The good ship Blueprint has seen 5 team riders leave now this week. Neil Smith being the latest. This was posted overnight:
“Ok, so I guess it’s finally my turn to announce my departure from BLUEPRINT skateboards. The last 10 years have been amazing journey with a great bunch of lads, I was very privileged to be apart of blueprint for so many years, but all must come to an end one day. Thanks to everyone involved old and new, excited to see what happens next…”
Uploaded messages on instagram accounts of both Nick Jensen and Sylvian Tognelli have revealed that both team riders have left Blueprint Skateboards today following Paul Shier’s departure yesterday. What a week for BP.
All three skaters that have left were guests on Fos’s LA radio show last week. Listen to it here.
Los Angeles airwaves were taken over by UK skaters this week when FOS fm braodcast its latest radio show. Blueprint’s Paul Shier, Sylvian Tognelli and Nick Jensen came in as guests to play tunes and talk mates, so hit the play button for the goods.
Blueprint’s Sylvian Tognelli is back with another video blog from his travels rocking it with Method Man, Mickael Mackrodt,Marty Murawski, Paul Shier, Tura, Fredd, Jürgen Horrwarth, Ben Raybourn, Wieger Van Wageningen, Luis Tolentino, Chris Jones, Sebo Walker and many more.
HIT THE FAN from sylvain tognelli on Vimeo.
Zack Wallin joins DVS Shoes with a brand new edit filmed at a DIY spot with perfect blues this morning. Look out for Paul Shier in the mix!
DVS Welcomes Zack Wallin from DVSSHOES on Vimeo.
Blueprint Skateboards are about to roll out a new series into your local skater owned shop this week. Artist Mark Ward came up with the new Big Smoke deck series and wheels for pro riders Shier, Smith, Murawski, Jensen and Brady.
The wheels are new and improved Blurethane shape and urethane. Order one from your local store.
After 15 years of steering the ship creatively at Blueprint Skateboards, Dan Magee officially left the company last night to persue his career in film. Posting on this on his instagram acount last night, he said:
“A few years ago, I decide to invest a skate business, that I felt would secure my future working in skateboarding and help push Blueprint & its riders forward. Ironically, certain events meant this investment had the opposite effect of my original intentions. As a result, I was not able to work on Blueprint with the same passion I used to have. Although this transition has been ongoing over the past two years, recent events have helped me to decide that it’s time to officially move on from my 15 years as Creative Director at Blueprint and concentrate on ‘the day job’. Thanks and respect to all those who have been involved with Blueprint along the way and all those that had my back when I needed it. Thanks to Paul Shier who continues to run the brand, as he has during my last couple of years on ‘hiatus’. I still hope to film, work in and be involved with skateboarding on a freelance and personal level for years to come.” – Dan Magee
Photo: CN
As workers around the world celebrated Labour Day (May 1st) with a well-deserved day-off or a good old riot in the streets depending on your current national economy and austerity plan, Element Skateboards paid homage to their hardworking team of amateur skaters by releasing for a 24hr period only Future Nature. Staying true to their environmental roots, Element decided to build this video around the idea of a David Attenborough wildlife show. They replaced Sir David with Blueprint Skateboards’ chief Paul Shier and invented an entire plethora of pig-latin names for their riders e.g. Accelerus Impossibilus or Gracefullius Awkardus, the tone is set for 37 minutes of top-knotch skateboarding.
With Cole Matthews, Mark Stewart and Ricky Bedenbaugh behind the cameras and Kirk Dianda directing, the Element amateurs give it their best in a bid to become tomorrow’s professionals. Julian Davidson opens the show and demonstrates his love of long rails. Despite the majority of the tricks involving flat metal bars, Julian does find time to kickflip up a hefty set of stairs too. I’ll skip straight to the last skater Nick Garcia here because I honestly thought I was watching Julian again. Rails aside, Nick takes his transition skills and applies them to banks and walls. Nick’s switch noseblunts are a treat and his ollie manual down a bank is worthy of Mosher status.
Back to the order of things, Boo Johnson and Madars Apse have the next couple of parts and each of them is dope. Boo has a very easy-on-the-eyes style that leaves you wishing the editors had put more lines in his section. The handicap ramp ollie to frontside 360 line is an example of Boo’s smooth operation. Madars on the other hand is the round peg in a square hole. He fits the happy blond-haired wholesome image that Element pushes, but he skates like someone brought up on Mark Gonzales and Eastern Exposure tapes. Trading big pop and sun bleached school yards for powerslides and wallie jams, Madars is obviously a Euro in a land of Yanks.
Speaking of Euros, the European Element team get some shine sharing a flow section with their American counterparts. Trent McClung and Nassim Guammaz serve as bookends to a solid section where the highlights include Chase Webb stepping on Nyjah Huston’s coat tails and Tom Schaar getting dizzy with the world’s first 1080°. Not bad for a montage section.
The last amateur to feature in this video is Evan Smith. I leave him till last because I doubt he’s going to stay amateur for very long and will soon join the professional ranks for Element or dare I say it, Habitat? Long droopy hair? Check. Travelling man? Check. Guitar strings? Check. Handsome skating? Check. Evan has been producing some stellar skating recently (c.f. Transworld Cinematographer) and this new section is full of unseen top rate footage that means he’s been putting in the work. Highlights include Evan’s fakie 5-0 variations in various Californian ditches and his Iberian wallie combos.
Some people might find the nature documentary theme of this video annoying but I believe Element wanted to stay true to their game and have a bit of fun at the same time. My personal preference would have seen Skateboard wrangler Bob Sanderson hired to lurk behind bushes and pounce on a few of the riders as they rolled away from afterblack hammers. The 24hr window posting might be a scheme to limit pirate copies hitting the net, but nothing stays offline for long nowadays. Look out for Future Nature on iTunes soon.
Ralph Lloyd-Davis
The Blueprint team are busy traveling as usual this month. Paul Shier is currently out with the troops in Cyprus for a future feature so look out for that with a video edit to boot.
Whilst currently sitting on the front page of the new Grey Magazine, Neil Smith now riding for Destructo, Mob Grip and Ricta Wheels, Danny Brady now skates Spitfire Wheels and Jerome Campbell is now riding for Converse and Paradise Wheels.
Look out for a Blueprint competition on here next week where you can win a package of BP goodness.
The Blueprint Skateboards team have been skating in Japan this month. Watch Sylvain Tognelli’s video blog from the trip featuring Neil Smith, Danny Brady, Tom Knox, Paul Shier, Sylvain Tognelli, Matt Price and Marty Murawski.