This sunday June 8th, Michael James and the City of Port Coquitlam are bringing King of the Road to Railside Skatepark. The first ever “King of the Railside” will features teams of youth skating and completeling various challenges throughout the day. Teams will complile points throughout the day with the end result to be the “King of the Railside”. There will also be individual awards and prizes which will be announced in the coming days.

This free event is open to boys and girls age 18 and under and features team challenges that are fun and inviting for all skill levels.

Registration for the event begins at 11am SHARP at the Railside Skatepark. Deadline for registration is 12:30pm that day so get there on time. Once registration is closed, there will be no opportunities to compete as the teams will be set. This is to ensure that all the teams are fair and the balance isn’t thrown off.

We invite you to follow @pocoyouth on instagram for all the details on the event including what the challenges might be, contests, prizes, awards, registration info, and much more. Keep an eye on their instagram for contests where you can win decks from the events sponsors.

See you this sunday, June 8th at Railside. Don’t miss out, this will be awesome.

After many years of many people putting in a lot of effort towards constructing Leeside Tunnel into a concrete skate park, the rights to use the space were suddenly jeopardized. On the night of January 21^st 2014, 2 men walked into the tunnel and lit fire to an area that was set up with forms and fill to build the next big piece to the park. This fire got hot fast and actually burnt through the concrete of the wall causing it to crumble and leave bare re-bar showing. All of a sudden the city of Vancouver had cause to worry, and this has happened before in the past. At that time the city actually did try to shut down this place by filling it with gravel and steam rolling it down. Every day since the skaters started to build concrete obstacles down there there was always the concern that the city would just come down one day and bulldoze it all down, but we kept on building. And it got to a point where the city accepted it and knew it was happening. Now an issue like this makes for scary moments.

According to Anti Social Skate Shop, the Vancouver Parks Board has responded in the best way they could. The Engineers who showed up to inspect reported that the structural damage is not a s serious as we feared. The city will take initiative to pressure wash the smoke damage and do whatever repairs necessary right away and hopefully the Leeside Memorial Tunnel will reopen in the next week or 2 which means the construction can continue.

This is a great lesson to everyone in many ways and it always comes down to one main lesson – never take things for granted. We work so hard as a group to build something amazing, and then 1 or 2 people ruin it for everyone just like that. The tunnel will reopen luckily, but there are still 2 guilty people out there who need to be caught…

Watch for random fundraisers coming up to help bring this place back to life.<b

Calen Sinclair was a man who loved parabolic curves, the defining beauty of every woman on this earth, and we love him for this desire as that is what he focused most on when he designed our beautiful mother of Canadian skateboard parks in 1978 – Seylynn Bowl.

Did you know that Seylynn Skate Park is now 35 years old and they are trying to make it a Heritage site which will protect it and preserve it forever? Pretty awesome! Did you also know that you can purchase copies of the original Blueprints of this historic piece of Canadian Skateboarding? Check it out here, there are 2 versions, one that is framed, signed and dated by Calen Sinclair himself, or another that is just a poster style print. Both are sweet!

Seylynn Bowl has helped to build skateboarding in Vancouver to what it has become. So many legends of the world travelled there to skate in competitions throughout the 1980’s including Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero  and many more, but it also molded some legends of its own like Carlos Longo, Alex Chalmers and the forever missed Carver Don Hartley. Every skate park has history, but not too many have as much as this one. Jump on the horse and grab some memorabilia while you can. And while you’re spending money, make sure you garb a copy of one of the coolest documentaries ever made – The Seylynn Story, by George Faulkner 

http://seylynn.bigcartel.com/

2013 – what a year. Definitely found out the truth about a lot of people this year, some good, some bad, and also really ventured in to getting back to my roots. I worked hard all year in so many ways and it really paid off in the end where I feel a new sense of enjoyment for life. After 2012 I was really angry and depressed and so my goal for this year was to redefine myself to myself. Every day was filled with battles all year, one of which was just me being sick for 11 months, and another was being injured for the past 6 months, but I would push through and ignore how I felt physically and just continue to follow my mental pathways and remind myself that nothing could stop me from reaching my goals.

A lot of things changed this year and were well worth it, Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey came to an end after 10 awesome years and we made this one a very memorable one. It was recognized in Concrete Skateboard Magazine and there will be a sick documentary out soon about it. The important part was that all the participants had the best time of their lives and they did. Another huge change was finally being able to walk away from my job with the City of Surrey and move back into strictly working in the skateboard industry by opening and running Authentic Board Supply. After almost 11 years changing the community through working for Surrey Parks and Rec it was time for me to move on and be happy again, and I am. I feel good every day when I wake up and I enjoy my life again. It’s awesome, and to me it is just the beginning of another amazing journey that I am about to focus on for the next era of my life.

One thing that has been tough for me this year is the lack of skateboarding I have had to do, mainly due to strange injuries. I try to ignore the pain and just go out and skate but it’s the aftermath that hurts so much. I have not skated for almost a month as of today and I hope it is allowing this injury to heal. That’s why every time I did skate I would make sure to give it my all and come back each day with fresh photos and video, and even some prizes from placing in contests again. I felt like this was one of my best skate years so far and maybe the lack of skating is what drove me to that success, so I’ll be thankful. But next year I have huge goals for my skating and you better be ready for what you’re gonna see. I’m going back to the old style and I have a lot of crazy plans.

So onward to the future of 2014 as life goes on and we keep getting older, but nothing can slow us down. My goals this year are simple – to prove myself successful in my business, to remind the world why so many people know me as a skateboarder by displaying the skills that still live inside me, to smile all day every day I’m alive, and most importantly to have plenty of awesome and fun experiences with my wife and child. I will be expanding my horizons and creating new events and relationships for us all to enjoy.

