Issue 107 July 2010 free
LEE YANKOU B eh i n d The C ur t a i n
Geoff Strelow i n t er v i ew
EA Skate 3 Issue 107 July 2010
Haslam / Reynolds / DMODW L i z ar d K i n g / A p p l e yar d The Skate Bro Reality Show
with
Joey Williams & Travis Stenger Identity Chico Brenes /// Five Spot Mike Mo /// Shoe Vault DC Danny Way /// Sound Check Public Enemy
WELCOME TO THE FAMILY
MARTY MURAWSKI
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9 5 5 F R A N C I S C O S T. TO R R A N C E , C A 9 0 5 0 2 D V S S H O E S . C O M ZERED BASSETT STEVE BERRA CHICO BRENES ANDREW BROPHY DANIEL CASTILLO JIMMY CAO KERRY GETZ KENNY HOYLE TOREY PUDWILL ROBBIE RUSSO DAEWON SONG JERON WILSON EU TEAM: MARK BAINES LUCIEN CLARKE FLORENT MIRTAIN PAUL SHIER
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KELLEN JAMES / THE EDWARD IN MAROON AND WHITE
SKATEBOARDING STARTS WITH
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Whether it happens in North Van or San Fran, astounding switch pop is a constant callof-the-day for RUSS MILLIGAN. Here he takes it wharf-side and frontside with a SWITCH 5-0 that overlooks highly toxic waters.
contents:
photo
Dan Zaslavsky
issue 107
July 2010
26 The Skate Bro Reality Show:
Joey Williams & Travis Stenger
38 Quest for a Million:
Behind the Scenes of EA’s Skate 3
48 Geoff Strelow... Is a Happy Meal 58 Lee Yankou: behind The Curtain 72 Fade To Black: The Night Gallery 10 14 16 20 86 94 96 98 100
Rise & Shine // Dan Zaslavsky Identity // Chico Brenes Inventory Art Blender // Carlos Miaco Young Bloods Video Reviews Shoe Vaults // DC Danny Way Sound Check // Public Enemy the Five Spot // Mike Mo Capaldi
Glacial relic cover photo and caption
Josh Hotz
We call this natural quarter pipe “The Rock”. It’s in Cantley, Quebec, not far from downtown Ottawa, and its transitional shape was formed by the melting of a giant glacier thousands of years ago. The hike up isn’t too bad, but there’s a bit of bushwhacking involved. The hardest part is climbing the rock face with 60 pounds of camera equipment on your back. To make things even sketchier, the ground has deep ridges that you need to pump through to keep your speed. At the end of the pipe’s channel, there’s a 20-foot cliff that likes to eat boards, so you gotta keep your shit under control. MITCH BARRETTE kept landing and slipping out due to the rocky surface, but in the end he rolled away from a high TRE FLIP. Concrete skateboarding
7
J u ly 2 0 1 0 dan zaslavsky
issue 107
Kevin Lowry , 50-50
Rise & Shine Dan Zaslavsky
Lee Yankou Interview, pg. 58
Russ Milligan, December ‘06
Never one to shy away from regularly uploading photographic gems to the ftp server here at Concrete, San Francisco’s Dan Zaslavsky is The Man for this issue’s Rise & Shine page. The 26 year-old shot a Russ Milligan switch backsmith cover for our #85 cover in 2006 (our first perfect-bound issue and the first issue where Powder was dropped from the title). Dan Z’s work was portfolio-featured in our 2007 Photo Annual, and he shot an impressive Lee Yankou smithgrind for our March 2010 cover. His lensmanship also provided the majority of the skate visuals for Yankou’s feature interview right here in #107. Dan’s interest in photography happened back in 1999 by randomly choosing the discipline as an elective course in high school. He kept a keen eye on Atiba Jefferson’s skate photography while developing an appreciation for the meticulous printing processes of the late Ansel Adams. Dan’s first published skate photo was of Colin Fiske (of PJ Ladd’s Wonderful, Horrible, Life fame) doing a “loony drop-in” for a Thrasher subscribe page in 2004, and he currently works as the house photographer for Street Corner Distribution in SF when he’s not busy making home-brew.
Dan Zaslavsky, self portrait. 10
Concrete skateboarding
streetcornerskate.com/blog
(Blurry) Photograph by: GRIFFIN THOMAS COLLINS
distributed by Ultimate
JOSE ROJO KICKFLIP SAM MCGUIRE PHOTO
THE ENJOI BARGE IS AVAILABLE IN SKATE SHOPS NOW. etnies.com timebombtrading.com stickers@timebomb.bc.ca
Identity
Ever since his breakout part in 1992’s Love Child – almost exclusively shot on SF’s legendary EMB cobbles with Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild” as the audio backdrop – Chico Brenes has been widely recognized for his signature style. For nearly 20 years now, his smooth flow has appeared in a generous archive of memorable skate vids, the most recent release being LRG’s Give Me My Money Chico [see p.94]. So fix up a plate of Gallo Pinto and check out what Cheeks’ Identity is composed of.
They used to call me “Mental Mex” for a bit back in the EMB days, although they knew I was Nicaraguan
Always be true to yourself
It would have to be against Kelly Hart in China – took $100 American dollars from him and it was so fun
I never thought Adelmo Jr. would cut the dreads he’s been growing for 10 years, and that’s why I made that bet. He proved me wrong. I think when he cut them he got on Anti-Hero. Might just be a rumor though [laughs] Skateboarding and La Familia
Back in 2000 I tore my Meniscus and ACL jumping over a rail
Video Days – I used to watch that every day before I’d go skate
Maybe Kelly Hart or Kenny Anderson
Coffee
Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale
Crossing the border to America
Gallo Pinto – it’s rice and beans mixed together, best thing ever. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner
San Juan Del Sur Beach on the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua is better and cheaper than Costa Rica
Paisa! 14
Concrete skateboarding
judah oakes
Switch 3-flips – I couldn’t do one if my life depended it on, but I’m working on it
A U S T I N
T H E
S T E P H E N S
B A L A N C E
O F
O P P O S I T E S
2 6 # ! # / - s 4 ) - % " / - " 4 2 ! $ ) . ' # / 34)#+%23
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inventory
helping hand Osiris Footwear *Hayou LT - red / pink / cbcs
Osiris is doing a special release women’s shoe only available at WEST49 stores across the country. 100% of the profits go straight to the Canadian Breast Cancer Society. cbcf.org
*In stores October 2010
Obey Clothing Adopt-A-Pet leash & tee
The pet overpopulation crisis results in millions of adoptable animals being killed each year. Obey teamed up with adopt-a-pet.com (North America’s largest non-profit pet-adoption web service) to draw attention to this problem, and will support the cause with profits generated from these items.
C1RCA Select
Convert - Skate4Cancer / grey / Orange
In 2003 Rob Dyer planned his first skate trip and pushed across North America to raise money for cancer awareness. His Torontobased non-profit organization, Skate4Cancer, educates people about cancer prevention. Proceeds from the sale of these C1RCA Select products will go to Dyer’s organization. skate4cancer.com
Girl Skateboards
Vince Capaldi ‘Bro Model’
Chocolate Skateboards is a proud
supporter of (PRODUCT) RED. These custom board graphics were designed by Andy Jenkins for Anthony Pappalardo, and the wheel-set was created by Art Dumpers Eric Anthony, Hershel Baltrotsky, Andy Jenkins, and Andy Mueller. Purchases of these special edition products will have a positive impact on people living with AIDS in Africa. Learn more at joinred.com 16
Concrete skateboarding
Vince was diagnosed Ewing’s Sarcoma (a rare bone cancer) in September 2008, just before his 21st birthday. He had to undergo numerous radiation and chemotherapy treatments, and his right humerous bone is now replaced with a metal prosthesis called Cobalt Chrome. Proceeds from Vince’s ‘Bro Model’ deck will help the Capaldi family with the medical bills they’ve incurred. vincecapaldi.blogspot.com
distributed by Ultimate
inventory
ECO friendly Sector 9 Eco-Tee organic cotton / PET blend
Sector 9’s soft eco-blend tees are composed of 52% organic cotton and 48% recycled PET (polythylene terephthalate) – plastic water bottles that are recycled and spun into a fiber. These eco-blend shirts also use water-based inks. sector9.com
Satori Movement
Hemp / organic cotton blend tee
Hemp is the world’s most naturally sustainable fiber. The fabrics spun from hemp are hypoallergenic, antibactierial, and compared to cotton they’re stronger and dry quicker. Hemp also grows twice as fast as cotton and producs higher crop yields. Organic cotton is softer than the standard and its production practices are pesticide free. satorimovement.com
Satori Wheels Eco Easy riders
Sector 9 Wheels Biothane
These soft cruiser wheels are made with “EcoThane” from Satori’s Sustainable Wheels Series. The series’ socially conscious wheel construction includes 100% recycled cores and 50% corn-based rather than petroleum-based urethane. satoriwheels.org
Made from a partially soy-based urethane, the manufacturing process for these wheels consumes 61% less non-renewable energy sources than traditional urethane and leaves a carbon footprint that’s 36% smaller.
