A fresh video for “Beef Under the Chief”, the Squamish stop on the Bowl Series is now up on Push.ca
Have a look and see Adam Hopkins, Eve Feaver, Andy Anderson, Steve Denham, Bushman and more slay the bowl. I guess I should have tried to skate better that day, I could’ve been in it…
Nice video Sheldon
http://push.ca/blogs/skatenews/archive/2012/08/24/video-beef-under-the-chief-2012.aspx
Another amazing season of Old Bowl Skateboarding comes to a close with historic style. Every year, I itch for Canada Day just for the Seylynn Bowl Contest. To me it’s not at all about going out and competing to win, but just the chance to go skate with a huge crew of people that are all related in one way – Bowl Series. Seylynn, Griffin, White Rock, Squamish and Whistler, 5 great places to hang out and skate. These 4 “copingless” parks were all constructed in the 70’s and 80’s and are still the best parks for anyone who likes to go fast. If there’s one thing that skate parks are missing now a days, it’s Gravitron Speed Lines. If you don’t know what a Gravitron is, then I find it difficult to refer to you as a skateboarder. All the old bowls were created in a snake format and built on a downhill slope from top to bottom, but skateboarders being crazy figured out that if they fast enough down the outside of the bowl and shoot into the deepend in a u-turn could actually make it back up to the top through the bowl – Gravitron. The weightless feeling of transferring from vertical to horizontal as you tear into the bowl at dangerous speeds – Gravitron. A whole different world…
Skateboarding has changed so much over the last 3 decades, the kids now a days are just obsessed with tricks on obstacles, and a lot of them don’t know how to actually skate. They don’t know how to run onto their boards as fast as they can and push as hard as possible down the street into a downhill. They don’t know how to forget about tricks and just cruz. And that’s why I love the Bowl Series, because people of all ages that just love to skate are the ones that come out. I was astonished at Squamish by the amount of super young kids in the Beginner Category all skating tranny. There must have been over a dozen little dudes ranging in age from 4 years old to 13. They were all having the time of their lives just skating. And even in the Advanced Sections you have super young guys like Andy Anderson and Giet Rolan in their mid-teens coming out and competing against bowl legends in their 30’s and 40’s like Stevie D, Eve Feaver, Don Bushman, and myself, and beating us. It’s amazing.
Year # 18 was a very special year. Adam Hopkins is on what some would call a Glory Path this year winning pretty much any and every contest he enters, and he enters a lot of contests. He took Seylynn no problem, won it in White Rock on his first time ever there, wowed the crowd at Griffin for the gold, annihilated the competition at Squamish, and finished it all off with style, and huge airs, at Whistler. Adam Hopkins won all 5 stops, and is actually only the second King of the Bowls to win all 5, tying with Alex Chalmers who actually did it 2 years in a row back in 1997, ’98. But back then the 5th park was New West, not Squamish. Maybe Hopkins can follow in Alex’s footsteps and go for the undefeated repeat next year. Either way, you can tell that Adam is on his way to stardom and he has a huge posse of friends backing him up. Way to go dude!
Squamish was tight, Don Bushman was definitely present and showing off that this was his home park. Bushman is the only person that will always barge me out of the bowl, he’s big, goes super fast and charges lines that are impossible to read. He had these mega airs in the corner pocket of the vert wall over the loveseat that were just plain crazy and would stomp every one. Steve Denham showed off the fact that he also lives in Squamish now with smooth transfers all over the bowl and sick disasters on the vert wall. Eve Feaver was killin’ the loveseat and even Giver was skating good again. But no one was stopping Adam Hopkins with his inverts, judo airs and even a stomped 540 McTwist in the vert. He even melon transferred over the island in his run. A windy, but awesome day in Squamish, it even got topped off by Fighter doing the gap out to the parking lot. Protest represent buddy!
