Robert Brink - Writer

Festivus: Tampa Am '09

January 25, 2010 | Skip To The Comments (0)

Festivus: Tampa Am ‘09
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag, March 2010

This year’s Tampa Am contest may have been the most incredible Tampa Am ever … seriously. “Why?” you ask. Well duh! Obviously because all sorts of history was made!

As you all know, Luan Oliveira won. And that makes him the first person to ever win Tampa Am twice! History in the making! You should be excited. One might assume that after two Tampa Am wins, he won’t be am too much longer, eh? Or maybe he’ll win next year as well! Three-peat history! Luan beautifully flipped his board really fast and high and spun around a lot. That kid sure has one hell of a pre-trick windup. Hit pause next time you are watching his footage and check it out.

You know what else? More history was made when Ben Hatchell took second. Yes, indeed, Ben is the first person to ever get second place at Tampa Am twice! Insane! Furthermore, not since Daewon has someone exerted so much authority over the blunt kickflip out. And Ben’s cab flips … fuggitaboutit!

This year, for the first time in history, there was a high ollie contest at Tampa Am. Luis Tolentino made history by tying the history-making high ollie world record of 44.5 inches set by Danny Wainwright in February of 2000. Whoa … that record is ten years old and no one’s beaten it yet? That’s historic in itself! Possibly even sadly historic. Can someone just do it already? Beating his record would mean more history could be made! And we all like making history, don’t we? Lots of history. Historical amounts of history.

Alongside high ollie record-matching history also came high jinx history. You see … there’s this guy, Stalker Steve. He’s a local down in Tampa and shoots photos. One can only imagine why his name is “Stalker Steve,” but that’s beside the point. Anyway, a challenge was posed to him—the challenge to jump, on foot, over the high-ollie bar at 44.5 inches.

Steve accepted, crowds gathered, chants began, and Steve approached the bar at a speed not unlike that of a 101-year-old Galapagos Island giant tortoise and ultimately achieved a vertical leap of approximately 1.6 inches as he crashed through the ollie bar. It didn’t appear Steve put much effort into his attempt, but I think he did, and that’s what made it amazing. Hats off to you, Stalker Steve, for allowing us to laugh with you. Lord knows we all need a good guffaw or two these days.

Could anything possibly trump the aforementioned history made by Luan, Ben, Luis and Steve? Well, how about local Skatepark of Tampa femme fatale, Sierra, having a historic increase in size to a certain area of her anatomy? Now that’s some history that we can all enjoy. In fact, let’s just go ahead and shut this one down by awarding Sierra and her new boobs “the most important historic event of the Tampa Am ’09 weekend” award.