BL!SSS Magazine | January 2009 | #17 by Blisss Mag

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Omar Salazar on his signature denim. They’re classic. Durability is key, since sometimes I don’t take my pants off for days. I just grind the hell out of them, and then they’re ready to go. I can make weird sounds with my voice. I have to stop. When I was little I kinda wanted to go to space…be an astronaut. I think I might have a disorder. Design Unlikely Futures.

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF nick kalionzes nick@blisssmag.com

EDITOR joey marshall joey@blisssmag.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR mark paul deren madsteez@madsteez.com

MUSIC EDITOR kimmie bergevin tim@blisssmag.com

SNOW EDITOR jon francis jon@blisssmag.com

OFFICE MANAGER zach baker zach@blisssmag.com

ADVERTISING ads@blisssmag.com

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jason Kenworthy, Dominic Petruzzi, Daniel Russo, Toby Ogden, Tom Carey, Brian Beilmann, Jack Coleman, Andrew Mapstone, Adam Moran, Dave Nelson, Pat Eichstaedt, Andrew Miller, Julien Lecorps, Ryan Boyes, Zach Hooper, Tim Peare

CONTRIBUTORS Matt Patterson, Willie Marshall, Josh Spencer, Aaron Astorga, Daniel Russo, Liz Rice, Jason Arnold, Greg Escalante, Tom Carey, Travis Millard, David Choe, Kai Garcia, Mickey Neilsen, Peter Townend, Hamilton Endo, Tawnya Schultz, Mike Murciano, Geoff Shively, Casey Holland, Steve Stratton, Robbie Sell, Andrew Miller, Pat Towersey BL!SSS Magazine 413 31st Street

JANUARY 2009

Newport Beach, CA 92663 www.blisssmag.com Disclaimer: Although all best efforts are made to avoid the same, we reserve the right to publish unintentional mistakes and/or factual errors which may occur on a monthly basis. No responsibility is assumed by the publishers for unsolicited materials/articles/letters/advertising and all submissions will be treated as unconditionally assigned for publication and copyright and/or appropriate licensing purposes subject to Blisss’ right to edit and comment editorially. The views and opinions expressed in this magazine reﬂect the opinions of their respective authors and are not necessarily those of the publisher or the editorial team. Blisss Magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any advertising matter which may reﬂect negatively on the integrity of the magazine. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form [print or electronic] without prior written consent from the publisher.

Cover Art : Eric White

If your favorite shop isn’t receiving BL!SSS Magazine please contact zach@blisssmag.com

THE NEWTON nixonnow.com

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MASTER CONTROL

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7 in 21 in

25 in 5 in

5 in 25 in BL_anon_Landvik_21x13.625.pdf Trim: 21 x 13.625 in

21 in 7 in PEETKEGLER ART DIRECTION & DESIGN

NEW WEBSITES?

SUNNY CONVERSE They’ve been on the shoe scene for nearly a century now and we’re excited to see that Converse is making a venture into eyewear. This aint no runof-the-mill production either, each pair is constructed from hand made materials, so you know you’re going to look fresh in these one of a kind styles. Check out Zappos.com to get your ﬁx now. We’ve always been a big fan of our buddies from down under that are busy putting together one the best mags out there, Monster Children. The boys have just launched their new site while celebrating their 20th issue, and we’ve been spending quite a bit of time procrastinating on it while our deadline is looming. And speaking of websites, it’s looking like we are going to ﬁnally give our site the facelift it so badly deserves. Hopefully by the time you are reading this in print, you can click on over to Blisssmag.com and check out all the new (and old) stuff there as well.

MICKEY AVE TAKES OVER If you happened to be on Hawaii during the month of December (and who wasn’t) you had to have heard about the Mickey Ave shows that went down. All of the surfing elite were in attendance amongst many, many others. And don’t get too bummed if you missed out because he’ll be in Florida performing at the Freebird Café in Jacksonville on the 15th and again in Orlando on the 17th. That just so happens to coincide with Surf Expo, so you know we’ll be there and you should too.

TIME MAGAZINE OBAMA Time Magazine has named my boy Obama “2008 Person of the Year.” And guess who got paid a handsome little penny to design that issue’s cover? Yup, good old Shepard Fairy pulled another hat trick with this one - and you can’t really blame the guy either, it’s not like his Obama Hope poster was a deciding factor in the campaign anyways. I mean, it is everywhere (we published it), even Pierce Bronson rocks one on his Aston Martin.

FOR THE LOVE

Like many holidays past, the good people in the marketing department over at Quiksilver sent me a book, this one titled Kelly Slater: For the Love. They usually are accompanied by a note that says something along the lines of, “Suck it, love Roger and the marketing crew,” this one only had a holiday card. Truthfully, I was thinking about re-gifting it, but I couldn’t help but tear into this one and give it a gander. With a introduction by Jack Johnson, insights by many pros and friends (including Pamela Anderson) and many never before published photos, this book gives you a real glimpse into Kelly’s mind. A must for every surf nut or Slater-hater alike, pick up a copy at any ﬁne bookstore or a Quiksilver Boardriders Club in your area.

photos: Lurie

SOMEONE IS TALKING SHIT

BRUCE IRONS DC SANDAL The new Bruce Irons DC Sandal is dropping January 15th, 2009. This is DC’s ﬁrst-ever signature sandal and the latest addition to its signature footwear line. It makes sense that Bruce would be the ﬁrst one to have a DC signature sandal, as they have backed him for almost 10 years. Bruce played a major role in all aspects of the design process from the sole design, to picking colorways, and adding technical features to ensure it was the most durable, comfortable and water-friendly sandal out there. For more info, check out Dcshoes.com.

PEETARD’S UNITE At least once a month I like to turn you readers on to a website I found of interest a site I have wasted at least a few hours of my work week on. Maybe it’s the season, maybe it’s’ because I just hit the slopes, but this month I’ve spent quite a bit of time on Peter Line’s website/blog deal peetard. com. A lot of bullshit, some funny pics and even a few sketches – all well worth the time logged. So next time your behind the screen with your ﬁngers on the keys, feel free to click your way over to peetard.com.

I just got done reading the latest installment of the Power Rankings by Lewis Samuels over on Surfline.com and I gotta tell you, it sure is a breath of fresh air from all the other crap that is out there. We know how you sometimes gotta take that middle ground on most subjects and try not to ruffle too many feathers, but that is exactly what we need sometimes. Word on the street is that more than a couple pro surfers out their have their panties in a bunch over these ratings, so check them out at Surfline.com.

WINTER DEW TOUR

5 X 5 REDUX Only a decade in the making, …Lost finally released their newest flick 5’ x 5’ x 19 1/4” Redux. With a roster for days (Corey, Wardo, Kelly, Jordy, Mason, etc) and everyone on a fish, the video is a must for every surfer. Bringing you back to the good old days, it features insane music, behind the scenes antics and everything else you would expect from … Lost. Available at select retailers and at nearly three hours in length, this vid is money well spent. And while you’re at it you might as well pick up the original 5 x 5 x 19 ¼ which is now available on DVD as well.

I got a chance to watch the ﬁrst Winter Dew Tour superpipe go down between football games on a rainy Sunday a couple weeks back. I gotta admit I wasn’t routing for the ﬂying tomato now that he’s all corpo but I was hoping last months’ interviewee Greg Bretz was gonna make the podium. Danny Davis wasn’t gonna let that happen as he pulled off the perfect run and was rewarded with top honors. Don’t feel too bad for Shaun White though, as he landed a second on the podium to accompanied his slopestyle victory two days prior.

BL!SSS CLOTHING

EVERYONE IS A PHOTOGRAPHER Our favorite girls over at the Volcom Girls compound are putting on a cool little contest right now, called Everyone is a Photographer. It’s pretty straightforward, all you have to do is submit your favorite artsy-fartsy photo, and the winner will get their photo made into one of Volcom’s Featured Artist Photo Tee’s. The winner will also receive a years worth of Volcom shirts and the fame of having their photo displayed in one of the Volcom store galleries. Go to Volcom.com/phototee to upload your entry now.

I don’t think a day goes by without one person sending us an email, myspace or facebook message asking where they can ﬁnd a BL!SSS tee shirt, sticker, or subscription to the zine. We’ve been on the free vibe since day one but now that the government has ofﬁcially announced that we’ve been in a recession for the past year we’ve been secondguessing our strategy. No, we’ll never charge a dime for the greatest free mag ever, but we do got some new BL!SSS threads available on blisssmag.com. We’re sure there is something for everyone so log on and check ‘em out.

BERRA X THE BERRICS MONSTER HITMAN The geniuses behind Monster Energy drink have ﬁgured out how to pack all that punch in a 3.5 ounce shot bottle. We just got a box sent to us with a couple pellet guns and it is an absolute madhouse in here. After downing a few too many of these Monster Hitman energy shots, we decided it would be a good idea to take aim at each other. Now there are plastic bb’s ﬂying everywhere, and were late for deadlin, thanks Monster.

Another great site to check out and waste a little bit more of your time on is the theberrics. com. Steve Berra and Eric Koston dropped some cash on this private park that they use as their training facility, private playground and all around fun zone. They’ve been documenting their antics for a few years now, so make sure you click on over and check it out. It’s updated on a weekly basis, so you know that theirs some fresh shit every week.

SMITH SHADE So I got a sneak peak at what the Smith Optics crew is up to for 2009 and I gotta tell ya it looks like they are going the fashionista route. Already having the technical frames on lock and the best goggles you can get your hands on, the newest batch is looking quite popular. Here are a couple pre-releases to feast your eyes on, the Nolte (black) and the Breakbeat (turtle). Another must have in ’09 from the boys at Smith.

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GET YOUR TRAY ON

TRESTLES IS SAVED! Just before we put this baby to print we got word from the guys down at the Surfrider Foundation that Trestles has been saved. The United States Secretary of Commerce upheld the California Coastal Commission’s February ruling that the proposed extension to the 241-toll road violates California coastal law. This decision makes it near impossible for the TCA to move forward with this project. So if you were one of the thousands that went to one of the hearings (like us) go right ahead and give yourself a big pat on the back right about now.

FEW SWEATER Kiwi’s aren’t the only sweet things coming out of New Zealand lately. I just gotta little love package from the Few NZ crew and it came in the way of this sweet new thermal sweater. Like everything I’ve seen from the FEW camp, this thermal is top notch. Thanks boys and keep sending us the insane gear. If you’re still not familiar with this relatively new brand, check out all their gear at few.co.nz.

We got a nice little care package from our good friend John “Radman” Renyolds, with the last four issues of his infamous Tray Magazine. If you are unfamiliar with Tray, then you really gotta check this stuff out. It’s a small, photocopied, scissor and tape ‘zine that will take you back to your high school days, but done with a classy touch. They’ve been laying around the ofﬁce for a few days now and all the lurkers that have been coming by have been laughing their asses off after checking them out. There are pretty limited copies, but if you look hard enough you can ﬁnd one.

FYASKO GETS COY

Our friends over at Fyasko put together a nice little fundraiser for the peeps at the Mauli Ola Foundation in order to raise some much needed funds to continue their ﬁght with Cystic Fibrosis. The gathering was held at Coy Boutique in Newport Beach, where guests enjoyed the art of Bridgette Shaw and Sli Diggity Dawg while sipping drinks and listening to DJ Brother from Another. Check out more at MauliOla.org.

LOCAL SHRED Well, the ﬁrst major winter storm of the season made its way through Southern California just recently. And even though we were in our ﬁnal week before the holidays I somehow managed to muster up an excuse to visit the local mountains and was I glad I did! There hasn’t been this much early season snow in over a decade, so quit making excuses and get your arses up to either Big Bear or Mountain High and hit the slopes today.

ALPINESTARS.COM JESSE HEILMAN

Some people are born with natural talent. From day one that talent is recognized and pursued and everything seems to ﬂow through their life effortlessly. Other people wonder aimlessly, never ﬁnding their “calling” – wasting their whole lives only to discover their true abilities near the end. And then there are those people who sporadically stumble onto what they were meant to do. Jen Stark is one of those people. Now I’m not saying Jen never knew she was an artist, it was just a simple misfortune while studying abroad in Europe when she stumbled upon what she now does best. It was there she discovered the value of the dollar wasn’t all she thought it to be. Being an art student and on a tight budget, the only thing that appealed to her in the crafts store was colorful construction paper, cheap yet full of potential. Now she is an internationally recognized paper art sculptor. It’s hard to believe looking at her masterpieces that the same colored paper we used in elementary school and an x-acto knife could create such wonders. The simplicity and beauty of what she what she does is truly astounding and should be cherished. More of her work can be seen at jenstark.com.

