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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES


Most of us knew it was back on, but didn't expect such interesting first games. Skateboarding's most street-planting-est and most foot-planting-est skater, Mike Vallely, got the unlucky first game against Chris Cole. If you haven't, take a look here . It's the first game outside the rules—oddly refreshing and very awkward. Meanwhile, the Chief has a wild game with Busenitz. We know he's good, though (Ten Tricks ).

Monday, June 29, 2009

SKATE COMPETITIONS




Torey Pudwill swept the whole damn thing! Best Trick and the contest. His heat’s jam session included Eric Koston and was one of the best finals the crowd had ever seen. Peep the video to see all the madness. More puking and more amazing tricks. Torey’s best trick winning back Smith kickflip out and frontside flip over the whole electrical box are at the end of the video. Congrats Torey, drinks on you tonight! Stay tuned for more videos, contest photos, and of course party photos later this week. We’ll be flying home from Europe tomorrow.

Final results:
1 Torey Pudwill
2 Eric Koston
3 Eero Antilla
4 Zered Bassett
5 Kerry Getz
6 Neverton Casella
7 Daniel Viera
8 Phil Zwijsen
9 Klaus Bohms
10 Chris Aström
11 Matt Beach
12 Kilian Heuberger


Congrats Torak! All the skateboarding News pages and Blogs have been blowing up with the News that Torak swept the CPH Pro Competition this weekend. Torey threw down some really impressive stuff that brought him the obvious victory in both Best Trick and The Finals. The thing I am most shocked and amazed about is that he qualified 1st in the preliminaries which is often certain death and you rarely see a repeat the very next day in the finals. That kind of performance is reserved for true champions like Tiger Woods and Eric Koston. Amazing! Thanks to thirsty camera vultures we all know your secret weapon now! Pushing out the weakness by way of Vomit. When you get home Torey we gonna pop that bubbly, this time withoiut shooting it into your eye where it burns! wrap up that 1st Hand and marinate poolside! Killa!!!

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES







June 21st, 2009 was many things to many people. For most everyone on the northern hemisphere it marked the first day of summer. For all the patriarchs out there, it was a day of celebration and appreciation for Father's Day. And for all of us, it was Go Skateboarding Day. Events and sessions went down all over the globe. The cynics among us might say we don't need a skate holiday, that every day possible should be a "Go Skate" day. Nevertheless, any proper excuse to drop everything and roll for the day should be appreciated and embraced. I got out and pushed around between rainstorms and I hope you got to celebrate the day in whatever way you saw fit. As for my man Josh Brooks—homie went gusto. Brooks drove to, participated and skated in not one but three major events in the Southern California region on Go Skateboarding Day. So here are the updates on all that you might have missed.

P-Rod Skate Park Grand Opening
With Free Paul Sr. Stand-Up Bonus
On June 21st—Go Skateboarding Day 2009—P-Rod along with Nike, the LA84 Foundation and the LA Parks and Rec opened a new park with recreated spots co-designed by Lance Mountain. There's a Griffith Park imitation, a Sylmar rail revival and granite ledges for days. It opened at the Ritchie Valens Recreation Center with Paul Rodriguez Sr. running wild like he had free reign on open mic night. Here are some of the going-ons, photos of the new park and a list of the best comments Paul Sr. made all day.


The almost presidential security guards were necessary when they opened up the gates and let people try to get to P-Rod. It was insane.1) Introducing Shane O'Neil off-the-cuff, Paul Sr. said O'Neil was from Ireland (maybe because of his last name, but Shane O'Neil's from Australia)
2) While introducing Reese Forbes said something to the effect of (and I'm paraphrasing), Reese Forbes...we're happy to have him on the team. He's an amazing skateboarder, although I haven't really seen him skate.

3) When Janoski walked up to the stage to be introduced, Paul Sr. said, "In his spare time, he likes to impersonate Ringo Starr."
4) I hate to beat a dead horse, but E'erybody be likin' Theotis Beasley (Paul Sr. didn't say that. You could just hear it in the crowd). It's what you can get for staying positive, kids.

