THE SKATE NAZI MANIFESTO

Travis Hancock Island Style Video Part

2012-01-29T12:50:00.000-08:00

Loving this new clip that my little buddy Travis put together over the past year or two!

Keeping it street and killing it super hard.

Not kissing ass, just stating facts:

Travis is one of the best we have here in Hawaii and he's super cool and humble.

And my wife thinks he's handsome!

There must be something in the water on the north shore because only get mean kine shredders coming outta there.

Shit Non-Skaters Say To Skaters

2012-01-20T15:52:00.001-08:00

Was pretty much over the whole "Shit ___________ say" phenomenon that's been burning up the Internet lately but saw this on the Slap messageboard and this shit right here is actually funny.

Apparently filmed by Chris Hall, D.C. legend and former rider for New Deal, later Underworld Element.

CHRIS HALL PART!

Spliff All-Stars Night @ Biebel's Park Video

2012-01-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

Big up to the rude bwoyy Jordan deOliveira a.k.a. Jordyclot the Captain of the Spliff All-Stars!
Jordan and some of the homies got together at Brandon Biebel's (I think he owns it along with Dylan Rieder, Guy Mariano and Marc Johnson, correct me if I'm wrong) indoor training facility in L.A. last month for a night of heavy herb smoking and shredding.

Now The Skate Nazi does not condone weed puffing in any way shape or form these days but as a former pothead and heavy pakalolo fiend from way back I can appreciate the fine points and nuances of it.

Especially if it allows you to nollie 360 flip tables.

Anyway, peep the website and cop a shirt to support the cause and watch the shralping of many faded weed aficionados including local braddahs Jordan, Matt Chaffin, and Danny Hamaguchi at the end blowing your mind.

Mark Suciu Cross Continental Video Part

2012-01-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

EYE SOOS!
This boy good.
I don't know if this is able to embed but you can watch this insane Mark Suciu part on the Thrasher website by clicking here.

A butt shot I know (yes homo) but this is how you do a switch backside flip.

Stoked to see an appearance by the Habitat/In4mation collabo t-shirt!

Gnar gap to grind action.

Chill, you've already seen this Love Park fountain ender in his Habitat ad so its not like I'm spoiling anything.

This kid is going places.
Really.
Rad to see a young dude put together a part like this with so much cookie cutter bullshit floating around in the industry nowadays.

Particularly loving the fact that dude does really interesting tricks and puts them in lines, i.e. the frontside crooks 180 out the hard way in that one Love Park run towards the end.

Also seeing the line at Pulaski with the back tail massive hop out was really nice and I particularly love seeing lines at the S.F. Library, the one with the gap varial heel at the end is pretty epic.

Not only that but like mentioned before, Love Park lines!
They may have been all over video parts in years past but those aren't easy to come by these days, what with the skatestopper planters everywhere and the high bust factor.
Plus, the kid's ender.
That's heavy duty shit right there.

ONE minor thing I have to mention about this part that I do not like, and that's the use of the Elliott Smith song Junk Bond Trader, which has already been used in Blueprint Skateboard's Belong Tour, a video that came out ten years ago.
True, that video was released on VHS only and therefore maybe a lot of people haven't seen it, but it was the first thing I thought of when the second song kicked in for Suciu's part.

It's always been a major point for me and I don't know how others really feel about it, but I believe that there are far too many songs out there (literally millions and millions to choose from) to use a piece of music for a video part that has already been in a video before.
It's just not something that should ever be done and I feel that editors of videos need to do their homework when it comes to choosing songs for video parts.
Surely you've seen a shitload of videos and you know people who are total video nerds, ask around if you're not sure but do some research and don't bust out a song that has already been used.
Some people don't mind and others simply don't care, but Skate Nazi definitely ain't having that shit without speaking up.

ANYWAY, Suciu killed it beyond belief and young bucks better gather 'round and take notes, because this is how you make a video part in 2012 and get your ass noticed right quick!

Re-watchability factor is off the charts on this one.

VHS Magazine Presents Ride On Vol. 2: Lesque Skateboards

2012-01-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

VHS Magazine is hands down the best Japanese skateboarding website, and they've posted a little video of my favorite Japanese team Lesque Skateboards, whom my favorite Japanese skater Shinichi Ito, a.k.a. Itoshin rides for.
OH, and our homie and former Hawaii resident Kento Takahashi also happens to ride for them, so you know I've got my eye on this shit right here!

Check it out, it clocks in at about six minutes long, there's no names but Itoshin has the first part and you'll see why I believe he's got the best style in the whole country.

Braddah Kento for some reason only has one line and one single trick but hopefully this entire clip is basically throwaway and Lesque is coming out with a full length video sometime in the near future with a full Kento part, that would be super sick.

MERRY NEW YEAR!!!

2011-12-31T12:07:00.000-08:00

You know what time it is...

BEEF JERKY TIME!!

For real though, Hauoli Makahiki Hou to all my Hawaiian peoples and to all the homies in Japan あけましておめでとう!!

Happy New Year (in this country we say HAPPY New Year)

Fuzenna R.I.P.

2011-12-21T13:09:00.000-08:00

A lot of skaters are under the impression that skate shop owners are balling super hard and rolling in cash like Scrooge McDuck, but as anyone who owns a shop can tell you, it's a lot of hard work and they most certainly didn't get into it because they thought they could get rich doing it.
As corny as it may sound, these dudes are in it because they love skateboarding plain and simple and they want to be involved in promoting and furthering the local scene.

It's always sad when a local skate shop goes out of business, especially when it's 100 percent skater owned and operated and also the most genuinely rad skateboard retailer in town.
This recently happened to a place I hold dear to my heart in Osaka, Japan called Fuzenna, which had been the go-to place in Osaka for the truly hardcore for years.

There are a lot of places to buy skateboard gear in Osaka, most of them are big money chains like Murasaki Sports or Spotaka, and they actually have some cool shit there, but they aren't 100 percent skateboards and they aren't 100 percent skater owned and operated.
The homie K.D.-san is a friend to all in the Osaka scene and his shop will be sorely missed, and I want to say good luck to him in whatever he decides to pursue in the future, it was a pleasure to have been a customer and friend of Fuzenna for the past five years.

The window outside the old shop location right around the block from Sankaku-koen, a.k.a. Triangle Park, home turf of the Osaka Daggers.

K.D.-san holding it down at the old shop.

Wall of fame at the old shop was deep with Royal Hawaiian Pool Service ohana, check out Grant, Gary, Wataru, and Kenzi shralping.

Last year K.D.-san moved Fuzenna a little ways up north, about a 20 minute train ride from the old spot and opened up a new shop with some killer amenities.

First of all, micro mini-ramp. This later was expanded into some crazy obstacle set up to complement the ramp.

Also, this green monster was downstairs directly under the shop and the mini.
Oh yeah, K.D. built this shit all by himself, YABAI!

People came from all over to shred and BBQ frequently.

K.D. manned and ran the shop on the solo tip, not an easy thing to do but he ran the tightest ship in town.

Aloha, K.D.-san! Let's shred again real soon.

Wednesdays have become every day.
R.I.P. FUZENNA

Instagrammy Gram

2011-12-14T13:45:00.000-08:00

Yeah man been laying low for a minute, busy at work and all that holiday madness and whatnot.
Can't be bothered to update the bloggy blog because when I have spare time now I am either getting in a few laps at Makiki or A'ala Park, or more likely I am chilling extremely hard because I'm super lazy.

Either way there ain't that much happening, but I did recently do something I thought I would never.
NO, I didn't get on Facebook.
Fuck no.
That's still not happening, ever.
I did however, as my Hi-Rolling homie did recently, join Instagram.
YES, I did clown people and talk shit about the non-stop barrage of sharing every little detail of people's days but I checked it out and found it to be pretty cool and now I am digging it a whole lot.

I don't even have an iPhone but instead use an iPod touch and wi-fi when checking out the 'gram and if you're on there peep my shit, @theskatenazi is my handle and I'm not one of those whores that are all LIKE ME! FOLLOW ME AND I'LL FOLLOW YOU BACK!
So maybe we'll bump into each other out there, maybe not, but here's a sample of the type of shit I've been on lately:

Get at me, son!

@theskatenazi
#NOKOOKS

Holiday Hangover

2011-12-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

What up though?

Been away for a minute, no updates in the past two weeks due to small kine hectic schedule.

Friends and family from out of town, Thanksgiving and all that.

Oh yeah and finally had a proper wedding ceremony, on some real official shit.

Thanks everyone for all the congrats and gifts and cards, you guys are awesome.

While I was out of blog comission, Hawaiian homies Matt Chaffin and Danny Hamaguchi were doing the damn thing big in Barcelona, just staying with Enrique Lorenzo and doing what visiting skaters do when they go to Barcy, and by that I mean skate perfect hassle free spots and smoke hash all day every day.

Oh, and while we're talking about the greatest skate destination on the planet, does Barcelona really need it's own indoor training facility?

Really, Barcelona?

Really?

That's like if we built a gigantic indoor wave machine on the north shore so guys can surf perfect 10-12 foot Pipeline anytime they want.

Talk about throwing the rest of the skate world a huge middle finger.

Kiss my ass, Barcelona!

Also whilst I was busy, braddahs Sean Reilly and Chris Kays went out on tour with Natural Koncept to premiere their new video and cause ruckus all up and down the east coast.

Looks like everyone's having a blast so far this holiday season, let's all keep it moving forward through Christmas!
ALOHA

Chris Kays on Hawaii Five-O

2011-11-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

Like a lot of curious local people, I've been watching the new version of Hawaii Five-O since the first episode.
Sometimes it's pretty good, other times it's unbelievably cheesy, but one thing I have noticed is it's almost always sure to show somebody you recognize like an acquaintance or friend of a friend type of thing and the show is mostly filmed at a lot of the places you go to often or have frequented in the past.

Just to name a few off the top of my head, so far I have seen a guy I used to smoke weed with in high school with portraying a Yakuza boss's bodyguard, also noticed Simon from Black Flys playing an assassin who drugged a Navy SEAL and then threw him out of an airplane without a parachute, and also seen the homie Kealoha a.k.a. DJ Blam as one of the MMA event dudes opening the curtain when McGarrett was making his way to the octagon to scrap Chuck Liddell.

Last night though I was watching a pretty so-so episode about stolen muscle cars and witness relocation when they showed a photo that caught my eye:

Holy shit, is that dead guy in the trunk Natural Koncept pro , Fitted Hawaii team rider and all-terrain shredder Chris Kays???

Computer says that shit is a match!

His poor girlfriend didn't know about his checkered criminal past.
Apparently Chris witnessed a murder in Boston and took down the Irish mob kingpin with his testimony, then fled to Hawaii in the witness relocation program, got a job, met a cute chick and as a result of wanting to change his appearance had a botched plastic surgery operation where the doctor accidentally killed him then panicked and shot him in the chest then dumped him in the trunk of a car to throw Five-O off the trail.

Whew!

Anyway, sick to see Chris on TV getting money, and he didn't even have to act or speak.
On a related note, Chris just landed in NYC today and our boy Sean Reilly is joining him on Thursday to take part in another Natural Koncept East Coast tour, should be shenanigans as usual and we'll be looking for those updates in the coming weeks.

TNT in Hawaii for Fourstar

2011-11-14T17:20:00.000-08:00

This ad features another killer pic from the Fourstar Hawaii trip that went down back in April, this time its Tony Trujillo at the Manhole, or whatever you and your crew want to call it.
F.Y.I. right before this photo was taken Tyler Bledsoe bagged his very own Fourstar ad at the Highlands ledge.

I don't want to be that guy but I was actually there and got to see this go down.
Well actually I got there just after this was taken and TNT was in the process of trying to kickflip into this beast of a wallride as he had already pulled the wallride a few times rather easily according to witnesses.
Also, Koston was trying to do this same line frontside but could not get it.

I've skated there many times before but I gotta say it was was pretty surreal being there with that murderer's row of heavy hitters.
It was definitely cool to be back at those mosquito infested tunnels in the same town where I grew up and started skating but basically I was content to just play the background and observe some of the best skaters in the world messing around at a fun little out of the way local spot like this.

In all, I was able to watch Rick Howard and Brian Anderson play a game of add-a-trick, see a quick flash of Koston's mini ramp dominance, catch a glimpse of Aaron Meza's rarely seen transition skills, and talk at length about Celtics/Knicks playoff basketball with Ben Colen.
Also, Guy Mariano and Mike Carroll were there.
All said, I think it was a pretty fucking good day.

Pool Your Enthusiasm

2011-11-08T13:26:00.000-08:00

I went on a pool mission with a couple of dudes recently.
When I say recently I mean it was almost two months ago, but on the Internet these days recently could be anywhere from right this second up until a day or week ago, and even then the shit would be old news, so in worldwide web terms I guess that this was an eternity ago.

I say this because there's shit like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and who knows what the fuck else now, and people are always checking in and blasting out their business in real time to everyone as it happens.

Breakfast is delicious!
Gotta Tweet that loco moco.
Shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
Better Instagram those shower gel beads.
Sneaking through an upper-class residential neighborhood to trespass on fenced and walled off private property in order to skate an empty swimming pool.
Make sure you leave a trail of digital bread crumbs while you're doing it so that everyone knows exactly where the place is that you're basically breaking into to cause criminal property damage.
GPS coordinates, anyone?
We're riiiiight here, come check us out if you're in the area!

Well, it's not really that bad but come on now.
This pool isn't exactly a secret.
I mean, there are more than a few people who know where it is and it's been in a magazine, and this dude (who knows a thing or two about pools) has frontside grinded over the light for years now so it's pretty far from being a new spot.

A long time ago, a more well-seasoned man than myself said this regarding pools: TAKE NOTHING BUT PICTURES, LEAVE NOTHING BUT WHEEL MARKS.
Even though he was actually condoning the taking of photos at a usually top secret location I don't think he realized on how massive a scale that photographs would be utilized in the future, but obviously common sense and skate etiquette would tell you that people should try to keep it at least a little bit down low when sharing such visually incriminating info on your everyday social networks.

ANYWAY, we creeped, we climbed, we tip-toed, we shredded until dark and then slipped away undetected, just how it should be.

This could be anywhere, but it's really somewhere specific!

Mid-trespass, somewhere with a wall and a fence.
Because you're not supposed to go there.
But look, we're going there.

Blue and cream?
Yo son, I had crazy visions.

Chad making sure its kosher while I scan the scene thoroughly like a paranoid crackhead.

