Well, the title says it all. We were definitely gettin’ loose back in these days. The video starts at one of my birthday parties back when they were like 150-200 people getting wasted in the yard while we put on a ramp demo. Then it moves into Leeside Tunnel where it was time to get tech, and of course there’s some rocks and dirt spots in there too. You can figure out the Time Period by what stage Leeside was at, if you’re hardcore enough to be a part of that scene.
Some crazy tricks in this video, especially thrown down be myself and Jon Irvine, the master of Ridiculousness – blunt kickflip rock on the volcano in Leeside?? I think it’s safe to say no one else wants to do that one…
Another old Teaser Video made pretty much to play around editing. This one has the heart of the old Team Protest in it, myself Hippie Mike, Cisco Gooding, Jeff Cole, Brad Danyluk and Jon Irvine, along with some lines from my long time filmer Justin James, or “Numb-Nuts” as I call him. The only one missing from that era of Protest is Carrie Williams. I’d say this video was from around 2005 or 2006, close to the time when Never Give Up!! was released.
The entire video is in slow motion, even the tiny full pipe, which was soaking wet by the way and very slick.
Nothing too special in this Teaser, just a bunch of dudes having fun and doing weird tricks
I used to have this thing about giving all my video tapes really weird names. I would copy skate videos 3 or 4 onto 1 VHS tape and write something totally strange on the front which would somehow relate to one or more of the videos on the tape. So a lot of my Teasers have strange names too. Take Tizzy Tizzy Toe Toe for example, what the hell is a Tizzy?? It basically stands for the fact that this video starts off with one of the drunkest moments ever at a Whistler Bowl Series and ends with Jeff Cole’s toes taking out the entire set of lights while we’re filming at a spot. From 15 tall cans and 100 Gravitrons in a row at Whistler, to tons of grass and dirt rides, Clint Proulx skating mini-ramp on a huge longboard, and finishing off with some tree ridin’ fun times, it’s worth a watch.
I’m not much of a ledge skater, never really was, it’s not my thing. I have my share of ledge tricks I can do but none of them are that technical, I just stick to the very basics and ride weird obstacles trying to always land. This is a quick and funny video, but has some prime footage, me nose grinding the tailgate of my pickup truck, or landing off the fridge on my feet and forehead at the same time, and Cisco Gooding sticking a solid line for all the people on the bus in Cloverdale, one of my favourites. Sometimes the timing just works out that way.
About 13 years ago I made friends with a little dude at Confederation Park that was always trying to impress me when I was there. His name was Cisco Gooding and he was only about 14 or 15 years old. I would always brush him off and tell him he was too young to hang with us, but one day after a lot of persistence I finally gave in. We started hanging out all the time and he would always push us older guys to skate harder, and we would always push him to learn more and more. Cisco was tiny at the time and eventually grew much taller than all of us. I helped him to grow into the man he is today. We drank a lot of Rum together, and we taught each other a lot about life. What I love most about Cisco is that he will skate anything with me. A true Protest Rider from day one, and a friend till the end, I’m proud to share this old teaser with you of me and Cisco rippin’ it up…
This video was one of the Teasers I put together prior to the What the “F” Video so a lot of this footage got used in there. But there’s some older Leeside Clips from before it started getting built higher in there, and also a couple street spots that were really fun and don’t exist anymore. Definitely worth a peek.
It starts of with Clint Proulx shotgunning 5 Budweiser’s in a row on the ramp and then gets into the skating. Myself, Jeff Cole, Jon Irvine, Justin James, Carrie Williams, and a couple dudes who’s name I can’t remember – I’m gonna guess this one was 2008
You all know I’ve been on this scene for a long, long time. But some of you out there have only known me for a few years, so you might not know the old Hippie Mike. I grew up a full street skater since we had no skate parks unless we built them ourselves somewhere. So I had lots of flip tricks and loved drops and gaps. It was 2004 when I blew my knee and had to give up a lot of what I loved to do, but I never slowed down on my skating, I just changed up my style a bit and stopped doing big drops. When you see me now I’m usually cruisin’ some fast tranny lines or gettin’ tech on the quarter pipes, but this video takes you back to before I got hurt and was out in the streets all the time finding new spots.
I made this video for my Dad as a Christmas Gift in 2003. It was a montage from my skating from that year. Everyone knows I loved my Dad and I used to send him footage of my skateboarding all the time, I’m not sure if he even watched it, but I think he did. Either way, this one was for him.
Filmed on an old Hi8 Video Camera, it’s a little pixely but definitely worth a watch. Get to know the Hippie Mike you might not have had the chance to meet in the past, a drinkin’, lovin’, Happy Hippie who had lots of talent, determination and heart
As some of you might have heard, my Canon Rebel T3i went MIA at the South Surrey Contest last Saturday, not really the way I had hoped to finish off the year of Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey. I’m a little pissed about it, since I work so hard to do so much for so many people and this is what I get in return. Luckily it was just the camera with the standard lens, none of my accessories. If anyone learns any info as to who’s hands it ended up in, please let me know.
Since my business revolves around photos and filming I had to replace the camera pretty quick, so I worked out a solid deal with an old friend and upgraded to the Canon Rebel T4i. Then my partner in crime Jaden Easton-Ellett and I had to give it a test drive, so we hit the ramp for an hour last night and busted out some “Protest Style” tricks for ya.
3 solid months the Show Up Mike contest ran for, and there was definitely times where a lot of people were on the site to vote. September 11th, ironically, was Judgement Day and the man with the most votes at 305, was Sean Lowe.
Sean only entered the one video filmed at Kensington Skate Park, but it was all he needed. With some super technical talents he wowed the voters into checking out his vid and pushing the Thumb’s Up button. I met up with Sean on a busy street corner to hand over the prize money and get his opinion of how the contest went and what winning the $500 felt like.
Hippie Mike: First off Sean, congratulations! How does it feel to finally win the Grand Prize after all this time of wondering?
Sean Lowe: Feels good, have to have a little celebration tonight.
HM: What did you think about the Show Up Mike Contest overall?
Sean: I thought it was cool, I liked the concept of it. I don’t know, it’s a fun way to have a competition where it’s not like Head to Head but it’s more people voting on it. I thought it was cool like that, I liked that concept.
HM: How did you hear about the contest and what made you enter?
Sean: Well I saw you at Centre Distribution when I was picking some stuff up there, and I don’t know, who doesn’t like money, really? So that’s pretty much how it went down.
HM: If there was another version next year, would you enter it again?
Sean: Yeah I’d be down for sure, yeah it was fun. I enjoyed it, got to hang out for a day and skate, that’s always fun. And yeah for sure I think I’d do it again.
HM: Well thanks for entering this year Sean and Congratulations again and have fun with that 500 bucks
If you don’t know what BCP stands for then you definitely were not there during the eras of destruction at Surrey’s own Bear Creek Park. Back in the day, even before my time there, some serious tricks used to go down. Back when Clint Proulx used to be skinny and knew how to fly, blasting Benihana’s over the big volcano – everybody would go huge there. People always say that Bear Creek was a bike park, that’s ‘cause they don’t understand how to ride those obstacles properly. Clint Proulx, Chris Bone, Scotty MacIntosh, Ben Wheeler and others all created what that place was about in the ‘90’s. Then came the era when people stopped airing so much and tricks were getting more tech, Jay Mykyte, Stu Benoit, Drew Boyle, Joel Chamberlayne and myself set the standard for the young bucks in the new millenium. And then kids like Scotty Tyson just learned everything. BCP was an amazing park to be a local at, and still today lives on as one of the most unique skate parks I’ve ever skated. So many tricks I can think of that I need to go to Bear Creek to do, because that obstacle doesn’t exist anywhere else. That’s awesome.
Just to reminisce the old days, Jordan Strong and I hit up one of my fav parks so I could toss down some memories…