Looks like something from SF, but I don't know what this is a recreation of.5) Another funny moment was when they brought PRod on stage and opened up to questions from the crowd. "Can I have a bearing?" one kid asked. Another one, dressed in a Riddler cape held up his shoe. "I need a new shoe," he yelled. P-Rod smiled, shook his head and said, "Wait a minute. These aren't exactly questions." They shut down that Q&A real fast after that.

The Griffith Park ditch, both ways.6) After the grandstanding, they did a short demo. P-Rod killed it and Danny Supa tried to put down some tricks. Meanwhile, Paul Sr. was running around throwing out jokes. At one point, he called Danny Supa Mr. Clean and asked him how long he's been impersonating Lex Luther (all in good fun).

7) Lastly, Paul Sr. quipped, so truthfully, "If any of you happen to have a son that you can borrow money from, I suggest you do it. It's great."

It was a fun event and swarming with people, which only proves the importance of the park. Not only does it look amazing, but in a place like Pacoima, CA, it's not only nice to have, it's a much needed outlet for kids who have a lot of opportunities to get themselves into real trouble (and I'm not talking about typical suburban trouble, I'm talking

about drugs, guns, gangs and all the legal trouble that comes along with them). It was great to see Paul Sr. and Jr. interact, because Sr.'s such a continuous joker that Jr. just lays back and stays quite. You can tell from seeing him with his father and working on projects like this that he's very much his mother's child. Nevertheless, there would be no Paul Jr. without a the comedic Paul Sr., so was a nice Father's Day celebration to see them working together for a good cause.

Mark Appleyard and Louie Lopez signed for the kids.Josh Brooks
I'm giving a thumbs down to the fact that the park didn't open, not a thumbs down to the park. I'm eager as hell for this thing to open up.Go Skateboarding Day in Venice started off as a little bit of a let down for me. It's not to say that the event wasn't fun. It's just that I drove nearly an hour to cover it, expecting the shredfest would be coupled with the opening of the new Venice skatepark. It didn't.

Still, it was fun for the kids. Mark Appleyard, Louie Lopez, Terell Robinson, Ryan Decenzo and some other heads were signing autographs, while kids were shredding picnic tables, fire hydrants and kickers to oil drums—everything spraypainted in typical Venice fashion. There was a miniature version of Moose —a mini-Moose—and a whole bunch of people in interesting clothes, wild hair and all the craziness you can expect from Venice.
The last event I made it to on Go Skateboarding Day was Dennis Busenitz's adidas shoe release/skate jam in Upland, California. This was the first time I had been to Upland and, maybe it was dilusion from being trapped in the car, but when I got out of my automobile, I kind of liked it. It had a beautiful landscape and a tranquil lifestyle. This happened to differ greatly with how the demo went. Apparently, it was packed in and non-stop skating. The Adidas van was there and a DJ bumped some tunes while kids shredded with Dennis and other Deluxe dudes.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES




It comes with great saddness to many that the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, is dead. Regardless of what turmoil surrounded his life (especially the latter part), he will always have the Moon Walk, millions of devoted fans and, for us skate rats, the soundtrack to a few epic skate parts. Here are a few that stand out:

Guy Mariano skates to "ABC" in Blind Video Days. The audio's off due to copyright, but you can imagine the music. (to see more, click read more)

Jereme Rogers, skateboarding's most recent pro to go MIA, has retired to devote his life to music in the way that Jackson did early on. There's no telling how that will go, but Jereme Rogers will always have his part in the legendary Yeah, Right? to MJ's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."

Kareem Campbell set P-Rod's part in City Star's Street Cinema to the same Jackson 5 song as Guy Mariano, possibly as a statement that P-Rod was the new young guy—the future. Whether that's the perception or not, it just proves that "ABC" is a banger to skate to (regretfully, sound turned off here as well, so just remember).

Tony Tave skated to "Working Day and Night" in Circa's It's Time (an often overlooked video, by the way).

Last, but not least, Jerry Hsu skated to "Beat It" in Tilt Mode Man Down. This part put a smile on your face, so I think it's appropriate to watch it the day after MJ died. We should be enjoying what he left us...