Business owner, dedicated Instagrammer and shredder.

Better off dread, Shota-kun attacks while Conor gets the footy.

Double trucker over the light.

I wish I could say that this was a backside Smith but then that would be a falsehood!
This is merely backside over the light because the light/death combo is out of the question.
Unless you're super gnarly, then by all means have at it bro.

From the shallow end, and we're out.
Big up to Aaron McMullen and Conor McGivern for the photos and footage.

Ryan Spencer in WTF!

2011-10-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

As previously mentioned in the last post, the Foundation video WTF! was premiered on the Thrasher website last night and is now available for free viewing, check it out quick because you never know how long this thing will be up there.
As for an actual DVD hard copy, they might do something like include one with the purchase of a Foundation deck, so possibly check out the shops in the near future for that.

As expected, Maui dude Ryan Spencer had an impressive full-length (no mahu) debut part for the F Troop chock full of radness.
Ryan's part is the second section shown and the whole video clocks in at a very easy to digest 20 minutes, short and sweet with very little bullshit throughout.

Ryan's part is almost entirely filmed on the mainland but I could swear there was a couple single tricks and a line that was shot on Maui.
And holy shit, braddah's ender is on some ridiculous WTF type shit for real.

Also of note in the video were Sierra Fellers (shared part but what he did have was gnarly), new jack Taylor Smith (wasn't really expecting to dig this guy but he put it down), and oh my lord, Nick Fucking Merlino.
Say it with me now.
Nick Fucking Merlino.

This dude had the ender part and it was beyond stellar.
Put it this way, if you're SPOILER ALERT nollie flipping the Hollywood High 16 stairs and doing a switch backside 360 ollie down Rincon and either of those aren't the ender in your video part, you're fucking out of your goddamned mind and on some other worldly shit.
Those would be life enders for a lot of people, as in I'm done, I don't need to skate anymore, ever, I'm satisfied, I'm buying myself a gold watch and a moving to Del Boca Vista for retirement type of shit.

Anyway, shit is dope, watch it while it's hot!

EDIT:

If you don't want to watch the whole thing, there are several individual parts that are viewable on YouTube right now.

Ryan's part:

Tuesday 25 with Ryan Spencer

2011-10-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

I know today is Thursday but Maui's Ryan Spencer is the subject of this week's Tuesday 25 over on the Skateboarder Magazine website that's worth checking out.

On a related note, it looks like Ryan was home in Hawaii this past summer a few months before all that King Of The Road drama and sampled some Oahu parks before getting one small kine skull bash, video is courtesy of the moke patrol.

Also, if you weren't already aware, we'll all be able to see Ryan's part in the new Foundation video WTF! which will be premiering next weekend on the Thrasher website.

Matt Chaffin Grizzly Griptape Commercial

2011-10-18T03:50:00.000-07:00

Always really hyped to see any new Shmatty footage, but this commercial right here for Grizzly Griptape is that real green banana shit!

WARNING: Something ludicrous is about to go down over this bench.

Surprise!
Flawless and steezy as usual.

I mean, I knew Matt killed it on that Barcelona trip earlier this year but he put down some serious fucking bangers over there.

Torey and Enrique know.

Obviously his mentor Lil' D approves, and of course we the skaters of the state of Hawaii fully back this dude and throw huge shakas and many chee huus in his general direction.

Hopefully this is a sign of more good things coming Matt's way, like for example Almost needs to get him off the flow program really soon.
Seriously, he been steady putting it down in L.A. for a while now and is easily am worthy, what's up Daewon?
Hook up your little Hawaiian braddah already!

Natural Koncept Creepin' For Life Video Trailer

2011-10-17T14:02:00.000-07:00

Check out what Katch and the Natural Koncept squad are putting together for a November release:

Creepin' For Life will feature the entire NK team, most notably local dudes Chris Kays, Sean Reilly and Kale Sandridge.

Will there be street grabs?
Probably.
Anybody gonna be puking?
More than likely.
Might this be fun to watch?
Absolutely.

Let's Go Fishing With the New Deal Team

2011-10-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

If this was 1995 Rene Matthyssen and Rob Carlyon would have killed their next ad on some serious Hawaiian lifestyle hammer shit with this 300 pound marlin that they bagged on the west side of Oahu yesterday.

Captain Cuzzo used the power of many a Coors Light to fight the good fight with this formidable ocean beast.

After he and Rene had double-teamed this massive marlin for nearly an hour, (no beasto) Rob finally administered the death blow in the form of a crucifix neck crank submission hold.

Not bad for a couple of Salt Lake skate rats, and I do believe Hari Kojima definitely would approve.

Congratulations again on reeling this monster in, also huge mahalo to Rene and Rob for sharing the wealth, and big up to my wife for using it to hook this up:

I must say, DA BUGGAH IS ONO.

Plan B Island Time with T&C Video

2011-10-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

Last month the Plan B guys came to Hawaii to chill out on some vacation shit and also to do a demo at the Manana park in Pearl City.

You may have been there, (I couldn't make it), and you may have even seen some clips here and there on YouTube or whatever, but I guess this is the official edit from Plan B themselves and it's looking mighty clean in HD so try check 'um:

Pretty good shit I must say.
Like I've mentioned before, not a Sheckler fan at all but holy hostile takeover, he fucked that park up like it owed him money.

The backside ollie from quarter to quarter across the bank to wall was staggering, and that alone could have won the demo for him, but then he had to go buck wild on some fatty to flatty shit for the masses and that was most likely what it was that sealed the deal.

Oh, and I'll be the one of the first ones to tell you that fatties to flatties are some serious cornball shit to do in a skatepark, they're pretty much on par with those rad flyouts that kids love to do when they're in their pre-teens, only a little bit more tolerable.

But goddamn, Shecky did blast the fuck out of that backside 360 as well as the frontside flip, the 360 flip, and did you see the form and catch on that hardflip?
Oh and he also backside nosegrinded up, across and down the entire hubba obstacle, no big whoop.

I don't care if this dude has his last name tattooed across his back in the biggest and most obnoxious lettering of all time, that was pretty fucking impressive.
Additionally, most of that big drop shit was done hella quick, like first try or within a few tries according to those present that day.

Also, it is extremely nice to see footage of PJ Ladd ripping.
Is he getting on Adidas or something?
That's a pretty good match if he is.
And another thing, this dude appeared to be actually smiling and enjoying himself while singing karaoke!
Didn't think you had it in you, Patrick, I guess you're human after all.

Pat Duffy did a super gnarly nosepick on top of the bank to wall, but it's not in the video, instead he's shown doing a warmup trick up the Euro gap and jamming on the ukulele.
Whatever, Paul Rodriguez killed it and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he feeble grinded up the bank to bank rail, not exactly a typical P-Rod type of move but rad nonetheless.

Oh and everybody loves Nick Swardson, apparently this dude was all over town and very fun to hang out with.
I mean he was in Grandma's Boy.
New high score? Is that bad?

And as far as Lil' Wayne goes, he never did make it to this demo the day after his concert here (many of the Plan B guys, along with Nick Swardson caught the show) but it is rad to see that the dude cannot shut up about skateboarding, and I gotta say he is pretty awesome for having a fucking mini-ramp on the roof of his house.

Stacks Promo Video Featuring Adrian Adrid

2011-10-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

Today is the day that we are finally able to see the long-awaited promo video from Commonwealth Stacks entitled Team, and everyone in Hawaii should be extra stoked because North Shore ripper turned L.A. resident Adrian Adrid has a lot of footage in this, and no surprise, it's all killer no filler type shit.
Adrian really came through with some dope single tricks mixed in with really creative lines, and all of it executed with top notch style.

The whole video is around 10 minutes long and features absolute shredding from Dani Lebron, Adrian, Barry Mansfield, Mikey Burton, Cameo Wilson, Ben Fisher, and Sebo Walker, it's viewable on The Berrics website or you can watch it right here:

Don't know what the fuck happened to Reese Forbes, but hopefully he'll have some stuff for the full length video that is slated for a Spring 2012 release.

Ricky Oyola @ A'ala Park

2011-09-29T14:32:00.000-07:00

Been sitting on this one since right after I posted the photo of Ricky at the Kapahulu Skatepark that I lifted from The Chrome Ball Incident back in July.

Ricky and the Kastel Shoe team came to Honolulu in late 1999 for a vacation and to get a little coverage.
The video from the trip appeared in 411 Video Magazine Issue 32.

There was a magazine article from the trip as well, and the photo of Ricky at Kapahulu came from Transworld.
However, I remember a different photo of Ricky from back then that I could not for the life of me find, no matter how hard I searched.
The photo in question was an ad that was shot at A'ala Park during this trip where he was doing a backside ollie grab off the lip.
I was certain that it was an ad for Kastel, since it was after all a Kastel trip that they were on at the time but it turns out I was dead wrong.

Super stoked that the homie Justin from Vert Is Dead dug into his extensive crates and finally uncovered this long lost picture that I had been looking for since the beginning of the 2000's:

Turns out it was an ad for Destructo Trucks, not Kastel as I had always insisted.
I didn't know that Ricky ever rode for them.

Anyway, mahalo to Justin for going deep and pulling this obscure pic from his files.

Weezy F. Baby Gets His Roll On

2011-09-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

This has been floating around the Internet for a little while and I haven't had a chance to properly process it all and speak on it yet but since Lil Wayne is performing here in Honolulu this Saturday night I figured now is as good a time as any.

First of all I have to preface this by stating that I absolutely cannot stand this dude's music, I think his shit is fucking terrible.
I also think he has quite a lot of nerve referring to himself the greatest rapper alive.
I know part of the whole hip hop lifestyle persona is to proclaim that you're the shit, which is actually okay as long as you are the shit, but Weezy is out of his mind claiming greatest rapper alive.
KRS-ONE, Rakim and about a thousand or so more talented and interesting emcees need to fucking die before this dude is even close to being the greatest rapper alive.
How about most prolific rapper alive or dude that puts out the most shit?
Fuck outta here with that bullshit son.

Anyway, music aside, I think Lil Wayne is awesome for getting into skateboarding lately.
Obviously he's not very good at it yet (still better than Pharrell or Lupe) but he looks like he's having a blast trying:

Getting up on some transition to fakie.

Crop dusting a shove it.

Rocking out.

By the way Weezy rides 5Boro.

This motherfucker made it to The Berrics.

Even sessioned with Malto, and Malto is a small dude so how tall do you think Wayne is?

This guy is always tweeting about skateboarding, even when he busts his ass.

Whoops.

Speaking of busting his ass, Wayne made the news when he ate shit recently and had to get stitches.
I can't front, if you are a multi-millionaire entertainer and you're getting stitches from learning how to skate, you're alright with me.

Also, I'm curious as to whether or not Weezy will be getting his shred on here in Honolulu this weekend.
If you check out his Twitter, he sure seems like he's doing a lot of skating lately while on the road, notably hitting up the Venice Skatepark and sessioning the Supreme Bowl while in L.A. a few days ago.
I'm guessing maybe A'ala Park sesh sometime Saturday or Sunday with the Plan B dudes, or maybe Hickam perhaps, we'll see.

Anyway, if you haven't already seen the videos, judge for yourself:

Double Rock session.

Transitions Skate Park.

Skatepark Of Tampa.

Plan B In Hawaii

2011-09-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

Saw a commercial for this shit on fucking ESPN the other day while watching Sportscenter:

Town and Country is bringing down the entire Plan B pro team to Honolulu for a demo and signing and some kind of thing where people can win a private session with those dudes.

Not too sure about the signing but I think it's on Saturday the 24th and they haven't announced which T and C location they're gonna be doing it at, but on the poster in fine print it says only Plan B merchandise will be signed.
Huh?
So if I bring a pair of Paul Rod's signature Nikes in there or an old PJ Ladd Flip board like my man Kenny did back in the day, they aren't going to sign that shit for me?
Fuck outta here with that bullshit, son.
That's some foul horseshit right there, but that's their prerogative I guess.

Also, the actual demo itself is going to be on Sunday September 25th at the Manana park in Pearl City, kind of a weird choice but I'm sure they'll rip it regardless.
Also Town and Country is doing a collabo deck with Plan B and they will be releasing it the weekend of the demo and signing.

Boards look kinda wack but I didn't expect much from T and C in the graphic department.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of chain stores at all and I would never cop skate gear in the mall but I have some love for Town and Country because we go way back like Lebron James' hairline, I got mad history with the yin and yang working for and skating for them back in the day.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing O.G.s like D. Way, Colin McKay and Pat Duffy shredding and also dudes like T-Puds and PJ, of course Paul Rodriguez is going to destroy it.
Sheckler I have already seen skate at Manana a few years ago but dude has gotten a lot better and seems a whole lot less douchier these days so we'll see.

Ryan Spencer on King Of The Road

2011-09-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago Thrasher announced the skaters that will be participating in this year's King Of The Road challenge and it's pretty rad to see that Maui's Ryan Spencer will be one of the guys representing the Dekline team.

Having a hard time embedding this, but you can check out the announcement video here.

This year for KOTR it's all shoe teams and with Dekline going up against Nike, Lakai and Vans, the competition is going to be especially fierce.
Bummed that braddah Andy Henrie is no longer the Nike team manager, they definitely got some big swooshes to fill there.

And oh yeah, any teams feel free to hit me up if you need somebody over 40 to do a flatground 360 flip.

Might take a few minutes though.

OH YEAH! Classic Kool-Aid Skate Commercial

2011-09-02T18:13:00.000-07:00

The other night I was chilling at home wearing this t-shirt and I was surprised that my wife immediately recognized the Kool-Aid guy.

It was funny to me because she's from Japan and they don't even have Kool-Aid over there but it turns out the only reason she's even seen the Kool-Aid mascot is because of Family Guy, which believe it or not is one of the few English language shows on TV that she watches regularly.

Anyway, I wanted to show her where this dude came from orignally so I went to YouTube and looked up some of the old commercials from back in the day that featured the Kool-Aid guy busting down doors and smashing through walls to promote that good old sugar water.

Wouldn't you know the very first commercial I found was skate-related.

Peep this classic:

Jesus, even for back then that's some seriously low budget shit but hey, at least the little boy wasn't pushing mongo.

APB and Treevisons Present HNL-LAX Video

2011-08-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

Chad was in Italy and John had to hold it down in the shop so Conor was the lucky one who got to fly to L.A. to check out the Agenda trade show and film this nice little clip.

Features the skating of Matt Chaffin, Michael Guffey, Daniel Castillo, Joey Brezinski, Yuto Kojima, Alec Singer, Adrian Adrid, & David Bowens.

