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Daniel Shimizu and Stereo have officially parted ways as of Friday, September 26, 2008. Daniel is an amazing skateboarder with a style so smooth, few come close to matching. We wish him the best of luck in his future and would like to send Daniel a big thank you for all his support over the last few years. Daniel will continue to remain a part of the Agency family as a HiFi Wheels pro rider.

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A few weeks ago, NYC’s Recon was the first U.S. account to get the WeSC x Stash Collection. Now the full collection–full-zip hoods, a cardigan, crewneck sweatshirts, t-shirts, and denim–is up for grabs directly from Karmaloop (grimy hair and shady eyes not included). The word is officially out now, so don’t wait!

Hangovers and live shows aren’t the only things on Jim Greco’s agenda. Everyone’s favorite strung out rockstar skater designed this dope “Thunder” Jacket as part of his signature collection for Kr3w. It’s made of %100 PU (synthetic) leather and completed with roomy pockets. And you thought nothing matched those silver Skytops. Expect this jacket to hit official Kr3w retailers real soon. Check out the black colorway after the jump.

We showed you the upcoming “Gold Rail” Dunk Low and more recently the “Back to the Future” Tre AD, now Nike SB comes at us again with a Star Wars themed “Boba Fett’ Dunk Hi. You can be sure that Star Wars fans will be hunting after these just as hard as dedicated SB heads. These kicks also have a high bounty on ‘em because they’re online hitting a few Nike SB accounts–keep your eyes peeled.

If the purpled up Supra Vaider is a bit too Prince for your taste, settle with this black/purple Skytop. It features accents of crackle-print purple, perforated gray, and areas of faux croc. Expect this sneaker to be hitting authorized Supra dealers for October.
Some more Supra NS sneakers have dropped for this Fall/Winter season. The first is Steve Aoki’s signature Supra Sneaker, and the other is none other than the Lil Wayne Skytop. Head over to Daily Drop for more information and how to purchase these sneakers.
We recently gave you the heads up about Bigfoot’s new site, now he updated the online store with this limited edition customized art skateboard deck. There’s only twenty available and they feature professional art print on base with the top side being custom hand-drawn by Bigfoot, with signature, character, and number. 9″ x 32″. If you’re not into decks, you can also grab some of his new artwork. Give your walls a Bigfoot-sized makeover!The Supra Vaider’s been giving the Skytop a run for its money, and with this royal purple/gold color-up, Skytop fiends may be leaving their first love. Expect these to hit accounts next month. For all of us who skate, the game S.K.A.T.E. is like the basketball version of H.O.R.S.E.–someone does a trick, you have to match the trick or you get a letter. Well, skaters Robbie McKinley and Kevin Lewis put their heads together and invented Sk8 Dice, an actual group of 4 die, each with different symbols/skateboard terms. The jist of the game is you roll the dice and do the trick the dice represent. Head on over to the Sk8 Dice website for a full set of rules and order your dice today! Your local skate shop should also be stocking them for fall.

For all of us who skate, the game S.K.A.T.E. is like the basketball version of H.O.R.S.E.–someone does a trick, you have to match the trick or you get a letter. Well, skaters Robbie McKinley and Kevin Lewis put their heads together and invented Sk8 Dice, an actual group of 4 die, each with different symbols/skateboard terms. The jist of the game is you roll the dice and do the trick the dice represent. Head on over to the Sk8 Dice website for a full set of rules and order your dice today! Your local skate shop should also be stocking them for fall.

SKATE NEWS

The Kayo Corp is the umbrella company that covers such hard hitting brands as Expedition One, DGK, Organika and Gold Wheels. I'd been a big fan of the Kayo family since seeing their all encompassing video, It's Official.

DGK

DGK Motivation (Black) 8.0 X 31.06
The DGK "Motivation" board featuring the reversal of psychology slogan, "I Love' Haters" comes in two distinct colors and sizes. The 'White' one being the smaller of the two, sizing in at 7.5 X 31.06. I was sent the 'Black' model, which at 8.0 X 31.06, is much more my style. With most boards I ride, I have the tendency to get stuck with either too much kick or not enough. This board has a clean shape and just the right amount of kick. Not too steep and not too flat. I skated this board for close to a month without any complaints. It's stiffness remained, as did the over-all shape of the board. Solid pop all the way through and DGK.