Momentum Wheels Bug Juice Series
C1RCA Select
99 slim - black / Ultrasuede drifter - black / Ultrasuede
The latest C1RCA Select “Ultrasuede” material is made from 100% recycled material. It uses 80% less energy while creating 40% less waste than traditional suede. Ultrasuede is extremely breathable, wear resistant, and made to resist discolouring and staining. c1rcaselect.com
Andrew Pommier created the artwork that adorns these Momentum cruisers that utilize a 100% recycled core. The wheel’s urethane blend contains a 25% organic compound made from bug shit! momentumskate.com
Etnies
Taylor ls - black / grey / white
Designed by Mikey Taylor, this low-profile vulcanized shoe is vegan-friendly and classic in design. It also features a comfortable STI Foam footbed and a grippy 400 NBS rubber outsole. etnies.com
Emerica Reynolds cruisers / The Goat collab - natural
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These all-synthetic Reynolds Cruisers are ultra-slim and feature a thin-padded tounge and collar, as well a full-length System G2 footbed. Show your support for Reynolds’ band, The Goat, with a backpatch that’s included in the box. emericaskate.com Concrete skateboarding
distributed by Ultimate
A R T B L E N D E R // CARLOS MIACO
R
aised in Georgia, Carlos Miaco has that super laid back Southern manner, but murders it on the creative side of things. He received a BFA in Graphic Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, and soon after graduation he landed his first gig with Spy Optic in California. Maybe it’s because of his ties with the South, or simply because he’s plain ol’ good at what he does, but Carlos eventually moved on
to work in the Art Department at Black Box [blackboxdist.com] in Carlsbad. And with all
the lunchtime and after-work sessions at the infamous Black Box skatepark over the past four years, Carlos has been able to match his skate skills with his creative ability. Along with his usual work on catalogues, ads and web stuff, Carlos has also been able to create a great number of board graphics
for Slave, Zero and Mystery. In his spare time he tackles the complexities of multicoloured stencils. Although he might not be the loudest guy in the room, Carlos will surprise you with his technical ability and style, both on paper and on his board. —Randy Laybourne
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
11.
10.
09.
clockwise from top left:
01. Zero “Stitch” wheel 02. Zero “Haywire” wheel 03. Zero “Asylum” wheel 04. $lave “Baby Maker” deck 05. $lave “Robotic Woman” deck 06. $lave “All Together” deck
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Concrete skateboarding
07. Mystery “Barrio” deck 08. Mystery “Chromatic” deck 09. $lave “Scapegoat” tee 10. Zero “Sabotage” deck 11. Zero “Declaration” deck
“Carlos really lives life to the fullest, and skates like the kid in the sand box that breaks your Tonka truck. He’s graceful for a big man, and always has a smile on his face. I’d rather tell you that he’s an amazing human being and let the art speak for itself.” –Jeff Dickson, Alien Workshop Marketing Coordinator
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pasando Y El Tiempoâ&#x20AC;? by Carlos Miaco, created exclusively for Concrete Skateboarding.
visit concreteskateboarding.com to download art blender wallpapers for your computer and iphone.
Here at Sector 9, we pride ourselves on the fact that our boards are made at our own woodshop in San Diego, Ca. That means that each on of our shapes has been tested by our riders, tweaked and perfected to ensure the best possible ride. Try one out, or visit www.sector9.com for more info.
. 49 days on the road New ams. New spots. New opportunity.
m. Still chasin' the skate drea
www.49days.ca
This year we're hitting the road to film our first ever video project in hi-def. Follow our journey at 49days.ca and stay up on our photos, videos, blogs and more.
The Skate Bro Reality Show with Joey Williams and Travis Stenger By Frank Daniello Photos by Brian Caissie
In a world where the “bro” reference is
loosely flung around by people who hardly know each other, what actually constitutes a true Skate Bro? Is there a set minimum for the amount of years you have to know the person? Should you have logged ample skate trip travel miles together? Should you both enjoy the same aspects of skateboarding and hate on the same things? Much like skateboarding itself, the rules that define who is or isn’t a true Skate Bro are largely open to interpretation. Joey Williams and Travis Stenger first met at the Chateau Dundas in Burnaby, BC during a time Travis describes as “the good old days.”
“It was like eight or nine years ago,” Joey recalls. “I was just moving all my shit in and the first person I met was Mike McCourt, who was sentenced to dish duty and stuck in the house on a nice day. Trav had already been living downstairs for about a month and watching him on the front street was probably how I got a little better at skating flat.” While Travis is often a Vancouverite, his time is also divided between visits to his hometown of Leduc in Alberta, and trips over to Europe for his required doses of skateboarding and cultural stimulation. Stenger’s elusive nature and wizard-like board control may confuse many people, but Joey has become quite familiar with these signature Travtraits. Over the years, this Skate Bro duo has regularly reconvened in Barcelona to session the spots and shawarmas; they’ve developed an equally competitive passion for Par-3s and ping-pong, and they undoubtedly share an admiration for the one and only Penny. Recorded at The Palace in East Vancouver, welcome to an excerpt from The Skate Bro Reality Show with Joey and Trav...a show that’s always on. Concrete skateboarding
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Joey: What made you fall in love with golf in the first place, and how did it happen? Trav: At the Chat-two, the second house in Burnaby about three years ago. We made a golf course in the backyard – the Top Cup. J: I remember this. We built it out of a pond that dried up and was filled with weeds and stuff. We put a bunch of volcanic rock in there and we turned it into a miniature chipping course that had sand traps and water hazards. You’d get different points for different spots on the course. Eventually we all got super good at chipping. It started out as a shitty course, then we worked on it and eventually turned it into something super good… T: You were the main groundskeeper, though [laughs]. Every morning you’d be out there working on it, like “Check out the course!” We realized that the Kensington pitch-n-putt was right down the street, so [Jason] Crolly would come into town and we’d sneak on the course and started killing it [laughs]. Then we got into the real deal, but I still like the Par-3s for the short game practice. J: Didn’t you and Crolly golf in a tournament with a couple of Italian guys in Barcelona? T: Yeah, we beat them. It’s just a little nine-hole pitch-n-putt called Montjuic. It’s a quick little bus ride and it’s lit at night, so we’d skate during the day and golf later. J: The best time I had was actually the worst time I had golfing with you [laughs]. I wasn’t even golfing, I was filming the hole-in-one that’s in Supper’s Ready. Some people think it’s fake, but it’s actually real. T: I got it quicker than any skate trick I’ve ever filmed, for real [laughs]. It was Hole 3 at Stanley Park, 75 yards. It’s one of my favourites. J: We ended up seeing Desarmo, Corey Sheppard and a few more friends golfing behind us, so we kind of deked into the bushes because we didn’t want them to know we were trying to film a holein-one [laughs]. From the bushes I got footage of those guys about 10 feet away as they were teeing off at the fourth hole. If they found me, they’d be like, “What the fuck is this creep doing?” I thought I was in for a 10-hour filming session for the hole-in-one, but you did it in under 20 tries. It was insane.