His tunes were probably used on even more homey videos, but these are a few parts that I could find. Skaters, like the general public, are not immune to a hit and Michael Jackson, for all his flaws and weirdness, almost never disappointed on that level. I'm sure everyone can agree it's a bummer to see him go. RIP Michael Jackson.

(Note: I remembered most of these parts on my own, but I have to credit wiskate.com with Tony Tave's. Putting aside my Wisconsin bias (I'm from Wisconsin), the fact that I kind of know these dudes and their role in the production of one of the most epic videos ever (Beez! ), they have a rad site with the soundtrack catalog of almost every video you can think of . They also have some awesome short clips and reviews. Worth a check out.)

Saturday, June 27, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES



DAKINE LAUNCHES MOBILE SITE

HOOD RIVER, Ore. (June 24, 2009) – DAKINE, the leader in action sports accessories, is pleased to introduce its mobile website. A newly launched, interactive site gives users access to DAKINE goodies while on the go. Content is broken down into categories including snowboard, ski, surf, skate, bike, windsurf, kiteboard, girls and music. An abbreviated version of DAKINE’s website, the mobile site, www.DAKINE.com/mobile, is compatible with most media rich-enabled cell phones.

Featured products, team riders, news sections, sponsored bands and a retail store locator round out the mobile site highlights. When connected to a high-speed wireless or 3G network users can experience optimum performance of streaming music and video clips.

Additionally, worldwide surf reports provided by Surfline.com are located within the surf, windsurf and kiteboard categories. Snow reports provided by OnTheSnow.com display conditions for North American destinations and are accessible in the ski and snowboard categories.

About DAKINE
Backed by a pro team roster that includes some of the world’s top action sports athletes, DAKINE has been an industry leader in action sports accessories for thirty years. Founded in Hawaii and based in Hood River, Oregon, DAKINE offers a complete range of innovative products, including sport-specific to street-savvy backpacks, bags, travel gear and accessories for guys and girls. To view the current line of DAKINE products, log on to www.DAKINE.com

Thursday, June 25, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES









Normally, I wouldn't pay attention to something so inane as a Fox News commentator ranting about the disrespectful nature of Tony Hawk's "weak ass" manual in the White House.

I've heard my fair share of snide remarks about how a skateboard is a child's toy, and how I'm entirely too old to still be skating. So it goes without saying that one more narrow-minded opinion doesn't really shock me: much ado about nothing, business as usual. But, when an editorial like Greg Gutfeld's "Greg-alogue" goes as far as to belittle Tony Hawk and what he has devoted his life to, not only does it spit in the face of Hawk, but it belittles what skateboarding means to millions of kids worldwide.

Gutfeld affirmed that Hawk skating in the White House made him mad ... that having Tony Hawk in the White House was an attempt by Obama to have the cool kids like him. He also lumped skateboarding in with MTV, Mountain Dew, "Road Rules" and Hot Topic. He said that if you disagree, "Then you, sir, are worse than Hitler," a remark which should be saved for the worst of the worse, not someone who disagrees with Gutfeld. These types of statements are nothing more than calls for attention, like the time Gutfeld took several little people (think Pancho Moler here) to a conference of the Magazine Publishers of America and had them be as loud as possible to generate buzz for the magazine Stuff, which he ran at the time (He was later fired).

I realize the White House holds a special place in people's hearts, but a brief manual in a hall of the White House (a nondestructive trick which requires nothing more than raising your wheels off the ground) is no more damaging than the years of baggage carts and traffic that go in and out of the president's home. Are we to assume that the White House bell boys are also being disrespectful?

So, from far away, I want to ignore Gutfeld's remarks. But when dissected, they are an insult to what skateboarding has been, is and will be and I think that should be spoken to. I'm not concerned about the political implications this attack has on President Obama. People will likely come to their senses and realize the insignificance of wheels on a floor, and Tony Hawk will come out unscathed. And, I am of the opinion that "this Iranian crap" as Gutfeld crudely described the contested presidential election and subsequent protests in Iran, is one of the most important events happening in the world right now.

