Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind The Man I Am

Been Old for a Long Time – but that don’t stop us

Mar 14,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Entering into the One Love Kickoff Contest in a special 30 & Over Category last weekend brought back some funny memories of back in the old days when by age I was still pretty young, but even then felt way too old. My favourite series of contests is the Bowl Series specifically for the reason that I’m not even close to the oldest competitor, but they are great because it shows a fact of how the older guys still rule the bowls, and even these young rippers have trouble placing against dudes in their 40’s.

I want to go back in time and tell you about a story from a contest held at the Skate Park in New West, and I’m not talking about Queensborough. I’m talking about the real New West Park on 8^th St, old style bowl with coping in strange places, and tons of speed lines as long as you’re prepared to push 15 times as hard as you can before going into the bowl. It was a great park in it’s hayday, produced some solid skaters like Damon Kerr and Lil’ G, David Helmer, Ross Mcleister, and Dennis – you know Dennis. Between Lil’ G and Alex Chalmers, I think every gap remotely possible in this park has been done. I used to always say I hate New West Skate Park, but then I would always place Top 3 in every contest there, it was strange, there was something about that place that just fit my style back then I guess. So 1 day in about 2005 or 2006, Ross and Dennis decided to hold a competition there. The Bowl Series had removed New West off there map for contest locations so nothing else was ever happening there. These guys decided to throw a “Low Budget” contest and tons of people showed up. It was back when I was Team Manager for Substance Skate Shop and I showed up with a good chunk of the Crew – Jon Irvine, Cisco Gooding, Stu Benoit, Jay Mykyte, Drew Boyle, and of course Homer came for moral support. So they had a category called the Washed Up Category and you either needed to be Too Old, Too Injured, or Too Drunk to skate in the normal Advanced Category. Some of us fit all 3 of those assets. So there was only 3 of us in this category and really only 2 of us had the ability to win – me and Barry. I can’t remember Barry’s last name but I would recognize his face in a second after this day.

So our turn happened later in the day and we were all feeling extra comfortable on our boards. The run began and off we went, I was killin’ it inside the bowl and on the outer obstacles. Ross and Dennis had no sound equipment for this event so there was just music blasting really loudly from a big ghettoblaster and then they would yell their instructions across the park. So of course it was really difficult to know what the hell was going on most of the time. So I thought that I heard them yell out “Last Tricks” and so I shot this crazy line through both bowls carving and wrapping in figure 8 loops as fast as I could and then finishing it off with a wild wallride across the ledge on top of the bank, and I fell riding away. So I went over and sat around in our Surrey Corner, had a few sips and hung out for about 5-10 minutes. Then I got up and went back to land the line. This dude Rob filmed it and afterward he gave me a big hi five and said how awesome that line was. I just returned with, “Yeah, too bad I couldn’t land it in my run though.” That’s when Rob looked at me funny and said, “Dude, it is your run…”

So I went over and asked Ross and he was like, yeah you’re run’s still going. And I’m thinking what the hell has been happening during this 10 minute minute pitstop I just took, so I just ran back onto my board and started tearing it up again. So we’re going for like another 5 minutes or so and then I hear Ross yell out “Last Tricks”. This time, I know I heard it, so I drop a clean nose manual 360 shovit right in front of them and the crowd went crazy, then Barry busts a solid bigspin flip on the bank and the crowd went crazy; so I do a kickflip manual kickflip, Barry ollies some crazy gap, so I do a hands in the pockets kickflip on the bank, Barry tosses something on the quarter pipe, and it just kept going and going and going until finally Ross just told us to stop, and said it was a Tie!! I think we must have skated for like 25 minutes just the 2 of us, and we probably landed way more tricks then all the other guys that weren’t in the “Washed Up” Category. And after all that we each won $10 and a Tshirt. The shirt I won was an AXS Gear shirt, which I was already and still am sponsored by, and I paid for 4 people to enter at $5 each, so I was still out $10.

