Day by Day at Tampa Pro 2002 Part Two
Posted
on
on Wednesday, March 13, 2002
by Rob
Daily events as seen through my eyes during Tampa Pro 2002 - PART TWO
| Day by Day at Tampa Pro 2002 As seen and experienced By Rob Meronek, computer nerd assisting the judges with calculating scores, doing the website, helping with registration, and just general lurking around during the week. The Photos and Stories Below Cover From Thursday to Sunday, March 17th Sunday, March 17, 2002 8:00 AM, SundayYesterday was one of the busiest days so far. There was a lot going on with both vert and street along with a video premiere in between and after. I thought I was ready to rock as far as partying in Ybor last night but a little while after I got down there, I realized that I've gotten three hours of sleep a night for the last week from trying to hang out too much. Anyway, I went home and got some rest and I'm back on point today. It actually feels wierd to feel good this week. Before I left, I saw Kareem Campbell, the DVS crew and lots of other heads hanging out for the St. Patty's Day Parade thing that goes down in Ybor every year. The last thing I saw was a bunch of the under-21 SPoT staff and locals on the balcony of Empire, a local club in Ybor which I'm pretty sure is 21 and up on Saturday. I posted Saturday's photos in the section below for Saturday. These photos below are from the awards last night for vert.
2:00 PM, Monday If you average all the scores for each skater from Friday or Saturday, it ends up being a little higher than sixty points. The average score in the semi-finals is around 70 and for the finals it was around 80. Obviously, the skating all day Sunday is much more solid and way harder to judge. The Shorty's Best Trick contest went down like this. First Place went to Mike Vallely for doing a no comply tailslide, an invert to fakie, a 3 foot air to disaster, and a crazy Spider Man plant on the wall. Second Place went to Chany Jeanguenin for going from the quarter pipe to backside lip revert, from quarter pipe to sugar cane, and from quarter pipe to sugar cane revert. Third Place went to Aaron Suski for a frontside tail slide, backside revert out. Fourth Place went to Dan Drehobl for doing a frontside 180 rollout frontside half Cab in, a nose blunt slide stale fish grab in, and a double foot boneless to fakie. Fifth Place went to both Patrick Melcher and Chris Senn. Patrick did a nollie backside tailslide revert and Chris did a half flip casper stall, a frontside 180 to nose stall fakie, and a 180 nose grind from the quarter pipe. Eric Koston ended up coming out on top for the Street Finals. I recorded the full first and last runs of each skater in the "low quality" mode that you can download below.
Here are some photos and video from Sunday.
Saturday, March 16, 2002 12:30 PMI made it to the art show last night. Below are some photos I took.
I heard Paul Machnau pushed his way through the crowd right after his run and puked up his lunch. At least he made the cut. The second heat is on right now. Kyle Berard, last year's winner, and Billy Lane both had perfect runs and will probably be in the cut. Look for photos and video later. 6:30 PM Results for Street and Vert Prelims are up now. Vert finals are just about to start. 9:00 PM Everything for today is over. The New Deal Video Premiere is going on right now. Here's what happened during vert best trick: First: Jake Brown did a nollie frontside 540 tail grab. Second: Micael Simao did a 540 ollie nose grind over the channel. Third: Mike Frazier did a frontside blunt slide over the channel. Fourth: Matt Dove did a switch nosegrind shove it. Fifth: Darren Navarrette did a backside crail slide revert over the channel. Here's some photos from the day on Saturday. I'm sure there's plenty of errors because I did this so fast, so let me know if you find anything wrong. I'll put up videos in about an hour. Some of the highlights include Andrew Reynolds having two perfect runs - both of his runs could have won him the golden ticket. Billy Lane is hurt and looks like he won't be able to skate in the semi finals today. Ryan Clements told me they're going to take alternates so 17th place from yesterday is stoked. That's Patrick Melcher and Carlos de Andrade - two people who deserver to be in there, especially Carols.
