The grand finale of the Sun Diego Am Slam Event Series was held at Belmont Park in Mission Beach on September 26th, 2021. Following a nearly two-year hiatus, we made up for lost time with an epic festival showcasing top brands in the surf and skate space as well as live music courtesy of Wonderbus and a dreamy schoolbus street course designed by Keen Ramps for the day's skate contest.
Even though the weekend brought some September grey-day weather, we were happy to see everyone's smiling faces and were inspired by competitors who came to play, rain or shine. Suffice to say, everyone who made it to the event witnessed some world class surfing and skating while enjoying great live music and scoring some great freebies from all our vendors!
Thank you to all of our vendors as well as Billabong, Quiksilver, RVCA and Roxy for being title sponsors of this event series.
Am Slam Skate Series Finale Recap
Sun Diego once again hosted another insane Am Slam Surf and Skate Finale down at Mission Beach in San Diego. The event was made possible by the generous title sponsors featuring Billabong, RVCA, Quiksilver and Roxy and also from Roark, Bones Loves Milk and many more! The highlight of the event was the 3 custom skate obstacles created from an old school bus. Each obstacle featured a best trick contest and the skating was absolutely insane.Becker Dunn took the cash for the bump to edge on the front of the bus with a front 180 to fakie manual to fakie flip out in the drizzling rain!
Caique Silva won the wall ride on the side of the bus with an insane front blunt way up top.
Tyson Peterson was killing it all day and took home the cash on the stair set with a kickflip backside noseblunt.
Dolan Dern took home the best overall performance of the day went to who was throwing down tricks all day on every obstacle. Some highlights included a 270 lipslide on the handrail, a massive roll in off the top of the bus, and a 50-50 pop-out to flat on the ledge.
Spectators were out in droves to catch the skating/surfing and live music on the Wonderbus compliments of the good folks at Roark. Shout out to Jamie Thomas cruising out for the day and helping judge/MC the contest. Hope to see you all there next year!
Am Slam Surf Series Finale Recap
The 7th season of Am Slam Surf came to a close Sunday afternoon. It was a wild season to say the least! Getting back and running after an almost two-year hiatus was an awesome feeling with so many great families that we missed seeing. Strange weather covered the landscape all weekend as the event featured rain in September (weird, right?) but in no way cooled down the action in the water.Saturday was the day that the pros got a chance to shine, and they did just that. Although the conditions were challenging, the surfers competed their butts off and threw down major scores throughout the day.
The finals featured a very familiar name — Kei Kobayashi — as he made his fourth consecutive final of the season. He took his second victory and sealed his overall season champion status. He did so in dramatic fashion with 30 seconds remaining, nabbing a right boosting a frontside three to get the score he needed for the win. Kobayashi barely nipped Hagan Johnson, who was leading for almost the entire heat. Derek Gomes and Alex Lima rounded out the final finishing 3rd and 4th, respectively.
The 15+ Am division saw a good mix of young rippers and some savvy vets as they took to their 20 minute final. Izzy Elizondo from Panama was using his Dark Arts Surfboard to it’s fullest in the small conditions capitalizing on its buoyancy and spring. He chucked a big air reverse landing in the flats and riding out clean to take the victory over the stacked field that included season champ Caleb Crozier, who took second.
Harlan Birch was able to hold off Sutton Tudor to take the Boys 14U final by a mere 0.76 margin. The boys were ripping and what we call the “frothing groms” division did not disappoint.
The waves were conducive to great longboarding for the Womens Longboard final as the higher tide was able to keep the wave faces open for longer periods of time. Mia McMahon took full advantage of these conditions using her graceful style and solid nose-riding ability to overtake the always dangerous Tiare Thompson and secure the victory.
Jack Van Wagoner continued his absolute dominance of Am Slam as he took no time at all to comb the field with his impeccable timing, stylish nose rides, and overall abundance of radical!!! What a great season for the champ as 2021 has been a great year for Jack’s longboarding career.
The womens shortboard final was a blow for blow exchange during the 20 minute final. Newcomer Chiasa Muriyama dropped hammers right from the get go and put herself in great position to take a win in her inaugural event. However, overall champ Tiare Thompson did not go down with out a fight: she got the score she needed to overtake Chiasa in the final 2 minutes of the heat, securing the win in this hard fought final.
What a great season and what a great finale. We are all looking forward to bigger and brighter things in the future. Thanks to all our staff, who work tirelessly to make sure everyone has a great time. Thanks to Sun Diego for the backing to make these events happen. Lastly, thanks to all the surfers that make Am Slam what it is. We could not do this without them. We hope you have a great winter and we look forward to seeing you next summer.