But it was a great battle that I’ll never forget about, and the crowd got a major Demo out of us that day.

Whether you like New West Skate Park or not, it’s always a good time…

Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind The Bob Marley Quote of the Month

What we Know is Just What They Teach us

Mar 7,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

In life, it is easy to be ignorant and just believe in everything you are told or taught. The media is the number one criminal for pulling you along in a story and having you itching to find out what’s gonna happen next, and the school system is just as bad sometimes for only teaching one-sided opinions. Just because there is a text book about it doesn’t mean it’s the only information out there.

We’ve been through this before recognizing the fact that all people are different, they have different interests, follow different religions, and believe in different ways of living. If we are not all the same, then why are we all forced to listen to the same content as if it is the only information that exists. We must stand up for our beliefs and express our feelings in a positive way by exploring the truth behind the lies we have been forced to listen to over the years and figure out how to change the world from having to experience the same ignorance.

I quote Bob Marley in a very powerful song, Ambush in the Night, from the most powerful album he produced, Survival –

“They say what we know is just what they teach us

And we’re so ignorant ’cause every time they can’t reach us

Through political strategy they keep us hungry”

This song was written just days after an attempt to assassinate Bob Marley in 1976. It talks about the political and economic turmoil that was constantly happening in Jamaica during this time frame and reminds us all not to trust anyone. As Bob Marley was pushing more and more towards freedom for all and creating the bonds of unity in Jamaica, some people were against his beliefs. And they did with Malcolm X, John Lennon and JFK, when they don’t like your beliefs and the force that you are creating, they try to put an unjust stop to it.

Do not trust the government, do not believe everything you are taught. Realize that we are all just fish in a barrel, expected to live a certain way, and those who explore other possibilities can easily be removed from the barrel and flushed down the toilet.

Bob Marley was extremely lucky that he was not killed during this attempt and it gave him more strength and more power as he continued to make music that changed the world.

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Extreme Sports Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind Skateboarding The Sports Run Down

Air Jordan – Changing the World

Feb 20,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Known simply to the world as “M.J.”, Michael Jordan may have been the most influential sports player of all time. Growing up with a dream to play baseball professionally in the MLB, M.J. Worked hard when it came to sports. He also shot hoops quite a bit and was extremely talented at basketball. Michael Jordan was drafted into the NBA after proving himself to be amazing with North Carolina University and he proceeded to change the game. M.J. Was one the first players that taught the world how to fly, he could literally leap into the air and hang there for a long period of time, manoeuvring the basketball from hand to hand until he would finally have the opportunity to get it past his defenders. They had to invent the Air Jordan’s just to prepare for the next generation of players. This man could shoot, he could dunk, he was one of the best defenders the game ever saw, and he was the all-time go-to guy in any clutch situation. NBA TV and Ahmad Rashad interview Michael Jordan as he turns 50 years old, and reminisce about the good times and all the bad, and really get down to the nitty gritty about how Jordan feels about the way his life went.

Watch this interview and wonder what would have been different if Michael Jordan had never played basketball. It would be the same question to us if Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk, Mark Gonzales, Danny Way, Pat Duffy, Duane Peters, Chad Muska, Tom Penny or Ryan Sheckler never picked up a skateboard. These guys were all natural sports players that ended up concentrating their energy to the one they loved and changing the world around them. Where would Tiger Woods be if he never picked up a golf club? Chances are still being amazing at whatever else he chose to adventure in. Some people are just natural born innovators…

Every day I think about where skateboarding would have ended up if certain people had never been in the industry –

Without Rodney Mullen, would skateboards look like they do today? Would we be skating street or would the pools have been the only real skateboarding surface? Or would there even be skateboarding today?

Without Danny Way, would we have these Big Air Jumps that all the vert skaters are flying over fearlessly doing backflips and 720’s?

Without Pat Duffy, when would people have started to skate tech tricks on all these huge rails out there?

Without Ryan Sheckler, would we believe that a 12/13 year old could beat out he entire pro category in large competition?

