around on the street course. That place is dope. On the left-hand wall there's
a big quarter-pipe, a small corner-quarter, a flat bank and a big wave. In the
middle there's a big pyramid with a ledge on top on one side and a long two-
level stage with a handrail on the other. On the right-hand wall there's a big cor-
ner-quarter, then a quarter-pipe with an extension on half of it, then a little gap
then another quarter next to a bank-to-wall. The vert ramp is right next to the
bank-to-wall, and outside there's a dope little wooden bowl. I went out and
skated the bowl for a little while, and when I came back in, the practice session
was in full swing on the street course. The skaters looked like X-wings and Tie-
fighters in the final space battle of The Empire Strikes Back-total chaos.
Everybody going superfast all over the course. It was hectic, but the vibe was
so good. Everybody was clapping and tail-slapping when a big trick got land-
ed, totally supporting each other, making friends. There was a feeding frenzy on
the handrail. Matt Willigan, Emmit Bennett, and Joe Sierro were assaulting the
pyramid ledge with all kinds of grinds. There were so many people skating
good on Friday, I stopped even noticing who was who and just watched the
park get demolished. Saturday was the qualifiers. It dragged a little bit, because
there were 102 skaters, and each person had two runs of 45 seconds each. It
lasted all day. Clyde Singleton was MCing along with Brian Schaefer, and he
kept it moving and kept everybody laughing, so it didn't seem quite as long as
it could have. The judging for the street contest was handled by Scott
Conklin, Brian Howard and Paul Zitzer. One dope aspect of the qualifiers that
continued through the whole contest and kept everybody in a good mood
was the 'One more try.' That was when skaters would bail a particularly sick
trick towards the end of their run, and Brian Schaefer would encourage them to
give it one more try to stick it. Usually it would end up taking two or three more
Tim McKenney doesn't give
a fuck. Huge lien transfer
over the middle quarter-pipe
from the bowled corner.
WE
Even having only one foot
can't slow down John
Comer. Pedal to the metal
staler on the way to victory.
ATRWALK
OAIRWALK
THER
the pyramid. This kid from Canada, Corey Sheppard, was sticking frontside
flips, backside 180's and pop shove-its. Patrick Melcher was doing nollie tail-
slides. Billy Roham was getting loose on the wave ramp: nollie hardflips,
frontside flips, 360° flips, K-grinds on the pyramid ledge. I was talking to him on
Sunday, and he told me how this was his first big contest, and he took the
Greyhound out to Tampa by himself. He's only fifteen, but dude was killing it.
like a veteran. A bunch of the people I talked to said it was their first big con-
test. Danny Gonzalez and Toebe Parkhurst had just gotten sponsored a few
months before, and their companies flew them out for their debut contests as
sponsored ams. They were both throwing down. Danny Gonzalez was going for
big backside 180° benihanas and landing pop shove-it lien grabs, double flips
and 360° flip tail grab late 180's. He should have qualified easily, but he got
hurt Saturday morning Toebe Parkhurst was doing Smiths on the pyramid and
tries, but everybody would be cheering and clapping to keep the skater's spir-
its up, and the place would blow up when the trick got landed. The two main
stand-out skaters from Saturday's qualifiers were Patrick Melcher, who qualified
in first place with a flawless run, and Richard Kirby, who destroyed everything
in his runs without having skated the course at all in the practice sessions. After
all the runs, there was a premiere of a video that Josh Stewart had produced
called Cigar City. It was good, lots of sick footage of pros and ams filmed most-
ly in the Tampa area. To finish off the long day, there was a big party with
bands and an insane session on the vert ramp. Kirby stole the show again
with a no-pads, drunk backside 540. Everybody was going all out, skating and
having fun. Sunday was the street finals and vert competition. The top 15 street
qualifiers got three more 45 second runs. Unfortunately, Richard Kirby got hurt
trying frontside 180° late shove-its over the pyramid ledge in practice. A can-
50 TR