DAMN DAMS: A Volcom Contest Story.

I HAD NO IDEA THAT SO MANY HEADS WOULD SHOW UP FOR THE DAWN AM FINALS, BUT IT BROUGHT IN SOME OF TODAY'S TO PROS TO PEEP THE AMS, AND EVEN CAUSED SOME FOOL TO DRESS UP IN A DONKEY SUIT

""HEN MY TEAM MANAGER PAGED MY GIRL and told her to give me the heads up on this Damn Am series, I was like "Oh shit it's on!" Time to flex on some sketchy-ass muggs and let my skillz prevail. Little did I know that I would not be able to enter this year's Damn Am contest due to some more parole violations, which I can't really go into detail about. I was able to make it out to the event since my boy Polly Wilson came over and showed me the old "put your house arrest bracelet on your baby brother while you break out to this bang'n-ass contest" trick. We headed over to the Volcom warehouse where they had built a new street course outside, instead of that psychadelic joint I usually blow minds on. I had gotten six new sponsor offers in less than 30 minutes while blaz'n the course, which by the way was tight as Ali Boulala's toe up jeans. Ali won't even there, but it ain't even matta cuz lotta fools you gone be hear'n bout had me sweat'n. Dennis Busenitz was twist'n fools caps back. He skated the course like a pro no doubt, and proceeded to qualify first for the finals. Other rippers to keep in mind were Sven Kilchenmann, Corey Sheppard, Emeric Pratt, Pat Rakestraw, Steve Hernandez, Aaron Snyder, Gailea Momolu, Robert Lim, Brian Dale, Allen Russel, Eric Brockman, Danny Wallace, Scotty Moore, Jon Newport, Greg Lutzka, Chris Trembly, and Dylan Rieder. I had no idea that so many heads would show up for the Damn Am finals, but it brought in some of today's top pros to peep the ams, and even caused some fool to dress up in a donkey suit. I think it might have been Bill Weiss' mom, but you ain't heard that from me. Kids came from North Carolina, Florida, Milwaukee, Texas, San Francisco, Pennsylvania, and even my home town New Jersey to show some shit. I seen so many people throwing down this weekend; it was a nice change from your average bullshit shop-sponsored am contest. I can't wait to get my parole straight and be in the series next year. I know the Damn Am series will definitely shine above all the other little lea gue contest series out there. Out of the 60 heads who showed up to skate the street contest, only 12 advanced to meet the top two pre-qualified guys, for a 14-man street final. The two pre-seeded guys were Jon Newport and Dennis Busenitz Both of these guys were straight butta, so they had the golden ticket that put them in the top 14. When they all duked it out for their best-of-three run, it was Dylan Rieder on top, followed by Sven Kilchenmann in second, and third went to Austin Seaholm. Dylan had stayed on the entire run with kickflip frontside boardslides on the flatbar, back lips on the rail, and buttery kickflips off the wedge ramp to flat. Sven had a great selection of tricks in his run, but a few step-offs kept him out of the top spot. Sven threw down kickflip 5-0s on the big ledge, nollie noseslides and nollie crooks down the ledge, and switch frontside boardslides down the rail. Sven had a super smooth style while doing all these tricks which most fools would spazz out on. Austin had people in the c rowd asking each other; What the fuck was that?" I mean, what do you call a bluntslide to roll-down-the-ledge then ollie one-foot out? We still don't know but Austin did a lot of combos and weird tricks like benni-ha-has. I even seen a frontside flip to late backfoot flip to tail go down. Austin didn't make all of his tricks, so he focused his deck and looked a little bit pissed, like if I had just started hit'n on his girl in front of him in the club or something Pat Rakestraw started his run off with a kickflip 50-50 on the long flatbar, which to me was on point. Dennis Busenitz started his runs with a frontside feeble across the long flatbar, which was definitely a statement to the judges. Emeric Pratt did kickflip melon grab to lipslides down the handrail in his run...I ain't seen that before. All in all, the street contest was the best thing going that weekend, since you could skate the course until it was dark each night. The security was on the low and the vibe was not the same Orange County vibe as us ual, which by the way was a good thing. Free burgers and free drinks all weekend long was a plus, and being able to skate the rest of the Volcom facility was also a nice treat. All you had to do was show up, so don't you feel stupid for reading about this when you could have just been at the spot with the rest of us? Oh shit, I almost forgot about the vert contest that was going on inside! I loaded up a burger and headed on in to check it out. 'Bout 15 heads entered and only 10 were over 12-years-old...some vert soldiers were over the 30 age mark. Your own kid could have kicked your ass in the same contest, damn...I even saw some vert guys trying to claim sponsors that were out of business, and some were just writing down sponsors who they didn't even have on their registration sheets. I don't know what could be the good outcome of that move, but I wasn't wastin' anytime in tryin' to figure it out. Third place went to Jeff Thrush, who did some smooth lien airs, a Madonna, Smith grinds, and an attempted 540. S econd place went to Shawn White, who has been in a few pro contests over seas and has won some serious loot. If I was pro I would stay pro; you ain't gonna get much paper in the am ranks, so don't come back when you already went through that door. Understood? Shawn did huge frontside heelflips, a big 540, and kept up his speed the entire run. A lack of lip tricks must have been noticed not only by some thug-ass rapper I met in the crowd named Wax Phillips, but by the judges as well. First place went out to Ruda Lopes, who had a great mix of difficult tricks. Ruda did kickflip indys, alley-oop nosegrinds, backside tailslide reverts, and used the curved corner extensions for frontside lipslides. Ruda skated the entire ramp and mixed up his run with everything except 540s. A big perk to this year's Damn Am series was that if you got first place, you automatically were pre-seeded in next year's Tampa Am top 12 finals. Now that is some good shit right there to look forward to. Fuck a prize or a trophy, nah say'n? To me, that means more time at Mons Venus, and no skechy-ass bustas running into me all weekend long. Dylan Rieder and Ruda Lopes must be psyched! If you want to find out more about this series, go to www.damnam.com and get your ass ready for next year. Peace out and watch ya spots...