Epicly Later'd: John Cardiel #9 & #10

Hopefully you didn't miss the Godfather of Go Go collab deck post below. However, Thursday and Friday have become Cardiel days. Here is the small blurb I wrote for Vans that appeared on Vans.com last week. It takes the themes from several of my previous post here and consolidates them into a few thoughts.
"All Hail Cardiel"
The internet finally has a greater sense of purpose, at least for the next 16 episodes of 'Epicly Later'd' on VBS.tv. Patrick O'Dell, the brainchild behind the skate-doc recently released his sprawling series on John Cardiel.
Lets be honest, there isn't a more deserving skater than Cards to get the 'Later'd' treatment. Simply put: the first time you see Cards boost over a hip or attack a rail it's with an intensity that will burn inspiration into your brain. Mark Gonzales said it best during John's intro for Transworld's 'Sight Unseen': "He'll skate so fast but the faster he goes the more control he has". All we can say is watch and learn about the heart of skating in its rawest form.

Enjoy Episodes #9 & 10

He's the Godfather of Go Go: Chuck Brown X SHUT

Last autumn I cruised down to Kickballers in DC and checked out the latest shop to drop in the Chocolate City. Rumor is they have shut down their Georgetown store front and are going web only for the time being. That's a damn shame because in their short time they definitely tried to help out the scene with contests and fundraisers. End of the day an expensive location is tough to manage.

A big high five to the crew for keeping the web business up and running. While they might not have a physical address the crew still has a home on the web at Kickballersdc.com. Now, keep in mind these guys are make the transition to web-only with style. That's right. While dropping a collab deck with the famous SHUT skateboards out of NYC the Kickballers are representing D.C.'s finest with a tribute to the world famous Godfather of Go Go Chuck Brown. Yes, Yes Y'all it's time to hook it up yes yes y'all.

People Cooler Than Me: Etnies X Verte

...Will all be at this party. Collab shoes are still big in oh-8 and when you get down with the Verte Life, high tops happen. Come down for a cocktail next week. Will Das Brink make an East Coast appearance?

Coming Soon: Nike SB Zoom Tre A.D.

The Zoom Tre A.D. is the next step forward in the world of Nike skate shoes. With the Tre A.D. we see Nike come full circle incorporating their latest technology into the sole for freedom, weight saving and cushioning. This shoe won't be for everybody compared to the classic style of a blazer or dunk. Even the team edition has more of a classic skate shoe vibe.

The Tre A.D. will be interesting though. Check out this video for the lead designers insight as to what will make this shoe above and beyond others. This is Nike doing what Nike does best. Updating and innovating through technology and user feedback.

The shoe certainly bucks the the vulcanized trend of the past few years and shifts it back to the tech shoe. However they achieve this without building another D3 Moonboot. Regardless of your opinion of Nike, love them or hate them, they are doing the best they can with what they have. Clearly, they have quite a bit to work with.

...More Libness

Jumpin' jeebus, I do love me some Mervin manufacturing. Later this week I'll finally get around to posting about the Gnu Riders Choice I picked up but it's pretty much hot shit right now. I have grip of boards waiting to be demoed and tested but I keep shrugging it off to go ride the RC MT. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, I got a real nice chuckle today. You see here in the Nation's Capitol, also known in the snowbro world as the "Lesser Washington" we don't have things like the Holy Oly or good snowboarding to keep us happy. Nope, but we got all sorts of politics and bull shit artist who will lie through their teeth to keep the rich richer and the poor...well poor. Now you may have differing political opinion ... tough. This is my blog and I'm waving my right to free speech all over this damn post. Give me a hot minute and I'll bring it back to snowboarding.

So, we are stuck with a bunch of liars, cheat and thieves but what can you expect from a town full of lawyers. I was really stoked to see somebody at Lib decided to put their words to good use and by spreading the word of the skate banana they took it upon themselves to spread the words of change. I'm not endorsing Obama until I see some plan on how he is going to get our economy and foreign policy out of the global poop chute. However, this just about made my day... It's either the coolest board or the best photoshop job ever.


