Another amazing and historic year for Bowl Series has come to a close, but it seemed this year was so much more crazy. Maybe because we have reached the 3^rd decade? Who knows, but what we do know is that it is one of the best things happening in Skateboarding.

To watch kids as young as 5 years old travel around to bowls made in the 1980’s and early 90’s is amazing enough, but to see them competing in beginner and being so stoked on riding for 5 minutes in front of a huge crowd and progressing at every contest is tear jerking. This is what we live for as old school skaters, we helped set the bar high for skateboarding over many lost decades of discrimination and through our determination have seen success in the world and now have confidence that skateboarding will live on forever. Thanks kids for being the next generation of awesomeness.

And speaking of kids, let’s talk about our new King of the Bowls – Merrick Orr. Merrick started coming out to Bowl Series in year 19, only 2 years ago, and this year made an impact that will never be forgotten. At 15 years old he took 1^st place at Seylynn Bowl popping all the big gaps, ones that had been done before and some that hadn’t. Griffin Bowl he blew minds when he ollied off the smallest part of the virus to the outside of the bowl, and White Rock he flew with style and flow to take another first place. It was Squamish Beef Under the Chief contest where all eyes were opened wider as they got to see Merrick rip coping, and even though it wasn’t really a Bowl Series jam, Merrick fought to the top 3 by finding every gap possible and crushing the bowl with insane speed and furiousity. But it was Whistler Bowl that everyone was waiting for, where the King would be crowned and Merrick wanted to prove his holiness. He shredded the entire bowl, once again finding impossible and deadly gaps and making them look easy. With long hair blowing, shades on tight and fierceness in his face he battled the best of the best of Whistler and took 3^rd Place. As he ollied over the deepend of the bowl into the other side Renee Renee stopped him in his tracks to let him know he needed to prove no more and 15 year old Merrick Orr was crowned the 2015 King of the Bowls in the unforgettable Bowl Series #21.

Until next year, when we ask the question again

– Who will be King….

One of Hippie Mike’s favorite skate parks the Tsawwassen Skate Park is a great place for competitions. With a wide area full of ledges, rails, manual tables and hip to hips there’s plenty of room for lots of people to have fun together. And that’s what happened on August 2^nd at the 3^rd stop of the 2015 Hippie Mike’s Super Tour.

Kicking things off with the Beginners and Minis, lots of parents and other family members were keep the noise level high as they cheered on the young competitors. In Mini there were some new kids which is always great to see, but Aidan Eastman is a tough kid to beat. He conquered through to win another one. The Beginners was a tough category as all of them were skilled and were landing their stuff. Austin MacBeth showed everyone that he’s not just a Bowl skater and landed in 3^rd place, while Cody Mo and Fletcher Chan battled each other hard for the win, Fletcher took 1^st this time sealing the deal with a big frontside 180 down the 3-block.

The Intermediates stepped up the skill level by adding in the rail and ledge game into their runs. Austin Doquiatan was putting on a show in the qualifiers but ended in 5^th in the finals. All the intermediates skated really solid but the day belonged to the young buck from White Rock Jon Schrack. Way to hold it down Jon!

Advanced started off with an insane run by Jake Johnson from the island, who in height looks like he could be in the Mini category. He came out fierce and landed everything he tried setting the standard super high. Merrick Orr, also from the island, took that as a challenge and put on a serious demo in his runs, and Local boys Mick Bey and Aleka Lang used their long legs to look lazy as they landed a ton of tricks around the whole park, but it was tough for either of them the stay caught up to Bryce Aspinall as he shredded around with speed and style. Top 3 came down to Bryce, Merrick and little Jake but 1^st place went to Merrick who even after a face to face collision with Bryce in the start of the finals pushed through to transfer every gap he could find, kick flip front board the blue rail, crooked grind the red rail, and pretty much just destroy the entire park. It was a great show and a solid contest, thanks to everyone who showed up.