Contrast Magazine Issue #6: The New VIntage

2011-08-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

Really excited that the brand new sixth issue of Contrast Magazine is hot off the press and finally hit the streets last week.

It's been a while since their last offering, and to me it's awesome to finally be able to hold the latest in my hands, because there's something about an actual physical printed copy of a well put together magazine that no website, blog or fucking tweeted instagram bullshit can ever compare to.

Anyway, the mag itself is laid out beautifully and printed on some really incredible paper that makes everything look extra sick.
These dudes really know what they're doing and it shows more and more every issue that comes out.
Congratulations to Mark and the whole staff on another banger!

Highlights for me include:

Curb Thief ad from Solitary Arts.
Can't get enough of this graphic, and a sequence to boot!

A'ala Park Boardshop ad featuring all terrain killer Travis Hancock, shot by Contrast Editor-In-Chief Mark Kushimi.
Mark shoots APB's ad every issue and the shit always comes out amazing.

Speaking of coming out amazing, this interview with homie Jef Hartsel was also done by Mark, and the photos are super dope.

Especially loving this shot of Jef hill bombing!

Also, I was especially stoked that Contrast asked me to contribute to the mag once again.
I don't do freelance writing anymore for anybody but when these guys asked me if I wanted to work on an interview with my man Rene Matthyssen, I was more than happy to say hell yeah.

Rene had an idea to take a new photo that would recreate the Slap Magazine cover that he had back in 1994 that was laid out National Geographic style.

The original cover photo was shot in Waikiki next to Walls but since the spot has undergone reconstruction since then and is now unskateable, it was decided to shoot the new photo at Ala Moana Beach Park and try to get it as close as possible.

Anyway, Rene got homie Ryan Toyama (whose silhouette trails Rene's in the original picture) to join him for the new photo and make it extra legit and authentic.

Paul Kema took the photo and this is how it came out:

Pretty damn good considering the original photograph by Lance Dawes is beyond amazing and was shot on film not to mention never touched up with any kind of digital effects, since they didn't even exist back then.

Anyway, it was really cool to do the interview with Rene, we touched on a few things like his past career as a pro skater for New Deal and his modern day role as one of the owners and creative minds behind Fitted Hawaii.
Fittingly, (no pun intended but that was pretty good, right?) the last two pages of the mag feature a classic skate sticker collage from Cuzzo's own personal archives that make up the newest Fitted ad.

Nice way to close it out!
Pick up issue number six of Contrast at APB, In4mation, Aloha Army, Fitted Hawaii, Stussy Honolulu, Vans Ala Moana and Volcom Waikiki, and if I am not mistaken this issue will also be available at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide.

Royal Hawaiian Pool Service Max Schaaf Guest Board

2011-08-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Just saw this posted on the Royal Hawaiian Pool Service blog, and being a huge fan of both Max Schaaf and the original Hawaii Five-O television series I must say that I'm psyched on this upcoming "guest brahda model".

RHPS has done several very cool guest boards in the past and they have always come correct with dope graphics and interesting shapes.
This one looks like it's keeping the tradition going strong.

Kris Markovich @ Hickam Hangar

2011-08-13T17:58:00.001-07:00

Doing a big-ass frontside grab on the best mini ramp we had on Oahu back in the day.
Markovich was one of my favorites in the early '90s due to his fast and aggressive approach combined with a burly make or break style.

This photo (courtesy of The Chrome Ball Incident) was an ad for Prime, which was previously known as Color.

By the way, Color was started by Hawaiian homie Mark Oblow and featured a young Kyle Yanagimoto as one of the ams.

Grant Taylor in Hawaii, Again

2011-08-09T17:50:00.000-07:00

Same magazine as the last one too!
Grant Taylor at another local spot here on Oahu, this one however is an actual backyard pool.
Not sure where this is but I have a strong feeling this guy knows.

Happy hunting.

Grant Taylor Alien Workshop Ad @ Banzai Skatepark

2011-08-04T16:14:00.000-07:00

These Alien guys sure seem to like Hawaii for ads lately.
Last time it was T-Blood's Fourstar sequence at the Highlands ledge and now it is time to feast your eyes upon Grant Taylor at the Banzai park on the North Shore, check this shit out:

Whoa.
We've seen people utilize that weird tranny shit above the coping but not like this dude just did on that level.
Talk about flying in off of the top rope, that's some straight WWE type shit right there.
Have fun duplicating this one!

Adrian Adrid on Commonwealth Stacks

2011-08-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

So excited to learn that my man is no longer in limbo as a flow dude on Stereo and Adrian Adrid is now riding as an amateur for Commonwealth Stacks , widely known in the industry as simply "Stacks", which used to be strictly a t-shirt line but have since expanded to boards.

Check out this flyer that they made to hype their new promo video at this week's Agenda show:

This is such a great piece of news for a couple of reasons.
One is that Stereo simply wasn't doing shit with Adrian and he was left on flow status for far too long.
He put in a lot of work for them, represented to the fullest and absolutely should have been bumped to full am a long time ago.
This is simply not debatable.

I still think Stereo is a rad company and I don't know the ins and outs of how and why they and Adrian parted ways, but I think it's definitely a big step up for him and very much well deserved.

Hopefully they won't keep Dyson on the am shelf for too much longer and don't even get me started on him deserving to be pro for years already.

Also, this puts Adrian in a position where he is now teammates with the originator of the modern day high ollie contest, my favorite Spainard that isn't named Rebecca Linares, Red Bull's Manny Mania national am champion, and last but not least a guy named Cameo.
I mean, that has got to be one of the best names is skateboarding.
The dude's name is fucking Cameo...Word up!

Anyway, totally hyped for Adrian and can't wait to see that promo video, congratulations brah!

Chee!

Jordyclot+Crailtap Frontpage

2011-08-01T17:31:00.000-07:00

Equals dreadtastic!

Not only the Captain of the Spliff All-Stars, but also a client.

Tyler Bledsoe Fourstar Ad @ Highlands Ledge

2011-07-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

A local spot once again featured on the worldwide stage.
That's right!
A few months ago the Fourstar team blazed through the PC, son, and this kid shot a photo sequence there.
Highlands Intermediate School to be exact.
You know the ledge, it's no joke and some gnarly shit has definitely gone down there.

The first thing I remember seeing on it was a switch crooked grind pop out by Pearl City's own Neal Nagata back in the late Nineties as seen in the first APB video Midnight Mariders.
After that a lot of fairly stock tricks went down on it until Matt Chaffin stepped up and nollie flip noseslid it as seen in the 808 Skate film It's 8:08.
Then a few other tech tricks of the flip in variety happened there, and I'm not a hundred percent sure but I don't remember anyone flipping out of a trick on it until visiting pro Ryan Decenzo did a frontside tailslide frontside flip out there a couple of years ago.

ANYWAY the point I'm trying to make is, it's fucking hard to skate this thing.
The ledge is higher than average when you get on and when you come off, it's a long way down and you're going downhill.
People have gotten fucked up on it, and I have nothing but respect for anyone who's rolled away clean from something there.

Having said that, Tyler Bledsoe done shut the studio down!

Look:

Backside tailslide bigflip out.

Holy.

Sheep.

Shit.

And he did it twice!

Peep it out in it's full glory in the latest issue of The Skateboard Mag.

I went out and actually bought it because Stevie Cab is on the cover and he's one of my first favorite skaters from way back.

Celebration Of Life

2011-07-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Much mahalos to everybody who came to the barbeque on Saturday, it was an awesome day with family and friends all gathered to celebrate the life of our dear Kenneth.

Here's a photo of me and my little brother Kenny next to a photo collage honoring his memory.

Also, there is something very special coming soon from our New York connection Sean Kelling, a.k.a. The Flyin' Hawaiian that honors Kenny but it's not quite ready yet and I'll bust it out as soon as it is.

Kenny Forever

2011-07-23T01:51:00.000-07:00

Today it is exactly one year since our brother Kenny left us.
Let's all keep shredding for him.

A'ala Park Contest from 199Something

2011-07-18T14:38:00.000-07:00

If you thought that Kastel Shoes Hawaii road trip from the last post was a blast from the past, check out this old Town and Country contest courtesy of D. Lee:

Some serious A'ala Park ripping from a gang of old school shredders including O.G. APB heads Shane Rodrigues, Peter Nascimento, and Aree Lamont (check out Hot Nuts doing a switch heelflip on the bank right next to some graffiti honoring him.)

Also jazzed on the appearance of a bespectacled Ryan Arakaki and a child-like Sean Payne, also I'm pretty sure Hartsel is DJing, and my homie Joe Hoff is holding it down on the microphone with the best skate contest MC skills of all time.

Also super stoked to see my brother Kenny getting background props!

Love this shit, thanks to D.L. for bringing it to light.

Ricky Oyola @ Kapahulu Skatepark

2011-07-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

Since Ricky has always been a Skate Nazi favorite from way back (and the star of what is in my opinion one the top five video parts in the history of skateboarding) and is currently the subject of Pat O'Dell's most recent Epicly Later'd episodes, (part one here, part two here) I thought this would be as good a time as any to post this:

This photo is from an old issue of Transworld and was posted last month on Chrome Ball in a super sick post about Ricky, and I had forgotten all about it until seeing it there.

The year was 1999 and the Kastel Shoes team had come here for a little Hawaiian vacation combined with some island shredding.

Also, a Road Trip section of this was filmed for 411 Video Magazine as well, I believe this is from issue number 32, check out this local blast from the past:

I was never, ever a fan of Kastel Shoes but HOLY SHIT this is such a sick segment for so many reasons, can I count some of the ways?

1. Rob Gonzales backside tailslide at A'ala Park. Hadn't seen anyone do it prior and haven't seen anyone do it since. Maybe someone has but back then it was flabbergasting.

2. Ricky with a late backside grab off of the lip at A'ala Park, the photo of this was later used as a Kastel ad, wish I had a copy of it.

3. Homie Jerald Anzai with a nollie heelfip to fakie at A'ala Park, he was riding for Kastel on some rep flow back then and was representing as a member of the original APB squad.

4. Steve Olson (obviously the Shorty's one, not Alex's dad) executing a noseslide shove-it to fakie at A'ala Park. People don't normally shove out of anything on the lip there, then again you wouldn't associate this dude with anything normal now would you?

5. Kale Sandridge dropping in off of a fence at Wallows, literally his backyard.

6. Kenny Reed cameo appearance at the Waianae Skatepark, a long way away from Bangladesh or Transylvania or wherever the fuck that dude gets footage at nowadays.

7. Steve Olson heelflipping the Kinau Street bump. That thing sucked back then and it still sucks now but it sure looks cool.

8. Rob Gonzales feeble grinding the skinny hubba ledge at the old Varsity Theater. Not a lot of people fucked with that thing.

9. Ricky tailsliding over the plaque at Kuykendall. Made the shit look easy too.

10. Tell me that's not a young Skillet standing there in green pants next to the pillar when Jesse Paez lands that backside tweak, the last trick in this clip.

Love stumbling upon old shit like this!

Lucas Hancock in Avenues & Alphabets

2011-07-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

A few days ago homie Travis Hancock hipped me to the fact that his little bro Lucas has a section in the brand new Satori Wheels video Avenues & Alphabets, which was just put online recently.

Check it out, first part right out the gate!

Super rad to see Lucas still shredding but the shit in that video part seriously looked waaay too easy for him.

The hill bomb was definitely sick but how about throwing in a little street footage next time, boy?
We know you can do it all so keep filming every chance you get and show those hippies how a real Hawaiian all terrain vehicle does it!

HANA HOU: Guy Mariano @ Cholo's Bowl. Again.

2011-07-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of the new Wallride catalog that features all the new shit from Girl, Chocolate, and the like, well you know the deal, pretty much all killer no filler as usual.

Me, personally, I wouldn't ride a set of Royals if you paid me in free salami and Mexican Coca-Cola for a year but Guy can pretty much ride whatever he wants.

I'm not sure if he pulled this invert or not but it must be a good feeling to know that you can get upside down like that whenever you feel like it.

Good to see the Crail conglomerate keep on killing the game!

Also, this was in there too.

Chee!

Boardchill Homies @ Miyashita Park in Tokyo

2011-07-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

When I was last in Tokyo towards the end of February, the Miyashita skatepark a.k.a. Nike park in Shibuya was still under construction and had unfortunately not opened yet.

I missed the grand opening by a mere two months and apparently it has been very popular since then with the not only the locals but skaters from all over Japan and is sessioned quite heavily.

Stumbled upon this little clip the other day courtesy of the incredible Japanese skate mag SB Skateboard Journal and was stoked to see Okinawa's finest getting in some shredding, peep Wataru Ganeko and Chris Matayoshi among others putting it down:

やばい!

東京いきたい!!!

Fourstar Catalog Starring HAWAII

2011-06-30T02:14:00.000-07:00

As you are probably aware, the Fourstar dudes were here a couple of months ago for a demo and to shoot their summer catalog.

The entire team except for Sean Malto, Lucas Puig, Shane O'Neill, and Mark Gonzales made the trip, and if you didn't know, Malto was originally scheduled to come but had to pull out due to an injury.

Even our homie Jordan, a.k.a. Jordyclot made a triumphant return home to the islands to enjoy the festivities and visit family and friends.

Well, the catalog is finally done and it looks amazing of course, almost entirely shot in Hawaii how could it not?

Highlights for me include the following:

First and foremost, Jef Hartsel at Kuykendall!
Are you kidding me???
This is a fucking amazing photo of a super stylish and incredibly difficult trick at a legendary spot.
Seriously.
Go there.
Try this.
You can't.

Big Brophy also got buck on the UH campus, standing tall on a tailslide, good on ya, mate.

Speaking of Brophy, the dude is from Australia so of course he knows a thing or two about getting pitted.
So pitted.

You know it must be gnar at Graveside if the Fourstar dudes had a rough time there.
Looks like Guy manned up and handled this love seat action just fine though.

Like I said, Graveside was definitely a bit of a challenge for the guys but I'm guessing Max Schaaf did not have a hard time at Steve's.

That's how you crack a fucking ollie, friends.

Always love to see visiting pros fuck with the lip at A'ala Park, and a select few will even belly up to the bar.
TNT takes it up a notch with this frontal demo attack.

Tyler Bledsoe bigflipped the Stevenson flat gap.
Holy shit.
Can't wait to see his Highlands ledge trick though, might possibly be his next ad and yes, you will shit yourself.

