Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Have you ever seen that old John Candy movie, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? Instead of me telling you all about our lay-overs, cancelled flights, cab rides, lack of food, waiting, sitting, running, cancelled car rental, security checks, lost boarding passes, and so on, just buy the movie. It’s a classic and it’s probably $6.95 at Wal-Mart.

Step one is getting the make up treatment. Brian seemed to enjoy it quite a bit

I wonder if they give Ian there on the right a beard trimming before he goes on TV. Ryan Clements looks like he's getting some crows feet smeared out

Not looking so macho with a chick brushing foundation on you

It was nice to see that I'm not the only one that drinks while working. The Fuel TV staff offered us some of their beers during filming. I think they were really trying to get Schaefer and Clements liquored up like the guests on Jerry Springer so they would get in a fight and chairs would start flying

It's not good for the Park's image when they act very unheterosexual in front of Fuel TV's 15 million person audience. I think the alcohol is starting to have the opposite effect that the Fuel TV staff intended. They're getting a little romantic instead of violent

They should have gave them more beer. Schaefer would have smashed that guitar over Clements' head. Instead, Brian did a singing promo spot for Fuel TV - "Hi, this is Brian Schaefer and you're watching Fuel TV!" Watch for those commercials all this week and next

The Fuel TV staff gave us a "Just for Showing Up" award like we give out at our events. It was a CASL trophy from 1987. Watch for Brian and Ryan's Grammy award winning acting skills on the show - the first take with the real "surprise" trophy presentation didn't work out so they had to reshoot the surprise presentation

In between takes, the crew pretty much doesn't have anything to do except mess around behind the scenes

This is the guy that gives you the cue, "On in five, four, three, two, and..." then he points at you to start talking. Then he goes back to goofing off behind the scenes

Ryan Clements needs a make up fix

Ok, Clements gets more make up fixes than a high maintenance chick

That's Zeke, the Daily Habit host, with his mode of transportation. Zeke has a website: You Have Bad Taste In Music.com. It's like a Truth commercial for crappy music

After finally arriving in Mission Beach at 2am we only had a few hours to sleep before having to wake up and drive to LA. That’s generally about a two hour trek, but considering we had no luggage or rental car it took a bit longer.

We showed up at the FUEL TV studio to film our episode of The Daily Habit just after noon. What an amazing experience. Brian and I have both done a bunch of interviews when just someone is holding a video camera and asking you questions, but neither of us has ever filmed a TV show. It was full-on Hollywood, with about 10 people on the set and “takes,” “retakes,” and “cuts.” We’ll let you know when it airs. Thanks to Ian Hill, Zeke, Theresa, and the rest of the staff for making us feel so comfortable.

I’m sure you’ve heard it all before, but LA traffic is pretty insane. It took us four hours to make it back to just outside of San Diego, where we met up with Mike Sinclair, Fallen TM, at the Black Box Distribution facility. It’s an understatement to call it a ‘facility,’ because this thing is like a city block long. It houses Zero, Mystery, Fallen, the entire staff for all three companies, all product, and a gigantic training facility for the crew.

There was a small gathering of a few staff members and Thrasher photographer Mike Burnett. That’s when we found out that there was a photo mission about to happen and it was confirmed when The Chief rolled in. Jamie has built himself quite an empire. I know that I get up and work every single day, but how someone the same age as me has accomplished so much and is still able to hold down a professional skateboarding career is beyond me. Jamie rolled around with us for a bit and then we all packed it up and went our separate ways.

Photos: The Zero Training Facility and The Zero Hotel.

The scene was beautiful. It was a perfectly sunny California day, just the right temperature, and we were a block from the ocean. Paul from Sun Diego, a chain of boardshops in SoCal here, put together quite an event. There were about 20 supporting companies with tents aligning the entire parking lot, kids literally skating everywhere, and a huge crowd forming to witness the carnage that was about to go down.

It started with autographs in the store and was followed by a two-hour demo with top ams and a few pros here and there killing it. But everyone knew what was up and what everyone was there for...the Rincon Replica Contest. There was $15,000 to be given away and at 4pm on the dot it went down.

Shuriken Shannon - nollie backside flip over the bank to bank (800k gif file)

I let go of the shutter button too soon on Cody McEntire's nollie 360 flip over the bank to bank, but trust me, he rode away from it clean like it was just an ollie (500k gif file)

Terell Robinson - nollie big spin over the bank to bank (800k gif file)

Jereme Rogers' half cab flip was after the Contest was over (800k gif file)

Cody McEntire - nollie inward heel over the bank to bank (800k gif file)

Jereme Rogers - full cab down the big four (900k gif file)

Cody McEntire - hard flip revert (800k gif file)

Danny Dacola - finger flip boneless over the flat bar (900k gif file)

Tommy Sandoval - frontside nosegrind on the short rail (900k gif file)

Greg Lutzka covered up the landing on Cody McEntire's nollie big spin down the big four (800k gif file)

The crowd was huge. Here's a quote from Schaefer on the mic: "You guys need to make more noise. If we took this Contest to the mid-West, everyone would have huge boners."

