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Automatic Magazine's Battle of the Shops 2005 Presented by Adio

Posted on on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 by Ryan

Another trip to California to help run a contest? No problem at all. This one was Battle of the Shop in Carlsbad, CA...

Automatic Magazine's Battle of the Shops Presented by Adio
Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek
Click here for full results.

We got to go through the Adio and Planet Earth warehouse and load up like pros with anything we wanted. I thought my pile was getting too large until I looked over at Schaefer's mountain of gear. We got hooked up so good we had to have it shipped back home. Thanks Adio and Planet Earth!
Chris Troy backside smith grinds over the door gap in the Adio skate facility
Ryan Clements frontside smith grinds over the door gap in the Adio skate facility
Adio's skate facility is pretty good for the amount of space they had to squeeze it into
Friday – Contest Preparation Day – Adio Warehouse
Schaefer, Meronek, and I arrived at the Adio Warehouse in Carlsbad a day early to check out what was going on. There were banners being hung and people scurrying everywhere; you could just tell that something big was on the verge of happening. Jeff Taylor gave us the behind-the-scenes tour of the whole joint.

I don’t know what impressed me more, the articulate organization and massiveness of the shoe inventory or the amazing offices with modern furnishings and a comfortable, low-lit ambiance. I guess that’s the type of resources you have when K-2 owns you, but it didn’t have the corporate feel at all though. Especially considering that there’s a great skate park right there inside the warehouse and Jeff sent us on a fabulous, “Take anything you like,” shopping spree. It was actually overwhelming.

Black Box Headquarters
After skating at the Adio TF we went and visited the Black Box headquarters. Right on the front desk was a Tampa Am 2005 – Just For Showing Up award...stoked. Mike Sinclair, Fallen Team Manager, gave us the VIP tour. We got to see the editing room where New Blood was made, The Chief’s office, the warehouse with more decks than you can imagine, and finally the TF. It was cool to ride something that we’ve seen so much coverage of.
The Zero/Mystery skate facility
Inside the Mystery warehouse. That's a lot of boards


Now it was back to the Adio Warehouse to check up on things. Brian had to stay there and work, but Rob and I cut out to meet Sinclair and Brian Howard to skate Dave Bergthold’s ramp. Dave’s ramp was probably one of the most difficult-to-navigate ramps that I’ve ever ridden. Not one wall was the same and it had hips, corners, a spine, a variety of coping including a log, and it was fast as hell. There were so many industry heads at the session that I thought that I was at a trade show.

It was my third session of the day, so I was pretty much beat when we got back to Adio. The ramps were just getting completed, the sun was setting, and it was getting that SoCal coolness in the air. Everyone was anticipating the Event. We grabbed some grub with Taylor and his lovely family and I was asleep before midnight.

Saturday - The Contest
Format
  • 20 shop teams (invite only) bring four skaters and one “pinch hitter”
  • Each team gets to enter one skater on each obstacle
  • There is a 30-minute jam on each of the four obstacles
    1. Double-Set Gap
    2. Tranny Section
    3. Tech Center
    4. Handrail
  • The dominant skater for each individual jam wins that particular jam
  • “Pinch hitter” variable
    • At any time, if your team guy is “blowing it,” the TM can step in and put in the designated pinch hitter
  • Prizes

Double-Set Gap
Tyler Dingvel from Asylum was bonlessing all over the place, so I was kind of surprised when he 360 flipped the double set
Chris Troy 360 flips the double set
Shuriken Shannon backside flips down the double set
Jimmy Carlin from Street Machine hard flips down the double set
Jimmy Carlin from Street Machine double kick flips down the double set
Oscar Gonzales from Identity frontside flips the double set
Jimmy Carlin from Street Machine backside flips down the double set
I don't think I've ever heard this kind of grab get a name. It's not a roast beef - that's with your back hand between your legs, not your front hand. This kid is kickflipping into that grab down the double set
Josh Moore from Settlement Skate Shop kickflips the double set. His nickname is Doogie, but he looks more like Van Hagar
After Kyle Brogan from Schmidt's did this switch backside flip, loud cheers were heard from a crew of chicks he was rolling with
This part of the Event started things out with a bang. It was a four-flat-four, with about a 4.5’ drop and 9’ gap. Just from watching practice I could tell that it was going to go off. We made a new friend during this event. There are always those guys that stick out in your mind as just one of the ‘cool’ guys. This time it was Tyler Dingvel. He was skating with a smile and came out swinging with a boneless down the gap, but he threw in a fs 360 ollie, too, so don’t hate.

Second place went to Josh “Doogie” Moore who checked off a ton of moves, including a kf, bs flip, and a bunch of others. The winner was Jimmy Carlin, a quiet kid with no flair and a white t-shirt. His list of bangers included a fs half-cab flip, fs half-cab heelflip, and then he threw in a double-kickflip only a few minutes before time was up. His $1000 was well-earned.

