The Holiday Havoc contest finally went down last Friday night and closed out the winter break with a serious barrage of shredding. Over a hundred skaters entered tore the course apart. Here’s a list of the top 5 finishers in each division as well as the Nike SB Best Tricks contest wrap-up:

14 YRS AND UNDER DIVISION
1. Ben Sauer
2. Joey Carnera
3. Berkeley Anderson
4. Colin Klassy
5. Dalton Marshall

14 and under had the most entrants and therefore the most competition for the riders and the group as a whole really represented. The talent level with the younger guys these days is off the charts and judges witnessed tricks like cab flips over the hip, frontside grind fakies on the quarter pipe wall, switch front bigspins down the seven and frontside flips over the hubba and down the 3 from this group. In the end, little Ben Sauer seemed to stay on and consistent in every heat and edged out Joey Carnera for the win. Congratulations Ben!! Make sure you’re helmet size doesn’t increase because of this.

15 AND OVER DIVISION
1. Joel Shelley
2. Colin Crespino
3. Joey Kirkevan
4. Jor-El Lord
5. Trevor Ward

15 and over takes the tricks and talent from the first division and adds power and style. It’s amazing what happens to dudes when they grow a few inches and get some springs. Total domination of the dojo and an expanded trick bag from this group. We’ll have video footage shortly to give you a better idea. Good Looks Joel!!

SPONSORED DIVISION
1. Cody Maag
2. Josh Gibson
3. Matt Hanson
4. Bob Anderson
5. Anthony Grant

Again, you’ll have to wait for the video footage to really get a feel for what the sponsored division brought. The thing about jam format contests is it gives you a little more time to see the guys skate and get an idea of who rips the most consistently as opposed to who can just land a banger after a bunch of tries. Cody skated every heat like a veteran and just kept the tempo set at a consistent ripping of the entire course. He definitely was the most consistent skater in every heat. Cody’s going to be around for awhile..

Following the contest was the Nike SB Best Tricks contest. Usually best trick contests are all about hammers but this contest required dudes to get a trick on multiple obstacles to be in contention. The obstacles to be attacked were The Podium ledge and any combination of the 7 stair/hubbas or the Big 3. Just getting the best trick on either/or wasn’t good enough for the money, you had to get something on both. Here’s the breakdown of the guys who walked away with cash:

1. Erik Billups won it. Everyone knows he can jump down stuff but the consistency under pressure is really good. His winning combo was KF BS Nosegrind on The Podium followed up by a switch 360 Flip down the Big 3. Erik killed and walked away with $500. Don’t spend it all in one place.

2. Josh Gibson- Dude’s been on a tear recently and killed this contest. Several bangers went down but the ones that swayed the judges most were the KF Crooks on The Podium and Switch Inward Heel down the Big 3. Josh said he’s jobless right now so $300 should help out.

3. Cody Maag- Cody took care of biz in the contest and then continued the consistency in the best trick. He threw out several things but KF Crooks The Podium and FS Big Spin Heelflip down the 7 are what got him the $200.

Look out soon for video highlights of the contest.

Huge Thanks go out to: Ben, Dave, and Eric for judging, Nike SB, Tony at RedBull, Skate Mental, Alien Workshop, Toy Machine, Foundation, Volcom, Josh and Andy at Tribute Skateboards, the SkateChurch guys, Ried for working the sound and GIGANTIC THANKS to Betsy for the registration skills.

See everyone next time.

-The Dept.

Posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009.

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