SKBSG NEWS UPDATE

Though no one seems to have mentioned it yet, Greg Lutzka's name is notably absent from the Almost skateboards team list. Riding for Almost since its beginnings, Lutzka's absence is significant though not completely unexpected. Lutzka's immense talents on board and his consistent presence and dominance in the contest circuit (a Gold Medal at X Games Mexico in '08 and the winner of the '06, '08 and '09 Tampa Pro) is sure to attract new board sponsors quickly. Where will the fedora-clad ripper end up next? Be sure to keep checking back and we'll bring you the latest.

Lutzka twists in to a frontside 270 lip during the 2009 Dew Tour.


There's some great stuff floating around the Internets today. Aftera sneak peak at their pro boards in the Spring Line, Habitat has announced that Guru Khalsa and Daryl Angel have joined the pro ranks. Look for a full interview with Guru right here on ESPN Skateboarding in the near distant future.

If you haven't checked out part one of Nike's "Don't Fear The Sweeper" tour video, you're blowing it. Since when do double-set switch heel late shoves get used in a tour video?! Since Cory Kennedy got on the team, I suppose.

Courtesy of Habitat

In new product news, Deluxe has released part one of their online 2010 catalogue with the Thunder trucks section. Check out all the new trucks and colorways as well as a little vid from Erik Ellington showing you how to do nollie backside heels. Brad Staba hit me up to let everyone know that new Skate Mental product is up on the Internets. And Converse has some new shoes with classic style for your viewing pleasure as well.

This one needs some background. A while back we did an interview with Britain's own Olly Todd. At the time, he rode for Stereo skateboards where he'd been for a few years. Only a few weeks after that interview however, Todd shocked a lot of people when he left Stereo to ride for the newly minted Palace Skateboards. Whiel their website could stand some improvement, Palace comes correct out of London with deep ties to Slam City Skates and serves as an off-shoot from the tight-knit crew of Londoners, the Palace Waywards.

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Some might have seen this one coming but to others it was mystery. North Carolina's Dan Murphy has joined the Foundation team. Following a parting of ways for Murphy and long-time board sponsor Mystery, Murphy quickly found a new home and some new decks to ride with the Foundation crew. With our guy and good friend of Dan's, Mike Sinclair being the Team Manager over at Foundation, it seems to have been the obvious choice for Dan.

Murphy continues to ride for Nike SB, Kr3w and Krux. His addition to the F-troop adds some smooth tech to compliment riders like Sierra Fellers and David Reyes while bringing balance to a team that includes the more gnarly vibes of Corey Duffel, Angel Ramirez and Gareth Stehr. Congrats Dan! And keep an eye out for new Murphy footage in the North Cacka independent video, "Yougottagetthat," coming to your skateshop any day now. Check out a quick interview with Dan and a little welcome to the team video here.

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Santori

Satori Wheels is taking a green initiative. Send your old wheels to them and they will recycle them into brand new ones. This means less waste in landfills. Check out all the info about the new recyled urethane wheels at http://satoriwheels.org/relife.html. Do your part and recycle your old wheels.


Welcome to New York, one of the greatest places for street skating on earth. Down on the street level, between all of those skyscrapers is a world of possibility. Ledges, banks, gaps, rails, manuals, bumps, walls stretch on for miles. You could skate a new spot every day for a year in New York without repeating once. Have a look at some of NYC's finest. (Ying/Cronan/Mehring/Mikendo)

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A few years back, when Rasa Libre came out, it was something new and exciting with art direction by, among other people, Michael Leon. But, when Rasa disappeared, as a result of some differences about direction, it left Forbes without a sponsor. With fellow pro Brad Staba working on a burgeoning project at the time—Skate Mental—Forbes came aboard. As Skate Mental has grown, Reese has also taken on the duties of constructing the Quiksilver skate team, split between the two. Now, with new opportunities on the rise and a chance to connect with Michael Leon again, Forbes is looking forward to a new venture. Coming a long way from Washington D.C.'s Pulaski plaza to Southern California, Reese talks about his new project, how skating has changed as he's moved and why he left Mental.

Mystery enshrouding Trapasso as he noseblunts in Mexico.

Dear Chuck,

Good work on the "Prevent This Tragedy" video. Diggin' the kicks, too. I have fond memories of saving up my money and buying a pair of blue Chuck Taylors at the store, while my friend would buy red ones. Then, we would swap one shoe, so we would have one of each color, kind of how Geoff Rowley still does it. Anyway, classic shoes. But, I'm writing you today to thank you for the bonus footage of "Prevent This Tragedy." I'm currently recommending that people watch it.

