1.7500
everybody out of the park that wasn’t wearin helmets which was all of us. So we left Sebastopol and jetted to windsor park which was the last park the sun would allow us to shred. After snappin and slash grindin around we gathered up to figure out where we were going to stay for the night. I called all over the surrounding areas looking for campsites and availability was slim. We headed to a state park where they only had one site left and they were first come first serve sites. With a bag of luck in our pockets we arrived and got the last site which was for 8 people max and we had 12. We smuggled four bros in. Found our site set up camp and started the party. Fired up the bbq and stove. Brought out the handle of Jim Beam and thats when things started getting really interesting. This continued on for another three hours until slowly one by one people were passing out until there was only four of us left. We decided we needed to go on a nature hike. We stomped on out onto the trail and eventually came to a horse corral. Dwayne was about to jump on a horse and ride it bare backed but thought again about it and opted not to. On the way back we spotted this huge hill and i just started running up it as the others followed. Finished up the rest of the bottle at the top and started our descent back down. That’s when the loose juice hit us hard. Homie Christian couldn’t stand on his own two feet so we had to carry his tall and lengthy ass down that damn hill. And let me tell you it was no easy task. Eventually we made back to camp and passed out as soon as our heads hit the dirt. The next morning was brutal. Everyone was hung over and looking mighty haggard. Packed up all our stuff and went to St. Helena park. It was an awesome session despite we looked like a bunch of kooks. Christian wandered off and found a nice patch of shady grass to recuperate on. After a good solid two hours we headed out and it was homeward bound from there. I had an awesome jolly time on this trip and i hope next time we can get more people on bikes but nonetheless it was a successful trip. I want to thank everyone that came out and shredded all day. Big thank you to Mike O and Joel for all the support and golden memories. Hope to see you shred heads next year on the CREEP RIDE DOS!!! Cheers Mates!
Sequence Cal Walker
Sequence; Jake Crawley Here; Cal Walker
Here’s a Picture of Mike never being in St. Helena nursing a hangover.
RCUS AMES J EM D INTERVIEW
mike o: who are you? demarcus: demarcus james. mike o: do you have any nicknames? demarcus: d-rock. mike o:: what about “d”? do people try the d on you? d: sometimes mike o: who do you skate with mostly? d: anyone who’s down mike o: where did you grow up? d: san francisco and all over the bay area. mike o: so your adopted? mr. james: i got in foster care when i was 7 years old. i have been in foster care my whole life, moved around. then once i figured out that i could move from county to county or skatepark to skatepark. mike the asshole: cool, so you always got to ride a new park? james: ya, and meeting lots of people. mike o: so tell me about trifecta last year? it was a triple contest with a triple break. d: no, for me it was a double contest with a double break. mike o: go on. demarcuz: it was really cool to meet up with pat black , who is a really cool guy, he pretty much sponsered me. i had no money. uhh ya. mike o: you seem a little nervous. are you alright? d-nervous: ya mike o: that’s good. so you never got to skate red’s ramp? d-not so nervous: no i was hyped up on vicadine begging pat to take me home, because i didn’t want to be in oregon anymore. mike o: what exactly did you break yourself on? d-crazy: the moving volcano at tigert. i tried to back 180 indy and over shot it by about 4 feet. my foot was hanging off but still stuck it. mike o: did you cry?
