I was walking through a certain park a couple of weeks ago to meet up with Carrie and Kaelen over by the Duck Pond and out of the corner of my eye I saw this bridge… Not just any bridge, but a beautiful full pavement pathway and arch bridge just begging for flip tricks. My first thought was, “Damn, I’m gonna bring Jay Mykyte here just so he can 3flip it.” We showed up on Saturday, and there was definitely a skateboard demonstration at the park – Check it!
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We took Andy out skating last Saturday to 3 of the North Van/West Van bowls – Griffin, Horeshoe Bay andParkgate. I know Andy has been to Griffin before, since he was King of the Bowl Series last year, I’m not sure if he’d been to Horseshoe Bay or not, and I knew he had never even seen Parkgate. We skated each park for 1 hour. Like usual, it was the Andy Anderson Demo at each one.
So Friday, April the 13th, 2012 was the day the Danny Way and some of the DC team came to Chuck Bailey Skate Park in Surrey, British Columbia. Hosted by myself, Hippie Mike, along with Coastal Riders skate shop, it was going to be an easy event to run, provided that the weather agreed with us, which it totally did. There was about 250 people there, lots of talented skaters, waiting patiently for the group to arrive. Traffic on all routes was a mess, but they showed up around 5pm ready to rip it. Danny had decided earlier that he wasn’t going to be skating, so he just hung out and watched everyone else showing their skills, and would sign whatever autographs that were requested. Danny’s a great guy, super mellow, and always appreciative of his fans. For being someone who has changed the face of skateboarding in so many ways, he’s just stoked to see everyone having a good time together.
Josh Kalis, Matt Miller, Wes Kremer, Sascha Daley, Chad Dickson and Mickey Papa – that was your demo. Tons of tricks got laid down all over the park , but I’d have to say the spotlight was on Wes Kremer. This guy can rip it, and skates everything. He was inventing some very funky lines in and out of the bowl, dropped some tech rail tricks down the 3 block, and annihilated the fireplace channel quarter pipe. Everybody skated really solidly, and I know that the audience had a great time. Thanks for coming out toSurrey.
Saturday night finally arrived, and the Granville Cinema had a phat line outside. They all wanted to see whatDanny Way was about to reveal – Waiting for Lightning. It was an amazing showcase of the life of a man who has changed the world in many ways. It taught the audience about his tough upbringing, and the sorrows that not everyone would have known about him. And it showed the definition of the word “Battle”. My two favorite things about Danny Way have always been – #1. That he takes wild, unthinkable dreams and visions from inside his head and brings them out to reality, something I am all about. All of a sudden one day, you get an idea, and from that point on, you do whatever it takes to make that idea happen. And #2, nothing can stop him… he will not give up. This is a major trait I have always possessed myself. You want it, you go get it. As long as you can walk, or at least stand on your board, then you’re still trying to land it. Danny Wayhas defined the word “Man” on television a few times. Go back to X-Games when he hung up on the mega quarter pipe and flipped into the flat bottom. No one else in their right mind was going to go back to the drop in and take another run, but Danny could walk on his own, so it was inevitable. It was also one of the most insane runs anyone ever did on the mega ramp set up still to the day. Nothing will hold this guy down, and that is what I have always loved about him.
The video was eye opening for many of the younger generation skaters, who weren’t around in the 80’s and early 90’s when Danny was on a mission to be the man, and maybe didn’t know about all the crazy things he had done through those years for the sport of skateboarding. I always watched him. Danny Way, Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk – the 3 destroyers. They all invented so much for skateboarding. I personally had seen almost all of the footage in the documentary during the eras that they were filmed. I have the entireBones Brigade collection, The Santa Cruz Box Set, Shackle Me Not, The original 4 Plan B videos, and more stuff after that. Danny’s been around for a long time, and I’ve been watching him since I started skateboarding in 1986, which was around the time his face started popping up in the vids. He’s not much older than I am, and I understand how messed up his body must be. He’s been through a lot. The documentary focused mainly on the big jump over the Great Wall of China. The original thought of this jump was breaking many boundaries. Anyone who knows anything about Communism would be nervous about even bringing this idea to the table. But for some strange reason, the Chinese Government allowed it to happen. This was huge!!
What I liked about the video was how there was this massive crew of workers building this gigantic death trap of a ramp, but I don’t think that any one of them actually realized what it was for until Danny showed up. I’m sure that at least half of them shit their pants when they saw a guy start climbing up the stairs holding nothing but a skateboard. Reality must have really sunk in. But I think it sunk in even more when they saw what happened when he didn’t make it…
Once again, Danny Way got a taste of his own reality. When you force dreams to come true, they don’t always end the same way you planned it when you were asleep. This was definitely one of the worst bails in skateboard history, and with only a few days left before the scheduled jump date, Danny had to somehow get over the pain, get over the fact that this was a life or death situation, and prepare himself mentally to go out there and land it. 69 feet, over the Great Wall of China, with a busted ankle. There’s no warm up for this. You climb the stairs, look straight down at your destiny, and drop in.