Results:

Mini: 1. Aidan Eastman; 2. Kingston Bird; 3. Dave McGough; 4. Kaelen Faux; 5. Lola Paller

Beginner: 1. Fletcher Chan; 2. Cody Mo; 3. Austin MacBeth; 4. Connor Farren; 5. Sebastian Manlig

Intermediate: 1. Jon Schrack; 2. Paul Abraham; 3. Devin Petry; 4. Colton Wilkinson 5. Austin Doquiatan; 6. Robert Wylie

Girls: 1. Jayna Clarke; 2. Rebecca; 3. Katie Wojtun

Advanced: 1. Merrick Orr; 2. Bryce Aspinall; 3. Jake Johnson; 4. Doogie Lester, Jay Mykyte, Aleka Lang, Riley Allen

Next Stop – Grand Finale

August 29^th – Vancouver Skate Plaza

See you there

Another sweet summer day in British Columbia, Canada, and a perfect day to run a skateboard competition. Hippie Mike came out strong for this one handing out about 100 free t-shirts while Wee Wong from Auto Repairs ‘R Wee gave out a bunch of chip bags and water bottles. Queensborough Skate Park the new park in New Westminster and has a solid design with a bank style bowl surrounded by street obstacles so anyone could participate but in order to win you would need to be good at everything.

Getting started right on time with the Minis, the contest was awesome right from the start. 8 minis 10 years old or less and they were all giving it everything they had. Aidan Eastman came out with skills in his final year as a mini and took home 1^st place on this one but don’t think it was a runaway. The Beginner category was a bit tougher with 10 kids that all knew how to shred. Top 5 made it into a Finals Jam where they had to skate for 5 minutes together and land as much as they could. Sydney Chalmers tossed himself over the quarter pipe time after time trying to hit the biggest gap while Cody Mo and Jack Blain utilized the whole park. But no one could catch up to Fletcher Chan as he skated every obstacle with ease and landed pretty much everything he tried. By the look of the Beginner category the rest of this contest was going to amazing.

Intermediates was a lot busier with over 20 people with ages ranging from 10 to over 30 years old, and all of them were good. Only6 competitors moved into the Finals and through all the ledge and rail thrashing from JR Barron, Austin Doquiatan and the others, little Rylee Wong destroyed to bowl with confidence, style and skill to beat out everyone and take 1^st place.

The Advanced category got even more intense, and the sun was shining super hot. Over 20 people in this one too, and once again all of them were shredders. A lot of top name locals were trying to make finals but it only came down to 5 guys – Kyler Hale, Noah Eastwood, Allen Handley, Dylan Lundgren and Penny Board skater Hugo Bedard. The Finals were intense and only lasted 6 minutes but everybody was killin’ it. Allen was destroying the bowl and Hugo was lighting up every obstacle on his Penny board, but Noah Eastwood took home the gold by skating everything and displaying how good he is all around. Everybody skated really solid all day.

After all prizes were handed out it was time for a best trick contest off the big hip launcher for a wall hanger Almost deck which Hugo Bedard somehow stomped down an overturn backside 360 on his penny to win.

Great contest, thanks to all who came out.

Results

Mini – 1. Aidan Eastman; 2. Dave McGough; 3. Presley Huska; 4. Elijah Williamson; 5. Kaelen Faux

Beginner – 1. Fletcher Chan; Jack Blain; 3. Cody Mo; 4. Sydney Chalmers; 5. Braeden Nerpio

Girls – 1. Katie Wojtan; 2. Erica Hardy

Intermediate – 1. Rylee Wong; 2. Austin Doquiatan; 3. JR Barron; 4. Yoshe Durston; 5. Rory White; 6. Stefan Bakker

Advanced – 1. Noah Eastwood; 2. Hugo Bedard; 3. Dylan Lundgren; 4. Allen Handley; 5. Kyler Hale

Best Trick – Hugo Bedard

Next stop – Tsawwassen Skate Park – August 2^nd (Sunday)

It’s crazy how someone cracking their head open and knocking themself out over the biggest gap in the bowl gets the crowd more stoked…. That’s the Vancouver Skate Scene for ya. Nice try Raney Beres!

This was the first big Pro contest in many years since the infamous Slam City Jam competitions shut down and the excitement was in the air. Bleachers and grand stands were set up to surround one side of Hastings Bowl and there wasn’t an empty seat in the house for the Finals. Guys from all over North America came out to show their skills, Tom Schaar, Omar Hassan, Mason Merlino, Brad McClain and many others came to try to beat out the local talents of Adam Hopkins, James Clarke and the legend Rob Sluggo Boyce. All 3 of these guys skated well in prelims on Friday and all made the Semi-finals, but only Hopkins got into the Top 6 for the final Finals. He ended in 6^th place and that was definitely respectable.

