Surrey-Delta Dominates in the ‘Peg

By Frank Daniello
Photos by Dan Neufeld

Call me biased, but I love coming out to middle-Canada for the Winnipeg AM contest at The Plaza at The Forks—it’s in my hometown, and The Forks’ head office is always hospitable and sorts out comfortable accommodations at the amazing Inn at the Forks. I managed to pry myself from suite 501 each day to fulfill my judging duties during the bright and extra muggy 34-degree WAM weekend. Needless to say, the intense heat produced a strong bond with clean socks, Earls Icebergs (“extra ‘berg, please”) and my Ray-Ban Wayfarers—not because they’re the rage of the day, but because they were melted to my face. Turns out, I also became responsible for handing out well over a thousand dollars in best trick cash throughout the weekend. 

WAM is in its second year, and the event is steadily gaining momentum as one of the best destination AM contests in Canada. A $15,000 prize purse was just itching to be divvied up and served to the hungry at the world class 2.5 million dollar / 30,000 square foot Plaza at The Forks, which opened in 2006.

“No one really expected last year’s event to attract all those quality skaters and have that kind of prize purse—that definitely brought a certain amount of attention to the event,” says Genico Aiello, owner of Sk8 Skates, which helps to produce WAM. “It’s the only Canadian contest with a decent sized cash purse that’s held outdoors. It’s also located downtown, in a place where you can come and go freely, so it’s great for both competitors and spectators.”

To top it off, the famed Fourstar team concluded their North Of Everything tour in Winnipeg and could be found skating local spots and hanging around town all weekend.

Warming Up
On Thursday, August 14th, Color Magazine’s A Rolling Perspective traveling art show helped set the tone and get contestants acclimated to the party haze that Winnipeg is notorious for—thankfully, Friday’s relaxed bowl jam happened at 7pm. Local Winnipeg skaters were front-and-centre for this one: Mitch Lavoie, who notably has his house tattooed on his side, Chris Steggles, and Justin “Bang Bang” Basset took advantage of the cash-for-tricks session, followed by cash-for-best-overall in a half-hour jam. Adam Hopkins has his own vert ramp tucked away in a barn back home in Thunder Bay and clocked ducats in the bowl with a burly padless 540 and a kickflip indy on the 8-and-a half foot wall. Steggles charged the hips at twice the speed of everyone else to achieve a wallet surplus that silenced his savings account activity that night at the Pyramid Cabaret’s WAM afterparty.

The Main Event
32 skaters entered this year’s event, which included participants from 5 provinces. The format consisted of 2 skaters at-a-time charging for 90-seconds, with each skater’s best of 2 runs counting. It wasn’t easy for the panel of 5 judges, and the top 18 from Saturday’s prelims moved on to Sunday’s final.

Everyone braved the fierce heat throughout the weekend and the city was treated to high-grade Canadian skateboarding and an insane tricks-for-cash session after the main event. In the end, Ryan Decenzo (placed 6th / won $250 at last year’s WAM), Scott Decenzo (placed 1st / won $8000 last year), and Magnus Hanson (placed 2nd / won $3500 last year) hoisted the big cheques—collectively shipping $13,000 from the WAM ‘08 purse back home to Sur-Del. 

Official Results
1. Ryan Decenzo (North Delta, BC) - $8000
2. Scott Decenzo (North Delta, BC) - $3500
3. Magnus Hanson (Surrey, BC) - $1500
4. Jay Brown (Toronto, ON) - $800
5. Beau Larson (Calgary, AB) - $600
6. Micky Papa (Coquitlam, BC) - $300
7. Jamie Mospanchuk (Winnipeg, MB) - $200
8. Jason Crolly (Winnipeg, MB) - $100

$1000 best trick on the 6-stair granite hubba (judged by Guy Mariano, Rick Howard, Sam Smyth, Brian Anderson and Mike Carroll):
Paul Trep – switch flip front 5-0 

$1000 best tricks-for-cash session (money dished out for tricks in the park section featuring: the 4-by-4 double set, granite hubba, square kinked rail and round kinked rail.)
Some highlights:

Sascha Daley – front blunt to fakie on the hubba / full cab down the double
Ryan Decenzo - frontside flip over the hubba / backside nosebluntslide on the hubba
Micky Papa - switch frontside heelflip down the double
Dallas Ives - switch frontside 360 down the double
TJ Rogers - switch frontside bigspin heel down the double
Colin Lambert - gap to backlip on the round kinker

WAM Sound-Off:

“WAM is tight. I think everyone likes skating this park, and having a contest here just makes sense—this park is one-of-a-kind. Everyone’s cool, everyone’s friendly.”
—Sean Malto, Fourstar Pro in attendance. As an AM, he placed 4th at WAM ‘07.

“Ever since last year, I’ve been looking forward to it. Basically, it’s a spot that street skaters want to skate and everybody will have a good time at. It’s sick because it’s in the middle of Canada, so guys from out east and out west can make it out. The people are definitely nice here and Winnipeg’s good times.”
—Ryan Decenzo, this year’s WAM winner.

“It’s the best skatepark in Canada—there’s everything a deep-down skate rat wants to skate. My homies that come here are mad skilled, and end up winning mad dough. We made this deal last year that if you win the money, you’ve gotta buy the beer.”
—Sascha Daley, who skated in the finals and came up on some cash in the best trick session.

Keep an eye out for upcoming video coverage from WAM 2008 on Push.ca, and visit the WAM site for more info.