Thrasher’s annual King of the Road contest pits shredders against each other.
Artwork by Ed Gloor
In the spirit of sportsmanship, competition, and good old fashioned fun Thrasher Magazine recently finished up its latest King of the Road skateboarding tour which featured skateboarding teams: Nike SB, Circa, Etnies, and Cons in a skateboard battle across the states.
The King of the Road contest has been one of the premier skateboarding events since its conception back in 2003. Created by the geniuses at Thrasher Magazine, the King of the Road competition is known for its outrageous and entertaining challenges that demand its competitors to compete in a race against each other for precious points. Skateboarding isn’t typically considered a competitive activity, and it is often debated whether skating should be considered a sport at all. The King of the Road contest was created as sort of a mockery of all the competitive seriousness in which the sport sometimes gets caught up.
Every year new and old competitions make their way onto the skateboard scene. The X-games, Maloof Money Cup, Dew Action Sports Tour, and Street League, are a few of the skating competitions that have grinded into the mainstream limelight. There are different types of motivations for all the separate cultures and people behind skateboarding, so progression has gone in a number of ways and changed the sport for better or worse. However, Thrashers intention with this competition is to show that one thing will never change, and that is the fun of skateboarding.
Every kid who has ever skated in his/her life can remember the paths they took to make his/her skateboarding experience fun and unique, like skating in the rain causing irreparable damage to a board, performing creative and outrageous tricks, weaving in and out of cones through a slalom, and unfortunately getting scrapes, bruises, and broken bones; these are all parts of skateboarding that Thrasher depicts in its annual competition.
Thrasher made its competition available to viewers through “webisodes” on youtube and their website. A total of twelve episodes were released that featured a montage of some of the highlights of the tour. Before the start of the competition the editors at Thrasher chose the teams, and the Internet started buzzing with predictions and speculation. Pro skateboarders like Eric Koston, Cory Kennedy, David Reyes, Ryan Sheckler, and Sean Malto were featured in the cross-country scavenger hunt. The teams traveled on a road trip to Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, finally coming together in Las Vegas. The team with the most points and challenges completed by the end won $40,000, a trophy, and a cover article for Thrasher Magazine.
The beginning of the tour featured Nike SB shaking things up in Salt Lake City, Utah. Some of the challenges involved strictly skateboarding, but the first stop consisted of a series of hilarious challenges that tested the team’s limits in a different way. Getting the name of a fellow team member tattooed on one of them, a team manager face piercing challenge, and the team member with the longest hair had to get a perm. All of their challenges were complete with Cory Kennedy paving the way in points with his newly acquired afro perm hair.
Cons skateboarding followed up with an impressive effort in Denver, Colorado in episode two. Their montage showed them running all over our very own city, winning points for the most high-fives at the conveniently timed Zombie Crawl back in October, and racking up points through their creative skateboarding. However, their efforts didn’t measure up to Nike SB, so their gain was minimal.
Circa was notably passionate in Nashville, as their pursuit of the Thrasher King of the Road Crown took them down a wild and entertaining path. Members of their team anxiously completed their challenges with an open mind. Circa riders went as far as searching for a girl that looked identical to one of the team riders, and “focusing a skatepark hero’s board.” Circa nearly surpassed Nike SB in their points after David Gravette, a Circa pro was convinced he had found his long lost twin, and a local skater’s board was reluctantly snapped in half in order to get points for their team.
Etnies was to record a King of the Road theme song with former pro skateboarder turned rapper, Chris Gentry in Houston, Texas. The satirical song played over their episode where the team unfortunately didn’t complete enough challenges to gain any major points. They did however manage to have a highlight reel of some impressive skateboarding while wearing cowboy hats in every skate session, with Gentry’s rap song playing over the entire episode. Highlights of their show were Ryan Sheckler doing a simple boardslide down a handrail while on the phone, and Mikey Taylor doing a 360 flip while giving a small kid a piggy back ride.
Nike SB kept extending their lead considerably when they toured through Colorado Springs and “found their spirit animals,” and skated a rail in the rain. However, Circa was hot on their tail after their scavenger stunt hunt in Dallas, Texas. Their episode started off with team rider Scott Descenzo winning the “Hall of Meat Challenge” after he unfortunately cracked his head open on a rail while skating. Fortunately he was able to get stitches and taste victory after he took one for the team and got them some points. Circa and their shameless style of getting points kept them in a close battle with Nike SB.
In the end it was a photo finish with Nike SB winning first place with amateur skateboarder Cory Kennedy and his technical wizardry on a skateboard, earning him the title of team MVP. Circa finished close behind in second, Etnies in third, and Cons last. Although the Nike team walked away $40,000 richer, the contest was all about the fun of skateboarding at its heart. Some of the more outrageous goals completed by the teams were finding a cop who could ollie a skateboard, discovering your spirit animal in the wild of Colorado Springs, and a Corey Duffel look-alike challenge, where a team member was decked out in gothic chainmail and leather clothes for a day of skating.
Skate fans can look forward to more events and competitions of the likes of KOTR in the near future as the Berrics commences it’s Battle at the Berrics part 4 showdown.
