The World Round Up is Insane

May 18,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

After the first 2 days of the 3^rd annual World Round Up Freestyle Championships it is no doubt that this year has the craziest skating going on. With a flock of new Amateurs and a couple old time Pros showing up it is definitely different from last year. All the competitors are stoked to be in Canada again, or for the first time for some, and the positive vibes fill the room. This year’s highlights include a barely 11 year old prodigy child from Japan named Isamu Yamamoto who so far has been blowing away the audience as well as the judges with his pure skills and straight confidence, he is a natural skateboarder and showman for sure. He will be heading into the Finals in 1^st place position and will be trying his hardest to continue his successful runs and finish on top of the Amateur division. Right on his tail though is local boy Andy Anderson who is trying a little harder in this his 3^rd year at the event. Last year he finished 3^rd in Amateur and I’m sure he wants to keep it in the top 3 again. Andy’s skill level, creativity and consistency is awesome and gets all the other competitors excited, especially the Pros.

Another cool factor is that lasts year’s Amateur winner Ryan Brynelson has moved up to the Pro division for his first Pro contest, and so far he’s sitting in 6^th Place against some true legends of Freestyle. A good chunk of the Pro division riders are in their 40’s and 50’s and are fully trained to never miss a trick. With guys like Guenter Mokulys, Lucio Lima, Rogerio Antigo, Per Cangaru, AJ Kohn & Stefan Akesson on the floor the crazy lines never stop.This year’s Finals is going to be amazing and right now it is anyone’s chance – top 15 are in there with 20 year old Mike Osterman and 50 year old Guenter Mokulys battling out first and second place by 1 point. Right now the reigning champion from last year Guenter is in 1^st but Osterman really wants his chance to be the champ at the 2014 World Round Up.

Below are some photos from the first 2 days.

Finals happen Sunday May 18^th 11am- 5:30pm inside the Curling Rink at The Cloverdale Rodeo

Click here for more details: http://www.theworldroundup.com/

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Going Home for a Week

May 16,2014 / By Ryan Brynelson / No Comment

Hey everyone, how’s it going? Things have been quite busy here so I apologize
for the late post. A few months ago I got a call from Kevin Harris that him and Hippie Mike were going to try to get me over to the World Round-Up Freestyle Contest held in Canada in May. I wasn’t planning to go due to the cost of flying over, but they said they would try to work something out. I knew Isamu Yamamoto, the child prodigy of Freestyle Skateboarding, would be going but I didn’t expect that I myself would go.

Some friends and business partners of Hippie Mike helped out and agreed to pay for my flight over. I couldn’t believe it when I heard it, but I guess this is happening. I’m incredibly excited to enter the pro division for the first time with a bunch of my friends and test myself against the world’s finest on my very own Protest Pro-Model Deck. I don’t know how I will do, but this will definitely be one amazing contest and we will also be filming my Welcome to Pro video part while I’m in Canada. Stay tuned to see photos of the deck.

I just want to thank Hippie Mike and Kevin Harris, and everyone else involved very much for making this
opportunity a reality. I hope I can make you all proud in Vancouver.

-Ryan Brynelson

The World Round Up 2014

May 14,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

It’s that time of year again, the long weekend of May, and every year in Surrey there’s a thing called the Cloverdale Rodeo. But the Rodeo got a bit cooler in 2012 when Kevin Harris and Monty Little brought together a little event inside the curling rink named The World Round Up. It’s a Freestyle Skateboard Contest featuring the world’s best from a dozen different countries and compete in Amateur and Professional divisions. Last year Guenter Mokulys took the Professional Gold title back to Germany for his 10^th World Championship victory, while the Amateur title stayed in Canada with Protest Skateboards rider Ryan Brynelson. Ryan since moved to Japan to go to school but will be making his way back for his chance to upgrade himself and compete in his first Professional contest. And speaking of Japan, 10 year old Isamu Yamamoto will be wowing the crowd as the youngest competitor ever in the Amateur category, and Shen Meng from China will be making his first appearance at the Canadian contest in the Pro.

So many awesome names to mention like Stefan Akesson, Takashi Suzuki, Mike Osterman, Lucio Lima, AJ Kohn and so many more, and you can catch another Protest rider Andy Anderson putting on a show in Amateur as well, last year he took 3^rd place. And if you don’t know any of those names how about a couple legends like Russ Howell and photographer Jim Goodrich.

Come for the good times and be prepared to be blown away by some of the most well trained Freestyle skateboarders in the world. Starts Friday, and goes till Monday. Check out the website for details

http://www.theworldroundup.com/

We will be covering the event again this year so expect to see some sick footage along with recap articles over the weekend.

