Another day, another DVD… Well not exactly because the latest Baker video, Baker 3 is not your regular video. Anyone who is familiar with the reckless skater-run company knows that these guys don’t care what people think of their image or how they advertise their goods. Wait! Wait! Hold your horses… Baker did stem the whole ‘Piss Drunx‘ fashion phenomenon, and some might say that image is all that counts over at Baker, but that was then and this is now.
Straight away when watching Baker 3 you’ll notice how much cleaner the editing has become.
No more dreary dub music, endless slow motion multi-angle shots or gratuitous bad behaviour. There isn’t even any poached footage of the Muska or Chad Fernandez??? “Is this really a Baker video?” , you ask. Yes. There is some wrestling with security guards, drunken stumbling and bum-fight footage, oh and Greco does get a triple angle shot of his ender, but apart from that Baker 3 is much sharper and easier to watch that it’s two predecessors.
I think the general concensus for the team is that you must know how to do frontside flips, switch pop shove-its, big spins and have at least one tech-ish two-trick line in your part. Of course, Reynolds out-does himself again on the frontside flip stakes, but that isn’t all he’s got hidden up his sleeve. He also allows a very interesting editing technique for his part. Some will love it, others will plain hate…
Dustin Dollin flings himself full throttle at some very gnarly spots. I think Dustin is definitely going to get short-listed for a SOTY some time soon.
Jim Greco proves that there is life after a smack habit and stays true to form with some intense skating and sketchy style that so many have tried to fake.
Jeff Lenoce– Long time no see! Good honest part that puts any doubts about the Floridians whereabouts to rest. Jeff has still got good pop and a mean nollie.
Say hello to Antwuan Dixon, an effortless styled upstart that is already putting abruising on So-Cal spots regardless of whether people know his name. Remember it: Antwuan Dixon.
Erik Ellington finally puts the madness to rest and lands his big spin down the huge Carlsbad gap. ‘Nuff said.
Last part goes to Bryan Herman, and before you all snigger in disgust, let it be known that Bryan is solid on his board. I think this kid has a very bright future and the fact he gets last part is a summons to recognize how quick he has come up and what his potential is.
The only let downs for me were the last three:
Brandon Szafranski– well gnarly but a bit too much flair for me.
Terry Kenedy– Can someone please send this guy to the back of the queue with gaffer tape over his mouth..?
Kevin Long– Spanky is looking pretty burnt out for such a young age. A lot of talent that does show when several of his tricks are direct bites out of Rowley’s book.
Music wise this video has it all, from acid drenched prog rock to crack dealer rap passing by post apocalyptic metal. Oh, and Ali Boulala has a short but sweet bonus part after the credits with OG slo mo footy and dub plate beats!
I think the little cover note from the Boss, Andrew Reynolds says it all:
“Right when skateboarding starts to get socially accepted, we come in and ruin everything. With videos like this around, we’re never gonna get in the Olympics… You can thank us later. Baker Skateboards, the real thing.”
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
The showroom-arena is packed with sweaty kids and eager adults. The air is heavy with tension and the constant clicking of tails rings out like crickets in high season. Like a world record Gang Bang attempt, Es Footwear partner up 100 star struck kids to take on their King, Eric Koston, at his own game- S.K.A.T.E.
It’s a fact that only a few people move and shake up the skate industry. What they says goes- take it or leave it. Santa Cruz Skateboards head honcho, Rich Novak, is one of these people. A new blueprint for skateboard teams has been drawn up, but only a few people have grasped it. The colonial style era of all American teams simply flogging off their foreign counterparts as flow teams that the distributors can handle is over. Today, the Euros mix with the Yanks and an ‘Entente Cordiale’ is underway. 
