The elite French crack team that is Antiz will be heading to the UK in September. The first stop is Central Skatepark in Manchester on 9th Septemeber from 7pm. Then Wednesday 10th at Birmingham’s Ideal Skateshop and finishing up on the 12th at Blackpool’s Ramp City where the new Simparch Bowl has landed. Should be bangers, get the Stella in.
Thrasher‘s ‘Bust or Bail‘ comp went down a storm at the Paul Revere school in San Fransisco this Saturday with Ryan Sheckler taking the hard cash alongside runners up Andrew Reynolds and Andrew Langi. The 16 stair monster was mashed by various heads with hammers going down within the hour of the comp. Watch all the action below.
A new Moves has landed today featuring this sequence and links to the latest footage on our radar.
Click here to get there.
Styley was in San Jose to see the moustached magician, Death pro Richie Jackson, fling himself down this monster of a handrail in true caveman style. Look out for his section in the new Transworld video, And Now, for more styled out mindfucks.
Chet Childress – Frontside Wallride
Bobby Worrest – ‘Hippy’ Jump
Dan Plunkett – Grimey and gritty
Landscape – Big Push Offcuts
Dyson Ramones – 360 Flip
Tom Hobson – Nose Manual Lipslide
Bobby Puleo – Bobby Puleo!
Top 5 Reasons why Jams are awesome
1) Stickers suddenly morph into beer tokens at the afterparty
2) It’s acceptable to shout “wheeeeeey!” into a megaphone
3) Dan Wileman
4) Just dropping in while The Prodigy’s ‘Girls‘ is blazed out makes you feel like a king.
5) Thinking about them reminds me of raspberry jam, which is yummy.
Top 5 Transworld Videos
1) Sight Unseen
2) Modus Operandi
3) Anthology
4) And Now
5) Feedback
Pic of the week
How about some landscape to go with those shapes? And Now… Kenny Hoyle flaps his wings and draws the attention of Blair Alley‘s lens away from the skyline with this lofty front crooks.
A huge well done to Nick Trapasso who has just become Toy Machine‘s latest pro rider. The blasé ripper got bumped up to the big boys league after the stunning reception towards his parts in Suffer The Joy and more recently, And Now.
Check out the Toy Machine home page for the photos from his surprise Pro-down. Naked hugs, booze and a board with your name slapped all over it. Dude’s living the life…
Erik Ellington reveals all about Deathwish from questions from the public here.
Kris Markovich may have parted company with the brand but it looks like it’s going strong.
Crimson Skateboards released a brand new video montage last night via YouTube featuring a new look team including the likes of Matt Mendenhall, Andreau Soptich, Max Crist, Max Barrera, Ryan Spencer and Taylor Orman. Go to www.crimsonskateboards.com to view the new catalogue.
This week we have been in touch with skate graphic legend Jim Phillips following rumours that Jim and Santa Cruz had joined forces again and are set to work on various SC decks together this Autumn.
Speaking to Crossfire last night Jim told us “Things are looking up! I’m actually doing a cool new Slasher model with Keith Meek. Amazing! I’ve been emailing sketch ideas to Keith all week. It’ll be my first board with Santa Cruz in 18 years…and it’s great to be back. There’s more decks planned for me, and a whole lot of new products. It’s too soon to mention them all, but check it out the NHS booth at ASR tradeshow this September. I’ll be there signing books, and Jimbo’s coming too. A big party is planned there with all the old pro-skaters, lot’s of fun. Santa Cruz sales manager Holly Anderson will be walking the aisles wearing a huge blue Screaming Hand!”
Look out for a full interview with Phillips on this site in October.
Pics by Blair Alley
So it’s that time of year again; the season of worn-out rewind buttons and wide-eyed expressions of utter confusion. Freshly scrubbed and ready to take on the world in this year’s Transworld compilation of rad are David Gravette, Matt Miller, Richie Jackson, Kenny Hoyle, Nick Trapasso and Sean Malto.
Woah. I mean, woah. Hold up. I know that Transworld have always been renowned for hand-picking an eclectic mix of up-and-comers but a line up like that is rarer than a pot-pourri mixture of golddust and the shaved horn of a unicorn. We may have reached the end of the rainbow with this one. Let’s count ’em up: one quirky rail killer, one styled out nollie popper, one powersliding and pole-jamming magician, one ledge innovator, one nonchalant motherfucker and on top of all this, probably the most talked-about am in history. Alongside the guaranteed high-quality audio/visual jiggery-pokery that comes with a Transworld production, there is very little that can go wrong here.
