Zaturdays: Survey Says! Tampa Am Prediction Results Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Zaturdays: Survey Says! Tampa Am Prediction Results

Posted on Friday, November 20, 2015 by Paul

In my Zaturdays column the week before Tampa Am I got a little cocky and spewed some predictions for Tampa Am. Well, the results are in, and let’s just say I’ve seen better.

Prediction 1: Brodie Penrod wins a Golden Ticket.
What happened: Brodie got 31st place in Saturday’s Qualifiers. That sounds worse than it is, because he beat 103 other skaters that day and went on to get 3rd in Best Trick, but still, he was nowhere near a Golden Ticket.
Prediction 2: Someone nobody has ever heard of shows up from a place like Montana, or Brazil probably, blows everyone’s mind, gets sponsored, and turns pro by 2017.
What happened: I should have added France to the list because how about that Aurelien Giraud? True, this prediction has a little bit longer timeline than I can work with here, but before last weekend the only thing I could have told you about Aurelien Giraud was that I had a tough time pronouncing Aurelien Giraud at last year’s Tampa Am. That’s still true actually, and there’s a really good chance he could be pro by 2017, especially if he skates the SLS Pro Open like he skated Tampa.
Prediction 3: A bunch of kids from Japan make the finals.
What happened: Not one kid from Japan even made Semi-Finals. BUT, in my defense, they all ripped, and in Friday’s qualifiers they placed 24th, 26th, and 29th.
Prediction 4: Jake Ilardi wins the Converse Concrete Jam.
What happened: Jake sprained his ankle and could barely skate. Here’s for trying though. Instead, Dylan Witkin won it, that’s one thing I never would have predicted in a million years. He rules!
Who knew Dylan had frontside inverts like this?

Prediction 5: Your favorite am is a no show. Personally, Cole Wilson is who I’m hyped to see skate.
What happened: Almost every Am I could think of was there. I mean, come one, 252 kids skated so it’s unlikely too many ams weren’t there. Full disclosure, I knew Cole Wilson was hurt and wouldn’t be skating before I even made the list, so yes, I’m a cheater and a liar.
Cole, a no show, seen here relaxing with Leo and David while not at Tampa.

Prediction 6: The same kid who wins practice and looks like the favorite ends up totally blowing it and gets 140th place.
What happened: This very well may have happened, but based on how bonkers the practice sessions were it was tough to single out anyone who was particularly ripping vs those who were just surviving.

Prediction 7: Tony Christopher enters everything.
What happened: I found out Tony had been in jail in New York since the Damn Am we did at LES in September. He’d only just made it down to Florida the week before apparently, where he’s now working at his sister’s bakery. And while he did skate the Bowl Jam on Thursday night, and he did skate Saturday Qualifiers, I didn’t see him in Best Trick or the Concrete Jam and the Moat Race got called off due to logistical problems. That said, Tony baked us some mouth watering cake pops (with the SPoT logo on them) that surprisingly didn’t have weed in them.
Prediction 8: Skaters from New York City get last pace both days of Qualifiers.
What happened: Skaters from Las Vegas Nevada and Lincoln Nebraska got last place on Friday and Saturday Qualifiers respectively. I admit, this prediction was probably controversial from the start, but I have my reasons. The lowest placing skaters from New York State in general ended in 70th on Friday, and 97th on Saturday, I honestly didn’t have the patience to look through the entire list to see if anyone from the City was even in it.

Prediction 9: Micky Papa gets second.
What happened: He got 12th in Semis, missing the cut by two spots. Word on the street is that some people thought he should have made Finals, which leaves us with one of those coulda woulda shoulda type scenarios which are way more fun to talk about at the bar with your bros than read about online.

Prediction 10: Yoshi Tanenbaum wins.
What happened: He got 21st in Semis. Not even close, but hey, you can’t win them all.
In closing, I’m giving myself half credit for predicting that someone nobody had ever heard of would show up from nowhere, get sponsored and turn pro, and half credit for predicting Cole Wilson wouldn’t show up. So I’m looking pretty clueless with 1 correct prediction out of ten, but it beats getting 142nd place?

- Paul Zitzer

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