SCAMS ( SC Ams) - LA Trip to X Games Shop vs Shop Contest Haze, Smoke, Grey...I never thought I would see a [ insert northern California city name here ] sky look like LA.
We drove from emergency air quality evacuation to smog city. From Santa Cruz to LA. For the first time, I was excited to see a smoggy yet blue LA skyline. We passed Tehon Ranch and had the opportunity to take a breath.
We saw a few Fresno Pumps on the way down. With the usual amount of pit stops. Inside jokes that you will learn or hear about from someone or perhaps in this amazing tale of Santa Cruz representing for all of northern California in a shop vs shop X Games Qualifying contest held at Red Bull HQ in Santa Monica, CA.
We didn't know the details and forgot the handshake however, to our best recollection, this is how it went down:
Street 16. 16 skate shop AMS compete on a street course built by Red Bull. Shops go head to head, 4 riders from each shop. Jam style contest. Winners go to the Xgames...
15 of the 16 shops are located in So Cal. Josh Greenburg, Field Marketing Manager for Red Bull in LA called Donovan Dresti his northern California counterpart and said bring a shop am team down to compete in a contest. Don reached out to a few shops and connected with the crew at Santa Cruz Skate Shop.
Who?
Josh Mattson, Branden Howard, and Micah Szoke met up with don and the SC van early on Saturday for the drive down.
Josh recently won the SkateWorks Shredwood contest in Redwood City $1000 cash prize. He took the money and went on a mission to Texas. For this little trip, he snuck his girlfriend and his Chihuahua into the van, past the new multi passenger vehicle security checkpoints and into an expensive Santa Monica hotel.
Our first stop in Santa Monica was a parking lot that had a sick little pole jam. Micah threw a backside overcrooks...
and a few other tricks...check the video below.
Pole Jam Small from Kyle Berube on Vimeo.
Branden had front lip 180 and apparently the Happy Diner doesn't like people skating its drive through at 4pm in the afternoon. The cops showed up, we offered them cold Red Bulls, they accepted, watched a few more tricks and since we were done with the spot we left.
Micah wanted to know early on what kind of hotel we were staying in. When asked why, he said "I prefer indoor hotels". Of course we stayed in the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica, straight across the street from Santa Monica High.
Valet the van, check in, dip in the pool, rest...off to grab a light dinner before the contest.
Eat, drive, arrive...there were a couple hundred people at the contest. Lights, EXPN was filming along with the local news. 16 shops, who wants some...SC beat the first shop and went on to the second round where they were held at at distance by Active. Look out the video and commentary on EXPN.
Contest Highlights - Josh from Kyle Berube on Vimeo.
Joe an AM from SC was in San Diego, he drove up to compete that night. He was the only one skating in board shorts...he threw a feeble to handle the hand rail and held it down for SC with a clean back 50 on the hubba. His shorts were more "Bro" than the guys from the the "Val Surf" shop.
Fringe got love as Joe threw out stickers and held his own best trick contest for the 8 year old midget pro's in the parking lot.
SC got respect from the crowd, judges and other shops ams. Micah stuck the only Nollie Crooks on the rail in the whole contest. Branden had a clean nollie heel down the big 3, Josh's airs were over head high out of the quarter. SC had the course covered on all four corners.
Game over. Next.
At 1:45 in the morning Josh, Branden, and Micah decided to mentally prepare for the Santa Monica 14 set they wanted to skate and film on the next morning. Each one of them ollied the 14 set and continued to rage like fire through the night.
11am Get up, gear up, check out, and walk across the street to warm up on the amphitheater gap and ledges.
We met up Jason Martinez and ran into some cool cats from Oakland. Brandon recognized one of them and realized awhile back he was stretcherd out of Scotts Valley after trying to ollie into one of the big bowls. Of course now he was trying to tre flip the 14.
Josh threw heelflip indy down the 14
and while watching Branden get fueled for his switch ollie he recognized the paint chip and board splinter graveyard at the bottom of the set. He claims to have found a piece of one of sheckler's broken boards.
Josh Heel Small from Kyle Berube on Vimeo.
Branden broke a chip off the 14 set on a fall early land/fall. Micah spectating from the top claims that the chip significantly reduced the amount of stairs and may have in fact made it a 13. Branden, aka "The Ram". (Josh thought Branden's energy field was very "Ram like" and associated him with his new skate animal nickname.)
He called a nollie flip on the gap and was looking for a nollie heel on the 14.
Branden Ollie/Switch Ollie from Kyle Berube on Vimeo.
Branden Nollie from Kyle Berube on Vimeo.
He was cyked at looking at his clean switch ollie in HD on the drive home.
Micah snapped his nose on a clean caught kick flip over the gap.
A late night edit session on saturday made for footy peepn' on the trip back.
After the 14 warm up session, we rocked the SC van to RBHQ and had a private session at the park. Josh Greenburg had lunch taken care of with fresh Chipotle burritos.
Don threw a clean signature big spin flip up the euro at the RB park...earlier in June, Don helped organize a raw triple set challenge in Los Gatos, CA at NC.
Josh kept talking about the "Columbian Twins" and ripped the inside vert wall quarter that no one else skated.
We accidently locked the keys in the van in the Red Bull parking lot..the side window of the van was open for "diesel", Josh's fist sized man dog.
The open window gave us hope. One with nature, Brandon called upon the live oak god, climbed a tree and broke off a 4 foot long curved branch. He smoked a cigarette and widdled the branch, one handed with a buck knife, turning it into the perfect door opening slim jim. Well most of that is true.
Saddle up, were going home.
Random van conversation topic and cool new phrase:
I personally never liked open casket funerals...Josh explained his reasoning in a spiritual and metaphorical way by stating people who go to open casket funerals are "Spacesuit Vultures".
The dark red smoke sky that we were driving towards made a perfect background for the hard to understand screaming lyrics of Donovan's 80's metal band Dark Heavens.
Micah and Josh took a stab at guessing the chorus of the song "Rock You Chewbacca". Hint: the song name is the chorus.
Micah - Rocket Ship Rock You
Josh - Broccoli Pot Pie, Soft Poo
While SC held it's own in the contest, it is clear that next year, this contest is going to be nationwide and that all shop teams should get their train on. It is always appropriate to pay your respect to the host and the city you are skating in when you travel. And the SC team did just that by keeping it real...skating some fun spots and hucking the 14. SC walked away with HD footage of the Santa Monica 14, Gap, and the private X Games Red Bull contest.
Labels: Branden Howard, Dark Heavens, Donovan Dresti, Josh Mattson, Live Oak Skateboards, Micah Szoke, Red Bull, santa cruz skate, Shop Contest, X Games
