AUTOMATIC MAGAZINE'S 4th ANNUAL BATTLE OF THE SHOPS
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TECH CENTER- Justin Cefai took it for ZJ’s but Skrzypek, Schulte, Dadd, and Eukovich were close behind.
Our Four Annual AUTOMATIC MAGAZINE’s Battle Of the Shops was a huge success. First up was our tech Center. Asylum’s Tomas Eukovich was charging across the top ledge. He got smith across it, boardslide transfer into the bank, and walked away with a fifth. Pharmacy’s Keelan Dadd was impressive; he clicked off a few bangers, namely a nose grind 180 transfer, a switch heel manual up and over. Val Surf’s Justin Schulte had a good showing with a switch frontside bigspin nose manual up, and a several other super tech manny tricks. Route 44’s Ben Skrzypek was the total dark horse, dude came in and ruled it. He got a backlip across the top ledge and transferred into the bank, he also got a backside nose grind transfer but I promised I wasn’t going to give a play by play but I’m doing it anyway so I’ll stop here and just let you know Justin Cefai representing ZJs skated the obstacle with the most consistency to take the win on the tech center. He was given a cold G for his efforts. |
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DOUBLE SET- Furnace’s Kevin Romar stole it away from the undefeated Jimmy Carlin. Check the footage! He deserved the G!
Our gap obstacle was a four flat four double set. In the three previous years Street Machine’s Jimmy Carlin has not been defeated on the gap. This year ol’ Jimmy had to settle with a second cause a young gun from Furnace Skate Shop stole the show. Little Kevin Romar rattled off a nollie backside 180, Nollie Variel Heelflip, and a Nollie big spin heelflip to name a few. Kevin’s assault edged out Jimmy Carlin’s double flip, variel Heel, porpoise flip and a few others. Check the footage holmes cause I’m done talking about it. |
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TRANNY- Josh Mattson has been on a rampage lately and was expected to shine. He did, and got paid as a result. Be sure to watch Alec Beck from ZJ ollie from the quarter, to frontside 50/50 on the top of the bank, to yank back into the little quarter pipe. This was, in my book, the gnarliest thing to go down on Saturday!
When the crew from SpearCo set up the tranny obstacle on Friday we were all afraid that it was way too gnarly. The run up seemed far too short and the kinked wall was a towering monstrosity. We feared that tricks at the lip were going to be few and far between. Amazingly it got wrecked. Active’s Mike Franklin got a nosepick on it, Furnace’s Nick Garcia got a blunt to fakie up there, Santa Cruz Skate Shop’s Josh Mattson got a pivot to fakie on it, and ZJ’s Alec Beck did the gnarliest thing possible, he ollied from the quarter, to frontside 50/50 on the top of the bank then he yanked it back into the little quarter pipe. Psycho! It goes to show you that heads can rise to any occasion. Josh Mattson stepped up like everyone knew he would and edged out ZJ’s Alec Beck for Santa Cruz. |
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RAIL- Wes Kremer! Holy crap. Wes did everything switch! Simply amazing! Switch Nose blunt, switch nose grind, switch flip front board!
Finally we all moved over to the Handrail and watched the mayhem ensue. This year all eyes were on Pharmacy’s Marquise Preston. Marquise has an amazingly smooth style. He has the uncanny ability to make everything he tries appear ridiculously easy, as if he were brushing his teeth. He rattled of a grip of tricks ranging from the backside over crooks to the kickflip boardslide to fakie, to bigspin front board. Ninestar’s Andrew Pott looked like a solid contender as well. He had a heel flip boardslide, and several kickflip variations down the rail. Every 6 or 7 minutes or so Sun Diego’s Wes Kremer would come out of the shadows and do some mind blowing switch trick down the rail. He didn’t even bother with skating regular; he did everything switch. Switch lipslide, switch nose grind, switch nose blunt, switch kickflip board-slide, it was like he was skating on some sort of magic mushrooms that unlocked the cheat code and granted him access to highest level of skateboarding. Or maybe we were all on shrooms because it was the trippiest thing I have ever seen. There could be no question Wes owned it. About 20 minutes into the rail contest, ZJ’s put Alec Beck in to pinch hit for Sean McNulty. Alec broke off a nose grind grab or a nose pick grind, whatever you care to call it, it was sick! |
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