Hi. I'm Hippie Mike!

Hippie Mike is a man of many talents, many skills and many creations. A master of construction, Mike loves to build and create unique and custom projects, but he also takes the same mind frame to everything else he does.

Mar 25,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

It was one of the nicest days outside so far this year but it was time to enjoy the day inside of a big ol’ skate shop in Langford, BC called Heritage Board Shop on the Langford Parkway. This contest came together fast and had full support from every skateboard distributor out there instantaneously. How often does anyone run a skateboard contest inside of a skate shop?

Since the Surrey Slamma was such a hit back in February I thought it would be great to run another event like it and this venue was perfect. It was in a smaller town where a lot of sick skating has been happening for a long time and this shop is huge. So we built some ramps, and borrowed some more and together myself, Joel Luyt the owner and JD Fetherstone the shop manager made it happen, along with help from many others. Free hotdogs, $10 entry fees and $1000 in Cash to be won, it was a given that this thing was gonna go off. And by the looks of how many people were warming up before noon I knew it was going to get crazy.

Over a hundred people showed up and hung out all day long and with much surprise a whole whack of people in all categories showed up from the mainland and represented hard. We started off with the Mini and Beginner divisions and kids were jumping off the 2 stair stage, hittin’ coping on the quarter pipes and even trying crooked grind the rails. These kids worked super hard and had a great time for sure. It was a perfect start to the day. After handing out some prizes and $$’s I took a little break to rest my knee that happened to dislocate a bit earlier in the day and then got ready for the craziness, 18 people in Intermediate and almost 30 in Advanced.

The Intermediates were putting on a show right from the get go, Kai Vander Veen came out with almost all switch & nollie runs, little Jacob Johnson was pumping up the crowd, Riley Allen from Surrey rocked his blend of old and new school hard, Connor Knight laid down the tech, and local boy Cam Blaney had the most cheers. These were the 5 that made the finals but all the Intermediates killed it!

So before Advanced we put on a Best Trick Contest on the Quarter Pipes which was for a $100 gift card to 4More Tattoos. Sooke/Langford shredder Merrick Orr climbed up on top of the shoe wall and tried to Tail Drop into the quarter. It was about an 8 foot drop to the transition and the first try hurt him bad. The maniac he is, Merrick kept climbing back up and crashing again and again but staying on his board every attempt.

Finally I called it “The Last Try”, and BOOM! the little ripper rode it out. Lots of other tricks went down in that Best Trick and people got some prizes but nothing was more impressive than that. From now until forever everyone at this event will talk about that tail drop.

So onward we moved to the Advanced skaters and now that Merrick was way too hurt to skate any more it opened up the doors for everyone else to kill it. Mainlanders like Brody Mutch and Nic McNeill were killin’ it for Chance, Mike Rogers and Michael James were reppin’ Give’r Wheels, and Andy Anderson and Brad Muscat came to show off their Protest styles. A lot of sick Islanders were there trying to claim their land though – Isaac Walker, Eric Timmins, Shaun Quinn, even Steven Munro from Regular Underground was in the house, but no one could catch Courtaney’s Shay Sandiford. He was on a mission all day proving how solid and consistent he was. Backside 3’s, back tails on the fridge, 180 double flips, heelflip grinds on the ledges and so much more, Shay had this comp wrapped up from the start and laid it down in the Finals taking $250 and an armful of gear. Sick job dude!

We finished it off with a quick Best Trick on the bump to Fridge set up and shit was going down. The first trick was a frontside noseblunt by Mike Rogers who also kickflip frontside 5-0’d it, local boy Aiden Broe dropped a kickflip back tail and a back tail bigspin, but he got robbed at the last minute by Brennan McEwen and his hardflip 50-50 – Hundred Bucks!

Big thanks to Jeb Neufeld for getting all the prizes hooked up and to all the sponsors.