Organika

Organika Full Flavor Red 8.06 X 32
Next up was the Organika team "Full Flavor Red" board. The "Full Flavor" team decks come in blue, black and red, and all feature different lengths and widths. I received the biggest of the three, the 'Red', which clocked in at a nicely measured 8.06 x 32. This board features a super unique shape. It was much more stubby than I was used to, with a real bulbous nose and tail. After I got used to the unconventional width of the nose and tail, this board felt real comfortable under my feet. Its nice, medium sized kick lasted a while, even after I shaved down my tail to a sharp little razor. I should mention the overall quality of Kayo's wood. They use nice thin plys that somehow minimizes the weight of each board without compromising any strength whatsoever.

Expedition One

Expedition Stripe (Yellow) 8 X 31.2
The last board I rode of the bunch was the Expedition One "Yellow Stripe" deck. Like the Organika team series, this board is part of a group of three sizes, made up of a blue, green and yellow. The "Yellow Stripe" I rode is 8 X 31.25 and features a clean, straightforward shape. While riding this one I couldn't get over how resistant it was to my hard landings. I tend to land all my tricks real hard, slamming my board down to the ground, like an impatient dipsh*t. Back in the day, breaking boards on flatground was a ridiculous notion reserved for fat guys and giants like Brian Anderson. But in the recent years I've found myself breaking tons of boards on flat, especially with switch frontside shove-its (I've K.O'ed more boards with this trick than Kimbo's straight knocked out suckas). I guess I land hard. Anyway, with everyone of my forceful landings that should have snapped this board like twig beneath, it remained solid, just as the other Kayo boards had. I'm backing Kayo 100%, so that means you should too. Demand your local shop order some of their decks right now. If you're impatient like me, go here to buy direct from the Kayo crew.

The Final Flare
Lakai Footwear

It's Coming...
When Lakai's Fully Flared hit the streets, I nearly sh*t my pants. Why would you do such a thing, you ask? Because the flick was that good! That's why. And now, after it's highly succesful release, Fully Flared will be coming out in the form of a Deluxe Edition Box Set. The Final Flare Deluxe Bonus Edition box set will contain all kinds of special stuff, including 1 Blu-Ray disk and 2 SD DVD disks featuring the original Fully Flared release, photo galleries, alternate edits, unused footage and a 60 minute documentary entitled, Behind The Flare. If that wasn't enough to make your butt pop, the set will also be packaged with a 48-page photo book. Oh hell yeah, son! And the best part is, this bitch will retail for only $49.95. To celebrate this highly anticipated set, Lakai has issued an official countdown on their site. You can stare at the depleting numbers like a fool all day, or get a solid taste of what's to come by sampling the new extended trailer below. All you need to do is click away
If you thought Lakai’s Fully Flared was the best skate video of the year, wait until the Final Flare drops. Lakai Limited Footwear presents the Fully Flared Deluxe Edition–a three-disc box set with one HD Blu-Ray Disc and 2 SD DVD Discs. This must-have box set comes with a whole slew of goods featuring “Fully Flared”, a photo galley, a photo booklet, alternate edits, unseen footy, and an epic 60-minute documentary they like to call, “Behind The Flare.” The countdown has begun.

While we’re struggling over here on the east coast for warmer weather and a dry skate park, big things are going down in Los Angeles this weekend. Tomorrow, Saturday, September 27th, LA’s first-ever street skate plaza, dubbed Ambassador Plaza, will officially open. For those of you who don’t know, a skate plaza is the equivalent to skate heaven–it has every skate-able thing you could want/imagine. Visit The Ambassador Series for a full run-down on the event and watch a video featuring Raekwon the Chef, Paul Rodriguez, Daewon Song, and other ambassador-minded folks explaining the idea behind the epic plaza. Be there Saturday at 4pm to be part of the grand opening, which is sure to be chalked full of pro skaters.

SKATE NEWS

Legendary Birdhouse Pro and the man behind Willy's Workshop, Willy Santos, may be lying low as of the last few years, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been making power moves. It's just been announced that Willy is the newest pro rider for Satori Movement.