The highlights of both days were focused on Sluggo doing backflips to fakie in the deepend both days which amazingly are the only ones he ever landed on concrete. The crowd will remember those forever. A great guy to watch was Riley Stevens, he came out to have fun and that is what he did, best trick had to be popping out of the 9 foot to smith pick on the fence and back into disaster for the ride out. Dude had a smile on his face the whole weekend and the feeling spread. Tom Schaar killed it vert style tossing a couple different 540’s around the bowl and a few kickflip indy’s but he didn’t quite make Top 3. Brad McClain reminded the crowd who skates the fastest, Raven Tershy showed who could hang in the air the longest of every hit and Alex Sorgente just plain laid it down all over the bowl to take 1^st place.

The contest was great, it was well set up, well managed, and the weather was amazing. Thanks to Vans and Kevin Kelly for working together to make it happen. I’m sure that we will be seeing more of these types of events in the near future, but until then the Vancouver crowd has lots to reminisce…

Another amazing Canada Day as the 21^st annual Bowl Series kicked off at the legendary Seylynn Bowl. As hundreds of people flock to the park and set up tents, blankets and BBQ’s the sun was shining down to give everyone a good day. The skaters warmed up with speed lines and creative fly outs as we waited for the sound to be set up and Renee Renee to take his position holding the microphone.

Getting started right on time with the Beginners these kids reminded everyone what July 1^st is all about as they dipped in and out of the old snake bowl in every spot they could. Killa B Brayden Nerpio came out fierce in Run #1 and held true in the finals to take 1^st place and get the day rolling.

Moving in to Intermediate, it was great to see a bunch of the old beginners that had moved up a category proving the importance of the Bowl Series. Using the entire bowl these kids really knew how to shred and it was sweet to watch them. The girls category was also solid as this was the first year in a long long time where there were multiple heats and the girls owned the bowl for a good 15-20 minutes. Way to go Ladies!

After a little relaxing dip in the creek it was time to watch the Advanced battle it out. All eyes were on certain people of course like Adam Hopkins, Andy Anderson, Jamie Sherratt, Eve Feaver, Stevie Denham, Rob Rickaby, and the young buck from island Merrick Orr. Merrick came out with full aggression blasting up and down the bowl and over all the hips. He kept popping huge ollies from outside the bowl into the deep end and then somehow maintaining enough control to boneless across the wall in the deep. Eve and Andy touched every part of the snake with unique tricks that fire up the large size audience. And Rob and Stevie just plain laid it down like only they could while Adam Hopkins picked out all the big gaps and blew out his pants while flying through the air at mega speeds, Can’t Stop the Hop. In the finals it was Merrick Orr who pulled through on top of the others and sealed the deal with a first try massive crail grab over MFP – Insane!!

Could this be the beginning of the story of 2015’s King of the Bowls?

1^st – Merrick Orr

2^nd – Rob Rickaby

3^rd – Andy Anderson

4^th – Adam Hopkins

5^th – Stevie D

After the contest was done and the crowd began to disperse it was time to see who had the fastest time as the best of the best at the Seylynn Speed Line put their bearings to the test. Amazingly between about 8-10 people they were all within 1 second of each other to go down and back, it was like an alpine ski race. Steve Denham prevailed at the last moment with a 10.20 second run beating out Adam Hopkins 10.28. So awesome.

That’s it for this year people – another awesome Canada Day thanks to Mike Strato, Renee Renee, Cuz, Seb and everyone who showed up.

Bowl Series 21

See you at Griffin – July 12th

What a gorgeous day on June 21^st 2015 – International Go Skateboard Day, combined with Father’s Day!! It was beautiful outside and Protest Skateboards was part of something very special this year as Hippie Mike joined forces with Kristen O’Keefe of DC Shoes and Ryan McGlashan of Heritage BoardShop to bring a long overdue event to The Westshore Skate Park in Langford BC. This park has been around since the early 2000’s and has produced some awesome skateboarders in it’s time, but it is all coming to an end soon as the land was recently sold to Sobey’s so they can put another Thrifty’s Grocery Store in the area and the park is supposed to be removed in September. Skate Park deconstruction is always a sad thing and no one likes it, but what’s worse in this situation is there is still no plan for a replacement park anywhere. There are issues with the surrounding areas not showing the support they should be in today’s world to keep the kids off the streets and in a positive place. So the idea was to get out there to Langford and give these people something to talk about. As you will see in the video tons of kids and skateboarders of all ages came out to have a fun time together, and lots of parents were present as well showing their support. Everyone had a great time, they skated, they ate free hot dogs, they jammed out to awesome tunes, and they proved that there is a large skateboard community in there town that needs a place to go. This is the second event we have hosted in Langford in the last 2 months and there has been over 100 people present at both. It is very important that everyone around sees the how much this type of facility is needed. There is a big meeting this Saturday night June 27^th at The Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre around 6pm. Please show up, show them photos, show them videos, make them aware of what you need and why…

