The Show Up Mike Contest is finally coming to a close. You had all summer to present the world with your 5 trick videos at any of the 49 local parks in this insane land of skateboarding that we call home. Fighter took the lead early with his Chuck Bailey submission, but ran out of friends too fast. Ryan Brynelson crushed the competition with over 120 votes the first day his video went up and raised the bar even higher sitting on top for close to a month. The only person man enough to take him off the podium was Sean Lowe and after quite a back and forth battle is still living the high life with over 300 votes. Today, September 11th 2012, is the day that decides everything. Will Sean hold on for the $500 or do some of these guys have reserves hiding somewhere just waiting to vote at 11:30pm or something. Who knows?
You have until midnight tonight to vote…
The winner will be announced at Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey 2012’s Grand Finale this Saturday September 15th at approximately 4:00pm.
(All 18 runner’s up will be receiving a Custom Show Up Mike T-Shirt for participating)
Alright, last but not least, The Protest Skateboards version of the Battle at Hastings 3 is finally released. Filmed by Jordan Strong and Hippie Mike, it has the same dudes in it as everyone else’s video – Chris Steggles, Adam Hopkins, Mason Merlino, James Clarke, Stu Benoit, and many more. It was an amazing day of skating, and there were so many people filming it was awesome. But there’s actually some tricks that weren’t in the other vids so you should give it a watch.
And here’s a sequence of Chris Steggle’s 360 over the fence – Tiiiiight!
Back in August we a few of us from the Team packed into the truck and headed over to the Island to skate the Victoria Parks with the Posse from Tsawwassen. Jaden Easton-Ellett, Cisco Gooding, Andy Anderson, myself and Fighter (Brad Muscat) loaded up early and got to the Ferry just in time to miss it. A little skating went down at the Terminal while we waited and of course, Brad rolled his ankle 180ing some gap. Good start to the day, right? We got across an hour later than the other boys and drove right past them as they were shredding the Sydney Skate Park, hooking up at Gordon Head Skate Park. This park is lots of fun, especially if you were around during the era that it was considered to be amazing. Lots of sick tricks went down there, tons of kids were stoked, and of course some random lady from the local paper showed up and was bugging Mike for photos, I don’t mind, it’s always a Hippie Mike Show. We hooked up every kid there with a free Protest T-shirt, held a Best Trick Contest for a Protest Deck, and then headed over to Esquimalt – Vic West Skate Park.
Andy just started annihilating the place, while the rest of us just basically skated the one hip. The place was packed and all people there were having fun, lots of dudes commenting on Andy’s styles. We got shut down early because of this insane thunderstorm that swept over us and poured so hard that the raindrops were bouncing knee high off the ground. Posse out, we went back to the place where the Tsawwassen Crew were staying, had a quick BBQ and headed back to the Ferry for the 9:00 Boat. A good day. Shadd Trepp, Graeme Betts, Michael Ray, Andrew Classon, Tyler Burke and some other rippers all hung out for the rest of the week hitting up some sweet Island Skate Parks. Wish we could’ve stayed, next time, we’ll try to stay longer.
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…
Welcome to Episode 3 of GLORY DAZE with Hippie Mike. We’re hangin’ out all day today with one of the most consistent skaters in the Fraser Region. He was named “King of the Bowls” and “King of Surrey” last year in 2011 at the raw age of 15. His sponsors include Protest Skateboards, Vans Shoes, Kilian Clothing, Monke Hardware and Pd’s Hot Shop. Give it up for Andy Anderson!!
Andy Anderson: How you doin’ Mike?
Hippie Mike: Good, Andy, we’re gonna get right into this, your only 16 years old but how long have you been skateboarding?
Andy Anderson: I’ve been skateboarding for 12 years, so since I was 4
HM: Wow. Can you explain how you first met me and what influence I had on you at that time
Andy: Well, I met you at a Cloverdale Hippie Mike’s Competition. I came in 3rd in Beginner or something, back when you didn’t have Mini. And all I remember is this way too big yellow Substance T-Shirt that I won. I wore it around my house for like 2 weeks, man
HM: So we’re here at the White Rock Bowl/South Surrey Skate Park where you have been training at for the majority of your lifetime, do you think this park has made you the skateboarder that you are today?
Andy: Definitely, because of the various obstacles here. Nothing is actually made for skateboarding, at least that’s how it feels, but I don’t know, White Rock teaches you how to be a Well-rounded Skateboarder – tranny; difficult street
HM: What do you think would be different if you had grown up somewhere else?
Andy: I’d be more based upon one style of skateboarding I think. Also, you’re pretty excluded out here, like it’s the other side of the world for North Van, you know, so I don’t really get to watch that many people unless they’re locals
HM: In the past few years you have consistently placed Top 3 in the majority of competitions that you entered. Is there added pressure in your mind to always win because of that?