Joey - pop shuv Concrete skateboarding
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Trav: I have the ball still. I keep all my hole-in-one balls at home in a little bag. I write the dates, the hole number and course on them. There’s been like 20-something, just at pitch-n-putts. Some are natural and some are from multiple tries. In a two-week period I got a hole-inone every day, and by the end I would come home and not even tell anyone because I just thought they wouldn’t believe me [laughs]. I also kept the Eagle balls I got on real courses, and I’ve got my best-round ball – a 74 on a legit course called Eagle Rock, just outside of Leduc. I was on fire that day [laughs]. Joey: How old were you when you started skating? T: Super young. I saw my brother Kevin gripping a Rob Roskopp one time with coloured griptape, and I was like “Holy fuck.” I’d push around on my knees with my Ninja Turtles board that my mom later ran over because I left it on the driveway [laughs]. J: What’s the first skateboard trick you every really tried to do? T: I did the heelflip – the first trick I ever landed because I’d try kickflips and couldn’t put both feet on. But my one friend gave me a tip; I got some chalk and outlined my feet on the board in kickflip position, then just kept trying them [laughs]. Eventually, I worked up to the kickflip. Don’t a lot of people get heelflips first? J: Not me. The first trick I ever landed was a pop shove-it, straight up. When I tried to learn kickflips, I kept body varial-ing and landing switch. I was so annoyed because I couldn’t stop doin’ it [laughs]. Anyways, why do you keep going back to Barcelona?
“It’s just controlled chaos – the super hot Spanish chicks, spots for days, the Iberian cured ham, cheap beer… it’s all you need.” –Travis Stenger
Travis - fakie hardflip in the rain Concrete skateboarding
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“For everyone, skating is natural to a certain point, but for some more than others. I’m naturally sketchy. I’ve got the flop, you’ve got the pop.” –Joey on Trav
Trav: I’ve gone there about eight years in-a-row, and you’ve gone six times. It’s just controlled chaos – the super hot Spanish chicks, spots for days, the Iberian cured ham, cheap beer…it’s all you need. Joey: The rent’s cheap and there’s fiberglass ping-pong tables with metal nets outside everywhere. You and I have some pretty serious ping-pong beef that dates back to last year. T: You started smashing rackets… J: After Caissie beat me for the first time I smashed the shit out of my racket, I won’t lie. You have some serious consistency, but I have my moments where I could perhaps catch a bad ball from you, then you’ve got no chance. T: This is true, but I make some pretty crazy returns though. J: You’re the better player, I’ll admit it. But I’m comin’ back strong and still gunnin’ for that number one spot. We’ll have a big tourney to see who the champ is by the end of the summer. Whatever brings the competition [laughs]. How about skate spots? What’s your favourite spot ever? T: Universitat in Barcelona. It’s smooth marble flatground and three benches – a huge, perfect playground. J: I skate with you at certain times, like in Barcy every year. You don’t have to practice, it’s just there. Other people might not see it as much, but every single time it doesn’t cease to amaze me. For everyone, skating is natural to a certain point, but for some more than others. I’m naturally sketchy. I’ve got the flop, you’ve got the pop.
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Concrete skateboarding
Joey - frontside crooked grind to fakie
Travis - frontside 5-0 to 360 flip out
Trav: You’re naturally shralpy as fuck. It’s good to watch, and I wish I could skate some of the stuff you do. You get a clip at every spot – which we witnessed in Barcelona this year, and every year – and somehow you kill it half-juiced [laughs]. How many beers do you drink in a year? You did the math and broke it down into kegs, didn’t you? Joey: I enjoy beer, we’ll leave it at that. Let’s not talk about beers. My mother might read this [laughs]. C’mon, some real questions. T: What’s up with Penny? J: I would love to talk about her. Legally, she’s Ian Twa’s cat. Him and Ry McGuigan bought her from Brentwood Mall; they couldn’t get a free cat off Craigslist before 4pm, so they rushed to the mall because they wanted a cat so bad. Honestly, it was the best 400 dollars ever spent in the world. She grew up around so many people and always had access to the outdoors. Penny goes on walks like a dog where you could leave her while you stop in somewhere for a coffee, then
come back and she’s still there. She’s something special, that’s all I can say. I’ve gotta give a shout out to Twa who’s been keeping her healthy. She got in a couple scraps with raccoons and she has asthma, but she’s a trooper with a heart of gold. T: She’s a celebrity now. I got some super old photos of her and wanted to make Christmas presents for everyone, so I made some Penny t-shirts. J: We’ve got a few things. Twa made some Penny griptape, and there’s a few cityscapes of her jumping over buildings. I shot this one photo of her doing a massive gap from a tree to a garage... it’s something for the books. She’s a pretty big deal – basically more important than anyone at the house, and everyone knows that. She comes before me and definitely you, Trav [laughs].
“She got in a couple scraps with raccoons and she has asthma, but she’s a trooper with a heart of gold.” –Joey Williams
Concrete skateboarding
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Ultimate distributed by
Concept Art
Wireframe Geometry
Shaded Geometry
Textured Geometry
Final In-Game Art with Lighting
Colin McKay in the Skate 3 intro reel.
Quest for a Million: Behind-the-scenes of words
Kelly Litzenberger
EA’s
Skateboarding’s long video game history began in late 1986 with Atari’s 720˚, and was quickly followed by the 1987 classic, Skate Or Die! – the first title that Electronic Arts ever developed in-house. In the new millenium, EA once again showed interested in making a skateboard game, and early work on the award-winning Skate series began in 2004 (three years prior to the release of Skate 1). By May 2010 the genre climaxed with the full version of Skate 3; the free preview demo was downloaded over a million times within the first week of its April release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 networks. The in-game objective of Skate 3 is simple – sell a million skateboards. You’ve done it all in the past two games by becoming a Pro, becoming Skater Of The Year, and subsequently becoming a legend. What’s left is starting your own company. As Skate 3 Associate Producer Chris “Cuz” Parry admits, “If you don’t think that’s real, take a look at the industry.” The game’s career mode is all about creating a team and building your brand. While online you can take full advantage of engaging features like co-op play, joining a team, and choosing to be competitive or just plain creative. You can be social with online play, or you can stay offline and skate solo. Basically, anything goes in-game. Although Skate 3 takes place in the fictional city of Port
Skate 3 Carverton, there’s a very real sentiment behind the name. The city honours Vancouver skateboard legend “Carver Don” Hartley, who passed away in 2009. Port Carverton features an extensive skateable memorial park, Hartley Stadium, and plaques throughout the city that forever immortalize Carver Don in skateboarding’s digital history. Added to the roster this time around are Andrew Reynolds, Josh Kalis, Benny Fairfax, Joey Brezinski, Dan Drehobl, Lizard King, Jason Lee, and the Barrier Kult’s own Deer Man Of Dark Woods. The game’s Pro list now includes 30 of skateboarding’s best along with celebrity skate photographers Atiba Jefferson, Michael Burnett and Giovanni Reda. “We wanted Skate to appeal to everybody,” Cuz mentions. “From Danny Way to Mike Carroll, there’s a lot of diversity. We never really did go poaching [Pros] from other games because we thought: ‘Well, they’re already getting paycheques, so these other guys should get a cheque.’ Looking at it, the more skaters that get paid, the better.” Gamers willing to try their hand at the Skate series for the first time have to break old habits. While the “Flick-it” control scheme is revolutionary, it also has a deep learning curve – something that’s been addressed in the new game. Concrete skateboarding
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mapstone
CHRIS HASLAM . switch f/s hurricane When I saw [Skate 1] for the first time it was basically just a bunch of generic shapes and a dude running around. I had no idea what was happening. Motion capture took a few days. I’ve done a few mo-cap sessions for different projects – same spandex suits, same little balls that they don’t want to you to wreck [laughs]. Some kid made of my UBF 2 part [using Skate 2]. It’s funny when the darkslide thing happens and the dude just summersaults or something [laughs].
they’ve done with the tools we’ve given them, I’m pretty confident we don’t have to make another game for a couple years.” In every Skate release, hardcore gamers have found ways to be inventive when it comes to discovering and exploiting work-arounds or unintentional glitches they may come across – something that isn’t much different than the DIY nature of skateboarding in the real world. A great example of this is the “long pipe” found in the Object Dropper. By simply leaning this two-storey pole against a building, it allows you walk up it and gain access to roof gaps and otherwise inaccessible areas the programmers never intended. “As much as our QA [Quality Assurance] team is awesome, our game is made to inherently cause QA nightmares because there are no rules,” Cuz explains. “We have a replay editor going all the time, so anytime somebody ‘breaks the game’ we’re all going to see it on YouTube. We’ve always embraced that.” EA has dominated skateboard video games with their Skate franchise over the years, and this latest release once again stands as the highest sticker on the vert wall – a one-in-a-million benchmark that competing developers must strive to top.
