SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

This year’s Crossroads retail event has been bumped up to its new and improved location next to Petco Park in downtown San Diego. This location is optimum for guests of ASR so they are able to interact with the skaters who all dipped on the trade show. There’s one more day, so if you have a chance to make it out today, do it.

For this Crossroads Best Trick finale, Black Box surprised the crowd with a bloody sword in place of a standard handrail, complete with “There Will Be Blood” painted on the landing sheets of plywood. Nick Merlino, Robert Lopez Mont, Timmy Knuth and many more were coming in hot, but it basically boiled down to Chris Cole and Nyjah Huston. In the end, Nyjah was chosen as the champ and got a nice handful of three grand in cash. Cole got two for second.



Pulled up to a great view of San Diego Padres stadium.


This was the first thing I saw when walking in the show. Danny Scher interviewed by Tosh Rice.

Dane Vaughn and The Biz about to put in some work for Gold Wheels.


The tranny obstacle on the course.

You should plan on seeing some heavy tricks like this going down on the tranny obstacles.

All sorts of kids were shralping the shark. 5-0 over a bunch of potential Crocodile Dundee necklaces.

Here is the other section that will be ripped to shreds.

Anthony Schultz was hanging out at the event with a freshly chopped haircut. Say good bye to the curly locks.

Remember when these guys were all on the same team? Well, here they are, years later, skate owners and gurus. Jim Greco, Erik Ellington and Jamie Thomas reminisce.

Bizarro Greco seemed quite enticed by real Greco, even making awkward circles around where he was sitting, as if the more he did it, the better his chances would be to meet real Greco. But, alas, he nervously retreated. Better for us all, since the universe implodes when dopplegangers meet. It’s a fact.

Deathwish was showing off some really cool new black light special board graphics. Get the Slash board while its still available.

This dude showed up and put on a freestyle show, perhaps inspired by such greats as Rodney Mullen, Don Brown, Daryl Grogan, Pierre André Senizergues, etc. That’s incredible!

Dane Vaughn and his good homie Apollo Cutts from Sacto. Check Apollo’s site. Hes got some sick interviews with Sacramento legends including John Cardiel.

The back of this truck was a great booth For Deathwish and Shake Junt, it needs no set up or take down at all. Just drive in and drive out.

Del the Funky Homosapien took a moment to rest for the concert he played at the Osiris party later in the night.

SKATE-MAAH-FIAHHH! Former New Deal pro and Westside Skateshop owner, John Montesi, shows Jamie Thomas how to show the mafia some love. That S can turn into a Z in no time and don’t nobody know what the Zk8mafia is.

Steve was feeling real good about handing out lighters to little kids.

Here is the view of Petco park from inside the show.

Those quirky guys with their inventions were there, too. Did you know that Sector 9 is the biggest skateboard company in the world? Jamie Thomas told me. Crazy, huh?

The new issue of TransWorld was there. It has tons of great content. Get your hands on it now.

Hubba…making teenagers skate with boners since 2005 or so. I happened across a slew of people watching this Hubba model skate. She could do fakie shovits, but nobody seemed to be looking at her feet.

Here is one more thing you need to get your hands on. This photo is for Blair. Keep the trim coming at all the skate events. Too much fun.

There will be blood…oh yes, there will be blood. Tune in for the footage or pics of people skating the sword.

SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

Cullen Poythress

This man is skateboarding royalty.

Jeron Wilson is an OG: Original Girl rider. One of the more subtle guys on that stellar team, Wilson has held down a solid pro career for at least a decade and a half. While some other pros with that kind of longevity at times get accused of milking it, Jeron has gotten nothing but love. Why is that, you ask? Because the man has never fallen off. He's consistently consistent with his tricks and his coverage. No, he's not a Daewon or a Chris Cole. He doesn't rack up multiple video parts in a year or put out 10 interviews all at once. But what Dubs does do is put out quality photo, footage and the like that keeps you wanting more. Top that off with a mellow personality, a humble approach to things, a solid stable of legit sponsors and you've got the ingredients to a solid career. Now Wilson can add Royal Trucks to that sponsor list. And, if his DVS team page is to be believed, today is his birthday as well. Happy Birthday Jeron Wilson. Keep doing your thing!

Courtesy of Royal

Jeron Wilson tosses an impossible over a firehydrant and sidewalk in his first-ever Royal ad.