Words: MADSTEEZ Australian-born, London-based Ron Mueck is a former television and film model maker who later transitioned to fine art. He’s known for his crazy large-scale realistic sculptures that are made from silicone, fiberglass and even real human hair that is threaded with a needle one strand at a time. I’m not usually a fan of realism, but Ron’s subject matters are so tweaked and disturbing that it’s on some next level shit. A giant baby covered in afterbirth, naked old dudes with their cocks a-swingn’, and a middle-aged couple spooning are some of the real-life scenarios that most people would overlook as beauty. Be sure to Google “Ron Mueck” to see more of his amazing sculptures.

Words & Photo: MADSTEEZ I’m gonna have to say that Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter single handedly made the party photo cool. I hate to say the phrase “party photo” because I think it discredits the fact that Mark has they uncanny ability to capture real moments beautifully with a lens. His photoblog, thecobrasnake.com is so on point with what’s going on in our culture that it skyrocketed him to celebrity status. He’s in such high demand that he is paid to travel the globe to document events, parties, celebrities and even high fashion shows. He has marvelously branded The Cobrasnake with stickers, t-shirts, and now has The Cobra Shop where he sells his many fantastic vintage ﬁnds. Not only

does Mark sometimes wear even crazier stupider outﬁts than me, he is such a G that he’s always ﬂossing a gang of naughty honey’s (I’m not even gonna question if they are of age) and he’s runnin’ shit proper. The best thing about Mark is that he’s a really nice and kindhearted guy. However, I am a little jealous of him because he has the Bart Simpson vs. Black Bart Simpson painting that I have admired for sometime only on the Internet. It’s a good thing that Mark is making money doing what he loves because I don’t feel as bad invoicing him for the car wreck I got into a block away from his house on the way to take this photo.

Intro & Photos: Jason Kenworthy If you want to piss off Evan Geiselman just call him by his hated nickname, Golden. Why Golden? Because he is truly the golden boy of the East Coast surf scene. Being the youngest in the Geiselman family he has had a support system that you can only wish for. Dad, Greg, shapes him his blades, mom keeps everything moving so that he can concentrate on surfing and his brother Eric is one of the most progressive surfers today. Evan is clearly on the right path to becoming one of the best guys from the east coast. Interview: Brandon Guilmette How old are you and where do you live? I’m 15, and I live in New Smyrna Beach, FL. It’s a really small town and pretty much I just fish and surf whenever I’m home, so it’s a really fun place to live. How did you acquire the nickname “Golden Child”? I don’t really know the reason, but Michael “Jew” Dunphy came up with it. So I hear you are quite the fisherman, where is your local spot to go and what are you catching? Where I go fishing is called the Mosquito Lagoon and it’s a different kind of fishing. You have to spot the fish which you usually see their tails out of the water cause there in water only about 1-2 feet deep and the fish are called Redfish. What’s your biggest fish story? The funniest fishing story is that one time I was out with my friend and he was walking along the side of the boat and slipped into the water with his fishing pole and his clothes and got soaked and scared a lot of the fish cause you have to be really quite when you get up on the fish.

“DILLON DECIDES TO SLAM THE DOOR ON MY HEAD, I ENDED UP GETTING TWO STAPLES.”

I heard Dillon Perillo slammed your head in the car on a recent trip to Hawaii. Tell me about that. Yeah, I already stayed out of the water for 2 days because I cut my hand and then I was grabbing my board out of the car and then asked were the wax was and the went to lean into the car to get it and Dillon decides to slam the door on my head, I ended up getting two staples. Anything you want to tell Dillon… He didn’t mean to, it’s all good! If you had a week at Tavarua, who would you bring? I would bring my mom cause she never gets to go anywhere. You’ve got quite the travel schedule for a 15-yearold. Where did you go this past year? I went to Brazil, Hawaii, France, Bali, Cali, the Caribbean, Mentawai’s and a few more spots but just in state. What are your plans for this upcoming year? As of right now I’m going to Australia on the 15th of January and then try to go back to Hawaii in February and then jump into the ﬁrst Junior Pro for the year. What’s the best trip you’ve ever been on? The best trip I have ever been on is probably Bali when in went in may. What is the ﬁrst thing that you would do when you get home from a trip? Take a shower then lie in my bed and play Xbox 360. How is it growing up with a dad that shapes boards?

It’s great I give him all the feed back on my boards whether good or bad. How do you think you’ve been able to beneﬁt from that? A ton especially right now I’ve been growing and getting a good board is pretty hard right now but he has been getting me through it. What’s the newest nickname you’ve given your dad? It’s been granny for a while now. Why? I don’t really know. I’ve watched your videos on YouTube, looks like you’ve been practicing some crazy new moves. Anything that you’re focusing on trying to do next? Not really just try to get everything down so I cant make it more consistently. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received from someone? To be the best you have to do more than the rest. Anyone you would like to say thanks to? Mom, Dad, all my sponsors, the guys at Hurley: Pat, Brandon, Paul, Bob and everybody else.

This bullet-studded beauty is a San Diego native and a sports junkie. If she looks familiar you may recognize her as a past Chargers Girl. Yeah that’s right, I said Charger Girl. I knew I loved those Chargers for some reason. Anyhow, when she’s not in front of the lens you can typically ﬁnd her chillin’ with her friends at a local sports bar. And did I mention she likes sports? And if you still haven’t had enough of Casie by now you can get more of her in 2009 Harley Davidson calendar, you won’t be disappointed. Photo: Dominic Petruzzi // dominicpetruzzi.com // Model: Casie :: Jet Set Models

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CMY

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Interview: Kevin Keller :: Action Photos: ianruhter.com :: Lifestyle Photo: colebarash.com

No longer labeled an up-and-comer, Pat Moore has solidiﬁed his place as one of snowboarding’s elite. With an opening part in Forum or Against’em, and a nomination for Transworld’s video part of the year, this 22-year-old New Englander has only given us a preview of what he’s capable of. For more buzz on this buzzard, read on. You’ve been nominated for video part of the year in Forum or Against’em, and most would agree that having the opener in a Forum Team Video is a pretty heavy honor, with another Forum video in the works for the upcoming season, what can we expect from you? Same old shit, haha, get used to it. No, I am just going to continue trying

to progress or whatever. I’m happy with how things turned out for Forum or Against’em, but it still wasn’t the part that I know I want, so I’m going to keep trying for that. Speaking of heavy honors, how does it feel to have your name immortalized with Slayer on the top sheet of your Pro Model? I wouldn’t say my name is

immortalized in any way, but it’s ridiculous looking down on your board and seeing that graphic, I’m just happy we were able to do it. With all the talks of global warming, and the impact that constant traveling has on the environment, you are one of the guys hopping on the “Greasal” bandwagon. How is that Dodge

Big Horn of yours running after the conversion? Does it smell like French fries wherever you go? The Big Horn kills it with the veggie. I gotta give props to Mike Parsiel for that one, he is a friend from New Hampshire who started Grease not Gas and after talking to him for a few years about everything I just went for it and got him to do the conversion this last Spring. Although I’m not a

hippie at all, I do enjoy the feeling of ﬁlling up the truck on veggie and being able to drive for free, it’s deﬁnitely gratifying. We know you’re from New Hampshire, and that you spend the majority of your year on the road. Rumor has it that you recently dropped in on some real estate. Where are you calling home these days? I got a place in Salt Lake City last year, but I’ve never really called it home. New Hampshire is my home forever, hopefully soon I’ll get a place there, but until then Salt Lake is the perfect place for what I’m doing. There are mountains, skating, the airport... I just can’t stand the summer heat. Looks like you’ve been spending a bit of time in the chair getting inked. Care to comment on any of those tats you’ve got? The South of Heaven album art is just done healing. Off the hill, you tend to be a very friendly and approachable guy, but in the intro to your video part, your on-hill persona is portrayed on the other end of the spectrum. Do you ever end up scaring the dudes that you’re working with? Will the world see a “softer side” of Pat next year? Haha. I’ll save that side of me for The View. I’d be stoked if I scared them, but I’m sure they just think I’m an idiot. You’re on the road quite a bit. How many Delta miles have you logged over

the past 3 years? How do you feel about traveling so much on someone else’s dime? I fly like 75,000 miles a year, which is retarded. But you only have so many months in winter so you gotta try to be everywhere at once. It’s sick having a travel budget and whatnot, I’m definitely trying to live it up before it’s gone, travel while I can before I get into real life and I can’t. It’s obvious that you’re a very well rounded rider, from park and pipe to jibs and backcountry. Are we going to see another diverse part, or do you think you’ll start to focus and concentrate more of your time in a specific area of your snowboarding? I’m going to work on another diverse part for sure, I think if you are going to be a snowboarder you should ride everything, you really don’t have to be the best at any of it, but it’s so sick to try all these different ways of riding and keeping it fresh instead of getting stuck in a rut of just one or the other. It just keeps things interesting. What is it like being part of the most recognized team in snowboarding? I grew up on Forum videos, I probably watched True Life like a hundred times. So being apart of it now feels pretty bad-ass. Where are you now, and what are you doing? Working on the new Forum video, somewhere out there.

1 man of leisure and reďŹ nement :: Photo: Emag

Intro: Nick Kalionzes When we started BL!SSS, we had a few people in mind as far as who we wanted to see get some play in the mag and Grosso was one for sure. After a few injuries and a lot of talk we’ve ﬁnally managed to get his interview to print. We really didn’t want to give you some run of the mill interview either so in order to get the real shit pried out of Grosso we put our friend Ricky Barnes to work, who’s been friends with Jeff forever and has been frothing to get some of their stories to print. With the help of Vanessa, Jeff’s wife, and a new voice recorder Ricky’s wife bought him, Ricky went straight to work. It’s kind of a bummer we didn’t have room for the 100,000 words that came from the full tapes but we did manage to pull some pretty funny shit from their interview.

Interview: Ricky Barnes and Vanessa (Jeff’s wife) All right Jeff; let’s get this thing rolling, what was the worst neck injury you have ever received in your life? Um, it was during masturbation, I was masturbating and my wife wants me to say, I was a chronic masturbator. I was up to like seven times a day I was trying to lie a little earlier saying It was only like four or ﬁve, trying to make myself look better, but it was a little out of control. I woke up early in the morning started to fondle myself and right about the time of completion I pinched a nerve in my neck and had to call for my roommate Brett which was really awkward and kind of humiliating. He came in

and got really angry with me. He helped me get dressed. I waited long enough for my rod to go away. Cool... Then I lied to him and said I didn’t know what happened I was just getting out of bed, but he knew I was lying to him and I was supposed to be sober, but I was not sober. So we spent the day going to doctors and chiropractors, they gave me a big neck brace to wear and I lied to everybody about it for like six months cause I thought, “Fuck, If I go to work and tell the guys I hurt myself masturbating then I’ll get ﬁred.” I wore the neck brace and kept

that dirty little secret for a long time. Uh all right then. Uh, oh boy, so after skateboarding turned it’s back on you what was your ﬁrst real job? Skateboarding turned it’s back on me? It did. Jeff: (Laughing) I lived with you when it did! I couldn’t pay my rent. I lived with you and a bunch of other dude’s and I had to pay like 150 bucks for rent and I was such a pile that I couldn’t get a job cause I had no concept of it, so my roommate Greg Jarvi, who passed away, hired me to be his man

servant and… A butler, a man butler? Yeah, I was a man butler. Cool. He paid me a 150 dollars a month to pay my rent and he was one of the only guys, I think besides you, that had a real job and he gave me all the beer I could drink and he gave me a pack of cigarettes a day, GPC’s. Fantastic. And that went on for a couple months. All right, all right so what were you doing during the Northridge earthquake? Another friend of ours, Willie Goat’s girlfriend’s

cousin, Muff Hamilton aka Muffy came to the house and she was like from the Midwest or something wasn’t she? Yeah. And she had never been out here or something. Anyway, she came over and we were all partying and somehow mushrooms got introduced to the house that night. Oh, and she had never taken mushrooms before and we gave her a bunch of mushrooms and somehow I coaxed her up on the roof to get her alone. I got her naked and I kinda had her in the corner of the house but you know there was no privacy in the house so we got on the roof to get alone and I

got her out of her clothes and I was going down on her and the earthquake hit. There was like 12 maybe 15 people at the house and everybody ran into the backyard and I was standing on top of the house buck naked with a big boner. I saw you. Watching the earthquake go down. So this next question is for Vanessa (Jeff’s wife). Vanessa, what’s Jeff’s greatest move in the bedroom? Vanessa: I would have to say when I am just about there and he is doing his thing and his bum knee goes out or his bum back and the next thing I

