You had to be there

EVERY WINTER, Arizona goes off. During the months of mid-October through mid-April the Phoenix area gets raped and pillaged by skaters from all over the country. Some make semi-permanent moves from the Midwest, and countless others make short trips from Southern California. It really makes sense: The Midwesterners escape the cold and snow; the Californians escape sitting in traffic only to get repeatedly booted from blown out spots. But like all good things, it must come to an end--by the end of April the Phoenix spots start to feel blown out too, and the daytime temperatures are getting unbearable. Each year about this time, Cowtown skateboards hosts the Phoenix Am contest. It's always a good way to end the season. What we have in the following pages are some of the best ams on the come-up, and a couple of guys who made the jump to pro status after making their mark at the contest.

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This spot looks sick, doesn't it? Some guys would be content to just kickflip the hip here. Robbie Brockel isn't one to waste a good spot, though--that's why he went straight for the noseblunt

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This spot is at a church on the north end of town. We went back three times before Jaws could even walk to the top of the stairs without us getting kicked out. On the third time, only the gardener was there. So he gets the ollie down a set of stairs that's of legal drinking age, and he's not even old enough to vote. The gardener walked up to me as the shutter was clicking to ask what we were doing. "Leaving," I replied, as he rolled away

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Sometimes, the best spots are never a bust, Josh Hawkins knows that you'll be stoked to find out where this double set is. Too bad it's going to be 110 degrees by the time you read this Drew Etzcorn has a weird last name. He probably would have done better in the contest if he hadn't broken his leg the day after this kickflip three

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Every regular-footed skater that I've taken to this spot has claimed a tailslide Thing is, you gotta pop out to clear that edge at the bottom. Adam Dyet was the first to even get into it, and subsequently the first to pull it off

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Sean Malto is smooth. Just like his name. Doesn't a vanilla or chocolate Malto sound like a smooth drink? This front feeble pop-over was just as smooth

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Here's the wind-up, and the pitch ... Ryan Decenzo pulls a triple down a double, and a few days later wins the contest

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Kickflip stalefish to tail--that's a lot. Ben Hatchel multi-tasks over the channel.

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2008 PHOENIX AM RESULTS

1. RYAN DECENZO

2. CHAZ ORTIZ

3. VINCENT ALVAREZ

4. DUSTIN BLAUVELT

5. COLLIN PROVOST

6. MATT BERGER

7. ANDREW LANGY

8. TIMMY KNUTH

9. ROBBIE BROCKEL

10. JOSH HAWKINS

11. CODY MCENTIRE

COPYRIGHT 2008 High Speed Productions, Inc
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning