Wednesday, July 31, 2013

P-Rod Update

Not to obsess over Paul Rodriguez's move from Plan B, but I thought I might give you all the latest on it. The Berrics posted this video in which P-Rod talks to a local radio host who knows very little about skateboarding about his move from Plan B. It sounds like Paul plans to start his own company, either by himself or with someone else who he isn't telling us about just yet. I have to be honest though, as much as I love Paul Rodriguez, I'm not sure I can see myself buying boards from his company. He's a fantastic skater, but my style doesn't quite line up with his, and I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way. Let me know how you guys feel in the comments, if you'd like.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Weekly "Why Haven't I Seen This?"-9

With the plethora of skate footage that's out there, it can be easy to overlook things. And yet, so often we stumble upon a video that we've never heard of and find ourselves asking why we hadn't seen it before. Each week, I plan to post another lesser-known video that deserves more recognition, for your viewing pleasure.

It's kind of incredible to think about how long Justin Strubing has been skating at such a high level. Everything about his style is great and he chooses interesting tricks to do. He's one of the unsung heroes of the industry without a doubt, and over all he seems like a really good guy. The following is his part in a video called "Destroy Everything Now" which I hadn't really heard of until finding this part. The part is definitely really good though and given that I had never heard of the video and had really only heard of the sponsor (88 footwear) a couple of times, it definitely deserves a spot in the category of lesser-seen skate videos.

Not that anyone cares, but at around 50 seconds, Sir Strubing does the same trick at the same spot that Anthony Pappalardo did in his "Fully Flared" part. Only "Fully Flared" was much later. Deal with it.

Friday, July 26, 2013

Desensitized to Gore

Pain is something that skaters live with. This seems kind of odd to a lot of people, and on some level, I understand that. When I have enough time to skate several times a week, my body is constantly covered with scrapes, cuts, and bruises. And when I'm with other skaters, they get it- they're going through the same thing. It's been this way for so long that I'm actually taken a little off guard when someone gasps and asks me about some small cut or scrape that I have.
"Oooh. How'd you do that?!" they'll say, with a bit of worry in their voice.
"Oh, that's from skateboarding" I'll reply, matter of factly.
"Well what happened?"
"Oh, well this one... I don't remember, I... Oh yea, this one was from when I slipped out trying a trick down some stairs. It's not as bad as it looks."
And then they usually spend the rest of the conversation looking at me with a puzzled look, as if to say, "Why would you do something like that?" And you have no choice but to look back at them as if to say, "It was totally worth it. Stop worrying about me."

We've all experienced conversations like this. And when you get someone who doesn't know anything about skateboarding to watch someone trying a particularly gnarly trick, you can only hope it's as hilarious as the girl's reaction at the 45 second mark in the trailer for the Deathwish video. If you miss it, they also play it in slow motion at the end. Glorious.


Wednesday, July 24, 2013

3D Skateboards

3D Skateboards is going to be Brian Anderson's new company, for those who don't know. I wasn't reporting on this earlier, but it seems that the concept has become official enough that I can go ahead and write about it. Brian Anderson quit Girl to do this company, which he talks about in this interview. The team will include Austyn Gillette and Alex Olson, and to be honest, I'm not sure how to feel about that. I of course love Austyn Gillette and everything he releases. The same year that he released a part for Thrasher, he pretty quickly whipped up this part in "Cosmic Vomit 2".



If you aren't familiar with the "Cosmic Vomit" series by Grant Yansura, they're awesome videos. Especially the part that is nothing but boardslides.

The other thing I like about this company is that Brian Anderson seems to have a level head, and I know he's at least interested in art, so it looks like 3D will have a solid image and graphics.

Now here's the part where I just start to whine and complain.

Monday, July 22, 2013

Weekly "Why Haven't I Seen This?"-8

With the plethora of skate footage that's out there, it can be easy to overlook things. And yet, so often we stumble upon a video that we've never heard of and find ourselves asking why we hadn't seen it before. Each week, I plan to post another lesser-known video that deserves more recognition, for your viewing pleasure.