judah oakes
“With Skate 1 and Skate 2 we kind of took the approach of skaters,” Cuz explains. “When you get a skateboard, you have to figure it out on your own. The game is challenging and maybe it was turning people off. [In Skate 3] we wanted to have fun with ‘skate. School’ and build another environment you could skate. This was our attempt to make it a friendlier experience, and Jason Lee as ‘Coach Frank’ is funny. We’ll never be able to release it, but the outtakes from his recording session are the best X-rated audio we’ve ever had.” Skate 3 now features three levels of play: easy, classic and hardcore – a new mode that turns down the in-game physics and most notably allows for a more realistic pop out of ledge tricks. Cuz points out Skate 3’s upgraded Object Dropper as his favourite carryover feature: “It lets you edit the world on the fly, and it’s easy. It will end up giving you a lot more creativity and room to explore.” The new “skate.Parks” feature will prove to extend the game far beyond Port Carverton’s already-generous square footage, since you can create, share, download and edit up to 100 parks at any given time. According to Cuz: “You’re creating a whole new game if you think about it in terms of volume. Given the community’s track record of what
DEER MAN OF DARK WOODS . Layback grind I got involved with Skate 3 for the further unnatural spreading of plague.
Concrete skateboarding
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andrew mapstone
Quest for a Million: Behind-the-scenes of
EA’s
Skate 3
MARK APPLEYARD . Kickflip Skateboarding video games are awesome, especially if you’re in one. I’m not a big video game person, but playing Skate is good when you’re too sore. I definitely play my own character, duh. It trips me out every time. I love it. I’m in a video game – that’ll earn me some street cred with my kids…when I have kids. Niiice.
joey shigeo
LIZARD KING . Dump Truck When EA called me, I was trippin’. That is some crazy shit, man! Doing the voice-over shit was super fun – it’s crazy being in a room and being told different shit that’s happening, and what you would say to the person playing. Playing and hearing yourself is sick! My friends back home call and tell me they’re playing me [laughs]. Thanks to everyone over there at Skate that made it happen. Mad love. Concrete skateboarding
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joe hammeke
Andrew Reynolds . frontside flip Hell yeah! I played [the Skate series] before they asked me to be in Skate 3. It gets more kids exposed to the coolest thing in the world. It’s very important that the people behind it are passionate about skateboarding. When ‘The Man’ gets involved, it ruins everything.
Danny Way
John Cardiel
Jason Dill
Eric Koston
Andrew Reynolds
Lizard King, Chris Haslam and Joey Brezinski on location in Portland, OR.
Skate 3 intro reel The five-minute intro movies to each Skate game have somewhat become cult classics on the ‘Net since the first one dropped in 2007. Each movie provides the foundation to the story that unfolds in-game, and stars a majority of the featured Pros. “I pretty much see who’s available, and who’s not,” explains Deran Chung, Senior Video Editor and Producer for Skate 3. “I put more emphasis on the new guys – Drehobl, Lizard King, Reynolds and everybody. It’s just about casting dudes into roles that you know they’re going to shine in. Danny [Way] always leads the action. I always know that [Mike] Carroll’s going to be the dick at the end, ‘cause he plays that so good.” Not surprisingly, Chris Haslam is cast as a Sasquatch in the woods, which was a change from the first two intro reels when he was cast…well, gay. And that didn’t seem to bother him either: “I thought the gay stuff was funny, man. I kind of wanted to keep it going for this third one,” Haslam mentions. “They made the [Sasquatch] costume beforehand, and I wore it to the shoot. Everyone on the freeway was probably pretty pumped to see me sitting shotgun [laughs].”
As you can imagine, not everything is going to go smoothly when organizing a filming mission with 30 skaters. Deran Chung recalls the experience: “The first Portland trip was before the other stuff, because Lizard and Haslam were both going on tour. It was just a little shoot with Lizard, Joey [Brezinski] and Haslam – I wanted to make sure those dudes were in it. The major shoot happened a month later. We went back to Oregon, to the lumberyard, for the tree-cuttingdown stuff, and then we flew to LA for another two days. We only had one day at the lumberyard. Danny has to be the one who chops the tree down; if he’s not there to do it, we’re fucked. He ended up missing three flights, losing his keys, falling and hurting himself, then showing up. He was supposed to be on set at 6am, and he got there at 1:30 or 2pm. Then when we were doing Carroll and Kalis’ scene, we straight barged the Pasadena Convention Centre. We didn’t have permits, and I was losing it because I thought we were just going to get shut down in a second. It was a Saturday and security would come up and ask, ‘What are you guys doing?’ We’d reply, ‘Oh, we’re shooting a school project.’” Concrete skateboarding
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keith henry
concreteskateboarding.com
Nathan LaCoste backside Smith
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brian caissie
McLOVIN’ IT
Geoff Strelow…
Is a Happy Meal
Owen Woytowich
Growing up, when our parents wanted to either reward or treat us, they’d take us on a trip to the Golden Arches. We became so trained that any jingle or ad would light us up and make us beg for more. Most of us outgrew that phase, whereas Calgary’s Geoff Strelow incorporated it into every facet of his life. Although most would claim it slows a body down (just watch Super Size Me), Geoff’s productivity over the last few years only proves this diet is doing nothing but good for him. Known coast-to-coast for his constant positivity, allow me to introduce Calgary’s own 20 year-old Happy Meal on a board, Geoff Strelow. 48
Concrete skateboarding
brian caissie
words
50-50 TRANSFER
G
eoff, last we talked you were hitting up a concert, how was it? So good. It was Alice Cooper and it was sick! I went with my homie Dana Rolles and these chicks. Definitely a good time. I caught Alice’s guitar pick! Your parents seem like they’re pretty down for your skating. Doesn’t your dad have a collection of your coverage? Yeah [laughs]. If I ever get a photo printed, he grabs a few copies of the magazine and keeps a stash. He’s so stoked on it and shows them off to all his friends. I’m down!
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Did your dad skate back in the day? I don’t think so. He snowboards, though. He’s got a super long snowboard and is down for shredding the powder. So you traveled a lot last year with your skateboard. Where did you end up on the map? I was in Montreal for a while, living with my brother on his couch. It was pretty sweet, but I didn’t meet too many people skating on that trip. Then I came to Toronto and ended up staying at the Hut [check out “Steady Pushing” in Concrete #104], and skated the most that I had in a while. That’s where I met the best homies ever, so awesome! This year,
I went to Barcelona with all the Hut guys [check out “Hello From LaRambla” in Concrete #106], like Hill Sulpher, Bow Digga, Jesse Tessier, Mitch Pryma…I dunno, there were so many Canadians yet again, same as every year. So I’m guessing that you and the Hut boys had a few good Barcy stories? Oh yeah. Near the end of the trip we had a shit-kicker of a night. I can’t get into the details, but let’s just say it was a crazy night that ended up costing some money, like when Bowie’s VX went flying off the balcony. It got real heaty [laughs].
brian caissie
HEELFLIP
“The ‘Mini Big Mac’ is my typical hit. It’s like a Big Mac burger, but for $1.39. Basically, you alter a double cheeseburger into a Big Mac for cheap as fuck. I just add Mac sauce and lettuce on a Quarter bun – the dope one that has sesames – without ketchup or pickles.”
brian caissie
OLLIE FROM FLAT
So, what’s the deal with your buddy “Murray”? Murray is my good homie Ryan Curry, who also lives in Calgs. He’s an amazing skateboarder that I grew up watching my whole life. We’re like best homies and now his name has pretty much changed to Murray. He also drives a gnarly crane truck and is working non-stop, killing it! I know if I’m ever hurting for a sixer or MacDoge, Murray’s got my back.
but for $1.39. Basically, you alter a double cheeseburger into a Big Mac for cheap as fuck. I just add Mac sauce and lettuce on a Quarter bun – the dope one that has sesames – without ketchup or pickles. Really though, the whole menu there is so good. Before when I was living downtown I was hitting it a couple times-a-day. It was getting out of hand, to the point of being pretty sketchy. Living at home now, I’m not eating nearly as much ‘Doge and I’m feeling good!