Tommy Sandoval took home seven grand for first. Who the hell spelled his name wrong?

Tommy Sandoval - back lip on the long rail

Terell Robinson - kickflip boardslide on the long rail

Alex Moul was one of the judges. Watch for his interview on Fuel TV

Who dat? I think his last name is McNeal. This is a lipslide on the short rail

Marius Syvanen and Craig who used to work at Shorty's and now is with Toy Machine

Jereme Rogers warms up with a switch ollie

Watch for Cody McEntire's interview on Fuel TV

Jamie Thomas came to watch the carcass toss. Look at everyone sizing up the jump back there

Darrell Stanton - 360 flip

Cody McEntire - switch heel

A small sample of the girls with perfect tans and bodies hanging out everywhere. I'm not really into these Cali girls. Something just doesn't seem right with them. They're nice to look at, though. Check the hole in them jeans

Photographer Mike Burnett is using his best photo gear at this event

Brandon Turner was killing it. This is a switch ollie over the flat bar. He almost made a backside flip over it but ran out of time

Sun Diego booked us on a flight to San Diego that went through Minneapolis for some reason. Once we got there, we sat on the runway for three hours with no beer or food. Then the flight was cancelled just in time for us to miss last call at the bar. Several more hours later, we finally got on another flight with our luggage remaining on the other plane. It was an airline disaster on the way out there, but we did make plenty of random new friends such as this crew of business women. They're all on myspace right now

This is what flying out of Tampa looks like - that's the Courtney Campbell Causeway

This is the view from our hotel room down the road from the Contest. It's very pleasant here in San Diego. Tampa's still better, though

That term, “total carnage,” is used around Skatepark of Tampa for pretty much everything, but I will say that this Best Trick Contest was truly TOTAL CARNAGE. I don’t know the exact dimensions, but it was definitely pushing 8’ tall, and the gap out to rail was pretty damn intimidating, as well. I’ve never been to the real Rincon, but I heard that this was an exact copy.

There were a lot, and I mean a lot, of people hucking themselves down this thing for just over an hour. The Contest was open to both ams and pros, which definitely made it better. If you had something for the rail or big four, then you were in.

Here are some notables that were there, but didn’t make the money. We should have had cash all the way down to 10th place:

Danny Dacola (I’m sure this is spelled incorrectly) – this guy was a crowd favorite with boneless 360’s and boneless finger-flips over the bar. He then combined the two by trying frontside boneless 360 finger-flips, but couldn’t roll away from it

Jereme Rogers – the second biggest smile in professional skateboarding (with first being Malcolm Watson who was also there) showed up halfway through the Jam and graced us with a perfectly executed cab down the four

Josh Kasper – where has Josh Casper been? The last time I saw him was at the Wallenberg Contest and he did the same exact thing...360 flips for over an hour without making one

Terell Robinson – since I was actually announcing, I didn’t get to take any notes, so I can’t remember everything Brother Darkness did. I do recall him doing the kickflip boardslide on the big rail, but I think that the judges weren’t feeling the toe drag. Terrell is still one of my favorites

When the Jam was finally over, here’s how it broke down:

6th – no money – Darrell Stanton (nollie gap to fs board) – his move was tough, but not quite tough enough for the money. Darrell did it on someone else’s board because he broke his right away on a nollie to flat, so that should count for some extra points, right?

5th (tie) – $500 each – Tyler Surrey (nollie flip)/Kevin Romar (nollie heel) – I was standing next to Salman Agah when this went down and he said, “I remember when it was a big deal when I did a nollie flip on flat.” That’s a powerful statement

4th – $1000 – Tony Tave (nollie bs heel) – Tony skated the least out of anyone in the Contest. He tried his trick a few times in the beginning, a couple during the bulk of the event, and then busted it out right before time. He’s the least sore out of anyone the day after

3rd – $2500 – Cody McEntire (bs nollie biggie) – Tampa Am’s champ nailed his move...and for those that remember, that’s how he closed his winning run in Tampa, too

2nd – $3500 – Brandon Turner (nollie boardslide and many more) – where’s Lil’ B been? Who cares, because he’s killing it! He kickflipped the bar on his first try!

1st – $7000 – Tommy Sandoval (a bunch of $h!t) – I still can’t believe that Chris Casey called Tommy “Lord of the Thundercats” at Tampa Am, but I know that Tommy could literally care less. Just like I wrote about last weekend at Phoenix Am, Tommy is a contest machine. I don’t think he’ll be an am much longer (hint).

After seeing how gnar that obstacle was, I can’t believe how many tricks went down. Just ollieing the damn thing was impressive. A kickflip? Give it up. Thanks to Paul at Sun Diego for making it all possible and the rest of his crew for working together so well and making the even such a success. Let’s build a Clipper replica and do it again next year!

Ryan