Category : Skateboarding

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Mathew McCauley’s first Sponsor – Protest Wheels

I’ve been watching this kid skate for a few years now, I remember seeing him the first time at one of my Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey contests and recognizing his talents right away. Mathew McCauley is a unique skater who has the mentality to go for it all the time. This kid can kickflip and frontside pop shovit 9 stairs on command, and he’s not afraid to go bigger. And as he gets bigger he starts to hit more ledges and rails as well as a little bit of transition. Now that McCauley is 13 years old I gave him a chance to make a big move in his life and step up to being sponsored. This is a huge move since he was still competing in Intermediate at contests, but last year if he was on point, his runs would’ve placed in Advanced at some of those comps. I still remember last July at my Fleetwood Contest when he showed up just as first runs of Intermediate were ending and I told him to get up there and throw down, it was his turn. He stepped up the stairs, turned around and blasted a huge kickflip down the 3 block and then just completely annihilated the rest of the park ending it with another big banger down the blocks. He hadn’t even warmed up and basically just won with his first run. I knew then that his time was coming but didn’t want to rush it.

Exactly one year later I laid it down, I said “Do you wanna be sponsored and live the life of a sponsored skater where you are expected to be places and you have to compete against the big guns and throw down all the time and show up for photo shoots when I tell you to and be in the eye of the public all the time? Or do you wanna just keep living your life having fun skateboarding?” I told him if he was ready then I would put him on the Protest Wheel Team and he would get free wheels plus cost on decks. Matt thought about it for a few minutes and answered “Yes”…

He entered the Fraser Heights contest that same day in Advanced and threw down some serious tricks. I’m stoked that he was ready for this, and now it’s time to make him even better than he already is. Be prepared to see lots of footage of this kid in the future…

Welcome to a new life buddy –

Protest Wheels proudly welcomes Mathew McCauley to the Team

Here’s his welcome filmed at Chuck Bailey Skate Park

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Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Tsawwassen Sun Festival 2013 Results

Another amazing day in Tsawwassen, what a place to live! The sun was definitely cooperating for an event named The Sun Festival, and to be honest, we have no idea what happens at this so called event except for the fact that Michael Ray and the Local Boys set up an annual skate comp at one of the best skate parks in the lower mainland. Any contest at Tsawwassen Skate Park is gonna be a tough one to win, the energy is always solid and so is the skating. Hippie Mike and the Protest Crew showed up ready throw down with Brad “Fighter” Muscat and Andy Anderson. All 3 were on their game all day, Hippie was blasting big out of the launch and threw down his patented “Hippie Hop” through the 2 bump to rails and then early roast beef down the 3 block to finish off his 2nd run, Fighter was flying high over the Van City Sign, hittin’ ledge and rail tricks everywhere, bustin’ benny’s over the skinny hubba and just plain skating fast and hard, and Andy, well he’s Andy – trick, trick, trick, trick, trick….. Can you hit every obstacle in the park in one run, maybe, if you’re Andy.

Winners Ryan Leport-Andy Anderson-Riley Antonik

It started out with Beginners and came down to 3, Parker Sherwin, Nick Bachmeier and Lucas. All 3 of them ripped it up, Luke blasted the 3 block, Nick was boardsliding the green rail and Parker was popping big ollies and flip tricks all over the place.

The Intermediates were just as tough and the Top 3 came down to Colin Gallagher, Matt Hill and Jacob Drescher. All 3 of these guys are on their ledge and rail tricks and were landing tons of stuff, Jacob even double kickflipped up the step up. They were all tight in the standings but Colin took 1st place.

Protest Skateboards pulled out a crisp $50 bill for a Best Trick up the Step Up and Hippie Mike took over the microphone. Judge Mike Hastie said 5 minutes only so they went for 7. It was literally a person jumping up the step up every 5 seconds the entire time and tricks were getting stomped left right and centre, 3 flips, double flips, ghetto birds, late shoves, blah blah blah blah blah, but Ryan Leport laid out a sick nollie double heelflip 180 twice in a row to take the money. Solid both times buddy! Even if you landed on 1 foot only the first time.

