You can view more details of 10th annual King of the Groms competition series at: KingoftheGroms.net

2011 / 2012 King of the Groms & King of the AMs Schedule:
QUALIFIER #1: Sept. 23rd – 25th, 2011 – Skaters Edge Skatepark
QUALIFIER #2: Oct. 21st – 23rd, 2011 – 3rd Lair SkatePark
QUALIFIER #3: Nov. 11th -13th, 2011 – Progressive Skatepark
QUALIFIER #4: Dec. 9th -11th, 2011 – Skatelab Skatepark
QUALIFIER #5: Jan. 13th -15th, 2012 – Southside Skatepark
QUALIFIER #6: Feb. 16th – 19th, 2012 – Kids That Rip Skatepark

CHAMPIONSHIP: June 14th -17th, 2012 – 3rd Lair SkatePark
(Invite Only)

Name?
Randall Richard Ploesser

Age?
16. No, wait, 14. no.. what did my agent say?

From?
St. Louis, MO

Sponsors?
As of now Birdhouse skateboards, vans (flow), infinity skateshop in st. louis (Now High 5 Skateboards)

Years Skating?
11

Who were your biggest influences when you first started skating?

Mostly my friends that I skated with, It was awhile before I started getting into videos and magazines and all that rot. local legends like troy mccay, joe jackson, jeremy jones… the list goes on.

So I had been hearing rumors of you being on Pretty Skateboards, Enjoi, and
now Birdhouse. What’s up, can I get a timeline or something?
The plight of the midwestern skateboarder is a frustrating one indeed. I had been on birdhouse flow for some time before the TM cut me off flow a couple years back for no good reason. After that confusing debacle, I recieved enjoi boards unofficially (not considered “flow”) from a friend of mine who was a rep for dwindle at the time, That helped a lot. At some point, the TM at birdhouse had left his job and taken a considerable chunk of the team with him. Drew Etzkorn (young St. Louis ripper, look for his part in the upcoming Pretty video) emailed Jeremy Klien asking what had happened with me, and Jeremy responded by saying that he had no say in the decision to give me the boot and would be happy to send me boards again. I came out to california on a trip and skated with everyone again and they put me on. Thanks Drew. Pretty skateboards is a homie company in st. louis with which I am still affiliated. There is a full length video coming out over christmas that i’ll have a part in, along with several other St. Louisians. Boards are available at infinity skateshop in south county St. Louis, there is also a 5 minute promo video for sale. heres my last plug: www.prettyskateboards.com

What ever happened with Altered Skates? There were all kinds of stories
flying around that departure. What happened?
I’m not entirely certain, but after 16 years of business something obviously went terribly wrong. Things haven’t been the same since Altered went under.

What’s the big new now? Any classified info you can throw out at everyone?
I front blunt nollie flipped out on the el toro rail.. it just felt like the right thing to do. The footage should be in the upcoming birdhouse video.

If you had to guess how many kickflips do you think you could do in a row?
I think i did 17 at one of the high ridge benefit thingys, some kid with a really shitty board shaped like a rectangle beat me though. He should probably be the one in the big leagues, not me.

Here’s a good one. What or who would be your ideal woman?
Your mom.

Finally, if you had one sentence to be remembered by, what would it be?
like an epitaph or something? “What a half-assed jackoff this clown was.” No, i have no idea.

Name?
Justin Smolenski

Age?
20 years young

From?
Springfield Illinois/ Chi Town for the people out there that only think of that when I say Illinois.

Sponsors?
I want to thank Skanks (Skank Skates) and 217 (skateshop) for all the low prices as for real sponsors, haven’t got that far yet.

So how is it skating in Springfield, IL?
Sucks, the only place to skate is our park. They have the best bowl in the world and it’s the only thing I like about springfield.

It seems really tight knit and a little hardcore there, especially when Skank Skates was the heart of the scene for so long. How has 217 and the city putting in skateparks helped the overall skateboarding scene there?
George from Skanks tried for about 17 years to get a park and no one ever listened to him, they all thought he was dirt, but after fighting for it all that time, it worked. As for everyone else I have ever met, they never gave a shit about the scene in Springfield. So give it up for George, even though no one gives him credit.

I remember back in the day, you were skating the “Beast of the East” competition circuit. How was that? Did you like it?
Yeah, those days were the shit. First contest I have ever won, so yeah I have George to thank for those also.

You are in the city’s capitol! Do you often go and skate the government buildings? Any serious run-ins?
Yeah, there are some good spots, not many, but the ones that you actually want to skate we get kicked out real quick. Its the capitol but no one cares for this town, except the Government. As for serious run-ins, the cops are on that, but if we have trouble at our park, they won’t show up for like an hour or so. They dont give a shit about the scene.

Here is a tough question. Who would you consider to be the best skaters in Springfield? (besides you being at that #1 spot of course)
The whole crew when they actually stop and put there minds off of themselves. Grant Muler, Ryan Mcdonald, Kaleb Yetter. As for the best guy that just blew my mind from Springfield would be Gary Brammer and Bruce Williams. The bowl riders here are just amazing skaters.

Lastly, give your advice for anyone wanting to visit Springfield, IL to skate.
The bowls at the park. That’s it. The scene is here, hit me up and we will show you the way, or the way we survive it.

Name?
Chaz Ortiz

Age?
12

From?
Chicago, Illinois

Sponsors?
Zoo-York, Bones wheels, E`S shoes, Force Trucks, Diamond, Uxa clothing, Ill grip, Warp skate park

Years Skating?
6

So what’s going on with Chaz right now?
Right now I’m getting ready to skate the Tampa Am in January, I had a chance to skate with Patrick Melcher he came to the Warp skatepark with the American misfit guys they filmed me doing 12 tricks on a rail, it should be on fuel TV some time in the summer. I was also in California for 2 weeks skating the hometown hero’s contest and the damn-am.

I remember when United Skate was doing their Beast of the East Comps, you were at almost all of them. What happened with that? Did you ever go up to New York for the finals?
The united skate competitions were great I met a lot of people and made some longtime friends along the way, I did go to Philadelphia for the finals, actually I went 3 years in a row, While I was down there I meet Jefferson Pang from Zoo York, he was there with Harold Hunter and Zared Besset, they were looking for new talent that is where I got hooked up with zoo when I was 10 years old.

Give me an impressive trick you’ve been trying to master.
Flat bar… front board slide kick flip out, I only stuck it once so far…

Who is currently influencing you most in skateboarding?
Really no one right now, I skate a lot with John Dickson at the warp, He is good and pushes me to try new stuff.

What are you hoping to accomplish here in the near future?
I’m hoping one day to become a pro, I would like to travel and see different places and meet different people, what would be better than getting to travel, skate and get paid for sometime you love to do..

Give some advice to all the younger guys trying to come up right now? What do you know that they don’t?
I would say just continue to skate with your friends and have a good time.  If you are looking to get sponsored you are going to have to travel to different contest so the teams managers from the companies can see what you got!  If you get sponsored try not to flip companies, all the reps know each other its like a circle, one month a rep can be working here the next month he could be working somewhere else don’t burn your bridges.

Paul Rodriguez on Skateboarding.

P Rod talking about why he loves skateboarding.

It’s all about doing you and doing what you want to do.

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