I loved the part where after he lands it, the media is in his face. And at that point, the adrenaline of a lifetime of historic skateboarding memories that possess this man’s soul took over. He had jumped the Great Wall of China. He had set a world record for the longest jump on a skateboard, and the highest air over a quarter pipe. But he had not satisfied himself enough to go home without climbing back up those stairs and dropping in again for the world’s biggest 360 air. He didn’t do it to show off, he didn’t do it to impress the people, he didn’t do it to be the best, he did it to fulfil his passion, and to turn his dream into reality…
Danny Way lives amongst a rare group of the Best Sports Hero’s of all time. Tony Hawk, Matt Hoffman, Travis Pastrana, Joe Montana, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods; all legends of their own sports, not just for their talents, but for their creativity, and for their ambition to never give up…
After many years of ripping together, I finally asked Stu if he wanted to represent for Protest. Straight outtaSurrey, Stu’s always been hardcore, and was always one of my favorite people to skate with. Stu has some serious Big Tranny skills and rips up any bowl, ramp or barricade you put in his path. Stoked to have him on the Team and looking forward to all the footage we’re gonna see. We stopped in to skate with Stu at Leeside the other night and had a blast. Check it out.
Bushman finally presented Andy Anderson with his Crown after earning the title of “2011 King of the Bowls” last August. At age 15, Andy shredded at every Bowl Series competition last year and the title was well deserved. Andy continues to progress every day and will definitely be one of the highlights to watch at many more Bowl Series contests to come.
2011 King of the Bowls – Pretty Good
Taking the 2011 King of Surrey trophy the same year – Amazing
But to top all that, the highlight of Andy’s day was learning who Alex Chalmers is.
Just another day in the life of young 15 year old Andy Anderson. The kid knows how to represent, funny part is he’s not even tryin’. See Andy rip 10 tricks down the 7 stair at Vancouver’s Skate Plaza. When Andy told me about it I asked him why he did 10 tricks in 10 minutes… His answer was, “It just worked out that way.” My first thought – “I don’t know if I could even go back and forth from the starting point to the landing 10 times in 10 minutes… especially not on that monster board. Oh to be young again.” Keep shredding Andy – PROTEST REPRESENT!!
Are you tired of the same boring skateboarding videos with the same spots over and over again? Well, brace yourself because the revolution is finally here! There are no rules, restrictions or standards. We are the ones making the rules, and we make the spots while we skate everything that shouldn’t be skated. Watch Protest Skateboards team riders John Irvine, Jeff Cole, Cisco Gooding, Nathan Lintunen and Hippie Mike in What The “F” Were We Thinkin’??
Long Anticipated, and patiently filmed for over the nasty months of Winter, all 48 videos are made. Hippie Mike has set the standard for you guys to compare to. You can enter as many 5 Trick Videos as you want to. Pick any of the 48 skate parks below and get out there filming. Upload your videos to Youtube, then submit your video links here. Your videos will be voted on by the public. And whoever has the most votes wins.
Grand Prize $500
The rules are simple:
There will be a separate winner for every Park on the list who will win a Protest T-Shirt. Video Submission runs from June 21st – August 21st. Online Voting runs from June 21st – September 11th. Winners will be announced and awarded on September 15th at Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey grand finale held at South Surrey Youth Park. Check out Hippie Mike’s Videos below
A WINNER HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED!! Sean Lowe has won the Show Up Mike online skateboarding contentst.
Below is an archive of the Show Up Mike 2012 online skateboarding contest leaderboard.
Check out Sean Lowe’s entry into the “Show Up Mike” online skateboard contest at the Kensington skatepark.
So it’s finally over, but what a great summer for Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey, hard to believe that this was the 8th year and there are still some of the same people showing up to all the events. Awesome.
This day was long anticipated by so many people, the first ever full lenght contest at Chuck Bailey. Since I work there, and part of my job is to be outside in the park, I skate it quite a bit. And every day there are multiple people of all ages there skating hard, and constantly learning. So many of them wanted to be the first to win at Chuck Bailey Park, I knew we were in for a wicked show…
The day was sweet, one of the nicest days of this so called summer of 2011. There was between 100 and 150 people at the park and they were all having fun. The Mini’s started off the competition in style by shredding everything in sight.
