Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

This guy Ivan Rivado from Volcom had some seriously large backside ollies

After Kyle Berard did this ollie up to backside tailslide on the ledge on the deck, he did it crail grab, too

Mark Partain used to be pro for Blockhead back when you were still pooping in diapers. He can still take a large bomb drop in

Ivan Rivado - frontside noseblunt slide on the bank extension

If my flash didn't blow this photo out, you'd be able to check out Tosh Townend's new Element shoes on this backside ollie

Mike Peterson - kickflip to fakie on his way to first place

Tony Trujillo was rolling in from the skinny deck to start off his runs

Rodney Jones - stalefish from the quarter to bank

Congrats Mike Peterson for winning the Pro Contest

Matt Giles - stale grab 5-0

Abdias Rivera has a nice back smith like his twin, Angel Ramirez

Evan Smith knows how to do a frontside air the correct way

Spencer Lau - lein to tail

This is just a regular backside grab from the tranny to bank that Adam Dyet's doing, but he was kickflipping into them just as high. Adam Dyet is officially on the Skatepark of Tampa Party Team along with Pat Duffy and Braydon Szafranski. More team partiers to be announced soon

Grant Taylor's mini ramp skills always amaze me. This is a frontside ollie into the bank

Chris Lehman used every bit of energy he had in the jam and destroyed it. This is a frontside hurricane on the bank extension

Wow, Schaefer did a backside tailslide on the extension in the neanderthal flip flops

Right after the Contest, Adam Dyet had his contest props chilling at the hotel pool party. The caveman club made a nice float

Eugene from Volcom, the West Coast Ragin' Asian, does the live webcast at Volcom.com. He's got some tech gear going on in the cockpit here

Body's bootleg mobile Shaqueefa booth. Instant hustlin' status on every corner

This girl's photo from last year is currenly the highest rated photo on the site

I've been seeing this crew for the last three weekends in various towns - Dyson Ramones, The Nuge, Corey Duffel, and Gareth Stehr

Body got himself a nice beefy Shaqueefa model. She doesn't know how wide the lens goes

It was getting extra loose as usual in front of the Volcom booth - Tony Trujillo and Jake Phelps' band, Bad $h!t, played

Behind the scenes at DVS was not a bunch of shoes and business. It was beers and bongs. DVS rips

Random bikini lurkers hoping for free stuff in exchange for posing like this

I got thrown out of House of Blues for taking photos. I had a legit media pass. The meathead said you're only allowed to take photos for the first three songs. Whatever. That violent offense was enough for him to call the cops to have me escorted out the back door. I will never return to this place no matter what kind of hook up for a free show I get

Abdias Rivera and Chris Lehman - watch out for meathead power tripping suckurity behind you

Kenny Hughes and Chet Childress - brothers from different mothers

Sunday after the Contest ended, a fun time with a nice crew of friends was had a the hotel pool that lasted from day to late night. If you're ever at the Lakeland Hooters, stop by and see Brianna here and tell her that you know how far down her tattoo goes

Brianna's tattoo is worth a close-up

Brian Schaefer with some girls ready to get hitched

Filmer Dana found out why people call it Sexpo

Jake Phelps and Jake Schrickling on the lurk

The SPoTlight Productions crew will help run your skateboard shindig to make sure it doesn't suck - Rob Meronek, Brian Schaefer, and Ryan Clements

Brendan Yul found out why they call it Sexpo before he even hit puberty

If you don’t know what these trade shows are all about, then click here to read about what went down last week in San Diego. Both shows are cool in their own respective ways. ASR has the benefit of being hosted in SoCal, which is the heart of skateboarding. Expo is way over in Orlando, Florida, a city built for tourists, but we still get some great skateboarding support over here.

One interesting thing was that both trade shows hosted a party with the same exact bands playing on the bill. So it was cool to see Flogging Molly (since they’re great live) and the craziness of Hank III two weekends in a row. I don’t know how that worked out so well, but the Show Party at House of Blues couldn’t have been better, with free entry and free PBR to anyone with a hook-up to get some passes. Good times…

Here’s the scene: We’re in the Orlando County Convention Center for a pretty unique trade show. We’re talking rows of boats and weird, ski-oriented stuff. And then there’s the even-more-odd beach-accessory section. But once you get past all of the silicone and bikinis in the beach-wear ailes, you finally make your way to the lowly corner of the Center…exactly where the mini-ramp and skate companies are located.

I don’t know if they purposely put us in the back corner of the facility so we don’t bother anyone, but it really doesn’t matter because once again built by Team Pain, the ramp was definitely a hit with the skaters. We had our own little area to do what we wanted…the skateboarders had taken over. We’re talking beers, music, and screaming and yelling for some amazing skating.

Each contestant got two, 45-second runs in the Qualifiers. Then we took the top 10 and put them into the Finals where they got a “skate ‘til you fall” intro run and “skate ‘til you fall” final run, with a 20-minute “free for all” Jam in the middle.