What’s up with MacDoge? MacDoge is McDonald’s. The “Mini Big Mac” is my typical hit. It’s like a Big Mac burger,
Who’s coming up in Calgary? Oh man, quite a few little shredders. Dustin Henry – I call him “Dustmite” – is the greatest
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human ever. He’s 16 and he skates like a fullgrown unit! You’ll be seeing a lot from him, he’s seriously the most solid skateboarder with the best attitude. So you just recently got onto Element here in Canada. How’s that working out for you? Within the last year Chad Albert has helped me out so much – with trips, being there all the time, and hooking up so much product. I dunno what more to say about him other than he’s sick! It’s working out well, man. I’m super hyped.
brian caissie
What are you getting up to this summer? Just working a bit, doing some random contracting and trying to travel as much as possible. And skating – filming tons for the Element Canada video and definitely some shit for the Street Demon vid! I’ll also be floating Calgary’s Bow River tons; get some beers and hit that on a nice summer day after skating. It’s one of the best things to do. Any other video projects? The Source is working on a video, but it’s hard because one dude is filming it and there’s so many guys on the team. I’m down, though. It’ll be really sick when it’s finally
finished. Kelly Agapi’s part will kill it. He’s the rawest. He jumps down anything first try without riding up to it once, and usually does it. He’s got a powerful mind that gets me stoked! Everything he does just gets gnarlier and gnarlier. What’s the scenario with the Street Demons? They’re this posse, mainly out of Edmonton, and some Calgary lurkers too. It’s just a bunch of homies that are down for shredding and getting gnarly on the bottle. It’s a really sick posse to be part of. Baby Jamie [Tancowny], Jetski [Gillies] and Mitch Phillips
are the greatest. There’s so many good skateboarders in Alberta that get me really stoked on the place, but I’m also really down for Toronto. I find I get more stuff done in Toronto, filming-wise. There’s only a few kids out here that film, and they’re mostly in school. Then on the weekends, they’re up at nine in the morning when I’m still hungover [laughs]. It’s kind of an opposite thing, you know? We’re not on the same program.
“Really though, the whole menu there is so good. Before when I was living downtown I was hitting it a couple times-a-day. It was getting out of hand, to the point of being pretty sketchy.”
jeff thorburn
FRONTSIDE BOARDSLIDE
jeff thorburn
What’s up with the nickname “Too Baked”? Ryan Coulson claimed it first, I believe, and it just stuck. I guess I just enjoy the herb more than most? But I’m never Too Baked that I can’t function, so I don’t care really [laughs]. Do you have any crazy Millennium Park stories? There was this bum that hung out at the park named “Mills Mike” who set up shop with a tent, wagon and a shopping cart for the whole summer. He was the sickest dude. We’d all gave him skate prod so he was repping DC and whatever, looking like a skater. He’d just hang out there all day and get everyone’s old skate shit. Then one
day he was so hyped and said: “See that big mountain over there, that roll in? I’m gonna ride down that in my wagon.” We were like, “Okay, man. You want a helmet or something?” He just said, “Nope, my head is harder than the fuckin’ cement.” So he proceeded to go down the biggest roll-in and things definitely could have worked out better for him. He gets up afterwards, and as I give him a beer he pulls these industrial sized scissors out of his back pocket and says: “Oh shit, I should have pulled those out before...” It was crazy. There’s so many random lurkers there, just hit the grass hill with a sixer and you’re guaranteed to leave with stories.
BACKSIDE HEELFLIP
How about wrapping this up with some shout-outs? Thanks to my mom and dad, and all of my family for everything. Thanks to Chad Albert and Element for keeping me skating every day, and to everyone at The Source. Thanks to Brian Caissie, Frank Daniello, Owen Woytowich, Dev Morrison, Ben Loates, Jeff Thorburn, Ian Snow, and Greg Jackson. Also to Bowie and Chris Quick for filming and putting up with my shit! Thanks to Hill Sulpher, Jesse Tessier and the rest of the Hut, as well as Dana Rolles, Beau Larson, Kurbz, the Street Demons, Murray, and anyone I forgot that’s ever helped me out!
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SSS ?DK?KH=PAOG=PA>K=N@O ?KI SSS ?N=EHP=L ?KI SSS OQLN=@EOPNE>QPEKJ ?KI
TONY HAWK MATT MUMFORD DAN MURPHY GARRETT HILL JOHNNY LAYTON JAKE DUNCOMBE DARRELL STANTON GARETH STEHR BEN RAYBOURN CHAD BARTIE
Probably a new direction.
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dan zaslavsky
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Concrete skateboarding
Lee Yankou BEHIND THE CURTAIN by
Frank Daniello Lee Yankou
captions
dan zaslavsky
BOARDSLIDE “This rail is pretty much right across the street from 3rd and Army. I was trekking by this spot a lot and wanted to try and get something on it. There was a crackhead around while I was shooting it, but it all worked out. I’m also hyped on the artsy-ness that Dan Z had going on with the colours – that definitely hooks up the photo.”
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I
“
PRETTY MUCH SKATE and work all summer in Toronto to get together a bunch of money since I can’t work in the States, then I go down to California for the winter and live the good life: skating extra sweet spots in the sun,” Lee Yankou says of a routine that’s easily the envy of many. Lee first started taking trips to the City of Angels’ vast concrete sprawl when he was 16, but it didn’t take long for him to realize that all the driving and spot blow-outs weren’t really his cup of coffee. So two winters ago he found solace in the microcosmic NorCal skate-metropolis – the City by the Bay. “I’d definitely call SF a second home,” the 21 yearold begins explaining. “When I started going down to California I stayed in Long Beach – that was awesome. Then I stayed in LA for a bit, and I was kinda over that
jeff comber
FENCE-JAM NOLLIE OUT
whole deal. My friend was dating a girl up in SF, so I went there and first met my girlfriend Mira on that trip. Everything I didn’t like about LA was different in SF; a drive in LA just to pick up your friend or a filmer was pretty much all the driving you’d have to do in a whole day in San Francisco. I also think the SF spots are more unique looking since there’s all sorts of cool architecture and houses, and the hills definitely hook up the spots.” Lee possesses a toned-down, casual outlook when it comes to handling the irregularities that life tends to dish out. However, checking out photos or footage of him gives off a sharply contrasting sense of raw skateboard intensity – refined barbarity. As SF photographer Dan Zaslavsky confirms: “He’s carefree and determined, two adjectives that don’t usually follow each other. But this is exactly what makes him so rad.”
“I met up with a bunch of Toronto homies – all the Hut dudes were at this spot. You have to wait for a bunch of traffic and ollie up a curb to get at this fence bash, then hopefully you won’t get run over by a car after you roll back down the bank. It’s pretty much a wallride nollie out, but with a metal fence.”
bart jones
OLLIE OVER WALL “This spot was around Tempe, Arizona on an Ezekiel trip in early February. The spirits on the trip at this point were slightly low because Louie Barletta got hurt the night before. I ended up seeing this thing and wanted to make it a productive day. The wall is pretty much waist-high, and it’s a bridge so I had to harsh-carve into it, too. Then I had to deal with landing in that rugged bank, and there was water on the ground at the bottom. But it was sweet because further down the way I could practice ollieing over it to flat before I brought it back over to the bank. Bart Jones hooked up the photo and killed it.”
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GAP TO 5-0
dan zaslavsky
“This is in Hunters Point, pretty much one of the worst ‘hoods in SF. This crackhead lady was saying, ‘Damn, white boy! You breakin’ the mold!’ or something like that [laughs]. The ground really sucked and the spot kinda sucks, but it had a lot of character. It’s kinda banked up off the sidewalk where you can’t see, then you have to pop over the wall that says ‘Big Lane Bitch’ in shitty graffiti. You land on the wooden thing that’s pretty much right against the fence – a sketchy little squeeze. I had the gnar jacket on to deal with the shitty landing [laughs].”
7 Things WITH LEE YANKOU
1:
The Background Hustle For what I’m doing, background work is pretty much the best option. You sit around all day, and you get paid for eight hours automatically, even if you only work for two. Different agencies get different shows in the industry, and according to the union you can have eight different background agents. I currently have four just so I can maximize the six months I have to work back home in Toronto. When I was young I did this skateboarding commercial; my dad hooked me up and got me an ACTRA [Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists] membership – it’s definitely paying off now. I get a bunch of work on Degrassi: The Next Generation. It’s really simple, you just walk or stand where they tell you to. It’s pretty much really boring, but you get a sick-ass meal after about five hours and it pays well. Last summer I was on this upcoming new movie with Michael Cera in it. He bought all the background people food, so that was pretty awesome. I was also on this one show called Crash & Burn last summer – in a crazy party scene that had a 350-pound tiger and topless chicks with nipple covers walking around [laughs]. It was sick to get paid 20 bucks-an-hour to be there.
