As you might know, Monster Energy and Empire have been collaborating on a lot of historical skateboarding events over the years. To celebrate our 10 years of partnership, we decided to revisit some of the best Monster x Empire events of the past decade. This week, the Am Getting Paid 2016 edition.
AM GETTING PAID EXPLAINED
The Empire Am Getting Paid is the biggest amateur skateboarding competition in Canada, period. The contest’s mission was to showcase the best amateur skaters through the course of a full weekend in Montreal, Canada.
Being an amateur skateboarder today is unfortunately not how you will get rich... A reason why competitions like the Am Getting Paid represent a real opportunity for young talented skaters to get that much needed help in order to take their career to the next level. With a prize purse of $20 000 to be divided between winners, skaters who stand out the most will make their access to the next level a little easier. One more chance for them to do what they love as a job.
Even more than for the prize money, winning an Am Getting Paid has become a stepping stone for any amateur skateboarder wanting to turn their passion into a professional career. It's 100% true, a lot of Am Getting Paid winners from previous years are today's top pros. Some of them are even legends already. That surely includes Jamie Foy, the AGP 2016 winner.
THE COURSE
The Am Getting Paid course is always something else! Especially in 2016 as none other than French Artist Lucas Beaufort came down to Montreal to paint the entire Taz Skatepark with his signature creatures and characters, making every single obstacle in the park very good looking and unique. Not to mention the place’s new yellow and white colors that were very pleasing to the eyes and perfect as a background for Beaufort’s art. 2016 was probably our best year in terms of the course and its look.
On the technical level, you know that Taz Skatepark is one of the best in the region and that the park features a huge number of obstacles that will please skaters of all types. Handrails and stairs of all sizes, transitions everywhere on both sides of the park. A middle section with so many street obstacles you won’t know where to start. That year, a few modifications were brought to the park, like the long flat rail into mellow bank that was murdered by Jamie Foy as well as an epic bump over fire hydrant.
THE CONTEST
Am Getting Paid 2016 was one for the books and included a lot of well-known skaters from all over the world. Jamie Foy, Zion Wright, Enzo Cautela, Jon Cos, Alex Midler, Chase Webb, Tyson Bowerbank, Jake Ilardi and more. In short, the lineup was stacked. It’s crazy to think that most of the Ams who were in the AGP 2016 finals are now pros or well on their ways to become pros.
Friday June 17th - Qualification round
The skill level inside Taz Skatepark was extremely high at AGP 2016... It's crazy how skateboarding is evolving fast these days. Tricks considered difficult a year ago are now the tricks people start their runs with!
After showing breathtaking performances and insane tricks, only 30 skaters would access the semi-finals. JS Lapierre qualified first, giving us a hope that he would get his hands on the win like the year prior to this, but with skaters such as Jamie Foy and Zion Wright also in semis, this wouldn’t be an easy task. The skating was incredible. A good preview of the craziness that was about to take place in Sunday’s finals.
Saturday June 18th - The Vans Best Trick
Am Getting Paid 2016 was the first edition where the contests days were separated by the Vans Best Trick. On Saturday June 18th, all the skaters met up at Project 45, the DIY skatepark located just behind Taz, for a day of concrete transition shredding. Even if that day was considered as a break between qualifications and finals, the skaters went off during the best trick session.
Alex Midler, Leon Chapdelaine and others got us stoked with huge grinds over P45s famous love seat, Jake Ilardi went crazy with vert inspired tricks like a 540 and a varial flip indy, but the trick that got everyone the most hyped is Zion Wright kickflip into the big quarter pipe from the top deck. Good times under the sun with great skateboarding.
Sunday June 19th - Semi-finals and Finals
The fight was really fierce in Sunday’s semi-finals, and at the end of the round, four Canadians were able to make it the finals: JS Lapierre, Scott Decenzo, Ben Paterson and Jon Cosentino. The other riders to participate to the finals were the Americans Jamie Foy, Enzo Cautela, Alex Midler, Chase Webb, Tyson Bowerbank and Jake Ilardi. With all these big names, it was clear that the finals would be something else. Let us tell you that the Taz Skatepark had never seen skating of such high level.
The riders each had 3 one minute runs to show what they were made of. The best score out the 3 runs would be the riders official scores, giving them 3 chances to perform at the highest level possible. Everybody skated really well, but towards the end of the round, the battle was between Jamie Foy and JS Lapierre.
Of course we were all rooting for our guy JS and after a flawless third run, we all thought history was about to repeat itself with a second AGP win in a row. With switch 360 flip lip slides and kickflip frontside lipslides on the biggest rails in the park, JS didn’t fall once and scored big. Only thing is one rider was left on the list… And it was Jamie Foy.
After 2 incomplete runs, he had to land everything in his 3rd one to get his hands on the prize. Unfortunately for JS, this is exactly what Jamie did. With an arsenal of huge tricks on all obstacles of the park, including an insane frontside crooks nollie shove transfer and an incredible backside 50-50 body varial to switch 50-50 revert on the park’s new flatbar into bank, he took the honors at the last minute and bumped JS in second place. Check the full results and the winning run below.
1- JAMIE FOY
2- JS LAPIERRE
3- ENZO CAUTELA
4- CHASE WEBB
5- ALEX MIDLET
6- JON COSENTINO
7- SCOTT DECENZO
8- BEN PATERSON
9- TYSON BOWERBANK
10- JAKE ILARDI
With a classic Empire After Party to end the weekend on a high note, another great edition of the Am Getting Paid was in the bag, even maybe the greatest edition to date. Thanks to Monster and all of our sponsors for making it possible.