Sweeping the channel :: Photo: MRZ

know I get a big pink belly flopped on top of me and there is no completion for me. That sounds great, ok where are we? That’s totally fucked! Ok, ok you guys let’s reel this baby in. Ok what did you get for Vanessa on Valentines Day in 2004? I ate a chicken. I went to go buy her flowers and I think I was out of work at the time. Vanessa: Yep I was on the couch being a total pile smoking and watching Law & Order and I had to go buy her flowers at least. So, I went

to go buy her flowers, but the line was to long and I was hungry so I went too Ralph’s and I got one of those prefab chickens or whatever and I thought I’ll just go home and I will have a little lunch and the line will die down and I will get the flowers before she gets home from work and she won’t be pissed cause I didn’t find a job today. I started to eat the chicken and I got into Law & Order and the next thing I know I figured out who done it and I ate a whole chicken and I couldn’t move. She came home and all I could say was I ate a chicken. All right, this next question is great. What are your ties to Leon

Spinks? Uh, I believe we were in Chicago at a street contest in the 80s - It’s a little hazy. It was a hockey rink and we got them to open up the bar and I think management made a bad decision. Anyway, I had gotten a giant platter of beers and I got super wasted and I thought it would be cool to go get all the hard working employee’s, the judges, anybody who was working some beers. I started walking and I walked through somebody’s run. I think it was Tom Knox. Yeah, I am pretty sure it was Tom Knox cause he told me about it. He said it was the ﬁnals and I can’t believe you walked through

my run. I was giving beers out and there was this girl named Kelly. Yep, Texas Kelly - she was the sister of Duncan’s girlfriend and she was stoked on me and she tapped me on the shoulder and she took me out to the parking lot and she screwed me on top of a semi. The cops came and I almost got thrown out of the contest cause I was standing on top of a semi naked. Then she took me to this show in the city and she climbed on top of an elevator and we were screwing on top of an elevator while people were riding up and down and we got grease all over us. She took me back to her house and we were screwing there and I looked up and

there was a picture of Leon Spinks on the wall. You know he was like heavy weight champ of the world so I was like, “What’s with that picture?” And she was like, “Oh, that’s my boyfriend.” I was like fuck but you know I was getting laid bro. Dude you screwed Leon Spinks girlfriend, that’s awesome. My favorite story and I have known you since I was like 16. I dig it; I love where you are coming from. I totally pulled it off. I woke up the next morning… actually, she woke me up the next morning and she was like, “we have to go”. I ﬁgured Leon is coming home so she took me

downstairs and there was a bar downstairs and she ordered me my ﬁrst tomato juice and beer. I had never had it before. It was a little hang over helper and… Another Elevator? Yeah, it was like a freight elevator and it had like slats on the side and you could totally see the people getting on and off, but she was like, “don’t stop, don’t stop.” I loved her I hope she is doing well. Ok, here’s my next question. You made out with my wife can I make out with yours? I don’t know you would have to ask her. Vanessa, can I?

Always a bridesmaid never a bride, sadplant

Backside boneless ones are gay! on the down low in Ramona :: Photo: Big Jer (Tape stops and comes back on.) You are a very enthusiastic lover. Ok this one’s for you Vanessa, what are three things you hate about Jeff? Let’s see… the endless robe wearing - it’s not sexy. The robe is not sexy, it’s so not sexy! The blown out nose from all the cocaine that causes him to snore all night long and drives me to sleep on the couch. The last would have to be the endless batch of boards he can’t let go of. They are all over the garage, under the bed, everywhere and then there’s… Wait, wait I think that’s three. Oh, she will go all night. Here is one for both of you. Is it awkward that your wife and your ex-girlfriend are best friends and is there any possibility of a three way? No. I would never think of that!

Just another sunday morning nightmare :: Photo: MRZ

But is it awkward? It was. It was at ﬁrst a little bit. I think everybody is past it, I hope everybody is past it. Vanessa: We love Danielle. Yeah, we love Danielle, but as far as the three way goes, it sounds like a great idea,

a great fantasy and it would probably be pretty rad. I mean, I am a guy. It sounds great, but the reality of it…

was older then me he did it.

You don’t think Costa Mesa is movie land baby? No, I do. I just wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I know I wouldn’t be able to pull it off, both girls would be unfulﬁlled. Vanessa: You couldn’t even handle it you wouldn’t even know what to do yourself! Yeah, I would probably just explode and they would be looking at me like, “You pile, we just gave you a shot and you just dropped the ball.”

Yeah, he’s a douche bag. On to more important questions, what was your longest Internet sexcapade? And when did your wife caught you. I don’t know? A couple hours. But wait, let me say this I have never been a big porno guy, I am not a big porno guy.

Ok this is something I have always wondered? How does it feel to be the heaviest man to ever do the loop and did they have to reinforce it? I don’t know if they had to reinforce it. I left so I am not sure about that but I am pretty sure that I am the heaviest man to do the loop. Well, maybe Jason Ellis. He’s a big dude but I think I am heavier. Yeah, I am bigger.

Yeah but isn’t he like 69? Yeah I think so?

At 10 o’clock in the morning you woke up and went onto the worldwide web. No, I came home from work and it was like 4:30 in the afternoon.

Were you stoked? Yeah, I was super stoked. It was like one of those childish things. I will never do it again but yeah I was stoked.

No, you took the day off you told me cause you were bummed Vanessa caught you and you started at 10am and the next thing you knew it was dark out. That is more hours than a couple. Yeah fuck, ok I am busted. I had no idea it was like that. It’s not all-professional grade stuff; it’s like amateur hour. And amateur stuff is kind of cool - it was a new thing for me.

At 48 years old I would imagine. (Laughing) At 48? Hackett

Let me interrupt you for a second; is this the kind of rambling that Nick was

Overweight and undereducated, layback rollout, Pala :: Photo: MRZ

scared of? Probably, screw you Nick. Sorry Nick, you are a wave hog! Let’s bring up the hell house days again. For an alternative kind of fuel what would you use to heat the house instead of the heater? I tried to turn the heater on but you guy’s said no it would cost too much money. There was a fireplace and I like to build fires. I find fires comforting so I would burn everyone’s furniture. I suffered greatly for burning the wrong furniture. Yeah, those guys got

mad I thought it was cute. I will have to say once again Nick you are a wave hog, he will paddle from 50 feet away from you and steal your wave. Ok, um back at the hell house days once again. You had a bedroom there and it had a name. What was that name, I can’t remember for the life of me? They called it The Swamp. Why would they call it The Swamp? I had a king size bed mattress and I would get super wasted and pee the bed pretty much on a

nightly basis. So I would have to drag the king size mattress into the backyard and let it dry until somebody gave me a big piece of foam that I put on top. This is for all you bed wetting drinkers out there - you put the foam on the top of the mattress so the pee will go through the foam and seep into the mattress, but the foam remains nice and dry. Then you don’t have to ever take the mattress out to dry. Your sheets might be a little damp but you will get over it cause you are a scumbag anyway. I found out years later that the reason I was peeing

so much was because my kidneys were shutting down. Palm Springs 2000, we were on a job - what did you do to blow my mind? I had a heat stroke. Yeah, but what else? I took off all my clothes and ran around naked and then curled up in a fetal position under a spigot of water. That was real fucked, I apologize. I lost my skull man, I lost it. But what were you doing in the midst of all this?

Oh, I was crying.

sometimes.

I have never seen a person cry on a god damn construction site. I was horriﬁed; I have never had anything like that happen to me before. Vanessa: He cries during movies. Wow, you are really gonna go there babe? Vanessa: Sorry. What have I always told you babe?

Crier Tux. I am emo from way back.

Tomorrow at work you are gonna have a new nickname called the cry baby! I am extremely emotional

You were emo before emo was a word. So what have we learned? So far we have learned that you sprained your neck extreme masturbating, you screwed Leon Spinks girlfriend, you have a shitty robe that your wife hates, you are a sexual deviant that isn’t good at it, you cry at movies and job sites, and I can’t even think of anything else as I am dazed by all of this.

Illustration & Words: Lugo Lugo :: Photos: Steindler This trip to Nicaragua consisted of Analog’s team: Kamalei Alexander, Josh Hoyer, TM Geoff Moysa and the kids: Nick Fowler, Jason Harris and Bones. There are things that you always bring on trips, and then there are some special things that you pack in case other people won’t have them or might forget. Things like iPod speakers, a new funny movie, a handle of Jack, stickers or a kite… you know, fun stuff. If for some reason you happen to have a curse, do not pack that. Do not bring the curse with you when you leave home. Some people forget

that and over-pack, curse included - this is not the way to travel! I’m an optimistic person, and this was a good trip, let’s get that out of the way right now. Do you remember that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin is writing a list of all the things he doesn’t like: toast unevenly toasted and all that? The list goes on and on until Hobbes tells him to add, “overly negative people” to the list, which he does until, “HEY!...” There’s something about the negative side of things that is always more entertaining. We as humans,

seem to be drawn to it. You don’t want to watch cars race around in a circle, you want to watch cars crash and see stuff explode! The world’s most amazing videos isn’t a show about people solving a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute, it’s about people going crazy, buildings burning, trains crashing and basically things going wrong. So while warm and fuzzy things did happen in Nicaragua, let’s focus on where things went wrong. I mean, what’s a burning city compared to tearing the lid off Hell and letting men see it? Things were going wrong

before we even left LAX. Hoyer had packed his board bag and backpack and left them at my parent’s house. I told Bones to grab Hoyer’s stuff while I said goodbye to my folks. It was dark out and when Hoyer met up with us he seemed suspicious as to whether his things had been loaded or not. I pawned the question off on Bones who assured Hoyer that everything was in the back of our truck. We get to LAX and Hoyer can’t ﬁnd his backpack of course, because Bones didn’t pack it. The backpack had Hoyer’s passport in it. Hoyer was really disappointed, something

Kamalei Alexander

Bones

Jason Harris

Hoyer

Nick Fowler

you don’t see too often and even I felt stupid for not double-checking Bone’s work. Our ﬂight was at one in the morning, so Hoyer had to wake his poor parents up and make them bring a backpack from my driveway to LA. Hoyer’s parents should have carpooled with Nick Fowler’s parents. Nick also had to call his mommy and make her drive to LAX from Newport as well since the poor little muscleman is too young to travel without a parent’s signature. Despite the headaches, everyone made it on the ﬂight and we were off to Nicaragua. We had a stop over in El Salvador where we ended up getting delayed three extra hours before we could continue on to Nicaragua. It wasn’t so bad

Geoff Moysa

though; we watched the start of a wheelchair race about to go down between the elderly. When you travel to Hawaii there’s people with surfboard bags, when you travel to South America there’s people with cooked chicken covered in tinfoil, pots and pans, bags of ﬂour and cornmeal and all kinds of other things that you would think would be readily available in South America, yet they’re lugging it with them anyway. Security checks take a bit longer when every family is traveling with some sort of meat and spices. Finally arriving in Nicaragua, we stepped off the plane and into the waiting arms of Noel, our driver, guide, and all around “go

to guy.” He said he could get us anything, and we basically took that sentence and ran with it. Noel even had the van stocked with beers for our three-hour ride to Mark and Dave’s camp at Iguana Beach. Three hours means about forty minutes on a road and then over two and a half hours down a dirt road intersected every mile by swelling rivers. To his credit, Noel only crashed once while we were off-roading the stock van through the Nicaraguan brush, losing only one mirror to a pesky tree. Mark and Dave’s is a sick little surf camp located right on the sand at Iguana Beach, home to no less than three apparently really fun waves. It’s pretty removed from

civilization but still has anything you’d want in close proximity to the private community: There’s a golf course, restaurant and most importantly, (unless you’re Hoyer) a bar. All those amenities are just a 15-minute walk through some nice trees and trails surrounding the golf course. We must have spent too much time at the bar one night because we got lost on the way back. Getting lost on a golf course trail? Come on. Oh, and it was also raining and we bought one ﬂash light for six people. We ended up walking basically to the far end of the beach, at least a mile out of the way before swinging back in the correct direction, thanks to a friendly security guard. See, we told you Nicaragua was safe.