2:
Brain Battles There’s one time I was skating in Toronto with my friend Jeff Folgmann, who’s pretty much crazy in the best way possible [laughs]. We got to this hubba and he just started jumping on it. He started givin’ ‘er full bore without even riding up to it or practicing ollies and stuff. By the time I started jumping on the ledge he’d already made a trick. That kind of stirred something. I realized that I should just go fast and get that first try over with when I first get to a spot and might be a little scared. Skateboarding is a very mental thing, so when I’m skating I kinda talk a lot. When you’re trying a trick you want your brain to be 100 percent focused on it, and not thinking at all. In-between trying a trick I’ll always be figuring out how I want to do it exactly, and I’ll ask anyone who’s around what they think. So I guess when I’m skating I do get kind of intense because it’s a battle of the mind. I’m pretty much just trying to fight the battle so I can do the trick.
dan zaslavsky
KICKFLIP LIPSLIDE “This photo was shot at UC Davis. I never break boards, but broke one trying this trick...then we got kicked out by cops. I actually had to go back later to get this kickflip lip, which sucked because it’s an hour-and-a-half drive from SF. It’s the first rail in the streets that I’ve ever done this trick on, so I’m hyped. I like how Dan shot the photo – the filmer that’s behind the rail is completely blocked out of the shot. I thought that was sick.”
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CROOKED GRIND
mike stanfield
“The gnar jacket was worn in this case ‘cause it was kinda cold [laughs]. We were going to try and do this at night, but it’s kind of in the ‘hood of Oakland. It was a bit of a hard time trying to figure out exactly the way the rail goes because it curves and shit, but it ended up being pretty ideal for a crooked grind. You also have to drop down two sets of three stairs when you ride up to the rail, so it’s a little bit of a quick set-up.”
OLLIE UP
dan zaslavsky
“This is at The Islands in SF, a sweet flatground warm-up spot because it’s got perfect ground for like a block. I’m stoked on the hair in this photo [laughs]. Normally I can’t really skate with my hair out because it blinds me, but I was going fast enough that it stuck permanently behind me. There were tons of sketchy people hanging out here and I had to ask them to move. I ended up doing it a couple times, because one time the filmer was shooting across the street and a trolley went by right as I ollied [laughs].”
3:
Karma Garments There’s random correlations with certain clothes. For example, one time I wore a new hoody and fell in a big thing of water while skating a water gap. Automatically, the hoody was bad luck. I have a flannel that’s also bad luck and I can’t wear it skating any more. I’ve tried boardslides the past few times I’ve worn it, and both times I’ve come really close, but then it starts raining right when I’m about to start riding away. In the photos for this interview, you’ll see a white flannel, which I also wore on the cover of Concrete [#105, March 2010] – it’s good luck. If I’ve got a good thing going with certain clothing, I’ll keep on rockin’ it until it loses its power [laughs]. Recently I developed a fear of skating in t-shirts. I’m thinking it’s because of the Canadian and also the SF ground, man. I’ve always gotta have an extra layer going on in case I fall. That’s why in the majority of these photos I’m wearing long-sleeves. I also have a gnar jacket; if it’s cold and if something’s kinda scary, I’ll put on the jacket so it won’t hurt as much if I fall [laughs].
4:
Bondo Craftsmanship Before SF, when I started spending time in LA and Long Beach I realized that you can’t really do much in Southern California without a car. I had my G2 license when I was 18 and somehow ended up renting a car from a pretty sketchy rental place; they stayed open ‘till like 1am just to get the car for me, which is kinda random and weird. I guess it was all legal because my parents signed some sort of document so I could do it. I somehow got a golf-ball sized hole in my front bumper, so while I was out skating with Mikendo I figured I should do something about it to avoid getting charged out the ass. All the times I’ve Bondo’d spots paid off. I chewed a bunch of gum
and filled in the hole with it, then I smoothed out the best Bondo job I could. At this point, it looked pretty good aside from the fucking red Bondo on there. I tried to use a similar paint colour on the bumper, but of course it wasn’t exactly the same. A friend of mine says, “Dude, what if you got mud on the car? They’d never notice.” So right before I dropped off the car I went to a gas station and poured all this water on it, then went to the garden on the side of the gas station and started throwing all this dirt at the car. I ended up returning it and they didn’t say anything when they looked it over [laughs].
5:
Crime In The City There’s an app for absolutely everything. We’re driving around looking for a spot and Josh Robinson, the Street Corner TM, is on his iPhone. One of the apps tells you where crime is in your neighbourhood – like the time it happened, where, and the details. It also shows you where all the registered sex offenders live. Everyone was looking up their neighbourhoods with this crime app. I stay at Market and Dolores, which is in between The Castro and The Mission districts, and there wasn’t much going on around there. But then we started looking into the registered sex offenders, and their mug shots all looked so classic – creepy sex offender-ish. As a joke, Josh shows me the photo of the sex offender that apparently lives a block away from me and says, “Hey, you probably know this guy, right?” I’m like, “Dude, I actually talked to him yesterday!” He was a big, fat 70 year-old looking dude in a wheelchair that looked super bummed and started talking to me at the coffee shop. I was just trying to be nice and he seemed harmless. But the next day, we found him on the crime app as a registered sex offender! It was really fucking random [laughs]. Concrete skateboarding
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dan zaslavsky
FRONTSIDE FLIP “This is the oldest photo here, and I’m pretty psyched on it. It’s from when I was newer to SF, and it’s one of the first things I ever shot with Dan Z. It’s right by San Francisco State University. I think Matt Miller skated it before and had a Check Out on it or somethin’, but the Bondo was gone so we had to put a sign down. We got this right before it got too dark.”
6:
The Busenitz Encounter Coming from Toronto, where there’s not many Pros around, to hanging out in SF where it’s a smaller city with a more concentrated skate scene, it’s kinda surreal seeing Pros all the time just doing random everyday things. Like, I’ll be looking out my front window and Elissa Steamer might roll by, or seeing Brian Anderson at the skatepark. One time, I was skating to my local coffee spot and I’m riding some old banana board where the wheels just stick out a ton. I bombed a couple hills and I was rounding a corner, but my foot got caught on the wheel while I was pushing. I pretty much scorpioned – I ate shit and was grinding the pavement on my shoulder right by the coffee shop. Dennis Busenitz and Darren Howard, the Deluxe Team Manager, were right there. Dennis said, “What up? We saw you eat it back there.” That was one of the few interactions I’ve had with him.
7:
Good Shoes Gone Bad It’s not strictly an SF thing, but you do see it a lot more – shoes hanging from wires. Me and my girlfriend were curious so we Googled it and came across the same unconfirmed explanations over and over: shoes on a wire might mark a gang’s boundaries or it might mean drugs are nearby. People just seem to do it, there was no real reason 68
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behind it. I had some shoes that I skated and had good sessions with; they had good energy, so one afternoon I wanted to throw them up in front of the house as a daily reminder. I got them up on the second attempt, and as I’m throwing them this 60 year-old gay dude who was pretty much out of his mind on speed comes up all jittery and screams: “Don’t do that! That’s the sign of a drug house!” Me and my girlfriend were trying to calm him down, like “Dude, it doesn’t mean shit.” Right then and there, he called the cops on us for throwing shoes on the wire. My girlfriend goes up to him and says, “You might not want to do this, you’re trippin’ balls on speed.” At that point, he swung at Mira and she dodged it, then I lost it on him. The next day, we came home and the shoes are down from the wire, which was like 20 feet high. Turns out the old tweaker wrote ‘Drug House’ on the front steps. It was the weirdest thing – all this drama because I wanted to throw my shoes up. There were no negative intentions behind it, but I guess I’ve learned to wait until at least midnight to throw shoes up on wires [laughs]. Lee Yankou currently rolls for Think skateboards, Ezekiel clothing, Osiris shoes, Independent trucks, Hubba wheels, CBMK skatepark in Mississauga, Dakine bags and Paradox grip.
dan zaslavsky
WALLRIDE MELON “This is actually the top stairs at Clipper – that hubba in SF. I kinda wanted to skate over the hubba, but I couldn’t really figure out how to get the speed for it. I ended up doing this and I’m hyped. The wall is pretty ideal for it, and the only sketchy thing is the grate behind me. I’m stoked on the combination of colours in this photo, especially the tie-dye [laughs].”