Tranny Section
This is the tranny obstacle and that's Aric Sanders doing a frontside stale fish
Drew Potter from Pacific Drive blunts to fakie on the over-vert part of the tranny obstacle
Of course I was most stoked to watch this part of the Contest. Here are the highlights that I recall:
  • Although he ended up in second place, Ricardo Carvalho has some serious tranny skills. I’ve seen him rip a handrail before, but I had no idea that he was going to destroy the quarter-pipes like he did.
  • Some young, random kid, named Ramon Diaz, whom I’ve never even heard of, was doing so many crazy lip-tricks that I thought he was making them up as he went.
  • Jay Thorpe killed it to earn his “G.” The alley-oop melon over the 5’ gap was the deal-clincher in my opinion.

Lenny Rivas is doing a nollie inward heel into a nose manual here, after which he's going to do something else out, but I can't remember
If it was a single best trick contest, Danny Wallace from Pacific Drive Skate Shop might have won it with this backside noseblunt slide around the curve. He ended up in second in the Tech Center Contest
Tech Center
This was the most difficult contest that I’ve ever had the pleasure of announcing. Try to say, “There’s Lenny Rivas with a nollie inward heelflip to nose...wait, is that switch? Oh, there’s Joey Brezinski kickflipping into a manual to...but, who’s that kid that just did the kickflip manual 360 flip out? Is that that Donny Mitchell kid from Active?” Keep in mind, there were 20 rippers doing combos that Daewon would have been impressed with. At least I could properly call out Danny Wallace’s bs noseblunt around the curved ledge. Much props to Mike Sinclair, Jason Rothmeyer, and Chad Knight for judging that one...and congratulations to Joey Brezinski for winning the $1000 for whatever he did...

Marquise Preston - frontside salad grind on the rail
Every contest has some kid trying to skate that's not in the contest. This is that kid for this one - frontside noseblunt slide on the rail
Mike Magyawi had all kinds of flip into the rail tricks, but this one is a frontside feeble
If I used an abbreviation to describe Marquise Preston's trick on the rail, it would be KFC, and all the over-sensitive people on the internet would freak out and call me racist, so I'll just have to say it's a kick flip crooks
Terell Robinson was flipping into so many rail tricks, he reminded me of Billy Marks. This is a kickflip back lip
Casey Rigney threw down all kinds of moves like this nollie frontside nosegrind that looks like he didn't make it. That back foot re-aligned and he rode away clean
Adrian Mallory is going to backside 180 out of this frontside feeble grind
Lenny Rivas has a great backside smith grind
Handrail
There was some young, black kid named Marquise Preston that rides for Pharmacy killing it. Once in a while I can pick kids that are going to make something out of themselves. After all, I was the one that told Mickey Reyes to take a look at Darrell Stanton, and look what happened there. But let me tell you, Marquise dominated that Contest, and he’s got a future ahead of him as soon as he gets recognized. I was messing with him on the mic and he tried to give me a dirty look – it was funny because he’s apparently too nice to be mean, or at least that’s the impression I got. Marquise’s last banger was a fs biggie to boardslide. Damn! Second place went to Michael Prince, who had hair like Michael Jackson and a W.A.S.P. t-shirt to match. The spoils could have easily gone to him before Marquise’s last banger, but he was cheering the entire time for Marquise. Much respect to Michael for being such a good sport and true skateboarder.

This is Dennis from Adio. He's the web nerd over there. That hired ho is from some clothing company that's trying to use busted strippers to help sell gear
The judges were Chad Knight, Mike Sinclair, and Jason Rothmeyer
People who live around this waste of concrete call it "The World's Worst Skatepark." Schaefer and I had some fun there anyway
I always thought a strip bar and skate park combo would be a good idea, but if you call it the "Jack Shack," won't you get busted or something? This is the sign in front of the Encinitas YMCA Skatepark
Winners in each division from left to right: Jimmy Carlin (Street Machine) - double set. Jay Thorpe (Active) - tranny. Joey Brezinski (Val Surf) - tech. Marquise Preston (Pharmacy) - rail
Check out them ill new poop kicks, dawg. Actually, if those weren't there, this would not be a PG photo and you'd have to pay to see it on some upskirt website
Overall Winner
The overall winner for the shops ended up being Pacific Drive, but it’s more fun to talk about who totally blew it, right? That honor went to Hanger 94...better step it up next year, fellas.

Part of the beauty of this Contest is that there were so many skateboarders involved that would have never otherwise had the opportunity to show off their skills, but since Automatic Mag and Adio have gotten together to form Battle of the Shops, there’s a forum for the random ripper to get some recognition. Thanks to Mike Migdoll at Automatic, Jeff Taylor at Adio, and everyone else that made this event possible. We’re already looking forward to attending next year.

Click here for full results.

Ryan

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