Over 250 Am skaters fled to the Woodward skatepark in Philadelphia PA for the 8th annual Philly AM. The contest was held at one of the woodward skateparks and not the camp as many of you may have thought.
2008 Philly AM Words and Photos by John Centi
On Saturday April 12 over 250 Am skaters fled to the Woodward skatepark in Philadelphia PA for the 8th annual Philly AM. The contest was held at one of the woodward skateparks and not the camp as many of you may have thought.
Registration for the event opened at nine, so by 8:30am there were already a few unofficial games of skate taking place inside the mall. There were a ton of kids waiting to get in there and once the gates opened at 9am the skaters rushed the registration and within minutes were skating. There were kids everywhere! Shredding each and every corner of this skatepark. The kids were able to register in one of four divisions, Groms, Inntermediate, Advanced or Sponsored.
The groms skated first and had two runs each, John DePerrot took first place and Donte Tonella who is a little kid that skates with some force took third. They skated for about an hour and then it was time to move on to the next round of intermediate skaters. The intermediate division had over 50 skaters. Jake Daney took the honor of top intermediate skater in this 2 hour heat. The advanced skaters took to the larger street course like it was there backyard. A lot of the skaters put together some fluid lines and landed clean runs. Bill Cooley Skateboard Revolution staff skated in this heat and skated solid. He threw a backside flip up the euro gap and front board down the rail, his run was sick. In the end it was Chris Tams that took first place.
The sponsored skaters took to the park and treated it like it was their bitch. These kids were dropping serious hammers and doing it with consistency and fluidity. Ishad Wair was definitely a stand out for the day. I think I witnessed this kid land over 300 tricks throughout the day, thats no exaggeration. Kyle Fredricks put together a solid run and took first place. Alex Longkamp came out of nowhere when the event began and threw together some sick runs with what seemed to be no practice and took second place. Julien Heller skated smooth and has sick style, he took the third place spot.
The best trick contest went off. The skaters were throwing themselves down the hubba and rail double set. Ishad Wair killed this park all day and everyone knew to keep an eye out for him. He stuck a sick bigspin flip front board. Kyle Fredricks landed a kickflip backlip and did a nollie big spin back lip. In the end it was Shane Colville that won the best trick with a 360 flip 50-50 down the hubba and then took it to the rail.
Big shout out to Jon Crans from Threesixteen Skateboards, Osiris Shoes, Woodward Skateparks and Stereo.
-Alex Longkamp kills it. He had full pads head to toe, knees, elbows, cup, shins, shoulders, back, ass. He had everything covered! Especially this back tail.
