Damn Am Canada 2011 Presented by Billabong Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Damn Am Canada 2011 Presented by Billabong

Posted on Monday, September 12, 2011 by Rob

By Rob Meronek

Even the toy stores here are gangster.
We arrived in the evening where our hotel was in the center of Toronto's version of Times Square.
It's like a huge outdoor mall here.
It's nice to see how they have an electric street car system all over the city.
We were attracted to the dive bar like bugs to the light.
The Hub in Tampa needs this old jukebox. The loonies are already all there.
A street performer getting tipped.
William Cristofaro
The drinking age is 19 here. William Cristofaro can't wait that long and has his fake ID ready. It didn't work.
Early the next morning, we're on site at the Contest. Billabong made some nice paper-holders as prizes.
More from Instagram. The bees here are taking over. Schaefer's Instagram is dailybs, mine is meronek, and Porpe's is porpe.
The people at Push.ca have serious filmer equipment. Check their coverage at the bottom of this article.
Brian Schaefer
Which jumper has the more stylish hop?
TJ Rogers
After Tom Mok won the High Ollie Contest, TJ Rogers snapped some large switch ollies over it.
Tom Mok
Tom Mok, cash for snaps.
Mark Shackleton
Public Service Announcement: Wear sunblock.
TJ Rogers
Just a small sample of what TJ Rogers did to win it. That's a half cab heeflip backside 270 out.
Rodney Johnson
Rodney Johnson from Billabong brings the team and the entertainment. Thanks!
Casey McDonald
Casey Macdonald isn't just cruising on the cruiser. That's a switch hardflip.
Leo Heinert
Fat tongues, even by early 90's standards, Leo Heinert nollies into this crooked grind.
Bobby De Keyzer
Bobby De Keyzer's got the contest make 360 for you.
Alex Bowers
Rodney was DJ AlBow's personal bartender all day.
Pat Tremblay
I thought Pat Tremblay was going to win the whole thing, but he got the next best thing: The Zumiez Destroyer Award for the weekend.
Mid-day photos in harsh sunlight are tough for me. That's Tom Mok on an ollie over to lipslide.
Jacob Williams
Jacob Williams - nollie crooked grind.
Lacey Baker
Lacey Baker keeping on par with the dudes as usual. Frontside flip.
How ironic is it that the benches made for skateboarding are being used as benches?
Zack Ferguson
Zack Ferguson blew everyone away and qualified 1st. This is noseblunt slide was one of many stunts in this part of the course.
Jon Cosentino
Jon Cosentino - nice hardflip.
Zack Ferguson
Zack Ferguson has the old Bryan Herman move.
Zack Ferguson
I love those landings where your back foot is in front of the back bolts. You are in 100% control when you're rolling away like that with no steering. Zack Ferguson - 360 flip.
William Cristofaro
Apparently William Cristofaro woke up with this. Maybe the fake ID worked after all.
Thank you all for coming to our skateboard shindig.
Will Marshall
Will Marshall took his hardflip over the rail.
Jorge Angel aka Porpe
How do you think Porpe did on the mic?
Pat Tremblay
Pat Tremblay will be chopping rails soon courtesy of Zumiez.
TJ Rogers
Congrats Will Marshall in 2nd, TJ Rogers in 1st, and Jon Cosentino in 3rd.
Thanks to Independent, Zumiez, Plan B, Skull Candy, Bones, Dakine, Slap, Billabong, and Push.ca for hooking things up this weekend.
Now we're headed to that big needle in the center of downtown. This bid'nissman is Instagramming it.
We're going up in that thing. It's called the CN Tower. We asked a bartender in there what CN stands for an they didn't know.
Oh, there's a line for this? Yep, pretty deep wait to get up there.
There's a glass bottom floor at the top.
Pause for a foot fetish 1,100 feet up.
There's a restaurant where you can sit with your lady and enjoy a nice view of the city and Lake Ontario. Or in our case, chill with a crew of dudes.
Jorge Angel aka Porpe
Porpe's social networking sophistication is brought to new levels while perched a-top the CN Tower spewing posts, hashtags, and general gangsterisms down to his loyal pawn followers over a nice chianti.
The sun went down before we could get to the top.
Apparently, bears are huge here.
At the bottom of that thing.
Wow, a full themed American restaurant. People outside of Texas like that?
There was some kind of film festival in town. Lines like this were on every corner to get into various places where you might get a Hollywood glimpse.
Brian Peech is chief at SBC Mag in Canada. We're out pouring sauce courtesy of Red Bull right now.
Brian Schaefer
Instagram's dailybs is hard at work.
Brian Schaefer
Follow SPoT Tampa on Twitter to see the other side of this #thumbsup.
Jorge Angel aka Porpe
They love that hockey up there. A Spitfire shirt with a hockey hat? Collin and Porpe trying to blend into the bar for normal ass society.
Everywhere in this place, people are on those "getting married" nights out.
Colin Clark
Colin doesn't do anything on his phone but text with girls. No Instagram, no Tweets.
Will Marshall
Does Will Marshall have a fake ID, too?
Alex Bowers
DJ Wade couldn't make this trip, so AlBow got a super quick passport and jumped the border with us. Thanks for mashing the buttons, MP3J. Check out a sample from Alex's phone.
Best cover band playing the worst songs. We still danced.
No, we are not at the wax museum, that's a live person.
Lines and Escalades on every corner for the fancy Hollywood thing.
Flying on 9/11's 10-Year-Anniversary was an interesting day. Our moment of silence was while we were in line at US Customs coming back into America. We'll be back soon, Canada. Thanks for letting us in.
Brian Schaefer
I'll leave you with Schaefer's amazing attempt at the High Ollie. If he didn't break his board, we would have given him the $200.

Colin's Recap: Qualifiers and Finals

Colin's Recap: Practice

Meronek's Phone Footage: Arrival in Toronto

Today in Toronto was set-up and practice for Damn Am Canada that's going on tomorrow. Here's a minute of it shot and edited on my iPhone.

Meronek's Phone Footage: Contest, Tourist Mission, Home

Our second day in Toronto was the Damn Am Contest we were in town to run, then on to a tourist mission at the CN Tower, a conversation with some friends who drove up from Detroit and slept in their car the whole time, some dude dance parties at the after-gathering, and more. I shoot this with my iPhone all day and just add the clips to iMovie as I go, save at 720p, copy to my computer, then upload.

Great Coverage on Other Sites

Push.ca has great coverage and so does SBC Skateboard Mag.

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