DC Shoes Skate Plaza Hammers vs. Bangers Contest

Words and photos by Mike Sinclair. Captions by Rob Meronek.

You know how you can tell a skate park is really good? When you look at a photo of it like this and you expect to get kicked out for skating it. It's ok, Man. It's made for skating. What? No 90 foot deep bowls covering the size of 10 football fields with a full pipe that you can fly a plane through? Go to Louisville for that

Ryan Sheckler frontside feeble grinds the seven-stair

This one I've never seen done on a rail, but Gonz did it on a double sided curb in "Video Days." This is Chris Cole doing a frontside 180 to switch frontside feeble grind, 180 out - whoa

Mike says this is Stefan Janoski doing a nollie backside 180 to fakie 5-0. Looks a little suspect to me, so I took a poop on it

The 12-stair rail is getting jealous while Tommy Sandoval avoids it and kickflips down the steps

Tommy Sandoval - that's one overturned frontside nosegrind

Tommy Sandoval was registered to skate the Damn Am Contest at the same time he was backside lipsliding this 12-stair at the Plaza. Let's see - Plaza or same old skate park? I'd be at the Plaza, too

Rob Dyrdek, mayor of the Skate Plaza, gives some kind of speech before the opening. Did you know Nate Sherwood is now Rob's personal assistant?

Looks like Red Bull kicked in some loot for the plaza. I like corporations that support skateboarding, even if they won't be around if it dies again. Hell, that's the way chicks treat you and you still roll with them, right? Ok, maybe not. Whatever. Paul Rodriguez - switch crook

Look at all those people that should be at the Damn Am contest in Minneapolis going on at the same time Paul Rodriguez is doing a switch back tail on the 7 stair

Darrell Stanton - nollie frontside salad grind

Darrell Stanton nollies the 12 set

That dude with the camera at the bottom of the photo is getting a nice ass shot of Chris Cole's switch crooked grind

Since every little weif that's been skating for less than a year can do crooked grinds, I bet a crooked grind for Chris Cole is probably easier to him than pushing is to you and me

Well, he did it down that big four in New Blood, so doing it down 7 or 8 curbs probably isn't too tough for him. Chris Cole - backside 360 ollie kickflip

This backside 270 lipslide Chris Cole is doing alsmost looks like a Bennett grind. I wonder if anyone's tried a Bennett grind to forward. That would be pretty good. Chris could probably do it first try

Right after Caine Gayle appeared on that MTV Made show, his rider profile page had teenie bopper after teenie bopper posting the standard, "OMG U R SOOO HOT!" I wonder if they will think this frontside 5-0 is hot

Must be nice to still be am and have a tricked named after you already. This is Darrell Stanton doing a Bennett grind - a backside 180 to switch back smith. You saw Matt Bennett do that at Tampa Am 2005

Chris Cole won $32,000 in the Hammers vs. Bangers Contest today at the DC Skate Plaza in Ohio

The first ever skate plaza opened today with the Hammers vs. Bangers Contest. Pros came from all over to check out the perfectly built Rob Dyrdek/DC Shoes Skate Plaza located in Kettering, Ohio. Robby D. himself did a great job with the design and layout of his Skate Plaza. Plenty of coverage of this place will be out very soon. The Contest was basically a Best Trick contest on three separate obstacles. The first obstacle was a seven-stair square rail, the second was a ledge, and the third was the big 12-rail/stairs. The pros and top ams that came out to compete were Eric Koston, Ryan Sheckler, Stefan Janoski, Darrell Stanton, Caine Gayle, Terell Robinson, Greg Lutzka, Paul Rodriguez, Alex Klein, Evan Hernandez, Josh Kalis, Joey Brezinski, Chris Cole, and Tommy Sandoval.

Caine Gayle skated hard all day and walked away with 5th place. Darrell Stanton landed some really good stuff and received 4th. Tommy Sandoval skated great and earned a well-deserved 3rd place. Terell Robinson pulled out some tech moves on the seven-stair and some big hits down the 12, earning him 2nd place. Chris Cole destroyed every obstacle. He won each separate Best Trick Contest and then the whole deal overall, too. Chris walked away with four trophies and $32,000 for his efforts. Damn.

Check out a few tricks that went down at the Contest:

• Chris Cole did a 180 to switch feeble, 180 out. It's nuts. If you’ve seen Video Days, you might remember that Gonz did that trick on a double sided curb. He also did a frontside 180 to switch crook on the seven-stair first try which got the Contest started and then 360 flipped the 12-stair set.
• Terrell Robinson did a nollie bigspin back lip on the seven-stair. He nollied the 12-stiar and then nollie boardslid the rail. He also almost fakie flipped the 12-set.
• Sheckler skated the seven-stair and landed frontside feebles and frontside flipped it.
• Eric Koston made a kickflip frontside krook on the ledge.
• Josh Kalis did a backside 180 nosegrind 180 out on the ledge. Josh came really close to making a bigspin fakie 5-0.
• Even Hernandez frontside flipped the 12-stair and did a switch big heel down the seven-stair.
• Caine Gayle was limping at the end of the day from skating so hard. He kickflipped 50-50 the seven-stair and did a frontside 5-0 on the 12-stair.
• Timmy Thompson wasn't pro or even in the Contest, but jumped in the heated 12-stair session and nollie flipped it perfect.
• Tim O'Connor announced the whole event and succeeded in making everyone laugh.
• P-Rod came really close to a switch flip back tail down the seven-stair.
• Tommy Sandoval did a backside 180 late bigspin down the seven, a frontside big spin down the seven, a noseblunt slide on the seven-rail, and also frontside flipped the 12-stair.


If you happen to be driving through the Dayton, Ohio area make sure you get your ass to Kettering and skate Rob Dyrdek's amazing Skate Plaza. Rob put a lot of time and effort into making the Plaza happen, so big ups to him for listening to the needs of skateboarders.