Rather than a perhaps overly-expected ‘and now…‘ dialogue-laden series of non-diegetics prior to each section, the video instead chooses to introduce each skater with a short, sharp montage foreshadowing the awesome that waits ahead. This is a fabulous move from Transworld, keeping things simple so that message board nit-pickers can’t overshadow the fantastic shralp-stick action with the little things that never really mattered anyway. Come on, who can argue with truly epic skating? No one. Great, let’s get this party started.
David Gravette kicks the action into a warzone with this monumental first section. At the same time this is a solidification of his position as a Creature pro: this one is rightfully deserved. A steadily-thrilling riff-fest from Consortium compliments Baby Lamb’s perfectly timed lines while the cinematic chorus only enhances the sheer shock power of his – rightfully slowed down I might add – bangers. Now, I hate that word, but this is a bangers and mash feast that you should skip to the front of the dinner queue and gorge upon. We’re off to a rocking start.
Matt Miller‘s ‘pop, lock and drop it‘ massacre is nudged in by a the kind of sequence in a video that gets me wet. Camera lens distortion and a fuzzed out title construct a gnarly oxymoron over a time-lapsed sunset that makes me wanna high-five everyone. Then before anyone has so much as settled into their armchair and picked up their drink he cracks the most enormous nollie I’ve ever seen over some sort of globe. And now I’m standing up and shouting involuntarily as if my body was possessed by the spirit of gnar. Instead of reaching for a towel to clean up the pepsi that is quite literally everywhere I’m grabbing the remote. REWIND. Nothing downhill from here either; this guy pulls off a huge selection of awkward manoeuvres with little difficulty and a blind ignorance towards pitiful human restrains like, you know, gravity. Don’t sleep on this guy, whatever you do.
Richie Jackson may look like the hippy lovechild of Captain Hook and a 1960s magician, but he is certainly not a victim of prioritising style over substance. Polejams might have placed high on the imaginary NME Cool Skate List of yesteryear, but this section is a display of nothing but innovation and progression. Richie has the ability to turn the obscure hazy thoughts of an obstacle course dream into reality and pull it off with envy-inducing ease. In addition to all this mind-bending is a dark and drunken rant drizzled over smoked guitar licks making the whole thing that more psychedelic, if that were even possible. The Feetch is slicker than The Stig. Call me a blasphemer all you like, but I’m not even kidding. He’s totally ruling in this.
After the traditionally énorme montage section, Kenny Hoyle takes the dusty road-less-travelled by knocking out some lesser-seen gems on traditional street spots. The composition remains pleasant and simple, but it’s those little tweaks and effects that transform this into something really special. Much like the video as a whole; a simple, respectable format with a staggering amount of personality that can dazzle without any hint of pretention. Right now I seriously have to cross my legs to suppress that tempting itch. No, not there you filthbags. I got the skate itch y’hear?
I struggle to comprehend Nick Trapasso in general. Sure, the fact that he has a natural talent for skating goes without saying; but how can anyone pull off such barrier-leaping shit while appearing to be in the middle of a light nap? On landing, he seems to jerk awake in a sort of, ‘oh, what just happened?’ daze. Unfathomable levels of nonchalance. If you enjoy a well shuffled trick bag with style then you’ll want to buy this section a bottle of wine and try and lure it into bed. Enders man… climax in less than 5 minutes or your money back.
It would seem redundant to explain Sean Malto‘s talent, after all the coverage the kid has been getting I’m sure you were as hyped to see this section as I was. Mine was more out of curiosity, seeing as I hadn’t really caught the Malto Bug yet. Suffice to say, I’m calling in sick for weeks on end after viewing this. I’m converted. No, really. Malto goes beyond hype in this delightful end to one of the finest Transworld videos in years: I’m talking Modus Operandi good. Style, substance and a huge push forward to be felt by everyone – this one will not so much have you on the edge of your seat but up in the air, floating on your own disbelief.
Delicious skateboarding and picture-perfect filming without the slightest hint of fromage. If you haven’t picked this up already, do yourselves a favour. And Now is out now and now and now. Get on it.
Joe
Sequence: Chris Ortiz
This year has seen more ams than ever making that huge switch to pro status. David Gravette is one of them, proving his worth in a style that was impossible to ignore. His section in the latest Transworld flick, ‘And Now’ saw speedy gonzales-esque (only with a better hat collection) attacks on every terrain imaginable; not to mention that now-infamous 50-50 documented at the close of his Creature part that was on par with Pat Duffy’s ‘dude, rewind that shit!’ kinked rail pisstake in Questionable. David chomps through rails like an urban pac-man. Some things you just can’t argue with.