Big thanks to Ty Williamson for coming out to Langford on Go Skate Day and filming this video of the event we put on in collaboration with DC Shoes, Heritage Boardshop, Vulcan Bolts, Burn Bros and Fury Trucks. The Westshore skate park is on the cutting block to be removed after summer and there is no replacement plan so this video really helps to show how many people in the community utilize this facility, how many of them are young kids and are supported by their parents, and how a little support can go a long long way. Please share this video far and wide to get lots of recognition that can be used to promote the fact that this community needs to step up and help these skaters and their peers to have a place to spend their time positively expanding their minds in the future.

What a beautiful way to kick off the summer, on the first day of summer, but with an awesome style skateboard competition. This is only the 2^nd year for this annual series, but you can already tell Hippie Mike’s Super Tour is here to stay for a long long time. Tons of shredders showed up at Chuck Bailey Skate Park in Surrey for the first stop on the tour and each category was great to watch.

In the Mini division there was only 6 kids but that’s okay since it’s all about kids 10 years old or younger, and 2 of them travelled long distance to be part of it. Little Presley from Squamish tore it up with style, and Ryder from Saltspring Island put it all on the line as both of the attacked the biggest obstacles in the park. And those obstacles seem even bigger when you’re a Mini.

The Beginners were going off, and watching them made everybody realize what was to come in the higher categories because these kids had serious talent, and they were the “Beginners”. Jericho, Alex and Ryan were the ones to overcome above the rest by utilizing the ledges, quarterpipes and gaps the best they knew how and really use their determination to not give up and git ‘r done.

Intermediates set a whole new level for the contest, getting down on the rails and ledges. There was a serious mixture of talent and age in the finals from Emmanneul who is only 11 but rips it up to Stefan and Nathan who are much older and still rip it up. JR got the crowd going, but somehow Nathan came through in the end with some serious business to take what might have been his first ever contest win. Frontside crooks over the fireplace channel to fakie and to regular? Yeah this guy was lighting the place up….

The ladies category was pretty mellow but all the girls did their best and it’s always great to see the whole park sitting back and cheering for the girls. Monique overcame the other 3 to take home 1^st place.

When Advanced started everybody knew it was not going to be easy to judge since there was 25 guys that were all going to go off, and that’s exactly what happened. Every single person in Advanced threw down but only 10 moved up to the finals, and only 5 of them were taking home prizes. It got pretty heated and chaotic out there with 10 guys skating at once but that’s how you separate the mice from the men. East Van Caleb blew away the crowd and the judges and went home with the victory.

Thank to everyone for coming out. It was great to see so many people at the first stop of the tour. Eve Feaver destroyed in the advanced category at 43 years old. Joe Buffalo hung out all day giving continuous props over the mic and even tried to skate in Advanced. Ryan Barron got out there and landed some awesome tricks that no one else could do. DJ Cuz-O kept the vibe hot all day long with sweet tunes that never stopped. The City of Surrey threw down a Free BBQ. And Hippie Mike lit up the mic steady and solid all day as usual.

Stop #2 is July 18^th at Queenborough All Wheel Park in New Westminster

Don’t miss it!

Results

Mini – 1. Ryder; 2. Presley Huska; 3. Kaelen Faux

Beginner – 1. Jericho; 2. Ryan; 3. Alex Pasqua

Intermediate – 1. Nathan Gladue; 2. Tate Roulette; 3. Emmanneul; 4. Stefan Bakker; 5. JR Barron

Girls – 1. Monique; 2. Stephanie; 3. Alysha; 4. CiCi

Advanced – 1. East Van Caleb; 2. Calvin Dignard; 3. Travis Emerson; 4. Giet Rolan; 5. Eve Feaver