Florida Bowl Riders Cup 2013
Photos courtesy of No Comply Mag, Joanne Reese and Zach Brown.
The Florida Bowlriders cup was much like a three-day immersion in a skateboarding commune. Skaters from all over spent the weekend camping, cooking and competing at the legendary Kona Skatepark in Jacksonville, Florida.
The skating raged from 9 a.m. vert sessions on the newly resurfaced ramp to midnight trains down the decades-old snake run. The evenings featured BBQs and screenings of UNDEREXPOSED: A Women’s Skateboarding Documentary.
Martin Ramos, the park manager, is the mastermind behind the all-encompassing event complete with boys’, women’s, masters’, open AM and PRO divisions.
The first day highlighted the raw energy of the southeast scene by bringing the contest to a secret backyard pool. There was no time to run lines; skaters had to drop in and figure out the tight trannies, big coping and gritty surface in the midst of a heated pre-contest snake session.
The 14 & under division
The 14 & under division was full of talented southeast rippers but in the end it went to the young man who can tweak his huge stalefishes in at least 5 differently contorted ways, Jacob Wooten from Tennessee.
Julz Lynn arrived in the knick of time after battling a combination of planes and trains from Southern California. Her aggressive style and fs 50-50 transfers over the sharp hips earned her 1st in the women’s division.
The masters division went to local legend Buck Smith. Buck gives 150% of himself to every wall; Charging through every grind and fully extending each invert
Dalton Dern can do McTwists on jersey barriers. This particular weekend he chose to do them in traffic, narrowly avoiding collisions with his fellow pros in the open jam formant. His big bag of tricks and graceful style earned him the first place finish in the pros.
Am Division
South Carolina’s Clay Kreiner took 1st in the AM division. He threw down head-high bs ollies and 540s as other skaters zippied though the deep pocket below him.
Here are the top 5 from day 1:
Boys 14 &Under
1 Jacob Wooten
2 Matthew Despres
3 Joshua Forsberg
4 Wyatt Wisenbaker
5 Christian Frazier
Women
1 Julz Lynn
2 Lizzie Armanto
3 Amelia Brodka
4 Dyan Norbury
5 Kerri Caldwell
Masters
1. Buck Smith
2 Jimmy The Greek Marcus
3 Wrex Cook
4 Jed Fuller
5 Todd Johnson
Pro
1 Dalton Dern
2 Chris Russell
3 Dane Quintal
4 Cason Kirk
5 Jake Hilbish
Open Am
1 Clay Kreiner
2 Kaden Campbell
3 Nick Wallace
4 Brennan Campbell
5 Frank Schaffroth
The second day composed of qualifiers in the Kona pool and a Women’s vert jam in the evening. Lizzie Armanto pulled some great fs inverts and bonelesses, Julz Lynn flowed proper fs 5-0s across the ramp and Amelia Brodka did feeble grinds to fakie and front stales. The jam later turned into a session and Tim Johnson threw down blunt stalefishes to fakie and nosepicks on the railing lining the deck of the ramp. The session went on well into the night.
The last day centered around finals at the Kona pool. The top 10 of each division zig-zagged around one another in an open jam format.
In the Boys’ division, local Mathew Despres packed tricks into every wall and hung on to some lengthy runs, earning him 1st place.
Top 5 Boys:
1 Matthew Despres
2 Jacob Wooten
3 Jack Winburn
4 Christian Frazier
5 Joseph Whitney
Despite Lizzie Armanto’s huge bag of tricks, Julz Lynn’s consistency, speedy lines and airs earned her 1st place.
Top 5 Women:
1 Julz Lynn
2 Lizzie Armanto
3 Amelia Brodka
4 Hannah Chumley
5 Dyan Norbury
Local legend Jimmy The Greek placed 1st in the masters division by smacking his tail on the way in on his fs airs and laying back his fs grinds. He also pulled frontside 360 inverts over the hip.
Top 5 Masters:
1. Jimmy “the Greek” Marcus
2 Todd Johnson
3 Buck Smith
4 Jed Fuller
5 Wrex Cook
Chris Russel is pleasantly terrifying to watch. His fast grinds are typically the length of the entire deep end and his 1ft slob to tails are ridiculous. It’s tough to compete with Dalton Dern’s seemingly endless bag of tricks: andrechts and front blunts over the hip, heela monsters, and multiple 540 variations to name a few. This contest was local Cason Kirk’s pro debut and his frontside air disasters and lengthy hurricane grinds earned him 3rd place.
Top 5 pros:
1 Dalton Dern
2 Chris Russell
3 Cason Kirk
4 Dane Quintal
5 Jake Hilbish
The AM division was mind-boggling. These fearless kids were chasing each other trick-for-trick. Marshall Lafrance was doing lein melon disasters to fakie over the hip as Clay Kreiner was doing 540 varials in the deep end. Local Juan Pinero had a whole line composed of body jar variations. In the end, it went to Kaden Campbell. Kaden was always in the bowl during the 15 min. jam. He adapted tricks such as cab stales and varials around the lines of whoever else was in the bowl at the time.
Top 5 Ams:
1 Kaden Campbell
2 Collin Graham
3 Juan Pineiro
4 Clay Kreiner
5 Marshall Lafrance
The weekend of epic skating was capped with a tombstone jam on the legendary Kona Tombstone. There were front rocks, bonelesses and even a blunt to fakie by Tim Johnson.
The over-all 2013 Florida Bowlriders champions are:
Masters: Jimmy Marcus
Pro: Dalton Dern
Women: Julz Lynn
AM: Kaden Cambell
Boys: Jacob Wooten
A special “thank-you” goes out to Martin Ramos for making it all possible!!!