Bad Brains @ Pipeline Cafe

This past Tuesday was the second time in a year that Bad Brains came to play in Honolulu.
Couldn't make it the previous time due to work, so of course I'm all over it when they just so happened to come to town on one of my days off!

Super stoked and thankful that Rod from Blue Hawaii/Eightyfour Skate as well as Philip from BAMP project and RVCA hooked up a bunch of us with admission into the soundcheck before the show, so I rolled up with Kenny and we ran into some skate heads there like Bo Ikeda and Dyson Ramones.
Also present for the soundcheck/meet and greet were Cuzzo (along with baby Capri) and my man Bobby Asato.

After a brief intermission at Wahoo's Fish Tacos, Kenny and I convinced Todd, Ryan and Keith from In4mation to walk over to the show with us and we met up with Chad from APB and his lady Michele.

The show itself was incredible and pretty amazing.
We mostly rocked out in the comfort of the upstairs lounge, and I even spotted Jef Hartsel in the house with Joey Tershay from Ace Trucks.

I took some of these photos with my phone, some came from Kenny's camera, and there are also some from Bobby's camera.
There will be more photos of the show and some video clips because my boy Bobby over at Bland filmed pretty much the entire show on his camera.
Check it on Bobby's site if you're a fan, shit was most definitely worth looking at.



















This already epic night ended up finishing with a really awesome twist.
After the show was finished this local kid that skates named Nick came up to me and asked me where Kenny was.
I told him that he was walking around at that he was still in the building somewhere and the kid was like "He has a PayPal account right?" Talking about the donation account that our good friend Yong-Ki from Solitary Arts set up for Kenny, and I was like "Yeah" so he goes, "I don't go on the computer that much and I couldn't figure out how to do it, so could you give this 20 bucks to Kenny?" He tried to give me the money but I told him he didn't have to give it to me and that Kenny was still around somewhere, he could find him and give it to him himself.

So anyway the kid Nick finally finds Kenny as we're walking out and he comes up to Kenny, never really met him before, only seen him skating around, and gives him a 20 dollar donation, personally.
Kenny was sooooo stoked about that.
I was incredibly psyched, it was such an awesome gesture from a super nice kid that doesn't even really know Kenny but knows what he's going though and just wanted to help in any way he could.

Big mahalo Nick!
You made our night with that, and Kenny couldn't stop talking about how rad it was that you did what you did.
Big ups and mad respect!

Ryan Kingman In Transworld

During my most recent Barnes & Noble lurking I came across a couple of new skate mags.
By the way, I highly recommend going the bookstore route if you don't feel like purchasing books or magazines, ever, for the rest of your life.

I'm not talking like those fuckers that grab 25 magazines and sit in those big comfy chairs ALL DAY next to the coffee shop area or the shitheads that read entire Japanese anime novels whilst laying on the goddamned floor with their shoes off, but you have to pick your spots.

My spot is the magazine rack where I usually grab Thrasher and Transworld, then head AWAY from the magazine area and proceed to a section of the store with much less foot traffic and preferably no donkeys nearby.

Then and only then do I peruse these skateboarding periodicals from cover to cover at my own leisure.

The other day I peeped the new Transworld, here's Justin Brock on the cover, doing something stupid and ridiculous.


By the way, is there anybody more on fire than this guy right now?
Maybe his teammate Busenitz is, but that dude is on some other level shit so he doesn't really count.
Regardless, J. Brock is fucking killing the game, and he recently and most deservedly turned pro for Real.

ANYWAY, I'm looking at the mag and lo and behold I spy industry heavyweight and O.G. local braddah Ryan Kingman up in the Daily Grind section where they profile all of the skate company bigwigs and behind the scenes type of cats.

Boom! Here he is.

Kingman's steady running shit at Element where he is their marketing director and has been a major part of the company for quite a while now.

I love this dude.
WE ALL love this dude.
Guys like this make Hawaiians that skateboard very proud, and it's an honor to have been able to skate, party, and bro down with the King Man for many many years now.


Back in the day Kingman was wild for the night, every night.
Peep the Valentino's photo circa 1996 partying with Kenny, Rob C., Shane, me, and Cuzzo.

The wild ginger beast may have mellowed considerably over the past few years, but Kingman still has a big heart, rips super hard 'til this day, and has still definitely got your back if it ever comes down to some ruckus popping off.

Two thumbs up and hella salutations and applause to Kingman, one of the realest of the real in an industry where so many fakes are laid up in undeserving positions of power and influence.

Hell yeah.
Local braddah out there doing his thing in the world!

Hickam Hangar Closed Sunday Session

A couple of days ago Mike Kays was kind enough to let a bunch of us into the Hickam Hangar after hours.
Word got out quick that there was a closed door free for all going down, and many, many heads came through.
The posse was at least 20-25 deep and it was a blast.
Thanks to both BDK and also my man Cuzzo from Fitted Hawaii for arranging the whole shebang.


Skated for a while and then had to drop everything when I saw Reilly messing about on the unfinished vert ramp. Shogo was like, "Are you really going to try that?"


