Earlier this month, well over two hundred skateboarders from across the globe either hopped on planes or piled into various other people-movers, and converged on one of the longest standing skateboard parks in the world: Jacksonville, Florida’s Kona Skatepark. Each and every one of these skaters traveled to Kona for one reason and one reason alone: The 2013, “King of Kona”.
Kona’s legendary downhill snake-run was definitely the draw for many of the shredders in attendance, and as you can see in the images below, it paid in dividends of mega fun and hella good times. Although the 1977 built snake-run was in fact the event’s focal-point, it was by no means the only thing skaters shredded. The 13ft vert ramp, vast street-course, various pathways, banks, walls, pole-jams, mini-ramps, a huge tombstone, and an epic kidney bowl provided for three nights and two days of endless explorations into the realms of Shrednastiness.
Canadian homie and Skate Invader representative, Cindy Zhou, coolin’ out and gettin’ chill with the homies. Photo: Anna Karenina.
This is The Penguin (Stephen Vaughn), He killed it all weekend, pop-shuvit grabber. Photo: Noam Nabokov.
“Sometimes things happen for a reason and this year “King of Kona” couldn’t have happened at any better time. Although we would have loved to have had the original event I think it’s safe to say our back-up will become a permanent addition to the Florida skate scene. Firstly, we would like to thank the Ramos family for being the most hospitable and raddest family around and allowing us to take over their park for 4 days. I would also like to thank Andrew Mercado from Gullwing Truck Co. for helping me coordinate this all last minute. Another unsung hero that’s been behind the scenes and has always been there is Shawn Tseng. Stoked we had the huge sponsor support even after the event had to be moved. Huge “thank yous” are in order for Rayne, Bustin, Wheelase Magazine, Comet, Original, Paris, Caliber, Gullwing, Divine, Volante, Blood Orange, Push Culture, G-Form, and The Ian Tillmann Foundation. We look forward to bringing “King of Clermont” back in 2014, along with the newly created and tremendously fun “King of Kona!” -Cameron Frazier (Event Organizer)
The diversity of terrain, the hospitality of Kona’s owners & staff, as well as the growing inclination within our culture to skate everything, leads us to believe that the potential for future “King of Kona” events is huge. If you attended “King of Kona” this year then you already know what we’re talkin’ ‘bout. If you did not attend this year’s event, well, you better get your fine-ass to Jacksonville next year for KOK, 2014. So much fun, so much ripping!
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