Even though I have refrained from jumping downs huge sets of stairs and long slippery rails for the last couple of years, one company is sure to spark that motivation within me again and that’s the Blood Sucking Corporation that is Toy Machine. Somehow Ed Templeton always gets the rawness and style balance correct with his videos, even if it means waiting a while and swapping endless team members… ‘Good & Evil’ takes us back to the good old days of ‘Welcome to Hell’, but doesn’t surpass the master piece that was. It comes close and here are a few reasons why: – First of all, Ed has a great sense of music and especially when it needs to be paired up with skateboarding, so expect to be pleased on that front. The master of ceremonies opens up the show and skates a lot of banks to ledge/rail spots with the usual dangly style. However, I did find that Ed’s skating wasn’t as gnarly as it has been, but I can only imagine that this is due to being caught between a million responsibilities that don’t involve riding a skateboard…
2 days into Marseille Bowlriders this year, Kyle Berard sat on the hill with a full can of beer and mentioned that he felt lucky to be there. 2 days and many beers later Zac ran his life through a washing machine for a 20 minute session under a melting umbrella whilst Kyle spilled the beans. This is what went down….
Competitions kicked off at 2.30pm with the Amateur Street section. This was a jam format with girls skating in groups of four and the level of skating was pleasingly high. Third place was taken by 14 year old Kim Lewis who showed great promise with 180 ollie nose grabs and kickflips to fakie on the driveway. Becky Wood impressed the judges, Andy Willis and Phil Proctor, with her run that included a 180 ollie, boardslide down the kinked rail and kickflip to fakie on the flatbank. But she was piped to the post by her friend Kerri Dennis who bagged herself first place with a floaty ollie to fakie on the quarter pipe, 180 ollie over the driveway and smoothly caught kickflip to fakie on the flatbank. Both girls had travelled down from Derbyshire the same day, yet still managed to throw themselves around the park with enthusiasm.
Next up, the comp moved outdoors to the miniramp, where MC Jack Wiggins from the Oxford Wheels Project amused the crowd and skaters – especially Lucy who was all most crying – alike with his unique brand of MC-ing. “In her spare time Faith is a Racing Driver and Demolishes buildings” he announced of the 10 year old “But she also throws the best parties that go on for days if not weeks”. In fact the skaters were so amused they began making requests for topics for him to comment on them. Third placed Lucy Adams “is into cloning, and has cloned herself seven times and today we have the Sunday version which is much better than the Saturday version”. She flowed effortlessly, apart from trying not to fall off due to laughing too much, with front and backside 50-50s, boardslides and lipslides and even attempted tasty looking Indys out of the coping.
It was then back to the Street course for the sponsored riders street comp. Once again it was jam format with one group of three, followed by a pair. Essex girl and Rogue rider, Sadie Hollins deservedly took third prize with her impressive tech tricks on the banks of nollie flip shuvs, switch flips, nose manuals and k grinds. She also took best trick with a brilliant boardslide shuv out down the kinked rail.
Refusing to start her run until the right Queen track was played by the DJ – Don’t Stop Me Now, her run included a perfectly caught fakie flip on the steep bank, back-to-back boardslide and switch boardslide, 50-50 on the top ledge of the Koston Block and finishing with noseslide down the driveway ledge. Not intent on just winning the comp she also decided to have a hand in the DJing whilst the best trick comp was underway. The girls skated to the sounds of Madonna and Van Halen, Lucy would like to make it known that she is available for hire for comps or even weddings.
Transworld
I’ll bet you a fresh pair of kicks and some ceramic bearings that a whole lot of you have completely forgotten the once legendary Santa Cruz Skateboard company..? Yeah, I knew it. Well, let’s just have a quick recall of the SCS history to show you ingrates where this landmark company is coming from, and where it is probably heading. Firstly, Santa Cruz ran things back in the day as one of the only viable competitors to Powell Peralta during the 80’s. They also invented Slick©, and if you were young enough to ride it you knew it was fun! Then, SCS suffered a sharp fall during the early 90’s, but then again so did the rest of the industry- Dark days… As new life was blown back into the market and SCS looked ready to start afresh, they lost a load of their team, and since then have slipped slowly but surely off the radar. You see, SCS is an all-American skate company that has tried and tested the whole “gimmick” aspect of the market, emerged out the other side and come to the conclusion that all skater’s really need and want is no-nonsense quality goods i.e. no fancy packaging, signature trinkets or jazzy names- Just good skating. Oh, and damn strong boards! So, back to the subject at hand: Guarte – the latest video from SCS with a great line-up, cool skating, a fine storyline and a real “Who’s who?” of cameos. I’ll take this moment to shed light on the storyline that winds it’s way through this video. Think ‘Las Nueves Vidas de Paco’ from chocolate, and you’re pretty much there. Sprinkle the lot with loads of famous and not so famous skaters from the past and present and Bob’s your uncle! 