JR went off in his first run pumping up the crowd, so awesome to have him back. I missed JR soooo much last summer when he had moved away. He spent all summer at Chuck Bailey skating with Adam and Josh Lewis and they all ripped it up at the comp. The big surprise in this category was Justin Fiorante who came out flying over the 3 block and ended by almost kickflipping it. I love seeing that point where a kid all of a sudden gets real good. Justin always had a bit of talent, but I could tell at the last few contests that he has made it to a new level in his skating. Sick runs buddy, and I believe his first ever win!!
The Beginner category was owned by Luke Thodus, undoubtably. 180’s over the 3 block, gap lipslide on the ledge to ledge, and some mighty big boardslides for a tiny dude. Killed it. The rest of the 27 Beginners also had amazing runs. There were so many tricks landed in Beginner, we could’ve gone home right then – show over.
The Intermediates got to skate one at a time, lucky for them.Sky and Brandon both showed that they’ve been hanging at Chuck Bailey every day for the past couple months, Cole Thodus impressed all with his super skills and big ledge and rail skating and Tanner and Jackson Hawthorne both came out with solid practically flawless runs both times. Sick category, tough to win. The ladies all skated together – Brianna, Cali and Erin trying there hardest to show there skills, and Gen and Sam carving the place up. Not many tricks, but still a good competition. Too bad Carrie was sick and coudn’t skate.
Then finally came Advanced – 20 people all wanting to be the first ever “Champion of Chuck.” Fighter and Calvin got to start it off together, and start it off they did. Both of them tore the park up completely different from the other. Calvin demo’d on the rails and 3 block while Fighter went fast and huge everywhere. It was already ineveitable that being judge in this category was going to seriously suck. Baba, Coddi, Ryan Barron, Nick, Cisco, Jaden, Brendan, Dominic, Damon, The Jigga, Giver, Jordan Repin, the list goes on telling you all the people that skated amazingly and still didn’t place. It came straight down to the king of switch stance – Adam Fontaine, and the outright King – Andy Anderson. Adam hits hard switch tricks on the rails and even I have to double take to confirm that it wasn’t regular – because of how flawless he skates. Switch back tails, back lips, back smiths, whatever. But Andy was untouchable. He camped out the night before at China Creek for the Jacks Contest, but skytrained to Chuck to compete in Advanced. Both of his runs were amazing and if the Original Bones Brigade was looking for a sixth, Andy woud’ve been the one. Untouchable!
The standings were announced at the end, the plaques were all given out, the food and money was donated to the Surrey Food Bank (385 lbs of food and $425.75), the Most Improved Award was given to Dominic Devries (The Dominator), and the King of Surrey was named for 2011 – Andy Anderson – placed top 3 in all 5 contests, and also won King of the Bowls this year, a Historic Moment. The bad part for all the others is that, unlike Bowl Series, at Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey, you’re allowed to win the King Trophy more than once. Can Andy be the first to do that one, we gotta wait a whole year to find out…
See you then.
Mini 1. Justin Fiorante; 2. Josh Lewis; 3. JR Barron; 4. Aiden Eastman; 5. Jon Schrack; 6. Sam Stephans; 7. Isiah Stroud; 8. Jack Stroud; 9. Ethan Clark; 10. Alex Mager; 11. Dylan Rossi
Beginner 1. Luke Thodus; 2. Matthew Major; 3. Morgan Skinner; 4. Matthew Forcier; 5.Adam Lewis; 6. Rob Schrack ; 7. Billy Shouting; 8. Max Stephans, Noah Eastwood & Riley Allen; 9. Matthew McCauley; 10. David Martin, Bailey Flecks, Jacob Drescher & Mitch Hudson; 11. Scott Cresine; 12. Kevin Tran, Riki Mockizuki & Evan Way; 13. Sage Van Hatten & Trystan Briggs; 14. Colton Routtenbourg; 15. Mark Melyukov, Andrew Goodlet & Austin; 16. Hayden Gordon; 17. Nikki Thomas
Girls 1. Genevieve Lawrie; 2. Sam Maiers; 3. Cali Martin; 4. Brianna Brownrigg; 5. Erin Beynon
Intermediate 1. Jackson Hawthorne; 2. Tanner Hawthorne; 3. Cole Thodus; 4. Brandon Poland; 5. Sky Clow; 6. Peter Kelly; 7. Austin Shelton & Mick Bey; 8. Alex Savage; 9. Aaron Marshall; 10. Robert Wylie
Advanced 1. Andy Anderson; 2. Adam Fontaine; 3. Calvin Dignard; 4. Dominic Devries; 5. Cisco Gooding; 6. Brendan Nielsen; 7. Jay Mykyte & Fighter (Brad Muscat); 8. Brandon Baba; 9. Jaden Easton-Ellett; 10. Jordan Repin; 11. Matt Cook & Allen Handley; 12. Ryan Barron; 13. Damon Kerr; 14. Giver, Ryan Soug & Coddi Ryane
Most stickers on their helmets – Tie between Aiden Eastman & Jason the Scooter Kid
5′ tall or shorter Best Trick on the Quarter – Luke Thodus – Heelflip Rock and Roll
Best Trick on the 3 Block Set Up – Calvin Dignard – Double Heelflip over the 3 block
Highest Wallride – Brad Muscat
Most Improved – Dominc Devries
King of Surrey – Andy Anderson
Wow, I can hardly believe it. I’ve worked in Cloverdale for over 8 years, and I used to complain so much when I used to teach Sk8 Lessons at their Park because of how hot it always is there compared to everywhere else in Surrey. But for the past 3 Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey contests in Cloverdale, it’s been cold and rainy. When it rained at Fleetwood this year, the first thing I thought was wow, this must mean that it’s not going to rain in Cloverdale this year. And I was right…
The ironic part was that because of another contest that evryone needs to go and try to qualify for Wild in the Parks was also scheduled the day of the Fleetwood contest. And they postponed it till August 26th, so therefore 75% of the kids that would normally be at the Cloverdale comp were not there. Too funny. But you know who was there?