Results

Mini: 1. Aidan Eastman; 2. Kaelen Faux; 3. Alex Freeborn

Beginner: 1. Cooper Lynch; 2. Jake Van Dyck; 3. Moises – other competitors – Luke Hanna, Keenan Barber

Intermediate: 1. Kai Vander Veen; 2. Riley Allen; 3. Connor Knight 4. Cam Blaney; 5. Jacob Johnson – other competitors – Corey Iverson, Finn Penney, Ethan Woodland, Eli Agostinelli, Dylan Lerch, Cody Pawliuk, Connor Lund, Matt Hyde, Cody Reid, Tyler Woods, Chadd Sinclair

Advanced: 1. Shay Sandiford; 2. Andy Anderson; 3. Brody Mutch; 4. Pierce; 5. Isaac Walker – other competitors – Matt Aulakh, Nic McNeill, Mike Rogers, Brad Muscat, Merrick Orr, Shaun Quinn, Alessio Trani, Marcus Billingsley, Greg Marchese, Steve Munro, Allen Handley, Ben Wag, Eric Timmins, Michael James, Brennan McEwen, Marc White, River Tavis, Aidan Broe

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Surrey What?

Mar 21,2014 / By Protest Skateboards / No Comment

Authentic Board Supply is still a fairly new skate shop on the scene but with Hippie Mike behind the reigns you were assured it was gonna take off. Coming out of the gates with a stellar team of Surrey Locals young and old it was guaranteed that footage would be constant and with that came a weekly video series called Surrey What! Saturdays where a fresh edit drops every Saturday morning featuring one of the team riders skating a spot anywhere in Surrey. These videos are quick and straight to the point, and definitely worth a gander. With the first 10 episodes under their belt you know it’s only gonna get better from here, Dominic Devries, Andy Anderson, Shawn Beaupre, Calvin Dignard, Jay Mykyte, Surrey Stu & Hippie Mike – check it out

http://authenticboardsupply.com/surrey-what/

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Sometimes People Love to be Hated but still Love to be Loved

Mar 18,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

It’s coming up on 2 years that Brad Muscat, best known as Fighter, has been on the Protest Skateboards Team. I’ve known Brad since he was a little kid that skated North Delta Park and came out to my competitions. I originally put him on the team because of how depressed he was at the time, it’s a usual occurrence every Spring for this kid, but the main thing was I not only saw the potential of an amazing all around skateboarder in Brad but I recognized the fact that the only thing that ever truly made him happy in life was skateboarding and snowboarding, and I understood that. Brad is not only full of sick talent, but is a machine of a human. How many times have you seen this kid skating in a cast, and goin’ hard? And how many times have you seen him get completely annihilated into the concrete and after laying face down in pain for multiple minutes, get back up and stick what he was trying? In my opinion Brad is a true skateboarder, and a Skater for Life, and I wanna keep him that way. Life can get you down, sometimes you don’t have a place to stay, sometimes you have no money or food at all, and sometimes it feels like every direction you turn there is someone else standing there hating on you, but if there’s one thing you always have it’s your skateboard.

Brad Muscat rides for Protest Skateboards and we’re proud of that.

Extreme Sports Protest Skateboards Shawn Rowbottom Skateboarding Team Riders

Protest Skateboards Welcomes Shawn Rowbottom

Mar 7,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

I met Shawn Rowbottom through the internet and just started following his ventures of nasty skate spots and crazy tricks he would do at them and I was always stoked on his commitment to skateboarding. As time went on we communicated a bit here and there and finally met face to face a couple months ago in Victoria. As we sat and chatted about life and skateboarding I began to realize more and more how we were very similar, the long hair, the crazy ambitions, and the will to go for it when there’s something we want. The offer was put on the table, and it’s time for Shawn to get some recognition.

This guy represents the Langford scene on Vancouver Island and he’s a dedicated Six Side Local which says a lot about someone’s skating right there. If you’re favourite place to skate is the toughest and gnarliest skate spot around, chances are you’re pretty good. I’m stoked to hook this guy up and see what changes happen in his life from here on out, but most of all I’m stoked to skate with him. For his welcome to the team video we decided to show off a compilation of old and new footage that shows Shawn’s crazy side, the last trick says it all.

Have a watch, and enjoy the show – this is definitely just the beginning…

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Mar 4,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

It’s awesome to watch a child learn on their own in any activity, but skateboarding is kind of it’s own story. There are so many kids that skate now a days and they all seem to get really good really fast. I think the main reason for that is how skateboards stopped evolving about 20 years ago now and so from that point on all the evolution of skateboarding was more focused on the tricks, the style and the skill level. So to a person who is out skateboarding for the first few times they learn to try what they see, and what they see is insane…

