TOP SHOP 2007 by Mike Munzenrider
Let’s do TOP SHOP 2007 by the numbers:
1000 hamburgers sold.
430 runs taken.
215 skaters.
43 shops entered.
36 vendors.
12 months it took to get this thing going.
5 judges with absolutely no shop bias.
3 days of mayhem.
2 skateboard teams present (Crimson and Creature).
2 videos premiered
1 party bus.
I could simply let you add all of that up and that would be a perfectly good synopsis of what went down, but then again, that wouldn’t do the weekend justice. Numbers lie from time to time, so where to start?
First of all, when I stated that there were 215 skaters in the contest, that didn’t take into account the fact that, there were two alternates for each shop, as well as a team manager. Right there, that’s another 129 people. And as everyone reading this knows, no shop is ever sticking to the eight-person maximum. Let’s add an average of two “extras” to every shop entered, and that means, grand total, that at full bore, there was quite possibly 428 people associated with the contest at 3rd Lair at any given time. We can never forget that skateboarding is an awesome spectator sport, so we’ll add an under-guess of the park having 100 spectators present at any given time. Going back and adding it all up, that means that there was a good chance that the park maxed out at having some 528 people present at any given time. And that doesn’t take into account the number of random kids that showed up just to skate. Hot darn!
Yes, TOP SHOP 2007 was most likely the largest contest and or event ever held at 3rd Lair. Just think of that, 1000 hamburgers. It should also be stated that with 43 shops this year, TOP SHOP 2007 was larger than any other TOP SHOP held, but that’s sort of been pointed out already. Enough with the numbers, here’s how it went down.
TOP SHOP was a three-day affair this year. Having tried to cram 120 or so skaters into Saturday the previous year, our fearless head judge, Jason Rothmeyer, decided that the contest would be best in a three day format. Done. That meant that come Thursday evening, the session was thick, and teams from all over the place were showing up. The park closed at nine, and many retired to the Hotel 8, or the Holiday Inn Express. Friday at noon meant a check-in blitz, leading to an even thicker session than the night before. In fact, it may very well have been the thickest session ever; TOP SHOP is no stranger to breaking records.
Actual runs started at 5:00 PM Friday evening. With only 43 or so skaters to go through in 3 heats, the contest wrapped at 8:30 or so, and then it was skateboard trivia time. Though many teams bailed after the first round of questions, a solid five or six teams didn’t wuss out and TOP SHOP trivia was bangin’ again. With scores nearly tied going into the video round, it was a showdown between team “That’s Bullshit” (Venom and Phil Burcher) and the two time reigning champs, “The MPLS Lakers” (John Muldoon and Jason Rothmeyer). When the scores were tallied, “That’s Bullshit” eked a win by a small margin, got $100, and “The MPLS Lakers” left to gamble their sorrows away.
PARTY BUS TIME! In what may be the most memorable or accidentally forgotten part of TOP SHOP, the honchos here at the Lair rented a school bus, hired someone to drive said bus, and then filled it with thirsty industry heads, shop heads, skaters, and rock star alter egos, and sent it to Down Town Minneapolis just to see what happens. After a somewhat lackluster stop at City Billiards due to the bouncer who was looking to get somebody's ass (thank goodness for Pizza Luce though), the bus headed for The Triple Rock, and things looked up. The Skateboard Mag head-man Kevin Wilkins had his mind blown via walking into a Trans Am show, new friends were made, pounds were pounded, bevies were pounded, shakas shaka-ed, and in the end, the party bus crew chanted “Super Eight!” as their foster home for the weekend neared.
Saturday morning meant a splitting headache for some, contest runs for others. The runs started at 10 AM, and the day flew by from there. The contest itself was done for the day in the late afternoon, and that meant dinner, milling about, and anticipating the night’s festivities. After closing the park at 9 PM in order to set up for the impending party, a crowd gathered out front. We shifted the entrance to the side, sealed off the front of the park, and started filtering people in. Saturday night’s party featured the world premier of Creature’s new video, “Black Metal”, as well as Tree Roots Productions latest, “Roll Six, The Chills to Pay the Bills.” The crowd loved both, and skateboarding and more pounds and more shakas happened from there. By the end of the night the reserve had been tapped, plans for a trip to ‘Sconny were solidified, and to everyone’s dismay, Major’s and JJ’s Clubhouse had both closed at one.
Sunday started with a slightly less intense headache than the morning before. Once again, the contest started rolling around 10 AM, and was wrapped even faster than the day prior. As shops finished all of their runs, they began to filter out. As the day wore on, for the most part, only the “real” contenders were sticking around to find out exactly how the cookie was going to crumble. With the runs out of the way, the transition was made directly into the innovative 2 trick best trick format presented by Bones Wheels, and general and expected best trick mayhem was witnessed. When the dust settled, and the product toss crowd was assembled, results were read. Nate Compher won best trick, and in one hell of a gesture to positive P.R., the 3rd Lair won Top Shop for the second (non-consecutive) time. Here’s Mark Muller with the thanks:
Word up to Munzy!!!!
A very special thanks to Rob Washburn from Bones Wheels, Tom Crowe from Element and Kevin Wilkins from the skateboard MAG. I'd also like to thank all of our TOP SHOP 2007 sponsors - High Grade Distribution, Listen Skateboards, Roots, and Osiris.
Without these people and companies supporting the TOP SHOP - it could just plain and simple never happen!! Thank you so much, your contributions are greatly appreciated.
One more thanks to all of the companies that supported the tradeshow - I hope that it was worth your time, effort, and money. You'll all be invited back next year and it was great having you here!!
