Words by Ryan Clements. Photos by Barak Wiser.

Anthony Carney - finger flip lien to tail

Barry after the private mini-ramp session

     As the sun rose, so did I. Barry and I thought that it would be a great idea to head over to the show before it opened and ride the mini-ramp. We had a full-on session at about 8:30am. Thanks to the official ASR badge with my name on it, the Staff Pro security guards were forced to sit and watch us skate. That badge is gold.

     ASR traded in the vert ramp for this show in exchange for a mini-ramp. From what I gathered, there weren’t too many people that were disappointed with the decision. In fact, the mini-ramp brought out pros and other great skateboarders that we wouldn’t normally see on the street course or vert ramp. The 5’ tall, 60’ wide ramp, with a hip, bowled corner, and extension with pool coping was a total hit.

Kris Foley in the air and Austen Seaholm on the coping

Oh yeah, there was some generic high ollie contest that no one cared about in the freestyle area

Kris Foley with a beaner to fakie on the extension

Jordan Richter - ollie to smith grind from low to high

Yes, that's Brian Schaefer with a bs disaster

Seaholm - 360 flip to nosepick

There were doubles, triples, and quadrulples runs going down

One of Austen Seaholm's mini-ramp runs

     The sessions went down all weekend long, but a couple of rippers still stick out in my head. For one, despite popular belief, Austen Seaholm and I kissed and made up after his immature display at Tampa Pro 2003 (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, buy the DVD), and he absolutely destroyed the mini. Two, I think that Jordan Richter is better now than he’s ever been…there is no other ATV like him. Finally, at 40+ years old, Jim Gray was seriously holding it down during every demo.

Dyrdek gots class

Dyrdek gots style

     As the day came to a close, I went and checked out Rob Dyrdek as he gave a seminar on the current trend of skate park construction. His complaint was that 85% (I think that’s what he said) of skateboarders skate street and all of these huge concrete bowls and insane courses are being constructed, while the ledges, stairs, etc. are being ignored. I must say that he definitely had a point with his “plaza” concept. Rob has class and charisma.

Eating dinner with Jerermy Wray makes you cool

The human resource dept. at Clarion didn't take my willingness to work very serioulsy

     The evening was spent having a great dinner with the Atlas (Planet Earth, Adio) crew, including Jeremy Wray. We left the immediate downtown area, known as the Gaslamp District, to head over to some Italian joint. Although very nice, I think that the Gaslamp is a bit overpriced and uppity, so it was nice to get away for the evening.

     From there, we simply retired to our hotel, where every evening I attempted to get a job from the human resources lady...to no avail. She wouldn’t even give me an application. I don’t get it.