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intro by owen woytowich
Shooting photos at night allows complete control over your lighting, and a bit more creativity composition-wise. On the other hand, blaring flashes at night are a dead giveaway that somethingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going on and can lead to a faster kick-out. Another challenge is how difficult flashes can be on the eyes of the skateboarders, especially in sequences. Staring at blazing strobes nine times-a-second while trying to concentrate on your trick is like driving on a single-lane highway at night and having a long line of trucks barreling towards you with their high beams on â&#x20AC;&#x201C; sketchy at best!
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Matt Klein
WALLRIDE backside smith photo Josh Hotz
M at t B e r g e r
frontside bluntslide p h o t o Bria n Cai s s ie
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Pat Lindenberger
p o le
ja m
p h o t o E ri c Mir b a c h
Bradley Sheppard
switch crooked grind p h o t o G o rd o n Ni c h o la s
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Adam Hopkins
t ail s t all k i c k f li p p h o t o Bre t t B o x
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Mike Mains Nollie backside heelflip manny
photo Owen Woytowich
MITCH PHILLIPS
NOS E G R I N D p h o t o D A V I D B L OOM
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Chris St - Cyr
wallie backside smith p h o t o Tada s h i Ya m a o da
G l e n co e H o g l e
frontside boardslide
p h o t o Ge o f f Cli f f o rd
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Tyler Gaucher
n o s e g ri n d p h o t o D avid C h ri s t ia n
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YOUNG BLOODS
Nick Moore
Age: 20 Lives: Vancouver, BC Sponsors: Fourstar clothing
Yes, another “Nugget” in skateboarding. Nick’s been known as “Nug” ever since a school kid told him his hair looked like a chicken nugget back in Grade One. This fellow Vernonite also happens to sleep in the doorway of my house and claims he’s a cat whisperer. Nick once told me that he’s been “so lucky with getting sweet jobs like the Olympics and Wendy’s”, and his skating is raw and a pleasure to watch. He’s probably the most polite and humble kid I’ve ever met – never complaining about spots, pain, or that his kit doesn’t match. —Dane Collison 86
Concrete skateboarding
brian caissie photos
backside smithgrind
DAE WON SONG
for more on the matix skate team go to: WWW.SUPRADISTRIBUTION.COM
//
WWW.MATIXCL O T H I N G . C O M
YOUNG BLOODS
Jacob Williams
Age: 21 Lives: Toronto, ON Sponsors: Adrift Skateshop, Supra Footwear, KR3W Apparel, Deathwish, Shake Junt, Bruxe Design
Jacob has been a sleeping giant over the years. He’s always had the potential to wreak skate-havoc, but for one reason or another his skating hasn’t really been displayed to the masses. As of late, the sleeping giant is wide awake and on a mission. So, when the man with the sparkling G-Shock and matching BlackBerry rolls up to a spot near you, brace yourself for a nollie stance demo. —Cephas Benson 88
Concrete skateboarding
shane hutton photos
Nollie 180 heelflip
YOUNG BLOODS
Luc Baslanti
Age: 18 Lives: Montreal, QC Sponsors: Cliché, Vans Canada, Underworld skateshop
Definitely not one to be caught up in following the latest trends, Luc blazes his own path of destruction through the streets of Montreal and lets his skateboarding do the talking. He’s one of the most motivated skaters I’ve ever seen, charging at obstacles and casually shaking off slams that would make most head for home. Luc’s talent and perseverance on his board will no doubt lead to success, so keep your eyes open for “The Beast” – his photos and footage won’t disappoint. —Geoff Clifford 90
Concrete skateboarding
geoff clifford photos
backside bigflip
January 2, 2010 - Raleigh, North Carolina timebombtrading.com stickers@timebomb.bc.ca
brian caissie
Est. 1990: Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premiere skateboard magazine
EDITOR / ART DIRECTOR Kelly Litzenberger kelly@concreteskateboarding.com
PUBLISHER Kevin Harris
Administration Dave Buhr
PHOTO EDITOR / staff photographer Brian Caissie brian@concreteskateboarding.com
Web / Prepress Dave Keras
davek@concreteskateboarding.com
Marketing Director Jim Fenton jim@concreteskateboarding.com
guest designer Randy Laybourne lookforwardtothepast.com
Marketing Associate Kristin Lamont kristin@concreteskateboarding.com
associate EDITOR Frank Daniello
frank@concreteskateboarding.com
Contributing Photographers Josh Hotz, Dan Zaslavsky, Judah Oakes Joe Hammeke, Andrew Mapstone, Joey Shigeo Chris Haslam, Jeff Thorburn, Jeff Comber, Bart Jones Mike Stanfield, Tadashi Yamaoda, Geoff Clifford Gordon Nicholas, Brett Box, Owen Woytowich David Bloom, Eric Mirbach, David Christian, Shane Hutton deran chung, Cindy Wu, Robert Downs, Ben Colen
contributing Writers frank daniello, Randy Laybourne Kelly Litzenberger, owen woytowich Lee Yankou, Tyler Gaucher, Dane Collison Cephas Benson, Geoff Clifford Kevin Wu, dan watson jenny charlesworth
Concrete skateboarding is Distributed 7 times annually by Ultimate Skateboard Distributors inc. // east: 705.749.2998 // west: 604.279.8408 Subscriptions: 1 Year for $19.95 (includes shipping / taxes) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 7 issues including The Photo Annual subscribe online at concreteskateboarding.com or send cheque / money order to: Concrete Skateboarding Subscriptions | 150 - 11780 River Rd. | Richmond, BC | V6X 1Z7 concrete accepts unsolicited submissions, but is not responsible if such materials are lost or damaged. submissions sent via letter-mail must include a self-addressed stamped envelope for return sending. for further submission inquiries, contact submissions@concreteskateboarding.com. for retailer inquiries in regards to carrying concrete, please contact info@concreteskateboarding.com.
NEXT ISSUE: issue 108 // August 13th, 2010 The Photo Annual
distributed by Ultimate
cindy wu
Video reviews Look no further than two issues ago, #105, and you’ll find KEVIN WU’s first Concrete interview. The former East Vancouver skate-house landlord made the switch from policing party fouls to moving into his mother’s tranquil suburban home in order to tackle his Interior Design studies at BCIT. We knew Wu had better things to do – like blaze through yet another season of NHL 10 with Pittsburgh as his team – so we’re thankful he watched the LRG video and let us know what he thought.
Give Me My Money Chico LRG Clothing I assumed that the LRG video was going to just be a short one with a lot of throwaway footage because the majority of the team is part of The Kayo Corp and they’d save the A-grade footy for their respective board companies. Boy, was I wrong. This video is clean, simple, has a good soundtrack and also has a little storyline that keeps you engaged. There’s nothing fancy or groundbreaking about the editing, but in this case it’s not a bad thing. Just looking at the LRG roster [l-r-g.com/skateboarding], it’s stacked! Rodrigo Petersen starts the video off with a bang, and the rest of it is held together with strong parts and smooth skating by Chico, the respectable Rob G, the always relaxed Karl Watson, the crazy-haired Adelmo Jr., the talented Jack Curtin, the crisp Kelly Hart, and a surprise part from Andrew Langi. Then there’s the always-amazing and unforgettable Rodrigo TX, who of course has the last two parts. Just when you thought it’d be hard to top what he did in that old Firm video (Can’t Stop) from 2003, TX shows the public that once again he is definitely one of the most talented skaters out there. Give Me My Money Chico shows how close-knit the LRG crew is. It contains all the ingredients to get you hyped before you go skate: humour, relaxed attitudes, good music and very solid skateboarding. Most importantly, everyone having fun is what stood out to me.