dman: didn’t….. wanted to, but didn’t. mike o: heard you just bought a bike? dmoto: ya, a suzuki 250, needs a lot of work. probably won’t be driving it until january or so. mike o: is it true you don’t have a license? how are you going to drive your bike? d-renagade: who needs a license? mike o: so i guess when you live in the city no one gets pulled over at all? d-careful: no that’s not true at all. ian Ericksen Photo Christ mike o: so you don’t even have a car? go outside i only go out in front of my house. dmv: no i got it towed away, 89 chevy mike o: i heard that park is kinda gnarly? cavalier, i just let it go. i wasn’t gonna pay d-to the J: ya people get shot down $400 to get it out so i just let it go. there all the time. drug deals for days mike o: what’s “lake view city living” mike o: that’s super sketchy. how far away like? “d”: its gnarly can’t go out at night. if i
ri Mouratis Photo: Demet from patrero do you live? d-walk: i live about a 20 to 30 minute walk. or 10 minute bus ride. mike o: is that were you mostly skate? d-traveler: no i usually skate everywhere. mike o: is it true that you hate dogs and that you’re a cat person? d-love: no (laughs) i don’t hate dogs, i have a cat and it treats me pretty good. mike o: is it true that you have $3,000 worth in grants left over from school? d-learn: that i owe? actually more. mike o: you went to massage school and now you give people massages? d-massage: um….i usually try to work for chiropractor offices. mike o: has anyone ever asked you for a handy? d-no: never. mike o: not even a hot chick? d-no: never. mike o: not even a gross obease fat guy? d-never: no mike o: tell me about the job you just lost. d-cares: oh man the people are so lame! i’m not gonna say anything, but some illeagal ass shit was going down there. mike o: handy’s? how much is a handy? d-annoyed: your such a dick. it was a chiropractor. but there was a lot of
shaddy stuff going on like forging d-famous: probably like 8 to 10 kids signatures. anyways i got fired for want to get it, then im over it. some bullshit. mike o: when you went to berkely high, mike o: so tell me about the were you a ladies man? got lots of chicks or grosses person you ever masno chicks? saged. d-modest: no, no, i didn’t get a lot of D-SENSITICED: bacchicks and didn’t get around. ne. this one person had a bunch mike o: no std’s? like chlamydia? d: no comment. i pass on this one. of acne on his back. and 3 or mike o: ok, so tom at weirdo wants his 4 zits popped on my knuckles darkstar wheels back. do you think its time? when i started working the back. i stopped and called my demarcus: he can suck it. boss to ask what i should do. mike o: so how many sponsers are you mike o: i would have rocking? shoe contracts? poster deals? free thrown up. can you give me a stickers? back massage right now? my d-hooked up: weirdo and ace are back hurts hooking it up. i also have a clothing sponser d-man: no called mac “d”. un-official offical thing gomike o: why not my back ing. hurts. mike o: sounds pretty gangster. d-man: no d-money: ya boy mike o: can you at least mike o: are you republican or democrate? pop one zit on my back? i would you hit the meaga ramp? can’t reach them. d-time: neither, and yes. is that a fake d-no: ahh no. tooth? fuck you man. mike o: ya check this out (whipped it out mike o: do you have for him) d-surprized: holy shit to go to a different spot mike o: do you want to try it on? mentally to keep massaging a gross person? d-no: no that’s to gnarly. d-grossed out: no. i stopped when mike o: do you want to add anything or i started popping the zits. thank anybody? mike o: so you lived in tahoe Photo: Demet ri Mouratis for awhile. tell me about your snowboard lifestyle. demarcus: i went up to truckee for a contest and won it. the guys who put on the contest didn’t have the prize money, so they let me live at their house instead. mike o: so tell me about joshua in vallejo? d-bro: that dude is so rad. i met that guy when vallejo skatepark opened. he was 38. he’s from the east coast. from there we became friends. he is the one who got me to snowboard, wakeboard, and dirtbike. pretty much, enjoy the fun things in life. mike o: has weirdo tom dragged you into his van and tried to touch you? d-no: no mike o: you have been working hard for weirdo. how many signatures do you have to give out at a demo?
cover Demarcus James
skidmark would like to thank the following personalities Photographers Christian Ericksen Skeki Larue demetri mouratis brian schmanski mike hart jose cervantes gary elder Narbe vagharshakian layout and grphics ryan carpenter spell checker bills mom content sheki Larue Mike Hart c. Ericksen Creep
photo demetri mouratis
Sequence and Here: Demetri Mouratis
Props to Weirdo skateboards, ace trucks and anyone else i didn’t mention. fuck ya!!