Who doesn't love Bastien Salabanzi's parts in the "Sorry" videos? Any skater can enjoy them. And although this Jart video, "All You Need" has made it's way around the internet for a while, I still tend to think that a lot of American skaters have yet to peep it. The way he puts down backside flips and full cab flips is still unmatched to this day.

Friday, July 19, 2013

Brick Harbor... What's Your Deal?

Brick Harbor has a lot to like about it. Their team is monumental- Dennis Busenitz, PJ Ladd, Jake Johnson, Jack Curtin, Ishod Wair, Gino Iannucci, Daewon Song and Stevie Williams. Not  a weak name to be found.

Not only that, but they're constantly releasing good footage. Check out this short Leo Romero part that they just released.


They've been doing stuff like this pretty much nonstop for the last year, and I think that's awesome. They even carry some pretty solid brands on their site- I have a hard time hating on an online store that maintains a bigger selection of Roger decks than Girl decks.

Here's where I turn around and explain what I don't like about them. A while ago, I wrote about why skateboarding retail doesn't work as well online. I stand by all of those points- go to your local shop first, if at all possible.

That's not what I want to talk about in this article though. I still just get this unexplainable weird vibe from them. I'm not sure what exactly it is, but I have some theories...

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

What Is Going On?

So let's recap what has happened in skating this year. Jason Dill and Anthony Van Engelen have left Alien Workshop. Brian Anderson left Girl to start his own company, which Alex Olsen and Austyn Gillette are also joining. Then, Paul Rodriguez updated his official web page to look like this:
And pretty much everyone is freaking out over it. Because it appears that Paul Rodriguez is no longer on Plan B.

Now the internet may have jumped the gun a little bit, because after several days of speculation, nobody has been able to figure out where he's going, what he's doing, or why he's doing it. I can't help but hope that this whole thing was a misunderstanding, and that P-Rod will have to hold an awkward press conference in which he gives a very reasonable explanation as to why he spray-painted his boards and took the Plan B logo off of his site.

But of course that doesn't seem to be the case, so I'm going to use some reasoning and clues to do what everyone else is doing and determine what his next move will be. Get ready. I've narrowed it down to a few possibilities, listed below.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Weekly "Why Haven't I Seen This?"-7


With the plethora of skate footage that's out there, it can be easy to overlook things. And yet, so often we stumble upon a video that we've never heard of and find ourselves asking why we hadn't seen it before. Each week, I plan to post another lesser-known video that deserves more recognition, for your viewing pleasure.

Arizona has one of the best skate scenes in the world. In some ways, I like it better than California, just because the dudes in Arizona seem to be able to shred anything and everything, all the time. One of my favorite skaters, from the desert or elsewhere, is Josh Hawkins. In fact, personally, I've just been waiting for him to turn pro for years now, but just as he was about to turn pro for Powell, he sadly got injured and will be out for a while. In the wake of that, Powell is kicking off most of their team, including Josh and Jordan Hoffart. I'll never look at a Powell deck again without flying into a violent rage. That will be my excuse when I get convicted of assault, anyway.

So here's Josh Hawkins' part in BTL 4. This video came out in 2005, so by my calculation, Josh was about 17 or 18 when this video was released. Even then, his style was smooth, crisp, and easy on the eyes, even when throwing down some seriously gnarly tricks. That ender down Carlsbad (I don't want to spoil the surprise by telling you what it is) is proof that Josh's small bit of recognition that he gets today was probably harder earned than most guys.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Are Longboarders Friends or Foes?

I've heard from some longboarders who feel they should be considered skateboarders, and I've heard skateboarders say that they hate longboarders. I've heard trash talk from both sides for completely different reasons, although a lot more garbage seems to get dumped on longboarders. The issue of how the skateboarding community as a whole feels about longboarders is shockingly complicated. So complicated, in fact, that I have to define some terms before I even really dive into it. From here on out, I will refer to people who exclusively skate on boards with large wheels and long wheelbases for the sole purpose of cruising around- whether it be for transportation or recreation- to be longboarders. People who ride boards with smaller wheels and shorter wheelbases with a preference for doing ollies or other tricks in addition to cruising will hereby be referred to as shortboarders.

