Congrats to all involved in the new Cirencester skate park build in Gloucestershire. It looks like the opening jam was a success! Enjoy watching Nicky Howells, Andy Coleman, Jed Cullen, Joe Habgood, Luke Kindon, Ryan Price and many more christen its new curves in style for James Harris’ lens.
Photos: Nicholas Mohnacky
The tragic news of Jay Adams‘ heart attack last week has left the skateboard and surf community mourning a legend worldwide. You can read our tribute to the great man here but these images and video are some of the last recorded of Adams enjoying beach life down in Puerto Escondido, Mexico last week. They were shot by fellow surfer Nicholas Mohnacky of SurfrApp who blogged them on hearing the sad news:
“Jay ran up to me earlier that morning with a huge smile because he saw me taking photos of the boys surfing at Zicatela. I was mostly shooting Coco Nogales, not wanting to miss a shot but I fired off one of Jay as he was coming towards me deep in the barrel. You can barely see him but it was my last photo of him before he passed away so I want to share it with you.”
More photos from Jay’s family are still being uploaded to his instagram account as we type this.
Our thoughts are with family and friends.
Jay Adams RIP
The Fifty Fifty crew made great use of the free concrete delivered from Red Bull’s DIY drop and added a new addition to Daveside.
Watch this DIY Bristol edit who filmed guests from the recent Polar tour to christen it.
Grab free concrete from various UK skate shops this month and make your own. The comp is only halfway through and only Parlour in Mile End have run out of concrete so far. Details here.
Offcuts from the NOCTURNIS edit have been unleashed online this week from the West and South Coast collective known as OWL with Al Hodgson, Jamie Platt and many more involved.
Real’s Jake Donnelly smashes it in this full part for Thrasher in Buffalo. Watch and learn.
Watch Ben Raybourn, Tony Hawk, David Loy, Lizzie Armanto and the rest of the Birdhouse team from their Summer Tour this year.
Get hyped for some Ethan Fowler footage fresh from the Hall of Fame over at the Houe of Hammers this week. Famed for his contributions at Foundation, Stereo and Toy Machine, Joey Sinko brings this one for the love of it.
Lost Art rider Ryan Rebotis has joins Would Skateboards who on the up out there right now. He joins a team with Scott Whittaker, Tom Watts, Laurie Colley, Ed Russel and flow riders Dan Thompson and Ian Devine.
Check out their screen printed Canadian maple decks when you get a chance.
Photo: Glen E Friedman
Skateboarders worldwide are still in disbelief that legendary skateboarder Jay Adams sadly passed away on Friday. He was spending some quality time with his wife and friends in Puerto Escondido, Mexico surfing and died of a heart attack following sickness and chest pains on Thursday evening.
Born on February 3, 1961, the 53 year old made his name with the infamous Zephyr skateboard team. The Z-Boys dictated their own unique way of carving concrete and stamped their authority on every event they ransacked together as a gang. Every member of the team brought something different to the party, but as their reputation grew, Adams’ aggressive ‘surf style’ became the most talked about skateboarding in America following a third place ranking in the Junior Men’s Freestyle comp in Del Mar, California.
A true skateboarding pioneer, his low centre of gravity and unique carve accelerated his status as one of the most globally admired skateboarders and rightly so. Jay’s high energy style, spontaneity and commitment was one side of his game but he should also be given full credit for bringing a punk edge to skateboarding as it moved into a new era; a style that is evident in every generation that followed to the present day.
Spare a thought today for the 100% skateboarder, who made skateboarding look beautiful. Raise a glass for every shaving of urethane that we’ve all left on the streets; every tiny shard of metal ground from our trucks into the curbs, inspired by Adams and Shogo Kubo, who also sadly passed away this year. Jay Adams was a leader, he carved a ‘fuck you finger’ into the skateboarding history books forever and for that we should be truly thankful.
Our thoughts must also go out to all of Jay’s family and friends. We wish them peace in what must be a difficult time. We will leave you with Jay’s most unforgettable words that are part of skateboarding’s most treasured commandments:
“You don’t quit skating because you get old…You get old because you quit skating”
Jay Adams RIP.
Some of Jay’s final photos surfing in Mexico are shared here with footage.
Jay’s skateboarding career was also documented in photos from the very beginning from his good friend Glen E Friedman. Click here to read his words.
Ph: C.R. Stecyk III
Photos: Kent Sherwood
This week Street League Skateboarding (SLS) and the International Skateboarding Federation (ISF) announced a strategic partnership as the SLS endorses ISF recognition by the International Olympic Committee as the official skateboarding federation. This has now been followed today with the line up of athletes that will be participating in the Youth Olympics this weekend in Nanjing, China.
Paul-Luc Ronchetti is the only British skater involved in what is a landmark event for World Skateboarding. Who would have thought that skateboarding looks to be finding its way into becoming an Olympic sport? Some will argue that it’s a farce resulting from the intrusion of sports brands infiltrating skateboarding, others who follow the Street League events will just be handed an extension to watching more perfect skateboarding with score cards. Whatever your view is, here are the featured athletes chosen for the showcase event that runs from August 17th-27th:
Street:
Leticia Bufoni (F – Brazil)
Candy Jacobs (F – Netherlands)
Kelvin Hoefler (M – Brazil)
Tomas Vintr (M – Czech Republic)
Sean Malto (M – USA)
Chris Cole (M – USA)
Vert:
Lizzie Armanto (F – USA)
Karen Jonz (F – Brazil)
Renton Millar (M – Australia)
Marcelo Bastos (M – Brazil)
Paul-Luc Ronchetti (M – UK)
Delegates:
ISF President: Gary Ream
ISF Event Delegate: Don Bostick
ISF Athlete Delegate: Neal Hendrix
ISF Representative: Johan Andersson
ISF Announcer: Ryan Clements (street)
ISFAnnouncer: Vernon Laird (vert)