—Kevin Wu
Make it count Element Element has always been one of my favourite board brands, ever since Johnny Schillereff started it as Underworld Element in 1992. Over the years the company has grown and branched-off with a quality men’s and women’s clothing line, footwear, an art program, and a well-rounded skate team. The Make It Count DVD explains why they’ve succeeded for so long, starting off with coming up with the name and logo design, to what the future holds for Element. The 200-page book accompaniment has almost no text but it’s filled with portraits and skate photos of the entire team, shot by the best photographers. With a crew like Bam, Mike V, Jeremy Wray, Chad Tim Tim, Muska and many more, both the book and DVD are filled with a lot of skate history. The highlight for me is watching any clip of Jeremy Wray; his footage from when modern street skating and going big was in its infancy still stands the test of time. J-Wray’s famous water tower ollie is the best video clip and one of my favourite photos as well. Many people aren’t aware that Element is much more than a skate company – it also supports artists, social and environmental awareness programs, and a variety of events. This collector’s book should be on your shelf, so ask around at the local shop and learn more by navigating to elementskateboards.com/makeitcount.
—Brian Caissie
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S H OE V A U L TS
all images courtesy of dc shoes
DC Danny Way
the original danny way shoe
the 2008 reissue dc danny way shoe introduction ad words
Dan Watson
We’ve covered DC Shoes here in the Shoe Vaults before with Rick Howard’s first and second Pro models for the company [Concrete #101, August ’09], but this time we’ll be going all the way back to the first shoe that DC produced, the DANNY WAY. The story of DC Shoes, and consequently the first Danny Way Pro model, starts with the hugely popular clothing brand Droors. Now defunct, Droors was one of those companies that nostalgics look back upon as a shining beacon of ’90s style. With legendary skaters like Sean Sheffey and Jeremy Wray on the team, the brand would surely be the first subject if a Clothing Vaults article ever existed. A few years after Droors started up in 1992, owners Ken Block and Danny Way decided to expand the line to include shoes, and by 1994 a small run of Droors Shoes were produced in the Vans factory. However, both Block and Way were unhappy with the quality of the samples, so the entire project was scrapped before the shoes could even hit the market. Despite the setback, Block and Way were determined to make the project work, and after playing around with the name a little bit, they finally settled on DC (Droors Clothing) Shoes. However, they still needed to find someone who could produce them. Enter Pierre André Senizergues of Etnies, who agreed to work with Block, Danny and Damon Way (also part-owner of DC) in producing the first samples. That initial DC production run was Danny Way’s first Pro shoe – an easy decision based on his domination of the sport since the late ’80s. Proficient on both vert and street, Way helped push skateboarding forward with his technical skills and ability to go big.
DC’s first ad ran in early 1995 and featured Danny Way in the foreground, with posters of his Pro model shoe behind him. It had a different feel from most ads run by other companies, but using a non-skate photo for DC’s first ad was more out of necessity than choice because, at the time, Way was recovering from a broken neck sustained from a surfing accident. However, the resourcefulness and originality utilized in the ad was just a sign of Ken Block and Damon Way’s initial decision to try and be leaders in the industry, rather than simply follow what others had already done. After a great response from the first run of shoes and the sales to match, Block and Way realized that the company may have already outgrown what a partnership with a rival company (Etnies) could provide, and sought their own manufacturing means. Once they found the proper production support for their ever-growing shoe requests, DC was poised to all but takeover the skate shoe market. A lot of younger skaters today may think of DC as a more mainstream shoe worn by every kid in their high school, but DC started out as one of, if not the most legit brand of skate shoes. The first Danny Way shoe marked the beginning for DC Shoes and set the tone for the company to completely revolutionize the skate shoe industry with both product design and a solid image. 1995’s Danny Way model was shortly followed up by Colin McKay’s first shoe, and with the success of those two shoes DC’s growth continued. They added many heavy hitting skaters to their roster, eventually releasing numerous legendary Pro shoes. To mark the company’s 14th anniversary in 2008, both Danny and Colin’s first shoes were re-released for a limited time. If you weren’t lucky enough to pick up a pair, you can count on the fact that both Danny and Colin will have more shoes with DC in the future. dcshoes.com
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Concrete skateboarding
ANDERSON BLEDSOE BROPHY CARROLL HOWARD GONZALES KOSTON MALTO MARIANO PUIG SCHAAF / FOR THE ENTIRE SPRING 2010 COLLECTION GO TO SUPRADISTRIBUTION.COM
Sound Check
Public Enemy words
Jenny Charlesworth
photo
robert downs
After initial pleasantries and a few colourful tales from their glory days (you know, back when rap music actually meant something), legends of the hip-hop world are always confronted with the inevitable query: How do you stay relevant in the rap game today? Having built a career on socially conscious lyricism and refusing to bow to the status quo, Chuck D – the iconic rapper at the helm of Long Island, New York’s Public Enemy for nearly 30 years – appears more than ready to offer a fresh perspective on the topic at hand. “In the mid-1970s rock radio came along and said, ‘Hey, this is classic rock and this is contemporary rock’ – this was how they were able to separate the [Peter] Framptons, the Bostons and the Meat Loafs from The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who,” says the 50-year-old emcee. “And although this is rap music, we can afford to now say, ‘This is classic rap and this is contemporary rap’ so that an established classic artist doesn’t have to feel that they have to compete against a marketplace fuelled by youth movements through corporations.” He adds: “There’s no way if a guy like Ced Gee [from the Ultramagnetic MCs] delivers a record in MP3 form he should have to compete against a 50 Cent. We have to make our Own Private Idaho, so to speak.” This has always been Chuck D’s mandate. Classic PE albums like 1988’s highly influential It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and 1990’s Fear Of A Black Planet consistently implored listeners to step up and join the fight against injustices. Although the focus may have been on race relations, the outfit’s universal ideas about community and respect resonated with an entire generation charged by the potent message wrapped up in layers of samples and furious beats. “My method is to see the lunacy around me and talk about it no different than Bob Dylan would have done, except for I’m a black guy immersed in rap music,” Chuck D explains. 98
Concrete skateboarding
As a response to the music industry “lunacy” witnessed over the last three decades, PE has chosen to utilize an innovative fan-funding concept to produce their next record – a disc that will feature special guest performances by guitarist Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave), Rise Against and DJ Z-Trip among others. “The vision has always been about building something that’s not only making the audience a recipient, but also a participant – that’s what led me to SellaBand,” the rapper says. “I see this being viable for artists at all levels.” To date, PE has raised almost $60,000 through SellaBand.com. It’s a considerable chunk of change and not only proves the merits of the revolutionary online platform, but also puts into perspective just how devoted the crew’s fanbase has remained after all these years. And while some people – namely those who can tell you the exact date in 1987 Yo! Bum Rush The Show dropped, but don’t have a goddamn clue as to when their little bro was born – might be disheartened to learn that Chuck D and the gang won’t be heading into the studio until 2011. But it’s not like there aren’t plenty of PErelated goodies on the way to tide folks over. “This year we’ll be releasing a three CD/DVD box set [Welcome To The Terrordome] for all the music over the last ten years,” Chuck D reports. “I’m also releasing a solo record [Mistachuck: Don’t Rhyme For The Sake of Riddlin’] and the backing unit for PE called BaNNed are making an instrumental version of It Takes A Nation… called It’s Back To A Million Of Us To Hold A Nation, so we’ve got good stuff coming out.” PE is also back on the road for their 71st multi-continent tour. It’s a prime opportunity for fans to hear live requisite house party anthems like “Bring The Noise” and “Don’t Believe The Hype” – tracks that Chuck D claims, “never get tiring.” publicenemy.com
the five spot
ben colen
If you happen to be cruising around in Simi Valley, California, you might spot the sleek contours of a BMW 5 Series with 20 year-old Mike Mo Capaldi behind the wheel, and his brother Vince riding shotgun. There’s a good chance you’ll see the Beem pull into Tico’s Tacos – the establishment that recently awarded the Capaldi brothers with a “no charge” clause because they’ve localized it every day for three years, and the Tico’s logo adorns a couple of Mike Mo’s board graphics. Once inside the taco shop, you’ll likely witness Mike Mo on his iPhone, swiftly taptyping a text to someone listed in this Five Spot. Or he might just be busy tweeting N’ shit.
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photo: Wes To nascia distributed by Ultimate
The Barnyard Series - artwork by Andrew Pommier
Jose Rojo
www.momentumskate.com
distributed by Ultimate
distributed by Ultimate
timebombtrading.com stickers@timebomb.bc.ca