10th Annual Make-A-Wish Texas Skate Jam – 2006
Posted on Monday, November 6, 2006 by Ryan
10th Annual Make-A-Wish Texas Skate Jam – 2006
Words by Ryan ClementsPhotos and Captions by Rob Meronek
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The Purpose
If you don’t know what the Make-A-Wish Foundation is all about, then let me give you a little bit of insight:
In a nutshell, they grant wishes for sick and terminal kids that would otherwise not have their wishes come true. So if you’re a little eight-year-old and you have cancer and all you’ve ever wanted was to meet Tony Hawk...bam, they make it happen for you. And on the flip side, if you’re a sick little girl and you’ve always wanted to go to Hawaii, then the MAW Foundation makes sure that you and your family get to visit Hawaii.
So where does the skateboarding industry fit into all of this? Well, a gentleman by the name of Damian Herbet, who also happens to own South Shore Distributing, decided that skateboarding as a whole really has something to contribute to the Foundation. He got with Southside Skatepark 10 long years ago, and since then, as they say, the rest is history. South Shore and Southside Skatepark are on the “skateboarding map” indefinitely.
But it’s not all about hyping up what we’re all doing. After all, it IS for the kids. Yeah, for the kids...
Bowl Jam
The day I arrived in Houston it was a bit chilly and then it got even colder that night. So I’m guessing that it got down into the 50’s, and possibly even 40’s at the
coldest. I don’t take well to cold, so I was hyped when I woke up on Saturday morning and didn’t even need a jacket when leaving the hotel. In addition, it was very
sunny...not a cloud in the sky. Could you ask for more?
The first event of the day took place in the bowl. It’s nearly 6’ deep, layered in birch, and has a 6’ vert extension in the far wall. The Jam went down for 30-minutes and here’s who prevailed:
- 1st – $5000 – Chad Knight – haven’t heard much out of Chad Knight recently? I can assure you that he’s doing very well and that his skating hasn’t missed a beat because he earned his placing by ripping the entire Jam and throwing down both a pivot fakie and blunt fakie (grab and no grab) on the vert wall
- 2nd – $1000 – Mike Peterson – out front before we walked in Mike said, “I need to learn how to skate again. I drank so much beer last night that I don’t think I can skate.” But as we all know, skating talks and BS walks. Mike ripped the damn thing with airs all over the place and lines for miles
- 3rd - $500 – Ben Rayborn – who is Ben Rayborn, you ask? That’s the same thing I was thinking when he first joined the session. But his skating certainly did the talking when Ben threw down great lines all around, a gymnast plant revert, and then ended the session with an invert on the 6’ of vert!
Street Best Trick
Just like last weekend at Damn Am, we once again thought that everyone had seen enough handrail contests, so the choice was to do the Street Jam on the bank-to-wall.
It was a nice change and showcased some great skating.
I’m by no means hating on handrail events...I love them like I love all skateboarding (for the most part), but it’s cool to see some different stuff and to give some prizes away to some potentially different guys. One of the many major beauties of skateboarding is the diversity of us all and the different skating we do.
- 1st – $5000 – Kenny Anderson – is there a better style in skateboarding than Kenny’s? There’s no arguing that he’s not at the top of the list when it comes to steez. To go along with an amazing style and trick selection, Kenny is one of the coolest and most humble guys that I’ve ever met. His bs noseblunt that he did on his last try was the deal-sealer for his top placing
- 2nd – $1000 – Mike Peterson – there goes Peterdong again all ripping it in the Jam. Literally seconds after Kenny did the bs noseblunt, Mike rolled up and did a blunt kickflip fakie on the thing...and it was his last try, too! That was amazing and the place went absolutely nuts
- 3rd – $500 – Steve Nesser – Adio’s own took it up a level with a heelflip from the bank all the way up to an axel stall on the top of the bank-to-wall. He was working on a kickflip to backside nose pivot, too, but had to settle for a nosestall revert
- Official Honorable Mention – Nick Matlin – TM of Creation, Yellow, and Satori skated the wall like a true pro. Ol’ Weird Beard had many moves, including a fs heelflip revert from the bank to the steep wall
Zumiez Best Trick
The new sponsor to the event decided to kick in an additional $2000 at the 11th hour, so we had to come up with something on the double. There was already a skateable
Zumiez Couch on site, so Schaefer picked what he thought was the best spot and we let the 30-minute Jam ensue. For a second I thought that maybe the thing was too damn
high, but silly me...the skaters stepped up to it like pros and ripped that piece a new one!
- 1st – $2000 – Torey Pudwill – if anyone is growing into his own it’s OG Shortys ripper Torey, who now rips for The Sect and kills all. I said to Rob that he reminds me of Dylan Rieder because he’s growing up and starting to REALLY kill it. He’s going to be bigtime in the future, but right now things aren’t too shabby because he nailed a perfect bs noseblunt and nollie heelflip backside nosegrind on the top of the “Couch”
- 2nd – Matt Miller – it sure is nice to see Zoo Yorker Matt place in an event. Who was going to deny his fs 180 nollie nosegrind (switch fs 5-0)?
- 3rd – Sierra Fellers – I was gone by this point and this trick was relayed to me via telephone, but Schaefer told me that that Sierra nailed a frontside bigspin heelflip to boardslide. WHOA!
Additional Awards
There is so much going on and so much team participation at the MAW Jam that it’s cool to bring a little attention to those that might have ripped all day and possibly
not made the top three in any of the disciplines. Here’s how the rest broke down:
- Top Am of the Day – $2000 – Alex Olson – I saw him skate the bowl the day before the Jam and thought, “Holy $h!t, he’s insane!” His speed, style, and ability to throw tech moves in while he’s hauling ass is absolutely ridiculous
- Top Pro of the Day – $2000 – Mike Peterson – I love when my friends win money, and it’s just that much better when it’s someone as deserving as Mike. I’ve known Mike for a long-ass time and we got to share dinner at the airport on the way out of Houston. He’s the real deal and loves skateboarding and his position in skateboarding. Hopefully you get to meet him someday, too
- Top Team Performance of the Day – $2000 – Crimson Skateboards – oh hell yeah! How rad is it that Kris Markovich’s new company is on top of their game like that? Ben Rayborn destroyed the Bowl, Vince Del Valle had moves on everything, and even Kris helped out by judging the Bowl Jam. A job well done, fellas
- Best Bull Ride of the Day – $1000 – Leticia Ruano – you’re probably saying, “What the hell is Clem talking about?” and no, I haven’t lost my mind. Spitfire sponsored a Pro/Am/Industry VIP Bull Riding Contest on a mechanical bull in the “village area” and the beautiful Leticia from Consolidated Skateboards stepped up and represented with a hot ride
After-Party
This was a full-on rock-star trip for me. I was only in Houston for a total of 30 hours. I needed to jet back to Tampa to handle some personal business...fun
business, but I still needed to go. But I’m just going to guess that Philip Vaughn put together yet another great Party and Rob Meronek shot plenty of great party
photos.
Thank You
- Tommy Austin, the founder of Make-A-Wish, for being there to witness it all
- Whomever it was that had the great idea of “village area,” good thinking
- Jeff Taylor and the rest of the crew from Adio
- Damian Herbet and April from South Shore Distributing
- Tommy and posse and from Southside Skatepark
- The sponsors...Automatic, Volcom, Black Label, Listen, Electric, Zero, Mystery, Fallen, Planet Earth, Adio, Satori, Creation, 411VM, Thrasher, Spitfire, Zoo York, and Zumiez
Ryan
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