Back to the Future: Tampa Am 2007
Feb 01 2007 / Tampa, FloridaAnyone looking to this year’s Tampa Am contest to turn up skateboarding’s “next Nyjah” had to have been happy with Felipe Gustavo, the young kid from Brazil who skated away with this year’s bragging rights.
“I almost didn’t let this kid in the contest,” reports Brian Schaeffer, owner of the Skatepark of Tampa and the man responsible for turning Tampa’s annual amateur skateboarding contest into the most respected contest in skateboarding. “I think I said the exact same thing the year Nyjah Huston won the Am.”
Despite Schaeffer’s initial hesitation, the previously unkown Gustavo finished in first place out of a field of 130 skaters at the Street Semi-Finals on Saturday, guaranteeing his spot in the Finals on Sunday. Gustavo locked it down in the Finals with a picture-perfect second run to rival Nyjah Huston’s prize-winning 2005 performance: the crowd lit up when Gustavo nailed a kickflip to back Smith grind on the big rail, then stayed with him as he landed trick after trick in a flawless line through the completely overhauled street course at the Skatepark of Tampa. Sierra Fellers took second place, and Grant Taylor took third.
David Gonzales – skating his way to fourth place all the way from Medellin, Columbia – won the money quote of the weekend when announcer Tim O’Connor said, “He learned to skate so he wouldn’t have to be a drug mule.” You can take a big-name sponsor like Nike SB to Tampa, but you can’t take the “Tampa” out of Tampa Am. Good times.
Lat34 had picked David Loy as a favorite in the Street contest, after seeing him take down the Dew Tour’s amateur Free Flow Tour, hold his own against the pros at the PlayStation Pro in Orlando, and win the Volcom Damn Am contest; Loy placed 8th in the Street Semi-Finals at Tampa Am and ended up in 9th place after the Finals.
In the Best Trick contest, Torey Pudwill’s nollie heel flip to crooked grind down the big rail took the prize, with Chris Troy – big spin to frontside board 270 out – and Sierra Fellers ¬– frontside heelflip boardlside – also laying down big rail tricks. Kevin Romar and Mikey Burton rounded out the top five with tricks over on the double set: Romar’s nollie big spin heel flip and Burton’s switch 360 flip serving notice that technical innovation isn’t just for the pro shows.
Over on the Vert ramp, Josh Stafford was unbeatable. The San Diego skater is a full-fledged member of the Plan B amateur team, where he’s taking tips from the likes of Danny Way. It shows. He took first place in the Qualifiers then nailed the Finals, beating out Ben Hatchell and Ronaldo Gomes. Hatchell also took second place in last year’s contest: If you’re looking for two guys to represent the next generation of Vert skateboarding at events like the X Games and Dew Tour, Josh Stafford and Ben Hatchell are the names to keep in mind. These are two very young guys who benefited from early exposure to pool skating and high quality vert ramps, and both skate as if they were much older. You’ll be hearing from them both.
As if to protest recent suggestions that vert skating is going extinct, the two teenagers at the top of the Vert Finals results sheet were actually twice as old as some of their competitors, including guys with single-digit ages like Dakota White. Again, only at Tampa Am.
Between Felipe Gustavo and Ronaldo Gomes, Tampa Am also presented further evidence that skateboarding’s future generation will be speaking Portuguese: Add two more names to the Brazilian invasion. Those of us keeping track on the Dew Tour counted Bob Burnquist, Sandro Dias, Lincoln Ueda, brothers Rodolfo and Wagner Ramos, Ricardo Oliveria, Nilton Neves, Tuilo de Oliviera, Fabrizio Santos, Wonei Dos Santos, Michel Simonetto, and Termite Vasconcelos. A quick read-through of the qualifiers at Tampa Am suggests there are many more on the way up.
There are also plenty of young groms on the way up. Nyjah Huston – who won the 2005 contest when he was 10 years old – is no longer an anomaly: There were enough skaters under the age of 12 in this year’s Semi-Finals to prompt announcer Tim O’Connor’s observation, “This heat is a child molester’s dream.” Did we mention? Tampa.
– Colin Bane
Final Results: Tampa Am 2007
Street
1. Felipe Gustavo
2. Sierra Fellers
3. Grant Taylor
4. David Gonzales
5. Evan Smith
6. Ruben Rodriguez
7. Chris Troy
8. Justin Figueora
9. David Loy
10. Donavon Piscopo
Best Trick
1. Torey Pudwill
For footage of Felipe Gustavo’s winning run at Tampa Am, click here >
