COSTA MESA, CA – Droves of Florida skaters packed their bags, headed to PBI, FTL & MIA and hopped a ride to LAX and John Wayne airport in California to take part in the 2014 Volcom Wild In The Parks skateboarding contest. A gravy train of talented shredders participated led by 2014 Volcom Destroyer Award winner Dalton Dern and top-3 place finisher Jamie Foy in the Open AM division. Each of these warriors entertained the crowd on the very tight course at the skate park at Volcom. They killed it and took plenty of punishment all weekend long for their efforts.
The Wild in the Parks contest name is representative of their iconic symbol (A nine foot gorilla holding the Volcom logo over his head). And their crew is made up of some solids who love skateboarding; even the security guards (despite denying us hot dogs!) Rippers from the Sunshine state included like Blaine Partridge, Chris Roque, Marco Montoya, Hal Scarborough, Will Schumatti, Landon Swan, Alex Sandino, Max Potter and Mike Post who each made the journey to the west coast to compete in the competition. The pace was furious as skaters each jockeyed for positions to get a good shot at sticking their tricks in an effort to make the finals. In the end many did just that placing in Volcom’s premiere skateboarding event for amateurs in the world!
The rules for the contest were simple, WITP is a best trick contest where skaters could drop bombs in each of the 3 zones. All fails didn’t count, and all executed tricks were scored from 0-20, with a total possible score of 60.
The Park at Melbourne rider Tyson Peterson came down to check on the talent, along with tight buds and FL-SHREDDERS >>Deein Coats and >>Ish Cepeda, in town to visit. Tyson is now residing out of Long Beach and placed 3rd in 2014 Damn Am Qualifier at Woodward West. Fellow Park skater Brandon Starr was there scoping too. There were even old-time Volcom skateboarding supporters who shared a couple laughs with old friends along the 3 day event.
When not confined to the indoor park, skaters shredded it up at the outdoor Volcom Park. When it wasn’t enough many traveled to Venice to skate on da beach. Some made it to THE BERRICS Public Park in Westchester. (We made it over to the sickest park of them all at Sheldon Skatepark in SunValley. (It’s kinda like the Wild West out there, and bring cash cause they take no credit cards).
In all, if you’re into street skating and love contests, this one was the perfect excuse to desert your home state for a long weekend in southern California to experience the lifestyle most everyone dreams about. So I would definitely recommend this skate contest as your #1 target venue in the USA for amateur skateboarding competition. Volcom did a bang-up job with all aspects of the event; but there was a little lag in scoring the finals. And David Gonzales was denied a “free” hot dog.
We can’t wait to do it again and compete at Surf Expo in 2015 at their Volcom WITP qualifier at the Orlando Convention Center.
To read the article in detail and see results, visit Volcom’s Event page.