Stoked to see Jordan and Chad making an appearance in the catalog as well.

Also, Chad's truck!
Many a visiting pro have happily ridden "Hawaiian style" in the back of the Ridgeline, here TNT, Mike Carroll and Rick Howard experience true local cruising.

Mandatory Waimea rock jumps.

The bossman and my favorite skater.

Big mahalo to not only the Fourstar team but also to all the creative minds at the mighty Crail conglomerate for making the whole thing happen, Hawaii is definitely honored and proud to have been a part of this!

Also, the video of this trip is coming soon as well, can't wait to see what Meza and the boys come up with.

Reconnaissance Mish

2011-06-26T01:41:00.000-07:00

Driving along the other day and had to pull the fuck over real quick when I spotted this creation out of the corner of my eye that resembled something shreddable.

Whaaaaaat??

From the road this shit looked like a wooden full pipe so of course I had to recon the situation up close but then when I got right up next to it, I saw that it looked like it would be much more shralpable upside down.
But still, this shit looks like it would be fun to jump on and take a photo or film something on the fly.

I'm not gonna say exactly where this is, but I will tell you that it's not hidden at all and is easily visible from one of the busier streets in the greater Honolulu area.

Also, right around the corner from this weird shit is some other weird shit that looks totally do-able, and even better if you flipped it over: (that's what she said)

Probably more hassle than it's worth but you never know, shit might be a blast.
Anyway, keep your eyes peeled out there, shit's everywhere.

Ryan Spencer ESPN Interview

2011-06-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

I knew he was busy stacking footage and photos but now Maui boy Ryan Spencer is being interviewed by ESPN?

Super stoked to see that Ryan and I have similar tastes when it comes to admiration of local skaters, he shouted out not only Sean Reilly but also Adrian Adrid, two of my favorites as well.

I think this interview may be just a little sample of what's yet to come for this dude.
Foundation knows that all terrain rippers are what's hot right now, and its good to see that they're promoting guys that are well-rounded and able to shred any type of shit that's thrown at them.

Ryan is definitely one of those dudes and it will be interesting to see what kind of variety he has in his part when the WTF video drops later this year.

Guy Mariano @ Cholo's Bowl

2011-06-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

As seen in the latest issue of Thrasher, this is a shitty cell phone picture of the one and only Guy Mariano doing a switch feeble grind in the deep end of Steve's bowl on the North Shore.

It's an ad for Royal Trucks via AWH Distribution by the way.
Also, this was shot a couple of months ago when he was here for the Fourstar demo at A'ala Park and somebody present at the bowl on this day told me that this trick was filmed in a line that was done quite easily, hopefully we'll be seeing this footage sooner than later.

Speaking of done quite easily, check out Guy's footage in this clip from the Supreme bowl in L.A. if you haven't already done so.

This is a super sick montage showcasing the shredding of not only Guy but also Mike Carroll, Scott Johnston, Spanky, Dylan Rieder, Scott Oster and one of the Skate Nazi's favorite underrated rippers Tino Razo.
Big shaka to Tino and all the Razo bros back east!

Burnout at A'ala Park Contest Results

2011-06-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

In case you were like me and couldn't make it out to the A'ala Park contest over the weekend, you may or may not know anything regarding who finished where and won what.

Chuck and Zana from 808 Skate and ASH have posted the results here, so check them out to find where your homies all placed.

Super stoked to see that Danny Hamaguchi continues his home park dominance and that he and his APB teammates Kaikea Kimura and Travis Hancock took three out of the top four spots in the sponsored division.

Also want to throw a shout out to the homie Nick Lobdell for winnning the 17 and over division, Lobster is one of the better young dudes out there and just a cool kid in general, plus goofy footed, of course he shreds.

The next ASH contest will be held on Saturday, August 6th at the Kaneohe Skatepark.

Ryan Spencer Is On Foundation

2011-06-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

I mean I don't know exactly when he first made the jump from flow dude to actual amateur but now I guess it is finally officially official with the release of not only this welcome video that dropped a few days ago, but the also the fact that Ryan has a really nice two page color ad for Foundation in the July issue of Thrasher:

Sorry for the shitty phone picture.
So sick to have a pool photo as a first ad too.
Dude kills all terrain for sure.

On top of all that, in this same issue of Thrasher Ryan's welcome to the team ad for Dekline Shoes that I posted earlier is also a full two page color spread.

If I was him or any of his homies on Maui I would probably be buying several issues because this one is a keeper for obvious reasons.

Huge chee hu to this Valley Isle boy doing good in the world!

Burnout at A'ala Park Contest Tomorrow

2011-06-10T12:28:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that tomorrow the folks over at ASH and APB as well as Element are teaming up to bring you the Burnout at A'ala Park contest, here's the flyer in case you haven't seen it:

Contests at A'ala Park are always a good time so head on down and check it out if you can.

APB Presents A Day In The Life Of Matt Chaffin

2011-06-08T17:59:00.000-07:00

Whether he's jet setting off to Barcelona with Torey Pudwill or flying home for a short visit, Shmatty is always making moves and doing it big.

Witness this recently shot day in the life that was made during his last trip back here to the islands:

Good looking piece filmed and edited by APB's own Conor McGivern.

Dyson Ramones @ Mililani Skatepark

2011-06-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

Haven't really seen a lot from Agent Aloha in 2011 so far, but Stereo just posted a YouTube video of Dyson Ramones shredding the skatepark in Mililani.

Holy shit, that last trick is fucking bonkers.

Also, if you haven't seen, Stereo has recently updated their website, which looks really nice.

Now all they need to do is update their team page and get Adrian Adrid off of the flow program and on to the actual am roster, really though, wake the fuck up, guys!

Kansas City Curb Thievery Makes News, Police Baffled

2011-06-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

Saw this story this morning linked on Quartersnacks via Skate And Annoy and nearly fell out of my chair:
Keep in mind that this is an actual news story that happened in Kansas City, Kansas.

Holy shit.
Gotta love how the newscasters, property owners, and the police are completely clueless as to why someone would steal these.

Anyway, huge tip of the hat to these brazen bandits that made off with 30 parking blocks in one fell swoop, and in broad daylight to boot!

Can you imagine the amount of fun that these dudes just injected into their scene?
Shit, if one liberated parking block can bring this much joy, think about how much ecstasy thirty provides.

Seeing this made me misty-eyed and all warm inside.
You see, I am a recovering curb thief myself and now torn trying to walk the straight and narrow like a normal member of society who wouldn't think twice when coming face to face with a scene like this one:

This gold mine was literally outside the window of the home of my good buddy Jef for quite some time.

Also recently in my own neighborhood there sat unguarded an entire pallet of brand new parking blocks waiting to be put into the newly relocated Longs Drugs lot across from Down To Earth on King Street.
Somehow I stupidly managed to delete the one photo I took of this, but trust me it was difficult to pass by this juicy, chest-high stack on a daily basis and not act on my first impulse.

There was a war inside my head being waged between the rational, law-abiding adult in me (new, but he's definitely in there somewhere) and the skate first, ask questions later degenerate criminal that resides within all of us.

Bottom line, if you skate, you can relate.
I know these guys can definitely see where I'm coming from, they created one of the raddest graphics I have ever seen in my 25 years of skateboarding, and for that I salute them and anyone else that skates who has ever bent the law a little bit to enhance their stoke.

Matt Chaffin Thrasher Sequence

2011-06-03T12:21:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning to some strong coffee and an even stronger sequence of Kaneohe boy Matt Chaffin a.k.a. Lil' Shmatty doing some ill tech shit in his sleep.

What I mean is this is the kind of shit Matt would warm up with up at the Cannon Club stage I shit you not.

Super sick trick anyway, but I couldn't figure out how to embed it here so just click on that link to check it out.

Matt it still doing it extra big over in L.A. and you can see what he's up to and which celebs he's sessioning with anytime by checking out his Twitter account.

By the way, seeing as its grad season and all I wanna send a big academic shout out to my man Shmatty who is a fellow private school alumnus.

Little known fact, we graduated from the same high school albeit many, many years apart.

Ryan Spencer WTF

2011-06-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

This post title is fitting for a couple of reasons, the first being because this dude is on some WHAT THE FUCK shit right about now.

As far as guys from Hawaii trying to make it in the skateboarding world, Ryan is hands down getting the most attention from the media right now.

When I last saw this guy a couple of years ago he was riding for Crimson and getting second place at the 2009 Girl open house contest, which he may as well have won because he slayed every square inch of that warehouse harder than anybody else who was there.

Check out this Crail-made video, or this one that I shot myself to see just how on point dude was that day.

Anyway, Girl went ahead and did a full re-design of their warehouse park right after that contest and wouldn't you know it, when they held the 2010 open house contest with the brand new layout Ryan Spencer won the whole goddamned thing.

So, reason number two that the title of this post is relevant is because that the title of the next video by the Foundation Skateboard Co. is "WTF!"

and Ryan is now officially riding for them as an amateur after putting in a lot of work as a flow dude.

I don't know him personally and I haven't seen any kind of welcome to the team official announcement kind of shit from Foundation but there is this:

Apparently the video is coming out in the Fall of this year and will introduce Ryan as well as Dakota Servold and Taylor Smith as their newest ams.

Taylor Smith has already gotten a welcome to the team ad for Foundation but Ryan has not so far to the best of my knowledge.

However, Ryan has gotten a welcome to the team ad for his shoe sponsor, Dekline Footwear, and here it is:

I'm not much of a stair counter but that is a pretty big fucking feeble grind.

Also, if you haven't seen it, peep Ryan's super sick nosebluntslide photo in the latest issue of The Skateboard Mag, coincidentally the letters WTF appear on the cover:

This picture is straight up green bananas!

Also, Ryan has a little thing in Thrasher from the Phoenix Am weekend that went down a couple months ago:

This is a legit street hubba ledge he's grinding up, and he also grinded up the hubba in the contest as well.

Well, in closing I have to say that this Maui boy is getting everything he deserves and more these days.
He's always seemed like a real hungry and confident dude to me that was eager and ready to shred any type of terrain at the drop of a hat.

Anyway, stoked that another local cat is getting his shine on and I can't wait to see what he comes up with for this new Foundation video.

NEWS FLASH: Rollerblading Still Gay

2011-06-01T01:57:00.000-07:00

Well, technically this is not exactly news to those of us who possess common sense and rational thinking abilities, but in case you were on the fence regarding aggressive inline skating, let me break it down for you:
Rollerbladers are faggots.
Period.

Actually, I shouldn't be so quick to use the word faggot when referring to rollerbladers, because that would be insulting to real cornholers and genuine cock smokers the world over, and The Skate Nazi doth not discriminate.
I do however hate these ankle grabbing fairies with a serious passion.

Anyway, the only reason I bring up rollerblading at all today is because I saw this video that's floating around of these two ass spelunking inliners in Los Angeles that decided to go to that large wall on La Brea Avenue and fuck with a Girl Skateboards advertisement that commemorates their collaboration with Sanrio and features Hello Kitty.
Check it out:

Wow, I see what you did there, you put rollerblades on Hello Kitty!
Holy shit, you guys are CA-RAY-ZEE!
You sure showed those stupid woodpushers!

I mean seriously.

That's the best you could come up with?
You guys think skaters give a shit about Hello fucking Kitty?

And you wonder why people think rollerbladers are fucking gay?

Really though, here we are almost halfway through the year 2011 and there are actually living, breathing people out there who still find rollerblading to be an acceptable activity.

We've all seen these donkeys in action, wax gliding over everything, constantly getting in the way at the skatepark and basically displaying huge amounts of faggotry that are unparalleled in the world of kooking it.

C'mon, son.
Unless you're a hot chick getting some cardio or a serious cross-training hockey player, get the fuck outta here with that bullshit!

Rollerblading takes NO FUCKING SKILL AT ALL, AND YOU ALL LOOK GAY AND RETARDED COPYING SKATEBOARD TRICKS.
It seriously takes no time to get good at rollerblading.

Its what kids resort to when they figure out that they're too pussy to hack skateboarding.
Do you have legs?

Can you jump?
Then you can shred at rollerblading!
Because why wouldn't you?
After all, THEY'RE ATTACHED TO YOUR FUCKING FEET, YOU PRANCING, CHEATING FAGGOTS!

Even the most interesting man in the world knows that shit is, was, and will always be wack.

Seriously.

Koston

2011-05-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

I know he was just here in Hawaii last month but the title of this post needs nothing else but his name.
Seriously.

With his pro model shoe from Nike recently dropping, take a little look at just how fucking absurdly this dude is living these days:

What the fuck???
This video is straight up ludicrous but I love so many things about it.

First of all, custom job or not, I need one of these for traveling.

A pole jam to severely tweaked method on something like this would be a career highlight for someone like me but for Frosty it's just another drop in a seemingly bottomless bucket of dork tricks.

Speaking of dorky, I find it curious that one of the best all-around skateboarders of all time feels the need to wear a rubber bracelet with a low budget hologram on it that supposedly enhances balance and performance.
Get the fuck outta here with that bullshit, son.

I mean really, Eric Koston needs help with his balance and performance?
Seriously, get the fuck outta here with that bullshit, son.

Also, this is the guy calling on the phone and asking him for shoe hookups?

Hahahahaha, what else did they talk about?

The sweep?

Nah, I do love the swoosh but this Kobe/Koston collabo shoe is on some fugly shit though.

Shake Weight in the middle of a trick?
Only Koston could get away with shenanigans like this.

Braddah Andy Henrie is still the rippingest and most motivational TM in the industry, but how much longer will Sergeant Skate be behind the wheel?
As far as a replacement goes, they're gonna have to at least come up with a guy like this to match Andy's intensity and passion for shredding, hopefully the Nike troops get somebody close to his level that can keep these maggots in line even half as much as my man does.

Jef Hartsel on Crailtap Front Page

2011-05-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Stoked to see this photo of Jef and Lil' D on the front page of tha Tap today.

Looks like this pic was taken on the streets of Kaimuki in Hartsel's old hood, glad to see Daniel remembers who first put him on to the game back in the old World days, respect!

Mike Carroll @ Kapahulu Skatepark

2011-05-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Looking at the usual skate sites the other day I was beyond happy to see one of the best of all time getting the royal Chrome Ball treatment.

Mike Carroll is a fucking boss.
Literally.
VP of the company and still killing shit after being pro for nearly twenty years, I would rather watch Mike go grocery shopping than look at eighty percent of skate video parts that are produced these days.

