Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Smoking indoors in California will get you a promotion on the Skatepark of Tampa Party Team. Yo Dyet!

We all shared Jessica's wig. The girl in the last photo with Justin Williams said, "I'm not putting that skank's wig on." Wow, you catty ass women need to settle down

Okay, enough partying. We're here for skateboarding. That's David Reyes on a light footed back smith

Adam Dyet - frontside bluntslide still sporting the bar props from the night before

Andrew Langi - feeble grind

David Reyes - overcrook

This was the scene at the Contest. If you were in the crowd, thanks for coming to our skateboard shindig

Wow, that's a seriously beefy camel toe that Officer Doofy is running. The po almost shut down the whole event right when it started

Kevin Romar - nollie backside 360

Shuriken Shannon - kickflip over the hubba

Cody McEntire - nollie bigger spin with filmer geek interference

Tommy Sandoval - half cab crooked grind

Brandon Turner - nollie half cab switch manny

Brandon Turner - nollie hardflip

Tommy Sandoval - half cab smith grind

Felipe Gustavo - kickflip crooked grind

Sierra Fellers - nollie heel. Check that pop - wow

Vince Del Valle - holding on to a switch hardflip

Brandon Turner - switch hardflip

Figgy - kickflip frontside 5-0

Cody McEntire - switch flip

Shuriken Shannon - inward heelflip manual

Tommy Sandoval - frontside 270 switch front board

We're in California, but this chick is reminding me of Plant City, Florida right now

Sierra Fellers - nollie frontside 5-0

Shuriken Shannon - switch frontside flip

Gareth Stehr - airwalk

That's Chris Ortiz's son following in his footsteps. Don't pick up his eating habits, son

DJ Wade is not drinking Gatorade

Abdias Rivera - frontside half cab flip

Abdias Rivera - noseblunt slide

Garrett Hill - 360 flip frontside 50-50. This time, his pant legs are the same color

If you were watching the live webcast, thanks for tuning in. The guys at 411 are running things with that

Okay, the contest is over and now it's back to party mode. This weird chick in the bar was dishing out spanks. I've been bad, real bad

Sandra, thanks for the cleavage photo. 14-year-old kids will be clicking on them all day. Sandra works in the sketchy skateboard industry with us and also does side work like writing for Krunk Magazine. Yeah, Krunk Magazine

Abdias Rivera is working his way up to Skatepark of Tampa Party Team status right now

Tod Swank - thanks for throwing the Foundation After-Party

Corey Duffel's on his way to South America or some crazy country like that tomorrow

Three days later, Dyet still has the same bar props

We're in Venice Beach now. I'm having a nice relaxing beer and smoke by myself on the beach while I avoid the mountain of work I have to do today

After a while, The Captain from The Captain and Casey Show, Ryan Powers, and Craig Chimile join me for a brew. We weren't even half way done when we were all put in handcuffs and shoved up against a police car. In the uptight state of California, you can't drink on the beach. Is it really necessary to cuff people for it? We all got tickets and a court date now. Fantastic police work, Officer Doofy. After he took my cuffs off, I took a few sneak attack photos

Craig Chimile and The Captain love Venice Beach and their drinking citations

I used my ticket as a coaster

Wow. Welcome to California

Leonard's shakka-mobile doesn't have a back seat so you can fit the wave sticks in there. Surf's up, bro

Some fancy footwork

Right after dinner, Braydon drove away in his new Caddy and rear-ended someone at a stoplight

If I wasn't such a drunk, I could seriously conquer the world. But that would be boring and I wouldn't have good times like this

DJ Wade fell off a ramp and broke four ribs in his back at the Spring Break Yo'Self Contest. Clements took these photos in the hospital last night and sent this note: Both of these guys have injuries. One has an eternal head injury and the other has an internal rib injury. Can you guess who has what? Note the shirt

With layovers and all, it usually takes eight or nine hours to get to California. Add in getting the car and finding wherever you need to go and it turns into quite a trip. Fortunately when you fly from east to west you make up three hours due to the time change, but your body still feels like it’s three hours later than CA time. So what I’m trying to say here is…we had dinner with Kyle Berard and Roberto Aleman and then went to bed.

The next morning we were up early and on the road to Costa Mesa first thing out for 10am meetings with the dudes at Volcom. We discussed Expo, AmsterDamn Am, and what we’re most excited about, Australia Damn Am, coming to Melbourne in 2009. It’s great working with a group of guys that are exactly on the same page. We had a crap-talking lunch on Newport Pier (and got to see dolphins and seals), went “shopping” in the warehouse for tons of proper Volcom gear, and then got to skate the private TF with the entire crew. Good times with good people.

Our next stop was Pacific Beach, where we met Blair Alley from Transworld for dinner and drinks at the high-end Mexican joint, Gringo’s. From there it was off to some dive bar to hang out with local Danny Wallace. Justin Williams and I ran the foosball table and put a whooping on the locals. Finally, rock-star Adam Dyet made an appearance and we called it a night for the big day ahead.

We got on site at about 11am and there was literally nowhere to park. With Spring Break and all happening, Mission Beach was going off. The King Rails crew was putting the final touches on the new-and-improved obstacle and all of the sponsors were getting their tents set up, preparing for the long day ahead.

The weather was perfect and the crowd started to gather just in time for the Pre-Contest Demo at 2pm. And when I say “crowd,” there must have been over 1000 people there, not including people that were just walking by and stopping for a minute to see what was going on. There ended up simply being too many contestants, too. Registration was crazy and trying to get all of the right guys in there was nearly impossible. That’s how these one-day events can be though…goes with the territory.

