The start of a new era began exactly how the last one ended, it was a great day in Cloverdale and the New Cloverdale Skate Park was jumpin’ with a crew of awesome dudes of all ages. Hippie Mike on the mic, DJ Cuz-O on the mixing tables, and the DC Rep Kristen hangin’ out all day helping out with registration and hooking kids up with gear left right and centre. We kicked it off with the Mini Category and all 5 kids were going hardcore, little Aidan Eastman went down hard on his wrist down the 5 stair rail and had to rush out for X-rays, but he was okay in the end. Emmanuel killed it hard in the division utilizing all obstacles and even ollied the big 7 stair, lil’ Kaelen Faux shredded like no 4 year old should know how to and came in 2^nd place, followed closely by Carson Ziegler. The Beginners came out just as hard, except there was 20 of them. It’s always a big eye-opener when everyone in the park has astonished looks on their faces while watching beginners, you know right then that the contest is gonna get hectic. Masson Solski squeezed his way into the finals and then turned it up about 4 knotches to take home 1^st Place. All the beginners skated really solid putting together runs and landing lots of tricks but the ones that stood out the most were Damon Morgan, Devin Petry, Layne Nyirfa, Yoshe Durston and Kyle Neill. All 6 of these guys killed it in the finals.

The ladies category was small like usual but they all had a good time, Katie and Tienna ripped around the park carving up lines while Carrie Williams popped all her usual tricks on the flatbanks. Intermediate category was large and in charge, and owned hard by Zacc “Doogie” Lester. This kid was shredding so hard and barely missed a trick all day hitting tons of flip tricks, rail tricks and ledge tricks. After taking 1^st Place in the category he was offered a spot on the Authentic Board Supply Shop Team and accepted it, that means it’s time to step up even more and start competing against the big boys. The rest of Intermediate was super tight, kids were kickflipping the biggest gaps, Justin Fiorante and JR Barron were putting solid lines together using all obstacles, and Kory Laan reminded the crowd how technical and solid he is, even after not skateboarding for over a year. Intermediates killed it, and got the Advanced guys stoked.

Advanced was full of some heavy hitters with lots of talent like Gabe DiNorscio, Hugo Bedard, Cory Gibson, Sam Cook and Fighter, but the finals consisted of Mathew McCauley, Andy Anderson, Jacob Drescher, Dominic Devries, Andy Anderson, Michael Ray and Ryan Le Pore. The finals was a 10 minute Jam session where all 7 guys skated together, it ended up looking like a best trick contest on the 7 stair setup where all these guys were killing the rails, the hubba and the set. Top trick had to be Ryan Le Pore sacking himself hard and then getting back up and landing nollie flip boardslide down the 7 stair rail. He won the contest! First winner at the New Cloverdale Skate Park! Hopefully he comes out to all 3 events.

The Best Trick happened down the 7 stair set up and lots of prizes were earned. It was a great day all around, the vibe was positive, the weather turned out nice, and everyone had a blast. Thanks for coming out!

Next Stop – Bonsor August 23^rd

Results:

Mini: 1. Emmanuel; 2. Kaelen Faux; 3. Carson Ziegler; 4. Aidan Eastman; 5. Noah Atkins

Beginner: 1. Masson Solski; 2. Devin Petry; 3. Layne Nyirfa; 4. Damon Morgan; 5. Yoshe Durston; 6. Kyle Neill; 7. Lukas Zhanel; 8. Elliot; 9. Blake Storie; 10. Anthony Villareal; 11. Josh Russell; 12. Parker Sherwin; 13. Dominick McWilliams, Braedyn Ryan, Austin Blackwell, Jake, Ken McLean

Intermediate: 1. Zacc “Doogie” Lester; 2. JR Barron; 3. Justin Fiorante; 4. Kory Laan; 5. Jayden Ristich; 6. Mark Melykov; 7. Riley Allen; 8. Chadd Sinclair; 9. Justin Gauthier; 10. Dallas Lang; 11. Nathan Gladue; 12. Bradley Dodd, Josh Lewis; 13. Liam Pitts, Elijah Chutskoff, Robert Wylie, Nick Bachmeier