Courtesy of the Simpel Session

Adam Dyet takes a crooked grind up the hubba at the 2009 Simpel Session comp.

This coming weekend some of the best skaters in the world ate taking it to Tallinn, Estonia. Yeah, you read that right. Ryan Sheckler, Tom Penny, Chris Pfanner, Danny Wainright, Kurtis Colamonico, Johnny Layton and a whole grip of European rippers will be touching down north of Latvia and just south of Finland for one serious contest. The 10th annual Simpel Session comp is sure to be a doozy.
If the course construction videos are any indication, the Estonians spared no expense to design something original and top notch to skate. The whole comp will be live webcast so you can catch the action from around the globe. Should be a good one.

Courtesy of the Simpel Session

Ben Grove blasts a frontside transfer on last year's course.

Courtesy of the Simpel Session

Sierra Fellers stands tall on a nosegrind . 

screengrab

Nyjah Houston nails a front blunt down Conan's sword during best trick at the Crossroads tradeshow.

We are skateboarders. We were born and bred in the parking lot. So it's only natural that we'd return. With our wounded industry under the steadfast wing of Jamie Thomas, we might have a fighting chance to get back inside. On our own terms. Jamie Thomas is an articulate man who makes no apologies about his decisions to team up with the tradeshow company that, in the past, he felt "never had our best interests at heart". Running one of the largest distributors of skate-goods as well as a tradeshow (Crossroads) had left his staff with a huge burden. That burden was addressed this year by letting ASR handle all the logistics, while Jamie fed the huddled masses with tents, ramps and Wahoo's fish taco's. I had to pay for parking and cops shut down the free tattoo booth for "health code issues," says Thomas. But overall, the vibe seemed to be the same as it was in previous years when Crossroads was held in the parking lot of Black Box distribution rather than the downtown parking lot of Petco Park. Vendors were talking numbers. Skaters were having a good time with free beverages, While kids tried to work up the courage to talk to their favorite pros. Oh yeah, that's what's rad about Crossroads as apposed to tradeshows in years past; they let any skateboarder in. To me that's really cool. As always the best trick contest was outlandish. An Excalibur-esque sword served as the rail obstacle. It hovered ominously over a landing pad that spelled out "There Will Be Blood," in the Zero font. This premonition proved true when an overzealous am sat on his own femur. Overall the sword-fight came down to Chris Cole and Nyjah Huston. I think they got some money. Good money. I got a sunburn and a car full of freeloaders begging for a ride back north.

SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

Check out footage of the Am Slam #4 at the Carmel Valley skatepark. All results of winners below the video.
Filmed & edited by Joe Picciolo.

AM SLAM RESULTS for Event #4 at the CARMEL VALLEY Skatepark
13 and Under
Micah Christina - 1st
Zach Saraceno - 2nd
Joaquin Lopez – 3rd


14-16
Austin Zito - 1st
Caedyn Curto - 2nd
Lance George – 3rd

17 and Over
Joshua Briggs - 1st
Connor Getzlaff- 2nd
Dolan Sterns  - 3rd

Open Division
Bryant Chapo -1st - $500
Chris Mendes  - 2nd - $300
Spencer Nuzzi - 3rd - $200



Agency Thursdays: Nate Broussard Day in the Life Part 1
This week’s installment features Hifi’s own Nate Broussard in the first of a two-part Day in the Life series. Day one follows Nate out and about on his usual chores, some smooth warm up lines at the Lincoln church mini ramp, and a quick session down at the new Venice park with sir Pastras and sir Peterson just before the rain drops. Give it a whirl and enjoy. Nate is a Zen soldier and stand up human being. Stay tuned for Day Two.




It’s that time of the week again. Today is PFriday number Three of Pfive Pfridays of Pfanner Pfootage. Check it out.




out a day with the not-so-little-anymore Nick Tucker over at the Silver Trucks site.

SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

We let the cat outta the bag that Daryl Angel got the pro nod from Habitat in his Roll Call interview in our March issue, and now Habitat has announced that Guru Khalsa has also been added to the pro ranks. Five pro model decks and a signature colorway will also be coming with Guru into pro-dom, so look for those to drop very, very soon.
Check some leftover footage from Guru’s part in Habitat’s upcoming video, Origin.