After the rowdy night everyone staggered into the old Whistler Park for the Finals. Same Beginners showed up from Squamish, but surprisingly had a tougher time skating a bowl without coping. I was on the mic giving them a hard time and they all represented. The Ladies were seriously picking out the speed lines and showing their fearless styles by going fast. There was a Best Trick out of the Slayer Hit for a Protest Cruiser Deck and dudes were going huge. Andy Anderson hit some sick tricks Sal Flips, Mute to Melon Hand Varial, and Bigspin Melon, Adam Hopkins was doing methods about 8 feet high and 10 feet long into the steep landing, but Danny Hagge took the win for going bigger. I’m not sure how fair that is though since Danny is about a foot and half taller than everyone else. Still sick though.
The Advanced was insane of course. My favs to watch were Eve Feaver, Turbo, Benny Stoddard, Stevie D and Hopkins. There were a lot of competitors in this category as always and it was tough to only choose a few for the Finals. I got hurt early in the day, throwing out my lower back and ended up MCing the entire event which was an honour for me. I was super hyped for the Finals and wouldn’t let them end. I think we played 4 long songs for them to skate to and everyone looked ready to pass out by the end. From Andy Anderson at age 16 to Eve Feaver shredding at 40 it was tight. Benny had the speed lines and tech tricks, Stevie and Danny had the huge transfers both ways in the bowl and sick barrier tricks, Andy demoed on the barricade and Eve skated like he skates at every event – fast, furious and styley. But obviously no one was catching Adam Hopkins, tossing 360’s, kickflip grabs and anything else he felt like puttin’ down. Huge props go out to Mike Strato for organizing and running all the events this year with the help of Giver. I know how much work behind the scenes goes into setting up a Series like this and it is definitely appreciated. 18 years of love.
Now bow down to your new King, Adam Hopkins…
What a clear day, you could see for miles and miles, except for when that truck burnt to the ground on the corner of 105 Ave and 152 st. right beside the park.
Not the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at Guildford Bowl but still decent enough to make it count for a contest. The Minis and Beginners were definitely shredding, and the older dudes all showed up to win it. The competition was tight in all categories, but Advanced was a battle.
In Mini, Jon Schrack kept his flow going from the previous 2 contests this year and took home another gold. He was flying over the gaps and ripping up the tranny in the bowl. Joe Maillet showed off his skills all over the park and Aiden Eastman skated the bowl fearlessly, which is amazing since you can hardly see him in there he’s so tiny. Dax Searle entered for the first time and did his best, and then little Kaelen Faux barged in a run after the Mini category was over. Kaelen walked over and requested his helmet from me, picked up his skateboard and stated that he was entering the competition. A pretty bold statement from a 2 and a half year old, so I had to let him have a run. He spent most of his time holding on to his Mom’s hands and trying big ollies, but we did get a show of his pogos too. Great job Mini’s!!
The Beginners were insane like always. Kai Searle started first and set a high standard for the rest to follow. Everyone was going for it, Matthew Major boardslid the 6 stair rail, Adam Lewis blasted over the double set with ease, Riley was going huge out of the bowl and Justin Fiorante landed almost everything he tried. A tough decision for the judges to only have 3 winners.
The Intermediates forgot to show up to this contest so I blended them together with the Girls, tough break for the guys because the Ladies were ready to destroy this place. Jacob Drescher and his buddy John were the only dudes in the heat and Jacob had to work super hard to even place Top 3. It’s a good thing he laid down a kickflip over the 6 stair and a 3 flip over the 2 block to finish his run because the ladies were fiercely killing the bowl. Brianna Palmer and Carrie Williams both shredded around the entire bowl with speed and stability, Carrie laid down a bunch of tricks in the halfpipe, on the taco and outside the bowl on flat. Heloise Wathelet just hit the halfpipe section up for both of her runs but threw down some serious skill tricks including a stomped out kickflip rock and a popshovit rock in the second run. But still no one could catch Elizabeth Nenniger blasting speed lines down and up the bowl and showing no fear with 50-50’s and smith grinds both ways. She killed it!!