Jason Harris

Nick Fowler

Hoyer

Kamalei Alexander

Every morning we would wake up and be ready to surf. We would walk out front onto the beach and take in the beautiful view of empty waves and completely onshore winds. Everyday! We’d still surf fun waves but we came for offshore tube rides and not fun Huntington Beach. Moysa still got barreled, but that’s beside the point. After a few days we began to think that there must be a curse on our trip, a curse of onshore devil wind. We started to get eggy and looked for someone to blame. That person was Bones. I thought there was a reason for it, but now looking back maybe we just wanted to call Bones names to make us feel better about not getting the waves we wanted. The crew began having nightmares as well. Hoyer dreamed that Volcom designer Joe Frizzel brought a cat to piss in our closet in Nicaragua and then he couldn’t get the smell out of his mind whenever he went back to the room. Jason Harris dreamed that his lungs were infected from staying in a room with death mold growing on the ceiling and no AC, leaving the poor lad paranoid about his health for the remainder of the trip. Like some sci-ﬁ movie, we

collectively dreamed that the waves were so onshore that only a movie would save us from boredom and that in some horrible twist of fate the only TV was hours away, getting fixed in the shop. We made due with our madness with plenty of the local Nicaraguan beer, Toña. It was delicious, like a flat Rolling Rock. MmmmmMMM! Every so often the onshore winds would subside and we’d go for a surf in the playful beachies. Nick Fowler became known as Little D due to his resemblance to snowboard legend, Dave Downing. They are both always amped to surf and both sport some serious muscle. Plus the nickname rolls off your tongue and straight into your heart. One day while surfing Colorado’s, a fun river-mouth about a mile from the house, Little D did a layback and caught a rail right in the kisser. The rail busted his face up like something fierce and poor Little D had to walk back to the compound and go with Noel to “the clinic.” Little D signed no paperwork and was taken into the back and given a nice set of stitches for his pretty face. Bones thought Little D received his facial slashing because “he did a sick turn and got so

Bones

angry that he shot his board at himself, pretty funny.” Besides saying mean things about Little D and trying to slap box him with his new moves he learned from Kamalei, Bones spent his days trying to blast complete rotation airs and rub everyone out with his palates wand that he brought from home. Bones is also quite the ham for the camera; Hoyer thinks he should be a TV host. Kamalei threw some mean hacks of his own and kept the boys in check with noogies and headlocks. Hoyer showed off his culinary skills most nights: rice, marinated chicken that looks like beef, and pork that tasted like chicken were on the menu constantly. Everyone was quite impressed with his cooking skills. Hoyer took the heat when we surfed this weird shallow right against a nearby cliff. He blasted and pulled more airs that session than anyone else combined on the entire trip, the man knows onshore junky rights like the palm of his right hand. Hoyer is somewhat troubled by the current trend in surf photography whereas the background is becoming more important than the wave. But when you can blast bangers on waist high crap, does it really matter?

Everyone agreed that Jason Harris was the standout of the trip. The guy throws tail like it’s nobody’s business. Harris is smooth and calculated, like he’s just ridden the same wave a moment before and has it all planned out in his head. Bones said this about Jason, “He’s really consistent, hardly falls and it always fucking ripping. Oh, I said the f-word, want me to redo it? We would send Jason out ﬁrst because if he can’t do turns then it’s going to be really hard to surf, but he’s usually out there blowing tail and we’re all trying to catch up.” So in the end we surfed almost everyday and while the winds were not blowing in our favor, everyone had fun sessions, scored photos and got their bronze on. Even Hoyer who insisted on wearing black pants the entire time. So, go to Nicaragua and get tubed, stay at Mark and Dave’s so you can walk to all the waves, just don’t go during the onshore months, something we found out the hard way. Check out analogclothing. com for video of the trip, shorescrew.com for more behind the scenes photos and markanddaves.com to book your own Nicaraguan vacations.

Words: Dan Rogers :: Photos: Shad Lambert (Read with Ron Burgundy’s voice) Erik Ellington is a man. No, not just a man… a God sent man’s man. A man who helped to build the Eiffel Tower with steel and brawn, eating various forms of raw meat and lamb shanks… Just kidding. I know Erik is gonna be bummed when he reads this interview in the ﬁrst place so I thought I really give him a scare. I met Erik probably ten years ago and over the past ten years have grown to not like him, but to love him. He’s one of the most sincere, genuine people you’ll ever meet; not to mention a ripping skater, father of two, and the headpiece and driving force in the newest of the posse’s adventures, Baker Boys Distribution. I sat down with Erik for twenty minutes and tried to ask him the most ridiculous questions I could in the beginning to loosen him up… enjoy.

Did you ever live with Andrew? No.

What the fuck? Gonz or something? What questions are you asking?

Do you wish you had? Maybe, they seemed to have a really good time.

Who do you think Andrew likes more, you or Jim? (erupting in laughter) No way, that’s an awesome question!

Do you wish you lived in Andrew’s house now? No, I have my own house. What kind of question is that? A good one. Who do you think Andrew’s favorite skater is?

Do you have any real questions? This sucks… I thought you were on my side, I’m gonna come off like a weirdo.

Well? I’m not answering that. Quit starting shit, you work here.

Fine. Here’s a question for you: Why haven’t you big spinned El Torro yet? (laughter again) Cause you’ll need a dustpan at the bottom to sweep me up.

So, the kids want to know what Andrew Reynolds thinks, don’t they?

Was your life harder when you were living off of Top Ramen, couch surﬁng or

living in a 2 million dollar house in the hills and being an accomplished pro skateboarder, company owner and family man? Those are two different types of “hard,” each with equal obstacles to overcome. Obviously, time is now the issue. Like you said to me yesterday, there needs to be 36 hours in a day to get anything done. Looking back is there anything you’d change?

No, maybe I’d work harder in the beginning. What do you mean? It looks like things worked out pretty good. Yeah but they could have been better. As far as skating goes, I barely even tried when I was younger. I would wait till the last minute and ﬁlm a part in like two months. Wait, you ﬁlmed the Zero video part in 2 months? Yeah pretty much. I was the

K-Flip Front Board

Big Spin Front Board

worst at that kind of thing; I was just having such a great time hanging out with Mutt and everything. I guess I was having too much of a good time. Why serious now? I put more effort in now, but I have one tenth of the time. All the responsibility of getting older, I value my time. I know now that it takes longer to get tricks, it hurts more, and I’m only gonna get a few times to go skating a week. So I really

Switch K-Flip

appreciate times when I get to skate. Who came up with the idea to start BBD? BBD is more of a home for OUR companies. We all came up with it together. Everyone talks about doing stuff on their own and pretends that they could, I guess we ﬁnally decided to man up and do something about it. Example: Brigada needed a home, and we didn’t want to go to someone else. So we got a

warehouse and ordered a bunch of glasses. Next thing we know we’re sitting around and talking about Deathwish… So yeah, here we are: Baker Boys Distribution backing Deathwish and Brigada. Who came up with Brigada? Pretty much Jim and I. Somehow we grabbed an Italian dictionary with the letter “B,” because we wanted the logo to be a B. I mean, I think everyone knows about

Jim’s obsession with Martin Scorsese’s gangster movies. That’s all he does 90% of the time, watching them or quoting them - so we decided to make it maﬁa related. What made you get involved with glasses? Have you ever looked at a sunglass rack? If you have, you’ll see most of the stuff on there will look pretty similar to all of the other brands. Not to be dick but I know that our stuff is different and will

stand out. Plus, we’re the only skater owned and operated sunglass company. Do you think Plan B will be bummed on the “B” thing? Maybe they have the letter “B” trademarked? (laughter) Come on, don’t do that. You’re gonna make me look bad and it won’t be my fault. What do you do at BBD? Not much. (laughter) Mostly get in the way.

Tre-Flip

Ollie Over Death Spikes

Big Flip

Seriously? Graphics and mediate between people. Any issue with anything - stickers, shipping, maybe I even give second opinion every once in awhile. Second opinion? Don’t your opinions count as first ones? You own the company! Oh yeah, well… you know what I mean. We all kind of work together to make shit happen. Is it difficult to be in business with your “friends?” We haven’t had any problems yet but I’ve heard horror stories. The three of us have know each other for over 10 years, we know each other well enough to where if anything comes up we can definitely work through it. Looking back over the last 8 months, what’s the most important thing that you’ve learned?

Backside Tailslide

Nothing is ever easy. Everything costs more and always takes longer than you think to get anything done. Do you only sell to skate shops? Well that’s how we we’re ﬁrst doing it. But there are people outside of skating that are really into the glasses so we’re trying to broaden our market. Do you plan on making anything else other than sunglasses? T-shirts, hoodies, accessories… I’d love to do watches someday but we’ll see. Who came up with the sunglass designs? Everyone, from the team designing their own Andrew liked the wayfarer, which is typical of course and kills it. We worked hard - Jim and I on designing our stuff. Who is the number one

rider on Brigada? Terry Kennedy by far. Does P-Rod ride for Brigada? Six months ago he said he was stoked to be on. Who would you rather have on your team, P-Rod or Guy Mariano? That’s an impossible question; I’d like to have them both. Do you think Guy would? I don’t know, I’ll try. I’m gonna text him right now and ask him. Ok lets end this with who rides for Brigada? Terry Kennedy, Andrew Reynolds, Jim Greco, and me. Any last things or people you want to give shoutouts to? Yeah, my wife Lucianna, son Julius and newborn daughter Mya. I couldn’t do any of this stuff if it wasn’t for you, I love you.

INSIGHT / DOPAMINE Surfer, Warren Smith & below, Jason Apparicio, Luke Stedman , Kai Otton & Jared Mell S Gorrow, Abbey Reef, Installation Bali 2008 photography Dustin Humphrey copyright ÂŠ insight51.com

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Photography: Dominic Petruzzi

dominicpetruzzi.com

Photo Assistant: Justin Huang Hair & Makeup: Hilleri Fitting Styling: Shane Cisneros mmkmgmt.com Model: Kristina Moe :: Ford Models

mmkmgmt.com using M A C Cosmetics & Unite Eurotherapy

T-shirt – Hurley hurley.com Tunic – Enza Costa Scarf – Missoni missoni.com Sandals – Tania Spinelli taniaspinelli.com

Pants & Vest â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Volcom volcom.com Bikini top â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Lauren Moffett

Jacket â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Alpinestars alpinestars.com Shorts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hurley hurley.com

Flannel – Insight insight51.com Tunic – Insight insight51.com Necklace – Morgan Jean Jewelry morganjean.com Sneakers – Superga superga-usa.com

Tank – Fox fox-girl.com Jeans – Matix matixclothing.com Snakeskin Belt – Streets Ahead streetsaheadinc.com Hat & Gloves – Stylist’s Own

Words: Greg Escalante & Nathan Spoor ERIC WHITE’S INFINITE INTERIORS Renowned New York artist Eric White lends us a portion of his mind as he paints and conducts a fascinating interview with Greg Escalante and Nathan Spoor. So Eric, you’re a New York resident these days but lived in California for a while. How was the move to New York? I made the move in 2000. Initially it was awful. For the first year I was thinking, “I’m going to spend two years here and go to LA.” After two terrible living situations I found a place to live that I really liked and started getting more comfortable. I had considered moving to New York directly after finishing school, but went to San Francisco instead. I think I would have been totally overwhelmed and terrified had I come here straight out of school. While you lived in San Francisco, you were in Los Angeles quite a bit. You were getting a lot of attention in LA, so what was it that prompted you to make the move to NY instead of LA? Living in San Francisco was great, but after almost a decade I was getting too comfortable there, and I wanted to make a big change. Most of my shows were in LA, and I really liked visiting there a lot, and strongly considered moving there. But, in the end I thought it would be better for me to make the bigger and scarier move first. Do you find that you show in New York or Los Angeles more now? I show more in New York, by virtue of living here I guess. I did a solo show at Earl McGrath Gallery in 2004, and I’ve been in a bunch of group shows with some good galleries here, and now and then I still show in Los Angeles. I also show with a gallery in Portland, OR, Quality Pictures, and just did a bunch of new paintings for them for the Aqua Wynwood Fair at Art Basel in Miami. Apart from gallery beginnings, where did the actual Eric White begin? Both my parents grew up in Detroit and met at the University of Michigan, so I grew up in Ann Arbor. I lived in the same house from age two until I was eighteen. I went to public school and then went to RISD. My Mom was a nurse and my Dad was in architecture. I have fond memories of going to visit my grandfather, who worked in a Chrysler factory all his life. Every time we would visit he would be painting, so he was definitely one of my earliest inspirations. I was always, always drawing, so it was interesting to be around someone that enjoyed painting as much as I did drawing. I have one of his paintings of a barn from 1939 in my studio, and I look at it every day.