World Industries just added a new amateur to their already impressive and ever growing roster. Big guy and unsuspecting flip technician, Andrew Cannon is officially riding for World. Mighty Healthy, the lifestyle, clothing brand out of New York, looks be be delving directly into the skate arena. Some guy I never heard of, named, George Jadelrab is on the Mighty Healthy team.

Corny As Hell

Active

Foundation Visits Active
If you thought that signings and demos were designated just for the summertime, you're sadly mistaken my hombre. These events are alive and breathing well, with the organizational help of Active Ride Shop. On Sunday October 12th, Foundation Skateboards will be cruising by two Active locations in order to bring their handpicked talent straight to the adoring fans. The first demo and signing will happen at 1pm at Active Orange. The second will happen at 4pm at Active Chino. In attendance will be Corey Duffell, The Nuge, Gareth Stehr, Sierra Fellers, David Reyes, Alex G, Abdias Rivera and the teams newest pro, Angel Ramirez. And for extra incentive to get your ass out for the day, Active will be selling Foundation decks for only $34.99 (Only on October 12th and only at event locations of course, silly one).

If you're a fan of Rob Dyrdek, you're gonna want to check out his one-on-one drinking sesh with Johnny Knoxville over at Jackassworld.com. Watch on as Mr. Knoxville probes Rob about the demise of Rob & Big, meeting Jeff Tremaine for the first time and peeing the bed. Parental guidance is suggested, kids.

Remember that dude named Moose who backside 360'ed down that more than healthy set of steps at Thrasher's recent "Bust or Bail" contest? Well the dude is back and apparently he filmed all of this footage only an hour after the contest had wrapped. Impressive, Mr. Moose. Very impressive.

Strange Notes just unleased a "Movin' Up" part from some dude I never heard of, who goes by the name of Mikey Curtis. Whoever this bastid is, he's got some chops.

Active

Fallen Visits A Couple Active's
Seen Ride The Sky yet? Me neither, but I heard Chris Cole's got the last part and sh*t is bananas. Instead of waiting around to see the video like me, go check the Fallen team at Active Mission Valley and Active Escondido on October 19th. I'm sure most, if not all of the Fallen team will be on hand to sign whatever it is you put before them, even if that includes product not endorsed by any of the Fallen riders. They'll most likely understand.

Given Skateboards am, Danny Scher has been one of my favorite underground rippers for a long time now. The kid straight up, rips. Here's a short but sweet video that's just been posted over at The SkateboardMag

SKATE NEWS

One of skateboarding’s most inventive (and watchable) contests finally announced some details today. The 2008 Vans Downtown Showdown will be kicking off on October 11 at the Paramount Studios Back Lot. Over $85,000 in loot will be given out this year, so expect some serious rippage from the Deathwish, Foundation, Toy Machine, Girl, Real, Element, Habitat, Creature, Black Label, Blind and Flip teams. Keep on readin’ on for the full press release…

2008 Vans Downtown Showdown Coming October 11
All the Details on This Year’s Epic Event Including
Where to Get Tix and Where to Watch!

Join Vans on Saturday, October 11 to see skateboarding’s top pros and ams shred for their chance at $85,000, as the 4th Annual Downtown Showdown invades Paramount Studios’ Back Lot. We’ve invited top skateboard companies and their riders to submit designs for one of four custom obstacles that will be chosen and built as part of the Showdown course.

You have a chance to watch it live by entering to win tickets at select Southern California Vans stores now through Saturday, September 27. For a list of participating stores visit www.vans.com/showdown.

Those that can’t make it to this year’s Showdown can catch all the action at www.vans.com, including a live webcast of the entire event and a chance to win great prizes! The Downtown Showdown will also air on Fuel TV, dates and times t.b.d.

Who: The top teams in skateboarding including Deathwish, Foundation, Toy Machine, Girl, Real, Element, Habitat, Creature, Black Label, Blind and Flip.

What: Each team will session four unique, custom-made obstacles in a round-robin format with awards going out for top team, best pro, top am and best performance by obstacle.