Andy: Well that has started recently, but not really, I try to keep that all out. I always fall; I always get extremely hurt whenever I feel slight stress and my mind gets all scrambled. But as long as I’m not worried about winning, I always do good
HM: What was the best contest you ever won?
Andy: King of the Bowls (Big Smiles), Whistler… Ah man, that was awesome. That bowl just like, the park makes the competition because the park is so great, and then they host such a great competition at such a classic bowl. I don’t know…
HM: Well Whistler’s a great bowl though, and Whistler has 3 different parks in reality you can skate so there’s all different kinds of styles
Andy: Yeah!
HM: I referred to you as one of the most consistent skaters in the Lower Mainland/Fraser Region, and it’s true, especially in contest runs. How does it make you feel when you know that everyone else at the contest is sitting there hoping you screw up during your runs so they have a chance to win?
Andy: (Laughs) Uhhh, I’ve never thought of it like that. I just always try to block out everything else
HM: Do you think that they have that thought in their brain or are they actually routing for you to win, again?
Andy: That has legitimately never crossed my mind (Laughs)
HM: Okay, tell the world about the support that your parents have given you and are still giving you in your ventures as a skateboarder
Andy: Oh Man my parents are great. They help me out with everything. They bought me stuff when I needed stuff, you know, that was a big thing, and like I don’t know what to say about them…. Dad drives me out to Victoria every year for like a week and we just go skateboarding. He would take time off, like a fuckin’ week, to go skateboarding. And he doesn’t even skateboard. It was awesome
HM: Name your 3 favorite Skate Parks
Andy: White Rock, Leeside… Oh man, this 3rd one’s gonna be hard to hit…. I’m gonna say Hastings
HM: Name your 3 favorite Skate Spots
Andy: Oh man, Cooper’s Park for sure (under the Cambie Street Bridge), uhhhhh, can you count Bear Creek as a Skate Spot?
HM: Sure
Andy: Okay Bear Creek Park! And, ummm, Georgia Banks
HM: Name your 3 favorite Skate Companies
Andy: Oh like legitimately? Vans, Skull Skates, Protest
HM: Name your 3 favorite people to skate with
Andy: (Deep Breath) I do a lot of skating by myself, but….
HM: Are you one of your favorites to skate with?
Andy: (Laughs) Okay yeah, myself. You (Hippie Mike) always push me to do shit, because like nobody pushes me, there all just like kind of sittin’ back yellin’ “Do it! Do it!” getting me really hurt all the time. So you’re definitely not in the Top 3 (laughs), no you’re up there. I don’t know.. Who else do I skate with, Joe Buffalo
HM: Joe Buffalooooo!! Tell us about your favorite Skateboard Experience ever
Andy: King of Bowls, King of Bowls
HM: Last year in 2011, you won 2 huge titles in this region: “King of Surrey” – for placing in the Top 3 the most times in Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey & “King of the Bowls” – for the same status in the Bowl Series. Right around the same time, you got put on Team Protest, and had a video part in the latest edition of The Protest Profile on the Ear Goggles DVD. What was it like to be 15 years old and have all of this happening at that time?
Andy: Phew, dude. Skateboarding is like my complete life right? So when skateboarding works out it’s just my whole life is working out. It was great. It was the peak so far
HM: In May of this year, 2012, you showed up to the World Round-Up Freestyle Skateboarding Contest hosted by Kevin Harris and asked if you could enter. How come?
Andy: Well, my girlfriend wanted me to go to the Rodeo, and I wasn’t super stoked on it, but I heard there was this skateboarding thing going on so I thought I’d show up and I thought it would be a bunch of guys doing Tre Flips on flat or something, but it ended up being a full-fledged Freestyle Competition
HM: During the Finals, legendary photographer Jim Goodrich came over to where we were sitting and complimented you in front of your parents saying how nice you were, how talented you were, and how you were the one pushing the rest of the group to try harder. How did that make you feel?
Andy: I didn’t know Jim, but really like, how popular is a photographer?? But afterwards I looked at some of his photos and they’re just some of the most classic stuff, like Jay Adams, and like, oh my gosh… so that felt amazing. Jim’s a really nice guy
HM: You ended up placing 5th in the Amateur Category out of about 16 people from around the globe. Did that change your life in any way?
Andy: (Laughing) I didn’t realize that I was that good at Freestyle
HM: (Laughs) So you’ve always practised Freestyle? Are you some sort of “hide in your room” guy at night just doing primo tricks?
Andy: Well I was for like 1 winter. I just got super into like Truck Stands and Primos and stuff, but I always do Manuals and Shovits when I’m skating and that’s a big part of Freestyle, I didn’t realize that
HM: Are you stoked to have a legend like Kevin Harris invite you to perform Freestyle Demos with him?
