Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Kyle Berard's frontside alley oop to back lip on the Stone over-vert is pretty damn scary stunt

Dennis Busenitz - smith grind gap ollie out

If you're psyched to see Tom Knox, welcome to the 30 and Up Club

Justin Strubing's gap to smith grind goes all the way through the kink and more

Everyone else's flashes lit up this photo of Kyle Berard's back smith on the Stone over-vert

I think this is Adam Dyet's first pro contest. This is a kickflip melon over the gap. See you at Tampa Pro

Anthony Furlong - bush gap to tailslide

Caswell Berry - stalefish

That's the SPoTlight Productions crew that runs it - Ryan Clements and Brian Schaefer on lead vocals, and Rob Meronek behind the scenes on drums

Tim Johnson - stalefish blasted over the bush gap

It's always a pleasure just to watch Mark Appleyard cruise around

Mark Appleyard - kickflip rock fakie from low to high on the Stone over-vert

Yonnie got lost with the camera for a bit and it came back with a bunch of crooked photos of bikini chicks. Here's a sample of one

Chet Childress makes use of the hooka trophies that Volcom made

This is the third one that Kyle Berard has won

The day before, Jared Lee won the Am Mini-Ramp Jam. Jared also won the first one that went down last year in January

Of course there's not just skating going on. Hans from Volcom Europe throws a fast one down courtesy of DVS. Hans will be helping us run the AmsterDamn Am in Holland this summer from July 13 - 15, 2007. See you there

Yep, Schaefer's drunk when he's picking people up. This time the pick up victim is Justin Strubing

Flip flops have been appearing in more and more foot fetish shots

Keep your pant leg down when you're wearing tie dye socks

That's Jeff Pang from DC and skateboard professor Paul Schmitt who has always has a tape measure hooked to his belt buckle

Omar Hassan said he was feeling a little off skating today. He ended up in 15th and missed the cut

Tony Evjenth from Matix wears a calculator watch

When I asked Jordan Price what shoes those were, he said they were my mom's

Eugenius is handling the live webcast at Volcom.com. I like his hippie props

The bushes seem to be a good place to film and shoot photos from. That's Steve Stratton with the flicks

Drinker Pat seems to be enjoying the dark side

Foot fetish with Dan Pensyl

All the good things in life like booze, smoke, skateboarding, and Brianna are all going to be in hell. I can't wait to get there. I hope I'm on the VIP list. Brianna is with them new tats

Jim Grosser has a mean filmer face. The bushes are the hot spot. People are coming out with grass stains after slamming in that pit

Everyone wants their turn in the bush spot. I'm going to have to get in there

We are now at the bar, and the foot fetish continues

See that boot right there on the right...follow the trail all the way up to some hotness...

...and you'll see that hotness is Lea from Vans. I don't care how much the shoes are. How much is the rep?

Usually it's Body that's looking like a lumberjack. Tonight it's Dustin Eggling sawing wood

Volcom's theme for this show is the hippie thing. Peace, love, and skateboarding, brah

Once again, this is why they commonly refer to it as Sexpo

Once you’ve been to enough trade shows you sometimes forget that not everyone in skateboarding participates in the behind-the-scenes business bull$h!t that we do. Man, you have no idea…we see it all and hear it all and it’s pretty damn funny to hear others’ opinions on industry-related happenings.

There is always a lot of gossip going back and forth – who’s ripping it, who’s blowing up, and who’s blowing it:

“Why did Company X put THAT guy on? Did you see the photo of HIM? Man, that was so lame. That guy sucks.”

But at the same time, there is a lot of legitimate business that goes down, too. Buyers did their buying, marketing kooks did their marketing, and I’m sure that pretty much everyone got a taste of some of the fun times and partying.

Take all of that and add a great contest into the mix and there is a damn good reason to attend Expo and Volcom Stone’s Acid Drop Mini-Ramp Fest!