Ben Karpinski

A bigspin heel at Damn Am, on his way to a second win at Tampa Am and a new pro career. It's been a good year for Luan.

I went to Brazil once and, ever since, I've had a place in my heart for Brazilians. It was almost ten years ago when I visited Rio de Janeiro (pronounced Hio de Janeiro), which is nothing like Porto Alegre, the place where Luan de Oliviera is from, but whatever—I'm just trying to pretend like I have some sort of kinship here.

If my memory serves me, I went down to the beach expecting women in those bikinis that barely cover their lady parts and found that nobody goes to the beach in Rio in their winter, which is still so uncomfortably hot that they put anti-melting agents

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Close your eyes so you're just looking out little slits. There you go. Now you're seeing the world the way Bledsoe sees it.

If you were as high as Tyler Bledsoe, skating might turn into little more than a spiral of smoke, which you could bend and move around your finger as you swipe at it's stream...or, maybe it's way less poetic than that. Maybe he's just so high that he's not cluttering his mind with the extraneous thoughts that plague the rest of us. Who knows? But, whatever he's doing, Bledsoe makes difficult skateboarding look like someone doing a playful jig. Watch him dance in Fourstar's all-Bledsoe edit of the Gang of Fourstar tour.

INTERSTATE BOARD SHOP NEW STOCKS

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LUAN HAS BEEN ON A SKATEBOARDING RAMPAGE OF TECHNICAL VIDEO WIZARDRY AND CONTEST ANNIHILATION FOR THE LAST YEAR, WE ARE PSYCHED TO INTRODUCE HIM TO THE ‘BIG LEAGUES’ AS A PROFESSIONAL SKATEBOARDER ON FLIP, MAKE US PROUD BRO’-GEOFF ROWLEY

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Dan Pensyl blunts to fakie in a southern globe.

Birds fly south for the winter and, when things get rough in New York and the greater East Coast, so do that area's inhabitants. The 5Boro team is no exception. Take a look at the video of their "Southern Migration, featuring Dan Pensyl, Danny Falla, Joe Tookmanian, Jimmy McDonald and Willy Akers.

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Kalis tosses a switch tailslide out in Rockaway New York back in the day.

Josh Kalis is one of the realest street skaters alive. With a style honed from countless hours at plaza spots including Love Park, MACBA and even EMB, Kalis has a rawness to his style that exudes in every executed trick. While he's put in time at Training Facility spots like the Berrics and the old Alien warehouse in Philly, there'll always be a ruggedness with the way he handles tricks because they were learned on street first and not in parks like so many of the current generation. Kalis has also always been outspoken about the desire to keep skating raw. Though he has an amazing part in "Mind Field," Kalis could do without the three or more year saga it took to get that film made; to him, a video should reflect the skills you can put down on the regular. In keeping with this, Kalis and long-time friend and photographer Ryan Gee logged a ton of bro-cam footage during one of the golden eras of Philadelphia when "The DC Video" was in production and "Photosynthesis" had recently wrapped. Between Philly, Barcelona and even some trips to the Workshop's headquarters in Ohio, Kalis and crew logged tons of clips that might not have made the final cut of major vids but they certainly give you an excellent glimpse into some ill skating from a Dirty Ghetto Kid during a bygone era. Take a look.

The man of unique style also skates uniquely.

The type of skateboarding that Australian Richie Jackson does is as devisive as the clothes he wears. His part in Death Skateboard's video "Escape from Boredom" came out of nowhere, with a lot of polejams, wallrides and no complys. He kept the weirdness alive in "And Now," even showing some of that "traditional" skateboarding we all like. But, the great part of skating is it can include people like Jackson and P-Rod all at the same time. Jackson's uniqueness abounds, however, outside his skating and he has gotten noticed by GQ as a psychadelic style to which to aspire. Read more here

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Courtesy of Adidas

Vince Del Valle and the whole team cuss up the whole Bay area.

Not only does Adidas have a newly designed skate site up starting today, but they have their new line of shoes and a gangster-a** video of the team skating San Francisco (did someone say Tim O'Connor rebirth?). Be the first to see it.