Now get your skate banana Kong on...

NIke SB Glimpse Into the Future...

Ah, the Nike SB heat is picking up again. Not that it ever tapered off but there are always a few standouts. These images have been making the rounds and you have seen the picks on SneakerFiles fer sure.

These come from an Ebay sample auction and debut the SB Thrashin' High, The Buellers and the Lobster. Now, if you had told me 20 years ago that Corey Websters grip job would be featured on a sneaker I would have laughed in your face. Having "Save Ferris" would have been more likely. If by some strange twist of fate you didn't get those last two movie references then you have validated the fact that you are young and I am old as dirt.

The last are the alleged SB Lobster kicks. A bit too gimmicky for me but the tablecloth lining... kinda cool

Not a Real Lib Tech but Not Bad

One of the best parts of snowboarding is the creativity. We can all agree on that right? Over on the Lib blog you can check out some reader submissions of what they'd like to see on graphics for next years banana boards.

Sneak Peek: The Rowley [X} or ...the rowley ten

When the first Geoff Rowley shoe came out back in 2000 or '99 that was pretty much the opening shot in the vulcanized revolution. Soon we were forgoing airbags in the heel and beefy moon boot skate shoes for slimmed down footwear. The ripple effect was immediate and only a few companies were prepared for the massive shift. Now almost everybody has followed suit by breaking out the old molds from th early 90's and getting on the vulcanized bandwagon. Rowley tenth and latest shoe continues to look good and keep up the innovation.

Epicly Later'd: John Cardiel #7

Having a craptacular day? Two thinng may brighten that up this Spitfire ad with cards was hellacious in every sense of the word



Second Episode #7 of Epicly Later'd John Cardiel. if this were a Hollywood movie we would see John back 100% in the alst episiode. I'm just fucking stoked to see him up and doing well. Rip on.

A Few Things We Missed: Rossi J-Dub and O-Matic

While sorting through the photo files and grabs from our buddys sites I came across these two files and never had the chance to get them up. The irony of these photos doesn't escape me at all. We have the J-Dub from rossi with photo by CB and the Awesome from O-Matic courtesy of the Mustachio Posse. The irony of course is that Todd used to ride for Rossi. Rossignol has a knack for getting great snow talent but not being able to retain them: Richards, Crawford, Rice, Jackson...the list goes on.

Anyway the middle board below is the J-Dub. This of course was John Jackson's pro model before he split for The program aka Forum and Special Blend. Like you didn't already know that. What makes this board even remotely worth talking about is that it's got magnetraction going on. Overall the 2007 J-Dub was twitchy even for magnetraction deck. Maybe I was the last guy to demo the deck all season but it felt not so good in the park nor bombing through runs. I have high hopes for the 2008.


I always dug TR's decks. The side cut was always solid for leaning into the pipe walls or coming down and grabbing a mushy landing off a kicker. Todd's style was always more skate influenced from a vert skating perspective so his boards maintained that fluid transition. Now his company O-Matic is going through it's own transition. After almost debuting only in big box stores like sports authorities you see them coming into smaller shops. I just like the fact after writing "Awesome" on the bottom of his blank Mervin decks while between sponsors Todd has made the graphic leap to including it on his O-Matic Base. Nice one. Image courtesy the homies at themustachio.com.

GvR Snowboarding Contest 2008

As always my money is on goofy. I won't cross them lines or to quote Sole tech Marketing VP Don Brown from his appearance on Fuel TV's 'Daily Habit': "F*ck you regular b*tches" Now I'm sure Don was only kidding around and to be honest this was the first time I've not seen him with a beer in his hand. Regardless, GvR meets snowboarding February 23... Bear Mountain. Enjoy and go team goofy.

The Baltimore Cop Returns

Wow, this guy really is good at abusing his authority. No wonder that fiction like 'The Wire' is so real. The jackass cops on the fictional show are apparently based on the real thing. Nothing amazes me more than in this day and age people still fly off the handle when somebody is holding a video camera. What a douchebag.