The Advanced Category was insane of course as everyone who actually entered knows how to shred in competition. Top guys to watch were Ryan Leport, Andy Anderson, Riley Antonik and Andy Classon. Somehow Tyler Burke made the Finals as well and then skated really good in them. Everybody skated solid in Advanced but these 4 were the ones to beat all day. Ryan Leport and Andy Anderson just basically rode around really relaxed and did a zillion tricks each on the ledges, the flat bars and rails, up the step up and even on flat just for fun. Andy Classon wowed the crowd with his insane wallie skills and big pops but couldn’t come through in top 3 this year. It was Riley Antonik with his barge and charge style going as fast as possible on the worst flat spots and hitting every big ledge and rail in site. Riley killed it, but he was no match to Andy and Ryan. Sick contest!

Thanks to Michael Ray and Mick Bey along with anyone else that helped to organize this event, Geoff Howe for coming all the way out to MC, Mike Hastie for judging, and of course to Hippie Mike for wearing the worst outfit of the year. Great day everybody, see you all there next year…

Results

Beginner 

  1. Parker Sherwin 
  2. Nick Bachmeier 
  3. Lucas

Intermediate

  1. Colin Gallagher        
  2. Matt Hill   
  3. Jacob Drescher

Advanced

  1. Ryan Leport
  2. Andy Anderson
  3. Riley Antonik
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Extreme Sports Skateboarding

When all you do is Hurt – you are stuck in a DAZE

Ethan Craig is a young but talented skateboard filmer/videographer in the lower mainland and has been dedicating his life to making amazing videos the past couple of years. Ethan has a solid following and gets a lot of respect  from the top dogs of the local skateboard scene which he totally deserves. Through all of this filming he has been invited to participate in video recaps of many historic events like Goskate Day, The Burrard Hotel Takeover, and more. And in amongst all of this Ethan had begun to film for his very own first big full length skate video called “Daze”. The whole internet craze with Youtube and Vimeo has really impacted the way skate videos happen and full length videos are becoming more and more rare and obsolete, so for someone so young to be thinking this way got a lot of people stoked. 4 trailers have been released so far to show what type of amazing skating to expect, and also display some of the talented individuals we were going to get to watch in it. The hype is fully alive right now and Daze was gonna be sick…

Ethan lost his gear

Then yesterday, the unthinkable and unimaginable and literally the worst think possible happened to Ethan. Someone stole Ethan Craig’s hard drive containing all the footage for his video. And now he feels like he has nothing. And in your mind you still have everything planned out for how the video was going to piece itself together. A true filmer edits his video in their head as the footage happens, and Ethan Craig is a true filmer. This is a very tragic thing to have happen to anyone, and coming from someone who films skateboarding  and has for many years, I completely understand the emotions that are running through young Ethan’s mind right now and sympathize in every way possible. It makes you hate everyone, it takes away your ability to trust anybody in this world, and it feels like a humungous part of your soul was torn out of your body and run over by a semi. I have had the same thing happen before where my house was broken into and all my video equipment was taken, and all I cared about was losing the footage. Objects are replaceable, but footage is not. Sometimes there are things that happened on camera that will never happen again and you were lucky to have filmed it. I quote Ethan here –

“I have today learned how only a few seconds can really change a lifetime. as well has how sentimental value it worth, millions and millions more then per-say it’s “retail” value.” 

Nothing is more true than this sentence because that is exactly how you feel when you lose something that you put your heart and soul into and cannot replace in a store. You can go back to the same spots with the same people and try and relive what was already filmed but it’s just not the same. It’s not as real.

I wish Ethan Craig the best of luck on getting his hard drive back. But if it doesn’t happen, he now has a lot of work to do to regain his focus on that end goal he had – Daze, a full length skateboard video…

It’s time for everyone involved to step back up and really come together with Ethan to support him and help him get back on his feet and recreate his dream. It’s not gonna look the same as before, but it can have the same result.