Here's some video from Saturday
Friday, March 15, 2002 9:15 AM The nightlife last night wasn't too insane so far. Just as Brian and I got to Ybor, we saw Mike Vallely and Jason Rothmyer heading home. Matt Dove and Darren Navarrette were heading to the Masquerade. At the Sushi bar we had dinner at, Ronnie Creager, Josh Kasper, Clyde Singleton and others were around. Schaefer had one of those classic fall out of your chairs accidents right in the middle of the restaurant. We hung out with the DVS crew and some skatepark locals at the Orpheum before going home. Just my personal prediction, but Jonas Wray is probably not going to make his heat today (last guy, first heat) based on how wasted he was last night. Other than that, the partiers didn't seem to be out in full force last night. Look for some skating photos and video of people's runs in a few hours. 12:15 PM So I guess Jonas didn't make his run. The first heats just ended and it looks like either Gershon Mosley or Roger Mancha is on top as of now. Check out one of each of their runs by clicking below: Gershon Mosley First Run Gershon Mosley Second Run Roger Mancha First Run Also, check out part of Ryan Johnson's run. Right after doing this switch 50-50 on the big wall, he busted a huge Cab over the pyramid. He is definitely one of the fastest skaters of the contest. Click here to see the video. 2:15 PM The third heat just ended. Looks like Caine Gayle might be a golden ticket holder so far. Photos and video will be up right after results are announced. 4:00 PM The Friday Prelims are done. You nerds online get the results about 30 minutes before everyone else. They're going to read these results here around 4:30 or so. After that, I'm in chill mode and will put up all the photos and videos I took tomorrow. The top 16 people from this day make it to the Semi Finals on Sunday. Caine Gayle goes straight to the finals for qualifying first. 7:00 PM Here are photos and video from Friday. Let me know if I got anything wrong. Sorry my captions are so hurting - I'm tired. Click on a skater's name to see their results, info and mug shot. Click on the photo to see a large view.
Thursday, March 14, 2002  This is Rocky. He and his crew along with his crazy Dracula looking snaggle tooth pit bull are camping out under the vert ramp each night here at the park. That could be why he's among the few people that are here at 9AM to skate.  It's about 9:30AM now and Rocky along with John Comer, Pat Channita and others are already ripping. The photos to the right are John going from quarter to Smith grind on the new wall and Joshua Beaudry 360 flip tail grabbing the hip.  If you're planning on watching the contest on the live web cameras, check out the flyer being passed out that has the schedule for the weekend on it. The best times to tune in will be on Sunday from 11AM to 3PM.     It's almost noon - sticker and banner work continues and a few more people are skating now. These photos from left to right are Chris Cole on a big kickflip, Gershon Mosley back tail sliding the flat bar to fakie, Jeremy Wray frontside tailsliding the flat bar, and Ronnie Creager doing a switch crooks.  On the right is a video of Gershon doing a big back 180 flip on the new pyramid hip.  Schaefer and I just went up in the lift as high as it would go and took these photos. That thing is sketchy and shaky from that high up - pretty scary. Look for more skating photos to be up in a few hours.    Looks like there's maybe fifty or so people skating the course right now. To the left is a video of Andrew Reynolds back 180 flipping the pyramid. The photos are Andrew on a huge frontside flip over the new pyramid and Rob Dyrdek doing a frontside 180 nose grind 180 out.  Also, here's an update on the art thing being painted on the side of the mini ramp. The close up shows that it says "Sidewalk Surfing Park of Tampa" on there. I'll leave the comments on that one up to you guys.  Check out the video to the left of Chris Cole - half Cab kickflip over the pyramid.    The vert session was a lot bigger today also. So far there are 21 guys entered for vert. The photos to the right are Phil Hajal on a melon 540, Mike Crum doing an invert, Lincoln Ueda with a heel flip Indy, and Jesse Frisch doing an Indy fakie. You can keep posting the hater comments to try and entertain us, but I just have one request - use a little creativity and try to keep it PG-13. Otherwise, I just have to delete it. If you can't rag on someone without using cusswords and the word "fag" in every other sentence, then you're probably under 13 anyway. Have fun. CLICK HERE TO SEE HEAT SHEETS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Email Rob@SkateparkOfTampa.com for questions about the event or the photos and video below. All photos, video and captions are by Rob Meronek with Editor in Chief Ryan Clements' review.