Sarah Hall Productions, Inc

The manual in question.
It's hard to talk about this in the same breath as the clashes occurring in Iran. But, the question that remains is just how his comments help at all. Why skateboarding? If the current Iranian conflict is so worrisome to a commentator, what good does it do to complain about a manual at the White House during a First Father's gathering? As reprehensible as the events in Iran are, should America call everything off? No Father's Day?

The same could be said about what I'm writing right now. Like Gutfeld's, my words do not have a meaningful impact on the events in Iran. But, I write about skateboarding, so Gutfeld's words concern me on those grounds. In his monologue, Gutfeld described Tony Hawk as follows, "Look: [He] is in his mid-forties. He is wildly successful and a very nice guy." He added, "But he's a grown man and he skateboards ... in the White House." Under the video posted on the Fox News page it reads, "Tony Hawk is a Jackass."



For Hawk these seem to be nothing more than a few more snide remarks. In his role as an ambassador for skateboarding in some of its earliest stages, when it was ridiculed and scorned by the greater public, this was nothing out of the ordinary. Tony Hawk later responded on his Twitter (which is what got him in trouble to begin with), "Wow, haters! My passion, the sport that made me who I am, has allowed me to live the American Dream, disrespects the White House? Not at all." He later added, "I did no damage, as I also saw cart and trolley wheels rolling along the same floor. Funny how football on the WH lawn yesterday = no drama."

So, Why isn't football on the White House lawn as controversial? Why wasn't putting in the oval office met with the same contempt? Why is it that skateboarding is often viewed as a second-rate sport?

For any adult who still participates in a sport, you could argue that sports are irrelevant—that they do not benefit society. Theoretically, if that's the argument, we could do away with all sports. If skateboarding is an act which Gutfeld finds unfit for a guy in his mid-40s, then what's to be said athletes playing football or baseball or any other sport?

However, we covet sports. And, skateboarding, as fringe as it is and always will be, should be held in the same regard as any other sport—both for the athleticism and skill it requires, but more so for the outlet it provides boys, girls, men and women, aged 4 to 60. When the prospects of sponsorships and pro careers dwindle, skateboarding reverts to what it is in its essence—a chance to step outside the worries and ills of everyday life, at home and abroad.

Just the other day, I interviewed Oliver Percovich, an Australian gentleman who started the organization Skateistan. Two years ago, he brought boards to Afghanistan and has since used them to provide an outlet to children living in a war-torn country with a crumbling infrastructure. Skateboarding, the same thing that Gutfeld treated as second-rate, unfit for a man in his mid-40s and disrespectful, is being used as a vehicle to mix different socioeconomic groups in the city of Kabul. The program just laid the cornerstone for a complex which will include an indoor skate park and, when it's finished, will offer classes to both children living on the streets and those who are better-off, giving all of them skills to be successful and have a stake in their country's future.


This morning, I wrote about a Real skateboard which will be used to support the Second Wind Fund, a group that works to prevent teen suicide.
So, to dismiss skateboarding—to view it as second-rate or use it as a political chess piece—is disingenuous. It's much more than that. And, while it will always boil down to the feeling one gets from standing on the board, like any sport, it deserves respect

The last event I made it to on Go Skateboarding Day was Dennis Busenitz's shoe release/skate jam in Upland, California. This was the first time I had been to Upland and, maybe it was dilusion from being trapped in the car, but when I got out of my automobile, I kind of liked it. It had a beautiful landscape and a tranquil lifestyle. This happened to differ greatly with how the demo went. Apparently, it was packed in and non-stop skating. The Adidas van was there and a DJ bumped some tunes while kids shredded with Dennis and other Deluxe dudes

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Wednesday, June 24, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES










KABUL -- It was an unlikely scene in the Afghan capital on Sunday as dozens of boys and girls took to the streets on skateboards, weaving in and out of traffic, past market stalls, donkey carts and hooting cars.

Police in a pick-up truck provided an escort. With sirens blaring, officers shouted commands through a megaphone at motorists telling them to make way for the kids of Afghanistan's first skateboarding school: Skateistan.

