Good Shoes, in preparation for their Christmas Day single release, have unleashed the video to the track, The Photos On My Wall. You can check it out by clicking on of the links below. In addition to this, the group have announced some UK tour dates, so get yourself along to one of these!
December:
27th – Pressure Point, Brighton
28th – The Peel, Kingston
29th – The Social, Nottingham
30th – Pure Groove In-store, London
Video links:
Did you read Aussie Morgan Campbell‘s interview here at Crossfire? Make sure you do because it’s a good’un, and the footage has already been spread all over the net. Ripper!
Anyway, news just in- Morgan has left Premium to ride for fellow Aussie Godfather Brett Margaritis‘ operation, Four Skateboard company.
A European photographer that we rate very highly here at Crossfire is Eric-Antoine. You might have noticed several of his stunning shots that we poach for the Moooves.
Anyway, Eric is hosting his Gunther 16ans photography exhibition from 15th December to 15th January at the Stimultania art gallery, 33 Rue de Kageneck in Strasbourg. This is definitely worth checking out.
Initially, I heard about this photo competition through Fred Mortagne , and seeing how Red Bull had picked the Frenchman as one of their shortlist contenders, I knew the images on show would be better than your average.
TheRed Bull Illume is a competition/photography expose that touches on various areas of action photography, be it technique, sequences, creativity etc…
Well, the Red Bull Illume Scheme has cut the entrants down to a neat 50 who will have their images exposed at a special showing on January 25th in Aspen, Colorado. The images come from all backgrounds and activities, but each one captures the moment that activists like us find hard to explain in mere words.
Congratulations go thrice around at the Kayo Corp. camp:
Firstly, for Mr. Stevie Williams and the birth of his daughter Paris Williams.
Secondly, for Zach Lyons getting a spot on the Organika squad. Make sure you check out Zach in the soon to released Get Fam video by Chris Hall.
And finally, a holleration to Quim Cardona for being linked up by Babewatch as A “Skater Cutie”! Hmmm…?
If this winter is proving to be far too moist for some of you, maybe it’s time to take a break and hit up some snow covered slopes?
The Snowbombing Festival is a massive hedonistic music festival that hits the Austrian slopes of Mayrhofen between the 9th and 15th April i.e. Easter Weekend.
There is a massive line up of indie bands and DJs – The Young Knives, Sunshine Underground, Kid Carpet, Scratch Perverts, James Zabiela, Annie Mac and loads more- set to perform live on the slopes, plus loads more fun to be had. Austria’s tallest glacier, the Tux, is only a short bus ride away.
Interested? Then click here for more info.
I peeped the trailer for Modern Love a while ago and knew that it was something special – One of the tricks featured in the promo even got pipped as Mooove (Crolly and Ferens)!
Anyway, fast forward 6 months and copies of this Canadian video are few and far between, so Europe doesn’t really get a look in. Damn…
That is until I stumbled across a wicked website repping all good skate things Canadian: www.skatenewspot.com Thanks to this treasure chest of sick footage North of the border, a link was found for the illicit download of Modern Love. Finally! Sometimes you’ve got to thank the internet for spreading the love…
The line-up for this feature is as follows: Mike McDermott, Aaron Rosenblatt, Mike McCourt, Mick Lemoine, Kenny Haralson, Jeremy Gelfant, Paul Spencer, Jason Crolly, Rod Ferens and Travis Stenger. Only a couple of those names probably mean anything to non-Canadians but trust me they are all part of the elite talent the country has to offer.
The sweetest thing about this video which make it a viewing pleasure is the editing technique filmer Ryan McGuigan has used. Ryan interlaces the footage with Black and White show reels, snippets of cult movies and other comedy shows, but more importantly Ryan has under stood the importance of the past. Each skater has at least one trick featured that was filmed on an old Hi-8 dad-cam back in the day, and this gives Modern Love a lot more depth than your average skate tape. Plus, some of the tricks brought back from the past are absolutely valid by today’s standards of gnarliness and tech.
The soundtrack is wicked too: Instead of opting for a Hip-Hop heavy backdrop, Ryan has sourced the beats and come up with the tracks that originated the urban anthems. Do you remember when Wu Tang dropped that Shaolin Soul? Well Ryan does.
Without going into too much detail about who does what where, when and why? I’ll focus on a couple of the riders; For starters Mike McDermott who opens the video and demonstrates his incredible manual skills. Mike has recently been added to the all new Habitat International team, so you know he’s got the flavour. Next is Jason Crolly who embodies the word ‘burly’ like it was his middle name. Good, hard, solid skating from this powerhouse.
Another solid skater, but verging on the tech side of things is Rod Ferens. Rod obviously enjoys samples and scratches more than slam dancing and stadium rock, but nonetheless his staunch build doesn’t half skate fast! Rod eats ledges for breakfast and threads sick street lines like a Timbaland laces the beats.
Finally, let me introduce you to Travis Stenger. You might recognize this name, and if you don’t then wake the fuck up! Travis is bolts, picture perfect street tech and ballistic pop. Looking at his attire, it looks like Travis has turned heads at one of the most stylish skate camps out there (name withheld to avoid free publicity). Kick flip backside tailslide frontside shove-it out? On a waist high ledge..? Switch backside flip a proper sized bench like it was a walk in the park..? Yep, Travis is good.
If you see Modern Love in a skateshop – buy it! This is definitely up there in the top three skatevideos to drop over the last year. Like MC Hammer said: “You can’t touch this!”
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
13th December 2006
• Lucas Puig – BS smith grind to BS tailslide c.f. Sequence c/o Autobahn Wheels
• Gabriel de la Mora – Late shove-it manual.
• Jeremie Daclin – FS ollie to disaster.
• Brendan Keaveny – 360 flip into bank.
• Ollie Tyreman – BS flip.
• Charlie Young – Switch BS feeble.
• Ryan Sheckler – Kickflip.
• Brandon Westgate – FS flip wallride.
Top 5 Frontside Flippers
1. Andrew Reynolds
2. JB Gillet
3. Mike Carroll
4. Rick McCrank
5. Tom penny
Top 5 Backside Flippers
1. Brian Anderson
2. Pat Duffy
3. Stephane Giret
4. Nate Jones
5. Eric Koston
Pic of the week
Fils de Piet acid dropping off the roof! Photo – Ralph L-D
The game just got deeper for three of the UK’s skateboard magazines. The following is a press release from Action Sports Media, the publishing house that brings you Kingpin magazine:
PRESS RELEASE: ACTION SPORTS INDUSTRY
NEW MEDIA GROUP DEVELOPS ACTION SPORTS MARKET
Factory Media, a new holding Company, announces the merger of three leading specialist sports publishers; Action Sports Media (ASM), Permanent Publishing and 4130 Publishing.
The new Company’s management team will include Darryl Newton, Managing Director and Matt Fenton, Group Publishing Director. Jim Peskett will remain Publisher of the UK board sports brands and Mark Noble as Editorial Director of the bike portfolio. Joining the team are Alistair Ramsay (former Chief Executive of Dennis Publishing), acting as non-exec Chairman, and James Carter (former NPD Director of Dennis, and Publishing Director of FHM and FHM.com) as Director of online and lifestyle brand development.
In other words, ASM now own Sidewalk, Kingpin, Document and a whole other load of sports titles, but Britain’s three skate mags will remain on the shelves. However, investment levels have changed. It looks like the phrase 411VM coined; ‘paper is history‘ is starting to sound true in various boardrooms because the online media alarm bell is ringing.
The good news out of all of this is that the UK scene will be stronger and Crossfire will be right here bringing you malarkey from the heart as usual.
In case you missed the amazing