When: Saturday, October 11 at 5 pm (doors open at 4 pm)

Where: Paramount Studios Back Lot

Prize Purse: $85,000 in cash and prizes for individual and team winners

The Vans Downtown Showdown is made possible by the support of Rockstar Energy Drink, Scion, Epiphone and Skateboard.com.

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Skateboarding, traveling and all-around documentation are three components of life that seem to compliment each other quite well. It almost seems that when a skateboard is ridden, the other two acts will inevitably follow. Rick Charnoski and Coan "Buddy" Nichols are two skaters who have obsessively documented their perspectives since their earliest days of skateboarding. Joining forces years ago, the two found that their shared interests extended far beyond just the act of riding a skateboard. Creatively, the two began to collaborate extensively on skate documentaries, using the unmistakable and rarely utilized medium of super 8 and 16mm film. Since 1999, the two have succeeded in creating a unique brand of skate documentation that is truly unlike any out there. Their style of filmmaking has been showcased in classic releases like Fruit Of The Vine, Skateparks Of Oregon, Ecuador & Tabaccoland, Random Shorts, Northwest and Anti-Hero's classic tour video, Tent City. Recently, the two filmmakers went on to tackle their very first feature length film called Deathbowl To Downtown. Deathbowl is an in-depth documentary which explores skateboarding's unparalleled evolvement in New York City, beginning in the 70's and ending with today's current scene. This enormous undertaking of a movie contains pricelesss archival footage from the 70's, interviews with tons of NYC legends and innovators, and serves as an invaluable history lesson for root-seeking new jacks around the globe. Recently, I was able to track down Rick and Buddy and talk to them about their upbringing, skateboarding, art and their new movie.

Bill Thomas

NYC Legend, Jeremy Henderson Latches Onto A Proper Crail Grab In Queens
Give me some background. Where were you guys, born, how did you start skating and all that stuff?

Rick Charnoski: Born in Pennsylvania. Started skateboarding in the 5th grade. I've basically skated my entire life. Skateboarding in the 80's was closely related to the idea of doing everything yourself, cause there you had to do things yourself back then. There was no skateboard industry. Skateboarding was just this radical, underground, punk rock activity. So skateboarding, punk rock and Do It Yourself creativity and art were all sort of connected. So being completely removed from any type of inspiration growing up in Pennsylvania, it was like, Come up with anything you can come up with to make your activity more fun. Build your own ramp, do your own t-shirts, make your own graphics, make your own magazines...make your own weird fun world happen yourself with your own rules, your own way. So that was basically my childhood and it was a good time for it because all that stuff was new back then. Out of high school I just skated and traveled around skating for years. Then later on in my 20's I started to get into making films on skateboarding. And I was always making artwork along the way. I sort of put all of those ideas together and focused the energy of skateboarding and creative arts and do it yourself story telling and it all eventually culminated to what we're doing now, which is making films about skateboarding. I met Buddy when I was real young, in high school and then met him again in New York. We both had similar paths and sort of connected on this thing that we're doing now. Courtesy Deathbowl To Downtown

The One And Only, Coco Santiago Grabs A Frontside At The Now Defunct Part Of The Brooklyn Banks

Buddy Nichols: I started skating in the early 80s in Boston and then moved with my family to Portland Oregon in 1985. There, through high school I was just skating all the time. I ended up in NY in the early, mid-nineties. I went to NY to take some graduate courses in documentary filmmaking. I was getting really into documentary films and just shooting stuff all the time and then Rick and I reconnected. It was just extra fuel to the fire because were trying to do something different by shooting everything on film. Film's really painstaking, especially when you don't have any money. Everything takes three times as long cause you're dealing with old-ass equipment from the fifties and sixties that breaks all the time. You almost need two people just to run some of the shit. So it was awesome to have two people just to share the cost of the film. Three minutes of footage on super 8 ends up costing a hundred bucks. So you're trying to build a 45 50 min skate flick and everybody knows you get bails hell of a lot. The partnership essentially stemmed from that.

Deathbowl to Downtown. Was this the first film you've made that covered an entire era of skating?

Buddy: Yeah, it was the first time we tried anyway. Everything else we've done has been sort of stream of consciousness, starts in September 10 and end November 1st and whatever you've got in the middle, that's it. End of story. And it's all completed in one trip or one mission. And this&.was a fucking nightmare. You know it's a never-ending story.