The Advanced is never easy, but Brad Muscat showed up with a mission, which gave everyone else a mission of their own – don’t let Brad win. He set the bar high after his first run with a lot of tough tricks that other people don’t do, and then finished his second run off with a nasty crooked grind down the double set rail which point straight at the corner of the building. Dominic Devries tore up the entire place in both runs, and actually probably should have won. He laid down skills in the halfpipe, frontside flipped the double set, and backside 5-0’d the hubba. It was a tough call between the 2, They both killed it… Zeebs was there, Lil’ G was there, DJ Dale was there, Jaden Easton-Ellet and Jordan Strong were there, but no one was gonna take 3rd place away from Giver. The man known now as Michael James finally showed up with a vengeance and actually Gave’r. Giver shredded the bowl hard, long grinds, stylish bodyjars and crail tricks and finished off his second run with a perfect Miller Flip in the shallow end. Who knows, maybe he should have won. It was so tough to judge between those 3 dudes, they all killed it. Solid Efforts Boys.
We finished off with a Best Trick anywhere in the park which I though Dominic was going to win for sure. Riley Allen got in there as the only Beginner competing against all the Advanced dudes and almost stuck a huge 360 Judo out of the bowl. Dale had the lead for a bit with a manual to nosebonk bigspin on the curvy ledge, and then Dominic hit a kickflip front board down the handrail, regular and to fakie. But Jordan Strong squeezed out a victory with a long manual over the curvy ledge down the drop onto the deck of the bowl, down another drop onto the middle of the 2block, around the s-turn corner and then kickflipped out. He took home a sweet Cooler Backpack and a sick funky shaped Folk Board. Sick…
Results:
Mini: 1. Jon Schrack; Joe Maillet; 3. Aiden Eastman; 4. Dax Searle & Kaelen Faux
Beginner: 1. Kai Searle; 2. Adam Lewis; 3. Matthew Major; 4. Justin Fiorante; 5. Riley Allen; 6. Patrick Jonas; 7. Austin; 8. Bachouch Michael; 9. Dylan Rossi; 10. Matthew Lalim
Intermediate/Ladies: 1. Beth Nenniger; 2. Heloise Wathelet; 3. Jacob Drescher; 4. Carrie Williams; 5. Brianna Palmer; 6. John Furquhar
Advanced: 1. Brad Muscat [Fighter]; 2. Dominic Devries; 3. Michael James [Giver]; 4. Jaden Easton-Ellett; 5. Jordan Strong; 6. Dale Kind; 7. Myke Johnson [Zeebs]; 8. Sean Cuddeford [Lil’ G]
Best Trick: Jordan Strong – Manual drop Manual drop Manual to kickflip out
See you next time at
Cloverdale – August 25th 2012
Another classic Bowl Series contest, it was a wonder if we were going to get to have one at Griffin this year as it had already been rained out twice, but the weather was definitely allowing it today.
Griffin is usually the quietest location of the Series, it’s pretty unique and tough to skate and not as fun for speed lines as the other 3 parks, Seylynn, Whistler and White Rock, but as the crowd that showed up today proved, it can still be shredded. Even Alex Chalmers was ripping it up in the competition which is always great to watch. There was a wooden spine on the course and a manual table which was leaned up on an angle against the spine like a wallride and a couple yellow curbs were pulled out of the parking lot and added to the top of the bathtub ditch. It changed the whole scene at Griffin and everyone had a blast. People to watch were Adam Hopkins, Andy Anderson, Eve Feaver, Danny Hagge, Alex Chalmers, Simon Pigeon, and Tony and Giet from China Creek. They were all killing the park anyway but during the finals someone pulled the spine over to the side of the bathtub and it turned into a whole new competition. Nosegrinds, smiths, 360’s and back lips, this thing got demo’d.
Not much to say about the contest except, if you weren’t there, you missed out…
Sick competition!!
1st – Adam Hopkins
2nd – Danny Hagge
3rd – Giet Rolan
WOW!! There is a major battle going on right now!