Dadsville :: Oil on canvas : 36” x 60”

Orgonomic Funtctionalism Conference 1973 :: Oil on canvas : 48” x 60” How did your initial foray into the art world begin? When I ﬁrst moved to California, I was doing illustration. Although I never intended to do caricature work, I got a lot of it because I could to do it, meaning I could nail a likeness. Most of the time, that is. This ended up constituting about 85% of my output, and creatively speaking, I got tired of this kind of work fairly quickly. It was a great day job, but at the same time I was feeling unfulﬁlled, and my other ideas were starting to gnaw away at me. How did your work progress after that?

I started to do personal paintings in addition to my regular commercial work. A friend introduced me to La Luz de Jesus Gallery, which eventually led to a solo show with them, and then another, and then a split show with Joe Sorren. Billy Shire was willing to take a chance on me before I had really proven myself, and I give him a lot of credit for that. What artists do you find influential or interesting? Oh, there are way too many. It would take several pages to really do justice to them all, and in fact I have a list of about 600 people and things that I find inspirational in my book, It Feeds Itself. And since it was published, I’ve

added a bunch to the list. The last really great show I saw was Chris Johanson at Deitch. And in Miami I just saw a bunch of John Baldessari’s work, and I’ve realized lately what a big inspiration he has been. I just put a Van Eyck reference in one of my new paintings. I loved Dr. Seuss and Ed Emberly and B. Kliban as a kid. Duchamp is untouchable. Kelli Williams is giving Joe Coleman a run for his money. Ed Ruscha is still amazing. I could go on… You have a very unique and interesting vision; can you explain where your images come from? I don’t have a very good answer for where the ideas come from, they’re

pretty much there already. I don’t go for anything strange, it just comes out that way. I don’t work hard to achieve the skewed perspective, it comes naturally to me, and I imagine it’s due to the way I perceive life in general. One very interesting painting is Dadsville, can you tell us a little about that piece? I think that’s one of the strongest paintings I’ve done. It’s basically about my upbringing. I had a good childhood, but there was some parental dysfunction and high drama, and the weird things going on between my parents affected me. The men in that painting represent all

The One :: Oil on Canvas : 36” x 36”

“I DON’T WORK HARD TO ACHIEVE THE SKEWED PERSPECTIVE, IT COMES NATURALLY TO ME”

my various fathers. I’ve had three, my Dad, and two step-fathers, and what they all had in common was that they were sort of half there. The train set stands for unfulﬁlled promises. It’s a very personal and heavy painting, but I think a kind of funny one too. The goofy nature of it all makes me laugh. The blue faces in the squares were taken from the Nevada Gaming Control website. They have a list of people who are prohibited from gambling in the state of Nevada. When I somehow randomly came across those faces they all looked so spooked and guilty to me, and they ﬁt perfectly into the painting, since I imagine at least some of those guys must be pretty lame fathers in addition to being breakers of the law. That was from your exhibit Who Are Parents? Where did that all come from? Something really strange happened to me while I was working on the show. One night as I was about to fall asleep, all kinds of information and images and ideas started pouring into my head, linking all the work I had done, and showing me what to create next, and in a matter of about an hour the entire show just came together. I’ve never experienced anything like that before or since, and I don’t know where the hell it came from, but it certainly makes me wonder... Another fascinating painting of yours is Orgonomic Functionalism Conference, 1973, can you tell us a little about that one? That was in the Who Are Parents? show as well, and it was based on a photo that I found in my grandmother’s collection after she died. My Dad thinks it was some sort of sorority

meeting. I saw that picture and immediately wanted to paint it. It was so incredible that I didn’t want to mess with it very much. I just changed one element in the photo, and with the title, changed the context of the image. So they actually wore those strange things on their heads? Yes! And there was a teepee with a dog in an Indian headdress on every table. I changed the Greek symbol to Wilhelm Reich’s symbol of orgonomic functionalism. I thought it would be funny to have these midwestern women listening to the teachings of Wilhelm Reich. My Grandmother is in the center of the painting. At the time it was the biggest painting I had done, 4 x 5 feet. I prefer not to project because it’s more of a challenge to do it freehand, and I also think the distortions and mistakes in there bring more life to the piece. Recently there seems to be a shift in your work, as in A Gentleman’s Mistake. That’s actually part of the series I’m working on right now. In the painting, there is a woman sitting in front of a window, and instead of an exterior beyond the window, there is another room with two ﬁgures inspecting a cadaver. And beyond that another window, and beyond that another, and so on. It’s an inﬁnite interior. There may be an outside somewhere, but they don’t have access to it. And within the interior there is a war raging, but it’s a subtle war. Tell us more about this “subtle war” please. It’s an unconscious psychic war, men vs. women, mostly. The inhabitants are in close proximity, but remain oblivious to each other on some level, and unaware of the degree to which their

Divorce 2 : (collaboration w/ Casey Gallagher, age 6) 2004 :: Oil on Canvas : 12” circle

Joshua Chamberlain and the Angels of ______

thoughts and actions impact one another. In The Settle Down, the woman is about to put on her helmet, which is a man’s head. Wearing it she is able to empathize with the male psyche. Know your enemy. Tell us a little about Fortify. It has a little bit different feel to it than the psychic war you mentioned. Fortify was the second painting I did in the series, and in the chronology of it all, this scenario comes before the war. The full-blown conﬂict isn’t really underway yet. Untitled takes place

mid-battle. There’s psychic war but no real violence. They’re may not even be aware there is a war going on.

but it’s interesting enough to me that I think I can work with the idea for a little while longer.

So in No Neutral Thoughts, the inhabitants would be in the war? That painting shows a woman seeking spiritual guidance, preparing for battle, and in Hinduism the color blue symbolizes the inﬁnite, the sky and the ocean, so that explains why she’s got the stuff on her face. Sort of.

Any closing thoughts before we let you get back into fully interfacing with the battle? What’s next for you? I’m working on two shows for Europe right now, in Barcelona and Paris early next year. Then a super top-secret project for the summer. And I still want to make my sci-ﬁ movie…

I don’t know where the work is heading, and I don’t know if it’s good,

Closing thought: Forgive.

You can ﬁnd Eric White’s mentally fascinating and visually fulﬁlling works at Quality Pictures in Portland, Oregon. View his works online at: www. ewhite.com. For more info, see the following books It Feeds Itself (Last Gasp of San Francisco, 2003) Who Are Parents (Perceval Press, 2005)

Seth on JP JP Walker needs no introduction, if you have had any sort of finger on the pulse of snowboarding in the last decade you already know this guy is a living legend. I first had heard about JP way back in 1993 before he was pro. He had a nubbed Noah Salasnek with a 25-inch stance, long blond hair with the goatee to match, and pants bigger than any thing out there. I remember I would see him from the lift at Brighton doing the sickest butter 540s off of the Headwall cat track. I always thought he had the best style and he made snowboarding look like skateboarding, as opposed to the hippie powder carvers that were getting all the play at the time. I would see him and his crew every year just destroying Brighton, until one year it seemed like they had fallen off and disappeared. I remember thinking “whatever happen to that JP dude and all his friends?” Then, Simple Pleasures dropped and I completely lost my shit, not only was he in an MDP movie with all these uber pros, he had the best part. At the time, to me, being a pro snowboarder meant you came from Washington, Canada, or Norway or something. Not Utah and not riding Brighton. Seeing this happen right in front of me tripped me out so much, JP and his crew straight up took over professional snowboarding and have progressed it further than anyone could imagine. Without JP’s influence, snowboarding would be in very dark place today.

JP on Seth Seth Huot deserves much more credit then he has ever received. I didn’t grow up riding with Seth but over the past several years he has become one of my best friends. Not one to ever run his mouth about his riding or try to make a mark with ridiculous outﬁts. Instead, Seth has focused on the one trait that many of this day lack - Straight up amazing snowboard skills. I used to see Seth riding at Brighton back in the day; I was stoked on how good he was but more stoked on the fact that he never tried to latch on to our crew or bite our scene. Instead, he just did his own thing and in turn that made me want to ride with him. Besides a couple guys I started riding with in Utah, Seth is one of the only people that has ever been a welcome and permanent addition to our posse. He is one of the few snowboarders to come out as of late that can handle his own in the backcountry or at a beastie city rail. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a newcomer to this game - Seth has a been handling business with a heavy list of video parts that span back to the Kingpin Productions era that few will ever surpass. Well-rounded skills aren’t to common any more these days and I would consider Seth the last of a dying breed. Sometimes I have to stop and take a second look as I’ve watched Seth hone his rail skills to perfection on a daily basis. He’s deﬁnitely given me motivation and pushed me to progress myself and that’s no easy task. It’s time to give Seth his props.

Photo: Jeremy Jones

Seth Interviewing JP You grew up in Farmington, UT, which is a good hour from a ski resort, was that a factor into how you took snowboarding in the direction you did? Meaning more skate inﬂuenced. For sure it was. Because of that we kinda had to make things happen on our own. Luckily Mitch Nelson had a small hill in his back yard. It was just enough to get speed for a small jump. Later we built a fun box and started adding rails. We rode it every day after school until it was dark. Just hiking the same 8-foot long pipe over and over. We would get to the resorts on the weekends and actually take runs but

beside that it was like we were just in rail training and we didn’t even know it. There was a place just up the mountainside from his house you could kinda take runs and build jumps, but there we no chair lifts. We spent a lot of time hiking around and making something out of nothing. What/who is the F.C.? The Farmington Crew. It started out with myself, Mitch Nelson, Brandon Bybee, Chris Hayes and Mark Bell. We didn’t come up with the name it was actually F.C.A. at ﬁrst, Farmington Crew Assholes. I think my friend Dean called us that. Apparently

JP :: Photo: Peare

people thought we were dicks for some reason, but it was a tight posse. Eventually the asshole got dropped and Jeremy Jones got added to the list. It just kinda grew on its own and people just called it that. I think people tripped out because there was this crew of kids all from the middle of nowhere that could shred pretty good. The name just stuck for a while and we ran with it. Looking back, how important are those days of the F.C. to you, how different would your snowboarding be if you had come up alone or without that tight crew vibe? For sure I would not be here

JP :: Photo: Rob Mathis

today without those days. I learned so much from all those guys and still do. Not just snowboard tricks either. They are life long friends who are down to do whatever it takes to ride or get a shot. For sure those early days made me what I am today. You also came up when snowboard parks were pretty much nonexistent, how did you guys get air? We just put in work. Riding the resort we would ﬁgure out all the natural terrain features. We also spent a lot of time hiking out of bounds looking for places to build jumps. A typical day at Brighton would be, ride half the day, have a snack, point it

for the backcountry and build a jump somewhere and shred it even after the chairs closed for the day. So not only were you pioneering tricks, you were also pioneering spots as well? How did it feel when people would go to spots you founded, and built their careers off of them? It was hard at ﬁrst. Seriously, at Brighton I would say we discovered 90% of all the jumps in the surrounding bowls there. Putting in work like that you kind get attached. It got to the point where we started to tell the other Brighton locals that if they wanted to go out and hit something they needed to call us ﬁrst and ask

permission. And it went that way for a while. We were just super protective like any other local would be. Certain things just made it worse like when people started to call a jump that we found the Mark Frank Jump when we had it on lock before he even lived in Utah. It doesn’t really matter but stuff like that just makes you more protective. Don’t even get me started on all the rail spots. Can you tell these readers what we call a man-hour? How many did you think you put in last preseason before you even strapped in? Put simply its a unit of measure we came up with. We had such a bad early season in Utah last year we had to put in

serious work just to maintain a single handrail to jib onTransporting snow, shoveling snow, lugging rails across the mountain side, cutting down forest growth, welding new rails, endless hiking, the list goes on. Simple words could not express the time dedicated. The man-hour represents some serious laboring and we put in an unbelievable amount. You just have to experience one man-hour and you will realize. To be a pro snowboarder these days it seems like you need to have a million other skills just to make it. Name a few “other” skills you have acquired to keep ahead of the game. Videographer, video

