Thrasher Magazine

Before we lost Joe Hammeke, he and the Cowtown owners had long-standing plans for an exhibition of his photos to coincide with PHXAM. Well, goddamnit, they still made it happen. The weekend festivities kicked off at Legend City Studios in Downtown Phoenix with over 150 prints on the wall and for sale. Follow us through as we snap up everyone from hometown heroes to full-blown legends. Joe woulda loved it. —Ted Schmitz

After two years away, we are finally back in the building, everybody! What’s that? I fucked up the focus? Shit

Second try. We start off with Cowtown manager and Sci-Fi superfan Brian Masterson alongside up-and-coming Phoenician talent Hayden Dean. Stay tuned for the Midtone video breaking the internet very soon

Legend City Studios, a staple venue of the Phoenix scene

Stepping inside, we have a model citizen tipping the bartender. Round of applause for my guy, please

Front and center we got the Hambone Forever feature from the mag and some cutting-edge fashion choices with an iPhone cable. Let’s take a lap…

Getting off on the good foot, we got local legend Andy Levy. When he’s not in the park, he’s perfecting every stray blade on the Cardinal’s field. Probably the only guy I give the sports pass to

Shane Short and Thomas Turner, I’ve known ‘em since they were babies and now they can beat me up. Time sucks

Epic Spots, groundbreaking maneuvers and some of the finest flicks from a life on the road, the locals take a second to appreciate

A rare title-free look at Cairo’s cover crook and Jaws when cavities were his only bodily ailment

Did Joe get along with Cards? Bet yer ass

The essence of Sinclair and Nick Merlino’s friendship

Alright, let’s keep the lap going. Great to see Alex Brand and his daughter Shay

This ain't a KOTR stunt, Marco Tellez is hoping to inspire the 30-and-ups to Skate After Work—the family and cul-de-sac really sell it

Lookback Kevin got all Joe’s covers in one spot. Pickin’ a favorite was a tough order

Speakin’ of the front, cover boy David Reyes came all the way to peep Preston Harper and Kevin Willrick’s fly out doubles

Shaun Gregoire, Trent Martin and the mag’s Jerome Case, two of these guys were essential in organizing the night’s event and the other one once had a stack of 30 Birdhouse boards in their room

Speaking of essential personnel, Trent and Laura Martin couldn’t be happier to have the weekend back at full steam

And of course, our guest of honor, Jessica Arloa Hammeke. It just wouldn’t be PHXAM without a strong Hammeke presence. Her arms were probably sore by the end of the night just from the hundreds of hugs

New York’s Cody Rosenthal moved to Arizona just in time for triple-digit days

And our first SOTY sighting, Rowley obliged many fan photos that night

We got Welcome broomriders Laird, Karl, Mathias and Daniel too. Maybe they’re scouting to fill that new vacancy

Or maybe, they’re just here for the beer. I totally didn’t steal that joke from a Roger graphic. Anyway, free PHXAM cans were provided by Shop Beer Co. So that's pretty cool

Made sure to move Steve Van Doren over to a photo with Vans in it. It was only about a two-foot walk

I saw a famous podcaster walking into the bathroom so I made him take a photo. My people skills were at an all-time high. I'd say six out of ten

Fakie V flip switch crook on the Deck Park step-up ledge? Yeah, Kwazz did it and then met up at the photo show five years later with Genevive

Anything you have to write or make should be new or controversial. I paid $3,000 at ASU for a Philosophy prof to tell me that, while Joe knew this intuitively

Skate After School Director, Vert Button podcast co-host and other half of my comedy writing collective Tim Ward rode out with Phoenix’s premiere aerialist Mary Hayes

But who cares about the non-profit people and school teachers?! We’re here to see pros...and ams! The Pabich bros cover both our bases. And if you say “I saw you when you were this small” to these dudes, you owe 'em $20

Don Brown works on his beer-can freestyle close to Cowtown’s Baggy Brad

Vert revivalist and Send Help pro J-Mod came by with Ava

Forjan, Levy and Link help with the print sale to raise cash for the Hammekes

Rhino’s gotta show some love to GT

Joe was a dog guy, so it’s cool we had Sapphire wandering around with her crew

Self-appointed President of Skateboarding Pete Grannis came by to get inspired for another skate-trivia post

Legends of the sky, Alex Chalmers and Jaws

The same as last photo but with a lab-coat-free Paul Schmitt

Rhino’s either giving Omar a hug or about to choke him out. I’ll let Gavin deal with it

Taliesin and Ansel have their own shirt graphic?! True story, I spilled a drink on that shirt Miles Canavello is holding, so I bought it. Unrelated, does anyone know how to expand a child’s size small to an adult large?

Wait, we got more SOTYS?! Chris Senn came to encourage his son Julian in the contest

Lest we forget, Skate Mental’s John Motta shot an entire interview with Joe

Oh damn, Dr. Adriana joins skateboarding’s hottest free agent in a chat with the Greens. Just me, but I think Ryan would make one helluva valet

Let’s follow him around a bit. First stop, he’s gotta catch up with Johnny Layton and Zach Sheats from Vans

The SLAP boards will have a field day with that selfie

It’s still all love in this coven, I swear! Ryan Lay, Daniel Vargas and Dr. Thraxxx

Heading outside, we bumped into THERE skateboards' star and master of the dolphin flip Chandler Burton. If you don't know Bottom Feeder, you're an idiot and I hate you. I mean, watch it here

Heavy Metal Parking Lot

Loserfur blew a couple ear drums 

Alright, you motherfuckers...

GET IN THE PIT AND TRY TO LOVE SOMEONE!

Looks like they did pretty well, or that pizza is burning the roof of homie's mouth

Crowd favorites Una Farrar and Hannah Tallman spotted in the VIP section

Peter Dericks from Vans came over to give a cheers to Nikki and Ed Cox

T-Puds caught a free slice with Dennis Martin and John Dilo

The best pizza is free pizza, after all

I didn’t know these two beautiful people but I thanked them for helping keep the lights on

We gotta get the fuck outta here. Pat Gallaher’s my Lyft home in this five-miles-to-the-gallon guy

Two more pics. Giants of the late-aughts Midwest skate video canon, Jackson Casey and Deluxe’s Tim Fulton talk fav Nixon campaign graphics with Hayden Dean. I’m a classic double-peace-sign Dick kinda guy

And that's all she wrote. Sadly, I missed the point in the night, where Jessica passed on some of Joe's camera gear to local aspiring skate photographer Kyle Catchpol. Hopefully, it guides him as well as it did the kid from Nebraska. They don’t make shows and gatherings like this for the average Joes, only for the exceptional. Hambone was obviously the latter. He left behind an undeniable legacy and a beautiful family. Thank you, Ed, Trent and Laura at Cowtown for putting the show together. Thank you, Jerome Case, for hanging everything. Thank you to Vans as well for sponsoring the event, and of course the fine folks at Legend City Studios for hosting. Oh yeah, and thanks again to Shop Beer Co. for the libations. It was a night to remember.