Ever since Freestyle Master Ryan Brynelson put up his 5 Trick Video at Chuck Bailey Skate Park he has been sitting all by himself at the top of the Leaderboard. When I saw Sean Lowe was entering a video I knew he was going to have a strong chance, he’s got shitload of people following him right now, plus you knew his video was gonna be sick, the guy’s amazing…
Since Thursday I’ve been watching the vote counts for Sean Lowe rise and rise, but as soon as he got close to Ryan, then his started to go up. The past 4 days have just been going vote crazy for both of these guys. Both have reached over 200 votes now and believe it or not, we have a new leader. Sean Lowe is finally in the lead. How will it end??
We still have lots of time left in this contest as the voting ends September 11th at 11:59pm. I am extending the submission period for entering your vids until September 1st and then it will be purely voting from then until the 11th.
Both these guys know how to rip it, but they’re not the only ones, so if you think you still might have a chance at beating them enter your videos asap. And even if you don’t want to enter, go and vote for these guys. I can’t wait to see who wins the $500.
Winner will be announced at Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey Finale on September 15th, 2012 at the South Surrey/White Rock Skate Park.
Another gorgeous day in “The Land of the Sun”, Tsawwassen. August 5, 2012 was the date of the Tsawwassen Sun Festival and included in the promotions was the annual Skateboard Contest presented by Michael Ray and MC’d by Shadd Trepp. A lot of familiar faces who have localized the Tsawwassen Skate Park over the years – myself Hippie Mike, Cisco Gooding, Justin James, Graeme Betts, Andrew Classon, Cole Thodus, Luke Thodus, and many more…
All categories were filled with lots of talent including Beginner. Chuck Bailey local Adam Lewis took the cake in Beginner with a close Parker Sherwin in 2nd. Both these kids have fat bags of tricks, so you know it was tight for the judges.
The Intermediate Category was pretty sick. Team Protest showed up during first runs in Intermediate and it was awesome how people were asking if this was Advanced. That’s how crazy the talent level is in Tsawwassen. You know little 10 year old Luke Thodus was trying his hardest to win 2 years in a row, and I’m sure his big brother Cole Thodus did not want to let that happen. These 2 can really battle for their ages, and they both probably would have done well in Advanced too. Luke came through with another victory!!
Advanced was packed with competitors of all ages, including myself as the oldest at 33 years of age. Gilbert Turenne was first to go laying down some sick ledge tricks and 3flipping over the 3 block like butter. Fighter was hot, and hitting some nasty tricks down the biggies, crooks and smiths on the red rail, and even a benihana over the 3 block in his second run. Cisco did his usual switch, nollie and combination tricks all over the park, staying low but keeping it tech, and even Jaden competed grinding all the ledges and flying over the cans. Protest always represents wherever we go but this was a tough one to win, Andrew Classon came out in his first run with complete control and determination to win. I’ve hung out with this kid since he was about 8 years old and he’s always been super creative and super solid. He actually rode for Protest Skateboards when he was 10-11 years old. I love the way Andrew gets annoyed about how long the runs are too. He usually lands enough tricks in the first 30 seconds to win, so why should he continue?? Mick Bey was another young dude I was super proud of out there. I met Mick when he was 10 years old working an afterschool drop in program at his school. He was a super talented sporty kid that had a lot of confidence. He moved out to Tsawwassen a few years ago and grew about a foot and a half taller which really helped him with learning all these ledge and rail tricks he has on lock. It’s sick to watch these kids grow up from so young, and then actually compete against them. Mick was close to Top 3 but didn’t quite make it, but the other really tall dude from Tsawwassen did, Aleka Lang. And John Purcell was definitely representing his skills. This kid likes the rails and has a lot of switch skills. Visiting from Nova Scotia he has taken the opportunity to get his name out there since he’s been here, placing in Top 3 in a few contests and winning the Element Make it Count Qualifier at Chuck Bailey a few weeks ago. Good luck on the next stage of that one buddy, hope you do well. And I hope we hear more about this up-and-comer in the future.