Skate Dump -- February 17th 2008

OK, it's been a few days since we took a big dump of skateboarding on the site. No better time than present to conduct the "office hours' so grab your self a hot cup of coffee, a bran muffin and puts some easy listening on the iPoo'd. We're gonna let this come out all natural like without and harsh assistance from an outside force. Let the dump proceed.

Stereo Sound Agent and Fuel TV man-on-the-scene Chris Pastras teamed up with Skatepark of Tampa for a special 15 year anniversary shirt. So if you want to dress like Richie Jackson or just feel a need to lt your inner hippie out this is a wonderful way to kill two birds with one stone. That would be: join the hippie ranks and support Skatepark of Tampa. Then again you can bypass all of that and listen to the soothing sounds of Bad Brains. Just a thought. Oh yeah and enjoy the new Stereo Sound Agency trailer.



Action sports sites come and go. South of the North is barely in a year of it's infancy but it's safe to assume we'll be around for a good chunk of time. Some sites are gasping for breath and others are coming on strong. But, one that has been around for some time is SkateDaily.net. Bryce and Chris do a great job of keeping that site rolling day in and day out. With the likes of 48Blocks, the Forgotten City, The new Thrasher site and TSM the internets has regular skate content for us office drones. Being stuck inside looking at the web was never better. Thanks to you guys at Skate Daily for cranking it out four years running now. Please, for the love of Christ.... keep it up.

Twenty some odd years ago John Lucero decided having a skateboard company named after himself was a bit much. Thus, the Label was born. That would be Black Label skateboards. Now the Label has gone through a steady evolution over the years but always it's been about skating. Commemorating the double decade anniversary we'll see some new wood rolling out with different interpretations of the Label elephant by guest artist who also happen to be legendary skaters in their own right.. So, if you are into the whole skart thing this might be a good series to grab but a skateboards work is never done until you are done with it... you savvy? Check 'em out and here's the board to artist key as if you couldn't tell...
Jason Adam - Gonz
Kyle Leeper - Natas
Chet Childress- Lance Mountain (did you look at the latest Burnout?...awesome)
Shuriken Shannon -
Adam Alfaro - Hosoi




Oh yeah and De Valle is on Label!
DC Skateboarding TV is live and of course they have a solid blog going with all their team updates. Lots of photos and video to keep rolling out.

Nike SB Drop: Zoom Team Edition

I love it when Hans up at Arrival Boardshop sends me random Nike SB photos. Apparently, new items are flowing in daily including this new Team Edition. Unsure if it has street name but most T.E.s don't so enjoy and if you need me to remind why this is great shoe read the review from a few months ago.

Epicly Later'd Cardiel Part 5 & 6

"If it gets to scary for you. You were never meant to skate in the first place."
- Jake Phelps


The amazing flow of archival footage coninues in episodes 5 & 6 of Epicly Later'd: John Cardiel. Episode five gives a little more insight into the John's snowboarding days and episide six follows Cardiel, Stranger and Phelps through the '94 Hellride in BRazil.

Enjoy.

UNIV x Signal Snowboards

One of the cooler things to come out of skiing was the art. When i started out on the slopes as a grom and then later snowboarding in the 80's there used to be classic posters that gave a glimpse into the heyday of skiing and the apres mountain lifestyle. Now the crew over at UNIV and Dave Lee's wonderful Signal Snowboards are pulling together a little bit of the old and a little bit of the new. The end result is pretty righteous

"UNIV is pleased to announce a snowboard collaboration with Signal Snowboards. Manufactured in partnership at Signal’s “The Lodge” Factory in California, USA.

The board is 155 cm long with a waist of 24.6 cm and effective edge of 118 cm. The board has a soft flex, poplar/aspen blend Hyper-core, biaxle glass weave, carbon stringer, twin shape, centered stance, Duel-Independent sidecut, and sintered base. The UNIV and Signal snowboard is built as a more medium flex park board made to handle large jumps and high speed landings."


Sounds good to me...

Shaun White and Elisha Cuthbert : Well Played Sir!