I’ve been super proud lately of my son Kaelen who is barely 4 years old, but of course has been playing around with skateboards since he could roll around on the floor. What’s cool about Kaelen is he has this ambition to learn moves and tricks and talks about them all the time, but no one has ever forced skateboarding on him nor do we instruct him at all, just a little guidance now and then to keep him on the safe side. But growing up with a Dad that is so active in the skateboard community Kaelen goes to a lot of events and sees a lot of different levels of skateboarding, plus he participates in the competitions as well. He has a couple different ramps to skate on at home and once again spends lots of time watching the bigger guys shred. So the point is, in anything you do while growing up you are learning by watching, acknowledging, and then attempting, and Kaelen is classic for this, as was I when I was a kid. Since we built the newest Protest Ramp indoors he has had lots of time to play on it and it actually amazes me the stuff he tries. They see what we do, and try to replicate it, but a lot of the time they end up doing something else that none of us would ever dare try. That’s skateboarding for ya, and each generation makes it their own…

Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Fundraising for a Covered Skate Park in Toronto

Mar 2,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

I met Nicky Young last Fall when he called me up out of the blue and wanted to talk to me about Leeside Tunnel and the history of DIY spots. I was all for meeting up and giving some input but needed to know why of course. When Nicky explained to me that he was trying make a short documentary about how skateboarders sometimes have to take control to build their own spots now a days because of lack of support from some municipalities, and then he was planning on showing it to council in Toronto. I thought it was a great plan, but I get a lot of these random phone calls and emails from people all the time and never fully trust anyone at first. So I did a little research on Nicky to find out more about this random guy who found me out of nowhere only to discover that he was actually a really talented skater. Being a native of Ontario myself, and always being excited to help build a stronger skateboard society in places that are lagging behind, I decided to meet him. The meeting went great and Nicky left more than satisfied with the info I shared to him.

So 2 days ago I saw this fundraiser announcement on facebook about improving and building a covered skate park area in Toronto and it was hosted by Nicky Young. Right away I was happy to see that he had been true to his word and was now taking action in the right direction to make his dreams come true and reach his goal. Protest Skateboards donated the first $100 to the project right then, and with a small goal of $10,000 to be raised I foresee this happening quickly. Once the goal is reached, repairs can be made and the park can be built properly. So wherever you live, think back of all those years we struggled to get the first skate parks all over parts of Canada, think of all the years of fundraising and finding companies to sponsor and donate, and help this cause by reaching in your wallet and lending a few bucks. I know I will appreciate it, Nicky will appreciate and the next generation of skateboarders in that area will love you forever….

Here is the link to read more information and donate to the cause

http://www.gofundme.com/76yzd4

Extreme Sports Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind Skateboarding The Man I Am

For the Love of Skateboarding

Feb 26,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Some people avoid everything in life to go skate, they put off their family, they put off their careers, they put off their education, they will even put off eating to fulfil their addiction. And then there are people like me who love skateboarding so much that they put off skateboarding to utilize their time to make more possibilities and opportunities for all the other people that will put off the rest of life to skate. It’s a messed up world but it’s just the way it is. I’ve watched many people over the years become so amazing at skateboarding and completely seem like they are one with there board, or more comfortable on their skateboard than when they are not. Sometimes skateboarding makes a person who they are and that lasts forever. It’s great when you are part of a team and participating in sports or activities with others, but nothing can teach you more about yourself than independent extreme activities where it literally is just you, your mind and your body out there as one and risking everything. I love skateboarding and everything about it. I love how I can hop and my board and cruise through the streets, I love how I can roll into a ramp and just starting poppin’ and grindin’, I love skating any obstacle I see possible, and I love how I can see others get inspired in their lives by doing the same. The coolest thing about skateboarding to me is how we as true skateboarders live in a separate society where we learn together, build together and battle together, and this society is really open to anyone of any age, of any colour, any race and any ability level to join. And once you are part of this world it feels good…

You can always pick out a true skateboarder. They just have this energy about them; This determination; This strength; This want for more. My favourites are the ones who just look like they are having the time of there life when they skateboard. It’s a great reminder of who we are and why we skate – because it’s fun. So many kids out there try so hard to get super good super quick in hopes that they might be the next Ryan Sheckler or Nyjah Huston and they can easily lose touch with reality resulting in them actually quitting at some point because they “didn’t make it”. But that’s not what skateboarding is about. A true skateboarder skates for the love of it, because it makes them feel good, because it allows them to express themself, and because it makes them free.

