Just got back from the Volcom Team House in Algorta, Spain (Just outside of Bilbao).
We got to hang about with Alain, too. Best dude ever. The team house is pretty much right behind me from the angle of this photo.
Kris Vile, Nick Stansfield, Ben Raemers and Gav Couglan made it out. Aaron Sweeney got left at the airport as they wouldn't let him on with his tattered passport. Lesson learned? I doubt it - When they tell you that you need a new one, get one. Don't wait until they tell you six times and then deny you.
Tons o' bloggin' coming soon.
Sam Ashley shot an article, too. Some amazing shit.
I stuck this up on the Tweaker blog a few days ago. Old news, I know - but I've just found an embeddable Youtube version.
So...
Volcom just posted their United Nations up over at The Berrics a few days early. I guess that as their Game of Skate 2 is going up over the weekends, it has pushed stuff like this into a Friday slot.
This clip has a serious list of people – The finally realised best thing ever Dennis Busenitz, David Gonzalez, Aaron Suski, Caswell Berry, Louis Marnell, Little Louie Lopez, Filipe Ortiz, Colin Provost, UK-boy-done-good Ben Raemers, David Gravette, Rune Glifberg, Darrell Stanton, Cody McEntire, Luan De Oliveira, Mark Appleyard.
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.
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.
I headed over to Munich with Aaron Sweeney, Marc ChurcHELL, Greg Nowick, Shitknees (AKA Powley), Ben Powell, Andy Scott, The Next Big Thing (AKA Nordberg), GeggsMan (AKA Rye Gray), Rob Smith and this thing pictured below...
Ben Raemers.
The kid was feeling the redneck vibe. 100% sold on the idea.
Don't believe me? Check it out:
Rye Gray also got the footage up four seconds before the event actually started. He's that quick. Raemers can be spotted in full flow, dungarees and all throughout that clip.
Sans dungarees, Dennis Busenitz hit up the mini ramp a few times. He clearly travels without an alarm clock, as he showed for the competition at 4pm (Just as the finals we're getting started), apologising profusely.
"The Next Big Thing" was also a little more up for it than usual. I guess a new sponsor will do that to you. Let the message boards run wild.
Sweeney fucked his knee pretty early on. Shame as we was pretty close to Bustergrinding this fucker:
Another wee bit of Ben...
Volcom 1, 2, 3 innit. Alain, Ben and Ivan.
Ben would have won that, had he not knocked the shit out of himself halfway through the finals. Actually, thats a good point - to come second and only skate half of the jam? You know you are going good.
You should check out this clip (and the Sidewalk one which I've linked to a couple of times above). That has the Andy Scott/Rob Smith fridge destruction. To ride up that thing into a pivot is beyond me. It was also beyond anyone else on the ramp, too...aside from Andy of course.
Ste Roe also made it over. Powley came dressed as him:
Whereas Ben Powell came dressed as Seasick Steve:
I'm sure I'll end up digging more photos up from ISPO. I know Rye's got a bit of footage to come. Most of all, I'm looking forward to seeing what happens over the next year. I mean, Volcom went by this theme at ASR, too. As much as it was a bit of fun, I can't help but feel that some kid somewhere is watching the coverage thinking that this is the next big thing and if they are smart they can jump on early. Enter the mini ramp shredders in dungarees at your local park. That's not some wild claim - It happened before. Just look at Ollie Todd. Portraits came out, London followed. Godfather of the Cardigan Movement.
Edit: All shitty photos by me. All the skate ones by Jelle Keppens