Now that I've finished that particularly boring order of business, I will present the arguments. Many shortboarders have a tendency to look at longboarders as a sort of pest, comparable to spiders or mice. Maybe where you live, hyenas sneak into your house at night and reset your alarm clock to wake you up an hour later than you set it, so pests to you would be those hyenas. As long as you understand what  feeling I'm talking about, you can understand how some shortboarders feel about longboarders. If I so much as bring up longboarders up in a skate shop, someone will chime in with, "Ugh, longboarders are so retarded. Hate 'em." Despite all this hatred, though, I never really see people coming up with a good defense for their feelings. It seems so understood in shortboarder culture that they pretty much don't have to.

Most longboarders can't really relate. To the casual longboarder, skateboarding and longboarding are one in the same, it's just that some people choose to ride a bigger board and some ride a smaller board based on what they want to do. As a longboarder spends more time around shortboarders, though, they begin to notice that shortboarders seem to have this culture in which longboarders are unwanted. Some longboarders take the defensive approach, arguing that skateboarding is about expressing one's self, while others take the dismissive approach, claiming that shortboarders just act mad because they've built up an ego around their favorite hobby. These arguments are general impressions and not direct quotes, but I believe they accurately represent how a lot of longboarders feel.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Weekly "Why Haven't I Seen This?"-6

With the plethora of skate footage that's out there, it can be easy to overlook things. And yet, so often we stumble upon a video that we've never heard of and find ourselves asking why we hadn't seen it before. Each week, I plan to post another lesser-known video that deserves more recognition, for your viewing pleasure.

This week's video has been seen a good number of times on Youtube, but I went on a streak where I watched this video multiple times a day for about a week, (streak, week, that rhymes!). Therefore, since I am probably responsible for about 1,000 of those views and  I tend to think that most of the other views were people who already knew about Aaron, I'm going to post this as a lesser-known video anyway. This is Aaron Kyro in his online part that I believe he edited and released through his company, which was then known as Revenge but has now converted to Revive Skateboards. His style reminds me a little of Stefan Janoski, only he's doing really sick manual combos instead of long, flowing lines. It's like a cross between Stefan Janoski and Rodney Mullen, I suppose. In any case, I hope you like it. The guy can pretty much do manuals in his sleep, and if you look closely at that manny-360 flip-manny that starts at around 2:57, I think he actually does fall asleep for a moment.

Friday, July 5, 2013

James Hardy, Welcome Back

First of all, my apologies for the sparse content this week and next week. I'm going to be fairly busy for a little while, but when I do come back, it'll be nerdy and excessive like always and you'll hear from me more than twice a week (hopefully). Anyways, onto the main point of this article, which is about James Hardy.

If I were really good at skateboarding and could choose to be any figure in skateboarding, James Hardy would be extremely high on the list. He wasn't some outrageously popular childhood phenom. He didn't have a career where he exploded with popularity and then faded out.He's not even the best paid or most recognized pro out there, he just defines 'skate rat'.

His sponsors are all some of the most solid companies out there, and that's it. Real, Thunder, Spitfire, Fallen, Eswic, and Faith Skateshop. Nothing extra, just the stuff he needs to go out and go skate the best he can.

And as of 2011, James was still living out in the woods to get over his injury. Thrasher just released a full video part from him called "James Hardy's Homecoming". This is the other reason I wish I could skate like James Hardy- his skating can be set to some blues rock and be just about perfect.


He's above being super technical or tackling the most giant handrails (although he can tackle some fairly giant handrails). He just needs some of the rawest spots that the south has to offer, and he can create one of the most gnarly, stylish parts I've seen in a while.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Weekly "Why Haven't I Seen This"-5

With the plethora of skate footage that's out there, it can be easy to overlook things. And yet, so often we stumble upon a video that we've never heard of and find ourselves asking why we hadn't seen it before. Each week, I plan to post another lesser-known video that deserves more recognition, for your viewing pleasure.

I love Jordan Maxham. The way he pushes and stands on his board reminds me just a little bit of Tom Penny, and his trick selection is both unique and impeccable. I'm not sure what video this is from (or if it's even from a full video).  All I know is he has great style and that shifty flip at 1:38 makes me jealous of his girlfriend.