Vegas for a Night

Words, Photos, and Captions by Ryan Clements

Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert. All you see is sand for hundreds and hundreds of miles. And then BAM! It's full-on suburbia as you start to descend

L to R - Mandalay Bay, Luxor, not sure, Tropicana, New York New York, not sure, and MGM Grand. These hotels look like normal size miles away on the runway, but they're absolutely enormous when you get close to them

That's the view from the pool up to the Fantasy Tower at The Palms, which houses the Playboy Club

The view from my room. No complaints here

Before I ran into any friends I was just hanging out by myself taking it all in. Here's part of the pool

I don't know who this chick was, but she had a full-on Life of Ryan camera crew tailing her ass the entire time I was at the pool

Adam Sullivan told me that he thinks the course at Skatepark of Tampa sucks, so he's been working on this drawing for months in hopes that we use it for next year. Just kidding...this is the course for the Maloof Money Cup

Felix and Corey Duffel working the door

That's Joe Maloof on the left and Gavin Maloof on the right. I got to meet Joe and he was a really down-to-earth and super-nice guy. He told me that he knows what we do with Skatepark of Tampa and SPoTlight. I told him he needs to come party in Ybor with us!

Talk about a press conference...Mark Waters giving us the business

What is that?

Check out the vert skaters invited to compete. I'm protesting because I want Furlong's name up there

Who's not going to show up for a shot at $100k?

He's got charisma, style, and he's super-fun to be around. I like Rob Dyrdek. Duncan is admiring the bling

All Don Brown was talking about was his hangover from the night before

I wonder how much all of these sponsors paid to be a part of this deal

Okay, now it's getting good. Right after the press conference it was announced that these girls were hanging out with us for the rest of the night. Got a problem with that?

Hey, if you're showing it off, I'm shooting photos of it

It's not a party unless Chris Casey is there. I asked him, "What are you doing here?" He said, "Partying with Weiss!"

And I thought that Tampa was the king of fake boobs. Nope. Vegas kills it if you're into bolt-ons like me

Corey Duffel brought sand to the beach. He went and grabbed Panda Express because he didn't know that there was going to be food at the reception. Amateur. Good story: Danielle Bostick walked up to Duff-man and asked, "Who are you again?" and then looked at me and called me Bo Derek. Oh man

Vegas is super-sick at night. This is the view from The Moon, the club on top of The Palms that has a retracting roof

Check out that ice sculpture surrounded by more shrimp than you can ever eat. Don't like shrimp? Well, there was steak on the other side

Take your pick

L to R - Super skate nerd Adam Sullivan, Corey Duffel, Eric Olsen with a stiff neck, and my favorite rack

This chick would not stop bringing us beer. She was a good sport

Look how NOT stoked these Playboy bunnies are about shooting a photo with me. We were in the Playboy Club. I had to

Chris Casey and Skatepark of Party Team Member Don Brown. I have no idea what they were talking about

Feelin' it

Shouldn't Curtis Colamonico have the corn rows?

Skatepark of Tampa Party Team Member Pat Duffy and none other than Lil' Stevie Williams

Do you know your history? Did you ever hear about what Corey Duffel called Stevie Williams in that Big Brother interview about eight years ago? Well, if I was judged on how I acted when I was 16 you would definitely hate me, so it's all water under the bridge. Corey told me that he's only seen Stevie one other time since that interview came out and at that time he tried to shake Stevie's hand, only to get it pushed away. Well, I guess Stevie is over it now because they shook hands and I'm stoked to say that I got the first picture of them together that I know of. How did Duncan sneak in there?

This is the last thing I remember. Good night, Mr. Weiss

Have you ever heard of the Maloof brothers? They're the guys that own the Sacramento Kings as well as The Palms Hotel in Vegas. They're known as fun-loving, super-cool businessmen. Well, they decided a couple of years ago that they wanted to get involved with skateboarding. And what better way to get involved and gather some attention than to spend a large amount of money?

And how do you get the word out? Well, you can buy a whole bunch of expensive advertising if you choose, which I'm sure they will be doing. But another way is to invite pretty much what you would call the top-dogs of the skateboarding industry out to YOUR hotel in Vegas and tell them all about what you're doing, while feeding them free drinks and giving them first-class treatment the entire time.

So this summer, from July 11th - 13th, at the Orange County Fairgrounds in the beautiful OC, you can go check out the most in-demand professional skateboarders battle it out for a $100k 1st place prize for Street. Yep, you got that right. That's not a typo. It's $100,000 for 1st place street. Pretty crazy, right? Well, the overall purse is over $400k, to be spread out for a Pro Street, Women's Street, Pro Vert, and Am Street Contest. This is all taking place on a custom street course designed with the input of many pros (including Dyrdek, Reynolds, and so on) and built by California Skate Parks.

Check out my photos...