etnies Goofy vs. Regular 2008 - Bowl Jams

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

This pool Jesse Fritsch brought us to was at some nice house that went to the crapper after the real estate market took a poop. Not sure what happened to the pool coping, but the former residents did their best rigging to replace it. Jesse's rock n' roll lapped over it looks pretty scary

The pool had been skated a little bit before, so there was only minor cleanup. Since it never rains here, there was no green pond at the bottom to worry about

See kids? It's totally okay to get all street dawg in the pool. Brian Howard shows how with this switch heelflip gone horribly wrong. Maybe we should keep all four wheels on the ground in the pool, huh?

So now we're at the Bowl Jams back at the Lake Forest Skatepark. They started at night and upon arriving, I discovered that I forgot my camera flash. Real professional. Maybe I shouldn't keep my gear in the same busted backpack I have my underwear and toothbrush in. I have to figure out how to make this work. Here's the scene poolside

No flash? No problem! I'll get arsty with it and shoot everything in black and white. Even the worst photos look like you intended that effect when it's black and white. Here's Ben Raybourn coming in hot. This kid made me pay full attention to the Bowl Jam

Ben Raybourn made this Contest a great time to watch, even without beer. They wouldn't even let Clem bring a cup of coffee in. Backside 360 judo in that? Damn

Ben Raybourn is looking like baby Jeff Phillips with this blasted frontside boneless

Duane Peters is over 30 years older than Ben Raybourn and still killing it. When you turn 30 and start doing rock n' rolls, make sure you do them this way

Clem is super hyped that he's no longer the only one on the Tail Block Trick Page. Duane Peters was probably doing them before we were all born

You know when you hear some old guy say "so and so's a legend!" You're like, "Whatever, old guy. You're old. You think everyone's a legend." Them old guys are right when they call Duane Peters a legend

I remember thinking "Baby Chris Miller" when seeing this kid doing blunt slides in the deep end. I guess his last name happens to be Miller, too

Even black and white can't make a stink bug look good. Lucky Alex Brunelle grabs frontside the correct way

Didn't know Tommy Werner had it in the grandfather terrain like that. This is a lien disaster

Holy knee pads. Literally. It was a pleasure seeing Holmes skate the bowl. Well, it was a pleasure if you're 60 like me. I wonder if the average kid cares. I know I don't care about anyone before my time except Duane Peters. It's okay not to know history, kids. Make your own history

Sometimes I got lucky and shot while someone else's flash went off so you get to see Duane Peters' indy air in color

Holy knee pads. Holy Christ air

Tim Johnson has a damn good looking stalefish. That reminds me, I'm going to do some stalefish grabs today. See you at the Park

Come to think of it, the seasons don’t change so much in Southern California either. Oh well…fine with me. If I want to be cold I’ll go up north. But speaking of Southern California, this is my first of four weekend trips in a row out west. And this first one I don’t really have to do too much, other than watch GvR. That’s not work to me though…I love watching skateboarding!

After five glorious hours on a plane flying around a small portion of Earth, we landed comfortably in hazy Los Angeles, picked up the ill Dodge Charger, and made our way down to the California community that reminds us of Brandon, FL the most, Lake Forest. Lake Forest is basically a suburb of a suburb. You don’t really even feel like you’re in California. You know…Wal-Mart, Target, strip malls, and loads of subdivisions.

To off-set the “Normal Town, USA” feel that Lake Forest has, there is gigantic public skate park pretty much right in the middle of the town that sits at the bottom of a hill with the Sole Technology HQ looming above. That means that there are plenty of skateboarders and industry-types lurking around at any given time, which was the scenario at noon when we rolled up into a meet and greet with many friends, old and new alike.

