You have 7,000,000 unread mails.

Cruising YouTube to avoid work is great. Karma rewarded me already for such a grand decision.

I'm guessing this is Reading University time for Si Skipp around 96ish.



I remember being handed tiny comressed Quicktimes of these tricks for an old video part which were never used due to the quality. Stoked to see them somewhere again.

Oops.

I messed up.



Don't you just love tape glitch?
Digital crap.

PS. Everyone in the clip above is over thirty years of age. Kids don't know shit.

...and just to prove it ain't limited to hidden ramps out of sight of the world, here's a couple of tricks from Mile End a couple of days ago.

Back to the idea...

I seem to have strayed a little from the original idea of this blog as the excuse to get all the edits and randoms off of my hard drive and into one place.

So, back on with the task.



I had the Scots (Div, Colin, Benson and Alex Irvine) stop by the house for a few days and managed to convince Raemers it'd be worth his while taking some floor space at the same time.

We rolled around a few spots - Ilford Bowl, the rail (Frontlipped at 11am after the previous days 8 hour skate marathon), Whitstable (Which has the worst BMXicans for locals), Saffron Walden, Dartford, the Finsbury Park double kink and that secret spot, too and Ben just kept upping the ante wherever we went.
We seriously ended up with so much stuff. I should find the extra bits from around that time and get it up as a second clip.

Anyway, about three days later Ben, Munson, Leo Sharp and I headed to Rom where Ben went crackers again (Flip Backside Disaster in Rom Pool is not to be sniffed at). This was followed to a pre-team house trip to Bilbao for Ben to shoot his Haunts...and shoot it he did.
Kris Vile was also on that trip. He didn't skate a ton, but every trick he did was the "new best trick of the trip". Most of that stuff showed up in his interview last year and a little appeared in Savoir Faire. All the Spain stuff was over a 4 day visit.

Actually, there are a couple of randoms in there. Three tricks are from Amsterdam Am, during practice or over on their amazing mini ramp. A couple more are from Wild in the Park's in Aberdeen. There's also a vert wall slam from Penzance (Where we got a little of Div's part for Savoir Faire).

About this time I gave Nick at Power a shout about their new Death DVD. Reason being that I just really didn't want Ben's stuff to end up on a web edit or worse, sit on a hard drive for 4 years only to become outdated. I'm good at letting shit go stale.

He was keen and threw Ben's part on as an extra (Although it got an airing at the premiere - Whoop!).
As a side note, I also sent it up to Consolidated to see if those guys we're interested in it. I didn't get a reply at all - until I re-emailed them after I saw that they'd just thrown it on their site a few weeks later and had given it to TWS, claiming it as theirs. So stoked they're still about the little man, eh (Although to be fair, Volcom paid more than I did. Petrol receipts n' all)?

Anyway...Negativity out.

The K Grind at the end was stupid. Vile Backside Smithed it and Raemers believed he couldn't keep up with that, so he just tried to go really fast on his trick to make it worthy. Such a funny outlook. That Lipslide hop in is bullshit. So gnarly, and a fucked up but amazing Raemers roll out. In fact, the whole part is still bananas. That doorway spot is so, so hard to skate.

Enjoy.

PS. I'll try to find some obscure stuff soon. I know I have Santa Cruz UK demo tapes somewhere. Tim Brauch and Chet Childress.

Two WI Men

...not such a random post today.


Hi Fi Wheels "Full Frequency Promo" from Stereo Sound Agency on Vimeo.

I still don't get Chris Pastras which reminds me - I wish Ben Gore had never rode for World Industries as he is pretty rad. Pastras gets away with it...but Gore skated for them six months after they dropped their entire pro team (Whatever happened to Carlos De Andrade? Who else rode for them in those last shitty days?) and Forrest Kirby skates the other way around so much that his regular stuff now looks switch. Check the Backside Smith.

Oh, Nate Broussard still could be Nick Jensens older brother.

...and most importantly watch Jack Sabback and his well thought out lines. Love it.

15th April 1989

"How to report the death of 96 people, crushed to death whilst the Police and officials looked on" by The Sun.



Have you ever logged onto Facebook, MySpace or the like only to find a Friend Request from that cunt in your class who used to bully everyone?
Not that I'm waiting for an apology from anyone in particular - as from what I can remember they were all self-centred cunts anyway and by now I've accepted that after 15 years of leaving school, it's not coming.

The thing is, The Sun is that person. I had to look. I had to find out. I went and took a peek over at their website to see. They're running a remembrance article/slideshow on the 20th Anniversary.

Is there any sign of an apology? Is there fuck.

It always amazes me that this absolute waste of energy could have the highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world and the biggest circulation within the UK.
Then again, it shouldn't. Look at this world. It's full of self-centred cunts.

I'll never, ever learn this.

...and not because I don't want to.

I would embed this clip but it's even better if you read the (currently only) comment.

Check it out.

Amazing. It's actually clean as fuck - and not some stinking uber-tech...and all by a fat guy.

Viva La France...

I just got back from a quick stop in France.

We skated a barrier. Hans and Armando killed it. This thing was tough to skate - all vert and no room for error. Be quick or be dead.



We then headed back to the Volcom office where Jebrane was ready and waiting with concrete to be laid.


Some organisation and debating was required.


Lean the barrier back and pack it out using the leftovers of the building site next door to the office...


...or watch, beer in hand.


Employ some cheap foreign labour to mix the 'crete.


Get the first slap of muck on there.


Vorsprung Durch Teknik. Micha had it. We all stood around quietly and noddingly approved as we are men and know this anyway. Right? Right? No.
It was a good lesson. I'll admit that. I now know the technique for laying decent 'crete.


Find a child to stick their handprint in there.




You know how you can tell that this isn't England? Nope - not the sun. There are girls near skateboarding. That never happens here.


Finish up...


Drink up...


..and cover up for the oncoming rain (Y'see...It IS like England!) leaving a little "Don't touch" message for the local kids.

Sadly I had to leave France...so updates are going to be localised here: http://rickysbarrier.blogspot.com/

I want to see some footage. Now.

This is skateboarding?

I'd really like to know how the Stars and Straps lot reacted to seeing themselves from the outside once they followed the Youtube link to the edit above.

I'd like to think they all sent a well constructed complaint to their sponsor about how they look like kooks and asked politely for it to be deleted, forever.

Sadly, the reality is they probably loved it.

This is skateboarding. and I'm all for denial.

We need less of this:



And more of this:

No Steve Forstner by the looks of it...but its worth watching for the Alley Oop Backlip by Aaron Sweeney.



...and that reminds me - check out the Iron Maiden cover of UFO's "Doctor, Doctor" in the Eddie's Archive boxset. It's class. Even though its from the mid-nineties.

Twice? Pfft.

How many times have I been to the Caymans? None.
How many times did I think I was in with a chance of going? None.
How many times had Raemers heard of the Caymans until he got his flight ticket? My guess is none.
How many times has he been now? Twice. In two years.

Ah, he deserves to be able to cruise the below. Especially after that epic beast of an interview from the last Sidewalk.



Go take a look at some of his other photos...