Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Antoine Asselin was the Golden Ticket winner on Friday. He made this big flip down the Red Bull double set a few times over the weekend, much cleaner than this one that I caught

Cody McEntire got the Golden Ticket on Saturday. A couple bails in the Finals kept him out of first. He definitely won practice with stuff like this nollie big heel down the Red Bull double set

Adam Dyet didn't like the toe drag on this feeble grind 270 out so he did a perfect one right after this one, but I missed it

David Loy ended his run in the Finals with this ollie off the semi into the quarter and on to first place

Marius Syvanen - bsts on the Deluxe Hella Hyphy curved rail

Max Genin is cab flipping his way up to fourth place in the Finals

Shuriken Shannon's board tapped the rail on this nollie flip over and into the bank

Albert Madrid is the new Baker am. He's frontside nosegrinding down that rail. David Loy, get out of the way

Alex Mizurov is now on Plan B. He won the eS Game of SKATE last month at ASR, but he's got a lot more than flat ground skills. This is a frontside flip down the Red Bull double set

Antoine Asselin - backside shifty flip. This is one of my favorite tricks - wish I could do that

Marius Syvanen - lipslide

Manny Santiago - frontside flip

Max Barrera - crail snacher. I'm a fan of this guy from Mexico

Ryan Decenzo won the last Zoo York Am Getting Paid contest in Canada. This is a 5-0 down the hubba

Who dat? Wetsuit smith on the rail

Derek Simon - salad grind

Shaun Stulz - crooked grind

Look at the back foot catch on Cody McEntire's nollie big spin

Marques DeVaughn - nollie backside noseblunt slide

Justin Figueroa has The Boss' approval - he's on Altamont. This is a gap to noseblunt slide

Jordan Williams made quite an impression with everyone today. He won the Best Trick with a backside noseblunt slide on the Deluxe Hella Hyphy bank curved rail. This is a smith grind on the Red Bull double set rail

Collin Hale - switch frontside 180 scary guy ollie

In every contest, there has to be as least one am shuffle - a front board body varial. Tommy Werner's got it this time

Andrew Pott is one of many kids Bill Dorr has supported before going on to get a full list of sponsors. I think this is a back lip

The first time Chris Troy came to the Damn Am a few years ago, Body threw him in the dunk tank with his shoes on for running his mouth. We've all been good friends since. This is a back smith

One of the best looking frontside big spins I've seen - Marquise Preston

Danny Rosario - 360 flip

Anthony Schultz - nollie crooked grind

Thursday was Practice and pretty hectic. The competition is tough out there. Every time we turn our heads there’s a new kid that’s ripping. It’s to a point now where this Damn Am Contest is really getting difficult to even get a spot in, just how Tampa Am has been for years. It’s cool to see it gain momentum and support like that.

So if you didn’t get a spot because it was sold out or you straight up got denied, then you’re not alone because it happened to quite a few potential participants.

The format is pretty basic and works well for the Damn Am and Tampa Am events. You get two, one-minute runs, and your best runs counts always. If you make the top 16 from either Friday or Saturday, then you get two more one-minute runs where the top 10 are taken to the Finals; however, both the number one skater from Friday and the number one skater from Saturday go directly to the Finals, which are appropriately named the Golden Tickets. The finalists then get three, one-minute runs to determine the final placings. Got it? Good.

The Qualifiers are the just that…the Qualifiers. I have to admit that when I wasn’t working I spent most of my time socializing during the Qualifiers on Friday and Saturday. This event has turned into a mini-trade show. I’m down for the Finals though, so that’s what I saved my energy to watch. Here are some Qualifier fun facts:

• From what I heard, this was Adam Dyet’s last Contest as an am because he’s going pro soon…congrats, Adam!
• I also heard that Tony Tave was going to skate in the Contest since he doesn’t officially turn pro until November 1st, but he then changed his mind because he was riding his own pro model that was not yet released. Nice work, Tony. Can I get your autograph?

I kept hearing here and there that the consensus was that the course was much improved. Thanks to Four Down Productions for helping out this time around. Even though I didn’t watch most of the Qualifiers, I did make and effort to watch the guys in our crew. Here’s where they ended up:

• 70th – skated Friday – Anton Arratia
• 42nd – skated Saturday – Dylan Perry
• 83rd – skated Saturday – Jeffrey Marshall
• 86th – skated Saturday – Matt Giles
• 88th – skated Saturday – Scotty Conley

Great work, guys. Just kidding.

Volcom knows how to do it right. We all know this. Their hospitality is second to none and it was shown once again this weekend with the free food and drink, which consisted of some great catering and snow cones for the kids. Of course Red Bull was there giving out some free product and we even had Nihilist play right before the Finals. Good times.

One of the cool things that I almost forgot to mention was that you could watch the Contest live at volcom.com. In addition, you could email live@volcom.com and your email went right to the announcers…then they would read it out loud. That was definitely entertaining.

The Semis got started with a bang. The first three skaters out had great runs and really set the tone for the first heat. Here are a few highlights that I recall:

• Albert Madrid is gnarly. He rips and apparently just got on Baker. In addition, he has “F!!k Y!u” tattooed across his neck. Don’t mess with him
• “Moose” was this random kid that sent Rob a sponsor-me tape and got a spot in the Contest. He ended up in 15th and that’s pretty damn impressive
• As I look down the list of the Semi-Finalists, there are so many names that are recognizable. These kids (Marius Syvanen, Chazz Ortiz, Vince Del Valle, etc.) are the pros of the future…mark my words

The Semis were over before you knew it and then it was on…THE FINALS!

