The Changing Role Of Contests
The Changing Role Of Contests
By Rob Brink
Skateboard Trade News October 2005
Despite mixed feelings from pros, media, and other industry folk who either embrace them or avoid them like the plague, contests have existed since skateboarding's early years and remain vital for a multitude of reasons. Contests bring skateboarders together while showcasing skateboarding so outsiders can watch, learn, and hopefully get stoked and start skating themselves.
To the industry, contests are critical for sales growth. They provide a marketing platform for brands via consumer-athlete interaction, media exposure, and a direct tie between product and activity. Don Bostick, president and founder of World Cup Skateboarding, says, “It's not only skate products, it's everybody's products at contests now, from Red Bull to Campbell's soup to Ford Trucks to Xbox. Growth is there due to the exposure of skateboarding contest like the X-Games, Vans Triple Crown, et cetera. There are more skateboarders than ever!”
Contests stimulate and encourage the growth of skateboarding. “Contests definitely progress the sport,” Bostick continues. “Hell, where did the 900 come from? What about Bastien Salabanzi at the Goofy vs. Regular event last month? Talk about progression!”
Contests also allow young skateboarders to get coverage in magazines, become recognized or sponsored, and for years were the determining factor in turning a young amateur into a professional. If it weren't for contests, the world might never know Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, and many other household names.
Contests present an opportunity for skaters to display their talents in a live put-up-or-shut-up situation and make money doing so. With the exponential growth of contest purses over the past ten to twenty years, contests are more lucrative than ever. Steve Olson won 500 dollars at the first Hester Series in the 70s, while Tony Trujillo won 40,000 dollars at Boost Mobile Pro in 2003.
Despite these perks, contest coverage has slowly crept out of most of the endemic skateboard media in the last five or so years. Publications like TransWorld and 411, which used to rely heavily on contests for content, barely touch them now. Pros like Tom Penny, Jim Greco, and many others have steered clear of contests, but have still earned the respect of the kids and industry worldwide. 411 #66 had Slam City Jam tucked away in the “bonus footage” section of the DVD. As big as the Tampa Pro is, it only gets one page in TransWorld annually. And when was the last time you saw a contest covered in Skateboarder or Thrasher until recently, when they began holding contests of their own, like the Seek and Destroy tour or King of the Road?
Doug Palladini, senior director of marketing for Vans, feels that contests have lost some of their appeal due to sameness, mainstreaming, and the fact that the average pro skater uses video parts as his or her platform for progression, not contests.
“The decline in contest coverage says a lot about how stagnant traditional contests have become, doesn't it?” he says. “The fault is ours, not the magazines'.”
Enter the new wave of contests and formats: èS introduced the Koston Game of SKATE at ASR in 2003. Emerica brought Wild in the Streets to New York City last summer, while etnies ushered in Goofy vs. Regular (GvR) in October 2004.
Michael Burnett's Thrasher magazine article on the DLX Bolt Cutter Project offers some insight into why these new contests are sometimes born: “After umpteen years of contest promoters promising to offer venues which simulate ‘the real streets,' but usually ending up with seven-foot spines, the dudes at Deluxe decided that rather than take the streets to the arena, they'd try it the other way around.”
Don Brown, vice president of marketing for Sole Technology, has been attending contests for over twenty years: “It seemed like there needed to be some fun injected into these get-togethers. The best thing about any skate contest is bringing people from all over the world together to have a good time, push each other, share new tricks, and be one big family.” With this in mind, Brown worked with etnies to create Goofy vs. Regular, a battle of the stances that hasn't existed before.
“As an industry,” Brown continues, “we have to create new and exciting methods of keeping the riders stoked, and also make things new, different, and progressive for the spectators/viewers.”
“Traditional” contests are evolving, too. Best-trick events have become standard fare at the Tampa, Slam City, and Europe contests. SkatePark of Tampa's Brian Schaefer has introduced many new events to the Tampa Pro over the years, including the Loop, Team Manager contest, and Old Man Bowl Jam. He also introduced “golden tickets” to the semi-finals for past Tampa Pro winners.
Slam City Jam now has girls' events and “street-style” warm-up areas for pros. X-Games added Danny Way's Big-Air event and started the “real” street course for the Philadelphia X-Games, a format that has continued for the past few years in Los Angeles. Vans will introduce their Downtown Showdown in 2005, where they will close off a city street in Southern California and hold a street contest.
“As skateboarding changes, contests have had to do the same,” says Bostick. “But the traditional format of two timed runs, with the best run counting, still remains the standard for amateur and most pro competitions. Eight years ago, the vert skaters voted to make the three timed runs, best-run-counts format the official format for all WCS sanctioned events. To this day, most of them still love this format.”
