Here’s the entry Video for Store Wars from the Fraser Valley’s favourite Skate Shop – Coastal Riders. Edited by Tony Casano, filled with a ton of super skilled tricks like always. This video only features about half the team but it still kicks ass.
Dustin Locke, Stu Benoit, Dylan Clarke, Sam Hampton, Jordan Zazula, Andrew Classon, Tyler Holm, Magnus Hansen, Derek Mayer and more.
Check it
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Here’s a quick Promo Video by Mosaic Skateboards featuring one of their Team Riders – Lanny DeBoer. Lanny is one sick dude when you skate with him. He’s got a lot of hard tricks and puts them down often. He likes to skate the weirder obstacles and has the knees to go big. This video’s pretty good, other than the music, but it just doesn’t show all the craziness that Lanny possesses – but it is all park footage so whatever.
A solid video, with appearances from Jeff Holland and Ryan McKellar. Worth a watch…
Leeside Tunnel is kind of like a Child to the old Locals, and we’re the parents. We remember the day it was conceived, the day it was born, when it took his first baby steps, and have watched it grow soooooo much. There’s been good times and bad, and the years of puberty were very difficult, but now young Leeside has really transformed into a solid Teenager ready to graduate into the world of life and become a full blown grown up Man…
It was 1999 when Lee Matasi showed up at our apartment on Hastings Street with the biggest smile I had seen on a guy that was completely straight-edged in years. He told us how he had found this sick tunnel for doing graffiti underneath Hastings Street and he had approached the City of Vancouver about allowing us to build some wood ramps down there. They gave him approval, to paint and to skate. He said he wanted to call it Leeside. Within a week there was a pile of ramps that magically appeared, none of them that awesome. I remember going down there for the first time and there was a tiny manual box, a flat bank, some barricades and a nasty little launch ramp that we were blasting over a garbage can off. Soon afterwards a mini-ramp showed up, and then disappeared again. There was a sick wallride quarterpipe that arrived out of the blue and that was sweet. You could tell that the word was getting around about this place and something big was eventually gonna happen. Then the PM Team went on Tour of BC and Alberta and they had a sick setup of ramps that all fit nicely on top of this big trailer bed, which was used as the centre of their pyramid during the demos. Johnny B Dread, Josh Evin, Eugene Voykin and many others were on that tour and they all showed up one day out of the blue and somehow backed the truck right into the Tunnel donating the entire set of ramps. All of a sudden, we had the most amazing skate park, and just in time for Winter. This place was jumpin’ every day full of some of the best skaters out there at the time. Then this Film Crew was making some TV Show that I can’t remember the name of and they filmed scenes down there for a couple months in the daytime. But the lighting sucked, so they installed all these awesome Spotlights across the entire length of the Tunnel. So now, you could skate there all night long. The skaters took over….
But as time went on, the ramps got damaged, and I moved away to Surrey and stopped taking care of Leeside all the time, and our whole crew wasn’t skating their anymore, and it kind of fizzled out a bit. Unfortunately this opened the doors for the bikers to start making use of it and they demolished the ramps that made us who we were, and built everything higher and higher with holes in the wood just covered by chunks of plywood and it just looked undesirable. There was no style left at Leeside other than the paintings now, and people stopped skating it.
The City of Vancouver was not impressed anymore with the disaster under Hastings Street and they shut the Tunnel down and they cleared out the mess, covered the floor with gravel, and steamrolled it tight. This was right before the time when Tragedy struck – Lee Matasi shot dead. This place was founded by Lee and we did refer to it as Leeside, and when he was killed so abruptly, that was the place that we all went to pay our respects, and it created an uproar. We all loved Lee Matasi as the kind gentle switch hardflippin’ maniac he was, and it hurt us all so much that not only was he gone from our lives, but we couldn’t even celebrate the times we had with him with a skate in the Tunnel. There were hundreds and hundreds of people there that day, and it was all over the news, and the story was very real, and this created a spark in some people’s minds to bring back that place that Lee found that brought so many of us together as friends for life, and they started working.
It was secret for a long time, no one knew it was going on. A little section of gravel would get cleared out and some small concrete obstacles would appear. Then more people would get involved and more gravel would get cleared out, and some bigger concrete obstacles appeared. And at some point, all the gravel that was ignorantly placed across the ground was cleared and put right back into some massive concrete obstacles. Now there supposedly has been an agreement with the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Skateboard Coalition allowing us to build in the Tunnel. And with support, comes more support.
