Downtown Showdown Breakdown
Posted 10/13/2008 10:14:00 by i am vans
The day started off with the Girl "three pump dump" obstacle. This was three wedge hips all in a row and of various sizes. You had to start from the take off ramp and then try and nail three tricks in a row. Yeah right! Right off the bat guys were running into each other trying to battle for position, and then when one guy bailed, it would set off a chain reaction of bails and slams. Jani Laitiala, Billy Marks, and Rick McCrank were the standouts. Jani nailed buttery frontside flips and fakie flips everytime. Billy had cabflips on lock and McC was nailing treflips. These were the only guys who also were successful in making three tricks in a row. Not just three tricks, but three hard tricks. Overall, the placement was spot on. The judges were paying attention, Jani won.This was a good warm up for the next obstacle.
The talk of the day was about the Black Label Bar. It was two wedge kickers with a 8 foot flat bar in between, and in the form of your local pub. I was really expecting some good slams from this one, but nothing really was that bad. Lots of trickery went down, jake duncombe threw down a gap to lipslide,sick, but in the end, Jamie tancowny, sean malto, and david gravettes, consistency and trickery place them respectively. Sean malto should have had it in my eyes, but hey, I don't judge. His front crooks across the bar was insane. But this was Am time, and Jamie Tancowny put one up for the non-pros. he got first.
Next up was the Creature five points of pure evil ramp. This was an obstacle to be reckoned with. There is no way to explain this nightmare of an obstacle. No easy trannies, banks, or transfers. There was some new faces in this group as some of trannie skaters made an appearance. Omar Hassan, al partanen, even a Mike V. sighting. Johnny Layton put down a sick crook to 5-0 tranfer around the bank corner. But the highlight went to jake duncombe as he transferred from the far quarter pipe across the ramp to the steep bank/wall landing. No one else came close. Rick mcrank threw down sick f-side 360 ollies to rock, and Al partanen did boneless transfers. Those were the 1-2-3 places.
The night was to end on the Foundation 9 stair moon and star hubba. By now it was almost 9 pm and getting real cold, not exactly the best scenario for hucking down stairs. Guys started right away with insanity. There were a lot of broken boards, bryan Anderson treflip to board break, alex olson f-side 360 olle to board break, brayden safranski,etc. Billy Marks didn't have to worry about breaking his board. He skated so smooth and landed so perfect it was not an issue. Nollie heels, nollie flips, and the kickflip foot plan on the star and his straight up consistency netted him top honors. Jani Laitiala was a close second with his sick b-side 180 flips, but marks was solid.
As we waited for the awards in the Freezing LA night, talk circulated about who had won the team over all honors. I suspected blind or toy machine for top team, and billy marks or jani laitial as top overall. I was close. Blind took the team, duncombe, grant Patterson,etc, all killed it. Jani laitiala took the pro MVP. He was insanely consistent, and Jamie Tancowny was the top AM. We can always count on Vans Downtown showdown to bring originality and excitement to a skateboard contest. I did not hear any say they had a bad time. Cant wait till next year.
The talk of the day was about the Black Label Bar. It was two wedge kickers with a 8 foot flat bar in between, and in the form of your local pub. I was really expecting some good slams from this one, but nothing really was that bad. Lots of trickery went down, jake duncombe threw down a gap to lipslide,sick, but in the end, Jamie tancowny, sean malto, and david gravettes, consistency and trickery place them respectively. Sean malto should have had it in my eyes, but hey, I don't judge. His front crooks across the bar was insane. But this was Am time, and Jamie Tancowny put one up for the non-pros. he got first.
Next up was the Creature five points of pure evil ramp. This was an obstacle to be reckoned with. There is no way to explain this nightmare of an obstacle. No easy trannies, banks, or transfers. There was some new faces in this group as some of trannie skaters made an appearance. Omar Hassan, al partanen, even a Mike V. sighting. Johnny Layton put down a sick crook to 5-0 tranfer around the bank corner. But the highlight went to jake duncombe as he transferred from the far quarter pipe across the ramp to the steep bank/wall landing. No one else came close. Rick mcrank threw down sick f-side 360 ollies to rock, and Al partanen did boneless transfers. Those were the 1-2-3 places.
The night was to end on the Foundation 9 stair moon and star hubba. By now it was almost 9 pm and getting real cold, not exactly the best scenario for hucking down stairs. Guys started right away with insanity. There were a lot of broken boards, bryan Anderson treflip to board break, alex olson f-side 360 olle to board break, brayden safranski,etc. Billy Marks didn't have to worry about breaking his board. He skated so smooth and landed so perfect it was not an issue. Nollie heels, nollie flips, and the kickflip foot plan on the star and his straight up consistency netted him top honors. Jani Laitiala was a close second with his sick b-side 180 flips, but marks was solid.
As we waited for the awards in the Freezing LA night, talk circulated about who had won the team over all honors. I suspected blind or toy machine for top team, and billy marks or jani laitial as top overall. I was close. Blind took the team, duncombe, grant Patterson,etc, all killed it. Jani laitiala took the pro MVP. He was insanely consistent, and Jamie Tancowny was the top AM. We can always count on Vans Downtown showdown to bring originality and excitement to a skateboard contest. I did not hear any say they had a bad time. Cant wait till next year.