churF at Slam City Jam 2006
Articles
Inserted: Tue.19.Sep.2006
and
Last Updated: Mon.18.Sep.2006
From Calgary Alberta Canada
Slam City Jam is one of the world’s best skateboarding competitions that is around these days. So just imagine how happy me (Jamie) and Travis, from churF, were to find out that they were going to be holding the competition at Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Instead of having it in Vancouver, where it has been held for 13 years. The reason for the switch of cities was because of construction in Vancouver for the 2010 winter Olympics. The events all took place from September 25th - 27th at Stampede Park. The vert ramp was set up in the Round-Up Centre, with the street course in The Corral Centre. There was also a Muchmusic stage set up underneath the jumbo-tron with artists like Blackalicious, Cadence Weapon, Scratch, MC Supernatural and special guests Swollen Members. There was also a Skate Expo with stores and companies that set up booths for skaters to buy products. We were on our way to Calgary the night of the 24th and went in style in Trav's beamer with plenty of Red Bull and beer to go around. Well I had beer and Trav had Red Bulls because he was driving. The trip took longer than normal due to someone rolling their vehicle on the Queen Elizabeth Highway 2. We were backed up in traffic for probably an hour or an hour and a half. But did we care, we had the tunes blaring and beer and Red Bull to drink. With not to much sleep, we were up early to get down to Stampede Park to check out Slam City Jam 2006. First up were the DC Nationals Quarterfinals, Semi Finals and the Finals to follow. With around 30 skaters on the men's side and around 15 on the women's side it shaped up to be very entertaining finals on each side. There were 10 men that advanced to the finals and 3 that advanced on the women’s side. Here are the results: Men's Street Finals 1. Sascha Daley, Courtenay, B.C.
2. Colin Nogue, Vancouver, B.C.
3. Josh Clark, Fredericton, N.B.
4. Micky Papa, Vancouver 5. Greg Brewer, Fredericton
6. Matt Berger, Kamloops, B.C.
7. Cephas Benson, Toronto
8. Akeem Kamara, Winnipeg
9. James Murphy Leger, Moncton, N.B. 10. Nick Schmautz, Stonewall, Manitoba
11. William Christofaro, Repentigny, Quebec Women's Street Final 1. Kristin Zurwick, Castlegar, B.C.
2. Kelsey Smith, Spruce Grove, Alberta
3. Tamara Drybrough, Port Coquitlam, B.C.
4. Sarah Molder, Regina, SK;
5. Kira Urbas-Fur, Coldstream, B.C.
6. Jade Spotted Eagle, Vernon, B.C. After the DC Finals, was the Es Game of Skate Canadian Finals which was one of the coolest events of the whole weekend. It was set up by the vert ramp on the flat surface with tape on the floor for lanes to separate the skaters. If you want to know the official rules you can go over to http://www.gameofskate.com/ and play your own games with all your friends. What made this event even better than the amazing demonstration of technical tricks was the MC who was calling out all the tricks and making everyone laugh. I'm not sure how to spell his name or what his last name is but his name was Cyrus and he had one wicked moustache. The 2 who were battling it out in the final were 2 youngsters Will Christofaro and Micky Papa. These 2 kids were throwing down every variation of every flip trick. The amazing part was how long they went for, it just wouldn't end. Trick after trick matching each other until Micky Papa finally beat Will Christofaro to take a spot in the Es Game of Skate final to be held in San Diego, California on Saturday September 9th. One lame thing was that they had to turn off the music they were playing because Tony Hawk was in the building and they needed the music off for interviews or something. Cyrus said it best by announcing that "He’s old you don't want to see him, this is the future of skateboarding right here" referring to Will and Micky in the Es Game of Skate. After the Es game was over we went to the vert ramp and seen that Tony Hawk was do interviews with the media and since we had media passes we were able to go right up with everyone else. We didn't have anything to ask him like the big media names who were there like Sportsnet, CTV, Calgary Sun, The Calgary Herald and more. They had notepads with questions but we just wanted a picture with him and to say hi. We were getting close and then all the media got kicked out of that area so we didn't succeed with getting a picture with or meeting Tony Hawk. We thought that it was the end of events for the day and left to meet a friend at Hooters. But, we found out the next day that there was the Tony Hawk Grand Jam and we missed it. This is Trav when we found out that we missed out on the Grand Jam "Oh well, at least I got to see some nice cheeks" referring to a waitresses ass at Hooters. We also were lucky enough to see a legend in skateboarding. We wouldn't have even known it wasn't him if it wasn't for the dude from the Revolver Bearing booth who pointed him out to us. Who am I talking about? None other than skateboard legend Animal Chin. He had his X-Games pass around his neck and everything. So we had a little chat with him and the guys from Revolver. “I finally found him”, said one of the Revolver dudes, “I’ve been looking for him since 87'” or something crazy like that. I now know why no one could find him for so long. We went with him to get a picture and he was all over the place I think he has A.D.D. Great guy though, he was there just volunteering. Helping out and just being around skateboarding and trying to be involved as much as he can. It was weird because Saturday was the slowest day of the 3 day event. I thought that is when it would have been busier with stuff going on. All that went on was Pro practice and qualifying pretty much all day. It was great watching Chris Haslam rip up the course though. I watched him the whole time when he was skating around, even when he was just practicing. Another cool thing about Chris I noticed was when he was practicing he took the time to give any kid that came up to him and autograph. This one guy, who I don’t know, did a cool hippy jump over the doghouse while his board went in the doghouse. He tried for a long time but his dedication paid off in the end when he landed it. It turned out to be such a good sequence shot. The action might have been limited at the Corral Centre on Saturday but it wasn’t at the Tequila Night Club later that night. The Tequila Club was the official Slam City Jam after party was held. When we got there it was pretty empty but we didn’t care we were there to party whether there was going to be 5 or 500 people there. Drinks were pretty expensive but that pretty much goes for every bar anywhere. I decided on shots of Jagermiester for $5.25. I drank them on the rocks, which is in a glass with ice, usually two at a time. The first thing I noticed when walking around was an ice sculpture. It was of a huge Jagermeister symbol and a smaller symbol of The Source Skateboard store logo on the bottom. It wasn’t just an ice sculpture though. It was a sort of a funnel to do shots out of too. I was the first one of the night to test it out to see how it worked. We would venture back there every once and a while to do a Tequila or Jager shot throughout the night. The craziest part of the whole night was how it ended. Now we don’t really know what was completely going on but Trav got kicked out and ran back in to punch a bottle and messed up his hand. The “why” and “what” he was getting kicked out for is still unknown and well probably remain unknown. Sunday was the vert finals and I will let the video footage explain what happened there do to Saturday night still affecting us for most of the day. The favorite, from Brazil, Sandro Dias didn’t win and was beat by a much younger skater Rob Lorifice who won his first ever Pro title. This was basically a learning experience for both of us and after the whole weekend was over we have gone away with lots learned that we can now apply to Slam City Jam next year. Like how many beers you can drink in the hot tub at the hotel before getting kicked out. It was 3 if you wanted to know. We just hope it’s held in Calgary again, but if not the churF crew will be traveling a little bit farther next year. Pics and videos updating soon
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