Knowing that we were going to be spending the next three days confined to the etnies Skatepark, Rob and I did our best disappearing act by meeting up with Jesse Fritsch and heading down to Vista to spend the afternoon with Brian Howard and his son Jackson. After lunch we scoped out a pool that Jesse found by searching Craig’s List for homes in foreclosure and ended up having a nice, hour-long session doing kickturns in a square monster. Brian went over the light frontside and Jesse managed to slap down a rock n’ roll on the homemade coping made of stepping stones.

Then it was back to the etnies Skatepark to catch the Pool Finals. The sun had set and we made it just in time to watch the Masters, which is definitely one of the more motivating events of the weekend. To see old guys like Duane Peters (47) tearing it up and having fans like Lance Mountain and Ray Barbee in the crowd, while everyone was rocking out to live punk rock during the jams, really made the scene. Here’s the breakdown…

• 1st - $1500 – Christian Hosoi – I didn’t realize this, but I heard that Holmes hurt his knee while in prison lifting weights and it has never been right since he’s been out. It must be 100% now because he’s on fire and absolutely killing it. During his acceptance speech he said, “Duncan, you need to slow down.” Classic
• 2nd - $1000 – Glen Charnoski – last year’s winner would have taken it again if Hosoi wasn’t in the mix, but his lines were damn proper, especially for someone that’s 41
• 3rd - $800 – Pat Ngoho – hailing from Venice and a member of Duncan’s OG daggers, Ngoho didn’t hesitate to do a boardslide right through Ruel’s board in the tight shallow end
• 4th - $700 – Lester Kasai – I don’t care if he had a pair of shorts on that said “HURLEY” across the ass like girls wear because Lester is still sick and was a ripper that I was impressed with as a kid, as I still am nowadays
• 5th - $400 – Duane Peters – Duncan described DP as “as punk rock as it gets,” but I swear no matter how much you say it, you’ve just got to see Duane in person to truly appreciate him. Head to toe tattoos and looking like he’s been to hell and back, Duane’s cool-ass disposition and demeanor tied into some crazy, spontaneous skateboarding makes this guy a living legend
• 6th - Josh Nelson – the inventor of the feeble grind does them very well
• 7th - Dave Ruel – on his first run in the Finals he ended up bloody
• 8th - Salba – I wish I would have seen The Screaming Lord skate, but they only took top seven to the Finals

The Pros ran right after Masters and here’s who took what after the near collisions and full-on collisions:

• 1st - Kevin Kowalski – I saw this kid skate a couple of times at ASR on the mini-ramp, but didn’t realize that he had even more skills in pools! Judo body jars, judo lien disasters, and hurricanes are only the tip of the iceberg
• 2nd - Nolan Johnson – 18-year-old tranny ripper from the Northwest has solid lines and skates like an older guy, but in a good way
• 3rd - Ben Raybourn – after the speed lines and throwing in the most proper frigid to fakie and bs 360 judo, one of the judges came up to me and said, “Ben is my new favorite.” If he had stayed on in the jam a bit more, he would have won
• 4th - Tim Johnson – Florida’s finest came correct with the highest airs of the jam, stalefish nonetheless, lien melons over the hip, and a proper-ass bluntslide
• 5th - Mikey O’Friel – yet another young shredder from the Northwest, but this kid is only 15. He don’t care because he still didn’t wear pads and had grown-up tricks like lipslides to smith grinds
• 6th - Donovan Rice – he started the whole thing off with a fs boneless into the deep end and ended it with a fakie staple gun…ballsy moves
• 7th - Michael Brookman – my notes said, “Lots of tricks, but whatevs”
• 8th - Nolan Munroe – another young gun at only 15 and hailing from New Hampshire
• 9th - $200 – Rion Linderman – both fs and bs stalefish airs
• 10th - $100 – Jimmy The Greek – self-appointed member of the Skatepark of Tampa Party Team!

Sorry for not getting all of the prize money documented, but either they didn’t say it during the Awards or I simply missed it from being exhausted. Rob and I booked it out of there as the east coast to west coast travel caught up with us and we headed for the hotel.