Festivus: Downtown Showdown '08
Festivus: Downtown Showdown '08
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag February 2009
It’s virtually impossible to be surrounded by a few hundred of your friends in a Hollywood replica of downtown Manhattan, with Slayer’s "Angel of Death" playing at mind-shearing volumes while Jon Ponts kamikazes himself twenty-something feet across a pentagram-shaped monstrosity of a skateboarding obstacle named the “Five Points of Pure Evil” and not have a good time. Im-fucking-possible.
In fact, if you’re incapable of enjoying such a spectacle, you’re just plain dull. You have no business even reading this article. Go watch time-lapsed erosion on YouTube instead.
One of the most remarkable things about the annual Vans Downtown Showdown contest is that it’s never not amazing. “Moments” happen and stories that will be verbally shared for years to come are created right before your very eyes. Isn’t that special?
Whether it’s an inebriated Dustin Dollin dropping in (or at least attempting so) on a 1/5 scaled down version of the Mega Ramp, Omar Hassan peeling off his own scalp skating through a janky wooden tunnel, or Alex Olson and Heavy Metal Chuck colliding at high velocities—like the car accident on the side of the road that everyone rubbernecks, something entertainingly sketchy is waiting to be seen and missing it would be a travesty.
Humans, especially skateboarders it seems, have an insatiable desire for chaos. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. In fact, our plight might actually be that there’s just not enough chaotic circumstance in our daily life to satisfy our needs. So naturally, a day full of four thirty-minute jam sessions, consisting of 15 or so skaters each, on obstacles no ones ever skated, is a much-needed catalyst for chaos. Thanks, Vans!
Not to be glossed over, these skaters’ ability to adapt to obstacles unfamiliar to them at moment’s notice is always a testament to their talent. It’s remarkable actually. You watch, they go for it, and you get lost in it… forgetting that you quite possibly will never be that good on a skateboard or never have the privilege to skate such madness or land those tricks. But it doesn’t really matter; because skateboarding is one of the few things in the world that you don’t always need to be doing to be happy. Its mere presence in your day is sheer glee. The free hot dogs help too, especially when a jolly Hawaiian shirt-clad Steve Van Doren personally puts one on your plate for you.
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