FYI: 2014 Van Doren Invitational Skate Recap

If you missed any of the action from the 2014 Van Doren Invitational because you were frozen in cryogenic sleep or you live in Madagascar and didn’t pay your Internet bill, fear not! We’ve got a full video/photo/editorial recap of last year’s action for you.

For starters last year, we went with a full bowl re-design from the first ever VDI contest in 2013, which opened up the course for maximum air time and less collisions in 2014. You’ll notice more improvements have been added for 2015 as well.

Each year, Vans invites a number of skateshops from California and Arizona to Huntington to compete in the Shop Battle at the Van Doren Invitational. The Shop Battle was the highly anticipated kick-off event for skateboarding at last year’s Vans US Open. 11 Shops brought their top 3 riders to jam in the bowl for 5 minutes. Active Ride Shop and Val Surf were on top of the pile after all the dust settled. After a 15-minute final jam heat, it was Val Surf team that walked away with the $2,000.

Our Women’s Skate Contest featured 18 skaters, representing 5 different countries, who battled it out in 4 qualifying jams to make it to the finals. Six skaters qualified for the finals, where a 15-minute jam of crisscross crash skateboarding decided who stood on the podium. When all was said and done, our own Lizzie Armanto took home 1st and a brand new guitar, Alana Smith in 2nd and Julz Lynn in 3rd. The Women’s Skate Contest has always been such a fan favorite that this year we’ve added it to our webcast line-up.

Lastly, the Men’s Pro Finals capped off the week. The contest featured 15 of the greatest bowl skaters from around the world and raised the contest bar so high, it’s hard to imagine it being topped in 2015. Pedro Barros and Greyson Fletcher were seen scorching around the bowl so fast it made you worry for the lives of other skaters. Raney Berres and Ronnie Sandoval put on an invert clinic in the deep end that was sure to put a tear in the eye of Jeff Grosso. Newcomer Chris Russell became a household name during the semis and finals with his impressive ability to string endless lines together like a seasoned pro. In the end, Chocolate Skateboards pro and all-around smooth operator Raven Tershy (who got a taste of the podium during the first VDI contest in 2013) came to claim his first place hardware in 2014. His insane frontside 180 fakie five-O across the vert wall and 12-foot noseblunt slides across the deck got the crowd behind him making it a no-brainer for the judges.

Click over to our 2015 Skate Scheduling Rundown to plug the dates and times into your phone so you don’t miss one minute of this year’s action. Unless you’re still frozen in cryogenic sleep, which means you’re probably not reading this anyway, so disregard and sweet dreams.