Life is about 3 things – learning, loving, and living. And at 35 years old, I can’t wait to see what’s new in 2014…

Vulcan Bolts is a new hardware company created by Dennis Regan who also runs www.RollingBonesPodCast.com Dennis decided to start this new bolt company and chose Protest Skateboards owner Hippie Mike to be the first Team Rider. Maybe he figured a 200lb hippie would be a good way to test the strength of the bolts…

Here’s what Dennis had to say about it –

“In the winter of 2013, there came the idea, ‘Start a bolt company!’.

I was sitting in Las Vegas and the idea came to me over dinner. After much liquor, a hangover, and losing a bunch of money, it was a go.

The premise behind the company is to provide the best bolts, bearings, and clothes that we can make.

It officially started in July with the launch of Vulcan Bolts. Forged Hardware available in both allen and philips.

I wanted to have a team of dedicated skaters. Not dedicated to their skateboarding, but dedicated TO skateboarding. That is why the first person I wanted on the team is Hippie Mike.

Mike has been promoting skateboarding in Surrey, BC for 10 years with his own creation, Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey. This is a series of contests based in skateparks in the city of Surrey, BC. Every kid is invited to skate and walks away with something. You enter, you win a prize. His goal is to share the joy that he has experienced through skateboarding over the years with every skater. He started his own skateboard company ( Protest Skateboards ) to sponsor young kids that had talent and passion for skating. He does everything possible to encourage his riders to push themselves and supports them in every way.

His own skateboarding comes from the soul. He does the tricks that he loves. In 10 years from now he will still be pulling body varial nose blunts because it makes him smile. Not because it was on the cover of a magazine.

Vulcan Bolts is proud to have the Hippie Mike ride Vulcan Bolts.” 

• Dennis Regan

Check out the site

http://vulcanbolts.com/team/

Jenkem Magazine released an article focused on how the true companies behind the real success of skateboarding are the smaller, unknown ones. And this is a great point. It features the background of Pontus Alv and Polar Skateboards and how he has encouraged the skateboarders of today. We have to always thank people like George Powell and Stacy Peralta, along with Tony Hawk and the other true hardcores of the 80’s who never let skateboarding die for helping it get to the point it is at today, but has it gone too far? Is it now so popular that too many mainstream companies like Nike, New Balance, and Target are trying to take over our industry. How many awesome skate companies from the 90’s have been sold to some mainstream company now that the original owners would have considered embarrassing and illegal to even accept sponsorship from back in their Glory Daze? It’s sad. The world has definitely changed, and people have forgotten their roots.

But there will always be those independently owned companies that don’t sell out, and really don’t sell anything, but just love to promote skateboarding.

This article written by Rich Kaminski brings us back to the reality of before the times when skateboarders were striking gold mines by doing the same tricks over and over at a bunch of big televised competitions. And it reminds the next generation to stop following the trends and worrying about what the next big trick everyone is learning is, and just to go skateboard and enjoy it. Invent something on your own for once.

Life as a skateboarder was never supposed to be about being rich and famous, skateboarding originated from the rebels, the outcasts, and the unwanted. And that’s where it belongs. No matter how big it becomes, there will always be the “True Skateboarders of the World” who understand this, the difficult part will be getting the message through to all the ignorant kids in the next generations that think they are going to turn pro, get rich, and die laughing…

It reminds me as to why I created Protest Skateboards 10 years ago. I was always an outcast, usually pushed away from society, and never fully understood. I preached for what I believed in everywhere I went, and didn’t care whether people respected me for it or not. I had goals to change the world to be more accepting to our society, and I’ve worked hard to achieve those goals. Protest Skateboards is a small company that lots of people will never know ever existed, but that’s the way I like it, that’s what it was meant to be.

Real Skateboarders skateboarding for the love of skateboarding…

Take a read of this awesome article that Rich put together. Here are some of the most influential quotes I could pull out of it for those quick skimmers out there, but if you have 10 minutes, definitely click the link and read the whole thing

“These smaller companies reinforce what is arguably the most sacred realm of the skateboard industry and maybe even the subculture in general.” 

“When bigger companies, regardless of what they make or who owns them, become repetitive and rely on merely copying one another, the subculture and its participants suffer for it.”

“These brands are forcing people to think about the companies they support and what they represent both inside the skateboarding world and outside of it. They are telling skaters that what they ride says as much about their point of view and their idea of skating as the skaters they like or the photos they hang on their walls.”

“We should not simply watch and forget the daily dose of online videos, go to the same boring skate park to learn the next logical trick, buy whatever gear is needed regardless of what the company does or does not stand for. These brands, knowingly or not, are saying that skateboarding has changed all of our lives and it’s about time we start treating it with the respect and thought it deserves.” 

http://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2013/02/11/the-focus-on-independent-board-companies-and-why-its-important-to-us/?fb_action_ids=10151406737704214&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=246965925417366

Support Local Companies and Skaters, support Small Businesses with a Meaning, and support Real Skateboarders.

The weather let up for a day yesterday and Scott Fierbach from Coastal Riders met up at North Delta Skate Park with Chris Somerville from Street Dreamz Boardshop to run a Halloween Skate Jam. Lots of people showed up, even though it was on super short notice, but the entire park was bone dry and they were all ready to rip it. Only a few people were in costume, Trevor Greig was the pregnant Pixie, Fighter was Hippie Mike, Tommy Gudmunson was Harry Potter, and I was a Caveman and brought out the old 2×4 board to shred caveman style.

It was a solid day, and there were a bunch of Best Trick Contests on different obstacles. Tons of tricks went down, and lots of prizes were won.

This was the first collaboration between these 2 shops, and I’m sure it won’t be the last…