Twin Cities, MN – Home to one of the country’s premiere skate competitions, the King Groms & King of the AMs Skateboarding Championships.The event is a skate contest for amateur skateboarders across the US, who qualify locally and earn an invitation to the championship finals in Minnesota for street skating, bowl riding, and best trick accolades.
This year’s finals were fun, entertaining (thanks to Trog and his Army), competitive and exciting for everyone. And the host skate park, 3rd Lair did a p-r-e-t-t-y good job at keeping it all together, considering the numerous competitions including bowl, street, and best trick contests. They packed the place with prizes for so many competitors, everyone was sure to get their money’s worth from all the goodies.
Their 2013 finals covered 7 qualifying stops around the country which included:
- Kona Skate Park in Jacksonville, Florida (FL)
- Skatelab Skatepark in Simi Valley, California (CA)
- Southside Skatepark in Houston, Texas (TX)
- CJ’s SkatePark in Toronto, Canada (CAN)
- 3rd Lair Skateboard Park in Golden Valley, Minnesota (MN)
Eleven (11) Florida Street Skaters shredded the course. They were:
- Zion Wright (AM, Street), Jupiter, FL – 5th Place
- Dakota Hunt (AM, Street) Palm Bay, FL – 4th Place
- Will Schumatti (Open, Street), Jupiter, FL – 1st Place
- Landon Swan (Expert, Street), Jupiter/Tequesta, FL – 3rd Place
- Rory Doran (Beginner, Street), Jupiter, FL – 17th Place
- Mason Munar (Beginner, Street) Clermont, FL – 3rd Place
- Brandon Starr (Open, Street) Vero Beach, FL – 4th Place
- Dominic Hopkins (Beginner, Street) Clearwater, FL – 19th Place
- Nate Vanderbilt, (Intermediate, Street) Pointe Verde Beach, FL – 5th Place
- Ryan “Bubba” Stephens (Intermediate, Street), Jacksonville, FL – 11th Place
- Hal Scarborough (Expert, Street), Jacksonville, FL – 13th Place
- Blaine Partridge, (AM, Street) Jacksonville, FL – 11th Place
Three (3) Florida Bowl Rider Skateboarders ripped it hard including:
- Shawn Arthur, (Beginner, Bowl) – St Augustine – 3rd Place
- Cooper Burrows, (Intermediate, Bowl) – Stuart, FL – 1st Place
- Joshua Forsberg, (Intermediate, Bowl) – Cocoa Beach, FL – 4th Place
The most impressive team finish from skaters came from GSZ, a Florida-based skate team, built out of Graffiti Skate Zone in Palm Bay (Brevard County) FL. They pushed 3 skaters into the finals, one in each of Expert, Open, and Am divisions in the street skating divisions and finished with 3 medals. They were Landon Swan (3rd Expert), Will Schumatti (1st Open), and Dakota Hunt (4th AM).
Notably, Team GSZ won S.P.O.T.’s, (Skate Park of Tampa) 2013 Clash of the Crews. Their guys destroyed the competition with over 20 teams from all around the country competing in that event.
About King of the Groms and King of the Ams Competition
Skateboarders From all 50 States Were Invited to Qualify in the Skate Contest Including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri,Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington,West, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming
You can download the finals for all divisions here: King of the Groms/Ams Finals