This is definitely the most intense point in any Contest. That’s rhetorical, huh? You already know this. The beauty of it is that it’s ‘anyone’s contest’ at that point. The Finals are beginning and they each have three runs to show what they got. I live for that anticipation. Here’s who did what and where they ended up:

12th – Shaun Stulz – he had a killer lipslide on the rainbow rail and fs half cab kickflips every single try, but there was some tough competition out there, so he ended up at the end of the pack

11th – Anthony Schultz – not to be confused with Stulz, Schultz made his mark by making his skating FUN to watch. He had moves like lien disasters from the qp to bank-to-wall and just skated fast and solid

10th – Ryan Decenzo – so I finally remember the winner of Am Getting Paid. He won that Contest and I had no idea who he was, but the kid rips for sure and it was nice to see him at Volcom. I won’t forget him this time because his frontside flips over the fire hydrant were proper

9th – Chris Troy – I said that he was one kickflip fs boardslide 270 out away from winning this event, but who knows? Troy’s got a bigspin fs boardslide without fail on the big handrail and the right attitude

8th – Danny Rosario – like I said, I didn’t really watch the Qualifiers and I was busy working behind-the-scenes during the second heat of the Semis, so I didn’t even have a clue that our Brazilian friend was present until I saw him in the Finals. His nollie nosegrinds on the hubba were a pleasure to view

7th – Antoine Asselin – he’s been repping V-co for quite a while now, and I definitely see why. Antoine would drop in on the small quarter and immediately ollie over the fire hydrant, which was gnar. Our Canadian French friend also has a serious bs bigflip down the double-set

6th – Tanner Zelinsky – my new bro that reps Consolidated really knows how to put it down and skate a contest run. His lien melon disaster up to the bank-to-wall was his banger, but he was throwing around bs tailslides and skating really solid throughout the entire Finals

5th – Brendan Keaveny – 5th place ain’t so bad for a kid with just a shop sponsor, huh? His fs nosegrind around the rainbow rail was his banger and he had it on lock as his first trick each run, but he followed it up with a crazy, but good, looking hardflip over the fire hydrant

4th – Max Genin – his name was called and there was no Max, so we skipped him. Then he finally showed up and skated his first run looking like he had never even stepped on the course. Once Max got warmed up he nailed his noseblunts on the big rail and cab kickflips up the step-up

3rd – Shuriken Shannon – you ever heard a name like Shuriken? Me either, but who cares, because Mr. Shannon was ON IT during the Finals. Had he put all of his moves together into one run he would have won, because you can really top a nollie flip over the big rail, can you?

2nd – Cody McEntire – the winner of Tampa Am 2006 can’t really lose that title, and he sure lives up to it when put on the spot. Cody had his signature bs nollie bigspin down the Red Bull double-set and a PROPER nollie bs 270 heel over the pyramid hip on lock

1st – David Loy – can you believe it? David Loy seriously ripped it and earned himself a first place finish at Damn Am. I think that he squeezed in more tricks per run than anyone, including hurricanes down the big rail and kickflip fs boards on the bank to flat bar every try. I’m stoked that someone so deserved, cool, and appreciative won the Contest

Click here for the rest of the Results…

Instead of doing your standard Best Trick Contest on a handrail or set of stairs, we decided to switch it up a bit and hold it on the Deluxe Hella Hyphy bank-to-wall obstacle, which incorporated both rail and some more tranny-type skating at the same time. It went well and there was some amazing skating during the 30-minute Jam. Here’s what went down:

5th – Josh Mattson – I can’t believe how many tricks Josh pulled off. Some were crazy and some were sketchy, but it was cool to finally see him at one of our events. The fs 50-50 from the quarter to bank-to-wall hand-flip (yes, hand-flip) in was what got him his place

4th – Adam Dyet – as much as I, and the crowd, tried to get him to pull it, Dyet couldn’t nail the bs tail from quarter to top-of-the-bank kickflip in, but his feeble grind fs 270 out on the rainbow rail did it for him

3rd – Chris Kays – who the hell is Chris Kays? I don’t know, but he ripped with an alley-oop fs smith grind from the quarter to bank. After that he was working on alley-oop fs 5-0’s to kickflip in, but couldn’t make it! Holy Geez!

2nd – Jared Hager – I’m feeling this guy…and his other half, Cody. These guys are cool and fun as all hell to watch…and they skate with their hearts on their sleeves. I respect that. And I respect his hardflip revert from the top of the bank to the lower bank ramp…damn

1st – Jordan Williams – he came out of nowhere into his first Damn Am experience and left a lasting impression with his bs noseblunt through the rainbow rail. You definitely earned your spot, Jordan, because that was proper and ultra-styled

Although time ran out, we kept the skating going for a bit and had some great entertainment from Anthony Shultz. After ‘time’ he pulled a fs noseblunt to stalefish grab in and a Sal flip lien-to-tail from the quarter to bank-to-wall. We gave him a lower-than-deserved $20 payment for those moves.

We did the Awards before the Product Toss this time around, which kept the anxious, product-hungry little bastards around to see who came in what place. That was a cool change. I don’t want to forget the great prizes that we were able to give out courtesy of Ogio, Monster Cables, and Fender…thanks for the hook-ups, fellas. And special thanks to all of the guys at Volcom for once again showing all in attendance the most amazing hospitality ever. See you next year when the skating and fun times will even be that much better.

Ryan