Damn Am June 2-4 2006
Words by MROD
Damn Am…..what else needs to be said? This event is always one of the most fun things we do and for the 4th year in a row it has come and gone. To top it off, the weather was beautiful all weekend which definitely helped to create the ideal atmosphere.
The Tampa guys came in Thursday afternoon along with a number of ams ready to get their practice on. The park was hopping all day and more out of towners were arriving all the time. Thursday night our man Pushy had a rad barbecue at his house consisting of ribs (the real deal) and all the fixins. It was a ton of fun, just lounging and catching up with the Tampa crew. Later that night we had a “for fun” game of poker that had us gambling for imaginary money. Mid game, Vern, Jamiel, and the rest of the Listen posse rolled in after a day of street skating to polish off what was left of the food.
Friday was the first big day around the park. More ams were arriving, and practice was heating up. With the new expansion to our outdoor park there was plenty to skate for everyone, including TM’s and local groms. I got to check out the session briefly and was blown away, as I always am at these events, with how much ripping was going down. Everyone had their game face on. That night we had a gnarly bowl jam as is tradition for Damn Am Friday nights. There were 40 entrants consisting of old, young, pro, am, male, and female bowl rippers. Even our own Swamp Trog himself got in on the action. Check Damnam.com for full results. The Friday night party brought us to the Level Nightclub downtown to celebrate the opening of Steve Nesser’s new shop Familia. It was a ton of fun, thanks to Steve and the crew.
Saturday was the qualifiers which started right on time at 11am. There were 5 heats and a total of 114 skaters from all over entered in the contest. It was a pretty long day and a ton of great skateboarding went down. The standard is definitely set higher every year. There were a number of locals who made the 30 man cut to the semi finals including; Cody Davis, Tulio De Oliveira, Jeff Bauman, Mike Munzenrider, CJ Tambornino, and Davis Torgerson qualifying 3rd! Other notable qualifiers were Jake Duncombe, Colin Hale, Anthony Shultz, and Manny Santiago who qualified 1st. For the full results visit Damnam.com.
Saturday night we had the party at City Billiards downtown where we showed the brand new Black Label Video “Back in Black” which was amazing. Black Label definitely has a hell of a team and they put it down for this video. Look for “Back in Black” on shelves soon to see for yourself, it is a must see.
Sunday was the last day of Damn Am and with the semi-finals, finals, and best trick contest it was definitely the most exciting. The caliber of skating in the Semi-Finals was so high that even one fall made it difficult to make the finals. From the 3rd Lair squad, only Tulio was able to put a finals quality run together but Cody ripped hard too. After the 2 Semi-Final heats it was outside to the Adio Dunk Tank. It is pretty cool how Adio donates money to the Make a Wish foundation for each dunk tank volunteer and there were a few. Moms, girlfriends, sisters, etc. braved it up for the cold dunk tank water. Even the Hawk girls stepped it up to support the cause.
After the dunk tank fun it was on to the finals. At this point I was posted up in the concessions shack so I missed the finals but tons of cheering was bellowing out from within the building. Once the finals ended the best trick contest went off followed by product toss and awards.
Overall the contest was a blast. We are definitely honored to have the opportunity to host the Damn Am each year. Thanks to everyone that helps make this event possible and we will see you back next year.
For more information and coverage on the Damn Am contest visit damnam.com..
