So how did Lem Villemin get on adidas? Watch the interview below and find out. Now you know.
While on our TWS NorCal Tour, we got Jimmy Cao to sit down in front of our camera in the RV and answer some What’s Next? questions. Check it out.
Vans just launched a new, nationwide shoe customization contest, Vans Custom Culture. Vans is encouraging high school art classes across the country to register to participate. Registration begins 3/1/10.
The official rules and prize details are located at vans.com/customculture. Additional information, photos, and a discussion board (including FAQs) are available at http://www.facebook.com/vanscustomculture.
The Thunder Online Catalog 2nd Strike is now Live. Check out new trucks from Cole and Appleyard, plus watch Stump the Chief The Finale to find out which design from Stump the Chief got voted to win as Jamie Thomas’ new Pro Truck.
Tyler Price brings us the latest in a series of promos for the upcoming HYPE! full length video BELIEVE. If this is just a taste of what Tyler has been working on, what could he possibly be holding on to for the video?
Who doesn’t love them some Leo? RVCA got a new commercial with Leo with some hefty new footage. Check it.
Osiris welcomes one of San Jose’s finest today—Peter Raffin is on.
Agency Thursdays: Spot Fixin’ with John Lupfer Another Thursday, another clip. This week takes a look behind the scenes as Lupfer fixes up a rugged looking San Diego spot, feels it out for the kill, and does his best to ignore a not so supportive fellow San Diegon onlooker. Enjoy the ride and see you next week world.
Hear Mark Appleyard talk about the last ten years in his own words. Mark’s interview is laid over his stylish i.e. part from 2000. Read more in our February 2010 issue that’s onsale now.
Video by Jon Holland & Greg Hunt. Voiceover editing by Chris Thiessen.
A huge congrats goes out to Mike Anderson and the birth of his beautiful baby girl, Lyla. Cheers!
The Maloof Money Cup is expanding to three contests this year, the first of which will be in New York City this June. Read on for the details.
Joe and Gavin Maloof, who own the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, said Tuesday they will hold Maloof Money Cup New York on June 5-6 at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, featuring a street skateboarding competition. The winner will earn $100,000.
The Maloofs have agreed to donate the $1.8 million, world-class skate park they will build for the competition to the city of New York through the City Parks and Recreation Department’s “Adopt-A-Park” program. Joe Maloof said the cost of the skate park will be defrayed by contributions from sponsors Vans and Monster Energy.
The Maloof Money Cup will return to Southern California for the third straight year, featuring street and vert competition, from Aug. 4-8 at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.
“I always felt the most important thing was to start in California, where it was born,” Joe Maloof said. “We’ll always stay in Orange County and the L.A. area. That will always be No. 1. However, we needed to get an East Coast presence. It’s a privilege to get into New York. It’s not easy to have an event in New York.”
The New York competition will include a wild-card contest to give local skaters the opportunity to compete against the top pros in the industry. Pro skaters Chris Cole and Geoff Rowley, New York skating icon Steve Rodriguez and Joe Ciaglia of California Skateparks will lead the design of the street course. The New York prize purse is nearly $250,000.
The Maloof Money Cup Orange County will expand to five days.
Invited pros include defending champions Cole in the street competition and Alex Perelson in vert. The 18-year-old Perelson won last year’s vert after becoming just the fourth person to land a 900 during a competition.
The Maloof Money Cup Orange County pays out nearly $500,000 in cash and prizes, with $100,000 going to the street winner and $75,000 to the vert winner.
Maloof said the competition will expand to South Africa in 2011.
“I think this thing has evolved from a small skateboarding camp to a major skateboarding event,” Maloof said. “It’s going to expand opportunities for skateboarding around the world.”
Just posted a new Thousand Words feature on the 7zine site. Thousand Words is Blabac’s feature on the site where he posts a gallery and either himself or the person in each photo tells a story behind it. This time, it’s an all-Kalis gallery.
Expedition made it official today—it’s Miller time. Peep Matt’s What’s Next? right here and his welcome video at the Expedition site.
The GOAT & The Occasional Others are releasing their NEW Album - The GOAT Speaks, this Friday night at 3 Clubs in Hollywood, CA. The evening’s festivities will also commemorate the launch of the new GOAT x Emerica collaboration shoes hitting your local skate shop now! The best part? The GOAT will be shredding live, and YOU are invited! Here’re the details:
21& Over
Friday, February 12th
Three Clubs
1123 Vine Street
Hollywood, Ca. 90038
Show Starts at 9PM Now that you’ve got all the details and your plans for Friday night are set, The GOAT is hooking you up! Special from the band, they are giving you a FREE DOWNLOADof a song from their new album: http://thegoatmusic.com/ Check out The Goats video, Billy Goat:
Birdhouse Team and friends sesh the vert ramp on a rainy day. Featuring: Elliot Sloan, Lyn-Z Adams, Jean Postec, and Bucky Lasek.
Please join Altamont Apparel Ltd. Spring 2010 contributor, Tim Kerr for his curated show, Truth – A Kill Soulless Bullshit Happening opening party this Saturday, February 13 from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. At Family Gallery in Los Angeles and runs through March 10, 2010.
Altamont is honored to release the first book of art from Tim Kerr entitled Your Name Here on the occasion of this event. Special limited edition 10” vinyl Altamont EPs featuring new music by Tim Kerr will be available as well.
Truth is a mixture of work from influential artists such as AJ Nesselrod, Todd Swank, O, Mike Watt, Tim Kerr, GSD, Craig Jackman and many more. With live musical performances by No Age and Mike Watt featuring Tim Kerr, plus an Old Time session with Tim Kerr and Triple Chicken Foot.
DVS just launched a new campaign called Use Your Shoes.
