August 13 marked the date for Slammedenuff to return to Texas to host their car show. This year, the show came down to Austin instead of returning to Dallas. As the event date approached, I was still contemplating whether or not I should attend the event. I finally decided on making the commitment to attend and make the trip out to Austin. Fellow staffer Michael Duong was going to put his ride in the show and I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with him the evening before.
After finally arriving in Austin, we made our way to another staff member Christian Jyn Duchesne’s house before heading out to dinner. Yes, there was a pre-meet in town, but instead of going to that we headed out to enjoy the evening eating some amazing sushi amongst friends. It was soooooo good, one of the best I have tried. The rest of the evening we just chilled.
In the morning we packed up the rides and made our way to Palmer Event Center where the show was being held. We arrived a little early but the line had already started to enter the show. I hopped out of the car, grabbed my camera, and made my way to the check-in area to grab my badge and snapped photos on my way. I continued snapping photos as more rides made their way into the center and as people started setting up and cleaning their rides. After a while, I switched over to video mode to snap some clips to make a video of the show. Some time had passed and I ran into staffer Hunter Cash which he left his camera at home, so I let him borrow mine for a while so he could walk around and capture more clips for the video. This was break time for me, so I ventured around the hall admiring the rides and chatting with a few people here. Eventually, my camera came back into my possession and I started shooting the coverage of the show as it was about to start.
The four of us decided to head out for lunch, but it was delayed a bit as we went back in forth on deciding where to go. Finally, we headed off to Hopdaddy to enjoy some good burgers. After spending some time there, we headed back to the show. This time I hung around outside to capture the rides that were parked in the front of the convention center. It was pretty hot, but I knew I wouldn’t return outside in the sun later so I continued shooting the rides outside until I was done.
I proceeded to return inside to wrap up the coverage in there. There were a lot of people here, so it took some time to go through and snap a photo of each ride. The activities had begun as well, bean bag toss near the loading bay doors and water pong closer to the stage. It’s beer pong but with water instead of beer in case you were wondering. I continued around the hall snapping away. After I was done, I decided to continue taking photos but this time, not the usual three-quarter shots. I guess you could say the more artist shots.
I took a few breaks as I have been up for most of the day walking around. I was pretty much down and there was still time left before the awards were supposed to start so I decided to check out the cars in the garage portion. I asked a few of the show staff but most didn’t know much information on it. I decided to go ahead and take a few minutes to see. I wasn’t sure exactly where it was supposed to be so after checking a few floors I made my way back inside. Later I hear it was on the roof but there wasn’t much of a set-up for these rides.
When I returned inside, I found the crowd huddling around in front of the stage so I made my way over to check it out. We had ourselves a little dance off. The energy was great, some of the moves were hilarious and got the crowd rolling with laughter and cheers. I took a few more video clips during this segment of the show so I stayed up close to the people that were brave enough to show off their dancing skills. After a while, the MC tried to change these up and get some of the ladies to come out and twerk… not many did. A few brave souls did, but I think in the end there was only 4 but not all at once either. I thought the MC was great and kept the crowd entertained.
I made one last trip around the cars as we waited for awards to be announced, which was right before the raffle drawing. I looked for the show models to take a few photos with them but only seemed to find two. I found Tina Tem so we took a few photos as we waited. Finally, it was time to announce the winners of the Slammedenuff Texas 2017 show. I ended up being one of the photographers taking photos of the winners with the trophies and the models. There was one other photographer right behind me, but other than that it was just us too. As soon as that was over I decided to grab the other model that was still here, Sarir aka ‘HerBaggedZ’, for a few quick photos. Once we were done, I packed up my stuff and we made our way out. I quite enjoyed the show and gladded I made it out, here’s to waiting for next years show…. maybe I will enter my own ride. Now to work on the video, stay tuned for more!
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