Andy Anderson, Dale Kind, Fighter, Cisco, Mitchy, Jigga Jay, Allen, Andre, William, Max, Kai, Riley, and lots of others, including Quinton Salter dressed up in a Chicken Suit. Nice! Also The TV show Gen Y was there filming and interviewing people for their show, and I believe there was also a lady from The Cloverdale Reporter snapping some pictures for a good part of the day. Lots of publicity, and all the kids striving to get some were at Railside in Poco…
It was an amazing day to watch skateboarding. I think everyone skated really awesome.
Every category was a struggle to judge because all competitors had good runs and landed so many wicked tricks.Kai definitely dominated the Mini category with his technical style and smooth flow, followed close by Jon, but the big surprise had to be Aiden Eastman – 6 1/2 years old and has been trying so hard this year to get tricks down so he could place in a contest. He did it!! 3rd place buddy. We are all stoked for you, and I was very impressed. The Beginner category had 15 kids in it. They all skated great, but Best Run of the day in Beginner had to go to Dante. Hi s1st run he only landed a couple things, but then came out flying in his second run landing every trick he tried with authority. Awesome run man, too bad for the first one or you might have placed. Still took home some fresh new Knee Pads and a sweet hat though. Max took the beginner Category anyway, but then spread the icing all over the cake with a huge backside 180 into the deep end of the bowl. Uphill landing = not easy. Nice one man.
Not too many Intermediates, I can take a guess where they all were. William LeTourneau took the big win, but I still liked watching the Chicken tear up every obstacle in the park. I think some of his 1st run might make the TV.
The Advanced was insane, like always. But even more so this time Every single person in Advanced dominated. We all knew who took 1st and 2nd, but not necessarily which one took which place yet. So it was all about 3rd place. Andy Anderson stole the 3rd place prize, barely. Brad Muscat (Fighter) had 2 amazing runs, Judo blunts and blunt 180’s in the mini ramp, Crooks, Tailslides and BAck LIps on the Loading Dock Rail, and all with his left arm in a full arm cast. He won it for sure… But then Dale had his sencond run, Dude! Smith Grind over the top part of the step ledge, 50-50 up the Loading Dock Rail to manual, Nosestall Body Varial Tail stall Revert on the ledge at the top of the bank, and finishes it off with a Smith Grind to 50-50 180 on the flat bar. Stole it from the Fighter. DJ Dale!!
Best Trick in the halfpipe to finish the day – Allen Handley wins with Back Footed Heelflip Backside Boneless. Alrighty then…
Mini 1. Kai Searle; 2. Jon Schrack; 3. Aiden Eastman; 4. Justin Fiorante; 5. Sam Stephans; 6. Isiah Stroud; 7. Anna Bartnik (got hurt in 2nd run)
Beginner 1. Max Stephans; 2. Konnor Cadeau; 3. Andrew Harden; 4. Riley Allen; 5. Rob Schrack; 6. Dante; 7. Joey Sinclair; 8. Colton Routtenberg; 9. Bishop Posie & Andrew Goodlet; 10. Colby Banyard; 11. Jacob Antony; 12. Ayden S.; 13. Connor; 14. Sage
Intermediate 1. William LeTourneau; 2. The Chicken; 3. Coddi Liang & Andre Bissonnette; 4. Brandon Poland; 5. Robert Wylie
Advanced 1. Dale Kind; 2. Brad Muscat; 3. Andy Anderson; 4. Cisco Gooding; 5. Jay Mykyte; 6. Mitch Salter; 7. Allen Handley; 8. Jordan Strong (got hurt in 7 seconds in 1st run)
See you all at this year’s Grand Finale at Chuck Bailey Park – the first ever competition there.