Zero comes out with yet another unreal skate video with dudes that just annihilate obstacles on the streets as well as beat themselves up continuously. I don’t think I can think of any other video where multiple dudes sack so hard on handrails that they hit their face on the rail…
So Jamie Thomas and Tommy Sandoval came out to Vancouver to premiere this new Zero video called Cold War at The Rio Theatre on Broadway. Thomas got up on stage to introduce the show and said it best with one sentence, “We decided to really go back to the roots of Zero and make a video that was just like Thrill of it All and Misled Youth”. The editing was quick, the tricks were all stomped and the spots these guys were skating were completely retarded. Rails that you would be scared to slide down on your ass, rooftop drops, floating ledges sticking out of walls and of course humungous gaps of death. It was a classic right from the start, Jamie Thomas proved once again that he is still a maniac and the rest of the team followed suit.
Every summer Shadd Trepp always hits me up and tries to get some of the Protest Crew to head over to Vancouver Island with him and some of the Tsawwassen Crew. This year was super busy all summer and the only time we could make it happen was the last weekend of September, with by the way the weather went all summer long should have been beautiful, but it totally wasn’t. All week on the The Weather Network there were warnings about the storms coming on the weekend, 50+ mm of rain each day Saturday through Monday, and lots of wind warnings in affect. Did that stop us from going, hell no.
Shadd had a sweet deal on a TimeShare Condo that was only gonna cost us $5 each and we knew there would be covered options. As soon as Friday hit and I finally believed that the storms were definitely coming I booked some time at One Six Ramp for right when we got off the Ferry Saturday morning. One Six is a shop on Quadra Street in Victoria about 20 minutes from Schwartz Bay, it’s a half skate shop, half BMX shop and has a sweet 3′-4′ mini ramp with a spine and wallride. Needless to say we spent a few hours there over the weekend. Super fun, super fast and totally dry.
We had to go peep out Six Side too of course which is the DIY spot under the 6 mile Pub bridge in Colwood/Langford area. This spot puts Leeside to shame for gnarlyness because it is built so compact. The bottom section is insane with wallrides, waterfall slides and a bunch of pillars to smack your face on, but it was wet from the abundance of rain being dumped from the sky so the only skateable portion was the little bowl at the top. This bowl is tough, super tightly built with zero flatbottom anywhere, impossible lines, and a parking curb spine that drops you into a 7′ bowl that’s built like a capsule. Little Andy Anderson dropped in and began the demo, wowing the locals. It was a killer sesh and everyone who wanted to skate it did.
Sunday was clearing up but the wind was coming in hard. They had announced by 9am that Ferry’s in the evening were most likely going to be cancelled. After another sweaty session at One Six, the smart half of the crew headed off to catch the 3 o’clock boat back to the mainland while the jonesers all followed the sunshine to Vic West Skate Park. James Steele dove right into the huge lake in the flatbottom there to open up the drains and the whole park dried up quick. The 80km/hr wind gusts probably helped a bit. We had a solid skate session there but the rain was coming back and the wind was blowing hard, it was time to leave. But guess how many Ferry’s were still running – that’s right, zero.
The trip was all good even with the rain, we had fun together as a group the whole time, but it did make it tough to get any street footage…
Check the video of the stuff we did skate featuringHippie Mike, Andy Anderson, Cisco Gooding, Jay Mykyte, Tyler Burke, James Steele, Shadd Trepp and Little Kaelen Faux
Anyone who knows Mathew McCauley knows he’s got skills. At 13 years old he is really starting to step up his game and hit bigger obstacles. Mathew can lay down sweet kickflips and frontside popshovits within a few attempts over pretty much any gap he rides. And that’s just the warm up. He’s got lots of rail skills, and his ledge tricks are expanding. We put McCauley on the Protest Wheels Team at the start of summer and he’s been working hard ever since. Give it a couple more years and everyone in the Lower Mainland should know his name. Can’t wait to watch this kid grow.
Here’s some one off tricks that Brandon Giesbrecht put together, check it out
Do it yourself has always been common terminology in the world of skateboarding, we have always built stuff to skate. Back in the day before skate parks you just found a spot that was abandoned and put up some wood ramps until they either got taken away, broken, or some asshole would burn them for no reason. Now a days, the craze of DIY Concrete spots is going hard, people are building obstacles all over the place wherever they live, and all you can do when you make something good is hope that it doesn’t get destroyed. It’s always sweet when you find a barrier that would work perfectly if it had some concrete at the bottom or something like that, but that stuff is minor compared to what is going on out there right now. Look at Burnside as an example from the past. That place was all man-made by the locals and it’s humungous. Leeside is another great spot that was wood for many years and now, thanks to all the gravel the city of Vancouver donated unintentionally, it is one of the sickest DIY concrete skate spots around. The White Rock Res, which is actually in Surrey, is also constantly growing with more and more additions of street obstacles and barrier type quarters. There are a few other DIY spots around the lower mainland that are more secretive, and now there is another that has just popped up in a “secret location” on this side of the river. It’s awesome how in a world of so many skate parks, we still feel the need to build our own – something that is not going to be busy with little dudes in the way, something that is free to go to and just hang with your budds, something that is nasty, rough and sweet all at the same time.
Here’s a video from Dallas Lang at the newest DIY spot
Hippie Mike and Cisco Gooding hit up the new UBC Park today to see what it’s actually like. There have been many comments leaning in both directions about whether this skate park was a waste of space, or is simply amazing. Some people love every inch of it, while others won’t even bother going there.
That’s skateboarding for ya… We had fun there.