"In the name of God!" cheered one man at the side of the road, clapping and smiling in disbelief.

"Long live Afghanistan!" the children shouted in reply as they skated past.

Wearing white T-shirts adorned with "Skateistan" logos, the children zipped from the national stadium -- once the scene of public Taliban executions -- to another part of the city to take part in a competition in honour of world Go Skateboarding Day.

One of the world's poorest and most conservative countries seems like a strange place to set up a skateboarding school, but the founders of Skateistan say it has proven a remarkably successful way to reach out to marginalised kids.

"It's more than just skateboarding," said Oliver Percovich, an Australian who co-founded the school in 2007 with just three skateboards and has since watched it grow with Western donations of $650,000.

"It's a way to connect with the youth of Afghanistan. These kids are the future leaders and we hope that through skateboarding it can provide a little bit of a level playing field for both the rich and the poor," he said as skateboarders as young as eight skidded behind him trying tricks.

At the moment, all the children have to skate in is an old, disused fountain in the middle of the city, but this week the school will lay the corner stone for what will become Afghanistan's biggest indoor sports arena.

The new 1,800 square metre Skateistan indoor arena will have a skateboard park and two air-conditioned classrooms equipped with computers where students can study in between skating.

Percovich said his school has attracted a wide range of children from street beggars to those from wealthier families. His school has even helped three children back into real school, by paying what they used to earn working on the street and allowing them to teach other children to skateboard.

Ten-year-old Fazila from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, used to beg on the streets, maybe getting $2 a day. Now she is back in school and teaches other girls how to skateboard.

"It's a good thing. It benefits people. It's good for both boys and girls. Those who are interested should come and skate here," she said, smiling.

Girls were out on the street as well as boys, something still unusual in Afghanistan where women athletes often train in private and some have been attacked for taking part in sports.

"This is the only sport in Afghanistan where girls are in the public sphere. It's very important for people to see that," said Percovich.



The Maloof Money Cup, presented by etnies and Monster Energy, today unveils its much anticipated 2009 Street Course. Designed by Geoff Rowley and Joe Ciaglia with design assistance from Colby Carter, Mark Waters and Pro Skaters Lance Mountain, Braydon Szafranski and Erik Ellington, the course was inspired by real street spots, including the Sunset up-down corner ledge on Sunset Boulevard, the Barcelona Ledge and the Big Fours and 12-stair from Rincon in San Diego. In addition, there are near replicas of Pier 7 and the Mission “3-up-3 down” in San Francisco, as well as UC Irvine’s 6-stair hubba and rails.

The new bump-to-picnic feature was chosen by the TransWorld SKATEboarding staff from thousands of entries and suggestions submitted to skateboarding.com. The winning feature was designed by Chris C. of Manalapan, New Jersey.

“What makes this contest so special is that the Maloofs are real people, they are genuine and they truly want to make the best skate environment possible,” said MMC GM Tim McFerran. “They listen to the skaters and ask them what they want to skate in a street course. Because of that, last year we saw a higher caliber of skaters and tricks that you just don’t see at contests. This year, we had an overwhelming response from guys wanting to compete. All of the biggest names in the skate world, like Paul Rodriguez and Ryan Sheckler, and guys like Marc Johnson, Mike Carroll, Bryan Herman and Silas Baxter Neal who rarely skate contests, are competing this year.”

“It’s an awesome course,” said last year’s Street champ Paul Rodriguez. “I’m really looking forward to skating it this year and just competing with all the amazing skaters that are in the contest. Some of these guys haven’t competed in contests in years, so it’s going to be really cool.”

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES





Vancouver B.C. - A very healthy crowd of about 2500 came out to run Wild in the Streets today in Vancouver, joining the Emerica team in a winding route throughout downtown, and hitting spots all along the way. The journey was the destination as Emericans of all ages hit the cream of the crop of Vancouver’s great skate spots on their way to Strathcona Park and a final barbeque session.

Smiles were the style of the day as the whole weekend wrapped up with great weather (no rain) and good times all around.