It’s encourage the skaters out there to send in videos demonstrating how they use their shoes. Pretty simple.
Here’s the link to its site with the contest rules, etc.
We would need to add a hot model, buckets of paint and maybe a dog dressed up like a cat to make Dane’s 360 flip into an Insight ad, but it’s still real sick (photo: Dave Chami). Breakout Dane Burman just got on Insight, the company I love unconditionally for their fanciful ads alone, so we caught up with him about his move… You’re officially on Insight. You were on Fallen Apparel, but now you’re just wearing the shoes. Let’s pretend that Fallen and Insight were two different people. Could you describe the personal qualities of each person that made you want to spend less time with Fallen and more time with Insight?
I left Fallen apparel because I ride for Fallen shoes. I need to spend my time with more than just one friend. I can’t hang out with my old mate Fallen all the time, although he is very nice to me. Mr. Insight came along and he offered me a whole other world of things to do and mischief to get into, so now I have a new friend to kick it with. Insight ads are known for being very unique. They’re not just skate tricks, they’re like art projects. So, I’m going to present two ideas I had for Insight ads and I want you to tell me which you would rather do and why. 1) You have to skate a round bar bent into the shape of an infinity symbol. The photo will be shot from above and the cement ground will be littered all around with home phone receivers and their cords. You will have to wear one of those baby harnesses on your front and inside will be a “little person” that looks quite similar to yourself. He will be faced toward you, so that you are looking directly at him while you do your trick. Then, you will have to 50-50 around at least half of the infinity symbol round bar.* 2) You’re dressed in a full body suit fashioned from pieces of a computer and you are nosegrinding down a tree that is set up over a pit filled with the kind of ceramic bric-a-brac that old people always have in their house. It’s raining.**
I think I’d have to go ahead and say I want to be stuck on an infinite 50-50. It’s one of the only tricks I feel comfortable with and I love the feeling of grinding. And, I wouldn’t mind finding and knowing myself either. Can I keep the mini me in a jar afterward? You had a breakout part in Zero’s Strange World. Did you know you were going to get a part?
Umm, that’s a funny story. I’d spoken to Jamie [Thomas] on the phone and via emails and he’d convinced me to try to save some money up to get out to the States and try to film some tricks and see if I could get anything good enough for one of the montages in the video. Then, I won this competition and bought my ticket. When I got there I just begged to go out skating and filming every day. Every time I’d get a trick I’d just joke around and say, “Log that into the computer for my part” and Greg [Robinson, the old Zero TM] would always go, “You’re not having a part…ha ha.” Then, once I’d gotten a few tricks I started asking [Ben] Gilley if I could share a part with him ‘cause when I was a kid, it was Gilley that made me wanna jump on the rails. So, I would’ve been hyped to have a part with him. Then, by the time I’d spent like nine months in the States I had a few minutes of footage and I ended up with my own part. I had to go home about a month before the premier in the States, due to Visa problems and I missed the world premiere.
Who did you watch it with in Australia?
I went to the Australian premiere here and just had a mellow night with some friends—didn’t really have the best night, but whatever. You ended up skating to “The Masque” by The Dark, but initially you wanted to skate to the Ghostbusters theme song. In hindsight, would you really have wanted to skate to the Ghostbusters song, or was that just to be a smart ass?
I really wanted to skate to Ghostbusters. But, then I saw Mark Suciu skated to it and he’s way better than me, so it kinda blew it out for me. But, then I wanted to skate to “Gimmie that Nut” by Eazy-E. I threw a few other song ideas at Jamie, too, like some Nick Cave songs and stuff, but nothing really seemed to fit. Then, Jamie emailed me, like three days before the premiere with that song. I was pretty over choosing songs, so that one sounded cool. I think it turned out pretty cool. Do you have any projects coming up? Any other weird song ideas for those future video parts?
Well, I got nothing really. I’m filming for a few homey videos back here. Fulfill the Ook and Heavy Stats. I guess we’ve got a year for the next Zero video, so I wanna get another part together for that, too. I’m sure if I put my mind to it, I can think of more shit songs for Jamie to say no to. You’re known for walking the line of amazing/annoying/awesome/unbearable/loveable asshole. What do you think is the best thing you’ve done that you intended to do to piss people off?What do you think is the worst thing that you’ve done that you intended to do to help someone else out?
Well, I kept up with some pretty harsh stuff about Garrett Hill’s sister when I saw how good she looked from a picture on his phone. I was saying some mean shit about her, about vodka and being tied up… and he was none to happy about that. He was so none to happy that he stabbed me in the arm. It was all in good fun and it was probably called for. Garry and I are still mates. That was one of the better things I’ve done to piss someone off. Ummm, I…ohh the other day I tried to hook my friend up with this girl and he got all angry at me about it. She was a sprouter too, but he’s really shy, so he didn’t like me putting him on the spot. But, yeah, he was pissed, even though I was trying to help. *Significance: the universe is merely an infinitesimal string of humans trying to find themselves by communicating with the outside world, in vain (i.e. the phones not connected to a base), when, in fact, a “little you” is directly in front of their face…skateboarding. **Significance: Will technology allow us, as humans, to advance (signified by your awesome nosegrind over the chasm) or is it only bullshit bric-a-brac that we collect, which is leading to the death of our planet…skateboarding?
DLX Demo at Skatelab in Simi Valley, CA on Monday February 15th from 1-4PM.
Dennis Busenitz, Peter Ramondetta, Frank Gerwer, JT Aultz, Ernie Torres, Mike Anderson, Peabody and more.
Click on over to the Pig Wheels site to check out a series of Nick Trapasso photos from Crossroads. Write in your own captions and win Nick’s new wheel.
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.
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.
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.