Photo Christian Ericksen
Photo Christian Ericksen
interview
mike o: when did you meet demarcus? tom: probaby 7 to 8 years ago at the berkely skatepark. i loned him a set of darkstars that had a flat spot. i told him just use them for awhile and give them back when you get wheels. i ran into him a couple months later and asked for the wheels i loned him. he said “oh sorry, i totally wore those out.” mike o: how long has weirdo been going on? tom: from the beggining of the planning stages, probably about 8 years. mike o: so tom, how did wierdo come about? TOM: oh this is a long one,. well we had the recording studio first and had a lot of clients. after doing three years of albums ( some good. some were alright.) we got kinda topped out on it. so the studio was first. anyways, i couldn’t get good vert boards anywhere with good shapes and wide wheel bases with decent graphics. we shopped around for a good manufactor and got shmit to take us on. i was stoked. i even called my mom. we had one of the best manufactores to take us on during the prototype period. we also did the bearing product for the same reason. i couldn’t find good bearings. the first oem’s in canada that we went with just lied and jerked us around for like 4 months. after that, i said fuck it! im gonna just start from the top and work my way down. all they could do is say no. i was lucky enough to get reggie on the phone. we were the same age and like the same old rock. so we just hit it off. he said he would take us on as a client. they let us do more with shaping and diversifafication. ps. sticks paul schmitts company really nice people. mike o: do you like selling skateboards better than recording shitty bands? tom: i do like being in the toy business. it’s a little more straight forward than the music buisness. we will stll take on clients if they want to come here and record. mike o: so how does my friends band, mongo, get a hold of you to record? tom: at whateverstudios.com mike o: what about this weird style you have? how did that come about? tom: im a huge fan of monster universal movies. mike o: how far has weirdo gone across the states? tom: its weird. people are buying stuff in long island.
Photos: Demetri Mouratis
“GET THE FUCKING SHOVELS BOYS“ were the words that came from Brad’s mouth as he looked out on the barren back yard of the house he and his twin brother Anthony had rented. It was the forth of july 2005, and it was all very patriotic really, the twins were enjoying some icy cold Sam Adams with their buddy Scooter after celebrating our freedom to shred at Jeff Daniel’s. Much like the patriots of yesteryear who vowed loyalty in rebellion, Scooter told the twins that he’d pour it if they dug and rebarred it.
nicky gaston pic: Vagharshakian
Lucky Ortega
pic: Vagharshakian
BY JASON LABARBERA 1. Roll the magazine length-wise and fuck your girlfriend with it. she will be stoked on the extra 9 inches. 2. Send it to your ex girlfriend’s parents house (they will be stoked she dumped such a loser who would read such a crappy mag) 3. While sitting in a douche bag’s car tear single sheets out and slyly throw them one by one out the window (dickface will love the $341 ticket you’ll deny causing) 4. Use it to bitch slap the dirty hoe who gave you the drip last weekend. 5. Use it as a smut mag and rub one out (we all know you like furry animals, you nasty fucker) 6. Send it to the president. it will help him figure out his strategies regarding domestic and foreign policy. 7. Next time you show up at the park when the cops are there use some duct tape and make it into a brain bucket. 8. Use the pages to learn and perfect the art of oragami ( you’re gonna need a back up career because it’s a bitch to make money skating) 9. Put it in a ziplock bag and tuck it away in a safe. this shit is gonna be way more valuable than the first run “spiderman” comic book some day. or come up with your own ideas and send it to SKIDMARK @ P.O. Box 659 Livermore, CA 94551 or FIND US ONLINE IF YOU CAN! OK IT’S SKIDMARKSKATEMAG.COM
Low lit back rooms that are thick with smoke, a few guys, cards, tumbler glasses filled with melting ice and some form of dark brown liquor, green felt table top, poker chips stacked and strewn about and 2 or 3 ash trays with smoke slowly billowing into the air is a typical scene for poker games in the media. Although I don’t play I imagine the media is not to far off from reality on this one. When I envision how the idea for The Poker Run was hit upon I see that same type of scene in that same smoke filled room. The game of poker may or may not have been being played but a few guys around a table drinking, smoking and brain storming on what the next event should be. If poker was being played that would explain a lot, if not perhaps just the vibe brought on skate contest gold. Creep recieves a card from the Roughneck Crew
The quick version of how this contest went down is like this. All players, with or with out hoes, show up bright and early at 621 skateshop ready to play. 5 spots are sprinkled around the lovely downtown Livermore area and a map of these spots is given to filmers, photographers, judges, and riders. Groups form up and everybody gets it going. Let the game begin! Judges find their respective places and start to watch the carnage. It was the judges job to give out cards that match the caliber of trick being pulled off by each rider. Get gnarly and score a high card, just get something done and...you get the idea. Best hand when the dust settles takes home the purse and bragging rights. Like all of the people there to document this epic event, in order to hit all the spots you had about 20 minutes or so with the crew you tied up with to cover any one spot. I started to realize there were going to be some hammers that some folks missed at some of the spots, but the way I figured it the whole concept is based on a game of chance. Sure skill plays a roll but in the end its about the hand you are delt. Inherently I did miss some killer stuff but I definately got to see my fare share of bangers. Things progressed smoothly, well accept for one spot on the list. There was a bank on the side of a somewhat busy street, and man the cops and staff of a storage
Derrick Cervantes
Cal Walker
The Creepster
Rasta Bro
The Meekster
facility near by did not take kindly to us crossing through traffic to get tricks. I heard some folks got tickets at that spot and when I was there it was apparent it would not last long. So accept for that one hang up it all came together at about 3:00pm back at home base, 621. Hands were revealed and Adam Emery came out on top. I had missed Adam at most spots but I dug a bit and heard his hit list of tricks at the stops. It sounded like he for sure killed it. Time to get loose. I can’t say an event at 621 would not be proper if it did not come complete with an after party for one reason or another. The kids over at The Pile Style had been working hard on a smokin’ web site and they had brought in their screen printing rig and were lacing people up with ink. Mike O had been working with his team to get the latest Skidmark off the press. Combo up for a release party. Del the funky homosapian, Life B 4 Death and some other folks provided killer entertainment into the evening. The ramp, The Blue bar, and the Red Stag girls rounded out the good times. Hats off to all the players who made a great concept come to life. Aces high!!