The entire Tunnel known respectably as “Leeside Memorial Tunnel” is now completely covered end to end with concrete ramps – big ones, little ones, nice ones and nasty ones, and you can expect that it is not even close to being over yet. Vans Canada just put down over $16,000 towards the building of the huge corners that are in the midst of construction right now through their DIY Collaboration Projects and a mass crew of people showed up on September 29th to start building the walls. Things are getting bigger in Leeside Tunnel and more and more people are helping our baby grow. And I think this is a perfect time for us to send praise to the man that started it all Lee Matasi. If only we knew at that time that he wouldn’t be here to see it, maybe things would have been different and not gone the way they did. But without the whole scenario, would we be standing in the same Leeside today? Who knows?
It was 7 sad years ago that Lee Matasi lost his life, over something so unbelievably ignorant, and I personally would like to say thank you to him right now. For this Tunnel that he brought us to because of his passion to paint brought the entire Lower Mainland Skateboard Community together in so many ways and is one of the biggest reasons we are so strong –
So next time your in the Tunnel below Hastings Street, lift your beer and tip your hat – To Lee!!
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Next build – October 20th
Ryan Decenzo was always a good skater, and always solid. And it’s special to see him be known as one of the best Street Skaters in the world right now. The first real moment I remember of knowing Ryan was way back when him and Scott Decenzo were just young kids around 13 and 14 years old. They knew me and were stoked that I had shown up to their local skate spot Cougar Canyon School with Cisco Gooding and Jon Irvine and they followed us around that afternoon watching what we were trying. I still remember how stoked they were when Jon boardslid this super high hubba ledge behind the high school and that was what made me respect them, and I loved Ryan’s hardflips. Then I started seeing them around here and there and eventually when I started running Skateboard Competitions all the time, they would be there, and then of course North Delta Skate Park was built and that became not only home to these 2 brothers, but Training Grounds for where they have made it in the skateboard world today.
Ryan Decenzo has proven himself a master of the board many times in many ways, from being the first to do something, to the guy that did it the biggest, and definitely for being one of the most consistent at all times. He won the Dew Tour Street last year, and here’s what he has to say about this upcoming event. Make sure you tune in to NBC October 18-21 and see how he does.
Well it looks like Baker Skateboards came out with yet another Video, but I’m not quite sure if anyone got to see it in the Premiere since the Police were called in just because of how many people were standing in line out front of the Vine Theatre in L.A. And it somehow turned into a riot. Either way the real question is, why did people start throwing bottles at the Cops anyway, don’t they remember the Rodney King/LAPD incident from the 1990’s. Dude, stay away from that shit.
Way to go Baker – any publicity is good publicity though, right? And this is sure to get a ton of publicity.
Click below for photos and the story by L.A. Weekly
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2012/10/bake_and_destroy_riot_hollywood_skateboarders_lapd.php
[vimeo id=”51363208″ width=”620″ height=”360″] I just watched Sheldon Barr’s Video of Adam Richter power sliding through the streets of Vancouver just loving those sunny summer days and recognize the fact that Winter is coming fast which means lots of rain in the forecasts. And with rain comes depression for a lot of people, but remember the good times we just had. We finally had a memorable Summer for the first year in quite a few where it was more than 25 degrees outside for multiple days in a row all the time, and even last weekend was incredible, there were people tanning and sunbathing on Thanksgiving Sunday in Southern British Columbia, when’s the last time that happened? But now the weather has finally started to shift the to the opposite, it’s extremely cold at night already and very foggy in the mornings, and the past few days have been fulfilled with pouring rain. But that’s life, that’s where we live, accept it. The funny part is that the past few winters have been filled with streaks of sunny weather with temperatures in the double digits in January and February. The only problem with that is the moisture in the air creates a lot of fog and frost and the ground stays wet all day, and worse – the more sunny days we have in a row in the winter, the colder each one gets. At least when it rains, it warms it up. Accept that Winter is upon us, and enjoy the days we have left before it finally arrives. Accept the rain when it comes and be thankful that it’s not snow. Accept that it’s Winter but know there are still plenty of places to skate in this area during the Winter – Tsawwassen, Ladner, The Dry Spot, Leeside, Chuck Bailey Bowls, the Secret Ramp, and my house. Accept the cold weather, but take advantage of the warm days we receive, and the next time we get a beautiful day, go out with your board and your buddies and just cruise the streets – for what it’s worth, before they’re wet for months…
It was the first closed in bowl with coping in Surrey, and when it was in the planning stage for the Guildford Park I was very adamant that we got a Bowl. There was too much of the same street stuff popping up everywhere and those parks get boring after a while. So Guildford Bowl was built, along with a tiny, somewhat pointless Street Section. Of course now you have to be thankful for the street section because that’s all that will be skateable for the next year and a half until the construction is complete. Once this Lap Pool is built then New Line will come back and build something fresh for us to ride in the remaining footage between the building and street section.