JP :: Photo: Peare

editor, lumber jack, professional snowmobiler, welder, mechanic, first aid, search and rescue, emotional therapist to help homies get through tricks, mountaineering, skateboarding, backcountry/ wilderness survival, meteorologist, travel agent, sweet talker, to help with the security and police situations. That’s a pretty standard list. Also, it seems like you need a pretty intense arsenal of gear, name a couple crazy items you have acquired just so you could get a shot. Night vision goggles, personal winch, drop in ramp, police scanner, throat mics, grinders, sawzalls, disguises, generators and crazy lighting equipment. A lot of people go out filming all year and get a bunch of shots, then come edit time they only end up using about 40% of them, it seemed like for you this year that everything you filmed was an A+ banger and about 95% got used. Did you plan that? I think that I’ve been filming for so long that I just have a certain style of filming built into my soul. These days I only film a trick if I’m 95% certain that it will get used. I’ve sat through entire video edits for over 10 years now, not to mention all the sections I’ve personally edited. I have a good

understanding of what happens in the edit room. The first time Mack Dawg invited me to come in and check my footage for Simple Pleasures was a huge wake up call. I sat by in disbelief as he cut shot after shot from my reel. It happens to everyone especially early in there film careers. It hurts to see it happen. I think that was part of my motivation to only go for stuff I knew was a keeper. I just didn’t want stuff cut. So in a way it was on purpose but it took a lot of experience to get to that point. What is an expensive wolf? Haha! It’s term coined by a good friend Sean Kearns. Being a shred is not cheap. When you go snowmobiling in the backcountry the bill racks up pretty quick. The cost of a sled, gas, food, film, hotels, travel, everything that got you to that point is major. It’s all-good though unless you are not productive. At that point you just become a pack of expensive wolves, pinning it across glaciers and peaks in search of a feature to film on. It can happen to anyone. A lot of people don’t realize that getting a 3 second shot in your video part can take a beast of effort. What is the most time consuming/expensive shot you have logged? Did that shot make your part? Probably the worst thing that still haunts me today is a shot I tried to

JP :: Photo: Steven Stone : blacklistvisual.com

get on a double kink in Minnesota. It was 2003 or 04 and I put up 60 tries for a switch 270 on this kink. I know how many because back then sequences were shot on film and Andy Wright was counting up the reels. That was the first day. I put up another 40 tries the next day before I came off the end of the rail and started to ride away falling as I rode over the curb. It was mentally expensive not even counting the film and the travel costs. I think I started smoking that day for

a bit because I was so emotionally and mentally spent. Besides that, I’m sure that I’ve ﬂown out to the East Coast and spent a week trying to get shots and came back with just one. I hear rumors of a StepChild-32 movie next year, is that true? Yeah, we are going in together for a movie project. Team videos are pretty fun so it should be good. No name for the video yet but stay posted.

Seth :: Photo: Boyes

JP Interviewing Seth Where are you from and how did you get your start in snowboarding? I grew up in Stansbury Park, UT. My next-door neighbor friend got me into snowboarding. He had a Barfoot and I ended up buying this kids’ Sims Pocket Knife 144 for 40 bucks. We rode the sled hill down the street everyday there was snow, then the next year I went to the resorts. Fast forward to 1998, I got sponsored by the Airwalk rep, I made a tape of my tricks then Rene Hansen put me on the team. From there I just started climbing the filming and sponsor ladder, it was crazy to me when things started to turn into reality. At what point did you go pro? I don’t know when I really went “pro” but you and Dawger asking me to be in Shakedown, then, getting a part made me feel like I did something. You just had your first kid. How crazy is that? It’s a whole new world for sure. You can’t really wrap your head around it until you’re in it. It’s truly an amazing adventure, everyday is awesome. Motorcycle modifications have been pretty high on the priority

list lately. What is it you like about it so much? I just had to make my stock bike feel like a one of a kind. Also, I just love making stuff- designing, welding, grinding, powder coating, it gives me a satisfaction different from anything else I have ever done. When you design something, fabricate it, and then trust your life with it, that’s the true test. I feel good when I make something that is bolts. Sound like you have not only been doing your own mods but also servicing the whole Salt Lake Valley as well, what’s up with that? I like doing things myself, so I just went for it and started getting a tool kit together, and then people started to roll in and out for mods all the time. We can pretty much design, fab, and ﬁnish a part in my shop. You can roll in with some lame ass buckhorn handlebars in the morning, and tear out with a set of hard pipe hitting Z bars powder coated before rush hour. How many hours do you ﬁgure you’ve logged working on your bikes? Could you even calculate that? Pretty much when I am not thinking

about snowboarding, a lot of time goes to bikes, visualizing how to make parts, or how things are made so I can build them. So the hours logged are pretty up there, it’s also rad to hang with my boys in the garage tinkering and talking bike mods. Besides motorcycles and shredding what other things are you into? My family is a huge part, I pretty much enjoy any physical activity, skating, hiking, ﬁshing, you name it. Taking photos has been something I have been dabbling in for a few years. I made a skate video a few years ago for a friends’ company, which was rad. Is there any kind of relation for you between riding motorcycles and snowboarding or is it something completely different from snowboarding all together? I don’t know? All my friends that ride bikes also snowboard so it’s not completely different. It gives me freedom I could compare to snowboarding. Bikes are rad because they take my mind off snowboarding when I need a break from it. The list of skills you need to be a pro shredder gets longer every

year. What trades have you mastered in the past few years? Ha! I asked you the same question! Ya man, it’s crazy, here’s a start: lumberjack, welder, pro snowmobiler, ﬁlmer, carpenter, small engine mechanic, criminal, special ops, engineer and designer, the rabbit hole goes pretty deep. You got snapped off pretty hard right at the beginning of last winter but still came through with a solid part in Double Decade. What was that like? Six broken ribs opening day, then a harsh shoulder tweak 3 days back, I pretty much got no warm up, and everyone else was on some crazy 20-year hammer storm. I was set back mentally and physically all year; it was a rough season for me to say the least. I didn’t end up with the part I wanted at all, but to be in that movie with that roster means a lot to me. You’ve been in the game for a while now and have a good catalog of video parts under your belt. Why do you think you are a video part type of guy? I like working for it, the grind, the travel, and the dedication it takes to get a video part. Hanging out with a sick crew and watching my friends

Seth :: Photo: Robbie Sell

get bangers is the best thing ever. I just love snowboard videos, being in them is a dream come true for me. What are your plans for ﬁlming next season? I am ﬁlming with the People guys this year, those guys make amazing videos and I’m hyped to work with them. Are there any up and coming shreds that you think have what it takes to go far in this industry? Joe Sexton, Cutis Cizeck, and Scott Stevens are a few off the top of my head. There are a few out there that could turn up the dial. Sometimes people don’t consider professional snowboarding a “job”. What’s your take on that? A smart man once told me that, “It’s hard to tell the difference between what a true master does for fun and for work.” The people out there that think snowboarding isn’t a “job” think that they should not enjoy what they do for a living. That is why it is hard for them to wrap their heads around the fact that something as fun as snowboarding is a “job.” It’s by far the hardest, most intense work I have ever done and I love every second of it. Everyone knows about it now

so I think it’s ok to ask you, what’s up with The Spot? It’s a place you, me and a few friends have built to progress and enjoy snowboarding on our own accord. We built it, we ride it, everyone else stay the fuck out! Haha! I’ve always been a head case with frontside lipslides, are there any tricks that give you problems? So many, switch lipslides are mind boggling, proper switch boardslides give me hell, switch frontside threes are so hard, getting a back seven on ﬁlm… I could go on and on.

Seth :: Photo: Boyes

What tricks come natural to you? Rails or jump wise. Front sevens are always my go to, front boards feel good too. How does the snowboard scene in Utah compare to others? The scene in Utah is one to be put in check, there are so many snowboarders but yet some resorts still try to ﬁght it and not cater to snowboarding. Bear and Summit embraced it so long ago that snowboarding runs the show, they have parks and boxes top to bottom. Utah still tries to stuff us in the back corner and not admit that we own the snow industry. I keep waiting for the day they wake up.

Seth :: Photo: Yoshida

NIXON SURF CHALLENGE/ NIXON EUROPE TRIP 2008 WORDS: MICHEL MURCIANO Europe is exactly as you’d expect it: wine, cheese, bread, bare-breasted women, hangovers and really fun waves. Nixon has been taking a crew over to Europe for a few years now for the Nixon Surf Challenge. The trip begins in Hossegor and ends in San Sebastian at the event site. Europe is one of those places where you can completely score waves or get completely skunked; it’s all just a role of the dice. Either way it’s worth going if you’ve been there a hundred times or it’s your ﬁrst time. You can get some of the most playful or some of the heaviest beach breaks in the world, at the very least enjoy some really good wine. This year’s crew was all-star: Dusty Payne, Ricky Whitlock, Casey Brown, CJ Kanuha and Cheyne Magnusson. With most of the crew being past

offenders in Europe, it was business as usual: amazing surﬁng, more laughter than you can handle, and you guessed it - the Americans took home the title once again from the Nixon Surf Challenge.

THE NIXON SURF CHALLENGE

Regardless of all the antics and stories, The Nixon Surf Challenge is the real reason the Nixon crew is in Europe. Located in San Sebastian, Spain, it is an invite only event, of which 26 competitors from all over the world get hand selected. The event format is based on free surﬁng; you are awarded for doing critical single maneuvers rather than several safe turns to the beach. The heats are peer judged - all the competitors take turns in the judging. It’s a breathe of fresh air in a world of points, rating, rules and formats. The event is in it’s 9th

Casey Brown : Photo: Jose V. Gez

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year and consistently has passed on invitees begging for an invitation back. Past winners including Dylan Graves, Josh Kerr and Tiago Peres just to name a few. The first night of the event is a celebration of what’s to come, leading into the late hours of the night with all the sangria and tapas you can handle. During the first night all the competitors definitely take tabs on who ran home early to get a good nights rest. Going home early the night before the event is certainly frowned upon. Everyone goes out together and stays together celebrating the first night. Everyone wakes up early the next day, well relatively… First heat is in the water at noon. This year the event saw some of the more playful waves that we’ve seen in years. There were some definite standouts including:

Dusty Payne, Cheyne Magnusson, Goby Zubizerreta, Eric Rebierre, Mike Gleason, CJ Kanuha, Josh Kerr and Ratboy just to name a few. In the end it was Casey Brown that pulled out all the stops. The ﬁnal was stacked with Josh Kerr, Eric Rebierre, Casey Brown and Hira Tiranatufa. Casey Brown pulled about a half dozen variations of airs and got the best barrel of the event in his heat. When it was all said and done Casey walked away from the podium with a check for $7000 Euros ($10,000 US), not bad for one day worth of surﬁng against only 26 other competitors. Final: Casey Brown – 1st Josh Kerr – 2nd Eric Rebierre -3rd Hira Tiranatufa – 4th

Dusty Payne : Photo: Todd Glaser

Photo: Murciano

Dusty & Cheyne

Casey Brown : Photo: Gez

Photo: Murciano

CJ Kahuna : Photo: Todd Glaser

Ricky Whitlock: Photo: Todd Glaser

Cheyne Magnusson : Photo: Glaser

Photo: Gez

Josh Kerr : Photo: Jose V. Gez

PERSONAL TRIP ANECDOTES

Air Goldbaum Flying to France can take just about as long to get to as anywhere in the world, or at least that’s what it feels like sometimes. It’s always interesting whom you end up sitting next to for the next 14 hours. Cheyne Magnusson is the most entertaining person to sit next too on several accounts. On the way over to France he self-prescribed himself 3 Somas every 3 hours, which as selfprescribed, were washed down with a cool Budweiser. While this intoxicating combination affects people by calmly knocking them out into a coma like sleep, well Cheyne, he’s a little different. He is immune to sleeping

