hey everybody,
sorry to have gone MIA for the last stretch. had to take some time off to tend to some family matters.
anyhow, i haven't read over the last 20 pages of comments yet, but thought i'd interject a few comments as general contest follow-up...
we chose john as the winner because to us, as the founders of the contest and with our taste and take on everything, he had the best mixture of talent, attitude, and it seemed like this was his time more so than with some of the other guys. reuben, being only 16, has plenty of time to mature and gain more experience and will undoubtedly do something in skateboarding if he focuses on it. forrest is in the right window of time as well, but it was his attitude through most of the week that made him hard to pick. he's obviously super talented at what he chooses to skate, but probably has some personal growth to do before companies will want to put a real investment into him. i do think that he's on his way with that, though, and hope that this experience has been a positive one for him. he and i had a really long one-on-one talk off camera before the finals day, and i think he got a much better sense of how things had been for everybody around him during the week. after that he did seem to try to make some changes, as you saw in the episodes, so i think it'll work out for him in the end. i hope it does.
as for sponsor stuff, john has chosen to work with zero for his board sponsor, and jamie thomas is really excited about it. there's been some talk about an ad for him possibly, as well as footage in the next zero vid. he's hard at work on his follow-up interview, which will be a video part, some photos, and an written interview. that should be happening before too long, maybe about six weeks out. i have also offered forrest a follow-up interview as well, which he has accepted, so watch for that in coming months as well.
so yeah, john is hooked up with zero and several of the other sponsors of the contest. some of the other guys are coming out of the contest in a good spot, too-- enjoi contacted me about reuben, and they are working on getting him set up on their flow program. matty has been in touch with deluxe and will be getting flow from them. selfish actually did contact me about forrest, and i passed that along to him, but he wasn't interested in pursuing it. with how good he is and all the exposure he gained from the contest, i'm sure something good will happen for him before too long.
all in all, this year was a huge leap ahead for OIAM and we're stoked that it got so much attention. everybody involved brought a lot to the total experience, and you guys on the forum and following the contest really helped get the fires burning. between all the episodes, we're going to end up with well over a million views for the contest this year, which is pretty big.
in coming weeks and months there will be more follow-up on the contest, so keep you eyes peeled. also, there's the next round of OIAM...
we're bumping the schedule of it up a bit this year, so the call for entries will be happening sooner than usual. we are also looking at changing the location, possibly to NYC. with those changes and how much heat this year's contest generated, the next one might be even bigger, so if you want to enter or know somebody who might, start getting ready soon!