DVS’ fourth annual Copenhagen Pro Contest is coming up, so the gents at DVS compiled some street footage from last year, just to show how the shredfest spills out into the streets. Prepare for sick skating and, just maybe, a mid-run vomit session, but until then, catch Torey Pudwill, Paul Shier, Jeron Wilson, Chico Brenes, Flo Mirtain, Jimmy Cao, John Tanner, Zered Bassett, Guillaume Dulout, Lucien Clarke, Mark Baines and Kerry Getz roll through the streets of CPH.




Stop #2 on the Elemental Awareness Make it Count international skate contest series will be this weekend at Modern Skatepark in the Detroit, MI area. Levi Brown will be there to check out the action and choose an overall winner to go to the finals at Element YMCA skate camp in the Sequoia mountains.  Check out this link for more details and a full schedule of stops.




After the world-wide success of Volume #1, today sees the much anticipated release of the second edition of Organika Skateboards reggae mixtape series FULL CONFIDENCE. Mixed by DJ Stepwise and hosted by the UK’s top-rated Chukki Starr, Full Confidence Vol 2 is an 80 minute journey through the best of modern conscious roots reggae. Thanks to Organika, this mix is available 100% free to everyone – just click the link to download the mix, complete with artwork, tracklist & much more! CD’s are also available to all Organika retailers now.




Thunder just put up a new video today with Luis Tolentino. Check out Luis knows fakie 5-0s.



Heads up Orange County heads! Vans is planning a grand opening event for its new Costa Mesa store this Saturday, 2/6/10. Hosoi, Grosso, and Hassan will be in the house.




Agency Thursdays: Nate Broussard Day in the Life Part 1
This week’s installment features Hifi’s own Nate Broussard in the first of a two-part Day in the Life series. Day one follows Nate out and about on his usual chores, some smooth warm up lines at the Lincoln church mini ramp, and a quick session down at the new Venice park with sir Pastras and sir Peterson just before the rain drops. Give it a whirl and enjoy. Nate is a Zen soldier and stand up human being. Stay tuned for Day Two.

SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

Watch the teaser for Cliché’s latest Gypsea Tour right here. Then catch the premiere of the show on Fuel TV on February 5. There’s also a nice feature of the boys roughing it in our December 09 issue.




Check out the dates for RVCA’s upcoming Active tour and the info on its all new Leo Romero clothing collection.

RVCA DEBUTS LEO ROMERO COLLECTION

Announcement made with slightly disturbing images at leo.rvca.com

RVCA is pleased to announce the release of the Spring 2010 Leo Romero Collection, available now in finer skateboard shops globally! Leo’s own mini-site, http://leo.rvca.com has gone live to help celebrate the debut of Leo’s clothes.

Leo’s line features a range of knits, wovens, t-shirts, and pants…that just so happen to include RVCA’s most popular denim. To help further his career outside of skateboarding, Leo spent a day as a professional model, posing for non-other than RVCA team mate and Artist Network Program member, Ed Templeton. The results are nothing short of breath-taking, and posted for your enjoyment at leo.rvca.com.

As if you needed any other reason to visit Leo’s site – maybe new skate footage, up-to-the-minute breaking news coverage and links to purchase every piece of clothing designed by Leo might do it for you? Still need more? You can have your very own piece of the man himself by stopping by a RVCA demo or autograph signing happening this February! Dates and locations just so happen to be in the news section of leo.rvca.com. See you there.

Stop #2 on the Elemental Awareness Make it Count international skate contest series will be this weekend at Modern Skatepark in the Detroit, MI area. Levi Brown will be there to check out the action and choose an overall winner to go to the finals at Element YMCA skate camp in the Sequoia mountains.  Check out this link for more details and a full schedule of stops.