So many people to congratulate and compliment from this contest, but I have to throw mad props out to Shadd Trepp on the mic for being the most enthusiastic MC off all time. Such a fun guy to be around. Shadd gets just as excited about a powerslide as he does about a 3flip lipslide. So awesome buddy!!
And best I saw all day was Graeme Betts nosebluntslide and switch lipslide a table out of the smallest bank in the park, both like butter. Graeme didn’t compete, but he doesn’t need to. True Blood Park Local forever brother.
That was Tsawwassen for this year, here’s the results
Beginner:
Intermediate:
Advanced:
At the end of June, my awesome filmer/team rider Jordan Strong emailed a link to this online contest that Lucky Surf and Skate Shop was having where you film, edit and enter a video part up to 3 minutes long. I tortured Jordan by taking him to some of the nastiest street spots around every day when he got off work and getting him to film me, but that’s the way I skate. We worked hard together to make this part, and of course we filmed way more footage than we needed to. From bare foot skating to riding the yellow slide, and I even pulled out the 2×4 skateboard for the first time n years, it’s a must see for creativity.
Jordan and I also went out a few times with Andy Anderson and we got enough footage to put a part together for him too. This one really shows Andy’s ledge and rail skills.
We all worked hard and the parts were submitted the day before the deadline. Then we received word that only 4 people submitted videos to the contest, including the 2 of us, so they are hooking us up with $150 each to spend at the shop.
Thanks Guys!!
And thanks to Jordan for workin’ hard last month. At least we had fun making them.
Enjoy the videos
Hippie Mike
Andy Anderson
So far, we’ve only had 2 competitions this year for Bowl Series, even though White Rock is always the 3rd stop. Griffin got rained out twice already and will be happening on August 12th. So we all showed up to Sunny White Rock, which is actually called South Surrey Skate Park – even the skate park has the syndrome where everyone says they live in White Rock but it still says Surrey on their mail. It’s Surrey people – love it!!
July 29th, 2012, a beautiful sunny day. I love this stop on the Series because every year it’s a whole different crowd of people hangin’ out and competing. Usually at Seylynn, Griffin and Whistler, you know who will be there, but you never know about White Rock till the day of. I remember one year when Ryan and Scott Decenzo, John Hanlon and Magnus Hansen all showed up. We had to teach them how to hit the speed line which I thought was hilarious, but within a few rips around it Ryan Decenzo was already busting kickflip melons over the tit. Some years you get the old White Rock Crew like Spike Jones, Brad Sheppard, Alien and Swell, and other years you get all the NV Loc longboarders. You never know till the day of. But one thing you can count on is that me and Andy Anderson will be there killin’ it.
All the kids had a blast in the Beginner and Intermediate categories, and Carrie and Lea owned the bowl for 5 minutes or so for the ladies comp, but it was all about Advanced. Adam Hopkins showed up, hung over of course after hanging out with the infamous Tony Hawk the past couple of days, and started dropping in and out of the bowl. I could tell Adam hadn’t been there before and showed him a couple quick lines to get him in the right places to bust huge airs. Adam had the bowl figured out in a few minutes and we all knew he would be a challenge to beat. He even ollied a gap that I’ve only ever seen done once – off the side of the tit over the flatbottom to the ditch wall while going up the bowl. Sick!
Giver was on the mic, and I was giving him a tough time all day. He put us all into Teams for our heats and said that the winning team would take all, but when it came time to announce the winners he forgot to mention that Team Protest won and just gave out prizes to the Top 4 competitors. We know how it is, and we know that Surrey represented hard, like always.
Team Protest consisted of myself “Hippie Mike”, Andy Anderson, Brad Muscat [Fighter], Jordan Strong and a recruited Damon Kerr. Damon’s wheel fell off, Brad ollied into the bowl, I landed as much as I could, and Andy shredded like Andy knows how finishing the heat off by blasting a massive melon grab over my head out of the deep end.