And without Tony Hawk, would the world recognize and support skateboarding as much as they do right now?

The answer to most of these questions is no. Everyone brings a different style to their sport, or hobby. Each person makes a difference in the world. But we need to feel blessed when the true world changers enter the correct lifestyle, and stick with it. But they can’t always do it on their own, so please show them the support they deserve. You never know who the next legend is gonna be when it’s their first day.

Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind The Man I Am

For the Love of the Game

Feb 16,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

The NBA All-Star Weekend starts today and it reminds me of why we all do what we do each and every day. You grow up trying new activities all the time as a kid and certain ones become your passions. These are the things that make you the most happy in life and are usually what you spend the majority of your free time doing. It could be Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Skateboarding, Snowboarding, Biking, Cooking, Reading, Writing, Knitting, whatever. But when you find that hobby that keeps you alive you work at it, and strive to learn as much as possible to be better at it than everyone else.

This happens constantly in the skateboard industry. As a young kid, you get your first skateboard and you start riding it around, then you meet some other dudes that like to ride their skateboards around and you start to learn tricks, now it becomes something that you really love to do and you drop a couple of your other hobbies to make more time for it as this is your passion, then the word passion becomes the word addiction. Now you’ve decided somewhere along the line that you are going to dedicate as much time as possible to skateboarding and go out there and learn and learn and learn. This is now your love.

Any professional sports player works very hard, and has to be fully dedicated to the game they play. All we see is what they show on TV which is just the exciting part, but we don’t see the hours of practise and training that happens behind the scenes. We don’t see the arguments and frustrations that happen constantly from being overworked and always travelling. All we see is the highlights, the end result of what all that hard work has produced.

No matter what your passion is, if you are trying to turn it into a career, at some point you will start to hate it. You will overdo it and begin to wonder if all this was just a waste of your time. And when you realize that you will never be able to make it a full time career, if you allow the frustration to take over, you will eventually quit altogether…

I never understood how people dedicate years of their life to something that they cared so much about and then just completely walk away from it and never do it again, ever.

Where’s the love?

What happened to the passion?

What happened to you?

It’s always the people who actually fell in love with their hobby that stick with it for life. As you get older, your body changes and you can’t always continue to work as hard as you used to, and for all the sports guys, you can’t take the hits anymore. But you can still play, you can still go out and be active and have fun with your friends. Maybe you can’t handle doing it for hours every day anymore, but that doesn’t mean you should quit. That means you should go back to your roots of when you first discovered this passion that was so great it took over whole your life, and just do it for the love again. Quit striving to be the best, and just be a survivor.

For the Love of the Game…

Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind That Shit Drives Me Crazy

Debit = Debt

Feb 9,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

You know what really drives me crazy? – Banks.

These crooked institutions teach you from day one how to allow them to manage and control “Your Money”. Even as a little kid when you’re mom or dad tells you to put some of your money in the bank and save it. You’re already sad because it’s your money and you’re not gonna be able to spend it right away, and then you get the bank telling how to save it. You could put it in Savings Bonds, which make you absolutely no profit unless you sit on them for 10-20 years. You could put it in a separate savings account, which the bank will just happen to charge you a small monthly fee that will eventually eat up your entire amount of savings. Or you could invest it in your future but having RESP’s, which are great if you’re gonna go to school later, but if you don’t, did you make any profit?

The thing about banks is that the majority of the world has allowed them to establish themselves to the point that they are at now, and it almost makes them an inevitable necessity. Way back in time, there was only cash money, no cheques,no credit cards, no debit. So if you didn’t want to risk getting your cash stolen, you would put it in the bank for “safe keeping”. But now a days, the banks rule the world through credit – money that doesn’t even exist. Sure, they’ll lend you $300,000 for a mortgage, but it’s gonna cost you over a million by the time you pay them back. How the hell is that legal? I know that if a regular person lends another regular person money and sets up an interest charge on it, they could go to jail, so how is it legal for the banks to do it on every feature they offer? Last year we paid over $25,000 towards our mortgage and $19,000 of that went to interest, straight into the banks pocket… It’s disgusting. You can’t own a house in these times without a mortgage, unless your born into wealth like Paris Hilton or something. So you’re an automatic victim of society by being forced to utilize the banks. TD Canada Trust, PC Financial, CIBC, Scotia Bank, Royal Bank – they should all be on the Top Ten Most Wanted Criminals List…