Nothing but sympathy for my friend Ethan Craig

Here are all 4 of the Trailers he had put out for DAZE

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Eve Feaver Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Protesting in White Rock

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There’s a thing people do a lot when they live in South Surrey, they tell everyone they’re from White Rock. But I always ask the question, “What’s it say on the envelope when someone mails you something?” Surrey – that’s what. And the funny part is that even the Original Surrey Skate Park still lives by the name “White Rock Bowl”

It’s referred to by many as The Deep Pit and it was built around 1990 following the roll in styles of all the other parks at that time like Seylynn, Griffin and Whistler Bowl but taking away the snake run aspect, White Rock Bowl is a fun one but can kick your ass without warning at any moment. As Mitch Salter was reminded during his run in Advanced when he lost control on a fly out from the deep end and land fully upside down. Ditch, halfpipe, deep end and 2 big tits, that’s what this bowl is about, and there’s only one way to skate it – fast.

It was a beautiful day outside once again, we have been blessed this summer so far. Not as many people as there used to be at this stop but it is very far for most people to drive to. But a good chunk of the Protest Team showed up and were ready to skateboard. Don Bushman Wilson has been skating this park since day 1 and showed his experience with fierce lines that never ended while Brad Fighter Muscat went huge out of the deep end and into the halfpipe, Eve Feaver proved early that he was going to be the man to beat as he blasted airs all over and laid down a whack of technical lip tricks while (myself) Hippie Mike reminded everybody that I’ve lived in Surrey for the past 12 years and have taught many a kid how to shred that park, including the infamous Andy Anderson who for once was not present at this competition due to a Freestyle Demo in Maple Ridge that he was working. The action was hot in all categories starting with Beginner where little 5 year old Presley Huska dominated but ripping down the entire bowl and wrapping around the deep end as well as making out of the end of the bowl. This kid’s crazy! The Intermediates were insane too, Rylee Wong was shredding like he was born in the early 80’s and Purple Pants Riley Allen was pretending he was Andy Anderson with huge flyouts and boneless tricks all over the bowl. Kai Searle and Ross were also ripping hard and laying down lots of tech tricks. When it came time for the ladies we had Carrie Williams for Protest, Krystal Clear from Squamish and Malia who I don’t really know. They all went hardcore, as much as they could but Carrie dominated with her many years of experience at this competition popping fakie tricks on the top banks, doing stalls in the halfpipe and carving the bowl. The Advanced was tight and everyone was skating good. Tons of speedlines, lots of solid huge airs in and out of the bowl and plenty of style form everyone. Jay White carved it up like he knows how while lil’ Mitchie went fast and tried not to hurt himself, Gary Harris was in the house and ripped it up too, and Lil’ G threw down some tough gap ollies and tailslides, Fighter used the whole bowl and stuck some tough tricks as Tyler Wong showed his old school styles inherited from his Dad, but it came down to those Top 3 –

  1. Eve Feaver
  2. Bushman
  3. Hippie Mike

We’ll see you guys in Sqaumish on August 17th and Whistler on the 18th 

Check out the photos from Mark Halliday @ Moonrider Productions

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonriderpro/sets/72157634868254074/

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Extreme Sports Protest Skateboards Skateboarding

Protest Summer BBQ#2

Fighter and Dennis

Saturday we had another Protest Team BBQ which only half the team showed up but we had lots of other friends I had invited too so it was still busy. A lot more mellow than the last BBQ mainly for the fact that Randy Madland showed up sober this time and didn’t drink 20 beers, but don’t worry, Brad Muscat took his place on that level. But at least Fighter wasn’t hucking himself of the cliff like Randy liked to do, he was just hucking himself around in the mini ramp.