Here are some of the guys that ripped that didn’t make the cut:

• Stu Graham – my boy from Scotland is one of the most exciting guys to watch on a mini. He skates 100 mph and this was his pro debut for our events
• Mark Partain – at age 43, Mark is just killing it. He started his first run with jumping off the quarter-pipe that was sitting on top of the platform, which was about a 5’+ drop. His runs were good and solid, but not quite enough to make the cut
• Pat Duffy – I don’t care what place Duffy got, we’re all still huge fans and it was a pleasure to see him in Florida

The Jam was absolutely insane. There were hits, misses, and more hits and misses than anyone watching could even keep track of. Everyone that skated gave it their all and was exhausted when it was all said and done. Here’s how it broke down:

10th – $600 – Ivan – I guess I should know this guy’s last name, right, but all I know is that he’s from Spain, he rides for Volcom, and has both frontside and backside sugarcanes on lock

9th – $700 – Tony Trujillo – TNT started every single run by rolling in on the quarter-pipe that was on top of the platform, which no one else had done. He flew across the ramp at Mach 5, trying his damndest to land everything, but he couldn’t quite stay on long enough to make it past 9th

8th – $800 – Tim Johnson – although he’s got the skills, it’s not standard practice that Tim makes the cut. This time it was undeniable and he backed it up in the Jam with fs noseblunts on the big bank extension and some crazy fs nosepick on the quarter on top of the platform

7th – $900 – Omar Hassan – the man from Costa Mesa ripped like no other. Omar is no stranger to what it takes to win a contest and he ripped with his proper lipslides, 5-0’s, method airs, and overall solid runs. We were pulling for the 540, but it just didn’t happen

6th – $1000 – Anthony Furlong – when I spoke with Furly after the Jam he said, “I’m out of here because I know that I got last place.” Wrong he was and he gladly walked away with his G for his blunt variations and 5-0’s to fakie that can’t be touched

5th – $1500 – Alain – okay, so here’s another Volcom guy from Spain who has no last name. Who cares though when you’re ripping as hard as this guy was with use of the entire ramp and fast lines through the crowded Jam

4th – $2500 – Kyle Berard – ol’ Berard had to take a “chill-break” in the middle of the Jam or else he would have taken the whole deal and would have been $5000 richer. He had everything on lock, but what truly stood out were his bs tailslides on the ledge on top of the platform

3rd – $3000 – Rodney Jones – “I paid for my own flight here,” is what Rodneck said to me on Friday. Good thing that he ripped with fs disasters to bs revert on the bank extension and some of the sickest lines of the entire day, with the blunt 180 nose-smacker on the bank extension as a stand-out

2nd – $5000 – Chet Childress – you know he doesn’t skate contests too often, so it was great to see him out there in the Brawl. And from observing it seemed as if Krooks was having a great time. His runs were some of the longest of the day, involving damn near every revert possible, and he skated like a champ in the Jam

1st – $7500 – Mike Peterson – you know that much money can buy A LOT of diapers. Mike had wife and baby in tow as he blunt kickflipped to fakie and did his textbook bs bonelesses up the bank extension. He ruled his runs and the Jam, which left him with top honors

When it was announced that Peterson had won, champagne was flying everywhere and the top three were celebrating with their “club” trophies. Everyone was smiling and the W-9’s got filled out once again. Good times and a great way to spend a warm Florida Saturday in September…

This Am Jam has turned into an “in demand” event. This was the fourth one that we’ve done at Expo and they keep getting better and better. We tried to keep the number of entrants at 30, but it was pretty much impossible, with the final number somewhere around 40, and we still had several kids walking away disappointed.

The format was exactly the same as the pros and we ran the two qualifying runs as quickly as possible because all anyone really cares about is the Finals anyway, right? The two runs that specifically stick out in my head as ‘great’ were done by Lehman and Del Valle, but it was rad to see Abdias Rivera, Colin Provost, and Grant Taylor in the cut, too. But those guys couldn’t pull it together enough in the Jam to bring home some cheddar.

When the dust settled and everyone caught their breath, here’s who ended up in the money:

5th – $100 – Vince Del Valle – his two “skate ‘til you fall” runs weren’t the best of all time, but Vince ripped the Jam enough to get himself a hundred bucks. His banger was the ollie to fs nosegrinds to nollie out about 12’ long and he’s got miller flips and elguerials back-to-back

4th – $200 – Jared Lee – I think Jared must have some super-powers or something because if you recall he dislocated his ankle very badly back at Tampa Am. Now he’s back and it doesn’t look like he’s even missed a beat. Jared won the first one of these Jams we did a couple years back and this time he skated solid and consistent in both his runs and the Jam with this fakie ollie to tail on the ledge sticking out as memorable to me

3rd – $300 – Dustin Blauvelt – Dustin has become a regular at our events, with this one the first that we know of without his pops. Despite my jokes over the mic of getting him drunk, young Dustin has turned into an all-around ripper with a great attitude. He skated the entire ramp like a champ and did a bs blunt bigspin out in his run

2nd - $400 – Chris Lehman – if we were judging strictly on stamina and most time on the skateboard, then Chris would have definitely won. He was so exhausted after the Jam that he just collapsed on top of the deck. Chris had SO MANY tricks that it was ridiculous, including switch bs bonelesses, fs hurricanes on the big bank, and a large variation of big airs

1st – $500 – Adam Dyet – I don’t know how many more am contests we’re going to get to see Dyet compete in because rumor has it that he’s going to be pro by the end of the year. You already know that this guy can rip a handrail, but his mini-ramp domination is right up there, too, with an alley oop kickflip melon from the tranny to the big bank (first try) and both backside tail and crailslides

Thanks to the guys at Volcom and everyone at Surf Expo for making the Neanderthal Brawl happen. It was once again another great Mini-Ramp Jam at Expo, which makes an otherwise standard trade show much more exciting. Hopefully we’ll be doing it again in January.

Ryan