But I digress.
While viewing the stellar crop of photos that the homie Chops put together, one of them jumped right out at me real quick.
This black and white photo of what has to be one of, if not theeee most proper looking backside Smith grinds to ever take place on something other than transition.

That and the fact that the photo was shot here in Honolulu at the now defunct Kapahulu Skatepark back in 1998.
There was a Girl demo that day and it was memorable for many reasons, I mean shit, it was Carroll, Koston, Jeron, Gavin, Guy and Keenan, bless his soul, that right there is a heavy lineup for any time and place in skateboarding history.

Lots of ill shit went down at that demo and this was also the same day that Chad filmed those guys doing APB shout outs for the intro of his first video, Midnight Mauriders.

Young MC.

Guy threw up the infamous half shaka/half fuck you and then threw down a big ol' switch hardflip on the steep flat bank while Jeron killed the tech manual shit.

Koston straight up murdered the demo of course and a few days later came really close to crooked grinding the lip at A'ala Park.
That didn't stop Transworld from running the photo in a future issue that would document this trip, one of two non-makes that they printed in that memorable Hawaii article, the other being Jeron's crooked grind at the Bishop Street gap to ledge.

Tim Gavin at the tail end of his career was still pretty fucking good, even though he was starting to get a little chunky.
Shaka for the camera.

RIP Keenan, he shredded Kapahulu so hard that day and then went big that night at Femme Nu.
Homie was so psyched to be in Hawaii, and if you got the chance to see him skate in the flesh then you are truly blessed.

There's a photo out there somewhere of all of these guys taken in front of the sign at the Like Like Drive-Inn, I can't remember where I saw it but it is a really, really great picture and if anybody ever runs across it hit me up because I would love to be able to see it again.

ANYWAY, that was awesome seeing the Carroll pic from that day at Kapahulu and being there to see it go down in person was a real treat.

On a related note, Ben Colen has just posted some nicely shot photos from last month's Fourstar trip to Hawaii which included another one of these demos that people like me will no doubt be waxing nostalgic about for years and years to come.

808 Promo Video Thoughts

2011-05-16T15:25:00.000-07:00

First of all, sorry for such a long gap in between updates.
I'm sure all eleven of you were wondering what the fuck was going on.
I sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago, and you would think that being injured would lead to more chill time hence more blogging but that's probably how a normal person would do it.
I still have to work at a job that requires me to be on my feet all day so the foot is definitely not recovering the way it should be, and as far as skating goes, I probably shouldn't be telling you this but I really don't miss it that much.
True story.
Anyway, until this shit feels one hundred percent again, I'm chillin.

I was however really stoked last week when I received an email from my man Chuck letting me know that there was a new 808 Skate promo put together by the one, the only, Sean Patrick Reilly.

Check out this little slice of shredding that was filmed and edited in very low definition by the Bedpan himself.

Glad to see that the 808 Skate tradition lives on with a revamped squad that joins O.G. team riders Reilly and my tall man bredren Sean Payne.

I do have a couple of questions after seeing this though.

First of all, is Kyle Smith the new Sam Clemens?
And if he is, does that make Jason Park the new Anton Glamb?

Is Nate Nahina the best moke skater since Jarret Bush?

Is that Tiny Bubbles moment with Mikey Albert and his wine the best edited thing I've seen all year?

Did Bernardo Bernard go and get a boneless teri chicken plate at The Heights after he boardslid that kinked rail?

Do I not care that all of the Sean Payne clips are recycled and old as fuck because any Payne footage is gold footage?

The answers to all of these queries are irrelevant, but I have to say I am excited about the prospect of another 808 film directed by Chuck, and since we will realistically never see a local skateboarding video production filmed as a shot for shot remake of the 1987 classic North Shore, a new 808 video should prove to be an interesting hodgepodge of cinematic styles.

Also, have to mention my absolute favorite part of the whole thing.
The moment at the 8 minute mark of the video where my man Kenny, rest his soul, is filming Reilly and his Jackson chameleon attempting some fingerboard shenanigans and you can hear that laugh.
THE LENNY LAUGH!
Appropriately enough, this clip ends at the 8:08 mark.

Aaaaaaaand scene...

Kento Takahashi on Lesque Skateboards

2011-05-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

Super stoked to see that our Japanese homie and former Hawaiian resident Kento Takahashi is now officially riding for Lesque Skateboards.

Check out Kento-san's smiling mug in the mid-lower right.

If you didn't know, Lesque is one of if not the most elite skate company in Japan.

A couple of years ago the readers of Transworld Japan voted Lesque the best overall team in the country.

Also that same year they voted Lesque's Shinichi Ito a.k.a. Itoshin the best street skater.

Really hyped that Kento is now teammates with some of the raddest skaters in Japan!

Here is the latest clip in Lesque's "Skate With Us" series, this is number five and features the debut of Kento.

Really sick skating by the whole team and an overall good fun vibe as always.
Working on doing an interview with Kento now and that should be posted up here in the near future so be on the look out for that.

Aaron Lee BayVI Hawaii Commercial

2011-05-02T03:06:00.000-07:00

Holy sheep shit!
I guess Aaron posted this on Facebook already and this video was uploaded to Vimeo like ten days ago but it's new to me and if you haven't seen it yet you should check this BayVI Hawaii clip out because
SUNSHINE DID A FUCKING McTWIST ON THE VERT RAMP AT HICKAM!

I don't know about you guys but I've never known anyone personally who has done a McTwist on vert until now.
Maybe you hang out with amazing vert skaters who shred so hard that McTwists are no big deal but me, I think that shit is fucking amazing.

Shit was so legit, he actually got upside down like you're supposed to and didn't do one of those phony 540's where it's not an actual McTwist, this shit was a hundred percent genuine.

Huge congrats to Aaron for landing that, definitely something we're not accustomed to seeing in Hawaii that's for sure.

Jef Hartsel on The Chrome Ball Incident

2011-04-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

Really glad to see that today's post on the best skate blog in existence is about our local homie Jef Hartsel!
Last time it was the whole Alva dread posse getting chromed, but this time Jef gets the royal treatment himself.

Definitely sparked by the background cameo he got in that little Koston clip from UH that Crailtap posted a few days ago, and I just have to say that all of us here in Hawaii as well as the rest of the world are glad to see this dude is still continuing to receive much deserved and well earned props.

Today's post is dedicated to the little guy, Nainoa Kenneth-Zen Hartsel, present day bundle of joy and near future shredder!

Fourstar Hodgepodge

2011-04-25T14:38:00.000-07:00

So anyway the Fourstar team did a demo yesterday at A'ala Park.

Yesterday also happened to be Easter Sunday, one of the busiest days at the restaurant that I work at, so I got to the jam a little bit late.

Usually when it comes to things like demos, or anything skateboard related for that matter, they never, ever start on time.

Never.

Until yesterday that is.

The Fourstar dudes actually came early and were up and shredding even before the four o'clock start time.

Now that's some seriously unexpected and welcomed professionalism!

When I finally made my way to the spot, the barbecue grill was dying down and in dire need of resuscitation.

Of course I had several packages of wieners on me (HUGE no homo) and had also received large sausage (again) as a gift from Chuck and Zana, so it was definitely time to man up on the grill because everybody else was fixated on Guy Mariano who was in the process of quietly killing the demo.

Jordan's mom and my wife also took the initiative to help chef it up but even then I still managed to see not a single trick in the entire demo.

Awesome.

The heaviest lineup in years comes to my home park for a demo and I see zero shit go down.

Oh well, I'm just glad that it was Guy who turned out to be the most talked about shredder of the day.

Apparently he backside 270 tailslid the bank to bank ledge, frontside tailslid to frontside 270 heelflipped out on the box ledge, and also ollied in an out of a pivot fakie on the lip among other stunts that I also didn't see.

Score one for the 35 and ups!

The whole time the Fourstar dudes have been here, they've been shown around by Chad and Jordan and have gone to a plethora of locations for tons of shralping as well as many other spots to sample some of our finest local kine grinds.

So yeah, a lot of skating, eating and drinking and beach time.

Typical Hawaiian vacation.

If typical includes four Thrasher S.O.T.Y. winners on one trip.

Anyway, I only took a few photos at the demo and on the other occasions when I saw these guys, I wasn't trying to be that dude all up in everyones business with the camera phone so I have poached a bunch of pictures from a hodgepodge of sources including Jordan's twitter, Chad's twitter, and Koston's twitter.

I'll start with the photos that I took first:

Jordan's mom bonded with my wife over some A'ala Park wieners!

Carlyon and Meza have known each other since skate camp in the early nineties.

Koston, straight superstar mode.

Big bad B.A. inked up and inking down for the kids.

Mike Carroll, Max Schaaf, Eric Koston, Sam Smyth, Rick Howard, Tyler Bledsoe, Tony Trujillo, and Ben Colen survey the scene post-demo.

Me and Noodles been hanging out down here for 20 years plus.
Check out his coverage of the festivus here.

Now here's a bunch of stolen twitter photos!
You're welcome.

I got to see these guys gangbang the manhole (no homo) but it was very dirty.
Dirty, dirty manhole!
Ewwwwwwwwwww.

The new Graveside was sampled.

It's in the jungle somewhere.
Still haven't seen it.
Go find it, or don't, but bring beer.

The guys have been hitting up hella plate lunches since arriving.

Dudes killed Kuykendall until they got the boot from a dude on a segway.

What's a demo without the product toss?
Big up to the Fourstar dudes for busting out an insane amount of goods for the people!

After the demo the homies kept the grill going on into the night.

Also, super stoked to see the homie Hartsel getting props on Crailtap, along with a super nice gallery that they just posted up of Hawaiian shots.

Crailtap kills it as usual.
The guys return home tomorrow.
Mahalo to the whole squad for coming out and living the island life for a little bit, come back soon!
ALOHA.

EDIT: Just found a YouTube video from user skaterfoo808 that shows a few spicy nuggets from the demo yesterday including Guy's dreamy backside 270 to tailside on the bank to bank ledge.

Fuck yeah!
Nice job with the clips, hope to see more footage from this day soon.

Nestor Judkins TWS Cover

2011-04-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Just saw this mind blowing cover shot of Nestor Judkins on the latest issue of Transworld.

As soon as I saw it I recognized the spot as being in my favorite city in my favorite country, which is of course Osaka, Japan.
Two years ago when visiting my homie Junji, I was lucky enough to be taken to this out of the way industrial area where a spot with amazing banks with waxed lips, hips, a bank to ledge, a bank to wall and this rail next to a very rough and gnarly bank.

I got to session the place with my little buddy Takashi (the only person ever to skate from the top of Japan in Hokkaido to the bottom of the country in Okinawa, in fact you should check out the final part of his epic journey featuring the homies from Boardchill) and Morioka, whom I had just met for the first time.

I kept to the bank to wall but Takashi and Morioka started trying tricks over the rail into the bank.
That's when I took a seat.
They both landed a couple ollies and then Morioka started going for a crooked grind pop over into the bank (same trick Nestor is doing).
Anyway, Morioka almost landed that shit but let's just say that it didn't end well for him.

You can see the place I'm talking about and the results of that session in this video that Junji filmed.

Anyway, props to Nestor Judkins for manning up to that shit, always love to see down low Japanese spots, especially real cutty ones like this, featured on a worldwide stage.

It's Four Twenty, Bro!

2011-04-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

This one is for the stoners out there.

Through skateboarding I have met a bunch of heads that partake in mad izm and if there was ever a day to puff cheeba and go skate, well then today is the day.

It's been a long while since I quit burning herb, seventeen years in fact, but I can and still do relate to potheads the world over.
Even though I've never been able to fully grasp the whole (totally stupid) four twenty concept, I have always most definitely understood how unbelievably great weed can be.
In fact, from the tender young age of twelve up until I was twenty-four I smoked every goddamned chance I had.

Bong rip circa 1993, winding down my hall of fame career.

When I was working (and I use that term very, very loosely) at Tower Records I used to get high as fuck and then trade hella CDs for weed and/or skate product.

Also, the greatest t-shirt ever.
At least in my baked mind at the time it was.

I mean it's not like stoners ever really needed a special day or specific time of the day to get weeded, but I'm sure at 4:20 this afternoon thousands upon thousands of lighters will simultaneously ignite statewide and a plethora of bongs, pipes, spliffs, joints, L-bats, G-twigs, apples and dented Coke cans will all get passed to the left hand side (if you're following protocol) and if you're any kind of gentleman (or proper lady) you won't Bogart that shit.

On a related note, one of the biggest stoners in the history of big stoners returns home to Hawaii today for a limited engagement only.
My numba one stunnaclot and the hardest working bredren in the Girl/Chocolate warehouse Jordan deOliveira arrives today with the Fourstar team for a little shredding and a ton of R and R leading up to this Sunday's main event at A'ala Park.

Time to talk to Samson!

Hawaii With Lava

2011-04-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

Saw this dope little video piece that the Boardchill homies from Okinawa posted over on their site.

Looks like it was filmed by Alec Singer when he was visiting home from L.A. last November, and it features some serious local rippage with Travis Hancock and Adrian Adrid among others and it's really put together well.

Quite a stoney presentation I must say, and a nice complement to Conor's Treevisions work.
For more trippy visuals check out the rest of Alec's shit over on his YouTube channel, as well as his Vimeo account.

Real Video Premiere Tonight @ Next Door

2011-04-14T12:38:00.001-07:00

Sorry this is so short notice but if you didn't already know, APB will be hosting a premiere showing of the long-awaited and much anticipated new video from Real Skateboards entitled Since Day One at Next Door in Chinatown tonight from 7 until 9.

The video premiere is also a benefit for the Johnny Kicks Cancer Foundation and they are asking all those who attend to donate between 2 and 5 dollars in lieu of an admission charge.

Everyone should have no problem forking over a couple of dollars for this, it is for a very good cause and the video will be insane, you are going to want to see this tonight, trust me.

After seeing this on a big screen with a bunch of people screaming after every ridiculous trick, you'll probably want your own copy to view in the comfort and privacy of your own home so that you can rewind and slo-mo accordingly and process everything you won't be able to comprehend at the premiere.

This video retails for only 20 bucks and comes with a crazy booklet of Gabe Morford photos and a lot of bonus footage.
Buy it.
At a skate shop.
Fuck getting this shit on iTunes or watching it on some low quality bootleg download shit.
This is one physical copy DVD that is definitely worth your money.

808 Skate Is Back In Effect

2011-04-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Rad to see that my homie Chuck has finally re-opened 808 Skate as a stand alone shop again, and for that I must say congratualtions!