Everybody had a good time and we all just hung out having fun. There was ladder golf for the kiddies and mini ramp for the big boys, and plenty of food for everyone. Homer was the BBQ master again, and one my old friends from high school in Ontario, Ray (Turner) Fox showed up to hang, and Dennis Regan was in the house as well. The ramp was kind of the highlight area of the party and it seemed like everyone was on there game – Cisco Gooding was dropping 270’s out of every type of grind all over the ramp, Fighter learned yet another variation of Judo Blunt by popping them to frontside tail, Jaden Easton-Ellett was slashing everything super fast and stylish, Randy Madland was hitting primo stalls out of 50-50 and then landing them back in, Giver (Michael James) was going frontside like usual, and Justin James skated the entire time and probably took the most body slams of everyone, in amongst landing a ton of tricks. I jumped on the ramp for about 10-15 minutes for a doubles photo and video of me 5-0 grinding the hip over Justin doing a bigspin going the opposite direction. That was about it for Hippie Mike‘s skating on this day both my legs were super cramped up from the day before. Later in the evening Jeff Cole and Andy Anderson strolled in and of course both got up on the ramp for a “fresh legs demo”. Jeff is injured right now so he was taking it easy but still slashing with style, and Andy had just come from an all day Freestyle Demo out in Maple Ridge so he was on top of his game, and itching for tranny. He threw down a couple perfect nosegrinds over the hip and Jeff called him out to do nosegrind on the first side and then revert into sugarcane as he transferred the hip. It took Andy a whole 2 tries to stick it and then he did like 3 more in a row. All these guys are great to watch skate mini, and that was pretty much all we did. Food was good, drinks were good, weather was good and the people were awesome.

Not so many at this one, lots were out of town or just didn’t show. I’m sure they’ll be at the next one…

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Contest Results Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Griffin Bowl Series through the eyes of The Bushman

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Second stop on the King of the Bowl Series #19 saw the circus show up at Griifin Snake in North Van. Plenty of skaters on hand to lay down some awesome runs and lots of pleased spectators.

The beginners contest was great to watch as always, love to see the stoke in those kids eyes, kinda like the stoke that’s still in mine after all these years on board! Congratulations for my fellow Squamish ripper Jacob Leblanc for taking first place in beginners!!!

Intermediates was a great show too. Some of these skaters should maybe have been in advanced I think, with the tricks being displayed and them nailing the landings, showing that they have the cajones for the next level. Congratulations to whomever won, I can’t recall who it was (old age and sitting beside Chalmers didn’t help), but you guys were rippin.

Advanced saw a nice large field of well seasoned riders, my own old ass included. Speed lines galore, huge ollie-fest and a ton of old school trickery to be had. The heats were full on and in the end, came down to eight men in the final. I was stoked to make the final, having missed it last year and skated like I was 20! I wish. After all was said and done, the top five were as follows: 1-Danny Hagge 2-Andy Anderson 3-Adam 4-Rob Rickaby 5-Dave 57 Krystof and Bushman (me)

See you all at the next stop Whiterock/South Surrey – July 28th!!!

  • Bushman

PS, the highlight of my day at Griffin, was airing over my teammate Fighter as he laid inside the shopping cart I was blasting over out of the bowl. That, or maybe laughing so hard, as Alex Chalmers tried to pass off his judging duties on the girl Nora, a skater visiting from Denmark, sitting right in front of us. After some coaxing, she was a judgeskateboarding rules!

For all the photos from Mark Halliday and Moonrider Productions click the link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonriderpro/sets/72157634787834588/

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Extreme Sports Skateboarding

It was a Booze Bash

Friday night was pretty hectic but it wasn’t much different than most Friday nights at Hastings Bowl, except of course for the huge coolers full of beer and boxes of prizes. Tons of people showed up to skate and to just sit and chill and check out the show. Surprisingly no one got drunk…

There was a Best Trick over the spine to get the jam rollin’ and Adam Hopkins won it with a solid Miller Flip. Fighter dropped a Benihana over it right afterwards too. They had a wooden extension on the 8 foot just like last year’s Battle at Hastings Real Box except way sketchier. Skylar Kehr did this crazy hippie jump off to hand on his board wallride to fakie and got nothing for it. That’s life I guess, but it was sick. Jeff Muirhead stuck a super awesome nosepick on it too. Surrey Stu Benoit took the golden prize of 2 Old E’s taped together for snaking everyone in the 6 foot bowl and then Chris Macallum fell hard on a shotgun speedline and cracked his head open bad – 9 stitches at the hospital and then he was back to chill. Hardcore!!

