Four months ago, in Long Beach, California, all the boys were over the Philly house having a BBQ. I mentioned trying to throw a Dime Glory-like Challenge/Contest on the hill near Cherry Skate Park.
Everyone liked the idea and had high spirits. We prepped and blasted flyers hyping this “huge” event up via social media. We didn’t know if people would show so we made a fake check for $10,000 and advertised all over that you would win money (lol). The turn out was amazing; so many more people then we had anticipated. It took seven cops from LBPD to stop the mayhem.
Though we didn’t have much product to throw out, Tyson brought some merch from Element, Kwalks brought things from Real, and Franky Villani brought stuff from Primitive. Who would of thought just four months later on Halloween I’d find myself getting flown out to Long Beach for a contest having legitimate sponsors such as Vans Skate, Happy Hour Shades, Bronson Speed Co., and Independent Trucks? We had more gear then we knew what to do with and enough to feed a large army of hungry skateboarders.
Having a broken leg, I almost didn’t go. But, the thought of climbing out of the van to surprised faces from all of the bros on Race Day, I had to! We got to the hill an hour early and started crushing beers. By the time the contest was about to start, there was already four times the amount of people we had before. Cops showed up and seemed to be as hyped on the turnout as we were. 100 plus kids mashing down the hill fast as possible in costumes… How could they be mad?
The police blocked off the top and bottom of the hill and let us have at it. We broke the jump ramp out and that’s when things got wild. Myself and Bobby Bills made the jump ramp the day prior and it came out a bit steep. Kids were getting ejected left and right–it was beautiful. Halfway through the contest, some kid yells up to the roof of the van asking if he can move his car in front of the ramp… YES! We made that happen real quick!
Before you could blink an eye we are seeing back side & frontside 360s go down, first try finger flips were done, and of course Evan Fucking Smith’s 540. It was a wrap and a huge success at that. Their are no current plans for another one at the moment but I can guarantee that this is not the best and not the last contest this hill will see.
And also watch this cuz Evan Smith (@starheadbody) is rad as fuck…