808 has been part of the skate scene in Hawaii since it first opened in Kailua in 1995.
Since then the shop moved locations a few times and even had a section for their stuff in Hawaiian Island Creations stores in Kailua and also Pearlridge.

Now 808 Skate is once again a fully functioning 100 percent skate shop that is 100 percent skater owned and operated.
Always a plus when deciding where to purchase your skateboard necessities, I mean seriously, we have to support locally owned businesses when it comes to the skate scene.

Looking forward to paying my man a visit in K-Town soon because it's been a while and I need to jump back on that ramp.

Oh and on a related note, my man Chuck and his wife Zana also run the ASH and they are having their first contest of 2011 at the Keolu Skatepark on Saturday April 23rd.

Might as well check out the contest on Saturday in Kailua and then hit up the Fourstar demo the next day in town.

Oh, and if Chuck wasn't busy enough with all that shit, he's still promoting his movie on the film festival circuit as well.
In addition, check out the props on the Transworld site.

Nicely done, Charlie!
See you soon, brah.

Slicker Than Most

2011-04-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

The mailbox of my apartment is usually full of bullshit like bills and junk mail but today I was beyond stoked to look inside and see that this incredibly dope Japan benefit t-shirt that I ordered from the homie Slick at DISSIZIT! had finally arrived:

First of all 'nuff respect to the man Slick himself, I gotta give it up to anyone who grew up in Aiea like I did.
Dude was a few years ahead of me and I didn't know him personally but I sure knew of his association with the O.G. Bomb Squad crew because his SLICK tag along with a lot of burners were everywhere, and I do mean everywhere.

In ninth grade I was a long-haired metalhead that wasn't at all into breaking or graffiti, but I knew one of his Bomb Squad homies named Mark who wrote KRUSH 458 everywhere and between the two of them there wasn't a spot on this entire island that didn't have a shitload of their tags and pieces up and I'm pretty sure the HPD formed an anti-graff squad specifically to catch these two motherfuckers, that's how crazy their shit was.

Always been super psyched on this dude, I mean he went from airbrushing tee shirts at Pearlridge to starting and running his own shit in L.A. and doing it huge!
3rd Rail, Fuct, Shaolin, Slick did all that shit and it was all dope, not to mention that Pharcyde album cover art.
Legend status!

Anyway, it is really rad that he did this and 100 percent of the proceeds of the sale of the tee shirts and prints go to the relief fund for the Japanese disaster.

Sold out, baby!
So stoked that so many people supported the cause.
MAHALO, Slicksta!

Phoenix Am Update From Day One

2011-04-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

First day of the Phoenix Am contest is in the books.
Sounds like it was a hot one, literally.
As in scorching desert heat all day long.

Out of the three guys from Hawaii that were entered, only Ryan Spencer from Maui will be advancing to the next round tomorrow.
Not only did Ryan make himself eligible for the final round of 49, but he did it in resounding fashion by qualifying 9th out of 160 skaters.
Dude is on a serious tear lately, filming for Foundation on some come up shit!
Check Moke Life for more confirmation.

North Shore shredders Travis Hancock and Heimana Reynolds qualified 61st and 109th, respectively, which is pretty good considering how many people were in the contest.

Super stoked that some local heads had a chance to make it up there to battle it out with some of the best ams in the world, and hopefully Ryan can keep it going tomorrow and kill it just as hard as he did today.
Good luck brah!

EDIT:
Here is a little video from the Transworld site of some of the ripping from the first day, Ryan has a bunch of rad stuff in it.

Also, having trouble with embedding it right now but here is another montage, this one is from the Thrasher site and it has some other shit and also some of the same stuff but with a different angle.
Guys were killing it.

EDIT:
Ryan Spencer finished in a very, very respectable 28th place.
Pretty damn good out of 160 guys.
Looking forward to seeing what this dude has in store for the next Foundation video.

No Joke

2011-04-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

Today is April Fool's Day and a lot of people out there are trying to pull all kinds of funny jokes and assorted bullshit but I'm tired and I can't do nuttin' for ya man.

There will be no intricate fabricated tales like the one I wrote years ago on the APB website about Darin Lee 360 flipping Wallenberg when he was living in San Francisco, and as a result of this incredible feat he was instantly sponsored by Real and Spitfire.

A lot of people actually bought every word of that horseshit and I am especially proud of it as a written piece in general, but alas, it no longer viewable anywhere on the Internet that I know of.
Holla at me if you ever see it.

Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures of shit that really exists but a lot of us would look at as a joke.

I will never, ever use the phrase "shred sled" again.

PVC wheels and PVC trucks?
Fuck outta here with that shit.

Not cute and not cool.
I fully back little girls skating (no pedo) but this is some bullshit.

This little dude is supposed to be Daewon Song but I think he looks more like Steven Stinson.

Legendary East Coast spot Pulaski Park a.k.a. Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. is now fingerboardable.

They made a live-action Smurfs movie.
Of course it wouldn't be complete without the little blue guys on a skateboard.

This is a basket for you to put your sausage in.
Get some.

Ever needed more cowbell?
Best Buy, son.

Thrasher Presents Hall of Meat with Bernardo Bernard

2011-03-31T20:49:00.001-07:00

Peep out this clip if you want to know how to bail properly because the homie Nuh-nuh nuh-nuh-
nuh NARDO sure knows how to handle himself when big shit goes wrong.

I don't know about you but I think that was a fucking AMAZING save at the end there.
I mean he could have shattered his whole face on that shit.

Also, and this is for those that didn't already know, Bernardo had a little part in a really dope local video called Baysick when he was doing work in San Francisco a little while back, and you can peep that part here not only because it's fucking awesome, but in the very beginning of this section Nardo flexes his cat-like reflexes again and makes a potentially gruesome bail seem like business as usual.

Nicely done, and I must say I do appreciate a good bail recovery technique.

Fourstar Demo at A'ala Park

2011-03-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

Heard a while back that after a recent visit last year Eric Koston was so stoked on Hawaii that he wanted to come back with the whole Fourstar team and do something here.

Well, it's happening next month!

APB and Fourstar Clothing present HAWAII FOUR-0!

Holy shit, being the huge Hawaii Five-0 fan that I am (the original of course, the new one is okay but come on son) this is beyond awesome.

Can't wait to see what the Fourstar dudes unleash upon our home turf!
Sunday April 24th.
4PM
Be here.
Aloha.

Autobahn Pit Stop with Daniel Castillo and Matt Chaffin

2011-03-28T18:08:00.000-07:00

Saw this little piece this morning and was immediately stoked.
Lil' D and Shmatty are best buddies and they recently filmed a little day in the life type section for Autobahn Wheel Co.

There are a few guys out there from Hawaii that are making things happen for themselves in the skateboarding world but to me no one is doing it bigger than Matt.

This dude stays steady getting clips and keeps showing up all over the Internet doing what he does best: ripping super hard and making it look too easy.

And now, as if he wasn't killing Cali hard enough as it is, Matt is about to take a trip over to Barcelona in a few days with a couple of homies including Carlos Zarazua, Enrique Lorenzo and Torey Pudwill.

Matt always seems to be in the right place at the right time with the right people, and hopefully this Barcy trip will propel him further into the spotlight and hopefully soon Almost and DVS will give him the bump from flow to full am status like he deserves.

Hickam Contest Results

2011-03-27T23:17:00.001-07:00

Couldn't make it out to the contest today but the homies at In4mation hit me up with the results hot off the presses:

Tied for first place and both on their way to Arizona to compete in the Phoenix Am next weekend are Travis Hancock and Heimana Reynolds.
Congratulations to these two shredders, and good luck in Phoenix!

Third place ended up being another tie, this time between Daniel Vinci and Bronson Sterling.

The outer islands represented as well with Maui's Miles Hanson snagging 5th place and the Big Island's Dustin Owens finishing in 6th place.

To recap:

1. Travis Hancock
1. Heimana Reynolds
3. Daniel Vinci
3. Bronson Sterling
5. Miles Hanson
6. Dustin Owens

In4mation+Habitat Collaboration

2011-03-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

The braddahs at In4mation have teamed up with the fine folks over at Habitat Skateboards and are dropping a collaboration pack next Friday.

Although it's releasing on April Fool's Day, this shit right here is no joke, there will be a shoe, t-shirt, cap and a deck that will all be available at both In4mation's Ward and Pearlridge locations.

To commemorate the release of this collabo pack, the guys from In4mation got together with some of their team riders and workers to put the products to the test in a nice little video piece.

D. Lee piloting the shoes in action!

Check out the video right here:

Super good job of filming by Conor, Keith and Rhandy and extra big ups to RT for editing this to a extra flavorful old school Hawaiian jam that I haven't heard in a really long time!
Sick.

Fitted Hawaii SK8 PACK

2011-03-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Releasing this Saturday and limited to 40 pieces each, these special edition H Pride New Era hats were designed by the Fitted Hawaii skate team.

Danny Hamaguchi, Tim Jackson, Chris Kays, and Matt Chaffin all were asked to come up with a colorway and design that represented their own personal style and I must say that they came up with some straight heaters!

I don't rock hats myself anymore these days but the 1992-1997 era me would be all over this shit.
Check it:

Danny.

Tim.

Chris.

Matt.

Sorry to drop a tired cliche' here but these hats are so fresh and so clean clean.

On a recent Sunday, Cuzzo from Fitted got the team guys and a few special guests together up at St. Louis Heights to shoot a little promo for the SK8 PACK and this fine piece of video work was filmed and edited by Jonathan Skillet Brousseau, shit came out DOPE!

Well done, fellas.

Check out the full details of the SK8 PACK release over at the Fitted Hawaii website .

Hickam Contest This Sunday

2011-03-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

Skateboard contests here in Hawaii used to be a really big deal to me back in the day.
Whether I was entering one or emceeing the festivities, they usually ended up being a really fun time all around.

Getting to see all the homies gathered together at one place and shredding for one common cause is a good thing for the skateboard community and this is the type of stuff that happens when there's a demo or a contest going on here.

I don't get the chance to make it to contests all that much nowadays due to my work schedule (and won't be able to make it to this one either, unfortunately) but this event coming up on Sunday at the Hickam Hangar looks like it's going to be a fairly big deal.

First of all, I have heard that there are a couple of new obstacles that are being built for this, which is awesome because in my opinion the Hangar needed a little recon boost, and secondly the top two finishers will receive automatic entry into the prestigious Phoenix Am contest that's happening April 2nd and 3rd in over in Arizona.

This will be a perfect opportunity for some hungry local cats out here to get their shine on and be recognized as worthy entrants into one of the biggest am contests in the world, in fact, our fellow Hawaiian homie from Mililani Jarold Webb received a well-deserved second place at the Phoenix Am in 2005 and made us all very proud.

Anyway, try to make it out there on Sunday if you can, and big ups to all the peoples at In4mation, Vans, and all of the other sponsors involved with making this happen.

Jordy, Jordy, Jordy!

2011-03-20T15:08:00.000-07:00

Bummed that I didn't get to kick it with homie Jordan deOliveira last month when he was back in Hawaii for a little visit, when he got here I had left for Japan already and when I got back, sadly he was gone.

Gone but definitely not forgotten, I mean how could you forget the guy, he's all over the goddamned Internet if you know where to look.

First of all, there's the Jordyclot Twitter account, which is basically the only Twitter page I ever look at.
Always a great way to see what's crackin' in the L.A. scene, which is literally the Hollywood of skateboarding seeing how Jordan is friends with just about every single big name pro and sponsored am in Los Angeles.

Then there's Crailtap, where as a valued employee of the Girl/Chocolate conglomerate, Jordan appears from time to time in an always entertaining capacity, whether it's a photo or some little video clip.

Just a few days ago they showed his irie St. Patrick's Day fashion choice.

And not only that, he was honored in a little Top 5 action that featured the top five stoners at the Stoner Plaza.

Of course Lil' D and Shmatty (nice APB shirt, son!) are also in the top five, I mean these guys are strictly starting lineup material for sure, no way they come off the bench when it comes to getting their stone on.

After all, the Spliff All-Stars only draft the best of the best.

Also, and this one is my favorite, Jordan made an appearance in the first episode of The Frank Hurts Show hosted by the O.G. Fabian Alomar.

Peep this shit because it's awesome:

Good shit, and Jordan even gets background props in episode 2, which is also beyond awesome.

So keep your eyes peeled for the next Jordy sighting, it shouldn't be long.

Japanese Aloha Assistance

2011-03-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

After trying all morning with no luck I am extremely stoked to have just got these t-shirts from Fitted Hawaii after they received a fresh shipment this afternoon.

These are 20 dollars and all of the proceeds go to the Red Cross and the relief effort to assist those affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

The shirts seem to be moving really quick, which is an extremely good sign that the people here in Hawaii are quick to show their love and aloha to our families, friends and neighbors across the Pacific.

Please show support and get yours now at In4mation, Buti-Groove, and Barefoot League.

Ganbare Japan!

2011-03-11T17:44:00.001-08:00

Being in an American/Japanese marriage like my homies Erron, Jef, Ryan, and many others in Hawaii we all have a lot of friends and family in Japan, and I just want to say that all our thoughts and prayers are with them now in this crazy time following the devastating earthquake and tsunami from yesterday.

All of the news images and videos that have been being shown on television and all over the Internet are a sobering reminder that mother nature is still the boss and that when she decides to flex, she doesn't play favorites, shit can happen anywhere at anytime.

Hopefully today Japan and it's people can begin to pull themselves up and start to rebuild from this terrible tragedy and everyone here certainly wishes the Nihonjin well in all of their recovery efforts.

みなさんきをつけてください!

ALOHA!

Kenny Forever And Ever And Ever

2011-03-09T13:09:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago marked 6 months since our brother Kenny Brimer passed away.

There isn't a day that goes by where I'm not thinking about that dude, there's so much shit in everyday life that reminds me of him and there's always a story that involves him or connects to him in some way.

A couple of days ago it was brought to my attention that there was a new piece of graffiti at one of Kenny's favorite skate spots and that I should go and check it out.

I made the short drive to the park up in the hills above Chaminade University to peep out the little D.I.Y. transition spot that we always referred to as "the St. Louis spot" to take a look at this piece.

Now normally I am not the biggest fan of graf in general, but I have to say that I when I got there I was super, super stoked to see this fresh burner on the wall of the bathroom that sits next to the spot.

View as you approach from the basketball court.

Buddha bless!