Sometimes I feel like I probably don't get the joke. In fact I know that can be the case. I'm often too literal-minded and sarcasm (especially written, Internet sarcasm without facial expressions) sometimes goes right over my head. So here's what I'm trying to figure out: Does Ernie Torres ride for Ambiguous or not? The whole video joke is just too ambiguous (get it?). It would seem that Ernie would fit on the Ambiguous squad with his penchant for tight black jeans (they make a lot of those) and his Real teammate and homie JT Aultz already repping the squad. I'll say this, the last time Ambiguous made a "Doesn't Ride For Us" video it was of Sean Conover who is now listed as one of their team riders. So maybe Big Ern does ride for Ambiguous now? Time will tell. Either way, this video is pretty tight.

These are only a few of the ams that have been around for long enough to get the nod to turn pro this year. CW from L to R: Grant Taylor for AWS, Justin Brock for Real, Levi Brown for Element, Brandon Westgate for Zoo York and Ben Raybourn for 1031.

2009 brought a lot of new dilemmas to skateboarding. But, a lot of good came out of sticky situations. The word "recession" circled around and made pros re-analyize what it meant to be pro. People that hadn't been doing much suddenly appeared, proving why they were pro. Skaters showed up to contests in droves, eager to win. Companies found creative ways to push cool stuff, while holding the thinning industry together. But, most importantly, there was visual proof of a kind of transfer of power from this mythical skate axis we call California to smaller local scenes worldwide. Legends lived, companies cared more, Chris Cole annihilated, new pros arose, Flip dominated, everyone had a Deathwish, Leo Romero went in reverse, some contests got cushy, some got core, girls stepped up, skaters swapped, the world Tilted, we became radioSlaves and "Mindfield" blew minds. Take a look at a photo review of 2009 in 2009 in Review: A Gallery. Enjoy.

Eli Reed admits he's part of the problem in his recent Venture ad and talks about his hometown, Phelps' trash-talking abilities, JR, PJ, NYC, McTwists, Boston legends, "Wicked" and other things. Have a Venture read (Reed?) from Zoo York's newest pro.

Jack Spanbauer powers a 5-0 through down through the kink and then gets chopped in half.

This is a review of Meta skateboard's newest Zombie movie-slash-skate video epic "Turd Merchants of Death," but before I start I want to make it clear: Local videos are a whole different bag of worms ("PJ Ladd's Wonderful Horrible Life" and a few others exempted). I know this, because while skateboarding on the large industrial scale likes to show only the best-est people in the most prettiest format at the greatest-est spots, local videos are a little more endemic—they might not suit all the criteria of your Internet skate nerd. Local videos are made for people in

Pete Eldridge celebrates his B-day at a spot just outside his current home, Denver, CO.

Whether you're back at work and just waiting for the New Year to come, so you can enjoy another holiday, or you're just sitting around until school gets back in session, you'll need a little something to fill the rest of your break with. So, here you go...

Kincade #31 explores Austin Stephens' lil' DIY skatepark. A Fourstar "Few Hours in the Life" of Brian Anderson has some smooth shredding from the Gentle Giant. The Etnies crew have some fun at Joe Red's local park here. Pete Eldridge has been staying busy in Colorado and gets a line on a spot I used to shred. Gotta love this guy. Happy birthday, Pete! Oh yeah and Mike Mo gets Firsthand-ed.

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These are only a few of the ams that have been around for long enough to get the nod to turn pro this year. CW from L to R: Grant Taylor for AWS, Justin Brock for Real, Levi Brown for Element, Brandon Westgate for Zoo York and Ben Raybourn for 1031.

 

2009 brought a lot of new dilemmas to skateboarding. But, a lot of good came out of sticky situations. The word "recession" circled around and made pros re-analyize what it meant to be pro. People that hadn't been doing much suddenly appeared, proving why they were pro. Skaters showed up to contests in droves, eager to win. Companies found creative ways to push cool stuff, while holding the thinning industry together. But, most importantly, there was visual proof of a kind of transfer of power from this mythical skate axis we call California to smaller local scenes worldwide. Legends lived, companies cared more, Chris Cole annihilated, new pros arose, Flip dominated, everyone had a Deathwish, Leo Romero went in reverse, some contests got cushy, some got core, girls stepped up, skaters swapped, the world Tilted, we became radioSlaves and "Mindfield" blew minds. Take a look at a photo review of 2009 in 2009 in Review: A Gallery. Enjoy.