Photo: Murciano

on planes no matter how medicated he is, so for him it’s like ﬂoating in the clouds for 14 hours. He gets a spaced out look on his face and stairs blankly at the seat in front of him. It’s just about one of the funniest things to experience. Just when you think it couldn’t get any weirder/funnier he gets up from his chair and disappears into the bathroom. He returns shortly with a huge smile on his face and white powder handprints all over his black t-shirt and Family Guy sweat pants. Immediately you start to question where he’s been and what he just did: the airplane bathroom: strip down to nothing and used Goldbaum powder over his whole body, and then put his clothes back on and walked

back to his seat with a huge smile on his face. I’m not sure what this feels like but I guarantee it’s got to be up there with sex. This is why Cheyne is one of the greatest people to sit next to on a long flight. Axe Throwing Everyone who’s been on a surf trip has had that moment of truth. You pull your board bag into the middle of your living area. Under your breath you begin your prayer to whatever god or deity you look up to, you grab a hold of the zipper, unzip the bag and flip the flap over to see… that your board has no dings in it. France is the only destinations that I

have seen boards demolished beyond comprehendible explanation. A few years ago on the same trip, Oceanside legend Jason Bennet had every board in his board bag destroyed all with completely different brakes, some buckled in the middle, one nose broken, a tail broken, you name it, it happened to his boards. It was as if the luggage handlers took them out laid them down and had a dance party on his boards then placed them neatly back in. This year it was me that was the sacriﬁcial board carrier. Upon opening my board bag one board was buckled down the middle and creased on the rail from nose to tail. The other boards

Photo: Murciano

Cheyne : Photo: Murciano

Photo: Murciano

CJ Kahuna : Photo: Glaser Casey : Photo: Gez

Photo: Remy

Dusty Payne : Photo: Glaser

Photo: Gez

Photo: Murciano

Casey Brown : Photo: Jose V. Gez

Photo: Murciano

Josh Kerr : Photo: Jose V. Gez

Casey Brown : Photo: Todd Glaser

in the board bag were completely unscathed. To this day if asked to do the damage purposely I couldn’t begin to tell you how it could be done without taking them out of the board bag. Regardless, there’s no point in crying over spilled milk and what better way to make a shitty situation better than incorporating some axe throwing. Our target, my destroyed board. You don’t realize how immature you are until you spend the next 2 hours playing target practice on a surfboard with a bunch of guys drinking beer in a the backyard. Pack your board well when going to France or for the matter try not even using a board bag you might have better luck. The Van Van… best vehicle for Europe, no one ﬁghts for the window or space, you just

heard everyone in like a rancher and you’re off. Moules and Frites When you go to Hossegor you have to get Moules and Frits for dinner, you just do. You head down to the restaurant down by Capbreton Harbor. Walking inside the restaurant, it’s the French version of your high school cafeteria. Long tables, strangers sitting hip to hip all to have a chance at some fried mussels, fries and beer… bon appetite. This was the only meal that Dusty didn’t complain about and probably the only thing he ate in Europe besides McDonalds. Shorebreak Hossegor is one of the more tidal surf destinations. Sand bars come and go like a mirages in the desert with the tide. Surfs are often cut to less than an hour due to tidal surges and drains. The

Hira Tiranatufa : Photo: Jose V. Gez

Nixon house was right in front of the renowned Gravierre beach that holds some of the best beachbreak barrels. The window to score some of these waves is often short lived. So when the tide takes over there is one activity does bring some fun to a ruined surf session. I’d have to give Cheyne Magnusson credit for our high tide fun activities. With the tide on the rise and sandbars completely shut down, what was left was large unrideable, solid shore break waves right on the sand. Cheyne would head straight to the fridge and make sure he got a solid buzz going before heading down to the beach. Then he would proceed to sit Indian style and take pounding after pounding of shore break monsters right on the head. Seemed like lunacy, but he soon had the whole crew coming home with raspberry burns and cuts and

bruises all over. A true ambassador of aquatic fun. Salmon Squirts After eating baguettes, moules and frites and croissant for a series of days in a row, the boys were looking to get something a little more substantial in they’re systems. Being that we had a majority Hawaiian contingency it was unanimously sushi. Sushi in France… I never claimed we were the brightest group of guys. Being that not one of us spoke a lick of French we confided in the waitress to serve it up. Just about every piece of sushi that came out of the kitchen was Salmon. After surfing all day nobody was really that picky and we made do with what was served. The stoke from the sushi dinner was short lived as it left most of the crew fighting for the one bathroom in our house for the rest of the night. This was the roughest 24 hours I’ve been through. Sushi in France… bad idea.

Jonathon Gonzalez : Photo: Jose V. Gez

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BLISS_TSOL.indd 1

12/19/08 11:01:53 AM

VANS MINI CUP

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Photos: JG Mazzotta // Dylan Alito // Doran, Scotty, Hana, Chad & Seth // Rual on the Mic // Mark Kelsic // Eric Maldin // Austin Julik-Heine // Dave Downing // Patrick Tullos // Attack of the Grom // Scotty Dog Bitin’ // Doran Laybourn

Vans Shoes and Satellite Boardshop joined forces this past month at Winter Park Resort, CO to hold the ﬁrst stop of the Vans Mini Cup. The Mini Cup is three-part rail series competition whereas competitors battle it out for an all-expense-paid trip to the coveted Vans Cup at Mammoth, as well as a slot in the event’s inviteonly rail jam. The Rockies did not disappoint as event number one went down in stellar conditions with over a foot of fresh powder and chilly temps. Locals and top ams alike showed up in full force and gave it their all for a chance to pocket a few Benjamin’s and a seed in the main event. The judges had tough job ahead of them the as competition was absolutely stacked. When it was all said and done it would

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be none other than Colorado’s Dylan Alito taking home top honors. So there you go, he’s got spot number one and with only two Mini Cups to go you better make sure you make it to event number two (New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain, Jan 10th) or number three (California’s Bear Mountain, Feb 7th) to participate.

MEN’S RESULTS

1. Dylan Alito - $500 (Qualiﬁes into Vans Cup at Mammoth) 2. Nick Poohachof – $300 3. Johnny Lazz - $150

ART BASEL MIAMI

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Words: Steve Scherzer // Ron Mueck // Julian Hoeber // Ron English // Josh Keyes // Takashi Murakami // Ara Peterson // Al Moran & KAWS // Barry McGee // Marilyn Manson // Retna X Mac // John Waters // Pharrell Williams

Art Basel in Miami, is a tough scene to beat, and it’s annual convergence of commerce, art and the uber-hip scene that took place Dec. 3-7 centered in Miami’s famed South Beach, proved to be no exception. For a locale that prides itself on its pastel veneer, the feel both in the galleries, fairs, exhibitions, as well as on the street, was dark. From Marilyn Manson showing of 20 of his works at 101 Exhibit in the Design district (highlighted by “The Man Who Eats his Fingers”, although all his works troublingly bared his personiﬁed “look”), to a much talked about pall that the state of the economy was having on gallery exhibitors, “pricing”, and sales, a certain grimness pervaded even beyond the predictable yet inﬁnitely varied assemblage of black clothing options. That said, your correspondent had an absolute blast and got to take in some truly rad

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work. As in recent years, some of the very best stuff was not in the monstrous Art Basel and Art Miami Exhibition halls with their higher end wares. Miami’s borderline seedy Wyndham art district, proved far more fertile ground for interesting work, with Scope (that joined forces this year with Art Asia), and particularly the Pulse fair, both having consistently moving assemblages of works. Aqua Art in South Beach as well as it’s larger space in Wyndham were also of note. Perhaps the most interesting and unique utilizations of “space”, which is always a problem with fairs of this magnitude, was in South Beach’s Collins Park (right on the sand) where 20 worldwide galleries each set up quite varied exhibitions in cargo containers. But whether for the art, the commerce, or just to “kick it” with the pathologically pretentious for a couple days and take in South Beach, Art Basel is one fabulous way to spend the ﬁrst week of December.

THE 3RD ANNUAL ACTIVE AM

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Words: Erica Yary // Jamie Stone, Andrew Langi, Daryle Angel, Active Erica and Brandon Westgate // Brandon Westgate : Winner // David Loy F.S 50/50 // Taylor Smith F.S Blunt // Daryle Angel F.S 180 Fakie Pivot // Josh Borden B.S Tail Slide // Justin “Figgy” Figuroa w/ Home girl // Andrew Langi F.S Smith pop in Fakie // Scott Decenzo Feeble

The 3rd annual Active Am rolled around and brought out the world’s best Ams for a huge $12,000 purse. The talent was unparalleled by any other Am contest on the circuit. Active Am is an exclusive contest where rippers have to be invited to skate. The majority of the forty invitees who showed up to skate or die blew away your typical contest line-up. Guys like Mike Anderson, Chris Pfanner, Jordan Hoffart, John Motta, Albert Madrid, and Theotis Beasley were amongst the noteworthy top skaters of the day, and those guys didn’t even make the pay cut. After ﬁve hours of blood, sweat, and beers, the celebrity guest judging panel chose the top three of the day: Brandon Westgate grabbed 1st ($6,000), Andrew Langi took 2nd ($3,000), and Daryl Angel cashed in at 3rd ($2,000). Marius Syvanen came correct and stole $1,000 with the best trick: a backside noseblunt on the elevated box. Thanks to Active, Vans, Red Bull, and DLXSF.

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brixton.com

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12/19/08 1:38:55 PM

24TH ANNUAL IN MEMORY OF EDDIE AIKAU

Photos : Murray & Bielmann // Eddie Memorial // The ceremony before the paddle out // Beach onlookers // Healy and crew // Mel Pu’u // Slater with trophie // Memorial // The paddle out circle // Trophies // Spectators // Dorian getting ready for the paddle out

The ofﬁcial opening ceremony for Quiksilver’s 24th annual “In Memory of Eddie Aikau” took place in the beginning of December at Waimea Bay, on the North Shore of Oahu. A perfect 10- to 15-foot (Hawaiian scale) swell pulsed through Waimea Bay throughout the ceremony and offered competitors an opportunity to warm up at the big-wave venue that breaks but a handful of times each winter. The Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau, is the most prestigious big-wave event in the world. It requires one full day of

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waves in the 20-foot-plus (Hawaiian scale) range with near-perfect weather conditions in order to run. Because of this strict criterion, it has only been held a total of seven times, the last time being in December of 2004, when a young Hawaiian won it: Bruce Irons. The event’s holding period goes until February 28, 2009. Joining the North Shore community, the 28 Invitees and 24 Alternates including past champions Kelly Slater (USA), Bruce Irons (Hawaii), Ross Clarke-Jones (Australia), and Eddie Aikau’s younger

brother Clyde (Hawaii) were on hand for the special event. Invitees to the event come from as far away as Brazil, South Africa, Japan, Spain and Australia. The turnout for the Opening Ceremony was impressive with a record number of surfers, international media, spectators and tourists. It culminated with a paddle-out into the Waimea lineup under the sunset as the invitees made their annual dedication to Aikau. So far this Hawaiian winter has boasted an extraordinarily high number of large swells and optimism is running high that

the event will run again. In the realm of big-wave riding, the name Eddie Aikau commands as much respect as Waimea Bay itself. Aikau was the North Shore of Oahu’s ﬁrst lifeguard, watching over the Bay when he wasn’t charging the biggest waves of the winter. Tragically, he lost his life in 1978, at the age of 33, during a re-creation of the Polynesian voyage between Hawaii and Tahiti. In huge seas, the voyaging canoe Hokule’a was capsized. Eddie paddled off in an attempt to reach help for his fellow crewmen. He was never seen again, but his spirit and legacy live on.