Andy: Yes, that is amazing. Kevin Harris is an amazing guy, and he’s got me doing some amazing stuff
HM: So far, you have mastered all types of transitional skating like old bowls, new bowls, mini-ramps, barricades and pools, you can lay down tons of ledge and rail tricks wherever and whenever you want to, and you made a name for yourself in the Freestyle World, what the hell can we expect next from Andy Anderson?
Andy: Hopefully some flip tricks
HM: (Laughs) Alright, I want to thank you for being on GLORY DAZE with Hippie Mike. I have known you and taught you skateboarding skills since you were 7 years old.
I saw your potential right away to be an amazing skateboarder and an amazing person, and I’m glad I got to be there to help encourage you all these years. You are one of the nicest kids out there on the skate scene, you keep it humble, not cocky, and you truly are living in your Glory Daze right now, and I think it’s still gonna get better though…
Andy: Glory Daze…
HM: You make me very proud buddy – Andy Anderson everybody…..
It’s a long boring story, but it ends well. Years and years ago I was sponsored by Substance Skate Shop and I was the Team Manager. In ignorance I brought Jay Mykyte, Stu Benoit and Drew Boyle on to the Team from the other Surrey Sk8 Shop – Coastal Riders. I say ignorance not because it was a bad move to bring them on, I love all those guys and am stoked for the relationships we built, but in hindsight it should have gone the other way and instead of taking 3 riders from Coastal’s Team, I should have moved on to theirs. Eventually the atmosphere at Substance was getting a little weird, and people were not as happy, and I ended up leaving the Team and going into Coastal Riders and asking if they’d hook me up. I didn’t need my name published, and I don’t really need any product because I already get everything I need for free or for cost. It was just for the sake of having a shop to promote. Then last year Jay Mykyte started his underground shop, Royalty Skate Shop in New West and so I started reppin’ for him to help promote his shop, but unfortunately things fell apart and the shop closed during the winter. Hopefully Jay will get it reopened one day, somewhere in Surrey.
So through all this battle of life, and a decade of chaos, I watched all these skate shops close in my part of town, West49 closed both their Surrey locations, Fluid disappeared of the planet, Board Kennel went under, Paul’s Boutique lives in the mall and doesn’t count in my eye as a Skate Shop, and Coastal Riders stood there alone, eventually moving out to Langley where majority of the clientele had been coming from for the past 10 years. I have always been strong friends with all the guys from Coastal and never had any bad blood, and I was looking at their team on the website one day and it just astonished me. I helped create that team in a sense. Most of the guys on the team grew up under my wings, learning through the contests and events I provided for them, and even just from being around me in their younger years. And I love all of them like my children. I remember little Magnus when he was like 12 years old and I called him “Mr. Varial Heelflip” because he demoed them everywhere. I knew way back then that we were gonna see his skills go off the chart someday. I remember watching John Hanlon learning back lips on the Bear Creek rail, and teaching Scotty Tyson Blunt Airwalks, and putting Andrew Classon on the Protest Team when he was barely 11 and filming him kickflipping huge sets of stairs and hittin’ rails. Almost every single one of these guys grew up competing in my contests and have fully impressed me at some point their young lives and I’m proud to be a part of their future. Dustin, Zaz, Hashbrown, Machnau, Stu, Derek Mayer and more. It’s a true team of real skateboarders who are out there to have fun while they skate, it’s a solid skate shop that is committed to promoting and supporting skateboarding to the fullest, and it’s where I belong.
Thanks to Billy McElhinney, Scott Fierbach and Adam Field for always supporting me without question.
Coastal Riders for life…
Now get ready for some nasty Hippie Mike footage again
Just saw the Whistler Bowl Series Video posted up on www.bcskateparks.com and had to put the link up.
My favorite place to be each August.
It’s a great video, really showcases how the day went, but it makes me jealous that I wasn’t able to skate in the contest this year, stupid pulled back… At least I got to be on the mic, another place I love.
Don’t forget that this Saturday is Battle at Hastings #3. Presented by Vans, Bones, Thunder, Thrasher Mag, Alien Workshop, 187, Real, Fourstar, Brixton, BLVD and Kevin Kelly, lots of cash to be won. It’ll be a sick event with some of the gnarliest Bowl Skaters Vancouver area has to offer. We’ll be entering Andy Anderson and Stu Benoit to represent for Protest Skateboards, they both know that bowl very well.
There’s gonna be a ton of rippers there. Pro or Am doesn’t matter, it’s a battle.