After everyone mellowed back down it was time for some good ol’ Canadian Flyouts from the 6 foot. Methods, Judos and backside 360’s, and that was just John Baker. Everyone was killin’ this section, and a few decks got snapped hard. Even I got up and banged out a couple Madonna bucket kicks off the garbage can. This got Brad Muscat going and along with 8 beers or so, he all of a sudden started eyeing up the fence gap. There’s a pretty short list of people who have air this gap over the fence from the 4 foot bowl to the bank in the street section, and add his name to it. Fighter dropped a melon grab over it and then went back to method it for the crowd.

Everyone had a good time, there were tons of awesome people there and a lot of crazy tricks. For an event named “The Booze Bash” it ended up being pretty mellow, which was good.

Thanks to Sheldon Barr for putting it all together.

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Extreme Sports Hippie Mike Skateboarding Team Riders

Hot Times in Onterrible

Toronto birds eye

It was a trip back to the homeland of Barrie, Ontario for myself, Carrie and Kaelen, and we normally avoid going there in the Summer months because of how hot it gets, but there was a Milestone Celebration Party happening that we needed to attend. A 60th birthday, an 80th birthday, a few 30th birthdays and a bunch of key anniversaries, including ours were all occurring in the June, July, August time period, so off we went. It wasn’t meant to be a skateboard trip but you know it’s always on my mind, so we tried to get as much skating in as possible, but with temperatures being in the mid 30’s every day that it wasn’t raining, that can be a tough thing to do. Either way, even if we don’t skate, we still meet up and hang out with the old crew that I grew up skating with.

We flew in on the Sunday evening and you could see the humidity, but we were blessed that we weren’t stuck at all in that insane flood of rain that hit Toronto the next day and shut the whole city down. They got over a year’s worth of rain in 1 hour – how the hell do you see that coming? Up in Barrie it was all good and we met up with some friends and family to get the vacation started. Doug Williams‘ house seems to always be a central hang out and you get to play darts against Kevin Creelove and Mike Van Noortwyk (Noorty) while you’re there. They are tough to beat. So we spent a few evenings there seeing lots of people. We met up with Jay Coulson the second day we were there and we skated his little mini-ramp.

Hippie Mike & Jay Coulson

Jay is now the manager of Tropical North Surf Shop which is the longest lasting skateboard shop in the area and we swung in there the last day to show off some fresh Protest product. With our distributor Unit120 Distribution ready to sell our gear across Canada, hopefully you will see it in Trops pretty soon. The ramp was fun, pretty small, but really quick. Good for mellow sessions, and it was great to skate with Coulson again – it’s only been about 10-15 years. Anyone from the local area will remember the old days when there was a ramp in Jay Coulson’s barn. A lot of insanity went down in that spot before it collapsed.

Wednesday seemed like a great day for Golf so Doug, myself and Carrie’s Dad Dave hit up this course called Pine View, which we had played last year as well. A lot of hills, and a lot of bushes. We got ‘er done and survived the heat, and found more balls than we lost. Somehow Dave won, and I think he mentioned that in his speech at the Milestone Party. Thursday had been set out as the Canada’s Wonderland trip with all our nieces and nephews, and Kaelen was stoked to see all his cousins and go to this huge park. Being the crazy guy that he is we made sure he got a blue wristband so he could hit certain rides, even though he came up about a 1/2 inch short for it. The first thing we did was take him on the Thunder Run a roller coaster that shoots through the mountain in the dark. 1st roller coaster – successful, so then later on in the day we had to get him on the Ghoster Coaster, one of the oldest wooden roller coasters around.

AER08901

That thing was crazy, and by the look on Kaelen’s face in the photo, he didn’t expect it. But afterwards, he was stoked on it. A great day for fun times with the family.

The next day was back in the mode of skateboard world – I had a meeting set up with Sean Bittle from a new company called Top Grom.

