The Downtown Throwdown rolled into a town that has been on what has seemed to be a month-long bender. Fleetweek, America's Cup, The Dew Tour, and most notably, the Giants winning the World Series, San Francisco has been going off. The Downtown Throwdown added to the excitement as some of the best rail shredders in the game gathered at the Civic Center to celebrate the art of dropping hammers.
Sammy Luebke with the Civic Center in the background.
The day got off to a little bit of a late start as the crowd definitely took its time to muster up. Once the beats started dropping, the riders started their endless assault on a trio of rails put together by Krush Kulesza and his Snowboy Productions. The menu for the day was a down-flat-down box, an a-frame bar, and up bar to donkey dick.
Krush with the Instagram Alerts
Guest judges Sean Genovese, Bode Merrill, and Forest Bailey had their work cut out for them because the pool of riders included Andrew Brewer, Ryan Paul, Zak Hale, Dylan Thompson, Brandon Hobush, Nial Romanek, Johnny Brady and more.
Sean Black - style for miles
Shred celebrities Jesse Burtner and Preston Strout manned the mic to help the eclectic crowd understand the complex trick variations that were being thrown. Sick Crocs bro
When all was said and done, the JEDI, Nial Romanek walked away with top honors. It's been a longtime coming for him to win a big comp. He's definitely one of the top rail riders in Lake Tahoe.
Nial Romanek stoked
Here are your winners
1st Place – Nial Romanek; $6000
2nd Place – Brandon Hobush; $3000
3rd Place – Dylan Thompson; $2000
4th Place – Ted Borland; $1000
5th Place – Andrew Brewer; $500
Bode Merrill’s Bakers Dozen Award - Johnny Brady; 13 Cosmo Shots
Monster Moment Best Trick Award- Brendan Gerard; $500 FS 180 switch 50-50 half-cab out on the pole-jam
To see more pics, they had the crowd hashing their faces off on Instagram. Click here to see all the #dttd madness
Day 1
Photo: John Foy
Justin Felix with a 360 shuvit.
For our second outing with the Milo crew, I invited them to my hood in North Beach San Francisco. Home to some of the steeper hills in the City, I asked them to meet me around the corner from my spot to check out the notorious Vallejo stairset. Figuring they would call me to complain about parking(North Beach is THE WORST), I was a little surprised to hear they were already sessioning the stairset, and that I should probably head over with a camera stat.
Mike O'Day sticking a boneless
Forget warming up, Mike O'day & Justin Lizcano were already blasting off the stairs. Mike nailed a boneless 4th or 5th try, but kinda mis-read the curb on the steep run-out and landed his first ever hip-slide from one side of the street to the other.
Mike going to grab his board after a land and then an across-the-street hip slide. Heavy.
The fellas were hyped
Justin, who was tre-flipping out the gate, must have tried a few dozen times to get the speed right before taking a heavy slam that eventually sidelined him for the day. He came real close, and have no doubt he'll be back to conquer based off the text messages he's since sent us.
Tre-Flip to gnar
The kid goes hard.
After the stairset, we found a few spots on the way to the hillbomb. A discarded tv in front of my spot became the first feature, with Justin Felix & Dave Abarta tossing a slew of tricks over it. Across the street, Dallas spotted a wall-ride over water spigot and immediately started killing it until the neighbors started peering out their windows in disapproval. We wrapped up and charged up the hill towards Coit Tower.
Justin Felix really wanted to be on tv that day
Waffles gettin down over the spigot
Rick James says fuck a couch, Abarta fucks up TV's
The crew spotted a pole jam that sent you towards the 45 degree pitch of upper Union St. and went for it. Dallas & Drew threw down a several variations off it, while the rest of the crew took a much needed break.
Drew Carney Pole Jamming
After we were done with the pole jam, the crew wanted to bomb down Kearny back to the wall ride and deserted TV, and to check out the rooftop view from our place.
Breaktime with a view of Coit Tower
After downing a few beers, we decided to go hit the manny pad over in the Mission with a few of Dave's local homies. They shredded that place with a swiftness. Tons of nose-manual variations, tailslides, and even gapping a triple set like a pillow line on a powder day, made the trip across town worthwhile.
Jon Knox from Realize Culture Magazine gapping the 3 set
Blake Bishop with style all day
Once it got dark, we headed back to the rooftop for some bbq, beers and Norcal's finest. There it was decided that two days later we'd head up to Milo's favorite park in St. Helena. Day one is a wrap.
Day 2
After D-Con and I took the Bart over to Lafayette to link up with the boys at the shop, we loaded up Mike's car to probably twice the maximum payload and headed up to wine country. For those of you that haven't been to the St. Helena Skatepark, the place is on point. To quote D-Con, "Its easily the best park in California."
Dallas tore up St. Helena all night
Mike O'Day
Justin Felix, Dallas , Mike O'Day, Drew, and D-con put on a clinic. I'll let the pics do the talking.
D-Con with the tailblock steeze. Don't worry man, it's almost winter
Mike O'Day boosting the hip
Dallas with that front blunt
Milo In The Streets - Part 2 - In the books.
Next Stop, Dew Tour San Francisco!
Scott Blum terrorizes the mountains in his one of a kind #ip2 part.
#3 of10 full parts
