2013 Marked the biggest year yet for Alliance Skateparks D-Town Throwdown hosted before the Dallas Stars played the Chicago Blackhawks! The talent pool was amazing, the support from our sponsors was incredibly generous which gave us the ability to offer the biggest prize purse in all the years of DTTD! One thing that stood out this year especially was the fact that DVS Shoe Company had managed to bring its entire team to Dallas in support of the Throwdown. Paul Shier along with the talents of Daewon Song, Torey Pudwill, Chico Brenes, Marty Murawski, Luis Tolentino, Zack Wallin, Jon Nguyen and Flo Mirtain all flew in to spend a week exploring all of the shops, parks and spots that Dallas had to offer.

During the trip the team made a special visit to the newly constructed Cody Rocamontes Memorial Skatepark in Arlington to surprise the skaters that were there celebrating the Grand Opening on Cody’s Birthday. This was just the beginning of the week! After visiting some skate spots in the Dallas area, shooting video and photos for their “DVS Does Dallas” tour following up the DVS teams trip to Detroit last year they took a trip over to the Lewisville skatepark and spent more time with the locals.

All of this was build up to the final event that would of course take place in the beautiful American Airlines Victory Plaza. This year’s course was made possible by the amazing team at Spohn Ranch Skateparks. Spohn Ranch worked alongside with event founder Alliance skateparks Mark Laue for weeks to create the unique design. Event sponsors Scion, Red Bull, DVS Shoes, Kicker Audio and Matix Clothing has obstacles designed that could both bare the company’s brands as well as represent the style of each of the companies. Spohn constructed an all new custom course including the Scion Quarter pipes that gave the riders the speed needed to skate all of the obstacles comfortably. The Matix “Hubbas” named after the two wide concrete ledges down the stairs in a San Francisco area famous skatespot nicknamed “Hubba Hideout” were a favorite, both Hubbas end caps were built with fully functional 15” Kicker subwoofer speakers! Kicker also had the handrail which has been a staple in the event for years. Next was the DVS stair extension with kinked rail and stair barrier, both representative of the DVS team’s history of revolutionizing technical skateboarding with icons like Daewon Song and Torey Pudwill arguably two of the most technical skateboarders in the game. Finally here was the Red bull super ledge with a shotgun rail. This was the piece that separated the men from the boys and garnered the most response from the crowd when attempted. Needless to say the course was unlike anything seen before at D-Town Throwdown in previous years all thanks to the amazing effort by Mark Bradford and his team at Spohn Ranch Skateparks including Taylor Bray who not only spent the week constructing the course but also skated the contest and finished in the top 10!

A new addition to the contest this year was the judge’s tower that stood in the center of the plaza overlooking the entire course. Judging was priority number one this year as it should be in a contest of this caliber and with this much incredible talent where fractions of a point can separate the winners from the losers. The judging staff this year included veteran professional skateboarder Charlie Wilkins, veteran professional team manager Gabe Clement from Matix Clothing, and veteran Dallas Skateboarder and graphic designer Barton Damer from Already Been Chewed Design. Charlie Wilkins brought his World Cup skateboarding judging expertise to Dallas revamping and perfecting the previous year’s judging style that has always been based on points per trick rewarding both consistency as well as difficulty per trick balancing out the wide array of different types of skaters that compete each year.

The contest began at 4pm Saturday right before the Dallas Stars faced off against the Blackhawks and in the midst of the Downtown Dallas St. Patrick’s Day Parade so the crowds of passersby were a giant sea of green. After practice begun the tricks being thrown down the stairs gave no indication of a potential winner due to everyone of the skater’s amazing ability and different styles, this was a tough year to be a judge! However after the first few rounds it was beginning to become more clear who would be making up the elite final top 10. All of which brought there A Game and completely annihilated the stair set with different styles and tricks.

In the final heat the technical skating from Alex Simeone, Taylor Jett, Mikey Whitehouse and Justin Vinson was complimented by the clean style of Cory Hale and Eddie Gonzales. The powerhouse styles of Sean Greene, Taylor Bray, Ryan Thompson and Kechaud Johnson brought loud cheers from the crowd with A Huge Kickflip from Taylor Bray, A giant Frontside Flip from Kechaud Johnson and a massive Backside 360 from Sean Greene all over the intimidating Red Bull Shotgun rail to the flat! But the standout, skating every single bit of the course with Power, style and the biggest smile on his face was Ryan Thompson who came back to Dallas from Houston TX to claim the D-Town throne for the second year in a row! This event was in every sense a huge success and again we can’t thank our Sponsors Scion, Red Bull, DVS Shoes, Matix Clothing and Kicker Audio enough for all of the Support they have given us thought the years and especially how much they stepped up for our Fifth and biggest D-Town Throwdown yet!