So here it is, another skate trip, another visit to France for the gnarliest event on the European calendar, another pickled liver and another bruised body! Some people say “why do you do that for your holidays?” and the reply is simple. Because there is no comparison! Every year Crossfire recruits as many bodies as possible for this event. This year we met up with 24 of the UK’s finest explorers in the South of France for this mission and it was a total success. Every comes to this country to skate like a bastard and to rock and fucking roll for an entire weekend, not caring about sleep deprivation, hangovers or bruised heels. THIS IS GNAR and by the time you finish reading this feature, you should be ready to book your ticket for 2006 in advance. No shitting you, 2005 was off the hook and this is what went down….
Gerald Roche and I were first on the scene on the Tuesday morning. We checked in, chilled out, got some beer and headed down to the bowls. The local riders who we know well now after 4 years of visiting this amazing skate park had reached an entirely new level. You can talk about Julien Benoleil, Alex Geraud, Mehdi Salah and Alex Cocciniuntil you are blue in the teeth as these guys own this bowl, but if you look deeper to the youth uprising that study the comp every year and emulate their heroes, you can see a new class of skateboarder popping through the ranks. I’m talking about Mini Tony T. A kid we saw imitate Tony Trujillo’s skate style and fashion sense last year, who is now a clone of the Anti-Hero bowl wizard…it’s crazy to watch. If our local park at Meanwhile had big transitions that flow for miles, then we would have a similar batch of new skaters killing it, but we don’t, so the kids here will never be as good, it’s just a fact. Build great parks, breed great skaters. No myth I tell you, it’s straight up.
Our friends Jaydog and Claire from SF turned up with Richie Hopson and Anna, plus the addition of Wingy and Emma, Seth and Ryan from Meanwhile, Lucy Adams, Lek and Matty, Rees and Matt, Andy Scott, Lois, Pete King, Crossfire film crew Alan Christensen and Jamie O’Brien, Howard Cooke, Ross McGouran, Roe, Mattias and the addition of the Irish Crew with Jay, Rich and Bruce The Ox (who skates the gnarliest i have seen yet!) all in the hood caused us to turn up the heat. The Thursday night was full of beer, hash and night skating, just what the doctor ordered! But was this gonna get out of hand? YEAH OF COURSE IT WAS! The Red Lion was rinsed once we left that joint!
So, the Friday was hungover and the event had only just started….Christ! It set the precedent for the entire weekend! The heat baked down on sore heads as the skaters managed to huck out some of the most amazing lines all day long. Our UK entrants included Andy Scott, Howard Cooke, Ross McGauran and Pete King but Pete and Ross were injured after the Brixlegg battle in Austria the weekend before so Scotty took the mantle as he always does here and got through with Howard for the quarter finals. Howard was put up against Tony Miorana, TNT, Emilio Arnanz, Mehdi Salah and Roman Hackl whilst Scotty faced last years winner Omar Hassan, Daniel Cardone, Chad Bartie, Julien Benoliel and Kyle Berard. 