Both the Am Contest and the Pro Contest had about 35 skaters each. The Pro worked out well, but we had to significantly regulate the number of ams in their Contest. That left several ams pissed off at us because they were not permitted to skate in the Contest. That sucks, but hit us up earlier next time for a better chance at a spot.

We split the skaters in each Jam into two heats. From there they got two, 45-second runs, and the best run counted. We then took the top 10 overall and placed them into a 10-man Final Jam.

In the Final Jam they got one, “skate ‘til you fall” intro run and the same for their final run; however, in between we did a 15-minute Jam with no rules…skate at any time and every skater for themselves.

All went relatively well, but there were a few collisions here and there. That’s to be expected. The Format was nearly identical for the Pro Jam, with two exceptions: One, they skated a 20-minute Jam as opposed to 15. And two, the pros’ final runs at the end of the Jam were one-minute as opposed to “skate until you fall.” That didn’t seem to work so well because the pros were absolutely exhausted when they had to skate that last minute. Read on for the results…

Since Rob was down with the sickness behind the ramp pretty much the entire day on Friday, the day of the Am Jam, we don’t have too many photos of the ams to show off. Don’t take that as a sign that they weren’t ripping though. The Am Contest was entertaining and fun through and through…

1st – $500 – Jared Lee – he won the first one we ever hosted and once again proved that he’s at the top of the mini-ramp charts. Jared took a couple of those “skate until you fall” runs to the next level by skating literally for about two minutes each time. And I’m not talking axel stalls and rocks to fakie…Jared did difficult tricks throughout

2nd – $400 – Vince Del Valle – I’m a huge fan of this guy and the way he skates all terrain. Vince has combos that leave you saying, “Damn.” My favorite is when he does a miller flip on one wall and then an elguerial on the next. That’s right, an elguerial…not sure if I'm spelling it right, but you probably don’t know what I’m talking about anyway

3rd – $300 – Mason Huggins – you’re probably wondering who the hell this guy is, right? I don’t know him too well either, but he has a HUGE bag of tricks. He sent us a sponsor-me tape to get in the Jam and Rob and I were like, “Holy $h!t…this guy rips. He’s in.” Had Mason not blown it on his runs he would have won the entire deal because he destroyed the Jam

4th – $200 – Grant Taylor – the undisputed prince of style is growing up a bit, but that only means that his fs flips are even better than before. The only thing that I’m going to talk about are his fs flips because they are seriously the best of anyone ever. I know that I sound like I’m kissing ass, but until you see them you have no idea what I’m talking about

5th – $100 – Marky Clements – with undoubtedly the best last name of the weekend, Marky barely squeezed into the Contest…and it was great to see him in the Final Jam, too. He’s got a good, clean style and skates solid for such a young kid. I’m assuming that we’re going to be seeing more of him

6th – $100 – Dan Carreiro – I used to think that Dark Jay looked like Jack Sparrow…that is, until I met Dan this past weekend. He’s got no home and no phone, but he doesn’t care because he was there to skate. When I cut him his check I said, “Sorry that it’s only $100,” and he replied, “Thank you. $100 is a lot of money to me.” Damn nice kid

7th – $100 – Colin Provost – did you not expect to see Collin in the Final Jam or something? He’s been repping Element for as long as I can remember and his tranny skating reflects his vert skills from his younger years. Although that may sound weird, it’s not at all. Colin kills it with a great style, big airs, and he knows when to throw in a proper lip trick

8th – $100 – Evan Smith – everywhere I see Evan he’s ripping. He skated well at Tampa Am in ’06 (let’s see what he’s got for ’07), ripped the Best Trick at Make-A-Wish, and now here he is in the top 10 at yet another Volcom Mini-Ramp Jam. He brings a great street-style to the transitions

9th – $100 – Josh Folley – all the way from 3rd Lair in MN, Josh took his bowl-riding skills and applied them to the mini-ramp in Orlando. He’s got all of the lip tricks including a bs crailslide every single try without even thinking about it