We all know that Team Protest won, but I guess Team Misfit and Team China Creek threatened Giver behind the scenes…
As soon as the Video from Rolling Bones Podcast is out, we’ll let it speak for itself
1st place – Adam Hopkins
2nd – Giet Rolan
3rd – Andy Anderson
4th – Eve Feaver
Another beautiful Saturday in the land of Skateboarding. We started the day off early with the contest beginning at 10am so that people could try to get to Hastings Park in time for the Tony Hawk Birdhouse Demo. Still lots of kids showed up for the contest, and of course they were all ready to rip it. The 3 block is the big obstacle at Fleetwood Skate Park and tons of tricks go down over it every contest. It got ollied in Mini, Kickflipped in Beginner, Benihana’d in Advanced, and Bigspin Heelflipped in the Best Trick. Kids are crazy.
The Mini’s were flying all over the park, launching out of the quarter pipe and up the step up, and Aiden represented the tranny skills with some sweet rock fakies.
The Beginners were also “Out For Justice” as they laid down trick after trick. Crooked Grinds on the ledges, Kickflips and Pop Shovits up the step and over the hip, and Big Airs out of the quarter launch. Rob Schrack stomped a kickflip over the 3 block to seal down his victory.
The Ladies Category was just Carrie and Heloise who both skate totally different. Carrie turned the tables from Kwantlen and displayed her skills and experience at Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey landing everything she tried and taking first place.
The Intermediates were also tight. The Hawthorne Brothers were pretty much battling each other for silver since Mathew McCauley showed up just as Intermediate was nearing the end of their runs, registers and walks up the 3 block to turn around and effortlessly kick flip over it perfectly. Matt laid down an amazing double length run hitting up all the ledges, rails and gaps to undoubtedly take home 1st.
Then came Advanced. Lots of tough names in this category, Andy Anderson, Jay Mykyte, Fighter, The Dominator, but the unstoppable one was Dallas Gauthier who came down from Vernon to toss out everything he had. This kid is insane and lands everything solid. Frontside Bigspin Heelflip over the pyramid one try in his run, along with some serious 3 block action. It was tight between him, Andy, Dominic and Brad, but Dallas deserved first place for the technical showcase he brought with him. He also finished the day off right by winning the Best Trick Contest over the 3 block – Frontside Bigspin Heelflip & Nollie Inward Heelflip.
Good job Dallas!!
Results:
Mini: 1. Jon Schrack; 2. Justin Fiorante; 3. Aiden Eastman; 4. Parker Sherwin; 5. Luca Braico
Beginner: 1.Rob Schrack; 2. Matthew Major; 3. David Martin; 4. JR Barron; 5. Riley Allen; 6. Nick Bachmeier; 7. Evan Way; 8. Buddy Cadman; 9. Ethan Seemann
Ladies: 1. Carrie Williams; 2. Heloise Wathelet
Intermediate: 1. Mathew McCauley; 2. Tanner Hawthorne; 3. Jackson Hawthorne; 4. Duncan Lee; 5. Kory Laan; 6. Jacob Drescher; 7. Zack; 8. Justin James
Advanced: 1. Dallas Gauthier; 2. Andy Anderson; 3. Dominic Devries; 4. Brad Muscat [Fighter]; 5. Derek Mayer; 6. Jordan Strong, Andre Bissonnette, Allen Handley; 9. Jigga Jay Mykyte
Best Trick: Dallas Gauthier
See you next time at
Guildford – August 11th
Jorden Murray approached me in June about having a BBQ and Sk8 Hockey Tournament at Chuck Bailey Skate Park. I was all for it, and it was set up for July 14th. Unfortunately, no one had any hockey sticks, but they all had their skateboards. Food got eaten, tricks went down and prizes were tossed. A good night.
Here’s a video recapping the event from “116th productions” and www.bcskateparks.com.
Watch for my main man, Andy Anderson clogging up the screen
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