Skateboarding is Alive and Well in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, KS – Today the etnies Team went to Kansas City to celebrate Go Skateboarding Day, and while skateboarding’s number one holiday is almost over for another year there is no reason to sweat it – just go skateboarding again tomorrow! Kansas City’s own Sean Malto and fellow etnies team riders Mikey Taylor, Kyle Leeper, Jose Rojo, Devine Calloway and Davis Torgerson headed to the Penn Valley Skatepark in K.C. to host a benefit event to raise money to purchase lights for the skatepark. During the day more than 600 skateboarders came to the park with the first group showing up before 7 a.m. and there were locals still skating the park until dark.

The etnies Go Skateboarding Day event included a free BBQ, a benefit raffle for complete skateboards, and a skate jam as well as a Red Bull “Best Trick” contest. Local skateboarders were given $2,500 in a best trick contest on the euro gap, 8 stair and grass gap that was judged by etnies team riders Sean, Mikey, Jose and Devine.

etnies raised more than $3,300 toward purchasing lights for Kansas City’s Penn Valley Skatepark.

Monday, June 22, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES








The second stop in Oregon for the Ă©S Game of SKATE was held at Tactics in Eugene, Oregon on June 19, 2009. Nearly 70 people came out to play SKATE and enjoy some food courtesy of the fine folks at Tactics. Also in attendance were the awesome folks from Skaters for Eugene Skateparks. The Ă©S Game of SKATE was being held at the Washington and Jefferson “spot” that is the future home of Eugene’s newest skatepark and SES was out there to raise awareness, and some money, for the new park.


Skaters came out from all over Oregon, including a car load of kids that heard we were in their hometown of Medford on our way to hosting games of SKATE in Hood River and Eugene. The level of skating throughout the day was as good as we’ve seen with dozens of matchups being real crowd-pleasers. One in particular was Zach Bird against Kyle Billups in the semi-finals. Clean style and impossible tricks were displayed by the two of them, but it was Kyle Billups who came out on top.


For the third consecutive year, skateboarders from all over the map will descend on the Scandinavian city of Copenhagen for three days of skateboarding madness, beer funneling, and all the other forms of Viking revelry that go down during DVS’ CPH PRO.

Once again, skate park engineer Brent Kromuler was contracted to produce an expanded and totally new course for this year’s event. With the vert contest cancelled, more money will be allocated toward the street contest prize purse now set at $50,000. Once again the contest experts at SPoT Light Productions will be in charge of microphone antics and good times management.

“CPH is inspired by some of the classic skate contests of the past,” says DVS’ Tim Gavin. “It’s skateboarding done our way—not the glitz and glam of the other jump ramp influenced sh*t!”



In honor of its third annual CPH contest DVS has created a limited run of CPH Rico CT shoes featuring artwork from seminal Copenhagen tattoo parlor, Le Fix. The shoe will be available during the contest at five shops in Copenhagen including iLove, Bobby’s, Sidewalk, Dark Blue, and Street Machine.



The CPH Pro 2009 will take place at the CPH skate park in Copenhagen, Denmark on the June 26, 27, and 28. There will be a live web broadcast of the contest hosted by Tackyworld that will be viewable on dvsshoes.com/skate during the following dates and times:

SATURDAY:
14.00 - Street Qualifiers - 5am PST
21.00 – Informal Vert Contest And Prize Ceremony - 12 am PST

SUNDAY:
15.00 - Street Semi-finals - 6 am PST
17.00 - Street Finals - 8 am PST
18.00 - Best Trick - 9 am PST
19.00 - Street Prize Ceremony And After Party - 10 am PST

For more details on the event schedule, live-feed information, media coverage, and nightlife attractions log on to dvsshoes.com/skate/cphpro

Sunday, June 21, 2009

SKBSG SK8 NEWS UPDATES







Yes, this is a twitter report, but you can get skate info from that odd social forum faster than any news outlet. So, anyway, turns out Tony Hawk is in the White House today. You can see it on his twitter: "Hi. I am inside the White House gates eating Frosted Flakes and about to do press. You heard it here first. Yes, I brought my skateboard," he wrote. The event appears to be a visit along with other athletes and entertainers to meet with President Obama for a story themed "First Fathers." Major press event aside, the Birdman found time to roll a little when another person on Twitter called him out. "@aplusk called me out to skate the halls. Snagged a weak manual on the way to CNN while nobody was looking." Kind of funny...I thought someone might be interested in this. By the way, remember it's Father's Day on Sunday.


