It's hard to believe that this past weekend marks 9 years of open doors at Familia Skateshop. Day of Familia 9, the shop's yearly birthday party was held for the occasion, and holy smokes was it fun. The party vibes were amplified by this year's addition of the Damn Am contest to the festivities, thanks to the crew from SPOT (Skatepark of Tampa).

Let's start with the contest: it was fun to watch and everyone skating was really good. No, really.

The rail saw enough backside 180 nosegrinds and bigspin boardslides to make me forget they're actually both sick tricks.

Forget what you've heard, his name is Bentley.

Julian Meja AKA Bentley Roberts casually Nollie Feebled the rail and came correct with a really impressive line up of sponsors (see above), landing himself in 7th place.

Kirian Stone made sure to blast every trick he did well over the obstacle and ride away as clean as can be. Despite not landing his attempted Kickflip up the double set, Kirian gets the Village Psychic vote for MVP due to an overall dope run. Nice job, buddy.

The way Corey Millett skates rails is jaw dropping. His line included a nollie heelflip back lip down the rail and I don't think his arms went above his waist the entire time. This valiant effort earned Corey 4th place.

I am going to have to agree with THE HESH by saying that Tanner Van Vark should have ended up in Second Place instead of Third, but hey, I was not a judge at this contest. Tanner skated fast and skated the entire park, doing a trick on nearly every obstacle in his way.

Anthony Anaya got second place, his No Comply over the rail into the bank made sure no one questioned his sickness.

Jay Adams? No dude, that's the champ, Cody Davis!

Cody Davis won First Place, and deserved it he did. By linking together an entire minute long run including a Nosegrind Popover from the rail into the bank as well as a Switch 360 Flip into the big euro gap, Cody earned his trophy.

The best trick contest was a lot to take in. Ricky Nunn is a machine. I saw him in the lot between the Finals and Best Trick contest and he had folded his foot pretty badly. After shaking himself off and some liquid courage (not Red Bull) and then taking a board to the shins so hard it leveled him, he went on to do a Nollie Bigspin heel flip back lip on the rail. Here's a pat on the back dog, that was nuts.

Malik Jones did a biggerspin heelflip and a 360 flip smith grind. Wow.

A ripper all the way from California named Dylan Williams did a Backside 180 Switch Frontside Crook Kickflip Out (which may have actually been the result of an over rotated Frontside Blunt attempt). The peoples' favorite Corey Millett took home First Prize with a Fakie Heelflip Frontside 50-50 and a Nollie 360 flip Frontside Boardslide.

Thanks for coming back to Minnesota SPOT, it was a rad contest and a good reminder of how mind blowing skateboarding is right now.

To celebrate 9 years of existence, Familia put on an art show Saturday night. The show featured art and illustrations by Todd Bratrud, Seth McCallum and Emeric Olu Pratt.

Day of Familia is equivalent to Christmas for Minnesotan skaters, everyone who lives out of town comes home for it, a celebratory mood takes over and everyone just wants to party.

We have a special community of people here and this is the one day I look forward to every year, even though I am so, so tired after all the festivities. A big thank you is in order for Steve, Dennis, everyone involved in Familia, SPOT and everyone thats part of Minnesota skateboarding. I cant wait for next year.

Day of Familia 9 & Damn Am