This Is My Element, Tours and Seminars
Irvine, CA (February 2, 2010) – Element announces the launch of it’s “This Is My Element Tours and Seminars” micro-site.
The mission of This Is My Element Tours and Seminars is to teach and motivate young people through educational and vocational mentoring, in order to develop a greater awareness and the tools to lead successful lives.
Having done countless tours and seminars for more than a decade with this ongoing initiative, Element has proudly launched a site solely dedicated to the betterment of it’s youth mentoring initiative.
Element’s Founder and President, Johnny Schillereff and staff have mentored the youth and provided programs to instill ambition and optimism, since the brand’s inception. “A big part of my motivation to create Element was given to me by a speaker at my high school during some challenging times in my life, so it’s become important to me to encourage the youth in the same way,” says Schillereff. “We’ve taken a positive and active role mentoring the youth for many years now and know first hand that it makes an incredible difference.”
For years now Element has been inviting local youth to have a look inside the day to day workings of the Element brand. Internal visits start with a tour of the Element facility located in Irvine, Ca., followed by one on one conversations with Element staff and team riders. The tour finishes with a brand presentation and lunch. The external seminar component of this initiative involves visits to local schools wherein Johnny Schillereff recounts his struggles and successes in hopes of inspiring others to lead successful lives.
“You can see the positive effect this presentation has made on our students from their comments and letters they’ve written,” said Estancia High School’s Principal, Phil J. D’Agostino. “I’ve never seen our students more engaged and moved by any presentation. Your company and staff have motivated our students to reach for their dreams despite any obstacles. Element is an outstanding example of what can be accomplished when a business is willing to reach out to their community and lead by example.”


This Is My Element Tours and Seminars feature Element staff, advocates and athlete speakers, combined with educational and vocational workshops. “Your presentation was awesome,” Eric, a student from Costa Mesa, Ca., wrote to Element. “You’ve shown me that hard work, discipline, sacrifice and heart can make anything happen. You’ve opened a new window from which to see the world.”



Check out the Q&A with Salman Agah over at The Label site. They’ve even posted Sal’s part from Label Kills.




Real’s Known Associates is now live. Check out the new video and contest. The world is yours, find it, fix it, make it, skate it!




ETNIES BELIEVES IN DEVINE INTERVENTION
DEVINE INTERVENTION TOUR INCLUDES MALTO, JOSE, LEEPER, DAVIS AND OF COURSE DEVINE
Devine Calloway is so glad his first etnies pro model shoe and signature apparel collection hit stores he is jumping in the van with Malto, Jose, Leeper and Davis to go on tour.  Starting at Liberty Boardshop on Friday, Feb. 5 the Devine Intervention Tour will stop in six cities ending in at United Boardshop in Anaheim on Feb. 13.




Big things are happening on Saturday, February 6th @ 1pm. A hefty chunk of the Cliché team will be kickin’ it at the CCS Santa Monica Store, signing copies of the new book, Résumé and whatever else you feel like having scribbled upon.
Scheduled to show are Lucas Puig, JB Gillet, Joey Brezinski, Andrew Brophy, Charles Collet, Javier Mendizabal, Cale Nuske, Jeremie Daclin, and Flo Mirtain.




DC LAUNCHES NEW SKATE WEBSITE - DC 7ZINE

DC announces the launch of the DC 7Zine website today. The DC 7Zine allows visitors to experience a unique behind the scenes look at DC’s Skate Team, both on and off the job as a professional skater. Check it out now at http://www.dc7zine.com.
The DC7Zine is the go to place for exclusive interviews, videos, product reviews and shop profiles for DC key retailers. Visitors will also get a glimpse into the lives of the DC Team through segments highlighting Josh Kalis’ travels around the world, Ryan Smith’s love of bikes, and Lindsey Robertson’s culinary expertise, to name a few. And with the timeless archive from photographer Mike Blabac’s, skate fans of all kinds will find something for them.
“The DC 7Zine is tight,” said DC pro skater Josh Kalis.  “It gives a wide variety of avenues to see the more personal and comedic side to the DC team and friends.”
Visit http://www.dc7zine.com/watercooler/kalis-dc7zinecom-intro/ to check out Kalis giving a walk through of the site.
DC 7Zine.com will be updated daily and will be offered in two different versions.  A digital version that can be viewed at http://www.dc7zine.com and a printed version will available at select key DC Retailers quarterly.



We let the cat outta the bag that Daryl Angel got the pro nod from Habitat in his Roll Call interview in our March issue, and now Habitat has announced that Guru Khalsa has also been added to the pro ranks. Five pro model decks and a signature colorway will also be coming with Guru into pro-dom, so look for those to drop very, very soon.
Check some leftover footage from Guru’s part in Habitat’s upcoming video, Origin.

SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

Mike Vallely is a beast, as we’ve seen a few times over the years. But, it would be disingenuous to write him off for just that, so I’ve prepared a pseudo-taxonomical guide to a man who describes himself as a “true individual,” for those who may encounter him in the wild:

H. Valleleous is a dominant and divisive species, which, in the ecosystem in which it persists—skateboarding—is able to lead surrounding fauna to either love or hate him. Within his environment, he is often seen jumping off walls, standing on his hands and rolling on a wheeled plank in an aggressive manner. This aggressive approach is often misconstrued by animals around him. He is, in fact, very affable and much nicer than his posturing projects. While his combative behavior, at times, has turned on those in his environment—skateboarding—he has also shown highly protective behavior for many within the skateboarding clan. But, that does not supersede actions to protect his family or his own honor (when dealing with him, please take this into account). He possesses developed vocal capabilities, which he uses to take a lead screaming position in musical displays and talking positions in front of cameras, as well as this interview. So, read on (H. Valleleous also has its his own iPhone app).
I’m going to read off a film synopsis and I want you to tell me where you fit in: A small town in Spokane, Washington is overrun by a foreign army known as the the “People’s Liberation Army” and two brothers, along with a ragtag group of high school students form a militia, utilize their knowledge of the area to fight the invaders. Will they be able to save their country? What’s the movie?
That’s Red Dawn. I’m pretty much against remakes and Red Dawn’s a classic, but the new director felt he needed or could create more action. I guess it was a pretty low budget film when it was made.
Are you with or against the Wolverines, then?
My involvement is real minimal. I was hired as a stunt guy. China invades America and when they come up against the Wolverines, they bring in Russian Special Forces. I’m one of those guys. I was hired to do some stunts, which include being near explosions, firing a machine gun and falling down a staircase. I was put on a wire, tossed into a banister and thrown down some stairs.

Vallely in 1987 Transworld Skateboarding Photo Annual 2

How did that work out?
When I worked on Paul Blart: Mall Cop, I was hired via the stunt coordinator and I did all my own stunts. Then, through that connection I was in the Hangover, delivering tuxedos on the highway. Then, I got this part in Red Dawn, even though they thought I wouldn’t want to because I had to cut my hair. It’s just a new experience, so it was a no-brainer to do it.
Here’s another synopsis. Tell me where you fit in: In the wild west, a scarred bounty hunter tracks a voodoo practitioner bent on liberating the South by raising an army of the undead.
Jonah Hex… it probably sounds odd to people who don’t know about the comic, but I’ve been a fan for a long time. I haven’t really pursued movie roles, although now I’m having a lot of fun with it. So, I’ve made myself available to do anything. It’s hilarious, though, because in Jonah Hex, I’m just some dude who gets shot. I’m only there for a few seconds. But, with Red Dawn, I was just a non-descript soldier. You probably won’t notice me. But, I was also able to play the role of an arms dealer. So I might show up there, answering the door to the Wolverines—Chris Hemsworth from Star Trek and the kid from Josh & Drake.
Josh & Drake? That show from Nickelodeon?
Yeah, I just know it from having my daughters around. Otherwise, I would be clueless.
That’s actually something I’ve always wanted to know. Your oldest daughter is in high school, so what’s it like having Mike Vallely as your dad, from your point of view?
Well, from my point of view and the point of view of my family, it’s pretty regular. It’s probably not what anyone would expect.

I was just envisioning some teenage boy coming home with your daughter and it being the most intimidating day of his life [laughs].
You know? Life is life, man. Kids grow up. My daughter’s had a boyfriend for a few years and he’s part of the family. I’ve had to tell him how things are from time to time, but I can put myself in his shoes. I’m not trying to scare the shit out of anyone and I’m not trying to mess up my daughter’s life. We provide an environment of love. If you don’t do that and you build walls, you’re gonna lose your kids. I want to be a part of their lives.
I could just imagine it being intimidating for a high schooler. So, how does working on movies compare to skating?
To me, none of that happens without skating, you know? I don’t think anything compares to skating.
Do you ever think about what you will do after skating?
I see myself as someone who will be skating until I’m no longer sucking air. When I started skating, it was a life decision for me. I knew the second I started that—professional career or not—I was going to skate for the rest of my life. But, what measures up? Nothing. I made the mistake of talking about it on other people’s terms over the years—like it’s a sport or like it’s an art—but skating is skating. But, then, there’s definitely more to life. I think there’s a certain crowd out there that prefer that I was just a one-dimensional person, but that doesn’t make any sense to me. You know, I have other interests. A lot of people want you to just shut up and skate, which is true in some ways. But, I don’t want to miss out on things, just because.

