different than a dumb, normal ass, generic jock. And most of all, be picky about your shoes. These dudes here are picky about their shoes: Gucci Dunks Release Day at SPoT Skate Shop. Thanks for patiently waiting in line at our Shop today.
Okay maybe all slow mo isn't bad, I'm just in one of my Negative Nancy mood swings. This footage from Josh Butler to get into Tampa Am is a great example of how to get a spot. Hold this footage in the air. Hold your footage in the air next to it. If it looks like you're comparing apples and oranges, keep filming, keep having fun on your skateboard, don't rush yourself, and for damn sure don't huck yourself off a building just for some silly skateboard contest. I appreciate all the footage from everyone. Keep it coming if you think you're ready. There's always Damn Am's, too. They're a little easier to get into since there's more spots and more of those contests. See you at the skateboard shindig. Don't take skateboarding, or anything in life for that matter, too seriously.
There are about five dudes in the universe people really want to see in slow motion on a skateboard. You are not one of them. There is one person in the universe that wants to see you in slow motion on a skateboard. That person is you. And only you. Thank you.
Gatorade and SPoT are hooking up a free flight to Tampa in this giveaway we're doing on the website. Negative Nancy's first
thought is, "Damn, go by myself? Wack." Okay, we will make it TWO free flights. Bring a pal or even better bring your girl
so 200 dudes in the Contest can step up. Negative Nancy: "What, and pay like 80 million for a hotel in Ybor?" Okay, we got you.
We'll throw in four nights in a hotel in Ybor in the middle of the Skatepark of Tampa Party Team tornado. Negative Nancy: "What,
so I can get denied from a sold out Del show and Contest?" Okay, included are two VIP tickets to Tampa Am, two tickets
to the Anniversary Party with Del, and two passes to all other nightlife all weekend. Negative Nancy: "Whatever. I'm still broke."
Alright, how about $500 spending money? Negative Nancy: "Call me Positive Patty!!!" Okay, it's on, you get your chance at
all that by simply taking this survey. Winner is picked at random from the list of confirmed emails. Flight must be from the
continental US. Good luck. Here's the question:
Do blunt nosegrabs to look younger
Hang out with Kyle Berard to look younger
Always carry your board mall grab style to look younger
Get botox at 17 to look younger
Wear Garanimals to look younger
Drink Gatorade instead of beer and soda
Just give up and be a Dew Tour Pro
Email: For this poll, a valid email address is required. Your email address is not stored or added to any lists.
So the shoe auction to benefit the Homies Charity Fund raised over $600 to pay for sauce on the Booze Cruise next weekend on Friday, Novmeber 20. See you in Centro Ybor at Rock N Sports at 6pm where we start out. Drinks on me, of course.
I found a way to make sneaker geeks pay for all the sauce on the Booze Cruise. I dug through my closet,
found the brightest, loudest shoes in there, and put them on eBay. There's about four hours left in the auctions.
100% of the proceeds (currently over $400) go directly to the bar tabs we rack up on the Booze Cruise on Friday, November 20 starting at 6pm in Ybor.
Yeah, you're welcome. They're dirty, been skated in, and don't come with a box, but it looks like they're still going to
land us a pretty good time. Come join us for a fun Friday night on soft wheels which now is FREE. If you haven't already
participated, you can also
win a Globe cruiser board here by taking the poll and confirming your email address. Two random winners will be picked.
Damn, is there anything else you can get for free? It's like we're all on welfare on Friday, November 20th.
On Saturday during Tampa Am, we will all be at the premiere of the new Westside video "The Dango is Dead" in Ybor. If you're old enough to be in Grampa Am, come join us for some sauce and high fives after.
Registration for the Harvest Jam this weekend is up over 600%! Six hundred percent?!?!? That's how you throw out a shady sales
pitch. It is up over 600%, but that's compared to that one thing from the last Contest no one cared about because it died a suicide
long ago. Stalker Steve added some new photos to that page if you want to check
them out here: Vert, the Departed.
Sign up for the Harvest Jam online before it fills up.
If you're new to skating and want to unlearn the curse of the Mongolian poo poo foot, among other things, Skate Camp with
Wizard Smoke
is a great place to start. Element and SPoT hook you up with free gear while you skate all day in things like the High Ollie Contest and the Mini-Ramp Challenge. You also get a behind the scenes tour of the
Park where you find out we don't just nap all day. Get the details and sign up online.
