photo courtesy of Blind
The Blind skate team took the Overall Team Title at the Vans Downtown Showdown, which took place last weekend. The event was held at the Paramount Studios back lot and featured a crazy New York City set as the backdrop and super trick custom-built obstacles.
The Blind crew claimed the $30,000 prize money while Zero’s Jamie Tancowny won $5,000 as top am and Blind’s Jani Laitiala was named top pro and placed in three of four obstacles, pocketing $14,000 total.
The Vans Downtown Showdown featured many skaters who rarely take part in contests from Foundation, Toy Machine, Girl, Zero, Element, Habitat, Creature, Black Label and Blind. The event was made possible by the support of Rockstar Energy Drink, Scion, Epiphone and Skateboard.com.
Each skateboard team submitted designs for a custom obstacle with the top four chosen and built to that team’s specifications. Skateboard teams then chose three riders, consisting of at least one pro and one am, to jam on each of the four features.
Here’s a break down of the best performances of the day:
Girl’s 3 Pump Dump
1. Jani Laitiala (Blind) – $2,500
2. Billy Marks (Toy Machine) – $1,500
3. Rick McCrank (Girl) – $1,000
Creature’s Five Points of Pure Evil
AKA The Darkest Helmet
1. Jake Duncombe (Blind) – $2,500
2. Rick McCrank (Girl) – $1,500
3. Al Partanen (Creature) – $1,000
Black Label’s Dive Bar
1. Jamie Tancowny (Zero) – $2,500
2. Sean Malto (Girl) – $1,500
3. David Gravette (Creature)- $1,000
Foundation’s Lunar Eclipsey Hubba
1. Billy Marks (Toy Machine) – $2,500
2. Jani Laitiala (Blind) – $1,500
3. Ethan Fitzpatrick (Black Label) – $1,000
Top Am Performance – Jamie Tancowny (Zero) – $5,000
Top Pro Performance – Jani Laitiala (Blind) – $10,000
Overall Team Winner – Blind ($30,000) [Girl 2nd ($15,000), Toy Machine 3rd ($5,000)]
Check out the list of the teams who participated:
Habitat: Stefan Janoski, Austyn Gillette, Marius Syvanen and Raymond Molinar.
Creature: David Gravette, Darren Navarrette, Al Partanen, Neil Heddings, Sam Hitz, Taylor Bingaman, Marky Clements, Devin Appelo, Truman Hooker, Mike Guerrero, Raven Tershay, John Ponts, Alex Horn and Steve Reeves.
Girl: Eric Koston, Rick McCrank, Alex Olson, Sean Malto, Mike Mo Capaldi, Brian Anderson, Chico Brenes, Daniel Castillo, Chris Roberts, Devine Calloway, Guy Mariano Jeron Wilson, Justin Eldridge, Kenny Anderson, Marc Johnson, Mike Carroll, Rick Howard, Vince Alvarez, and Andrew Langi.
Blind: Ronnie Creager, Danny Cerezini, Jani Laitiala, Rob Lorifice, Jake Brown, Morgan Smith, Grant Patterson, Jake Duncombe, James Craig, Filipe Ortiz, Dominik Dietrich and Bill Weiss.
Foundation: Corey Duffel, Gareth Stehr, Sierra Fellers, Don Nguyen, Angel Ramirez, Alex Gourdouros, Abdias Rivera and David Reyes.
Toy Machine: Johnny Layton, Billy Marks, Josh Harmony, Nick Trapasso, Jordan Taylor, Matt Bennett and Ed Templeton.
Element: Mike Vallely, Chris Senn, Collin Provost, Tony Tave, Tony Karr, Nick Garcia, Brian Price and Aaron Brown.
Black Label: Adam Alfaro, Shuriken Shannon, Chris Troy, Peter Raffin, Omar Hassan, Tyler Mumma, Ethan Fitzpatrick and Andrew Elliot.
Zero: Chris Cole, John Rattray, Garrett Hill, Tommy Sandoval, James Brockman, Tony Cervantes, Keegan Sauder and Jamie Tancowny.
The Vans Downtown Showdown will air on January 19, 2009 at 8:00pm EST/PST on FUEL TV.
