Vans Downtown Showdown: Girl Torture Totter

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Jeremy Wray had a manual over it no problem. It's actually not as hard as it looks. I tried it a few times and was almost able to make a manual across it

I'm not sure if Braydon Szafranski made this backside nosegrind

Ryan Sheckler won this one with this kickflip off the thing into the bank

This contest was a bit odd. We’ve never really run a contest on an obstacle as unique as this one. Frankly, no one has ever built an obstacle as unique as this one. It was definitely one of a kind, and so was the Jam. It was the only Jam that the skaters had to actually skate in order. That was really the only way to make it ‘fair,’ since it took two workers to reset-up the Totter after each use. That meant that each skater only got six runs on the thing to land their trick during the 40+ minute Jam. It was a tough one.

Kevin Spanky Long – Spanky did a lipslide up to manual down the Totter.
Braydon Szafranski – Braydon subbed for Andrew and was working on a backside nosegrind to no avail.

Steve Nesser – Nesser used all six tries going for the kickflip nose manual. He pulled it on his seventh attempt, but it didn’t count. Damn...
Jon Goeman – Super-smooth Birdhouse am, but I can’t remember what he landed.

Eric Koston – From what I heard, this entire obstacle was Koston’s brian-child. There were no verbal complaints from his corner, but a look of dissatisfaction was painted across his face.
Rick McCrank – McCrank was one of the few that really had this obstacle dialed. He proved it with a tailslide across the entire thing, which earned him second place. Rick was trying bs nosegrinds, too, but once again, I don’t think that he landed it.

Josh Harmony – Josh was hauling ass into frontside 50/50’s and then hucking himself off the obstacle to flat before it could fully drop down. I don’t know if he made that, but he must have because he landed in fourth.
Matt Bennett – Matt had a pretty creative line – he ollied up the Totter and was doing big spins on the platform of it.

Gareth Stehr – Gareth was ollieing up the Totter and trying to bs 180 ollie off it to flat. I saw him take a slam so hard that I would have sworn that he broke his wrist.
Angel Ramirez – Angel was trying backside lipslides, but I don’t think he pulled it.

Jamie Thomas – Jamie pulled a bs 5-0 across the entire thing and then was working on backside lips to 5-0. Jamie said that the Jam was taking too long and that we needed to break it up into heats because the skaters had to wait too long in between each run. In hindsight, Jamie was correct, but it was tough to figure that out ahead of time. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal though, because that’s the first and probably the last teeter totter ever built for skateboarding.
Sheldon Meleshinski – Keegan Sauder was supposed to skate this Jam, but he opted out. The Chief looked out into the crowd and spotted one of his ams and said, “Sheldon, come on, you’re skating this.” Sheldon shrugged his shoulders and competed like a champ.

Ryan Sheckler – Sometimes weighing 100lbs. has its advantages. Ryan was going super-fast, ollieing up the Totter, and then kickflipping off it to flat before it even started to fall down. He made it around his fourth try and sealed the deal with a first place finish.
Daewon Song – Everyone was talking about what Daewon was going to do on this thing, but then he ended up bailing and not even skating the Jam.

Jeremy Wray – JWray did a bs 5-0 across the entire thing and then was working on nose manuals on his last few tries.
Tosh Townend – Tosh was the only skater to ride switch on this obstacle. He did a switch flip up it and tried a fakie flip off, but when the Totter landed it knocked him off balance turning his fakie flip into a fakie flop.

Girl Torture Totter Team Results
1st	Girl	64.83
2nd	Toy Machine	59.33
3rd	Element	57.50
4th	Foundation	57.17
5th	Baker	49.50
6th	Birdhouse	47.50
7th	Zero	47.33
8th	Almost	39.67
Girl Torture Totter Individual Results
1st	Ryan Sheckler	79.33
2nd	Rick McCrank	76.00
3rd	Kevin Spanky Long	67.33
4th	Josh Harmony	65.33
5th	Jamie Thomas	63.00
6th	Tosh Townend	60.00
7th	Angel Ramirez	59.33
8th	Gareth Stehr	55.00
9th	Jeremy Wray	55.00
10th	Eric Koston	53.67
11th	Matt Bennett	53.33
12th	Steve Nesser	51.67
13th	Jon Goeman	43.33
14th	Braydon Szafranski	31.67
15th	Sheldon Meleshinski	31.67
16th	Daewon Song	0.00