Then there’s this guy: Baby Jesus Pile
Criss Angel Mind freak?
CE
Pile of SkidMarks
The Head Pile
Smells Like Teen Spirit Adam Emery
Del equals Legit
Ryan Carpenter easy, breezy, beautiful, cover girl
Words and photo’s by Sheki Larure (the French Jew) It’s true, the parks by the VS headquarters are pretty pooey. Don’t get me wrong they are fun as shit but sometimes you need a little extra gnar in your life. Luckily our “home park away from home park” is the San Jose beauty known as Roosevelt. This little gem is just a few miles and bong rips up the road and well worth the 25 minute drive to the barrio to get some hot 4 wheel action. Not only does Rosy consist of some killer fast ass terrain (the sick empty swimming pond, the blue flow bowl of love and the smattering of miscellaneous obstacles) but you can freely drink beer and smoke 215 like your at your boy’s backyard mini ramp- not a bad deal if you ask me! The best part about the park is it’s always good in the hood at Roosevelt- super cool locals, good vibes and the sessions are always going off. Not to mention the fact that you can grab a 40 of old E and a killer burrito nearby and get yourself into a legit handball game with the local cholo’s. The court is almost as gnarly as the shredding sometimes and that’s no bullshit son! So get off your asses vato’s and get to shredding the el gnar like loco’s- like me Madre always said “me casa su casa puto’s”.
Clockwise from top: JJ Rogers– Front Rock: with his legion of fans looking on, JJ slaps his comeback like a champ! Sean Meeker: Get the photo poachers out of the way, here comes Meeker with a beauty of a blunt slide to fakie. Hot Cheese: “The ladies choice” Hot Gerardo rocks the cement pond like a a hurricane. The Scorpion’s would be proud.
Top: Feldman: Everyone’s favorite New Yorker show’s his shred side with a grinder to fakie in the not so shallow end. Bong rips for everyone Right: Ryan Carpenter: Out of the frying pan into the fire Meat Juice goes high to low because he can. Bottom: Zach Lewis: In between howling at the moon and fucking hella chicks , the Wach finds time to show his sensitive side.
WHAT TO DO, AND WHAT NOT TO DO WHEN YOU FIRST TURN PRO. by Ron Allen 1. SELF PROMOTE Make up an alias ( I used an english accent and my name was “George”. “George” set up demos for Ron Allen). George would say “Hey, you need a demo with Ron Allen and pay him this much money. He’s really professional and he won’t be late.” IT WORKED. I sold a lot of boards, made a bunch of money and got to travel a lot. More demos just kept coming. Set up tour demos. As many places as you can. Try to go to all of them. Sometimes you will get towns mixed up. Like one time I set up a demo in Bloomington, Indiana and Bloomington, Illinois. I accidently went to the wrong one. Don’t tour ouside of California in the winter. 2. BE DIFFERENT I had a company with Delux. For my boards I did something different, top graphics. They werre like “why do you want to do that?” I would say, because it’s cool. So I got a stencil and started stenciling them in the warehouse. Everyone got sick from the paint fumes. Don’t put men on your board graphics (FUN Skateboards) We were coming back from a tour. I thought we should do a Chili Peppers album board graphic. It’s gonna be sick. We’ll get socks on are dongs. We’ll it turns out no one wants to buy boards with 3 dudes with socks on their dongs. It was me, Jon Reeves and Jesse Mehoff. Nobody bought that board. Not even chicks. I destroyed every board I could find. One day I cut fifty in half that I found in the warehouse.
