Tampa Am 2007: The Search for the Next Nyjah is Underway
Jan 30 2007 / Los Angeles, CA
You may not have heard of any of the competitors getting ready for the Tampa Am contest this weekend at the Skatepark of Tampa, which is precisely why it’s worth paying attention. Now in its 13th year, Tampa Am has grown from a small local contest at the park known as “the SPoT” to become the most prestigious amateur skateboarding contest in the world, and one of the most important contests period.
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Tampa Am is the skateboard industry’s crystal ball: Ten year-old Nyjah Huston stomped the contest in 2005, and is now one of the biggest stories in pro skateboarding. Two-time Dew Tour champ Ryan Sheckler first made his mark at the SPoT as a fresh-faced 12 year-old back in 2002, and nearly every young skater now on the pro circuit made a similar debut, including some of Lat34’s favorites from the 2006 Dew Tour and X Games: Kyle Berard, Greg Lutzka, Austen Seaholm, and X Games 12 gold medalist Chris Cole come to mind.
With such a history, it’s no surprise that Tampa in January is now the place to be for amateurs on the rise, or that it’s become a magnet for sponsors and team managers looking for new recruits.
“There’s going to be a lot of new heads out here that no one has ever seen or heard of before, and that’s kind of the way Tampa Am works,” says SPoT owner Brian Schaeffer. “A lot of times, people come down here and then suddenly they’re on their way to a career. It’s a great way to see what the future of skateboarding might look like.”
The chaos at Tampa Am starts with a field of 200 skaters vying for 30 spots in the semi-finals. Another six have already secured their positions by hitting the podiums at the 2006 Damn Am contests, and the 36 skaters will duke it out in two 50-second runs apiece for a chance at the 12-man finals.
2006 champ Cody McEntire is back for more, having placed 2nd in the Volcom and 3rd Lair Damn Am contests, but David Loy might be this year’s (young) man to beat. The 14 year-old Tony Hawk protégé from the Birdhouse team won this summer’s Free Flow contest to earn a Dew Tour debut in Orlando, won the Volcom Damn Am in Costa Mesa, CA, and placed in the top 10 at both the 3rd Lair Damn Am contest in Minnesota and the AmsterDamn Am contest in Europe.
Nike SB takes over marquee sponsorship of the Tampa Am event this year, and Schaeffer is busy overhauling the ever-changing street course for the occasion.
“Starting before Christmas and working right through to this very minute, we’ve changed the course 100 percent, just started from a blank canvas, ripping out all the ramps and starting from scratch,” says Schaeffer. “We created a whole different flow throughout the entire park: Different lines, different ledges, different step-ups, different rails. The difference is so significant, people are going to walk in and say, ‘Holy shit.’”
Long before infusions of cash from the likes of Nike, SPoT’s park layouts and Schaeffer’s ongoing innovation have been the stuff of legend: SPoT is generally referred to as “the world-famous skatepark in Tampa” and the street course has been further mythologized through its prominent role in the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games.
The new generation of vert skaters have also come up through the ranks at Tampa Am. Cases in point: Rob Lorifice won it in 2004 and Jean Postec won it in 2003. There are no ladies’ contests at Tampa Am, but that didn’t stop Lyn-Z Adams-Hawkins from taking third on the vert ramp in 2003 to launch her career and cement her claim as a skateboarder, pure and simple – she understandably prefers to do away with untidy modifiers like “girl skater,” and putting it down at Tampa Am was a rock-solid way to prove the point. Look for 16 year-old street skater Lorena Lima to fly the females’ flag this time around. She’s a 5boro flow rider from Brazil by way of New Jersey, and is a favorite to make the Street Finals, gender barriers be damned.
“I think the real strength of Tampa Am, compared to some other contests out there, is that it’s a real skateboarding contest: It’s in an old warehouse, it’s along the lines of any good skatepark that a real skater would actually go to, and it’s got a real skater feel to it,” says Schaeffer. “We put 100 percent into building and skating the ramps and planning out what we’re going to build, and we change it every year so it’s always something new.”
Despite all the teen and pre-teen skate prodigies pushing around at Tampa Am, Schaeffer wants it known that the annual contest has also become a center point for the skateboarding industry’s best party scene.
“There’s entertainment, the hotels are close, the strip clubs always help, the bars are amazing, and the street skating around Tampa is terrific,” says Schaeffer, who might not be Tampa’s first choice for a tourism spokesperson. “It’s not just some skateboard contest in the middle of nowhere: It’s a holiday. If you want to know how huge the parties are, just come out to the Old Man Bowl Jam. We always cram that in real early Sunday morning so it’s kind of like a mockery of all the old washed-up bitches, the dudes that have been around for years. Everybody who’s been out there partying too hard is going to be a sure sight to see.”