As you can see by the details on Tampa Am weekend, Del The Funkee Homosapien will be at Skatepark of Tampa on the Thursday night 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall Art Show. Come meet Del, have some free drinks if you're over 21, check out artwork on beer bottles from the industry's top artists, and join in a ripping bowl session with no blunt nosegrabs. See you and Del at SPoT.
In case you don't follow the SPoT Twitter page, it's been an interesting week with Schaefer, Porpe, and Stalker Steve updating from their trip to Make-A-Wish. Here's a small sample of what went down this week: I Know What You Did on Twitter.
Every time I'm at an event where Neckface is, I get at least four or five people asking me if I'm him. Some people don't even ask, they just roll up and start talking like, "Dude, that was crazy when you
jumped through the fire wasted!" That wasn't me, that was Neckface. Did you ever think you'd see Neckface doing artwork for a Del the Funky Homosapien show? Both of them will be at Tampa Am next month. I'm not even going to ask you to go, because if you need to be asked to go, then I don't know what's wrong with you. Tampa Am 2009 is going to be another barn burner as usual. Get tickets online now for the show and get tickets for the Contest here.
Abdias as you know is out there doing the damn thing and making it in skateboarding. This month, he's
got the FTK cover. Another sign you're deep in the cut of skateboard industry life is appearing on the party blogs. Is that Jata with Abdias??? Pick up the new FTK in the Shop soon.
I've Done the PP Dance in the Back of That Truck Many Times
Posted by Rob on
Wed,
Nov
04,
9:02 AM
Right now the Clem-350 is speeding across the south on its way to the Johnny Romano Skate Jam where
this list of top pros and ams are
doing a king sized demo. Piss now or forever hold your peace because once Clem gets on the road, your bladder will not be empty until the gas tank is. For the 6th year in a row, SPoTlight Productions has volunteered their services to assist with the event. I, however, have volunteered Stalker Steve to take my place behind the lens. Shoot to kill, Stalker. Looking forward to the photos from the trip. I wonder what it's like in the truck? Here's the full list of who's in there, sorted by my estimated number of words spoken since hitting the road: Stalker Steve (13,875), Body (10,765), Porpe (6,324), Clem (6,180), DMFP (3,238), RayRay (30), Ian Gow (20), Jacob (10), Jereme Knibbs (5). Filmer Joe Pellham is also in there, but I don't really know him. Maybe he's talking everyone's ear off right this second.
In the last two months, Del has put two new albums on his site.
He's got a lot to cover with his history over the years in skateboarding and skate videos. It's going to be an amazing show. You can
get tickets online now.
Globe hooked up two cruiser boards that we are giving away for the next Booze Cruise on November 20th. To win one, imagine yourself
on a cruiser board and take this poll to enter the drawing...
While mom and pops are stuck on the keyboard from 9am to 5pm, you can spend all day on your skateboard for the same time period next week on Wednesday the 11th for Wizard Smoke's Super Session Day Camp. You'll get free stuff from Element, a behind the scenes tour to see which employees
are working hardest, a high ollie contest, a game of SKATE, tech knowledge about how skateboards work, and more. All moms and pops are going to get is carpel tunnel. Get the details and sign up online here.
Here are the results for the Vert is Dead Contest Intermediate Division: First, Cameron Miller. Last, Alejandro Brunell.
In between: nobody. Our local contests here have an average of 130 people in them,
not counting all the bummed kids that can't skate because it's full.
What happened at the Vert is Dead Contest? Check out the rest of the pathetic turnout in one of the biggest failures of an event that
I can ever remember doing here:
Vert is Dead. Oh, Well. It's Halloween, Let's Party.
At least Halloween isn't dead. Included is a party time chill cam dump from Ybor and Goodwine's art show.
The chill and party shot photo count on the site is approaching 7,000 from all this lurkage over the years. You can't blame me for getting a little burnt out sometimes. Good think Clem helps out. He's got another one here: Clem's Chill Cam Dump From Damn Am and Portland.
Mike Thompson who won the Gear 4 A Year Contest last month got to take his gear collection tour with all the companies hooking it up. We will also be seeing Mike at Tampa Am as part of the package he won. Speaking of Tampa Am, the first two videos I opened this morning from people trying to get into Tampa Am both had Michael Jackson songs. Here's another Public Service Announcement: when making your video to send to total strangers that don't know you, it's best to leave music out of it. Do you know anyone who want's to Beat It at 8am on a Monday? Yeah, people are sensitive about their music, especially in skateboarding. Careful with that.