That night, we started to rage again. A night session brought out the likes of Brazilain World Industries rider Carlos De Andrade who hucked massive frontside ollies over the hip and crazy tech shit in the reservoir. It was a pleasure to watch. Rees managed large airs over the foot of the spine (pic opposite), whilst Seth ollied the hip at large and Matty crail slid his heart out. We had met up with Rhino from Thrasher during the day and shared a few beers together. This dude is one of the nicest fellas you will meet on your travels, so if you know he is on town, make sure your beer is cold and your arms are open. He took this pic of Matty whilst he taught me how to take photo’s. Dude, if you are reading this thanks for the tips…next time I will make sure I’m not wasted for 3 days and take on board what you told me! Haha! This guy is the Dingo’s bollocks! Yeah, did you click that link? It’s 100% true. The night went on. Tony’s pentagon shrine was made out of beer bottles accompanied by 2 upside down crosses whilst Slayer boomed out of the i-pod. We were so drunk it was a joke and managed to crawl back home to the hotel rooms after annihilating anyone we saw down at the Red Lion! 
But it was all about to be moved into another level. A quick swim in the pool revitalized the bones whilst the head was still in total pieces. Kirby picked us up in the vehicle, we headed for the holy place, our deadly secret, the cure for all hangovers. Yes folks, step right up, you are about to learn a serious secret from the depths of the Crossfire vaults, for this is the time when we share the Wisdom of the Ocean. If you have the hangover of hell and have no idea how to quell it, then get your arse down to a seafood restaurant that serves up raw shellfish and indulge in King Prawns, live Oysters, Mussels, Clams, and Sea Urchins! Wash them down with a carafe of white or rose wine accompanied with mayo and French bread and you will be laughing! Put it this way, Gerald ran a mile when we mentioned where we were going! The thought of seafood made his stomach curdle so Jaydog took his place. 10 mins in and Jay is freaking out a bit after myself and Neil had parted with 2 Sea Urchins each. These slimy bastards look like they could rape your old lady! We forced Jay to join our gang and he dribble puked all over the table! I was sat opposite and luckily he held on to that one for dear life, so much so his eyes watered like rapids! Good lad!
But this is where it all goes wrong, because after this meal, we were seriously up for it. We ran to the supermarche and bought champagne, rose wine, beers, coolers and ice and raced to the hill! People are just waking up, others are watching the comp that had only just started, Alan and Jamie were fighting other photographers for the space and we were about to let rip a whole new day of chaos! The Hills Are Now Alive With The Sound Of Music! Tony T and the entire Anti-Hero crew are with us on the top of the hill, playing grindcore and strumming an electric guitar covered in Thrasher stickers. Champagne flutes were passed around, doobies were rolled and the rest is history! I managed to interview TNT in the middle of this chaos; it’s on this site here somewhere if you wanna find it. It has to be the most piss drunk interview ever performed! In fact a football was kicked at us by Matt Moffet’s girlfriend Janine at 100mph and it stuck Tony right on the forehead and then did the same for me, leaving us feeling like we were pissed up pin ball heads! 
At about 6pm, the days event skating had finished and we head for a drunken swim in the Mediterranean ocean. As we walked down the hill, Gerald was rugby tackled at mach 10 by Kirby and he flipped onto his head and did a scorpion on his face! He was knocked for 6 so we revived him then watched him puke up in the sea whilst the entire beach looked at us as if we were pikeys or something! I had to rescue Gerald in the recovery position…kids, take note, this is not fun! Well, only for 5 mins, then we all laughed our pants down. The party session was on fire, it felt like 4am but it was 7pm and most people had only just started. A fire was born from Jake Phelps hands and boards were chucked on top, then crates, then a security guard went ape shit and it calmed down a bit. By this time a session was going off in the bowls. Benji Galloway was skating this place padless at 10pm and raging like a bull in there. Not many pro skaters would join the night sessions fearing for their safety and the possibility of losing the cash up for grabs but Benji is about mingling and getting amongst it and the crowd loved it hailing his every backsides disaster, invert and indy transfer in the deep. This is what skateboarding is all about, just letting go and having fun. Train loads of people cruised round the reservoir throwing massive ollies over the hips, carving low and high and slashing at the coping, this is the best place on earth for that and I dare anyone to prove me wrong.
