For the 4th year in a row, we’ve had the pleasure of creating Sun Diego Board shops’ final stop of their Am Slam skateboarding contest series presented by Vans. The Am Slam series is designed to give local San Diego skateboarders an arena to compete in and an opportunity to excel.This year for the final stop, Transworld Skateboarding came on board with the idea to have Keen Ramps create a Mega Mashup Obstacle, a custom built replica of 3 of San Diego’s most iconic skate spots.The Infamous Carlsbad Gap: This obstacle was located at Carlsbad High School and while the size of the gap was already challenging enough the real tricky part was the slight curved/uphill landing at the bottom. A crack right before the gap and the retaining wall at the bottom also made this spot challenging. The Carlsbad gap was a proving ground for many skaters, but unfortunately it was destroyed in 2012.The Rincon 4 block: Located in Escondido and known for it’s four large tiers and unique square shaped rails make this skate spot truly unique. Each tier is the size of three average-sized steps making it as tall as an average twelve stair set. Rincon is still popular and skated regularly to this day.Chain to Bank: Popular from the mid 90’s to the early 2000’s this San Diego bank featured a chain running through multiple posts across the top making it a challenging combination. If clearing the chain and landing down the steep bank wasn’t difficult enough, there was also a protruding curb at the bottom that had to be managed as well.We had a blast building this unique contest course. Coming up the extra little touches to make the spots that much more realistic was our favorite. i.e. painting the giant yellow arrow and making the chain/ poles look rusty on the chain to bank or mimicking the concrete ledger the rail sat on at Carlsbad. Shout out to our welders! They put some serious hours in making all the rails. Cody Jacobson came out on top (who’s also got a Check Out in the next issue of Transworld!) followed by Dominick Walker and Tommy Sandoval. Such a rad day! Can not wait to see what we come up with for next year’s contest. Maybe another series of iconic skate spots from somewhere else in the world?!
