But he didn’t win. Instead he got awarded a limited edition bobblehead to be sold through the Thrasher website as some sort of bizarre consolation prize. So why didn’t Figgy get it? Now this is when we get into the proper conspiracy theory stuff. “Coincidentally “2012 also marked the launch of “Thrasher Latin America” a Spanish edition of the magazine and the website with a focus on all things south of the border. Y’know yerself, new markets and all that.
And do you know what, broadly speaking, the Latin American skateboading community love? (The ones that don’t love giant jeans, flipping in and out of ledge tricks and listening to Supreme Clientele I mean.) Shitty metal bands and little Colombian-born David Gonzalez, who dropped out of school at 12 to move to the States and make it big. What better way to ensure a strong opening quarter for new Thrasher latin america than to fill the first few issues of next year with lots of David Gonzalez? The early issues of Thrasher every year always features a great deal of coverage for the SOTY and his sponsors.
Now, some would say it’s kind of ludicrous even disputing David’s legitimacy as SOTY when he is out there grinding 32 stair double sets and essentially throwing himself off buildings and those people have a point. Gonzalez is obviously extremely talented and bordering on suicidally unhinged in his selection of things to skate and would no matter what have been one of the front-runners. But what’s the point in obsessing over something as trivial as skateboarding if you aren’t gonna really obsess over it, right?