Grab your deck, throw it on the ground and go skate, don’t look at where you’re going, just go, and enjoy every second of it – that’s skateboarding…

Extreme Sports Hey Japan Man Skateboarding

Start with Respect and End with Respect

Feb 21,2014 / By Ryan Brynelson / 2 Comments

I love my life here in Japan. School is lots of fun, I have tons of great friends here and the skating here is fantastic. Hardly ever a rainy day here in Yokohama, which is awesome because I can take a break from skating my garage during the winter this year. But more importantly what I think is great about Japan is the skateboard community. Everyone is incredibly chill, there aren’t people labelling other people as a poser or labelling anyone as anything for that matter. I haven’t seen anyone throw a tantrum or throw/break their board because they missed a trick. The amount of respect I see here in this country is amazing.

There is a saying in Japanese that is used in sports, especially martial arts, “rei ni hajimari, rei ni owaru”, which basically means “start with respect and end with respect”. I was reading an article in class one day about this and thought it was awesome.

A Japanese professional baseball player was drafted to play overseas for an American team. In an interview he said that what he was surprised by was how the other players treated their equipment. If they got mad a lot of them would throw their gloves or break their baseball bats. He said “That is something I could never do. I just think about the person behind the scenes who made this equipment for me which is allowing me to play this sport that I love”. A lot of Japanese sports players take very good care of their equipment for this reason. The same goes for skateboarding. I was definitely blown away by that. I never really took the time to think about how there was someone who took the time to make the deck, the wheels, the trucks and bearings which are allowing me to keep skating. Since getting here I have made sure to take extra care of my set-up and make sure I am using every part of my board until the very end, even if I get some free product from sponsors. One day, the world resources which are used to make our boards could be quite limited or in an extreme case be gone completely. Nothing lasts forever, and this is true for skateboarding. Lets make the most of it.

– Ryan Brynelson

Extreme Sports Merrick Orr Skateboarding Team Riders

Protest Skateboards Welcomes Merrick Orr

Feb 18,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

I said it just about a month ago, is Merrick Orr the next David Gonzales? And when I said it, what I meant was, Damn this kid is such a shredder with awesome aggression in his skateboarding and with the right push he could be a household name one day. Merrick resides in Sooke, BC on Vancouver Island and skates hard as much as he can. He skates fast, with no pivot cups in his trucks, and he stays on his board no matter what. At a mere 14 years old he has serious potential to get a ton of amazing footage and we are stoked to be the ones showcasing it. From the first moment I saw this kid I was in awe and knew that I would know him for a long time. After some back and forth conversation Merrick decided to join the team of Protest and follow us along on the positive journey of skateboarding and mentorship that we are about to embark on. He came over to the mainland a few days ago and we took a few hours to skate the brand new indoor Protest Ramp together and film this part. Like usual, Merrick showed up with a vengeance to shred, and did just that blowing away everyone that was there. We are proud to welcome him onto the Protest Skateboards Team and this video will show you why.

Welcome to the Team Merrick – Protest for Life!

Contest Results Contests Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Surrey Slamma Jamma

Feb 11,2014 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

It was great to see so many people come out to the Surrey Slamma contest that I hosted the other day. All the kids and dudes of all ages had a blast. There were so many tricks that went down all over that were so sick, like Weston Ganger nosegrind revert on the top of a bench, Weston Hutchinson with a kickflip 5-0 on the fridge first try in his run, and Barrett Lediard with a 10 foot drop nosepick into a little tiny quarterpipe. It truly felt like an ’80’s contest which was exactly what I was aiming for. Skateboarding has gotten so big and it’s funny how that makes for more negative attitudes about what is skateable and what is even worth skating, and blah blah blah. What these people are missing out on is how skateboarding is about freedom of speech and freedom of action. You see something you could skate, you go and skate it. That’s what it’s about. So having all these guys show up of all ages that are used to regular old competitions where all the obstacles are perfect sparked some creative inspirations inside them, it was a great reminder to a lot of these skaters of what made them become skaters in the first place. And that’s what stoked me up the most.

Thanks to everyone that came out to enjoy the day, without asking I know everyone had fun. And thanks to all who partnered together to make the event a success – Authentic Board Supply, Coastal Riders, Protest Skateboards, Chance Skateboards, Red Star Skateboards, Vulcan Bolts and the Cloverdale Rodeo.

Click the link to read the full recap and see photos

http://authenticboardsupply.com/authentic-surrey-slamma-recap/

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