Mike V Check Out from June 1987 Transworld Skateboarding

Another thing that you got into was music. Is your band Revolution Mother still together?
Revolution Mother was one of the main things going on in my life over the past three or four years. It became really time consuming and, because there were three other people in the band, it was really difficult to sustain and make enough money without devoting myself just to that. But, I wasn’t going to just do music.
Wasn’t that the same thing that happened with the first band you were in?
[Laughs] Yeah, when I was a kid, the band I was in, Resistance, wanted to get all serious and I just wanted to skate. It was fun, don’t get me wrong, but I didn’t know how far down that road I was willing to go.
So, what’s the new band?
It’s called Mike Vallely By the Sword, so it sounds like a solo project, but I’m still working with some of the same people from Revolution Mother.
So, you’re playing shows now with the new band?
Yeah, we have a show on February 12^th at 2Headed Horse, which is Laban Pheidias’ space in Hollywood. It’s pretty much an old school DIY show. Five dollars at the door. Shepard Fairey’s gonna be the DJ. Jason Filipow is an artist and he’s gonna hand-screen some one-off boards and T-shirts for people. It’s the kind of stuff I wanted to do with the last band, but the band had an agent, the band had a manager, the band had a record label and a lot of other people to answer to, so we couldn’t. We just got caught up in the machinery.

Then, we’re also playing at Musink, which is a tattoo-music festival in Costa Mesa. We’re opening up for The Cult there. I’m also producing a skate event at that show, called the Legend Skate Jam. We’re getting the ramp from the Thrasher Skater of the Year party and building a bank in the middle, so that there’s something to fly out onto, where the old school guys can throw some bertlemans and stuff like that. Tony Alva, Duane Peters, Eric Dressen, Christian Hosoi, Steve Olson, myself—that’s kind of the headline—and then I’m sure, now that it’s coming together, a lot of guys will come out and skate. I’m looking at it as 70s and 80s pros and then, if some modern-day legends want to jump in too, they’re more than welcome. But, I really want to give the spotlight to the older guys in a jam—no other shows will be happening at the same time. And, I want them to be the center of the show…have a really good announcer to hype them up…
Dave Duncan? Dun-can! Dun-can! Duuuuuun-can! [Laughs]
Yeah, you know? I just want the legends to be seen, feel good about the session and be appreciated for what they’ve done for skateboarding.
The other unique side project you have is an iPhone app? It’s a skating and driving game, right?
You just drive between spots, but it’s not part of the game. It’s called Mike V: Do or Die. The guys who made it developed the Vans iPhone app—the pool game—but left the last company to start their own company to make something better. So, they approached me. And, there really hasn’t been another pro skater other than Hawk that has the balls to sign their name to a video game…

The only other one I’ve heard of is the Greg Lutzka game, but I think it’s called dizmS.K.A.T.E.
Yeah? Well…the guys that are developing it are old school skaters and hardcore gamers and they approached me. I’m really happy with the results I’ve seen. I think it will be pretty well received. People can play different eras of my career. It gives you all my tricks, but there are over 40-some tricks, so they can skate how they want—they’re not just stuck doing bonelesses like me [laughs]… like, “This games pretty cool, but all I’m able to do are a bunch of f—king bonelesses!”
So, as far as real skating, I called you yesterday and you were out rolling, right?
Yeah, I’ve been skating up at the Berrics a lot. The sessions are really good there. That Battle Commander was the first thing I filmed in a while that I was happy with. It was just good to have people to skate with. I filmed it with Guy [Mariano] and those dudes around, you know? Everyone just wants to skate there, so it gets you psyched.

Powell ad from Transworld Skateboarding October 1988 Issue.