There’s high interest credit cards, straight up loans, and the fees they charge you for services. All scams. Please explain to me again why it costs so much money for you to hold my money and then not even let me touch it for 5 business days. My favourite is when you get charged a fee for depositing cash. Is that for real……….a cash handling fee………at the bank? And then there’s Debit. This to me has got to be the easiest way for people to spend more money than they planned on. The day they created the debit machines where you could spend your money right at the store, was the end of an eternity. Now I’m not complaining about convenience, because that is the benefit of it. What I’m complaining about is that the little machine that allows the stores to take your money directly from your bank card, never tells you how much money you still have, only what you spent. And you just go from store to store spending more and more until finally – Declined!

Now you need to pull out your Credit Card, usually issued through your bank for inconvenient situations just like this one, and overspend your budget of what you could actually afford. How many other people have noticed that since they’ve used Debit all the time, they never have any money in the bank?

It’s the expressway to debt.

Try going back in time for a while and take out the actual amounts of money you are prepared to spend before going to the store and see if there’s a difference. Stick within your budget and stop allowing the banks to force you to be poor. There are some necessities that come from the bank that we need to depend on, and we should be thankful that they exist, but do they really need to rob us as much as they do?

“That Shit Drives Me Crazy!!”

Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind The Bob Marley Quote of the Month

Happy Birthday Bob Marley

Feb 6,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Born February 6^th, 1945, Robert Nesta Marley was a legend from day one. The mind frame of this man was above and beyond every other human being around him. He may have looked up to many preachers and followed religious beliefs but he gained the respect of everyone who met him, or even heard of him, and Bob Marley lived a life with one purpose – to bring the world together and find freedom for all.

Bob Marley grew up in Jamaica through some of the most political warfare that any of us could imagine. And through it all he wrote and sang some of the most powerful lyrics ever recorded. To this day, even after Marley’s death in 1981, the record companies are still making millions off of his music, his passion and his life. Some songs were about freedom, some songs were about unity, and some songs were about love, but all songs were about Bob, about his life, about his strife, and about what he believed was right.

On this Legends birthday, I want you all to recognize the lyrics to the song War off the album Rastaman Vibration:

“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned –
Everywhere is war –
Me say war.

That until there no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man’s skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes –
Me say war.

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race –
‘Tis a war.

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained –
Now everywhere is war – war.

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
That hold our brothers in Angola,
In Mozambique,
South Africa
Sub-human bondage
Have been toppled,
Utterly destroyed –
Well, everywhere is war –
Me say war.

War in the east,
War in the west,
War up north,
War down south –
War – war –
Rumours of war.
And until that day,
The African continent
Will not know peace,
We Africans will fight – we find it necessary –
And we know we shall win
As we are confident
In the victory

Of good over evil –
Good over evil, yeah!
Good over evil –
Good over evil, yeah!
Good over evil –
Good over evil…”

This was most likely the most powerful song ever sung by Bob Marley and the Wailers, not just for it’s lyrics, but actually from where the lyrics came from. Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I (Imperial Majesty and Leader of Rastafarians) read this speech in his Ahmaric language in the UN in 1963 which was written by Lorenzo Tazaz. Bob Marley and the Wailers turned it into a song by using the part of Selassie’s speech that calls for equality among all without regard to race, class, or nationality in his hymnal cry for peace. It also asserts, quoting Selassie directly, that until the day of an equal society, there will be war. In the original speech, Selassie urged U.N. officials and country representatives to disarm nuclear weapons, and to end international exploitation (specifically with Africa). The song honors Haile Selassie I while calling for action against racial inequality and international injustice. The part of the speech used by Bob Marley was preceded by the following words:

“Last May, in Addis Ababa, I convened a meeting of Heads of African States and Governments. In three days, the thirty-two nations represented at that Conference demonstrated to the world that when the will and the determination exist, nations and peoples of diverse backgrounds can and will work together. In unity, to the achievement of common goals and the assurance of that equality and brotherhood which we desire.”