A few of us Chuck Bailey Locs went to peep out the new Skate Park in Coquitlam, Mackin Park last Friday. Luckily there weren’t too many kids there because it’s tiny and you can see in the video how much they get in the way. I had my back brace on so I could skate, and everyone had a good time. I found a lot of the obstacles hard to get speed for, and others tough to go slow enough. I’m not the most excited about these small back and forth parks when they come out but I’m sure I will give it a shred every now and then. It was me, Cisco Gooding, Jordan Strong, Fighter and a few friends, Calvin killed it…
Finally a super sunny day in Cloverdale for a Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey. 3 years in a row it rained and then last year it was just cloudy and cold. But not this time, sunny, clear and hot…
The Mini started off the day with aggressive moves, Jon Schrack was flying into the bowl, Mark Melyukov was stomping flip tricks and even little Aiden threw himself off the big drop which is taller than he is. Those Mini’s are crazy, and if you haven’t seen them in action, make sure you come out to the next comp on September 15th.
The Beginners are even more nuts. Morgan Skinner and Kai Searle led the crowd with outstanding runs. Kai had a completely flawless run and was not trying easy tricks, and Morgan was busting huge gap tricks including fakie Ollie off the halfpipe drop and a big half cab into the bowl. 1 point separated their total scores, wow!! They demolished the rest of the competition but it was super close for 3rd place between Justin Fiorante and Zacc Laster, but Zacc managed to hold on for the prizes. That’s two 4th places in a row Justin, step it up buddy…
The Girls category was just Carrie Williams and Cali Martin but they both did their best and landed everything they tried, so it was all good.
The Intermediates got busy on the ledges and rails but were all dominated by ex-longhair William LeTourneau. This kid has been skating this Cloverdale Skate Park religiously since he started skateboarding and it shows. He’s got all the tranny lines in the nasty bowl and grew up to lock down a whole bunch of ledge and rail tricks. Won by a mile. Little Luke Thodus could be in the Mini category since he’s 10 years old, but entered the Intermediate where he belonged. This kid’s pushing 4’ tall and is completely fearless, and super skilled. 50-50’s down the kinked rail, lipslide on the rail down the stairs and whatever else he felt like going for. The best part of Intermediate was seeing Francois LeBlanc with his pants and socks hiked up as far as he could get them for his second run, just cruising around doing pointless old school for a laugh, but landing everything. Francois is heading back to the East Coast this week so that was the last contest we’ll see him in for a while…
Shawn Jafarnejad from Ollie North Skate Shop had a Best Trick Contest on the 3 stair rail before Advanced and gave away a Deck, a Shirt and a Pair of Shoes. Quick and serious.
The Advanced was stacked with rippers, a lot of them who had plenty of experience at the old Cloverdale Park, Mitch Salter, Jay Mykyte, Jordan Strong, Brendan Nielsen, Keegan Anderson, Andre Bissonnette…. But they were all trying their hardest not to lose to The Dominator, Dominic Devries. Nice try boys, maybe next time. Brendan came the closest. We finished off the contest with a chance to see if anyone could Ollie the old gap into the shallow end of the bowl and land on the hotdog. Jordan Strong, Allen Handley and Mitch Salter went for it and nasty as it was, Allen won it as the only one to ride away. Good job dude.
Well, this was most likely the last ever Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey Contest at the Old Cloverdale Skate Park since New Line Skate Parks is already trying to lock down the designs for the new one. The old park will be removed and the new one will be built around the corner beside the Cloverdale Recreation Centre – 6188 176st and should be done Spring 2013. I’ll be left with a ton of awesome memories of lots of kids that I raised as skateboarders in that park through skateboard lessons, camps, and tons of competitions.
RIP old Clovy, and Good Riddance…
Results
Mini: 1. Mark Melyukov; 2.Jon Schrack; 3. Parker Sherwin; 4. Joe Maillet & Isaiah Stroud; 6. Aiden Eastman; 7. Eli Paad; 8. Kaelen Faux
Beginner: 1. Kai Searle; 2. Morgan Skinner; 3. Zacc Lester; 4. Justin Fiorante; 5. Nick Bachmeier; 6. David Martin & Justin Gouthier; 8. Riley Allen & Weston Hutchinson; 10. Patrick Jonas; 11. Adam Lewis; 12. Riley Robertson; 13. Bachouch Michael; 14. Finn Schanlka; 15. Matthew Lalim
Girls: 1. Carrie Williams; 2. Cali Martin
Advanced: 1. Dominic Devries; 2. Brendan Nielsen; 3. Jay Mykyte; 4. Calvin Dignard; 5. Jordan Strong; 6. Mitch Salter; 7. Keegan Anderson; 8. Allen Handley; 9. Ryan Barron; 10. Alexander Savage; 11. Quinton Salter; 12. Andre Bissonnette; 13. Ben; 14. Robert Wylie
See you next time at this year’s Grand Finale
South Surrey – September 15th, 2012
Remember to prepare for a full day as I won’t announce any winners until the end that day. Top 3 in each category will receive plaques, the King of Surrey 2012 will be announced and the so will the winner of the Show Up Mike Contest…