We partied hard with the likes of Blair Alley, Pat Duffy, Kyle Berard, and others. The Red Lion had some crazy shit going on tonight. The bar staff were all moshing, beer was being sprayed everywhere and people were loose! Once we were all kicked out of there at 4am, we took to the car park opposite where we had back up beer crates in the boot. 3 skaters, one with a broken leg were asleep on the grass under jackets. All of a sudden the sprinklers came on and all hell broke loose! They were soaked and we could not help but laugh ourselves into the tarmac! Cruel really but we had to all run for cover. I just remember diving through the window headfirst into a part rolled doobie on someone’s lap! We all got soaked whilst David Martelleur found refuge on top of the phone box! We staggered in zig zags back home. Alan found Gerald asleep at a bus stop on the way home and rescued him! It was total carnage!
Sunday morning was unlike any other spent in London. We all surfaced at midday ready for the finals in ribbons! Not even the pool could save bones today. The seafood place was shut so there was nothing but OJ and vitamin C on offer before the big guns fought it out in 35′ heat in that bowl. 
It was whittled down to Omar, Alex Giraud, Chris Senn (who was a wildcard) Benji Galloway, Alex Coccini, TNT and Julien Benoliel (pic opposite) and it was on fire! Everyone gave all and the place was electric for 30 minutes! The rock reigned from the speakers courtesy of Ed Lee and Christian Stevenson who played so many classics and eventually after watching the gnarliest skating ever, the results came in and it was all over for another year.
Benji ripped with transfers off the wall into the 8ft, a barrage of 360 shit over the spine, switch transfer chaos and much more, but got ahead of last years runner up Alex Geraud whose transfer from the reservoir into the Heddings Gap is still one to cry for. Add his stylish kick flip backside lipslides over the hip to that and you have your man alive. Julien Benoliel was beaten to 6th place by Chris Senn whose style and different approach is still a pleasure to watch anywhere but the Marseille local is killing it and when he skates he does not flinch an inch and is tough as nails.
Crossfire has come a long way since the days of little B&W fanzine pamphlets and blagging the odd handshake with a pro. Today it’s worldwide recognition and Champagne dinners. Well, almost… DVS were in town for the premiere of their first ever video, ‘Skate More’, and Crossfire had been invited to rub shoulders with the pros and sip on complimentary drinks. To tell you the truth, the usual roll call with a video premiere is that we end up scrambling for tickets until the last minute, get squashed with the rest of the sweaty fans as we queue up anxiously awaiting the curtain-rise, spot a pro in the distance and then head off to the off-license for a couple of cold ones and an over-the-top trick by trick analysis of what we just saw. Yeah! We are the media, promise!
Ummm… Well, perhaps the afterlife isn’t all that bad after all..? No. Seriously, Zero keep true to their course and blast out another hammerfest of gaps, rails, gaps to rails, rails to gaps- As long as it’s big and scary it makes the cut. So, what’s new? Well, apart from the obvious fact that Jamie Thomas and his team of stuntmen are keen to promote the ‘grabbing of the board’ by serving up at least one per part, you might also notice the resistance to quick editing. Phew! I was worried I might have another epileptic seizure if the editing hadn’t changed… A quick run-down of performances will let you know that JT styles it up with some nice moves like 360 no-complies and polejams. I think his body has finally let him know that Stairway rails are a sure way to Heaven (Ha! What a pun!). Jon Allie hasn’t changed much; lots of flipping mixed with his rail assaults. However, I did admire the clean style Jon had considering the god-awful hand-dragging-I’ll-make-this-if-it-kills-me roll aways we’ve witnessed recently. Garrett Hill is nothing special- just a clone. Tony Cervantes gets his grab quota up to par and sticks out as someone to keep an eye open for. John Rattray saves the day with a bit of style and even gets Stu Graham to feature in his part. Somehow John just doesn’t look like he’s having fun on those rails. I don’t know… Tommy Sandoval will die trying and James Brockman has a couple of heavy hammers in there. Backside lipslides on suspended rails anyone? No, I didn’t think so…