Thrasher Magazine

The 18th annual Phoenix Am sponsored by Cowtown and Vans brought the top ams from all over the world into the frying pan of Central Arizona. With over 200 competitors, a Ben Horton art show and live music featuring Redman and Method Man of the Wu-Tang Clan, all in attendance were guaranteed a fired-up good time and an equally heated sunburn. —Joe Hammeke

The 18th annual Phx Am course, redesigned for 2019

The young ones are up early—and ripping! Twelve-year-old Malachi Gray with a kickflip front blunt to fakie

Giovanni Vianna is always a top contender, and with moves like this half Cab to backside 5-0 it’s no surprise

Cedric Pabich with a feeble to fakie to start the day off. Always watchin’

Pedro Delfino knows how to have a good time, double-board grinder

Taihou Tokura was barging all over the course, high-speed backside ollie

The rainbow rail was new this year and quite a few skaters 50-50d the span but Miles Canevello takes a unique route with a board stall yank over. You may remember Miles from our Jan 2019 Subscribe ad in the mag where he’s boardsliding a 40-stair hubba!

Closing out the first day of practice is Nate Greenwood with a clean backside 180 to fakie 5-0

On the way out, Jerome Wong was already lined up, ready for the 17-hour wait ’til the park re-opened so he could collect the “first in line” prize. That’s dedication

Then it was off to Legend City Studios for the Ben Horton art show

Am Scrambler Fabiana Delfino, Breana Geering, and Una Farrar shotgun some cold ones before entering

Thrasher’s Zounds columnist Wez Lundry spinning the tunes. Check out the original pressing of Dick Dale’s “Misirlou”

Nick Zizzo and lensman Jon Spitzer check out some of Ben Horton’s drawings. Jon shot Pedro Delfino’s Feb 2018 boardslide cover

Antonio Millan and Pyramid Country’s Jackson Casey

There was a raffle for a Vans Fender Guitar, some Ben Horton artwork and lots of Vans product with all proceeds going to the family of longtime Cowtown employee Alex Pugh to help his father battle cancer. Steve Van Doren stocks up on some tickets

Look who came up in the raffle game—Don Naughty and Maaike

Maaike proves your hands are never too full to take another sip of beer

Saturday morning, bright and early breakfast brews with Manchild and Cody Chapman. Pace yourselves, boys

Happy Hour was giving out free shades if you could get the ping-pong ball in the Solo cup or in Lefty’s mouth. Cole Wilson was on dog duty

Even without speed shades, Cody Chapman hauls ass

Another Scrambler, Simon Bannerot had one of the more spontaneous runs of the qualifiers, backside nosegrind

Everything may be bigger in TX but Ryan Thompson wallie melon was still pretty massive in AZ

Chucky charging hard and getting everybody fired up

Steve Forstner ollied The Wedge back in 2007. Now he’s managing the Santa Cruz boys and giving Dylan Williams good advice, like, “Just skate faster. Always skate faster!”

Tanner VanVark (Scrambler, too) casually killed the qualifiers. Moves like this slappy to frontside hurricane earned him the Golden Ticket which moved him straight to the finals

Sunny Suljic and Kader Sylla—the kids are alright

Eli Williams skated faster than most. This massive frontside flip is proof

Aaron Goure is always good for something unique like this nosegrind grab over the rainbow rail

Tyson Peterson, hyped!

Sometimes you only gotta land one or two tricks in your run and everyone gets fired up. This frontside flip by Manchild did just that. Unfortunately, only landing one trick does’t get you to the semifinals. Good thing there’s plenty of empty pools in the neighborhood!

Gustavo Servin is always a top dog. He made the top 40 but not the top 12. Look for a Hall of Meat on the website soon with Gustavo. Ouch!

If you asked two-year-old Zander Brand to pick his favorite skater he’s gonna say the Muska! Nice work, poppa Alex

Saturday night was the Phx Am afterparty where the 160 skaters who didn’t make the cut got to party their faces off at a live performance by Redman and Method Man

Redman, off the wall, off the stage and onto the barricade

Thank you, good night and get some rest! Semifinals start at 11am

Sunday morning’s line of fans waiting to get in—and it wasn’t even 10 yet!

Vans team manager Johnny Layton helping Roman Pabich out with some sunscreen

Giovanni Vianna was already on the course warming it up with moves like this half Cab to frontside nosegrind

Dominick Walker was getting his lines dialed, front biggie

Jorge Simoes from Porto, Portugal finished 6th with moves like this 180 to switch crooks

The Phx Am raffle hosted by Cowtown is always a big hit. The U-Haul is filled with stuff from all of your favorite skate companies and product is raffled off throughout the weekend

Arthur Cordova’s speed shades, dress shirt and kickflip back tails helped him finish in 11th place

Henry Gartland always goes big—back noseblunt finishing in 9th place

Tanner VanVark warming up for finals with a slappy back Smith and finishing in 8th place. To steal Burnett’s joke: Ollies Never!

When you get the Golden Ticket you also get a Q and A with The Muska

Jake Wooten, massive ollie and a 7th place finish

All the way from Bogota, Colombia, Jhancarlos Gonzalez with a front three into 5th place

Austin Heilman from Huntington Beach, CA, with a 180 switch crooks and a 4th place finish

Thirteen-year-old Lazer Crawford, the youngest one in the finals with a hardflip back lip…

…and a front blunt on the back wall

Maurice Jordan, kickflip front board

Then Muska called on Giovanni Vianna to ollie over him to hype up the final runs

"That was chillin', chillin'"

Giovanni, frontside half Cab to backside 5-0

Followed by a full Cab to front nose

Peace out

Time for the results. The top three are Lazer Crawford, Maurice Jordan and…

…then Matt Schlager sprayed all the camera men with champagne

Congrats to Giovanni Vianna for winning Phx Am 2019!

Props from Muska. Priceless

More props from the new Primitive team manager Taylor McClung. Thanks to all this year’s sponsors and especially to the amazing staff at Cowtown for consistently pulling this off for 18 years and running. Here’s to 18 more!