No posts for a while. Hectic times...
Moved into the new office and out of the living room. Moved boxes and boxes of work stuff and drum kits and merch to the new lock up after storing a bunch of Totimoshi's stuff after their last tour.
The house is beginning to free up. Sadly, the arm ain't quite fixed enough to skate yet.
I setup the Blues Man Rock Out! at the Volcom London store. Click the link to check the article.
Daniels voice is amazing - can't wait to see them with Karma to Burn next week.
I also got a little Aaron Sweeney 10 Tricks clip filmed for Kingpin. Sadly, his name is still spelt wrong on Mpora, so you'll have a hard time finding it.
Check it out below - each line took about three tries.
The UK got the first and last shows of the tour in the UK. A little moment of worry with immigration, but all was fine in the end. Hangover didn't kick in till 3pm today. It was P.T.
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.
Thanks to everyone who attended. Everyone who entered and the parents and friends who came along to make some noise for those skating.
Thanks also to Jart Skateboards , Electric , Skullcandy and Vans for the prizes and Red Bull for the free drink all day and sorting out the barbeque. Also, big ups to Revolution Skatepark for the venue, Brooks for the video clip, Chris Johnson, Denise Hickey and Mark Heaton for the photos as well as Biscuits, Nick and Adam for judging and Lev for MCing!
Skater of the Day: Tom Steele
Under 15s 1. Jack Collins 2. Neil Kellas 3. Ollie Beeby
16 and Over 1. Awadh Mohammed 2. Daryll Dominguez 3. Harry Lintell
I just put this post up on the Tweaker blog. Figured I'd double post it here as the video is so good...
"Skateboarding for the love of it is so out."
...Was this part filmed PRE-Flip?
If so, that means that Luan came up with this without Ewan and Co. breathing down his neck.
Does stuff like this video part happen anymore without management, PR and marketing (AKA the paid up pro-team/TM, the staff photographer and the employed filmer) giving the skater hell and riding them hard on deadlines, paychecks and cover shots?
You could probably count the amount of times this sort of knockback shit has happened this millenium on one hand. In fact, all I can think of is PJ Ladd.
PS. PurpleTurtleDrizzle - Extra points for filming it off the TV. Lose them all, go straight to jail and don't collect £200 for encoding your username in the top corner of the clip.
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.
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.
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