Sean was all, "Yeah let me rock to fakie to set up for it..."


My camera sucks but trust me, this is a blunt to fakie. On a 12 foot high vert ramp. With no coping.


You'd be stoked if you did the trick of the night too.


No, seriously. Trick of the night, easily. Look!


Holding area.


Grant and Nuts contemplating something.


The door is open. What you got on it?


Mililani troublemakers.


The mini ramp section of the keyhole isn't as mellow as it looks. I ate shit so fucking hard in there.


The real Kool Keith was across the way.


Young whippersnappers in a heated game of SKATE.


Kenneth was up and riding, getting some encouragement from Cuzzo.


Keith is a sneaky little shit when it comes to sniping somebody.


Youths gone wild on the vert ramp.


Never seen Shota without a smile.


Much mahalo to the Kays for all the hospitality.


Ended the night at Auntie Pasto's with some sizzling sausage. I gobbled that shit up quick.
No homo!
But seriously, a killer exclamation point to an awesome Sunday.

Soundboarding T-Shirts Now Available!

Hell yeah.
My man Junji from Soundboarding sent me a little package the other day from Osaka.
Super stoked to get one of these Soundboarding t-shirts!





Super sick design, really simple and to the point.
Also, can't go wrong with black and white.

In addition to the shirt, Junji sent the newest issue of Transworld Japan.




Yeah, this is the one with the sick sequence of my boy Takashi and his switch 360 flip!

Sugoi!
Big up and omedeto gozaimasu (congratulations) to Junji for coming out with a t-shirt finally and also to Takashi for throwing down yet again in the big time Japanese media!

If you want more details on how to get a Soundboarding t-shirt, check out Junji's blog, or you can also watch this video right here, featuring homies Macchan, Venix, and also Dal from the Osaka Daggers.

Contrast Magazine Issue #2: Downtown

The newest issue of Contrast Magazine is finally here!


Issue number 2, The Downtown Issue, is technically their third (the first one was something of a test run) and you can see that these guys are definitely hitting their stride with this one.
Incredibly well done and put together, this is easily the best local magazine out.
Period.

This issue has a bit of everything in it, and it is especially skateboard heavy, which is of course awesome and I am very honored and stoked that they wanted me to be a part of it by writing an article about A'ala Park.


They propped me out on the contributors page and threw the website address out there. Whoops! Website is not quite ready to go yet, but we're working on it. Blog only for now.


This is the opener of the eight page spread that I wrote and that Ryan Toyama took pictures for. Check out Kento Takahashi's feet and board in contrast with the banks in the background.


Here are the last two pictures in the A'ala Park article, and the one of everybody sitting on the fence is my favorite in the whole magazine.


Really stoked that the two pages immediately following my article are this ad for the A'ala Park Boardshop. Chad opened APB almost 8 years ago and this is his first ever ad in print. Glad that he waited to put in a magazine of Contrast's caliber and not some weak bullshit rag.


So hyped to see Tim Jackson featured in this issue! Timmy gets all the applause, Timmy gets all the chicks, Timmy rules.


Darin Lee is up in this shit! I'm waiting for his ultimate DVD box-set of films featuring Portfolio, the best local skate video of all time.


Skate superstar Dyson Ramones also has a little something in this issue. Oh, and have you seen his new Stereo commercial? That is some good shit. Can't wait to see the new Stereo video.


Also super psyched to see that Jef Hartsel is the subject of a six page spread, and by the way that shit came out incredible, peep the steez on that tailtap!


Kavet The Catalyst from Lightsleepers has a little story also. Dude's been hip-hopping and skating forever.


Adrian Adrid is featured in an ad for Olde Ivory, it's a local clothing company and I guess he rides for them. Adrian is seriously rips and he is a super cool kid. North Shore just seems to breed them.


The new Aloha Army ad is good shit, fit for royalty.


Speaking of fit for royalty, the dudes at Fitted Hawaii dropped this somewhat cryptic ad that apparently alludes to independence. Them braddahs always dropping science!


Prototype has a couple of hard hitting riders that are coming up lately, here is an ad with Mike G's switch ollie at the Stevenson double set. That thing is fucking big.


Last thing, In4mation rocks another nice looking advertisement on the back cover featuring Patrick Cook nosebluntsliding somewhere on the east coast.

SUPER stoked on the way the magazine came out.
Thanks to Mark, Zen, Race, Lyle, Daniel, Jason and everyone else at Contrast for making the best magazine that we have in the state of Hawaii.
Next issue is the Travel Issue, stay tuned.

Take A Shit!

My boy Junji from Soundboarding recently posted this awesome photo sequence from the new issue of TWS Japan.



YABAI!
That's my little homie Takashi Maekawa, a.k.a. Take A Shit dropping a big bomb of a switch 360 flip down a big four set in Osaka.

Takashi is mashing shit lately as usual, getting coverage in Japanese mags and also filming a lot of stuff for Junji's new Soundboarding DVD, which is coming soon.

Can't wait to see what my man has in store for everyone, but until then, please enjoy Takashi and the sausage.