Zaturdays: Tampa Am 2002
Posted
on
on Friday, October 28, 2016
by Paul
Instagram is great and everything, but in 15 years will it be there for us to dust off and look at coverage of this year’s Tampa Am? Maybe maybe not, but even if it is, how many photos will we have to scroll through to get to the ones we want to see? That’s why print is so rad. I dug up this 2002 issue of Thrasher with the coverage from the Am that year. Total time capsule. First, the article was written and photographed by Patrick O’Dell, who went on to create Eplicly Later’d which you already know. The contest coverage is part of a 16-page tour article from Pennsylvania to Atlanta and finally Tampa that included Patrick, Tino Razo, Anthony Shetler, Dan Pensyl, and Billy Marks. Billy is judging the Am this year by the way. The details of the story are pretty irrelevant, but what isn’t is that Patrick and the crew had the best time ever, and a million similar stories will be able to be told from this year’s Am, but sadly, hardly any of them will be in print. 
Thrasher, May 2002. Jason Adams got the cover, Tampa Am got a mention.
This was the opening spread. Totally Later’d. “Lukewarms” refer to most of the dudes on the tour. Besides Billy Marks, O’Dell says none of them were considered “hot crew.”
The King of Ybor got a photo. He’s the guy that built the course this year. “The fish was this big I swear!”
Steamer repped the wounded paw posse.
Steve Nesser has been a retired pro for like 15 years, how is it possible he skated Tampa Am in ’02? Varial flip.
I judged this contest. Lutzka bailed the fakie flip at the end of his run. He would have won if he had made it. That’s okay though, he won a bunch of Tampa Pros to make up for it.
Even Nuge was am once. He went HAM in Ybor. Do people still say that, HAM?
The rail that Shetler did this switch fs board on was one of the only skateable handrails in Tampa back then. In fact it would be still today, but it’s long gone.
Caswell Berry won.
For his efforts, Caswell got a bottle of champagne, a beater car, and these terrible photos in Thrasher.