Bostick continues, “The main reason for the newer alternate-format contests is that they're fun. They bring in a breath of fresh air, and change is always good. I'm all about 'core events. There is so much energy. I prefer to see different formats because it makes it interesting for the skaters as well as the spectators. If contests are fun, they promote better skating. It's that simple.”
Bostick's World Cup helped usher in the jam formats and best-trick contests that have become staple elements of most modern skateboard competitions, and they were the first to give out cash per trick during best-trick competitions. They ran the first team-oriented contests. Just recently, at the West 49 Canadian Open in Toronto, World Cup introduced rail-jam and team-manager events, which allowed the team managers to win money based on the performance of their riders. In November 2004, World Cup also introduced a new vert format based on the number of walls the skater hits, not time.
Also important to acknowledge is the fact that purses have grown substantially over the years. Events such as Vans Triple Crown and Slam City have stood the test of time and have all been running for well over a decade. “These contests last for the same reason that great pros stay around for a long time—commitment to excellence, tenacity, and courage,” says Marnie DiGiandomenico, producer of Slam City Jam. “All of those contests also have a visionary founder who totally believes in the value of skateboarding and ensures that their event stays true to this vision.”
Doug Palladini of Vans realizes it is time to progress their events: “Does the street course at one of our events look like what you'd see in a current issue of Skateboarder or the new Toy Machine movie? No. So let's move on.”
In 2005, the X-Games and NBC's Dew Action Sports Tour, of which Vans is a part, will create more major media noise in the mainstream for 2005 than we have ever experienced as an industry. These massive endeavors, backed by some of the most powerful media conglomerates in the world, including Disney, GE, and Clear Channel.
A few of these newer contests have also surfaced because some feel modern skateboarding cannot always be accurately judged in 45- or 60-second runs. “Riders need to have the chance to show their innovation and progression. Restricting that to a time constraint limits the rider's potential to shine,” says Brown. “We definitely feel that Goofy vs. Regular provided a good combination of skateboarding consistency and lines, but most importantly, the showcase of innovation and progression with the last-trick three-try rule.” This means each rider has three tries at a “banger” after their time is up.
Bostick's view differs somewhat: “The level of a skateboarder can be judged in 45 seconds for that run. I've seen Bastien or Koston rule a course for 45 seconds and there was no doubt that they were the best. I watched Rick McCrank in Switzerland a few years back score the highest run ever for a 60-second run. Four out of five judges gave him a score of 100.”
“At the root of it,” offers Palladini, “contests and creative self-expression do not have to be mutually exclusive concepts. If brands want to create contests that mirror the progress of each sport, contests themselves need to evolve.”
Surely all these updated formats and new events bring variety, new twists, and fun to contests, making them more appealing to skaters and the industry. Seeing contest-phobic pros like Heath Kirchart in GvR or Daewon Song skating at the Boost Mobile contest is a testament to that power.
But do these new contests add credibility as well? According to DiGiandomenico, “Credibility is something that is earned over the years by staying true to your vision through the good times and the hard times. Many of the newer-format contests are essentially vehicles to market a particular brand. Perhaps some of the new events that have a huge amount of money poured into them think that they can buy their credibility. Skaters are quite discerning in that regard. They are definitely good for skateboarding, but it still takes time to prove yourself in the skate world.”
Summing it up rather simply, Brown says, “As an industry, we have to avoid complacency. We all need to think outside that tattered box. We need new things like the Danny Way Big Air at X-Games, the èS game of SKATE, and etnies' GvR to add excitement, fun, and something different.” With all these new contests popping up more frequently, it seems the creative juices are flowing throughout the industry—which is always a good thing.
The new contests, and who is winning them—a quick-reference guide.
Element/Reese Forbes High Ollie Challenge 2000: Danny Wainwright
The Loop at Tampa Pro 2001: Bob Burnquist
Grind King Switch Ollie Challenge 2002: Alex Bland
Grind King Longest Ollie Contest 2002: Andrew Reynolds
Boost Mobile Pro of Skateboarding 2003: Tony Trujillo
ès game of SKATE 2003: Paul Rodriguez
Thrasher King of the Road 2003: DLX
Thrasher King of the Road 2004: Zero
Skateboarder/Red Bull Seek and Destroy 2004: Danny Supa (most wins). Team Philly (Kerry Getz and Mike Maldonado) overall best video part.
Goofy vs. Regular 2004: Regular, with Bastien Salabanzi voted V.I.P.
ès game of SKATE 2004: PJ Ladd
Wallenberg 2004: Andrew Reynolds, Darrell Stanton, Lindsey Robertson
X-Games Big Air 2004: Danny Way
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