Now this is what the fuck I'm talking 'bout.
KB 4 EVAH!
A fine shout out to my man and I know he's steady lurking up there at the spot regulating every session.

Rob Carlyon on Vert Is Dead (Plus Bonus Archived Coverage)

2011-03-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

Sorry, this is from a couple of weeks ago but I've been busy with a bunch of other shit and then there's the whole just being plain lazy thing that I do quite a bit.

Also by the way, this is the 200th post of this blog right here and I'm stoked that the subject of it is such a good one.

By the way, if you didn't know already, Vert Is Dead is a skate blog similar to one of my favorites Chrome Ball Incident in that they showcase skaters from back in the day, some of whom are still active, and talk a little bit about them while featuring photos they had in magazines as well as other sources.

So I stumbled upon this a couple of days after I returned from Japan and I was extremely stoked to see it because this dude is hands down one of the best ever to come out of the state of Hawaii.

Of course I'm referring to Rob Carlyon, and even though he is a long time homie and that makes me very, very biased, there is no arguing the positive impact and influence he has had on the skateboard scene in Hawaii over the last 20 years or so.

Not to mention the skills.

Dude had it good like that.

Still fucking rips to this day when he wants to.

Dude is a family man these days with a lovely wife and beautiful daughter and spends a lot of his time choking dudes out on some MMA shit when he's not working with Big Al and the homies at the tint spot.

But seriously, my man can not set foot on a skateboard for months and months and still destroy it when he finally shows up to get his shred on.

Last year at one of the big Kenny memorial sessions at A'ala Park he and I had ourselves one of the best games of S.K.A.T.E that I've ever participated in, and I don't play S.K.A.T.E. all that often anymore these days let me tell you.

That shit lasted like a half hour.

Me and Rob were slugging it out on some titanic flatground battle shit.

Old school, new school whatever, Rob has a deep ass bag of tricks and I was actually holding my own for once.

In fact I had his ass on the ropes and could not finish him off for the longest.

We were both at "T" and we agreed that the last trick would be a switch 360 flip, and neither of us would try anything else until one of us landed it.

Now I haven't landed a switch 360 flip on flat in about 15 years or so and even then it was only one time, but Rob can do that shit, even though he hadn't skated in forever.

After like 5 tries each he stomps one perfect.

I was done.

Dude is the champ, still.

Even when he's not skateboarding, he is skateboarding.

Anyway, I noticed that homie over at Vert Is Dead had mentioned that he could only manage to find this photo right here of Rob when he was on ATM:

Those ATM days were pretty cool when he was pro alongside Ben Liversedge and Edward Devera, but everybody knows that Rob really made his bones skating for New Deal along with fellow Hawaiian homie and Salt Lake shred partner Rene Matthyssen.

Since homie over at Vert Is Dead didn't have the crates to dig in that I do, I will now share with you some prime Rob Carlyon media exposure from various magazines accumulated over the years.

I believe this was Rob's first ad for New Deal.
This was on the inside cover of an issue of SLAP that had some incredible artwork by Twist on the front cover, we're talking 1993 or so here.

This ad was for some mail order shit selling Etnies shoes, who Rob was riding for at the time.
The photo was taken on Market Street in San Francisco by Tobin and if you look closely you can see a very young and clean-cut Ethan Fowler looking on in the background.

Speaking of riding for Etnies, this ad featured Rob at Huntington High doing what I believe is a frontside 180 heelflip.
He's wearing the Etnies Rap, which was basically the hottest skate shoe out at the time.

Rob had a Wheels Of Fortune segment in the very first issue of 411 Video Magazine.
Now that's some O.G. shit right there, on some real legend type shit!
After that came out, he really started to get a lot of coverage, and soon he received this Check Out in Transworld, and the accompanying words were scripted by none other than the owner of that Nautica graphic that Rob is pictured riding here, Cuzzo himself.
This was probably early to mid-1994.

Another Tobin pic from S.F., this is a pop shove-it over a Union Square bench.
This was one of those hot spots at the time that you saw in a lot of videos and mags, and this photo ran full-page in Big Brother.

Speaking of Big Brother, one month they ran the Yellow Issue, which featured Asian skaters, and in the contents pages this gem of a collage was printed.
Rob is in the top row, the third photo from the left, and as an added bonus peep out two rows directly below him to catch a glimpse of our homie Sean "Flyin' Hawaiian" Kelling, who was riding for Jef Hartsel's Shaolin Wood Company.

Also in the Yellow Issue of Big Brother was this picture of Rob doing a kickflip to fakie at home base, A'ala Park.

Rob has always been a master of all heelflip variations, this particular one is switch and he's riding the awesome Safeway graphic which I believe was a Danny Sargent, probably his last model for New Deal, and a nod to his mastery of the legendary Safeway curbs in San Francisco's Mission District.

Another heelflip, this one is regular and over a garbage can at a So Cal schoolyard.
Notice Rob is riding what I personally believe to be Rene's finest pro model board, the Beck's Beer graphic.

Rob has always had transition skills from day one.
This frontside rock shot ran in a tour article in SLAP that documented a New Deal/Mad Circle/Element road trip that Rob went on with Scott Johnston, Chris Keefe, Edward Devera, Reese Forbes, and Kenny Hughes.

Speaking of transition skills, you had better have had some at this spot if you were trying a trick like this popped noseslide to fakie, this shit was steep and quick.
Catlin quarterpipe R.I.P.

Our home turf always seemed to find it's way into magazines and videos when Rob and Rene were getting coverage.
The nationwide and worldwide exposure of A'ala Park that those two provided was priceless, and for that I and many others will be forever grateful.
This 360 flip to fakie was an every try trick for Rob and I love the Hawaiian language tutorial on the page as well.
Not only that but this ran as part of a Hawaii article in Transworld in late 1995 with a sequence of our old homie Peter Nascimento, who you can partially see at the bottom of the page executing a nollie heelflip over a bank to bank at the Hickam Hangar.

This piece of news in Transworld in early 1996 announced that Rob Carlyon had finally made the well-deserved jump from amateur to professional skateboarder.
Yes, Rob first turned pro for New Deal but stopped riding for them before he could receive his first pro model, which he would receive later in the year from ATM Skateboards.

I love this picture of Rob.
Not skating but chilling, this photo ran in SLAP and was shot by Lance Dawes in late 1996.
I happened to be visiting San Francisco at the time and staying with Rob, Ian Ginoza and Gerrard Secretario at the infamous Brown Rug apartment on Harrison across from All-Star Donuts.
We were all at Lance's crib for a big barbeque and a shitload of heads were there including Greg Hunt, Bobby Puleo, Scott Johnston, Keith Hufnagel and even Eric Koston.
Rob threw the hat on as a goof and Dawes rushed to grab his camera.

Well, there you have it.

Sorry this post was so long, but as I mentioned earlier, it's post number 200 here and the subject matter is very special to not only me but also a great deal of people in the Hawaiian skateboarding community.

Back From Bolivian

2011-03-04T12:03:00.000-08:00

So I guess a lot of stuff has been happening in the scene here and I missed out on posting a few things since I went on that latest trip to Japan so now I will attempt to play catch up.

First and foremost I want to welcome my homie Ryan a.k.a. Noodles back to the wonderful world of the Internet as his Hi-Rolling Media thing is back, sort of, at least in blog form anyway.

New logo, similar to the one that was in circulation during the Hi-Rolling heyday.

It's also cool because Ryan has actually been steady active on the net with everyone else on Facebook for a while but as you may or may not know I don't fucks with the social networks so I don't get to see what my man has been up to.

If you don't remember, Hi-Rolling Media was a website started by Ryan that covered the local skate scene and I helped him out by contributing articles and doing interviews with people and other things, and it lasted for a pretty good while until Ryan decided simply doing a blog was easier and less hassle.

The Hi-Rolling Snake Eyes blog went on for a while as a collaborative effort between the two of us before I decided to do my own shit right here about 200 posts ago.

You can actually still see the old blog right here if you want some frame of reference, it goes back pretty deep there.

Also, Ryan has set up a Vimeo page as well and the first video that he has posted is the Fine Wine opus from a few years ago that features a bunch of classic material of many homies from as far back as 1992 or so.

Anyway, it's really great to see Hi-Rolling back in action, we'll see how this thing unfolds and maybe even the full website will be back in the near future as well because that would be extremely dope.

Back In Effizzect

2011-03-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know it's been an Internet eternity since the last posting here, yes it is true.

I mean usually I just hit a point where I kind of don't really give a shit too much about updating anything or more likely it's just simply that I am an extremely lazy person in general.

Put it this way, I just got back from yet another trip to Japan a week ago.

I also went to Japan last October for my homie Junji's wedding in Osaka, nearly five months ago mind you, and I posted a bunch of stuff from the wedding and skating in Osaka but totally lazed out on the second half of that trip which took place in Tokyo.

Still haven't posted shit from then.

I was gonna get to it.

Eventually.

Ah, fuck it.

Some day.

ANYWAY, bottom line is I'm back from Japan and this time I brought somebody with me.

Been married for a year but totally wifed up for real now!

Shit is official.

Skate Nazi been completely domesticated, rehabilitated, reinvigorated, reassimilated, and finally gonna be relocated.

A few people have told me that I need to update more often.

I will.

From now on.

I promise.

As soon as I finish washing these dishes.

More later.

I mean SOON!

Seriously.

Fitted Hawaii/84 Skate/Vans Collabo Pack

2011-02-11T22:21:00.000-08:00

Last month the dudes from Fitted Hawaii and Eighty Four Skate teamed up with Spitfire to drop a set of wheels, and now the two local retailers have joined forces again, this time with Vans to drop a shoe collaboration.

Once again there is a nice little video clip shot by the homie Skillet to introduce the product, check it out:

The shoe is an Era Pro model and looks pretty stylish.

I couldn't skate in these myself but they could definitely get some play in the chill shoe rotation.

Tank top looks good for beach or BBQ action.

Wallows! If you know, you know, if not then you might not understand how rad this t-shirt is.

This stuff drops on Monday February 14th, Valentine's Day and is extremely limited so head over to Fitted on Kona Street or Blue Hawaii in Pearlridge to cop that shit before it's gone.

In4mation Presents Makiki Skatepark Spot Check

2011-02-10T00:20:00.000-08:00

The homies at In4mation did a complete website overhaul recently and have been steadily updating content ever since.

Just last week In4mants Keith and Rhandy rolled to the Makiki Skatepark to shoot a spot check thingy with their team rider Steven Stinson, and I was fortunate enough to be there with homie Shota Kubo and we both got to make a cameo appearance in this dope little video that the boys put together for their website.

There is also a spot check for the Mililani Skatepark that they put on their website a few weeks ago and you can check that out here.

Shit looks real good boys, big up yourselves and keep proceeding and continuing as always!

It Was Nine Years Ago Today

2011-02-02T12:05:00.000-08:00

February 2, 2002 was the birthdate of the A'ala Park Boardshop, or APB as it is more commonly known as.

On behalf of all A'ala Park Bastards past and present I would like to personally wish our comrade Chad Hiyakumoto a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE SHOP AND CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR NINTH ANNIVERSARY!!!

The O.G. storefront on glamorous College Walk, directly across the street from the skatepark.

Inside.

Outside.
By the way, today is also the ninth anniversary of the new version of the skatepark at A'ala Park, it was a little bit cleaner back then, huh?

Dug in the crates for a ninth anniversary collection of tees I have accumulated over the years, peep history!

Anyway, it's pretty common knowledge that keeping any kind of local business going in this shitty economic climate is no doubt tough and overwhelming at times but this dude has been steadily maintaining and consistently holding it down for the Hawaiian skateboard scene for almost a goddamn decade now!

Huge props and big mahalo to my man for keeping it 100 percent skateboarder owned and operated since day one, and if you have been a supporter of APB then I also tip my non-existent hat to you as well, let's help keep it going for another nine years and beyond!

Ryan Kingman in Trajectory @ The Berrics

2011-01-31T13:10:00.000-08:00

Haven't visited The Berrics website for a while and was pleasantly surprised when I clicked today and saw that there was a Trajectory feature about Stance, the sock company co-owned by Hawaiian homie Ryan Kingman.

Pretty awesome that this was posted because it was just 3 days ago that I received a fat box of these socks courtesy of the King Man himself, and for that I have to say MAHALO!
So sick.

Anyway, if you didn't know, Kingman recently left his longtime job at Element where he was marketing director and before that team manager so that he could start his own thing and he talks about it here.

Breaking it down for the masses.

Small kine sample of the product.

Kingman putting that shit to work!

Ryan has always gotten much love and props from the braddahs in the Hawaiian skate scene for not only being a true shredder on board, but also as a solid and respected stand-up businessman in the industry.

So rad to see local dudes doing it big in skateboarding whether it's on a board or just straight running their own shit!

Fitted Hawaii/84 Skate/Spitfire Collabo

2011-01-26T12:22:00.000-08:00

Local homies Fitted Hawaii and 84 Skate have teamed up with Spitfire and are dropping a 54mm wheel this Friday.

Also on Friday, the two retailers will be releasing a t-shirt that commemorates their collaboration project.

Fitted CEO Cuzzo put this little video together that was shot by Skillet of Chris Kays at the Hickam Hangar rocking the tee and putting the wheels to work.

Also, speaking of your boy Cuzzo, he must have gotten inspired by recently being featured on the Chrome Ball Incident, because he and his skateboard showed up at A'ala Park last night for a little bit of rolling and of course a few cold ones.

Peep his blog post documenting the evening right here, homie is real quick like that with it, and I also gotta throw my man huge shakas and much mahalo for the wheels, you know I gets down with some 54mm Spits!

More Maui

2011-01-24T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here's another couple of clips of a Maui dude doing good in the world, in this case Ryan Spencer.

Saw this on the Thrasher site, dope line with a suuuuper nice switch wallride:

Also there's this video that was edited by the chief moke Kale from Moke Life:

In addition it seems that Ryan is now riding for this clothing company called SUPERbrand Apparel , check out his team page here , and if you didn't know this company also has guys like Chris Roberts and John Motta representing them as well.

Maui stays steady killing it, keep it up braddahs!

Rene Matthyssen on The Chrome Ball Incident

2011-01-19T11:36:00.001-08:00

Just doing the usual morning pit stop of all the usual websites and lo and behold right there on the best skateboard blog in existence, there's this post featuring our dear friend Rene Matthyssen, a.k.a. Cuzzo from Fitted Hawaii.

