etnies Goofy vs. Regular 2007: Qualifying & the Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

I spent too much time hanging out and didn't take many photos today. I was even too lazy to get up to barge tricks like these photo dudes getting in the way here. That's a switch big heel. Right now it's a "who dat?" but you'll soon know who he is. He's riding for Flip. Can't remember his name. Tomorrow I'll take an assload of skate photos. It's going to be a good Finals

All the most fun people in the world are going to be in Hell. I can't wait to go. I hope there's no cover. See you there Lizard King

That's Jordan Hoffart on a lipslide

This dude destroys. Nick Fiorini - nollie frontside 5-0

I looked right at this kid and thought, "Where do I know this dude from?" Oh yeah, I forgot, he won Tampa Am this year. That's Felipe Gustavo

I'm glad I'm not the only asshole sneaking beers around. That's Skreech with a dual purpose wrist brace

The sun is down and it's time for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs show. While every bar in the place has a line for miles since everything's free, the bar in the VIP looked like this. Empty. That meant extra hammered status real early in the night for me

That's Evelien Bouilliart and Marisa Del Santo. The crew of girl skaters here is really getting their partying on

Don Brown is my favorite executive. I'm going to go ahead and nominate him for the Skatepark of Tampa Party Team. What does he do? He works at etnies and has some three letter title like CEO, CFO, BFF, OMG, LOL, or something like that. That's Clem and Party Team chief Braydon

I missed the Girls' Contest today, but I'm sure Lauren Perkins ripped

Are you 18 yet Lauren?

Half the people in this industry I've never hung out with sober. Eunjoo used to design stuff at etnies. Now she does the same thing at DC. Ashton works for etnies in Public Relations

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs show was pretty good. I heard Spanky dated the lead singer for a while, then he dumped her. Yeah, Spanky

etnies does it right for Goofy vs. Regular. They had the main street in front of the Park closed down to traffic with a “village” type atmosphere with booths from many companies and organizations for the kids to roam through. The bleachers were packed by early afternoon…and they even had a couple of the City people present for the opening ceremonies.

There were five heats of goofy and five or so heats of regular skaters that rode in jams to see who was going to make it to the Finals on Sunday. Here are a few of the random things that I remember from throughout the day:

• Lizard King was wearing a shirt from The Heavy Metal Store that had “666” across the front. When he took it off, I got to see his new ink that read “death wish”
• Antwuan Dixon was in true form. I didn’t see him drinking, but he sure was acting like he was wasted all day. You really had to see it
• On the other hand, Neil Mims was dead-ass sober and we had some great conversation
• Which reminds me…coming to these events and hanging out as opposed to working is a damn fun time!
• Terell Robinson, or as we like to call him, Brother Darkness…or as the Australians like to call him…the Black Super-Hero…was there ripping, smiling, and just giving off good vibes with his green hair
• Taylor Bingaman is sick…kid just plain rips and is fun to watch…full on ATV

Here’s who qualified for Sunday:

• 10th – Billy Marks
• 9th – Terell Robinson
• 8th – Luan (something)
• 7th – Missed this one
• 6th – Ryan Decenzo
• 5th – Missed this one, too
• 4th – Tulio De Oliveira
• 3rd – David Loy
• 2nd – Kurtis Colamonico
• 1st – Fabrizio Santos

• 10th – Danny Cerezini
• 9th – Rodrigo (something)
• 8th – Alex Olson
• 7th – Morgan Smith
• 6th – Jordan Hoffart
• 5th – Taylor Bingaman
• 4th – Joey Brezinski
• 3rd – Tyler Hendley
• 2nd – Nick Fiorini
• 1st – Chad Fernandez

I have $100 on Regular, so let’s do this!

We drove back to the hotel to drop off the car and then walked back to the Skate Park. No drinking and driving for us. Skatepark of Tampa Party Team Member Braydon Szafransk joined us for the walk and divulged some great inside industry gossip that I can’t share with you.

The Party was as chaotic as it’s been for the past couple that I’ve been to, but this time we got to hang in the VIP area, which was both a blessing and a curse. The view of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs was sick and they put on an amazing show, playing for well over an hour. The bar happened to be right behind us and we made friends with the bartender right off, so our drink cups were filled constantly and I’m assuming that everyone was as tipsy me.

The show was over early, but the party went on and on and on. People were getting hammered and I lost Rob, so I made the trek back to the hotel. I must have looked pretty pathetic on the roadside because some passerby randomly stopped to give me a ride.

Thanks for the good time, etnies…

Ryan