So since there were so many participants, we broke them into three, 20-minute Heats, with 20+ skating in each one. Jason Rothmeyer, Kenny Hughes, and Mike Sinclair did a fine job judging and picking the top 10 best overall rippers to participate in the Final Jam. Damn good thing we started an hour early because you could see the sun setting over the roller coaster as the Final Jam began.

Before we go that far, here are a few guys that deserve some recognition that didn’t quite make the cut:

• Drew Dezort – I don’t think that the judges were feeling him because he ended up in 27th, but I thought that this dude was giving 110% out there
• David Loy – he stepped it up with kickflip fs 50-50’s on the square rail
• Ryan Sheckler – maybe he doesn’t necessarily deserve recognition for this move, but he showed up with two minutes left in the Final Heat, ollied the stairs, and was peace out. Huh?
• 12th – $400 – Scott DeCenzo – he and Darrell didn’t quite make the cut, but we had some extra cash, so we gave it to the next two guys in line
• 11th – $400 - Darrell Stanton – same thing happened to him last year…just missed the Final Jam

The break-down:

• 10th – $500 – Cody McEntire – he wasn’t 100% on during the Final Jam, but we know that Cody’s got tricks for days
• 9th – $500 – Billy Marks – same deal with Billy. He just couldn’t pull it together. I can’t remember what it was, but he got stuck working on one trick for like 10 minutes
• 8th – $500 – Kevin Romar – other than Cody, the only other am in the top 10. Although I can’t remember a damn thing he did, Kevin stepped it up to the big ranks
• 7th – $500 – Sierra Fellers – a foot injury towards the end might have kept him from placing a few spots higher, but Sierra was on it as usual with his extra-smooth style. It’s great to see him tearing it up as a pro
• 6th – $500 – Garrett Hill – I can’t recall ever seeing this dude skate in person, but he’s amazing! He’s got one of the best pop shove-its I’ve ever seen…super-high and smooth. And the tre flip to fs 50-50 on the hubba wasn’t so bad either
• 5th – $1000 – Adam Dyet – skating and partying super-hard is Dyet’s M.O. He’s always on and always giving 100% with kickflip bs lips and bs noseblunts. He went for a nollie big heel lipslide on his last attempt…and almost stuck it
• 4th – $1000 – Shuriken Shannon – another newer pro, Shuriken skated the chain-to-bank like the original is in his own backyard. Oh yeah, that’s because it is. I liked the nollie inward heel to manny down it and then the ollie over the pole and the whole thing to flat!
• 3rd – $2500 – Jereme Rogers – if you don’t know that his stance is goofy, it’s sometimes difficult to tell if Jereme is going regular or switch because his skating is so solid both ways. Perfect 360 flips, bs flips, and an array of switch tricks including a fs 5-0 down the square rail got him in the top three
• 2nd – $5000 – Tommy Sandoval – the champ for the last two years had to give up the crown to a fellow SD shredder. Tommy’s style is to show up late, barely warm up, and tear the place to shreds like there is no tomorrow. His skating is so exciting to watch because he tries to land everything no matter what
• 1st – $10,000 – Brandon Turner – I don’t know what to say other than, “WOW!” Lil’ B absolutely destroyed that obstacle. I heard that last year he was locked up during the event. Well if so, he came back with a vengeance and nollie double flipped over the chain into the bank and was the only person to use the side banks, with a nollie noseslide. That is just the tip of the iceberg of the moves he had – a top honor well-deserved

My After-Party experience was a bit different than everyone else’s. This might be a good time to tell you that DJ Wade fell off the platform and landed on his ribs. I was standing there talking to him, turned around for a second, Tod Swank got my attention, and there five feet down was Wade laying on his back, the lower part of his back on a curb, head in the bushes, and feet on the asphalt, giving me a “what the hell just happened” look. The paramedic came right over and a few minutes later Wade was up DJing the Final Jam.

Then after the Awards I saw an ambulance. I walked over and Wade was inside. The pain from his fall was too great – he had to get help. Brian and I packed up, got out of there around nightfall, and made our way to Scripps Mercy Hospital. We did the stealth-sneak-in since we weren’t family and found Wade all hopped up on some type of pain-killers. I wish that I would have recorded his “interview” with the doctor…it was classic Wade. Here is Brian’s account:

Trip to the hospital for mine and Ryan’s After-Party: Met the sister Linda Attardo and talked to Steffan Attardo, which is Wade’s brother. Steffan used to be pro for Santa Cruz, if you didn’t know, and Wade and Steffan are brothers, so now ya’ know. Spoke to his Mom, too – she thinks Wade is crazy and needs help. I assured her that he is crazy, but we all are, so it made her feel a bit better. Steve Stratton called as he was getting a ton of calls. I also got a call from Raymond Molinar to see how he was, along with a few others. People care about him and how can you not? I love the dude, too.

Wade broke a few ribs and is going to be fine, but they kept him in the hospital overnight just to be sure. We left the hospital and were spent…the old dudes went right to bed. I’m sure that Rob had a different After-Party experience though…

Thanks to Paul at Sun Diego for making the entire event happen and allowing SPoTlight to be a part of it. Jeff King and the King Rails Crew did a fine job…except for the length of the banks off the side of the stairs. Who’s in charge over there?

Since there weren’t too many of them, I’d like to thank the main sponsors, too: Mada, Skateboarder, Monster, Osiris, Electric, and Tum Yeto. I may have forgotten someone, but I’m going off of memory. Thanks to everyone for their involvement…great times.

Ryan