Written by Frankie Terranova
Photography by Scotty Swemba
The first spot I had picked out was in a perfect location. Off in the cut, behind some train tracks, next to a warehouse. Perfect environment. A real street feel to it. It was an across and down angle iron ledge which we had a kicker set up for. The only problem was three days earlier, construction workers had used the spot to store a bulldozer and some heavy pieces of metal that weighed tons, ruining the landing. After we bailed, it was on to the back up spot which consisted of tons of different obstacles. A 40 ft. straight angle iron ledge, a few small stair sets, parking ditches, and we even set up a random pipe we found on a railing to be creative and add that ‘go all out’ obstacle. Blake Taylor took home best trick at the first spot with a Soul Grind on the ledge to gap over the ditch. Mike Fontenelle with his Ally Oop Top Porn and clean 360’s and 540’s over the parking ditch. Jon Fromm wowing the judges with his lines; Stalefish 180 over the parking ditch to Fakie 360 off to Zero Top Acid on the angle iron ledge. The biggest trick attempt goes out to Andrew Hendricks for launching over the parking ditch to Back Royale on this really high ledge after being pulled by a car. Never actually landed but came super close a bunch of times.
Second spot were these handicap rails in a business plaza which is closed on the weekends so it worked out perfectly. Gumby, making his way down from Chattanooga, tore this spot up along with Andrew Hendricks, Roman Daricek, and local blader Bryan Kriebel known as Cheeto. Roman Daricek hits his famous Royale to Ally Oop Top Soul and Top Acid switch ups to full cab out. Chris Luton impresses the judges with his 270 Back Nugen to Royale, 270 out. Another skater that stood out was Razors Flow Rider Jon Fromm with his immaculate switch ups such as Top Acid to Tru-spin Pornstar or Fishbrain grabbed to Tru-spin Soul. Gumby took home best trick at spot two with his Top Soul, Wall Tap, to Back Royale or even his Top Soul to transfer rail Sweatstance. Security ended up showing their faces at the end of the comp but we were already off to the next spot.
Apopka, a small city outside of Orlando, was the destination for our third spot. It was difficult to find a perfect stair rail in Orlando where we could get away with a large group. It was about a twenty minute drive to spot three but well worth it. An open park in the middle of nowhere you will find two sets of stairs with kink rails. A mellow 12 flat 12 and a steep 20 kink 20. We took our whits to the steep rail where the fun began. A limited amount of tricks were actually landed on this rail due to it’s extreme size so landing a trick on this rail would get you lots of points. Blake Taylor, Pow-Wow founder, opens it up with a steezy Soul Grind all the way down and the crowd cheers uncontrollably. We even had little kid wanderers walk over from the park to watch the madness. A local Merritt Island blader, Neo Dugas, impresses the judges by sticking a Sweatstance through the kink making it to the bottom. And taking home best trick from spot three would have to be Shima rider, Michael ‘Gumby’ Braud with a backside through the kink. Crowd is on their toes as Gumby approaches the rail to attempt a Soul Grind, Hop Kink, to Back Royale. After a couple attempts, Gumby loses his footing on the Back Royale and takes a spill scraping his head on the bottom of the stairs. Everyone is cheering as he is pulled off with blood pouring out the back of his head. Andrew Hendricks quickly rips off his shirt so they can wrap Gumby’s head to stop the bleeding. We all know if anyone can take a fall it’s Gumby. After everything was attended to and Gumby was on his feet, we pretty much called it and headed to the parking lot to announce the results and do a product toss.
Without hesitation we announced Gumby as the O-Town Throwdown champion for killing all three spots. Runner up went to Jon Fromm and second runner up went to Blake Taylor. See you at the next event!
-Frankie Terranova
Results:
- Gumby (Chattanooga, SSM) $300
- Jon Fromm (Boca Raton, Razors) $200
- Blake Taylor (Miami, Remz) $100
- Andrew Hendricks (Ft. Lauderdale, Razors)
- Cheeto (Orlando)
- Roman Daricek (Naples, Remz)
- Neo Dugas (Merritt Island)
- Mike Fontenelle (Orlando)
- Blake Kelly (Clearwater)
- Chris Luton (Orlando)
Visit www.centralfloridarolling.com for more info on the Florida scene!