We caught up with him on the Bones tour of the UK to get the low down on the Baby Lamb. Watch out for this kid…
Straight off the plane?
The Eurostar actually. I got completely annihilated on the train yesterday and it kept going through the night and so now I’m pretty hungover.
Plastered?
Pretty much to the floor…
You guys don’t really have the same amount of alcohol in your beer as us Brits, so how does it change once you come to Europe?
Well in America I’m not quite drinking age yet. I’ve got my friend’s ID which says I’m 26 and is expired and doesn’t look like me but it works most of the time.
So you’re from Seattle?
Yep, Seattle, Washington.
Is that where you live now?
I pretty much just float around, I’m always traveling but I go back to Seattle for a week or two every couple of months.
Does it rain a lot up there?
Oh yeah, during the winter it rains every day. In the summer it’s really nice.
Similar to the UK then…
Yeah, basically the same weather pattern.
Were you stoked to see that it wasn’t pissing down when you got off the train?
Well, I can’t even skateboard properly because I had ankle surgery about 15 days ago and it’s been torture going to watch people skate every day and I’m just sitting there like “Yeah guys, do you wanna high five?”
How did you do the ankle?
I broke my ankle two years ago and got it x-rayed twice but they missed the break because they’re dumb asses so it’s been bothering me. I had this bone that kept breaking off the end of my talus bone so I got that removed.
So you reckon it’s cleared up?
It should be better in about a week so I hope to start skating then. It’s been about a month and a half, but I hurt my ankle again so I had to go see the doctor to see if the bone had moved because it felt a little bit worse than before. He said I should get it taken out before it went up into the joint. That meant I’d wasted two weeks letting it heal when I had to have another surgery anyway and start all over again.
There’s been quite a spotlight on you in mags as a skateboarder over the last six months. How have you found all of the attention, are you enjoying it?
It’s good for the bank but it’s pretty good considering what you have to do. Well, actually, it can be hard. It’s easy and it’s hard, it goes back and forth.
And how’s it with Creature?
The fucking best. I love it on Creature.
How did you got hooked up there originally?
I was skating a park in Washington and they were on their first Creature trip, since it got re-started and I saw them all there skating. I was riding rep flow for Independent and my rep was with NHS and he told me Creature wanted to sponsor me because they liked that I could skate street and tranny. I was riding for another small company called Santa Fe and it sucked because the owner was a super cool dude but I had to call him and quit. It was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve done but was definitely worth it, that’s for sure.
In terms of the whole team, it’s full of slayers. Have you ripped with Stu Graham yet?
I have been on a couple of trips with Stu and he’s fucking insane, don’t ever give him Vodka Red Bulls!
Who else on the team absolutely slays it for you?
My homie Devin Appelo, he’s one of the new Ams, he’s a fucking good dude. He’s from Portland, so I’ve been skating with him for about three years.
Has he got the Portland gnarl?
Oh man, he’s the gnarliest – chug a whole six-pack and jump the biggest gap you’ve ever seen first try. He doesn’t give a shit – toes through the shoe, board soaked in water, broken – Tre flip footplant 10 stairs, doesn’t give a fuck…
What about the legendary side of the crew, what do you take from those guys?
I like street skating with them, that’s a lot of fun because when we go on trips, they like to go out and fuck around. I don’t know how to explain it – drink some beers and shred a park!
Been logging much footage?
I filmed for the Transworld video ‘And Now..’ for the last eight months.
And what about Creature – is that coming soon?
Creature’s video is going to called Hesh Law. I believe that’s coming out in 2009 so I have about six months to complete my part.
You tend to rip in all sorts of places, but what’s your favourite terrain?
I like transition, just flowing through bowls or long mellow rails, that are low. But they go on for a while so you get on, they’re not too scary to get on, and you just try to hold it.
What’s been the hardest thing you’ve had to do skateboard-wise since you stepped up?
It’s been pretty hard filming for the Transworld video, lots of stress because it was a bit like “here are eight months to film the best footage of your life” and I dealt with a lot of injuries and kept hurting my ankle during the filming. But I got some things…
Which trick out of that particular video were you most psyched on?
Nose blunt 3 up 3 down in San Francisco. I didn’t think I’d be able to get it, I tried it for about half an hour or 40 minutes. It was a really long ledge and had to hold it for a long time, that was the scary bit.