10th – $100 – Tyler Mumma – jams can be sketchy when a bunch of people are skating at the same time, and Tyler will be the first to attest to that comment. He suffered a clipped wing (hurt shoulder) right when the Jam began and couldn’t really do much at all for the next several minutes

At trade shows you always hear rumors. Some of them are true, but most are not. The best rumor of the weekend was that Danny Way, Colin McKay, Brian Wenning, and Ryan Sheckler were going to skate in the Mini-Ramp Jam. I knew that I should have bet against that one because I don’t think any of those guys even made an appearance anywhere around the mini-ramp. However, they did do an autograph signing at the Eastern Booth, which was pretty damn cool for the attendees.

The area around the mini-ramp was jam-packed for the Pro event. Giving away $35,000 will attract some of skateboarding’s top dogs.

1st – $10,000 – Kyle Berard – oh. My. God. Berard completely dominated. He put together amazing runs and then attracted much attention in the Jam. One of the judges told me had he stayed on for the last 10 seconds of his first run that he might have given him a 100, which is pretty much unheard of

2nd – $7500 – Rune Glifberg – it was rad to see Rune in a mini-ramp Contest…and his vert skills definitely came in handy with HUGE fs airs off the Volcom-Stoned obstacle. That was only the tip-of-the-iceberg with Rune’s skills though because he skated the entire ramp like a champ and even through in a 540 for the hell-of-it at the end of his last run

3rd – $5000 – Chet Childress – he came in 2nd at the last one Volcom hosted and got a little taste of the money, so it was nice to see him return. Ironically, he received the same amount of loot for 3rd this time as opposed to his 2nd place finish last time. Not bad, and neither were his bluntslides to bs lipslide

4th – $3000 – Ivan Rivado – Spain’s finest could ride a jam like the best of them, with Busentiz being the only skater that can actually top him. Ivan has the best bs ollies of anyone, solid airs, and an array of lip tricks that he busts out when duty calls. Thanks to him and Alain for making it all the way from Spain

5th – $2000 – Mike Peterson – what can be said about Peterson that hasn’t already been said? I love that guy. I’ve probably said it before, but he’s the read deal and can rip any terrain on a skateboard. My favorite was how he would ollie up the Stoned obstacle and then ollie right off of it into the ramp like nothing every single try…he made it look as simple as riding off a curb

6th – $1500 – Dennis Busenitz – the best quote was from my friend Mike. He said, “Does Busenitz train with a bunch of puppies on the bottom of the ramp or something?” Dennis can weave in and out of anything and make the most-heated jams look completely under control

7th – $1000 – Anthony Furlong – one of the first ones to admit that the competition was fierce was Furlong. His runs were damn good and he ripped the Jam and still ended up only in 7th. That’s a sign of how gnar it was

8th – $1000 – Alain Goikoetxea – if we were hosting a Best Trick Contest, then Alain would have taken it. He did a boardslide up the Volcom-Stoned extension and came off the 4’ drop to 50-50 on the coping of the regular part of the ramp. I don’t think that he pulled it in practice at all and then crowd went totally nuts when he landed it in his run

9th – $1000 – Caswell Berry – injury number two of the weekend went to Caswell. He dislocated his toe in the Jam right after he did a fs ollie late shove-it disaster. The rest of the day we went around with his right shoe off and one swollen-ass toe. He told me that he felt it completely sideways in his shoe

10th – $1000 – Tim Johnson – he started the Jam and ended the Jam in 10th despite his attempts of blunt-fakies on the side of the bank ramp on the deck. Had he made one of those he might have squeezed up a notch or two

Thanks to the entire crew at Volcom, Pete and everyone at Expo, DJ Wade, and everyone else that was there for making the Contest a success. I can’t wait to see what stupid costumes I’ll be wearing next time.

Ryan