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1 2 th A N N UA L

JOHNNY ROMANO SKATE JAM BENEFITING MAKE-A-WISH

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Words: Jeff Taylor // Chris Cole, Zumiez Couch Stairs winner // Andrew Langi, N. H. Flip // Andrew Langi Bowl Jam Winner // Tony Cervantas F.S Air Hip bowl Jam // Chris Cole and Gilbert Crocket, street Course // Josh Mattson // Chris Cole, airwalk // Andrew langi F.S Crail // Famous Star and Starps Signing // Girls gone wild I don’t know what you were doing on Nov. 8, 2008, but if you weren’t at the 12th Annual Johnny Romano Skate Jam for Make-A-Wish - it’s safe to say that you missed the raddest charitable skateboard event ever! Formally known as the Texas Skate Jam, this year’s event was renamed in honor of Johnny Romano, a 10-year-old cancer patient and hardcore skateboarder who passed away on Sept. 23, 2008. Johnny was a ripping skater who participated in the event since

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2005 and touched so many people with his courage and strength in the face of his overwhelming adversity. The support for Johnny and the cause was incredible as over 50 top pro skateboarders converged in Houston to battle it out in a series of best trick contests that raised over $100,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. A bowl jam opened up the event in the newly renovated Southside Skatepark. Tony Cervantes

stylishly ripped into third, while Josh Mattson snaked his way into second. In the end, it was Redwood City, CA’s Andrew Langi in ﬁrst with big airs and technical lip tricks. Get used to hearing that kids name by the way, cause he’s coming up fast… The 800+ spectators ﬂooded the street course to watch Lizard King, Langi, Billy Marks, Ernie Torres, Manny Santiago and more jump down a Big 4 set in the Zumiez Best Trick contest, followed by a Best Street Trick contest on a

curb/ledge/ﬂat bar tech center and two buttery new granite ledges (that were delivered to Southside the night before!). Dennis Busenitz, Gilbert Crockett, Sean Malto, and Danny Montoya were all standouts, but no one (I mean NO ONE) could touch Chris Cole in either of the street contests. He looked like he had a checklist of tricks no one else could do written at the top of the ramp and was just going one-byone down the list. Look… we all know he’s good, right? Take my

word for it though, it’s not until you see it in person that you realize just how fucking good this guy really is. Chris is a big supporter of the event, so make plans now to be there next time to support a great cause, celebrate a beautiful life, and ﬁnd out for yourself.

RESULTS

Zumiez Stairs 1. Chris Cole Street Course 1. Chris Cole 2. Gilbert Crocket 3. Sean Malto

Bowl Jam 1. Andrew Langi 2. Josh Mattson 3. Tony Cervantas

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CMY

10/15/08

10:01:32 PM

Words: Tim Bergevin :: Photo: Michael Lallande TSOL is thirty years into what can be best described as a sordid journey. They joined together in the late 70’s for reasons described by singer Jack Grisham as, “to cause problems.” The time in the OC was a volatile one for the punk community far removed from today’s Hot Topic accessibility and acceptance. “There was a lot of violence but a lot of it was ﬁghting to look like you wanted. Back then you were a freak when you would show up with your hair colored or you were wearing something you made. People would just start yelling stuff ‘hey, fruitcake, hey sunshine’ how long can you keep your mouth shut?” Standing at over six feet tall and known for sporting a dress on more than one occasion it would have been hard to

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miss Jack back then. The band formed in 1978 while all the members were in other bands, “the scene in Huntington Beach was real incestuous” says Jack, “everyone played with everybody, and everyone dated each others girlfriends. It was like living on a small island. I was asked to do a family tree and it was crazy, the thing was a mess of all these bands that everyone had been in. A lot of people don’t know that Frank and Rick Agnew where also in TSOL as was Jay Bentley from Bad Religion.”

government and all the wrong they were subjugating on the people at the time. But it was more about surﬁng for Jack and company. “People like to say that (we were politically motivated) but it was different for us, the surf kids. My heroes have always been idiots and that’s just the way it is. When I was growing up the Wind n’ Sea guys were huge to me. Butch Van Artsdalen and all that Wind n’ Sea craziness. Wearing Nazi uniforms and going to parties, being idiots. Drunken surfer idiots always attracted me more than the politics.”

With politically laced lyrics on the bands ﬁrst EP, it would seem that the bands main emphasis was focused on rebelling against the

“Punk rock was just a back drop,” continues Jack, “What did I know about the Government? I was 18-years-old, I was a kid. I was

more concerned about getting some boards made.” With no political agenda the reason Jack fell into punk was simple, “Trouble, causing trouble, that is how I got involved in punk rock. It tripped me that people would wear clothes to be like some band. I was a surfer kid so I didn’t get that. I was causing trouble and I met some girl who told me I should meet a guy who was just like me. That guy turned out to be Todd (Barnes, original drummer) and we ended up being in a band together.” If it seems like it was a more ideal time then for punk rock it’s because it was, “I said F the government because it sounds good, but to be honest I was more concerned with getting hammered, surﬁng and

causing problems. That was it.” To some it may seem like TSOL were in it for the wrong reasons, but then again politically charged punk rock preached by some bands went only as far as the lyrics those bands sang, “I loved some of those bands, they bitch about the government but they didn’t do a damn thing about it.” Jack ran for Governor of California in 2004, “basically I ran just to bitch about health care in California.” With his handsome surfer looks, his intelligent speaking and demeanor he raised more than a few eyebrows while trying to champion a cause that even now is a political hot potato. “They thought ‘punk rock

guy’ running for Governor would be a guy with purple hair and a leather jacket and then I come rolling in a nice suit and if you see me like that I look like a newscaster, business guy,” he laughs, “and people were blown away. I got offered a lot of jobs after that but I didn’t take any.” As he laughs hard at that statement it’s hard to imagine anyone could embody what punk truly means. To disrupt, to make people think. This ﬂows out of Jack incessantly. To mark this thirty-year anniversary, TSOL has linked up with Hurley to produce and distribute for free via Hurley.com the bands ﬁrst new album in four years. Titled “Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Free

Downloads” Jack is happy to be getting a record out to the public in a new way. “Back then there was no money. There was no pro surﬁng, there were no pro punks, and even making a record was a big deal. You’re not going to sell any records, you’re not going to get played on the radio, you did it because you loved doing it. Look at what we are doing now.” With the record complete and ready for download in early January, it seems time for TSOL to stand up again with the help of Hurley, which as a company steeped in surﬁng makes a perfect match to Jack and the bands original love. “Take the record! Have it for free! We were stoked that Hurley wanted to do this.” Besides getting the record for free on Hurley.com the

band is also trying to gain attention for several charities they are tied in with. “You got a free record now check out all these sites. Orangewood Children’s Home, the OC Food Bank, and the Surfrider Foundation. You just got this for free now throw a dollar towards these guys.” This attitude seems so refreshing coming from one of the original bands whose inﬂuence permeates a countless numbers of today’s current crop of punk rock heroes. The fact that his desire for causing problems has not waned, but that it now manifests itself into a more constructive but still disruptive way makes you feel like you are back in ’78. With the water a little less crowded but just as many assholes still to topple.

Presents: Hurricane

Avalon

Mickey Avalon Hits the FLA

Words: Tim Bergevin With every beer line maxing out because every British ex pat in Southern California is in the building, it was easy to get caught up in the excitement as the self proclaimed “biggest band in the world” attempted conquest of our beloved home of the Lakers. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that Oasis does not bring it live. Take “Forever” a great song that we all can and do sing along to, but the energy that ﬂows from the Gallagher brothers is nil.

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Standing on the edge of the stage like a football hooligan waiting to club an opposing fan, Liam complete with tambourine in hand is uninspiring at best. On this night he decides it’s best to pull away from the mic before ﬁnishing the line from every verse and chorus he spits out. On the ﬂip side there is Noel. It almost seems he would be better off forging along by himself. As the architect of most of the bands songs, his solo efforts on songs like “Don’t Look Back in Anger” made for the best and most memorable

moments on this night. If the band was uninspired the crowd certainly was not. Liquored up, they sang along to every song and added all the energy to what would be considered a failure, even for the alleged biggest band in the world. Opening the show was a brilliant Ryan Adams. His crazy life has occasionally obscured what a brilliant songwriter he is and backed by his band The Cardinals, blew through amazing songs like “Two’”and the heartbreaking fuck you classic “Come Pick Me Up”. The brothers Gallagher may have picked Ryan because they are fans of his music but what he really did for them was add a touch of class to their lack-luster performance. Kicking it all off was local hero Matt Costa. With Matt’s brilliant voice cutting through the three quarters empty venue, it’s easy to believe that someday soon Matt could easily be the one on the top of a bill like this.

Photo: Marc Lemoine

Reviews: Tim Bergevin

Pavement Brighten The Creedence Ed. Matador

Corners:

Nicene

Matador has been doing an incredible job re-releasing the Pavement catalog. All double disc editions complete with forty plus page booklets that include notes, photos and lyrics which will definitely help you decipher Stephen Malkmus’s cryptic offerings. This 1997 release contained the first accessible singles since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain in the songs “Shady Lane” and “Stereo”. Even with those singles other tracks that stand out on this record are the immortal “Blue Hawaiian” which rolls along with its low leading bass line and creepy organ and the rocking “Roll with the Wind”. Disc two offers some fun in a codeine influenced version of the Echo & The Bunnymen classic “The Killing Moon” and the oddly titled freak out jam “Neil Haggarty Meets Jon Spencer in a Non-Alcoholic Bar”. It really doesn’t get any better than these Stockton, CA heroes!

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Plies Da Realist Atlantic Records

Fall Out Boy Folie a Deux Island/Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance

Soulja Boy SouljaBoyTellem Interscope

How can someone have God as the first person they write in their album notes thank you section and then have their first song say “couple killers on my right/couple killers on my left/ cause I’m a mother fucking killer myself”. If gangsta rap isn’t dead, it sure as hell needs to be. This low rate Jeezy rip off draws a slow line with his flow and like the lyrics above suggest, this dude is strickly lowbrow. With uninspired beats Plies is going to have trouble getting anything started in the club accept the debate about whether this dude actually is a thug or a private school kid from the burbs who got some tats, a grill and a bad attitude. I’ll give him some credit for trying to take it down to a chill level on tracks like “Gotta Be” and the slow jam ala JaRule style “Want It, Need It” which features Ashanti singing the hook. Bottom line on this is if you have the money to spend, spend it elsewhere.

The ﬁrst thing you notice about the latest record from the kings of the now dead Emo is the Luke Cheueh art on the album’s cover. This says something about these Chicago natives who have now abandoned their native city for warmer climates. While the new crop of upstart’s model their songs and singing style after FOB that every boy band now sounds the same you have to throw a bone to Patrick Stump and the rest of the guys. You probably don’t know who Patrick is due to the amount of press another member of the band gets from his life in the tabloids, but maybe that’s how they like it. With production assistance from rock go-to man Neal Avron on the single “I Don’t Care” to The Neptunes on “W.A.M.S.” it would be so easy to just hate, hate and hate. But somehow these kids have gathered enough respect to get Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry to lend guest vocals on the tracks “What a Catch Donnie” and “West Coast Smoker”. Whether these were straight up money deals or not, they add just enough cred to the most hated band to sell a million records since Creed.

The opening song on the sophomore release from the Internet sensation that is Soulja Boy is called “Bout the Stax” which is a list of what this so called artist is about. The list starts with the swag, the ice and the rest is ﬁlled out with stereotypical things that we have been led to believe makes a rapper “cool”. This record is a glowing display of why mainstream hip-hop sucks ass. This dude shouts it out like he’s at the Boys and Girls club backed by ﬂimsy beats and a K-mart keyboard. Stax is obviously a reference to the many green backs homey got from selling over a million ring tones the last go round and this record continues the theme on just about every song. Tracks like “Gucci Bandana” will also lead another group of delusional sixteen-yearold wanna be rappers that all you need is some ice and no talent. Nice work Interscope, no wonder you’re going broke shoving this out to the market place.

AGE: 18 HOMETOWN: HUNTINGTON BEACH SPONSOR: QUIKSILVER, DC, DAKINE, MCCRYSTAL SURFBOARDS, OAKLEY, VAL SURF, DSC FAVORITE SURFER: DANE REYNOLDS

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S Y: B M O D R ENTE G SSPRES S ! L B

Photo: Sardelis

JEREMY WILMOTTE 2008 ERGOPHOBIA 0812-blisss.indd 1

12/17/08 5:28:19 PM

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Photo: Possum

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Photo: Pashley

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10/28/08 3:58:21 PM