Hippie Mike & Sean Bittle - Top Grom

This company is focused on promoting skaters that are teens and children only. They are hosting competitions for kids 13 and under in 5 different countries this summer, and have created a magazine that will be hitting the shelves in the matter of weeks. Sean drove up from Toronto to meet me for the first time as we had been talking over the phone and by email for a while. We discussed a bunch of opportunities for us to collaborate, and it sounds like I will be writing for their magazine, along with some other amazing things. It was a great lunch meeting a Moose Winooski’s, and I had my oldest nephew Riley Robinson with me to be a part of this new venture. I look forward to being a huge part of this new Top Grom era. After the meeting, there was really only one place to go – the Barrie Skate Park. I remember it took years of meetings and petitioning and a bunch of work to get that skate park built back in the 1990’s, and they ironically finally put it in the year after I moved away to BC. So I’ve only ever skated it a few times, but I know which obstacles I like there. I’m still recovering a strange injury I had in the middle of June when I jammed my ankle at Seylynn, so this was the first time I had skated anything but tranny in a while. You could tell – my pop wasn’t poppin’ and my flips weren’t flippin’, so I tried to stick mostly to this weird rising quarterpipe they have there. The design of the Barrie Skate Park isn’t that bad, but the concrete job is terrible filled with lumps and bumps all over that shouldn’t be there. I really don’t like flat banks that are steeper at the bottom than at the top… I only filmed this 1 trick there, body varial noseblunt near the top of the quarter, and it wasn’t easy. Plus pushing as hard as I could across the entire park in 35 degree sun doesn’t help, but I did skate Bear Creek and Confederation Park for many years, so I know how to handle it. Thanks to the local kid Dylan for filming it.

Saturday was party day, that was the Milestones Celebration Party at Carrie Williams’ parents’ house. Beers, wine, food, a band, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and some old time friends all came out to celebrate, and it was good times.

Me and Creelove dominated the game of ladder golf until the wee hours of the morning, and nobody got hurt. It was great to see everyone. The next day the same type of get together happened at my Mom’s house, but with about 100 less people. It’s hard sometimes to live so far away from all of our immediate family, and although we love the family we have created in BC, it’s always a nice treat to be bombarded with the originals. The night at my Mom’s ended with 3 1/2 year old Kaelen busting out his skateboard in the driveway and putting on a full demo. I grabbed the video camera and got this rare event on film, drop ins, fakie rides and he even landed a sweet primo stall. It was great to see him on his board showing off again, it’s been a while. On Tuesday before we headed back home we stopped by the old stomping grounds of St. Mary’s Elementary School and Kaelen continued to go for the gusto.

Kaelen Drop in at St Marys

It meant so much to me to skateboard at this spot again and even more to do it with my son. St. Mary’s was the spot where we hung out every day while growing up in Barrie from about the time I was 15-18 years old. If you were a skateboarder in Barrie Ontario in the 1990’s, you knew about St. Mary’s and you hoped you were accepted by our crew when you showed up. Each year we filled the basketball court with wooden ramps in the summer and had our own skate park until some idiot decided to come by one night and torch everything on us. The one flatbank had been pushed up tight to the wall of the portable that day as I remember Chris Foley doing huge wallrides on it, and unfortunately half the portable burnt to the ground. An era was ended that day as we were told that weren’t allowed to skateboard there anymore, even though it wasn’t our fault – The St. Mary’s Posse had to change their location. So many of us have our roots at that spot. I tossed a basic line through the whole parking lot for old time’s sake – 1 footer off the curb cut at the top, kickflip on flat, manual down the table in the island, ollie up the curb and down the 3 stair and 180 off the concrete into the basketball court. Just doing that line once brought back years worth of memories.

Hippie Mike & Kaelen at St Marys

I filmed Kaelen while we were there and then we headed out. A 15 minute session was more than enough in that heat, we were soaked.

Monday was probably the best day we had, next to the Canada’s Wonderland day, we hooked up with 2 of the true old schoolers – Shane L.S. Dennis & Eric Francom.

3 brothers united

When we moved away these guys were barely old enough to drive, and I had been a huge mentor to them in Snowboarding for many years. Both went on to become sponsored riders for Burton after I left and it had been since our wedding 10 years ago that all of us were in the same room together. Eric picked up me, Carrie and & Kaelen early morning and we grabbed Shane from his Unity Market and Studio downtown and started driving to Huntsville. Eric’s got a cottage and boat there and we needed a day on the lake.

Eric Frankom lipslide surfin'

These guys are sick Wake Surfers and we just cruised the lake for hours while they did their thing.