For how good he is, Guy also seems like the ultimate fan, even of other pros. It just shows he really loves it, you know?
Well, he was put on a pedestal and he’s never come off that pedestal, despite everything in between—that’s quite a feat in itself. I actually have a funny story about him. In the early nineties—probably 93—I was living in Huntington Beach and I went over to skate the high school and I saw that whole entire posse, Guy, Koston, Howard, Rudy Johnson, that whole group of people, and I came around the corner and they were all there. Maybe I was imagining it, but skating in those days had become really cliquey. Things had turned over so fast that I was lost in the tilling of the soil—I was churned up in it—and I was intimidated at the time, when I came across the younger skaters or the cooler skaters, you know? I wasn’t attached to a brand that, by association, would make me cool—I don’t think I’ve ever been. So, they’re skating the staircase with a ledge that’s lower than a curb, going up to it, sliding onto it and doing those early nineties tricks, like noseslide, k-grind, noseslide, k-grind—shuffling along the ledge and landing with no speed—and they’re not having fun. You could just tell.
It’s funny, because I think the basis of a lot of skating came out of that era, but people also look back on it as a kind of dark age, where wheels were the size of bearings, flip tricks where pivoted all over the place and people went really slow.
Skating was really theirs at the time, though. And, even though some of the style and the tricks were kind of corny, there was still something really special about that time. They were advancing it in their own way, so that was really cool.
But, for me to show up at that time, self-conscious and feeling like I wasn’t in their group, I remember I felt really out of their league. So, I was like, I gotta get the f—k out of here. So, I skate away, do a big 180 ollie over a bench and then a big halfcab and I’m just thinking, those guys think I’m a dork. “I’m a dork—all I did was a 180 ollie and a halfcab.” But, a week later, I saw Lance Mountain and he’s like, “I talked to Guy Mariano the other day and he said he saw you at Huntington High and you made them look like a bunch of kooks” and I was like, “What?” “He said you came through and you just skated timelessly, like the old days.” And, I just couldn’t believe it at the time, because what they were doing was the shit in skateboarding. But, now I look back and it’s cool to see that Guy was that perceptive—that in tune to what was going on—that he realized what they were doing was kind of just a fad, you know? It’s that perception that has allowed him to stay on a pedestal, even when he was out of skateboarding, I think.

Read Part Two on Thursday: Brooklyn Banks, 80s skate beatings and micturations, the Ducks fight, Vallely misperceptions, CKY fight, Element Shoes, the accessibility of Lance Mountain and Vallely in twenty years.


Watch Geoff & David battle this 22 stair beast. Geoff in 2005 and David in 2007. Although nobody rode away to victory, sometimes taking a beating let’s you conquer it on the second go. Stay tuned…



Watch the teaser for Cliché’s latest Gypsea Tour right here. Then catch the premiere of the show on Fuel TV on February 5. There’s also a nice feature of the boys roughing it in our December 09 issue.

SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

Crossroads will be happening February 3 & 4, this time in downtown San Diego at Petco Park adjacent to ASR. Peep the flier below. More info here.



Jeron Wilson is on Royal Trucks in a big way. Check out that ollie impossible!



Just in time for something new on your Monday. Tensor Monday Mullen Madness is giving you a chance to win Tensor Magnesium Slider trucks and an almost Double Impact deck. Click here to enter.




The whole Natty Kon team is coming to Cali. Lock up your daughters.

SKBSG NEWS UPDATES

This is really cool. These two young skaters in Japan started their own board company and are making their own video about their scene. Traveling and skating with your homeys is what it’s all about.
Upload your Thursday Theater clips to skateboarding.com! Just register on the homepage and load ‘em up in the YOUR STUFF section. Be sure to TAG them Thursday Theater (so we can find ‘em!).
Filmed by Taylor Toussain Jr. and Edited by Kimi Juds. We are both 17 years old and live in Tokyo Japan. This video is a segment from our latest video project called Sixteen Going On Seventeen. The full video will be out on DVD by spring 2010. Check out our site!
http://web.me.com/kimijuds/Mikan_Skateboards/Home.html



Check out all the new things enjoi with its Spring 2010 catalog.




ZOO YORK presents The Hells Kitchen Bunch a series by Morning Breath a creative studio in Brooklyn, NY. Designers Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto have been working together since 1996 when they discovered they had similar tastes and influences, many of which were associated with the late 70s and early 80s. These included everything from sniffing glue and punk rock to racking paint and hip hop. In 2002, Cunningham and Noto formalized their partnership with the creation of Morning Breath, Inc. This series pulls inspiration from the colorful characters throughout NYC.




Download a copy of the United By Fate Lookbook or just check it out online to scope out some new kicks and product.