Zaturdays: Tampa Am's First Losers

It was only the uber jocks that wore the T-shirt with the atrocious font letting you know that: “Second Place is Just the First Loser.” Thankfully they quit wearing them, or I quit noticing. Either way, they were terrible, the antithesis of the vibe we try to abide by as skaters. Sure winning is great, but second place can be great too. So after last week’s Zaturdays where I covered all of the previous Tampa Am winners, I’m dedicating this week to those First Losers from Tampa Ams past*. Let’s see if coming up short spoiled any of their chances at the big time. *DISCLAIMER: I wanted the list to go back to the first Tampa Am, but those contests took place before the Internet as we know it existed. So, the only full results for the earliest ones are either buried in a pile of papers in an abandoned corner of the skatepark, or in 20-year old issues of skate magazines which I actually have but didn’t have the 10,000 plus hours available to sit down page through them all. I did manage find full results going back to 2001 though. How do you say “so close!” in French? All that chest thumping aside (or maybe because of it?) Bastien’s career turned out just fine. And taking into account that Colt Cannon won it in 2001, looks like 2nd place might have been the sweet spot. Noteworthy: 9th place Chris Cole This one could go either way. Danny Cerezini is a Brazilian who rode for Flip, then rode for Blind, then won CPH Pro, and then….nothing? Where’s Danny at these days? I don’t think placing second in Tampa had too much of an impact on Danny besides giving me something to talk about for this article. Noteworthy: 7th place Ryan Sheckler It came right down to the wire between Mr. Morrin and Spanky, and you know how things turned out for the winner. If Danny had won would he have had the career Spanky has had? Maybe what he really needed was a cool nickname. “Yo, D-more’s my boy!” Noteworthy: 3rd place Ryan Sheckler The difference with Torey is that he doesn’t quit! Sure he got edged out by Sierra that year, but then he just kept getting better and better and better. Yeah, forget Tampa Am, because T-Puds came back in 2012 and won Tampa Pro. Noteworthy: 7th place Collin Provost I guess all you can really do in this case is measure the success of the First Loser compared to the First Winner. Sean Conover, Nyjah Huston. Maybe there is something to be said for winning. Noteworthy: 9th place Tommy Sandoval No disrespect but Keegan Sauder has always been a second place type of dude. He had a second place type of skate career too, which I’m pretty sure is exactly the type of skate career he tried to have. Keegan wins on the daily, so my guess is that winning Tampa wouldn’t have changed his path too much. Noteworthy: 4th place Torey Pudwill This is a crazy one because it was a full three years after he’d won in ‘04. So I’m thinking maybe he sort of missed the window? Regardless, the window stayed open enough for Sierra to eventually squeeze a pro career though. Noteworthy: 3rd place Grant Taylor, 4th David Gonzalez, 5th Evan Smith, 8th Figgy, 10th Donovon Piscopo, 12th Sean Malto Ben was still trying to figure out whether he was a vert skater or a street skater back then (he won vert that year!). But come to find out, he’s a bowl skater. That said, he’s had a very random skate career and I still don’t know if he’s am or pro. He won the Van Doren Invitational in HB this year and that counts for something. He rips. Noteworthy: 5th place Vincent Alvarez Second place again Ben? Read the paragraph above for more. Noteworthy: 6th place Felipe Gustavo [two years after he won it] In the history of First Losers at Tampa Am, Ishod is the only one to go on to win SOTY. Elijah Berle won Tampa in 2010 but Ishod gets the award for not letting a near miss bring him down. Noteworthy: 6th place Felipe Gustavo [three years after he won it] Technically speaking, Luke Hampton’s run in 2011 was probably more difficult than Trevor Colden’s. So there. But style is huge in skateboarding and Trevor has as much of it as anyone. So Luke sat shotgun on the podium that year and this is a case in point where I think winning it could have turned Hambone into a household name. He’s still out there ripping by the way, entered Damn Am Chicago this year even. Noteworthy: 3rd place Evan Smith So yeah, Davis is in Street League and he’s pro for one of the best teams in skateboarding and he’s the world’s nicest dude. I should note he’s from the Midwest where it’s like ten times harder to do any of that stuff, apart from being nice. But yeah, Alec Majerus was the winner in 2012 and you can say pretty much all the same stuff about him…except he missed qualifying for Street League this year by a hair. Who’s the First Loser now huh Alec? I’m kidding. We’re bros. Noteworthy: 6th place Carlos Ribeiro Canada, the First Loser to the US in everything. I’m kidding, don’t tell any of the Red Dragons I said that. Jon Cos is a killer, he looks like Sam Rockwell and can shred all terrain like an absolute maniac, so yeah, winning might have helped get his name out there a little more than First Losing. On a side note, Jack Olson won it in 2013 and he’s not pro yet either so for now they’re kind of in the same boat. Noteworthy: 4th place Matt Berger (More Canada!) And Still More Canada. Micky Papa has made a career out of First Losses. He has pro level ability though so a win could really have helped to make sure everyone knows. Here’s to NOT being the First Loser ever again Micky. Noteworthy: 11th place Yoshi Tanenbaum - Paul Zitzer