Girls: 1. Carrie Williams; 2. Tienna Rivard; 3. Katie Wotjun

Advanced: 1. Ryan Le Pore; 2. Mikey Ray; 3. Dominic Devries; 4. Andy Anderson; 5. Jacob Drescher; 6. Weston Ganger; 7. Matt McCauley; 8. Noah Eastwood; 9. Brad “Fighter” Muscat; 10. Cory Gibson; 11. Reed Timmonds; 12. Hugo Bedard; 13. William LeTourneau; 14. Allen Handley; 15. Sam Cook; 16. Gabe Di Norscio; 17.  Calvin Dignard; 18. Barrett Lediard

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…

It felt just like it did 10 years ago, the same faces, the same styles, and probably a lot of the same music, Bowl Series #20 is here. Led by Mike Strato and Jimbo Jak the microphones were filled with great words all day and the skaters were definitely their to feel the vibes. Hundreds of people on site the whole day and everyone was having a blast, Canada Day every year is for sure the biggest and best Family Reunion in existence.

The little dudes started it off with 5 kids in Beginner, then there was about 10 people in Intermediate, the ladies had 6 in their category and then of course there was the Advanced with over 40 dudes competing of all ages from 18 up to 46, what an event! Everyone was killing it in Advanced, the Surrey Heat consisted of myself Hippie Mike, Surrey Stu, Giver and the young buck Andy Anderson – Andy blew away the crowd by mixing freestyle skating into speedlines, something I don’t think has been done before. If you were there, then you will have those runs etched in your brain, and if you weren’t there then watch for footage from Ethan Craig. Eve Feaver, Stevie D, Jonny B, Steve Lange, Jamie Sherratt, and many more regulars were shredding super hard and all the ex-Kings of the Bowls were praised throughout the day. Little Prince Rylee Wong stepped up to the Advanced to defend his crown but the old guys had something to say about it. Adam Hopkins and Rob Rickaby battled it out for 1^st Place with multiple techy tricks and awesome gaps but Hopkins was on his game and pulled through for the win. I thing that huge transfer over the MFP Gap had some influence in the judges decision.

All in all a great day in the sun, and a great kickoff to the 20^th year of the most amazing skateboard contest series in Canada.

Happy Canada Day!!

1^st – Adam Hopkins

2^nd – Rob Rickaby

3^rd – Andy Anderson

4^th – Clinton

Well, it’s official – The new Cloverdale Skate Park is officially open for shredding. The park was completed about a month ago and people have been ripping it up since the May long weekend but the opening ceremonies hadn’t taken place. June 20^th, 2014, summer is kicked off properly in Surrey, BC as the ribbon was cut. Counsellor Mary Martin showed up, made a great speech and made the snip accompanied by some city of surrey members and Constable Troy Derrick as well. It was good.

But even better was the number of people that showed up to celebrate and the amount of prizes to give away. When I was first asked to host the event I got right on the horn to all the distributors and everyone was stoked, these kids got spoiled at this one and almost everybody went home with something. There were hundreds of people there, Free BBQ, fun games to play, and skateboard demos from the shop teams of Coastal Riders, Street Dreamz and Authentic Board Supply. Finally after 3 hours of insanity it was time for Hippie Mike to sign off. Another awesome addition to the list of skate parks in Surrey, and the lower mainland – thanks City of Surrey!!

WIN A PRO COMPLETE SKATEBOARD OF YOUR CHOICE FROM AUTHENTIC BOARD SUPPLY!!

The new Cloverdale Skate Park has been jumping since day 1 and we know it won’t slow down until Fall so Protest Skateboards has partnered with Authentic Board Supply to bring you a sweet Online Best Trick Contest!!

Film an “Authentic” or Awesome trick at the park, upload it to youtube and then submit the link to the contest on the protest site – www.protestskateboards.com (Please name your video CLOVERDALE BEST TRICK – YOUR NAME to make it easier for people to search for your entry and get you more votes)

Once your video is approved by our web team it will be promoted on our site and be ready for voting. You want to get as many votes as possible to try and win the contest. People can only vote once per video from their computer so make sure you share your video to all of your friends and get them to vote.

You can submit as many separate videos as you want!

Submissions cut-off date will be July 14^th

Voting will continue until July 28^th

Winner will be announced July 31^st

 You can take a peak at the leaderboard here. Cisco Gooding was the first to submit a video which you can see below.

Take a look at all the fine details in the poster above.

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/

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

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