Zaturdays: These Are The Champions

My friends, Tampa Pro 2016, which will be the 22nd annual running of this thing kicks off three weeks from today, let’s talk about it. The history of the contest is unparalleled, and the list of winners says it all. Well maybe not all, but at least like 3 or 4 percent. One thing to keep in mind when looking at these names is that each and every one of them is invited back to Tampa Pro for the rest of our (or their) existence with a comfortable spot in the Semi-Finals already carved out for them. So even if we go back to winner number one, Mike V, the skating he did 20+ years ago still counts. What follows is the entire run down of dudes who’ve taken the top spot over the years and some recollections and remembrances. I wouldn't want it be any other way. Mike V in an oversized Powell Peralta hockey jersey, doing a lot of the same type of stuff that he's famous for today. No helmet though. He wasn't a "contest" skater even then, but he came out guns blazing. To this day I can remember that after a full run or ripping he uncharacteristically kickflip back fiftied the ledge. Boom! Winner. BTW, Danny Way finished just behind him. This was Koston’s first of three wins, back then what I remember more than anything else is how the Girl dudes would swarm the course for each other's runs. Cheering for each other like mad, and I could be wrong but there might have been some heavy vibing towards a lot of less cool dudes on less cool teams. I may have been one of those dudes. I'm going to treat Andrew's back-to-back wins in ‘97 and ‘98 as the same entry. Andrew was at the top of his game at that time (and stayed there for a good ‘nother 15 years). Borrowing a page from Penny, he was blasting the FS flip all the way over the entire pyramid to flat, EVERY TRY. Another trick I remember him tossing around during one of those contests was, strangely I think, the kickflip melon grab to fakie on the QP. It ruled, and I never saw him even try it ever again after that. I say this all the time but Reynolds came back to Tampa Pro in ‘99 but didn't skate in order to guarantee he didn't accidentally win it for the third time in a row and become "that guy.” Bravo Andrew. Gershon was a beast, and I’d assume he still is. Gersh had a mean backside heelflip and skated with tons of power and I don't recall what he did to win but I guarantee he sweated through three shirts a day minimum. He hasn’t been back to skate Tampa Pro since 2010 but we’d be happy to have him again this year or any year. Kerry was still pretty angry back then. He demanded perfection in his skating to the point of being furious even when he was LANDING tricks. He was doing a lot of fakie flips and frontside half cab flips and that sort of thing. This was only a few years after he'd mutilated his ankle on the Tampa Water Gap fs 180 so it was a nice return to form. Kyle is the best, and was one of the more obscure pros to win it, and even though he's been pro ever since he’s still obscure. Kyle had actually won Tampa Am the year before. Hear him talk about it all in this video. Second win for Koston. I remember to this day his run started with a straight nollie heel over the pyramid, then he rolled up the kahuna and pumped fakie back toward the pyramid for the switch heel over it. After that it was a lot of nollie nose grind type of stuff and a front 180 over to switch crooks which nobody else could really do at the time. This was in the days where the entire course was covered in DVS signage. People look back fondly on those times. Tony focused less on flinging his board around than most people and skated the course with all hair and style. This video offers a pretty good chance to compare and contrast. The first Euro to win. Bastien was still on Flip at that time and was killing it. Really Sorry had recently come out and he was backside flipping and cab flipping and kickflip frontside board sliding and...I guess name a trick and add a kickflip to it and you had Bastien. Check out this Ewan Bowman footage and you’ll be an eternal fan. Dennis' first of two wins. I somehow missed this Tampa Pro but I'll try to make up for it with the entry for his second win in 2011. Like Koston, Greg won Tampa three times. This was the switch stance kickflip frontside boardsliding Greg, the switch stance kickflip backside lipsliding Greg, and I'm pretty sure he was already dabbling in front 270s back then, but he seemed to be mixing it up a lot more. I could be wrong. I just posted footage of Koston’s winning run in Thursday’s TBT. Kickflip back tail, tre flip nose slide, etc., still managed to win even with a 'contest make' switch heel at the end where his feet stayed on the board while he mopped the floor with the rest of his body. One of the few times a less-than-perfect run has won it. See 2006. See 2008. Real talk? On paper Nyjah’s 2nd place run was more solid and probably harder, but P-Rod had the eye of the tiger that year, put more time in on the course than anyone in practice, and did a switch flip back lip in his run, sloppy but rad. This was another Tampa Pro where technically Nyjah skated good enough that it seemed like he might win. But as a previous winner, Dennis didn’t have to skate Qualifiers on Saturday, and he flew in the morning of the Semi-Finals, barely practiced at all, and was on a rampage. The course was weird that year to say the least, with ramps stacked on top of ramps on top of ramps. D-Booze mainly did tricks that most of us have the potential to make at least once in our lives, but he did them going a million miles an hour in his beautifully trademarked style, packing about twice as many of them into his winning run than anyone else managed in their allotted minute, and had a trick for every obstacle which on that course seemed impossible until he proved it wasn’t, at least for him. This was T-Puds doing what he does best: backside lipslides up, across, down, and around, and backside tailsliding here, there, and everywhere. Lil Wayne handed him the trophy that year. His win in 2013 made Luan only the second person to have won both Tampa Am and Tampa Pro. The only difference being that Luan had won Tampa Am twice. You already know what Luan does: everything, and bolts. He didn’t have to do his hardest stuff to win even, but switch 180 nose manual to 180 out in a run is pretty heavy, plus a switch 270 fs board fakie and then the hard flip fatty to flatty ender. After placing 2nd in 2010, 2nd in 2011, and 2nd in 2013, Nyjah won it in 2014 and became the third person to take the Am and Pro. His run was bonkers and included a tre flip ½ smith down the rail (pretty sure it was supposed to be a tre flip 5050) in his run along with a nollie backside 180 fakie nose grind down the rail and a bunch of other hammertime moves. Luan did it to Nyjah again in 2015. There was debate around whether or not Luan won based on his 60 second run, or the skating he did AFTER his run, you can watch both of their runs below and come to your own conclusions, but what’s important is that Luan killed it and in doing so matched his two wins at the Am with two wins at the Pro, a claim that no one will be able to replicate for a long long time. And he could make it three this year easy, well maybe not easy but… - Paul Zitzer