Ten Reasons Why You Need To Be At Tampa Pro This Year
Posted
on
on Wednesday, February 15, 2017
by Chris
1. THE PROS
This one's pretty obvious, but it's why people come to Tampa Pro in the first place. The best skaters from around the planet all under our roof for one weekend. If you haven't seen the updated list of who's confirmed yet, check it out here.2. RAY BARBEE
That's right. Ray f?!king Barbee will be here performing live on Friday night as part of our first official Tampa Pro party. If you haven't heard Ray play guitar, make sure you don't miss it. He's put out several albums with Tommy Guerrero and the Mattson 2 that have some serious surf / jazz vibes. Check out his music page here. And if you don't know what Ray Barbee means to skateboarding...ask your dad.
3. THOMAS CAMPBELL ART SHOW
Another name you should know. Thomas Campbell is an artist from California that runs Um Yeah Arts, a collective of visual art, music, film and photography with a West Coast skate / surf feel and has done graphics for Element, Stereo, Santa Monica Airlines, Krooked, Toy Machine and more. He was featured in the 2008 documentary Beautiful Losers, and also did the album cover for Ugly Casanova's debut album. As part of Element Skateboards' 25 Year Anniversary this year, they paired up with Thomas for his touring "Wompus" show to create some truly unique skateboard decks that are custom shaped and designed around his style. Look for them on Friday night, along with some rad accessories and apparel included in the collection. Full details on Friday night's happenings right here.
4. FRENCH FRED BOOK RELEASE
You probably know "French" Fred Mortagne as the filmer behind legendary skate videos eS "Menikmati" and Flip's "Sorry", but he also does some killer photography work. We're waiting on more details about this book release, but rumor has it that it will be a deluxe issue of last year's "ATTRAPER AU VOL" (Catch In The Air), published by Um Yeah Arts. It's a retrospective of architectural beauty, centered around skateboarding and featuring Fred's work from 2000 - 2015. Can't wait for this one. For more info, go check out Fred's website and check out his body of work...it's pretty impressive. This will also be part of Friday night's party.
5. DROWNING CLOWNS
Damn...we're not even finished with Friday night yet and already there's so much going on. In addition to Ray Barbee playing music, Evan Smith's band, Drowning Clowns will be performing live. If you're familiar with Evan, you know that his personality comes through 100% in his skateboarding, and the same can be said of his music.
6. CONVERSE CONCRETE JAM
It's one thing when we do this at Tampa Am and get a handful of Pros to skate it, but when you're dealing with MOSTLY pros going in hard and destroying our Converse Concrete Course, things get taken to another level. There's $10,000 cash for tricks and a Jenkem Best Trick Jam over the door gap on Saturday night, so put on your big boy pants and get a front row seat, because it's gonna be crowded. Full run of show is right here.7. ARCTIC
When the Concrete Jam is over Saturday night and the dust settles, make your way to our new venue / bar (formerly the SBoT - Snack Bar of Tampa) for some live performances by Tampa's own Samurai Shotgun, DJ Kevin Romar, and back again to melt some faces is Arctic, featuring Baker / Deathwish hooligans Figgy, Nuge and Frecks. Heady goodness. Check out their band page here.
8. WELCOME TO TOWN PARTY
Ok, we're jumping backwards here a little bit, but if you're getting to Tampa on Thursday and you're not sure what to do after your session, head to The Bricks in Ybor City for our SPoT & Friends Art Show. It's a chill spot owned by our fearless leader, Brian Schaefer and has some killer food and a full liquor bar. While you're there, you can peep some pretty sick artwork and photography centered around moments in Tampa by our good friends in the industry, including Todd Bratrud, Seamus Gallagher, Gavin Denike, Rhino, Jordan Brown, and even some of our own SPoT family. Schedule and full info here.
9. SHECKLER!
That's right, ladies. Shecky is coming back for Tampa Pro this year... It's been a hot minute since we've seen him rip the gritty transitions of SPoT, so hopefully all that clean air at the top of the mountain hasn't made him soft. But for serious, we're glad he's on the "confirmed" list. The Sheckler foundation has also been working with our non-profit charity Boards For Bros, so stop by the tent and you might get to meet him.