Some seriously powerful lyrics recognized and relayed to the world by the Legend – Bob Marley.

Understand it, and respect it

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Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind The Man I Am

Who Are You? Really?

Jan 30,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Being into extreme sports you meet a lot of different people over your lifetime, but do you really know them? People judge each other on what they know and see, and maybe don’t realize that it could be the past of a person that is what really makes them who they are. You only know someone from the time you first meet them, your grandparents are wrinkled and grey, you mom or dad are already grown ups and it’s hard to picture them any other way, or believe that they used be crazy teenagers like yourself at one time. Even when you see pictures of people you know that existed before you knew them, you don’t fully believe it.

What do you know about me? Who am I anyway?

Maybe you were there when I was helping the sport of snowboarding progress to the point it’s at now. And maybe you’ve never seen me on a snowboard so you just figure I don’t ride….

Maybe you were there when I was flying off rooftops, inventing new tricks and destroying the streets on my skateboard. And maybe you just see me as some fat lazy tranny rider that just likes cruisin’ around…

Maybe you were there when I was pushed down by society for what I looked like and believed in and spent every day hating the government and fighting for change. And maybe you think I just work for the City in my cushy office job and have an easy life…

Maybe you were there when I moved across the country away from everyone we knew with everything we owned and completely started over at age 19 to get rid of my depression and try to find happiness. And maybe you just thought I grew up in Surrey, was always happy and have lots of friends here…

Maybe you were there when we lived on Hastings Street, partied every day and survived off all the used skateboards and shoes that people would give us. And maybe you just think we always owned the house we live in and I always had all brand new equipment and owned a skateboard company…

Maybe you were there, maybe you weren’t.

My point is you only know someone from the time you know them, and not everyone has a biography written about them that explains everything that they’ve done to help change the world, or tell you about all the struggles they’ve faced and battles they’ve fought. And sometimes you might want to take the time to learn about people and what made them who they are today, and how they helped make you who you are too.

Don’t just know people from today, know them from yesterday.

Think about it, what do you really know about your friends, about your neighbours, about your own family members and what they did in this world in the past to make a difference?

Maybe it’s time to learn

Extreme Sports Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind Skateboarding The Bob Marley Quote of the Month

Won’t you help me sing these Songs of Freedom?

Jan 7,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Some days are such a struggle, you always go to bed at night with hope that the next day will be awesome, only to be let down by some mind crushing experience. It was a hilarious start to the New Year 2013, good thing I have a sick sense of humour. 2012 was a terrible year for me mentally with so much death and pain that i just wanted it to be over. We had a great time on New Year’s Eve as a family hanging out and playing pool with our neighbours and was glad to see the year finally come to a close. The last thing I said to myself before sleep was “please let this next year be better…”

So the day, and New Year 2013, began with me waking up to the distant sound of 3 year old Kaelen calling my name, “Daddy, Daaaaddy.” I got up and found him locked in the bathroom and couldn’t get out. I told him how to unlock the door and he did it no problem and opened it up only for me to be surprised by him standing there naked with poop all over his legs and smeared all over the bathroom. I asked him what the heck happened and he told me that he couldn’t get his jammies off in time because of the button at the top and he pooped his pants, then tried to clean it up by himself by taking baby wipes and wiping up the poop. It was definitely a classic start to the New Year.

The funny part about it was I was hardly fazed at all by it, just more concerned about why it happened and whether or not he was okay. I woke up Carrie as I walked by our bedroom with my poo covered son to go downstairs to the bathtub and told her she needed to get up right away and there was a mess to clean. Happy New Year!

