2013 Tim Brauch Memorial Contest

Tim Brauch’s friendly spirit has continued to bring people together well after his heart stopped beating in 1999. Tim was known as a man who collected friends and pushed the boundaries of skateboarding. Each year, the Tim Brauch Memorial Competition continues this legacy by gathering skateboarders and encouraging them to push their limits.

Although this year’s Tim Brauch Memorial Contest, at the San Jose Skatepark, faced financial hiccups and scheduling conflicts, Tim’s spirit persisted and skaters were able to channel his energy through their skating for the 15th year in a row.

The contest featured 14 & under boys and girls divisions, 15 & over boys, Masters and Men’s and Women’s Pro. This year the event featured a day of organized practice, which alleviated the eager coping joust snake sessions that typically accompany this contest.

Highlights from the 14 & under divisions include CJ Collins’ fs ollie north’s over the hip, the 720s Evan Doherty landed in practice, and Kiko Francisco’s undeniably stylish runs.

The 14 & under girls’ division was dominated by Ariana Carmona, who would have placed well even if she skated with the pros.

The 15 and over division included massive melon 5s from Jerome Green, Archer Braun’s floaty backside ollies, Justin Rivera’s huge judo airs and Tristan Rennie’s frontside inverts.

The pro women’s division was particularly memorable for Sarah Thompson, who had her first podium finish in the Women’s Pro division. Her lengthy runs, clever lines and back disasters in the deep earned her third place.

Allysha Bergado broke out with a huge bag of tricks including les twists, judo airs, fs ollies, lien to tails, fs stales, invert variations and bonelesses over the hip. She had long runs filled with creative, trick-packed lines.

However, the judges were more fond of the speed and attitude that Julie brought to her grinds. She started each run by rolling into the bowl in order to put as much speed and power into her lines as possible.

The masters division offered a welcome return to Lester Kasai, who graced the bowl with beautiful fs inverts, fastplants, inverts over hips, and smooth, flowing style.

Coming in hot as a new addition to the Master’s division was Brian Patch: He charged the bowl at full speed and blasted huge airs. Patch mixed tricky lines such as 5-0s around hips with an impressive bag of tricks: He threw tailslide reverts, pivot fakies in the deep and even 360 lien airs.

Cab claimed the top spot as usual. He started each run with fs inverts so powerful that the crisp snap of his tail was audible well above the cacophonous mix of Slayer and Duncan.

The pro finals were insanely mind-boggling. Jono Schwan blasted varial 540s and 1ft tailgrabs. Josh Mattson’s ollie north roll-ins, blunt fs rocks and fs 540s evoked a chorus of “WTF? “s from the crowd.

Corey Juneau possibly invented the dingleberry: a body varial to fakie smith grind. He casually threw these in the midst of runs filled with 5-0 to boardslides, fs nosegrinds, caballarials and front smith to front rocks.

Austin Poynter brought a graceful style to the Tim Brauch Memorial. His frontside judos and crooked cops nearly caused everyone to strain their necks as they tilted their heads back in order to watch Austin sail way above their heads. After missing the flick on a heelflip indy, Austin snatched the board out of the air and flipped it the rest of the way with his hand. Then he casually continued his run with high-speed sugarcanes that would make Chris Miller proud.

Josh Rodriguez stayed on some wild and speedy runs that included fakie 5-0s to fakie, bs smiths over the hip, fs lip reverts, fs rock slides over the hip, 1 ft frontside inverts, 5050 to fs smiths, and frontside bluntslides. He even landed a front rock slide revert after the contest just for good measure.

Alex Sorgente’s intro run alone was enough to get him the win: It included fs lipslides over the hip, 5050 to fakies over the adjacent hip into half cab blunt fakies in the deep and kickflip indys. He also landed judo body jars and rocket airs in the jam.

All of the skaters have Tim Brauch’s spirit to thank for inspiring them to push themselves. Each successive year the level of skating at the TBM Competition is magnified. To this day, Tim Brauch continues to challenge the level of skateboarding.

14 & under
1. Kiko Francisco
2. Evan Wasser
3. Trent Bowman

Girls 14 & under
1. Ariana Carmona
2. Pauline Branom
3. Bryce Wettstein
4. Zoe Safanda

15 & up
1. Tristan Rennie
2. Jerome Green
3. Chris Henderson
4. Justin Rivera
5. Archer Braun

Girls 28 & up
1. Katherine Folsom
2. Jean Rusen

Women’s Pro
1. Julz Lynn
2. Allysha Bergado
3. Sarah Thompson
4. Hunter Long
5. Katherine Folsom

Masters
1. Steve Caballero
2. Brian Patch
3. Lester Kasai
4. Jed Fuller
5. Richard Sanchez

Men’s Pro
1. Alex Sorgente
2. Josh Rodriguez
3. Austin Poynter
4. Corey Juneau
5. Josh Mattson