Where did your interest in conquering the evolution of the NYC skate scene stem from?

Deathbowl To Downtown

An Undisclosed Ripper Bonelesses Way Back In The Day In NYC
Buddy: This was the first project where we didn't come up with the idea. Long story short, some other people came to us with it. It started as a little project. It was like we'll do a quick 20 min primer on the New York history, not this extensive thing. It was supposed to be just the root. It actually wasn't even going to go past the mid-80's and it was going to take us only a couple of months. Then we fucking crawled down the rabbit hole and ended up in the wild, putting together this project that spans 30 years. It all evolved over the span of a few years of working on it, not working on it. We did 3 or four other smaller projects in the middle. A project like this, we have archival footage from like 40 different people, probably 30 some photographers involved, stock footage from 15 different stock footage houses, we've got some NBC news footage in there. Just crazy shit. So you can imagine, where on other projects we'd be directing on the fly and being open to what's unfolding on a trip, this was much more challenging in the sense that we were directing like 80 people. It's like how many times do you have to call somebody to go out to their grandmas house in Jersey just to go through the basement and dig out some tapes on a Saturday. You know what I mean. But you know there's gonna be gold in there. Put it this way, we know there's gold out there that we don't have because people either didn't want to get or have time to get it or we didn't do a good enough time of convincing them to get it.

How long did the project take?

Rick: Probably about 3 years, off and on.

Being at the New York premiere, there were definitely mixed reactions from the crowd. How did you guys respond to that?

Bill Thomas

A Guy Named Big Jim G Turns Between Two World Trade Center Towers
Buddy: We did the best job we could of getting together everything we could and sorting through it. Presenting a particular storyline, like the evolutionary process of skateboarding in New York, you sort of get stuck into one certain thing and maybe some stuff isn't in there.

From a filmmakers perspective, after having all these people complaining about their getting their due on camera and all that other bullsh*t, at what point do you say, hey off, this is our movie? Rick: It was hard in New York, because we weren't finished with the film yet and none of us were happy with it yet and we had to show it to the most critical crew and you got to get all the feedback and fallout from that. It was a real mindfuck for us because half of the things that people were yelling and screaming about were things that we wanted to fix anyway. Where we're at now, it's really a different film now. It is what it is. It's a 35-year history. I want to see someone else come up with a film that more people are going to be satisfied with. I don't know, man, it's a big project.

Is there anything that you guys learned along your journey of making this film?

Rick: We learned so much. Dealing with people, different personalities, historical film. Dealing with 800 hours of material to edit through. We learned a world of filmmaking knowledge in making this. It feels like we went to film school like ten times over. The character of this film is so unlike any of our other projects. It's so different from anything else we've ever done.

I think it's interesting what you guys do because it's obvious that the world is oversaturated with skate videos. What you guys do is a completely different approach to filmmaking with skateboarding in mind?

Bill Thomas

Harry Jumanji Carves Frontside Over The Banks
Buddy: For me personally, I think it has something to do with age. We came up in a world where there wasn't all these things laid out for you. There weren't videos to watch everyday. Street skating wasn't big. The whole idea of going out your door to skate on the street wasn't big. All you wanted to do was ride a ramp. Skateboarding was more wrapped up in meeting somebody and creating a world that's outside the act of skateboarding. You know, building your own ramp and meeting somebody in another town and then meeting up with them to go skate their shit. I think that's reflected in the style of stuff we do. Not just the activity of skating, but what's built around it.

What keeps you interested in making skate films? Why not delve into another facet of documentary filmmaking?

Rick: We never even thought of ourselves as filmmakers. The camera and skateboarding are like Siamese twins. They went hand in hand. It was a natural marriage between the two. There's something more there than just the act of skateboarding. There's a much deeper thing there. It's a very subconscious, organic process in filmmaking and skateboarding and they all relate to each other. Buddy: To me, we're not trying to consciously do this shit. We've never written out a treatment. It's going out and just trying to represent the world as you see it. Rick: The skateboard world just happens to have a lot going on. It stands for a lot more than the actual act of riding a skateboard.By documenting skateboarding, it becomes something more.

SKBSG