Yuto Horigome placed second because he does crazy combos like backside 360 nose slides.
If you haven’t seen Jagger Eaton’s TampaPro winning run you’ve been living under a rock. In fact, if the highlights repeating over and over again in our feeds haven’t given you the rundown, then you must be on a social media sabbatical. I guess if you need to hear it again, Jagger won, Yuto got second, and Kelvin took third in yet another finals at a TampaPro. This contest is so much more than getting a few seconds of gnarly clips, seeing a couple of minutes of great runs, or experiencing four days of skateboarding paradise. Weeks of staff planning, months of negotiations, and years of dedication is the expansive substrate that produces the fruit seen above the surface. If you so choose to indulge in that fruit, you’re in for the wild ride of TampaPro.
BLP Kosher with some late night fun
Working with the Skatepark of Tampa for nightlife photography puts me in the media room, on the ramps, and around every legend we have come to associate with this historic contest. It allows me to share a unique perspective of the event – things that aren’t blasted around social media, such as when a fan gave first time TampaPro skater Chris Hiett a freshly shedded snake skin to match his snake skin pants just minutes before qualifiers. He cracked up, derailed his contest prep and went straight into clip mode while he raced around the park wearing it as a scarf.
Chris Hiett all up in that fisheye
After working a few Tampa events, I have found that practice is the best time for getting gnarly fisheye shots and chatting with the skaters. You can be a bit more intrusive with the camera and the vibe feels like any heavy skate session. People are talking smack, having fun, and hyping each other up. The conversations on the decks of the ramps are both typical of any skatepark and extraordinary because of the individuals having them.
Kelvin Hoeffler placed third by doing tasty back lips like this.
Listening to Kelvin Hoeffler provide details about his foot placement and to Matias Dell Olio, feels like overhearing top secret details on how to assassinate a skateboard. Hearing Sebo Walker answer Micky Papa on how a combination of sleep deprivation, caffeine, and stoke were the reasons for his absolute shredding of the park got everyone laughing. Sebo had been at the park days prior painting after hours. He absolutely smashed this year’s course paint job. The colors and style displayed a SPoT theme that only someone with as long of a history with the park as Sebo could express. With the killer paint job, the pros in the park, and the crowds arriving, you just get a sense something big is on the way.
Dalton Dern with a massive power drop
That is of course the 32nd annual TampaPro at Skatepark of Tampa. With all of the trimmings we have come to know and love. There’s the best trick contest, the bowl jam, and then the main event. The insane clips of Jhanka Gonzalez gap to wallride for Independent best trick, Liam Pace Truck bashing the hell out of the gutter to bring home the concrete jam and Dalton Dern being an absolute madman dropping off the bleacher railing onto basically flat have made the rounds. You can watch every run over and over if you’d like. However, the moments in between, before and after. The things that happen on the ramps and in the crowd collide with these colossal points in time to formulate the whole. What makes the TampaPro so special isn’t just how gnarly things get, but it’s the atmosphere of pure skating. Skating with friends. Skating for people who love to watch skating. Skating to shred because these pros love skating. This is a family reunion. This is a backyard party. This is TampaPro.
Words and Photos by RancerStank. Enjoy this photo gallery below.
Dalton Dern properly blunted
Nicole Hause getting her fair share of air.
Liam Pace giving us a textbook back tail
Crowd + Surf + Panda = This Photo
Winner’s circle.
Class is in session, Professor Schmitt has arrived.
Domo Walker doing his brand of skating with a 360 flip back board.
The t-shirt coordination in this photo is respectable.
Nicole Hause is no longer a fly on the wall, but here she is on the fucking wall.
Zion Wright hitting Oz by getting somewhere over the rainbow.