Well its that time again, Bowl-a-rama, starting with Wellington NZ, then moving to Bondi beach. If you have not had the chance to see this competition, its one to look forward to. Last years event was crazy, with rippers from Pedro Barros to Lee Ralph, guaranteed to stoke you for your next session. If you are a legends guy ,this is your event, you will see more classic ripping than a Zorlac video. 

Pedro Barros

February 11th is the date, and dont forget they are one day ahead over in NZ, so plug in one day ahead for the webcast. 


Here is the link for live feed:http://www.bowlarama.com.au/wellington/live.htm

Lee Ralph

check Facebook for updates...


http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/406471_10150542814650617_207913975616_9011362_962911195_n.jpg

Next will be Bondi Austraila, equally as sick....February 21st

                                        

Vert Attack 6 Malmo Sweden

Well it has been a while since last time I posted, and I know I am late on this one...being the contest already happened. Regardless the Vert attack contest is great, it reminds me sooo much of a old style vert contest, before x-games and super pipes.....dont get me wrong I love those contests too, but Vert attack is more like a back yard vert contest. Great  event, this is the second year I had the chance to catch it, and once again it was sick....

With riders such as Duane Peters, Mike Vallely, Jeff Hedges, Nicky Guerrero, Mike Crum, Ben Hatchell, Brad McClain.........the session ragged on!


Do not miss this event next year, and if you are a pro I hope to see you rip Malmo next year.

Final Pro

1 Ben Hatchell US
2 Andy Scott UK
3 Jussi Korhonen Fin
4 Jake Anderson UK
5 Brad Mcclain US
6 Mike Crum US

Final Master

1 Nicky Guerrero DK
2 Justin Lynch US
3 Paul Atkins UK
4 Sean Goff UK
5 Mike Vallely US
6 Jeff Hedges US

Final Junior

1 Yuto Horigome Jpn
2 Simon Karlsson Swe
3 Bjorn Lillesoe DK
4 Reiss Johnsson UK
5 Zak Kutz UK
6 Andreas Laurtsen DK

Ohio Skateout 1988!

Lets talk Ohio Skateout, this contest was on the cusp of the street movement starting, but still ramps located in the course...This time frame was interesting, you had street pros coming up, against vert pros, who needed to adapt to the street movement. You start to see hand rails, and an attempt at a natural street course, with what I consider one of the sickest contest ramps from the era, a GIANT corner ramp.

the best part about this time in skating is the creativity, there were new tricks all the time, and everyone was trying to make the street thing happen, but the industry had not realised the advantage of a double kick board for street yet...so you end up with street riders on basically vert boards, riding a street course, and vert riders attempting to work the course with a vert feel.

When it came down to contests of this era, I always liked the jimmy some ramps together mentality. You would essentially have the skaters arrive early and build the ramps.The stuff they would make was always interesting, you never knew what ramps you would end up seeing in a old skate contest. Hence the GIANT wall.

Scott Oster, always had a sick style.

Music is awesome, I could watch this vid for the music alone, and obviously the skaters, basically made up of a bunch of skate legends before they knew they would be cast into the legendary status....regardless a good watch. see vids below Enjoy!

Old Bros, and skate crews!

Skate crews, what to say about this........if you belong to one.....Great!

 I don't know, as you can see by my blog, I think of an idea and write about it on the spot, so what can I say on this subject. Well if you have been around for a while I am sure you have heard of the infamous Jak's team, and the Barrier Kult, the Fork Crew, and obviously the Daggers and Hellride crew....Made up of some of the greatest skaters of time. 

Perhaps your crew is distinguished by your area code. Or if you race, or if you are all old, or whatever, regardless crews are an integral part of skateboarding.  You can find a crew for every name under the sun, the fact of the matter is to skate with a crew is like selecting your life long skate bros.....if you rip your in. I love that. The fact that you can ride for as many sponsors as you like, but underneath it all you will always ride for your crew.

Every city and every scene has crews attached to it, this is just a part of skating. The best part of a crew, is obviously the reunion. her are some pics/video, and if you belong to one, enjoy the years or ripping with your bros.

Concrete Wave Magazine!

The brain child of Michael Brooke, this magazine was exactly what the skate scene needed at the time......recently turned 10 years old, this magazine has become the longboarders magazine. If other magazines don't want to touch it then don't. Mike was brilliant enough to see that there was a need in the sk8 world to promote something other than just handrails.....I commend him on this, I would love to measure how much of an impact this mag has had on the scene, but that's a tough number to grab.

I do know that the largest skate company in the world is a longboard company, I know that racing of all types has exploded scince the inception of CW, that includes longboard marathons......Watching longboarding grow is a great measure as to how skateboarding is doing in general.  Keep those gas prices up,  and we will rule the streets, skateboarders will come out of the wood work...like monkeys in a jungle.

Regardless of what your "dress like a skater, never land a trick" friend told you, Longboarding rules .....and Concrete Waves impact on skateboarding will be long felt after you quit. Thanks Mike!

why THRASHER magazine SUCKS!

   Because it will never suck........ THRASHER RULES!!! and always will.........but I am having a click through contest with my friend, and your click might have just won me a 6 pack, thx....

So here are all the reasons Thrasher rules and has always ruled.......

Cover #1 to start, set the precedence of what type of mag this was going to be, a skateboarders skate mag. Dedicated to true hardcore skateboarding.

San Francisco, is there a better city to host a skateboard mag. " I thought about this for a while because there are alot of great city's out there, but San Francisco is skateboarding. "  there is no better city. PERIOD.

Year after year of gnarly ass skateboarding, and ripping from a skaters perspective, no outside influence and pure ripping, all the way.

Donut Duty vid, enough said.

Thrasher comics............the best!



Every vid they make, kills, I cant think of any time I sat down to watch a Thrasher vid and walked out thinking it sucked. NEVER!

King of the Road, this endevor is only the best contest concept to date, and the after videos are always a hilarious and gnarly watch.



Skate Rock , albums and videos.

Thanks Thrasher, for all the sick pics, video, and interviews......and if you are reading this thanks for the beers.

Classic Skate Rock!

We could talk for hours about what bands are skaterock and which are not....how do we classify this; at one point if they sang about skateboarding they were a skaterock band.....well that would mean Avril Levine is a skate rock band......yuk....NEVER!

 I am glad the rules have changed though, and there are enough skaters out there to have some mainstream band, rock out about skateboarding, that's a good thing right? ........and does skate rock now include skate rap? who knows?

Thanks to Trasher for making the skaterock albums availible for everyone, and to continue the tradition, with newer released thrasher skaterock albums.

To focus in on some of the great ones and to list a few, Suicidal Tendencies, JFA, Agent Orange, Angry Samoans, The Faction, Gang Green, Big Boys, and US Bombs come to mind, and you cant have skate rock without a shout out to our Canadian bands, Dayglo Abortions,The S.T.R.E.E.T.S. , China Creeps and Blackout 77 , if you want the full selection of great skate rock check http://www.skaterock.com/bands/bands.html for fresh skate rock info.

Check the videos below for additional radness....