LS wake surfin'

 Carrie and I attempted it but neither of us could get up for the start. I just flipped off the boat a bunch of times during the day. It was old times at it’s best, and we all were glad that Eric made it happen.

The whole trip was a blast, and it was great to see all these old friends and re-live some amazing memories. We partied, we skated, we saw friends and family, we visited my Dad’s memorial, we hit the coasters at Wonderland, we flipped into the lake, we created new ventures, we sweated in the heat, but most of all we had fun. It’s always a great time to take Hippie Mike back home to Ontario and be Skully again…

Dad's memorial bench

Love to all my family – my Mom, my Dad, my sister and kids, the in-laws, and everyone else out there. See you again next May for Julie and Deon’s wedding.

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Extreme Sports Skateboarding

The King of Walnut Grove 2 – Recap

We were not at the King of Walnut Grove Contest last weekend, but here is the recap from Coastal Riders:

“Last Sunday, Coastal Riders was fortunate enough to host the second annual King of Walnut Grove!

The annual contest strives to put a spotlight on the blomming Walnut Grove skate scene and Skateboarding in that area, as well as help to celebrate Geoff Howe’s birthday.

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This year did not disappoint. Highlights from the day included Gabe DiNorscio’s crazy combo tricks during the best tricks, Dominic Devries killing the entire park, Sam Hampton ripping with style and Weston Hutchinson getting some redemption on his big ollie down El Gordo after hitting his head the first try. The biggest stand out of the day was Dylan Timmins, who came all the way from Victoria. His effortless tranny skills and unique lines put him ahead of the pack and made him King of Walnut Grove!!

Thank you to everyone who came out and ALL the sponsors:

DGK Skateboards, Gold Wheels, Krew, Supra, Skull Candy, the Township of Langley and Geoff Howe’s parents

Also a huge thank you to everyone who helped out judging and to Caroline Paskevich for shooting photos and Dallas Lang for filming and doing an edit” – Coastal Riders

Winners

Beginners:

1st Layne

2nd Caroline Paskevich

3rd Jake the Snake

Intermediate:

1st Bryan Souder

2nd Weston Hutchinson

3rd Zacc “Doogie” Lester

Advanced:

1st Dylan Timmins

2nd Sam Hampton

3rd Dominic Devries

Click here for the photo gallery and video

http://www.coastalriders.com/cstl/?p=5596

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Extreme Sports Hippie Mike Skateboarding Team Riders

It Saved My Life

As I visit the old hometown of Barrie Ontario and run in to my friends from the past I have lots of amazing feelings and emotions running through my veins. I think back over my whole life and all the ups and downs I had, the crazy times I went though and the millions of relationships I made over my 35 years on the earth and how many of them still live on strong. All in all in everything I’ve done, it all seems to relate back to one thing – skateboarding. In the summer of 1986 I got my first skateboard and we would hang out all over our neighbourhood in a large group and just shred the parking lots and streets. It was a connection that was stronger than anything else at that time and built confidence in amongst us all. We learned together, grew together and created together. As time went on I continued to be active in all sports and for a couple years I didn’t skateboard that much, but one day I ran into an old friend Chris Connolly who had just got into skateboarding and told me to come out with him after school to a school called St. Mary’s. I came out, got right back into it and after that day spent many years localizing that spot with a huge crew of the best skaters in town.

Me

I look back at the guys I considered role models like Malcolm Campbell, Chris David, Mike Van Noortwyk, Chris Macallum and Mike Sutton and we learned so much from these guys. And it makes me think of the generations of young skaters that have looked at me the same way and grew up under my wings like Cisco Gooding, Jaden Easton-Ellett and Andy Anderson. We are all role models when we are out in the public just doing our thing, and even if you go through rough times, there’s gonna be someone that looks up to you. You never know where you will end up in life but the most important thing to always consider is to have a passion that you love and live for it. That day Chris Connolly took me to St. Mary’s and got me back on my skateboard was the day that saved my life, and made me who I am today. You know me, and everything I’ve done for the skateboard world – now imagine if I didn’t skateboard and wasn’t here in your society… How would it be different for you?

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