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

2 Storytellers Brought together by Fate

May 7,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

2013 was a busy year, and a major year of change. I met lots of new people and partnered with some of them in separate projects. That how Authentic came about, that’s how we started doing positive lifestyle presentations in schools, and it was the 10^th and final year of Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey. This one was key that I happened to meet a man named Mark Halliday who generously volunteered to film and shoot photos at the Tour all summer long and help me to make a Documentary about the final year.

Please read his story below of how it began, how it evolved and how awesome it ended up.

http://moonriderproductions.com/the-summer-of-skate/

Youth Jam #1 – Crazy

May 4,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Quite a few years ago I helped to bring skateboarding into the National Youth Week events that occur all over the place by running Jams in Surrey and they quickly became another annual thing. Now a days there are Youth Week Skateboard Contests happening all over the map and it’s awesome to see so many kids participating. Just this weekend there will be 3 contests in a row, Chuck Bailey on Friday, Plaza on Saturday and Railside on Sunday and all 3 will guaranteed be packed with skaters having fun together. Check off the first one at Chuck Bailey because it just finished and it was sick. The competition was hardcore in all 3 categories and each one had a Dominator that you could tell was going to win halfway through their first runs. Beginners had Jake Hrvacanin, Intermediates had Ross Ouellette, and Advanced had Dominic Devries.

All 3 of the guys came out on a mission and laid down solid runs utilizing the whole park and basically doing one constant line without stopping. They all deserved 1^st in their categories for sure. The rest of the competitors did great too and they all had fun. Lots of kids got prizes and everyone got free hot dogs from the Surrey Fire Fighters, what more could you ask for. After the contest ended and prizes were awarded we had a Best Trick contest down the 3 block set up. Highlights were Dominic Devries with Backside Noseblunt down the rail & Bigspin Boardslide, Riku Mochizuki with a Switch Varial Heelflip, Doogie Lester with a Frontside Noseblunt, and Chadd Sinclair with a stomped Hardflip. Thanks to all the sponsors – Participaction, Surrey Fire Fighters, Coastal Riders, Authentic Board Supply, Protest Skateboards & City of Surrey.

See ya next year

Results

Beginner – 1. Jake Hrvacanin; 2. Layne Nyirfa; 3. Theo Caseley; 4. John Cloude Nsengiyumva; 5. Sammy V

Intermediate – 1. Ross Ouellette; 2. Dyson Matthews; 3. Zach Lester; 4. Jayden Ristich; 5. Jake Taranov

Advanced – 1. Dominic Devries; 2. Andy Anderson; 3. Jacob Drescher

Authentic Scavenger Hunt

Apr 28,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

What an awesome day, and a very cool event that ended in success. Calvin Dignard came up with the idea to do a King of the Road style competition throughout the streets of Surrey and so he and myself Hippie Mike made it happen. With multiple challenges for teams to choose from and each of them worth different amounts of points, 10 teams of 4 skaters each headed out into the world of Whalley for a crazy day. Each team had to film and post their progress all day long onto facebook and Instagram with the hashtag #authenticscavengerhunt to prove that they had completed the challenge. By earning points for each completion it was a race to gain the most points in 4 hours. Solid tricks went down, some businesses were upset, cops were on the hunt and everyone was having a great time. It was true street skating at it’s best.

The winning team was named “The Force” and consisted of Andre Bissonnette, Jordan Strong, Shawn Beaupre and Darian Vincent, they worked super hard to complete a lot of challenges, figure out how to get bonus points, and also create a lot of posts. They took home a $200 Gift Card to Authentic. These guys were really on top of posting their progress where other teams might have had trouble getting their stuff up online. Stay tuned for more clips of all the teams with more footage that might not have made it into the contest on time.

We finished the day off with a Best Trick Contest at Chuck Bailey and everyone left with great memories of the day.

Results

1^st – The Force – Andre Bissonnette, Jordan Strong, Shawn Beaupre & Darian Vincent – 430 points

2^nd – Squid Hunters – Dominic Devries, Francois LeBlanc, Weston Hutchinson & Dallas Lang – 385 points

3^rd – Doughboy Fresh Crew – Brett Gilchrist, Brendan Nielsen, Laine Siebert & Matt Cook – 315 points

4^th – YoloSwag420BlazeIt – Donny Chang, Tony Casano, Eric Pereira, Ryan Barron – 155 points

5^th – White Rock Renegades – Riley Allen, Yubo Wang, Eric Ream & Devin Christie – 140 points

6^th – Multigrain Rice – Jimmy Ly, Phil Tieu, Stuart Ansley & Thomas Milne – 135 points

7^th – HitSquad – Mike Willms, Nic Hrvacanin, Josh Lewis & Peter Kelly – 130 points

8^th – Team Gnarmy – Fez Tellez, Michael Kitasaka, Bryan Callan & Cory Gibson – 105 points

9^th – Hesh Clan – Matt McGeachan, Brandon Bishop, Jamie-Lynn Cook & Dave Brown – 40 points

10^th – Brad Muscat, Chadd Sinclair, Weston Ganger & Barrett Lediard – 10 points

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Andy Anderson leaves his mark in Cali

Apr 18,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

So we’ve been talking about this for over 2 weeks now just following Andy Anderson around in the USA at these crazy Amateur Skate Comps and last week we were super stoked to announce that Andy came through with a 23^rd place finish and took home the DVS Allingoodfun Award at the Costa Mesa Damn Am.