I have a lot of Rene's old ads and other photos from mags, but not this one.
HAHAHA, they spelled Kauai KUWAI, I don't remember this being that way.

Anyway, gotta go to work right now but I'm definitely gonna speak on this awesomeness later in detail and post some other flicks that didn't make it into the post.

SUPER stoked to see somebody from Hawaii on Chrome Ball, especially Rene, dude definitely deserves gigantic props for representing the islands to the fullest, what up big Cuzzo!!!

Hawaii Photos From New Nike SB Website

2011-01-19T01:10:00.000-08:00

A few posts ago I mentioned that Nike SB had revamped their website and dropped a nice little web clip that featured some of the footage that was shot here in Hawaii when some of their riders visited last November.

Also in that post I included some screen grabs from the footage that featured local spots, and since it was all shot in HD, the stills actually ended up looking pretty decent.

Well, it was brought to my attention recently that now in the team section of the website there are some seriously high quality photos that were shot here during that same trip.

Check out a couple of Grant Taylor:

Pearl City park ollie from QP to QP over the bank, may have already been done years ago by Chris Kays, but still incredibly gnarly.
Also, just an incredible photograph.
Really.

Big ol' frontside air at the new Graveside.
Apparently this thing, much like the original Graveside was, is very difficult to skate but I don't think the same rules apply to guys like this.

Check out the BGP's in that photo too.
Legend shit right there.
Maui legends Chad and Keone?
Yeah, but Steve Olson and Lance Mountain, for realz!

Speaking of Lance Mountain, I'm guessing he didn't have any problems adjusting to the new Graveside either.

Hard to reach frontside with signature steez.

Fuck yeah, Lance Mountain.
Period.

Actually, I have a real quick Lance story from this past trip that made me giggle like a motherfucker when it happened.

On one of the days when the guys were all skating, I met up with Chad, Hartsel, Andy and the whole crew on the North Shore.
After a couple of sessions at the North Shore park, Steve's bowl and Travis's mini ramp were cut short by rain, we all ended up having a nice little BBQ at the super sick beach house that they were renting for the week.

I must say that grillin' and chillin' with the Nike dudes was a pretty cool time but the highlight for me was drinking a beer on the lanai while handling a sausage (yes homo) and looking out at the ocean in one direction and then turning around and looking through the window into the living room and seeing Lance Mountain chilling on the couch in his pajamas watching TV with the remote in his hand.

I mean I been digging this dude since Future Primitive and he's one of the raddest of all time and he's rocking pajamas and watching TV, it was just one of those moments, man I don't know, it made my day.

ANYWAY.
The last one is of Chet Childress at The Manhole, or whatever the fuck you guys might call it.

Whoa, that's definitely a different approach.
Chad said that the guys bought some red spray paint and wrote SLAYER on the wall to make it more interesting but you can't even see it.

Overall I'd say that these all came out super sick and it is always a kick to see Hawaii spots getting some love from the big boys.

Matt Chaffin @ Stoner Plaza in L.A.

2011-01-13T17:05:00.000-08:00

Well this dude just keeps on his grind doesn't he?
Homie just got back to L.A. a few days ago after a nice return home for the holidays and now this clip of Matt absolutely destroying the Stoner park has surfaced courtesy of the dudes over at the Autobahn Wheel Company.

Jesus, Shmatty!
Must be nice to have that place as your home park and meetup spot, not to mention be one of the top fucking dogs there.

COT DAMN that boy is good, but you already knew that.
Big ups and huge shakas to Matt for always representing Hawaii to the fullest on the global skateboarding stage.

I've said it before, but this shit we're seeing now from him is only the tip of the iceberg and you will definitely be seeing a lot more from this dude in 2011 and beyond.

Nate Guest: Believe The Hype

2011-01-12T17:36:00.000-08:00

Saw this short and sweet clip of Nate Guest today while perusing the Valley Isle's finest skateboard resource center Moke Life, and I must say that this cool little edit is proof positive that Maui don't fuck around when it comes to getting their shred on.

I don't know if this means that Nate is riding for Hype Skateboards or what, but it is always rad to see guys from Hawaii doing it big and getting worldwide recognition for ripping hard.

Also, and maybe it's just me, but doesn't it look like Maui has a lot of good stuff to skate?
It could also be due to the fact that I haven't been there in years, but it seems like every time I see footage from Maui it just looks really fun.

Maybe I'm just bored of all the same spots on this island but I would love to take a Maui trip sometime soon with a bunch of people and have a chance to sample some other shit.

Brah, we go.

Shoots.

Girl Open House 2011 Video

2011-01-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

Always a rad event when the Girl/Chocolate family throws their annual open house and warehouse park contest, this year looks like it was no exception.

As usual, my favorite bumbaclot Jordan was there representing with the bullhorn and runnin' shit like always.

Look at this fool!

Jordy's voice is naturally incredible but the effect that a bullhorn has on it is sublime.

Striking a pose with MC and Beebs.

The open house always has some kind of killer background where they position people to take group photos, this year's one was definitely the best one yet.

Look at this thing!
They Photoshopped the Girl dudes into the greatest team photo of all time, check out Koston representing the role of Hartsel!
Anyway, hats off and huge shakas to the creative genius who made this happen.

Just another shot of Jordy and his boss, seriously two of the raddest dudes ever.

Speaking of the warehouse contest though, it is extremely disappointing that this year's event is the first time in recent memory that someone from Hawaii was not entered in the competition, which I guess could be considered a good thing for everyone else because Hawaiians have either won the contest or placed second there every year since 2007.

In case you may have forgotten, Danny Hamaguchi ended up taking second in 2007, Nate Guest finished second in 2008, and Ryan Spencer got second place in 2009 and then won the contest in 2010.

Anyway, there are a couple of videos from the event last week floating around the Internet, this one is from the Crail dudes themselves:

Also, this one is courtesy of Tackyworld.

Hopefully next year Hawaii gets back up in the mix and represents in this contest once again because there are several island rippers that could definitely get busy on that newly revamped transition-friendly setup that they have there.

Hawaiian Footage Featured in "Around The World With Nike SB" Web Video

2011-01-07T17:49:00.000-08:00

Just peeped out the newly redesigned website from Nike SB, and much like their shoes, the shit is high tech and incredible.

Oh yes indeedy I am a fucking blatant swoosh disciple, no shame in my game!
I really don't give a rat's butthole about their politics or that sweatshop stigma that they're often associated with, bottom line is that they make great shoes and I have been riding Dunks for 5 or 6 years now and they are without question the most comfortable and easy to skate in shoes I've ever worn.

Also it doesn't hurt that the team manager Andy Henrie is from Hawaii and just so happens to throw a box my way every now and then, huge shout out to the Mad Professor, what up braddah man???

Speaking of Andy, Sergeant Skate is without question the rippingest TM in the industry and worthy of mad salutes and respect because he definitely knows how to keep his troops motivated, which he does by consistently shredding just as hard or often even harder than they do.

I've been lucky enough to be there in person a few times when Andy has brought some of his swoosh soldiers to the islands for a bit of shralping, most recently was a couple of months ago when Daniel Shimizu, Chet Childress, Lance Mountain and Grant Taylor came out for a little R and R mixed in with a bit of movie making with filmer Jason Hernandez.

Now for New Year's Nike has put together a little web video featuring a bunch of clips that were filmed all over the world in 2010, some of which were documented right here on Oahu last November.

What's Crooked Arm doing at the Manana park in Pearl City?

Did Grant Taylor own the North Shore park?

Was Grant going fast at Wallows?

Did this hurt?

Check out this tasty morsel now to find out the answer to these questions and also so you can peep sizzling new footage from Stefan Janoski, Clark Hassler, Daniel Shimizu, Youness Amrani, Lewis Marnell, and Weiger Van Wageningen or however the fuck you say his name:

New Year's Day Wave Action

2011-01-05T14:11:00.000-08:00

Surf Nazi?

Nah, more like Bodysurfing Bully!

Bodysurfing is the shit!
Always been a big fan of body whomps since small kid time.

New Year's Day went up to the north shore to meet up with Brian Wyland and his lady friend.

Waves were pretty much typical wintery north shore waves, and by that I mean pretty frickin' big.
Ke'iki beach basically has one of the heaviest shorebreaks on the island, maybe the gnarliest.
I don't know though, Waimea is pretty ridiculous when big but it doesn't break as close to the sand as Ke'ikis and even Sandy's can get super hairy but when Ke'ikis is thumping on a big north swell it is fucking mental.

Anyway, it was doable there and fun for the most part but some of the sets that rolled in were downright devastating and got ducked under with the quickness.
The idea was to wait for the ones that weren't frightening and then jump on those.

Me and B-Dubs got more than our share and also managed to not die.
It was a great day!

Sooooooo...what do you think, little buddy?

It's throwing, we go!

Unknown dude about to get pitted.
Soooo pitted.

One of the non-terrifying ones, I'm all up in this bitch!

Brian jumped on the express elevator to the lobby and received a thorough thumping upon arrival.

Wardrobe malfunctions go down all the time, you just gotta keep your eyes peeled because it will happen.

Brian did a few Aquaman calls and summoned this monster to breach a few hundred yards offshore, because everybody know when a Wyland speaks, whales listen.

Peace out, literally.
Time to go to the north shore park for a little warm-down roll around.

Stoney Maroney

2011-01-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

Found a couple of rad montages featuring the Stoner plaza, which is obviously one of the best skateparks going these days, too bad it's in Los Angeles and not out here somewhere.

This first one is a compilation of stuff that was previously posted on Twitter by Joey Brezinski, I'm guessing these clips were all shot on an iPhone or some other cell phone communication device.

Check out island homie Matt Chaffin with the last few tricks!
By the way Matt has been back home for the holidays and dude's been busy filming and killing it as usual, sup Shmatty!

OH and I almost forgot.
The music.
Don't trip, it's just J. Casanova, the formerly likeable and incredibly talented skateboarder Jereme Rogers.
I think mushrooms ate his fragile little brain.

The second montage is courtesy of theskateclick.com and it's a short and sweet one.

Again, you will be treated to a couple of scintillating Shmatty tricks but before we see them, we are blessed with a Jordyclot moment and even a trick from him!

Man, the Stoner park is fucking amazing.
Hawaii needs a full-blown plaza type skatepark already.
Don't get me wrong, I do love to get my tranny on (EWWWW, not in a Tom Slick kind of way, you weirdo) but the Stoner park is one of those places that seems impossible to get sick of, it's gigantic and there is simply too much perfect shit there for you to ever tire of.

Would love to see what would have happened if something like this was built at the location where the Banzai park is on the north shore, imagine all of those padded up little park groms killing marble ledges and manny pads on some flip in flip out shit instead of whipping around like racecars and flying gigantic airs over hips.

Anyway, there's no denying that we need something similar to Stoner out here, and although I definitely enjoy it there's more than enough transition in Hawaii, it's way past time for a street oriented plaza type park.

あけましておめでとうございます!

2010-12-31T13:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year, or like Eddie said, MERRY NEW YEAR!

I post that same clip every year, and the shit never gets old.
Every single year without fail it is still the best way to say Happy New Year.
Even Kevin Wilkins at The Skateboard Mag thinks so.

I have to work tonight so today I decided to actually leave my apartment before noon and do something productive.
I had a couple of errands to run and on my way to the bank at Ala Moana I saw a couple of dudes skating at the bus stop.
Probably high school kids on Christmas break or something, one of them actually even looked familiar, but anyway there they were at the bus stop right in front of parking lot of the bank doing manuals and skating flatground.

I don't know why but I was super stoked to see that.
The bus stop was crowded, people there definitely didn't look too psyched on it and security was probably on their way but these two kids couldn't give a flying fuck, they were just getting theirs while waiting for the bus.
Or even better, maybe they weren't even waiting for the bus.
Maybe they were just rolling around and decided to session the sidewalk and curbs of Ala Moana Center.
Who knows?

Anyway, I got done with the bank and on the way out of the parking lot I rolled down my window and yelled "KICKFLIIIIIP!" in my best Sean Reilly bro voice.
In case you didn't know, this is standard protocol when you are driving anywhere and you see kids skating on the street or anywhere you happen to drive by.
You are legally bound and obligated to do it.
You can even yell out different variations if you are feeling extra saucy, such as "HEELFLIIIIIP!!!" or "HARDFLIIIIIP!!!!"
The look on people's faces run the gambit from slightly startled to straight up disgusted, and you may even be lucky enough to see one of them actually attempt your request.

I'm not sure if those kids heard me yell, no I take that back, in fact I'm almost certain that at least one of them did not hear me due to the fact that he was wearing earphones, and when you take earphones and combine them with the act of skateboarding, the result is almost always completely gay and unfathomable, unless your name happens to be Ian Okui, and even then, you're on thin ice.

Point is I saw a couple of kids skateboarding this morning and it made me happy.
Yes!
It's true.
I get happy sometimes.

Speaking of happy, I finally have a day off tomorrow.
That means while the rest of the world grovels in bed and tries to sleep off their champagne and cocaine hangovers I am going to be out there shredding somewhere.
I don't know where just yet, but hopefully it will be somewhere illegal and normally unskateable on regular days of the year.
LET'S FUCKING DO IT!

Comments Are Open So Have At It

2010-12-27T14:43:00.000-08:00

Used to have commenting enabled on this blog but then I disabled it for a long time, and now it's back on, big fucking whoop!

First of all not too many people even look at this blog and the amount of people that would care enough to actually take the time to type anything in response to the shit that I post is even smaller so there weren't a whole lot of comments to begin with.

It was just small chit-chatty type of shit, most of it relevant to the actual posts, some it not really but it was pretty normal I guess.
Then the spam started flowing.
Hard!
I mean there were some super weird ones, often not even in English.
It got pretty fucking annoying so I just disabled the commenting altogether.

Now these Google Blogger people are saying that they have a handle on the spam problem, so I thought I'd give it a try and see how long it takes for the guaranteed huge horse dick pill invitations to roll in.

So if you like something, hate something or just want your opinion to be known about whatever the fuck, go ahead, just don't be a kook about it and everything will be dandy.

Kiss My Mistletoe!

2010-12-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, fuckers!
Hope you are enjoying the holiday with some people you care about and not at work like some of us.
Better yet you're out getting your shred on, almost everything is closed today and even the cops most likely won't give a shit about your trespassing ass today, go ahead and pillage if you are able, I would love to barge downtown or Waikiki today but duty calls.

Anyway, gotta go back to work now, have a great one and I leave you with a couple of Christmas shout outs:

Mele Kalikimaka, fakas!