Does music play a part in your daily life?
Oh yeah, I listen to music all the time. All sorts of different metals, mostly Iron Maiden. I don’t really like rap at all except Andre Nickatina and Lil Wayne. I pretty much listen to those guys all the time, and Hendrix. That’s the playlist.
If there was a record you couldn’t leave home without?
I’d probably have to go with my flower power mix on with all these stoner songs.
You on the road a lot?
Yeah. I went to Australia and China on the Transworld trip. Australia was really good except we did so much skating that we didn’t even go to the beach for weeks. I went to the beach once to pick up herbals, but that was it.
Who was on the list?
All the Transworld guys – Nick Trepasso, Kenny Hoyle, Sean Malto, Richie Jackson, Matt Miller and me. They’re all going to be so good and it’s too hard to pick just one but I’m really psyched on Richie Jackson’s approach to skateboarding.
What about China?
China was a bit of a bitch, I hurt my ankle the second day of the trip so I couldn’t skate. China is just a trip, there are people everywhere and the pollution is horrible, I didn’t see a blue sky for about two weeks. I actually puked for the first three days in a row, waking up early in the morning. Not because of drinking either, it’s just dirty everywhere, you breath in mildew all the time and you see horrible shit everywhere, like people begging with their feet rotting off. It’s really hard getting past the language barrier too, ordering food and stuff. Without our guide we’d have been lost! I’ve been to places where they don’t speak English but you can get by with body language and hand gestures but in China it’s much harder, they just look at you so confused and nod. And you don’t know what you’re getting! It’s also hard to skate out there because it feels like you’re skating at really high altitude and can’t take deep breaths.
So I take it that you repping the United States in Olympic skateboarding is out of the question then?!
Um, probably never. They won’t let me smoke weed everywhere and I don’t want to do anything for them. Fuck.
How about launching a new Gravette spot cream?
I can do, if they really want it. Sheckler’s fucking blown it. I don’t understand why if you have that much money, you don’t just take a step back and try and be a real skateboarder. Why do you want to be on MTV and be into Ultimate Fighting and what not?
There are a lot of young Ams that are looking at the skateboard industry now and trying to move forward and keep skating but when it comes to that side of it, what’s the general attitude?
The worst thing is when you’re talking to a girl and it comes out that you’re a skater and they say “Oh you know Ryan Sheckler?!”, it’s the worst thing to hear. Because you’re like “yeah, but I don’t want to!”. He’ll just come up and try to ultimate fight you. You don’t wanna be the guy that gets his ass kicked by Sheckler, that’ll be the worst thing ever!
You’ve been riding with what looks like a rad Bones Wheels team, everyone stoked on the tour?
Yeah it was a lot of fun, everyone got along really well. I’ve been riding for Bones longer than any other sponsor. I have been rep flow for Bones since I was about 14, getting them through my local shop. One pair of wheels every two weeks!
What’s your preferred set?
51s 3 type formula. Power slides all day and no flat spots.
What countries have you been to on this Bones tour?
They’ve been to more than I have because I showed up late. They’d been on the road for a couple of weeks, but I got there in Brussels, Belgium and then we went to Hamburg and Munich in Germany, then Amsterdam and now onto here in London.
Amsterdam huh…
Well, I spent a lot of money! I could have used more coffee shop time but went to some pretty crazy parties and clubs!
How’s the club scene there compared to the US?
It’s good! I don’t go out too much in the States. But the girls are nice here, I was impressed by London’s bird action last night!
Did you see some tight units?
Ridiculous! I was freaking out because I didn’t have any weed yesterday so I was antsed up and there were all these beautiful women everywhere, it was bullshit!
Did you get some?
Pretty much no. I stayed up til 4 or 5 in the morning at some house. It was pretty stupid. They told me they didn’t smoke weed and asked if I wanted to sniff some glue and huff some paint. I was just telling them to roll a joint, instead of passing around some fucking glue! (laughs)
Sounds like a vortex into the 1980s!
They seemed normal, but I guess they were down for glue and paint instead of weed and beer!
Last words…
I want to say thanks to Crossfire and Bay Sixty 6 for having us and Bones Wheels for doing the trip. Vox Shoes, Independent Trucks and thanks to Shiner, our distribution company. I went to Shiner a few years ago on the Creature trip and everyone got some old school boards and I was stuck carrying them on my shoulder. Spiff life!
David Gravette’s pro model on Creature is out now. Transworld’s ‘And Now’ is available from your local SOS. Click here for the review.