TOC Skateshop's 3rd Annual Skate Jam
Vorhees Park, Terre Haute, Indiana
May 8th, 2010
by Bud Stratford
Here's the event flyer...
I think that I pretty much told the whole "story" of this event, in the TOC "Skateshop Spotlight" (scroll up to find it, because you're pretty close to it already). A few times a year, TOC hosts these bbq, music, and skating get-togethers that are really, a shit-ton of fun. I wish more skate shops did these sorts of things, more often than they do...
So: Every time TOC has an event, I put it on my schedule. Doesn't matter what I'm doing that day... if TOC calls, I'm as good as there. And, leave no doubt about it: When they do something, they pull out all the stops. It's well worth traveling a few hours, to spend a day in Terre Haute at one of these things. Something that I never would have guessed that I'd ever be saying, before TOC came along.
Terre Haute, man. Who would've thunk it...?! Maybe their new tagline should be, "We're not a shit-town anymore...!" And, TOC deserves a lot of the credit for that. Well: As far as the skate scene goes, at least...
Anyway, I think I'll let the pics tell the story of this one. Here goes, folks:
An overview of the festivities. The crowd was "smaller than usual", due to the sketchy weather outlook for that day. Cold, blustery, and overcast, with only occasional pockets of sunshine... the rain threatened all day long, but never did materialize. The park is obviously at the left, that's Jeremy chillin' there just right of center, and the "band stage" and mezzanine are to the far right. It's a nice facility that Terre Haute has there... lots of trees (shade), the mezzanine (of course), port-o-potties, lush grass... the perfect place for this sort of shindig to happen.
Omar Owens, backside 50-50 on the Tombstone in Terre Haute's bowl complex. This is quite a bit burlier than the photo illustrates, because that thing is big.
Marshall Law, frontal invert on the bowl's steep, tight, and tall extension. Nuts.
This kid was standing on top of the tombstone, waiting to drop in. I thought he was bluffing, until he began motioning to the dudes [that were three times his size] on the opposite platform, to get the hell out of the way. Then, he bolted straight for 'em. Little kids, man... they're getting rawer and rawer by the minute...
So, Kevin Vaughn (from Indianapolis) shows up, out of nowhere, totally unannounced... drops in, practically right in front of my camera lens... pops off this "set-up" frontside tailslide across the tombstone (click, click!)... and then, hucks this big-ass ollie-to-fakie (click!) for his first line of the day. Four walls, one run, and two clean, back-to-back bangers, all caught on camera. Rawness defined, captured, and illustrated.
Kevin, again. Frontside noseblunt on the tombstone extension. He was pulling these all day long, super-consistently. Notice how far in he lad to lean, to snap these off of that flat bank. That's commitment, kids.
A lot of dudes brought their own grilling machines and lawn blankets. Now, they've got the right idea...!
Straight Up Skate Shop on Indy's southwest side brought their entire team (or, so it seemed) to Terre Haute for the contest. This is Straight Up's team manager, Kyle Mabrey, doing a tre to fakie in the bowl's deep end. Heavy shit.
Marshall Law again, bowl flyout to tail on the "street spine". Fun times.
Liz, being her usual, happy self. She'll stress for weeks before an event... she's always kinda paranoid about things not going "exactly right" or whatever... but, as soon as it all unfolds, and it's going off good... she's all chill and smiles, after that. Jer and Liz put a ton of thought and work into making these events happen, and it shows. They do a damn good job. Hats off to them both.
Straight Up's "Mini-me Jay Adams", aka, Alex Buckland. I don't know who's teaching this kid, or what they're saying... but, I do know that whoever it is, is doing a damn fine job. This kid's gonna go far in life, you can see it already.
Walking off the "freestyle" platform at the '75 Del Mar Nationals... can you see the resemblance...? Alex Buckland, channeling the greats.
World Skateboard Traveler, Dean Leavens. "He's been everywhere, man." Pushing 40, and just not stoppin' for nobuddy, or nuthin'. Why would he...?! This shit's too much fun! Backside 50 (top), and backside rock (bottom). The classics just keep on gettin' better and better, don't they...? He also had a quiver on hand that even made me a little bit of Dregs Green with Abec-11 envy...
I haven't seen this dude in years, man. "Little" Devin Cardwell, all grown up, padless and fearless, and hucking hungry-man sized ollies to fakie in Terre Haute's concrete bowls. This kinda shit makes a dude proud.
The one and only JJ Mace, Doing The Dew. He was doing backside big flips on the Tombstone all day long... but overcast skies, tree-filled background props, dark shadows, and one jackassed photographer conspired against getting photo documentation of this radness. So, instead, you get a smiling mug having an energy-drink break. I suck, and I know it.
TOC Loc, Kevin, fully regulating on the bullhorn.
"The Boss", keeping it all running smoothly..."ish". It's all fun, so it's all good. I mean, who's even gonna complain about "It's taking too much time to skate, chill out, and listen to bands"...? Exactly...
The bands were very personable, very fun... and for the most part very, very talented. This is Pessoa (top), and they were my personal fave-of-the-day. So, soooo good; I bought two of their CD's straightaway, that's how much I thought of them. The bottom pic is another most excellent band, The Fight Within, from Ohio.
Every now and again, vendors will even show up, and show off their newest wares. The big dude on the left is Thick Skin Clothing's co-owner, Devon Morson. Maybe the little guy on the right is his CFO and biggest shareholder...? Whatever the case, the stuff looked pretty tight. Check it out for yourself at www.myspace.com/ThickSkinClothing.
"Sully" (Jacob Ashpa)... awesome dude, snappy blue striped shirt, and a tall frontside tailslide between the trees. It doesn't get much better than this...
I tried with all my might to "save" this photo, but it's all wrong anyway. You can't see dude's face at all, and the background trees are pretty much making a mess of everything. Really, the only things that are saving this photo is the red-wash tint, the excellent crop-job (Who can even fuck up "cropping", anyway...?!)... and, Kevin Vaughn's massive frontside in the deep end. The platform dudes' facial expressions kinda say it all, don't they...?