This Park helped to teach a lot of the young kids in Surrey how to hit coping. I remember when it was new and at my Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey Contests there the young kids would all avoid the Bowl and just ride the street stuff, and now almost everyone focuses completely on the Bowl at those events. It also created a group of friends that localized that place, Allen Handley, Myke Johnson and Randy. These guys all know how to shred this spot. It’s a shame that we’re losing it, but life goes on.
Here’s the Video by Protest Skateboards of our Final Film Session at Guildford Bowl. Lots of people showed up including Andy Anderson, Brad “Fighter” Muscat, Jordan Strong, Dale Kind, “Giver” Michael James, Riley Allen Clerihue, Adam Lewis, Josh Lewis, “Hasbrown” Mike Shulze, Dustin Locke, Derek Mayer, Stephan Burke, Matt Cook, Ryan Brynelson, Bachouch Michael, Myke Johnson, Randy, myself and Allen Handley who absolutely destroyed it all day. No one will miss that Bowl as much as this guy.
I’m not completely sure when the fence will go up and the Bowl will come down but it could happen at any given moment, so take your chances and get there for one last session
R.I.P.
Ohhhhh, the Skateboard Industry… so huge now.
When I was young and started skateboarding in the mid-80’s, skateboarding was crazy – pools, vert and launchers, hair in your eyes and rails on your boards. It was huge at that time and all the skaters wanted to be at the top of their game. There was only a select few number of Pro Skaters that everybody knew and they were always competing to be better than the others. I watched as skateboarding suddenly fell off the Popularity Meter and all of a sudden there was no publicity for it any more. It was tough times for the Pro’s, and even tougher for the Skate Shops. But skateboarding made a major comeback in the mid-90’s and it looks like it’s here for good.
There are soooooooooooo many amazing skateboarders in the world that we will never know 25% of their names. You only get your chance if you get your name out there in the first place and now a days the only way to do that is to have a solid filmer behind you.
It’s crazy how huge skateboarding is world wide and I would have to say that the abundance of people filming is the reason for it. Some people just have video camera and enjoy getting footage of them and their friends, where others save up for a year and buy the sickest camera on the market and start getting in with the crew’s of sick skaters and always filming. Trust me, people love it when someone wants to film, I know I do. Filming and watching yourself later is also the best way to improve and another serious reason as to how sick the talent is out there. The more they film the better they get, and the more they film us, the better we get. So together, we make an amazing team that showcases talents, and creates entertainment for everyone to enjoy. So big thanks and props to all you Die Hard Skateboard Filmers out there – thanks for helping to create so many memories…
Ty Williamson has been sending me video links to lots of his edits, most of it being park footage but it really lets us get to know some local skaters. The filming is perfect, the editing is good and the skating is always impressive. Here’s another quick edit from “Tyler the Creator” called On Top.
Some old and unused footage from Pitt Meadows and Thomas Haney Parks featuring Blair Higginson, Lanny DeBoer, Keenan Hargrove, Calum Wood, James Benson, Dylan Ackimenko, Tom Korop, Adrian Wnorowski, Braiden Huish, and Dave Jonsson
I lived a tough life growing up, tough and rough. My parents took good care of me for what it was worth, but when I was out doin’ my thing, I was always getting into trouble. I was wild and hardcore, and loved every minute of it. I actually made a $20 bet with someone that I wouldn’t live to see 20 years old, which I lost. There were a lot of amazing, crazy and chaotic moments that are major memories etched into my brain, some that i regret but most that I’m glad happened. The way I always look back at it, the bad things that happen to you are what really influence your mentality the most. Without the bad things you don’t know what life is really about. I’m glad I grew up with freedom to learn on my own, and wasn’t babied or sheltered to believe that we control life and only good things ever happen. A big part of what makes me the man I became in life was the Curse I lived with for many, many years – The Thanksgiving Curse. Don’t ask me why it happened, or why I deserved it – I’m sure there were many people I was mean to in my younger years and one of them must have been a gypsy or a witch or something, but either way, I had the curse…
Every year around Thankgiving, up to 2 weeks before or after, I would get hurt, usually good enough to be rushed to the hospital. It started on Thanksgiving Monday in 1995. We were skating this drop gap at the CIBC that you could only skate on a Holiday and I was killing it all day. I was with Clayton Holmes and Malcolm O’Connor and Malcolm wanted to film a line so I was just fuckin’ around in the back of the Bank parking lot and completely dislocated my elbow riding off the 4 stair. Like what? Of all the big gaps and crazy tricks we would do all the time, how the hell did I do this? The worst part was when it happened, I jumped up and shook my arm in pain, locking the bones back together in reversed position – so my forearm was stuck turned completely over facing up when it should be facing down. I grabbed Clay and we hopped in the car and went to the Emergency Room. They left me there, I got it fixed and walked home.