DIE HARD
3. CHECKS! If your first pro check bouces don’t quit. Stay with that company. My first check from H-STREET bounced, it was for $500.00 and I put it in the bank and it bounced. So I called them up and they sent me another check and that check bounced. I thought “I’m gonna quit” I was at a trade show and this dude, Dave, from airborn sat me down and put $5,000 on the table and said,”i heard your having a hard time with hstreet?” i said, “ya, but the’re cool.” Dave said, “if you want to ride for me here’s $5,000.” he even bought me a dove chocolate bar, which back then they were like $5. So a dove bar and $5,000. but i told him i was gonna stick with Tony and Mike because they are cool people. They are gonna handle it, and they did. I always joke with Tony Magnason (Osiris shoes). he said ,“when you got your first pro check it bounced, but look at you, you’re still here.”
pic: Rossmiller
4. Don’t give away a lot. (Fun and American Dream Skateboards) One of my first years at delux i did a really good first month. i did like $3,200. I was hyped. They were like, now we need to figure out your giveaways Ron. Turns out i gave away $3,178. they wrote me a $22 dollar check and said “ here you go.” i knew i needed to learn about budget. i gave away that much shit. From that point on I only gave away $700 a month. I didn’t give a shit who the fuck you were, or what you did. $700 a month, that was it in giveaways. I stayed on that line and I never did a 3200 month after that. I did like $2,000, but never a $3,200 month.
pic: JOSE CERVANTES
5. ADVERTISING. A lady came to us from slap. She said $400 a year. I was like fuck ya! so I did like a years worth of ads and sent two checks for $200. They hit me up and then said that it was $400 a month, not a year. i had been doing this for about two years and they were wondering when i was going to pay? I told them that I just paid the $400. They said, “ya, that means you only paid for one ad in two years.” So i owed like $9200, I was fucked. I went to Falco and wanted to know what i should do. He said that he needed some money to do a column. I did a Ron Allen column in slap for like 2 years to pay for my ads. I got paid a quarter a word, so I would get those columns like $200 I would get verbose! In the end I paid off all my advertising cost so I didn’t have an outstanding bill. If you get on a team and you don’t go into debt with that company then your easier to get cut. So the time I was in debt they couldn’t cut me cause I was in debt to them. And the years I was in debt they couldn’t cut me. I was still paying. They can’t cut you when your still paying bills.
Sid Enck
pic: Rossmiller
nate linford
pic: gary elder
levi king
pic: schmanski
you smell what we’re stepping in
chris luhring pic: schmanski
skidmarkskatemag.com
Oh gee what can i say about the Creep ride...it was fucking rawsome to say the least. I had thought up this idea to do a motorcycle/skateboarding weekend trip. Mike O jumped on it and put this thing together with Joel from Metro skateshop out in Pleasant Hill. I had drawn up this design with a gnarly skeleton biker on a chopper with a grim reaper on each side of him skating. Joel made some shirts with the design on the back so we could all wear them as we were riding down the road on our iron horses. We all meet up at Metro around 10-am on Saturday bright and early. There was about two handfuls of shredders and four of us on bikes ready for the weekend ahead. Everyone didn’t have bikes so there were a few cars that followed with bros and gear inside. So we were off to our first stop at Bencia Skatepark. Joel’s buddy Taylor met us there on his old Triumph. So now we had five bikers in the pack. Everybody was killin it at Bencia and there were smiles all around. After tearing that park up we zipped over to the vallejo park. We fired up the grill and cracked some brewskies. Joel brought a bunch of product to give to the local lurkers. so we tossed it all out and started munchin on some big ol spicy italian sausages! Wrapped it up there and headed on over to the old Santa Rosa Park. The park was infested by a bunch of shit eatin bmx’ers rolled around for bit and then we were over it. Upon leaving Josh Balogh’s old iron head was being a stubborn old bitch and didn’t want to start up. After repeated attempts at push startin the ol rigid she finally kicked and we were off. Off to sebasotpol park. It was heating up when a hot headed sheriff was about to give me a helmet ticket. The fat pig let me off if i was to get
Taylor Kennedy
Jake Crawley
Josh Bologh
Joel Jutagir
Kevin Ross