The morale of this story is that no matter how bad it is, we’re still alive. We still have our health and our happiness as a family, and we can laugh about most situations. I didn’t look at this as a bad start to the new year, but more as a sign that we are going to be spending this next year cleaning up all the shit that happened in 2012.

This month’s quote from Bob Marley is from one of his most well known songs – Redemption Song –

“But my hand was made strong by the hand of the Almighty. We forward in this generation, triumphantly;

Won’t you help to sing these songs of freedom?”

We all have someone or something we look up to and pray to, whether it’s God or Religion or just some imaginary structure, and that is our Almighty. And as a group in this world we learn how to overcome sad, painful and depressing situations, and together we can find our Freedom.

So next time the shit hits the fan in your life, or the bathroom floor for that matter, don’t worry about it. Just sit back, relax and think of the humour that comes with it. Remember your strengths and stand up tall. We will overcome, we will have our redemption, and we will find our freedom – together…

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Extreme Sports Hippie Mike Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind Life and Death - And all the Emotions that come in between Skateboarding

Goodbye 2012

Jan 1,2013 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

At the end of every year I like to reflect on what happened and what needs to happen in the upcoming one. This year was full of mixed emotions for me. I read a post that Dan Pageau had posted recently about how 2012 was a solid year for him – got a new Pro model with Monke and opened up 2 Skate Shops “One Love” and just how he was down in the dumps and then life just turned around for him and everything is awesome again. This is what I’m really hoping for myself for next year, is just to have a full year of positivity. This year was very tough. Both my cats died at separate times and so did my Dad, and that crushed me, big time. He was everything to me, my strength, my power and my love, and I lost a lot of that when he passed away. Life was just hard this year and we fell into more debt, I closed down one of my businesses and depression was definitely existent in both mine and my wife’s minds every day. But when I look at all the good things I can’t complain forever – I got a partner to help me out with Protest and revamped the Team and the Website and now it seems to be taking off again, I have one of the cutest and smartest kids in the world who makes me laugh everyday and keeps me proud, I won a few contests and got a video clip on America’s Funniest Videos, I made tons of new relationships this year and I really got back on to my skateboard. I can’t wait for the New Year 2013 just so I can start off fresh from here. There are some seriously positive opportunities just waiting to happen in our lives right now and they will change everything if they do.

The one thing I always know I have is tons of great friends, and no matter what happens, or how shitty I feel, they are always there.

Thanks 2012 for helping me find myself once again – Now bring on something better…

Extreme Sports Hippie Mike's Messed Up Mind Life and Death - And all the Emotions that come in between Skateboarding Upcoming Events

If the world’s gonna end – we’re goin’ out in style

Dec 17,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

They say that December 21^st, 2012 is going to be the end of the Earth, that all hell is going to break loose and meteors are going to fall from the sky and kill us all, demolishing the planet we live on. I say bullshit…

In all the years I’ve been alive there have been many times where we are told the whole world is going down. And no one even cares about this prediction, they’re all non-believers. Sorry Mayans.

My favourite threat like this was the Millennium when all technology was supposed to fail us and we were all going to be helpless for weeks and months if we weren’t prepared. Oh we prepared alright, by going to Barbados where we could warm and relaxed and make sure we would enjoy ourselves if we couldn’t utilize technology to survive. Oh no, please don’t trap me on this beautiful island where we have plenty of natural substances and just enough people to share them with. But unfortunately the reality I believed was true and we still had a plane to catch on January 2^nd. Now the earth is going to explode? Sure.

Either way I’m going to prepare to go out in style like always.

Join me for the end of the earth on December 21^st – 4-8pm at Chuck Bailey Skate Park where I will be dressed as Santa Claus handing out gifts to everyone who shows up for a session in the park.

Rain, Shine, Snow, Meteors…. Don’t matter.

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Category : Hippie Mike’s Messed Up Mind