The street obstacles are all funky and good for learning on. The stack of books obstacle is probably the main eye catcher of the park, and can be very intimidating, but we’re sure to expect some serious bangers to go down on these floating ledges. The bowl is small and mellow but that’s okay too, it works good for grinds, and people who aren’t as experienced gotta learn on it so at least this way they will. The barrier on the bank is totally sweet so I think that could be an attraction. It may not be the most amazing park ever built, but it’s something new in a secluded area that could benefit from it. I don’t think there any reason for negativity towards it, plus we have definitely seen some awesome videos come out of it already and it’s hardly been open for 2 weeks. In the world of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, the skateboarders are overly spoiled to the point that all of us moan and wine about every park that pops up now a days – oh there’s too much tranny, oh the bowl isn’t deep enough, or oh these ledges aren’t high enough or have the wrong coping. We’re spoiled in the fact that we forget how hard it used to be to skateboard without being kicked out everywhere you go, we forget that there never used to be 8 skate parks in one city, there was hardly one per municipality, and we take for granted the fact that if we don’t like a particular park, we can choose not to go there and still go to another one right close by. Not every city has these luxuries, or gets to pick and choose what Skate Park they are going to skate that day, and what one tomorrow. And each community that is lucky enough to get a skateboard park has people that live there that are going to appreciate it for what it is no matter what, and make the best of it.
Check out this video that was just filmed in Barrie Ontario. This skate park was built in 1999 and is still the only one they have. It’s not laid out that good, the ground is weathered and rough, and the obstacles are all the old chunky style. But you don’t hear these boys complaining, you just hear them stomping every trick they try out of appreciation that they have a skate park at all….
Part 3 of the Canadian Tour is now released and Ace Trucks once again proves themselves to be the Hardcore Truck built for the Hardcore Skater. I personally have never tried a set and maybe never will because I’ve been stuck on Indy’s for so long, but more and more people are testing them out and some are switching over so they must be good.
The Team is filled with diversity and multiple generations, but one thing they all have in common is the ability to shred any nasty tranny. I love it.
Team consists of:
Joey Tershay, Ron Chatman, Tom Remillard, Oscar Navarro, Ronnie Sandoval, Marc Tison, Adam Hopkins, Riley Boland, and Leon Chapdelaine
Be sure to grab the new King Shit Magazine to read the full 10 page article on Ace Trucks.
People better start to recognize that Dominic Devries is most likely one of the next biggest skaters of the world. At 16 years of age he has more ridiculous street tricks on lock then Ryan Sheckler did back in the day. I remember seeing when Ryan Decenzo was hitting this point of technicality and consistency in his skating and look at where he is now. Somebody needs to take this kid under their wing and blow him up in the scene.
Dominic shows his skills off at the New UBC Park on the first weekend it was open, while it’s trying to rain off and on all day. You can see what I’m saying when you watch this video. Understand it as half of the tricks he lays down are tricks that people would work weeks or months on perfecting at a spot and this is still one of his first times skating there.
I haven’t been to UBC park yet, but after watching this video I’m glad I’m not much of a ledge and rail skater or I might feel a little pressured to try tricks at this level – Insane.
I got 2 things to say:
Dominic – hit some more tranny and learn to kill it like you do the streets
Hippie Mike stretched his way to Street Dreamz Board Shop in North Delta and to Coastal Riders Skate Shop in Langley last night to check out the local scenes for the Death Wish Video premieres.
At Street Dreamz, Chris Somerville welcomed in the local youngsters with a fingerboard skate park as awesome as an X-games course and they all hung out until the video started and then gathered around the TV for the show. Lots of stoked reactions going on during the video and then there was a Draw for prizes afterwards. Little 3 1/2 year old Protest Skater Kaelen Faux won the Grand Prize of a Death Wish Cruiser Deck. He was PUMPED!!
After dropping Kaelen and Carrie off at home, Hippie Mike headed out to Coastal Riders for a second showing – on the big screen. There was about the same amount of people at that one and once Scott Fierbach got the proxima figured out the show was on. Same style as Street Dreamz, they had a draw afterwards and the lucky kids took home the prizes.
It was a good night for promoting skateboarding, and as for the video, it was pretty good. Lizard King definitely has the most creativity on the team, Neen Williams has the most pop, and all of them know how to land perfectly. Definitely worth checking out.
Ace Trucks did a Canada Tour to Montreal last year and are just releasing the footage now. So far 2 out of the 3 videos to be expected are now out for your viewing pleasure. The team is stacked up with “80’s Style Shredders” living in the new millennium. They rip any tranny and are fearless in the streets. Promotional sponsorship comes from Mehrathon Trading and King Shit Magazine and the team consists of Joey Tershay, Ron Chatman, Tom Remillard, Oscar Navarro, Ronnie Sandoval, Marc Tison, Adam Hopkins, Riley Boland, and Leon Chapdelaine.
For those of you that weren’t around in the 80’s or maybe just weren’t hardcore enough you might not know who the JAKS are, but if you skated any of the parks back in those days you definitely do. China Creek Locals always partying and having a good time, and shredding the bowls on their skateboards. Every year for at least the past 20, the JAKS have held their annual contest on the 2nd Saturday of September at Vancouver’s oldest skate park – China Creek. The Creek is still a sick spot to skate if you know what real skateboarding is. All that’s there is a bathtub bowl and a tea cup bowl and you can shred them for hours. Real skateboarding came from surfing and this place is perfect to go fast, crave hard and slash everything.
Dennis Regan at RollingBonesPodCast filmed the contest last year (2012) and put together a full montage showcasing some of the highlights. It’s super awesome just to see the younger generation kids showing up to skate and actually understanding the park.
If you know about the JAKS contests, you’ll love the video, and if you don’t then it’s time to learn a history lesson….
Hit up the website and watch the vid. Who knows, you might even see me, Hippie Mike in there.