There are certain things I've come to expect from Black Label videos:

1. A bunch of punk
2. People spitting into the camera
3. Sporadic cuts to grainy black and white footage
4. Duane Peters
5. Lots of slams
6. A video that generally makes you want to skate

So, when I showed up to Hensley's Flying Elephant Pub , I had the image of Gilley's Black Out Sepultura rail chomping playing in my mind as I picture-in-pictured what I foresaw myself doing in the bar on the back of my eyeballs (drinking a pint of Irish beer and eating a burger). Instead, I found a line wrapped around the outside of the packed bar. Good for Black Label. Not so good for me (click read more to continue).

Josh Brooks

The line was outrageous.
"The bar's at capacity," the bouncer said, "so we can't let anyone in until someone leaves." I looked at the line. There were a hundred people standing on the sidewalk, maybe more; it'd take all night to get in. We opted out of the torturous line, hoping they would clear the place out for a second showing and went to Fallen TM Ian Berry's for our friend David's birthday celebration. Because this is of interest to some people, some of the skateboarding superstars that were there were (commence name dropping now) Gilbert Crockett (good), John Rattray (officially quit Osiris, but better things are in store in the near future, I promise) and Kewday's Chad Bartie (I'm always stoked to see this guy...7 Year Glitch Part anyone? Time 22:29).
Josh Brooks

How can you not be stoked for this guy? Rattray and Zero TM Greg Robinson congratulate Shuriken on the ender in the sea of people getting ushered out of the bar.

After some brats and hotdogs, we heard there was a second show and blasted in there. By the time we got to Hensley's, a grand portion of the video had passed. We missed our friends Ethan Fitzpatrick and Peter Watkins' parts. We missed Peter Raffin, Chaz Pineda, Vince Del Valle and favorite to watch shred Childress. But, here's what we did see:



1. As expected, there was punk in this video. Check.
2. I didn't see anyone spit into the camera, but I did missed a great deal of the vid, so I'm not sure.
3. I think there were some of those sporadic cuts to grainy black and white.


Josh Brooks

Raffin's The Duane Peters Gunfight cowboy shirt. Kind of like a Duane Peters sighting.
4. Adam Alfaro soul-skated. Name a big ol' bank and he fronttail or backtailed it. The best stuff was his frontside flip and floater kickflip to fakie in that massive ditch in the San Jose area (I think that's where it is).
5. The bit of Kyle Leeper I saw had his classic light feet and creative tricks.
6. Chris Troy has mastered the spin with crazy shovit, bigspin and 270 variations into rails, ledges or whatever else (I think he did a fakie bigspin to back feeble on a rail...wow).
7. Jason "The Kid" Adams delivers in his classic fashion and it's entertaining as always.
8. There weren't necessarily that many slams (although I didn't watch the whole thing).
9. Shuriken Shannon ended it all off and, as is his style, he killed it. He put a hurting on that steep rail with the bank on the side of it (the one that everyone does flip tricks on over the rail into the bank) by crooked grinding the rail and transferring into the bank in the middle of the rail. Pretty boots.
10. This one broke the mold by having some of the first hip hop I've ever heard in a Label video. Shuriken skated to Public Enemy.

Secret photographer

A well known skate photog took this. He was passing by and we knew him. It was originally supposed to be a pic of my friend Greg and me, but then Sheffey walked through and the keen photographer got him in the photo. Golden. Amazing eye.

The same way I didn't get the Irish beer and burger I expected, God Save the Label broke a lot of the mold I had in mind. I didn't see any spitting into the camera or Duane Peters (although Peter Raffin had on a Duane Peters cowboy shirt). But, as always from Label vids, it was entertaining and made you want to go skate. Go and enjoy it. Check out some of the other premieres. You can find a list of other premiere dates here.