He was stoked, we were stoked and all the people at the event will remember him for many days to come. Check out the long awaited footage of Andy’s qualifier run and Semi-Finals run and appreciate how much fun he had celebrating his 18^th birthday skating in this event.

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Andy Anderson wins DVS “Allingoodfun” Award & Places 23rd at Damn Am Costa Mesa!

Apr 14,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

What did you do for your 18^th birthday to make it the most memorable experience? Most of us don’t have a clue, but after today I don’t think Andy Anderson will ever forget what he did.

It was Andy’s 18^th birthday and he woke up ready to compete in the Semi Finals of Damn Am 2014 in Costa Mesa. Stoked as can be he was keeping me in the loop and we connected through text message back and forth all morning. I thought it was awesome when he said to me “Today is about Big Smiles and Having Fun”, it was like everything I ever taught him just came out of his mouth in one sentence. Andy was down in Cali to make his presence known but also just wants to be part of the event and have a good memory of it. He made it to Semi’s in 31^st place which was sick enough out of 200 shredders but he knew he didn’t have to go overboard to keep the stoke alive.

I’ve known Andy sine he was barely 7 years old and have been a coach and mentor to him ever since, I have taught him a lot about skateboarding and a lot about life in general, and to see him grow into a man is awesome, but to have him grow into a man that rips it hard on a skateboard and represents my companies is so amazing. We have the coolest relationship and I believe it will last forever. Last year Andy went down to Costa Mesa and competed in this same event and he did awesome then too but didn’t make it past the first day. One thing that was the same both years was that he was the crowd favourite getting people super hyped with his creative style and unique trickery. So this year he was awarded with the DVS Allingoodfun Award and everyone will remember him as the kid that just went out to have a good time but still kicked some ass. Finishing strong in 23^rd place Andy has made me proud once again. It’s his 18^th birthday, his first day as a true Adult, and one of the best days of his life. Now it’s time to make more days like this one.

Protest Skateboards stands behind this kid 100%, and so should you…

Contest Results

http://skateparkoftampa.com/results/1059/Damn_Am_Costa_Mesa_2014_Semi-Finals

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Andy Anderson Represents in the U.S.

Apr 4,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Last year Andy headed down to the states to test out his skills in a couple of the Damn Am events and this year he is on the same mission. This weekend, starting today, is the PHX AM in Phoenix Arizona and Andy is pumped to be part of it. Only 200 competitors got on the roster from all over the world and they are ready to compete for status. We’re stoked on Andy Anderson and his skateboarding abilities and hope that he does well at this event. One thing is for certain, we know he will wow the crowd like he always does.

After this weekend Andy heads over to Costa Mesa for his 2^nd year at the Damn Am there and we’re sure people will remember him from last year. He didn’t make the finals last year but he definitely got the loudest cheers during his runs. As PD said while watching the video of it, “It’s not often you see a 900 kickturn on a bank and a bluntslide down a big rail in the same run”. It’s true, Andy Anderson has talent in all aspects of skateboarding and stays on his board all day long. With a little more fierceness and aggression, we may see his name in the Finals at these contests this year.

Every day we are posting a fresh photo of Andy on the Protest Skateboards Facebook Page to pump up him, and his fans. Join in by showing him your support and getting him hyped. The world has changed over the past few decades and skateboarders everywhere are super good which makes it way harder to make it a career, but all you can do is try your best.

Good Luck Andy! Protest Represent!!

Chopper and The Osaka Daggers

Mar 27,2014 / By Ryan Brynelson / No Comment

Last month I went to a skateboard convention called Inter-style. It’s where Surf, Snow and skateboard companies all get together to show off their new line of product for the new year as well as a chance to show off their own teams talent. One team I did not expect to meet were the Osaka Daggers, one of the worlds best skate teams in my opinion. The creativity these guys put into their skating is absolutely incredible. I highly encourage you to watch their videos if you haven’t yet, especially videos of their leader, Chopper. I always watched their videos countless times while I was in Canada, but I never would have guessed that I would have the chance to meet them in person. On top of that they let me skate with them as well. It was a blast and certainly something I won’t forget. These guys are the definition of what skateboarding is to me.