The next year I was working for Manpower Temporary Services and they would send me out to these Factories. I got hooked up with this super easy job sanding the pitts out of these Car Rims for Volkswagen and it was going to last for 3 weeks at $23 an hour. I was stoked. The first day was right before the long weekend of Thanksgiving and that night we went out skating. I was getting tons of footage when once again I got burned on this tiny 5 stair rail at the Zellers. I landed and twisted my foot right around 180 degrees and it sounded disgusting. I thought for sure that my ankle had broke but somehow according to the X-rays the bones were all good, just everything else was completely destroyed. I was on crutches and a cane for almost 2 1/2 months, and obviously didn’t get to make all that money that I was stoked for.
Year 3, you’d figure I might be scared but hadn’t really realized yet that this was going to be an annual ritual. The snowboarding season started early and Thanksgiving was late in the year. We were riding some serious sized Tombstones in the halfpipe area at Snow Valley and of course I was annihilating it. I hit this gap into the halfpipe that was super weird and backside 720’d it. I was telling Carrie’s brother Doug Williams about it and he didn’t believe me, so I did it again. As I was riding away I was pointing back at him laughing about it and caught my edge on the runway groove for the tombstone flipping me over hard and landed with my hand in the snow and my elbow jabbed into my side right between my ribs and hip. I was down for a long time and people helped me out of the pipe. I sat around for a while, had a smoke or two, and then strapped back in. It was a weird pain that I had never felt before but i just shook it off. I hopped up, called “Snake” and dropped in busting a big McTwist off one of the Tombstones. I rode for a bit but wasn’t that into it anymore so we left. About 4 hours later I was lying on the couch and had a strange urge to piss. I tried getting up and couldn’t. Luckily I lived at me parents still and called them downstairs to help me. I got to the bathroom and pissed a lot of blood out. Carrie came over right away and rushed me down to the Hospital. I barely made it to the front counter in Emergency and they asked me what was wrong. I answered in a tiny voice, “I think I’m dying”, and I fell on the floor. They rushed me in fast. Some X-rays, a little Ultrasound, and a whole lot of questions and they finally had some answers, I had a bleeding kidney and a bruised spleen. If my spleen decided to burst, it would have to come out right away, I was told. So they hooked me up with some drugs and sent me home telling me to be very cautious and not to engage in any physical activity for 2-3 weeks. Luckily, my spleen didn’t burst, and I survived. I was now realizing that i had this Cursed Curse…
Almost all my biggest injuries have come around Thansgiving: these 3 of course, fractured each foot separately, tore everything in my wrist, torn MCL, Herniated Disc and Sciatic Nerve damage, cracked ribs, a huge hole in my leg, and many other life changing experiences. Some just call this the Life of a Skateboarder, but isn’t it strange that all the big ones happen at the same time of year?
So for this I always avoid skateboarding around Thansgiving, especially on the long weekend itself, but I proudly say Thank You for all this pain that I have been given, for these injuries are what helped me find myself, they are what made me so strong in life, and they are what built the man you see today.
I might not be able to walk properly, or stand up straight, or breathe easily all the time, but I’m still alive, standing strong in front of you.
Now tell me who I should thank for that…
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Don’t worry…. a saying that we all use every day. Life is always going sideways out of nowhere and you just got to stay thinking positive that it will all work out later, and not get trapped in the worry.
I’ve been having a rough time these past 5 or 6 months and everything has been going wrong. Usually when you see me out there at the parks or in the streets you wouldn’t be able to tell though. I hate to worry about life, and survival, and the dangers that are always waiting for us, so I try my best not to. Lost my dad in April, I shut down one of my businesses in June, my camera was stolen in September and I haven’t seen my cat for 2 weeks… You see me happy and you see me smiling and having a good time, but inside I haven’t been happy for months. But I look at the positive things that have been happening lately and they keep me smiling, and make me believe that things will turn around and get better. I’ve been really getting back into skating and been out there filming and being filmed all summer and it feels good. I might be frustrated with how hard I work on setting up so many events for skateboarders in the Lower Mainland, but as soon as I show up the day of and see all those smiling faces, I let it go and just have a good time. You guys all make me happy to be who I am and to know so many amazing people, young and old. You’re positive energy and the respect you give me have helped me to make it through these hard times, and life has been starting to work out again. I have more money coming in, I won a couple contests lately, and I’ve actually been smiling for no reason again.
Life can be tough, and our emotions change constantly. Some days are good days and other are not, but I take it with a grain of salt as they say, and live on. It’ll all be okay soon.
I quote Bob Marley from the song Three Little Birds:
“Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing gonna be alright”
Believe it – Love it – Live it