In a rare valentines Day moment I'll never really turn down the opportunity to put good looking women on this site. Especially when it's a slow news week. Combine that good looking woman with a smattering of Hollywood star power and world class snowboarder and we got some crappy gossipy news of the day. So lets all say what we really want to say to Shaun White right now.

"Well done Shaun, well done."

Now lets hope Jack Bauer doesn't kick Shaun's ass for dating his daughter.

But Wait There's More... from the Natural Selection

"Your could drop in, shit your pants and tomahawk all the way to the bottom and you're still a winner ...kinda"
-Willie McMillion

The good stuff doesn't stop flowing out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Quiksilver's Natural Selection yields another amazing video. You get a pretty good idea of how insane Dick's Ditch can be on a powder day. Congrats to everybody who pulled off this comp. Hopefully it sets a new direction for snowboarding competitions.

Skater Vs. Cop, Again

Another cop smacked around another skater. basically it's an abuse of power. The only difference these days is that thanks to affordable consumer electronics, cell phone cameras and the internets we all have access to the footage. I don't care if you are 8 or 80, if you have stepped foot on a skateboard it's a certainty somebody has hassled you over skating. I can deal with jocks, rednecks, security guards and shit birds of the general variety and their comments but I draw the line at cops.

Officers of the law are supposed to protect and serve. If a skater mouths off they need to rise above that moment and be the bigger person. That responsibility comes with the badge. There's no need for this type of behavior. A middle age man slapping around and threatening a teenager is just sad. This guy is a disgrace to his badge and police officers everywhere. I'm not too sure I want this guy carrying a gun around if he resolves conflict through violence. As of right now officer Salvatore Rivieri is suspended with pay.

Personally, I believe in redemption and forgiveness. This guy needs anger management counseling and when skate park of Baltimore finally breaks ground.... Officer Rivieri should be required to put in some man hourswith the local skaters building the park. That sounds fair.

Mikey Talor and Sean Malto on Etnies

Mikey is off DVS and Malto has abandoned ship at DC. There was much rejoicing in Lake Forest.

Vans Drop for February and Vid-Yo: No Skool 2

The easiest and the hardest thing to learn in skating has to be the ollie. Along with the ollie comes the fact that you are about to embark on a lifetime of wearing through your shoes. So, you begin to play around with different stuff to see what works and what doesn't what feels natural and what feels awkward. Finally you arrive on the shoe that works for you.

I've seen friends purchase up to 15 pairs of a shoe once they get a model dialed in. This isn't some sneaker head collecting thing, no, these are guys who are afraid the company may discontinue that shoe and they refuse to let go of it...by any means necessary. That includes dropping all their beer money for three months to preserve their paws in the correct footwear. Skaters are weird like that.

The last shoe I really felt dialed in was the Vans No Skool back in 2005. This was one of Dustin Dollin's first pro models and while I've got better things to do than follow the career of Australian skaters the fact remains ... it was a solid shoe. When I caught wind that Vans was updating the No Skool I jumped to attention. The first shoe was good. Simply put: it was a beefed up Style 36 (old school). The No Skool 2 appears to have cut down on some of the bulk of the first shoe and incorporates Vans latest version of board feel. Overall, right out of the box these were skate-able with no break in period. I still get a little weirded out by how much I can feel the board in these shoes. The end result is a blend of high tech and old school into a shoe that is as much a look to future as a nod to the past. That's a real good thing. Vans has managed to combine R&D with classic style for a shoe that is amazingly functional on multiple levels of skating.

Vans is rolling out two models: a low and a mid. The latter of which is based on the Vans Mid Skool that was made popular by Tony Alva back in the day. You'll be able to find the low in about 10 color ways and the mid in about five. The version that really caught my eyes was the red/green/black checker and how it paid homage to one of the first Supreme X Vans Half cab collabs from several years back. The extra style nod is quite the stylish nod but at the end of the day you can get these as plain or as flashy as you want. At minimum you'll get a thumbs up when you rock these to the local Italian joint for dinner or while cruising through Little Italy on the Lower East Side. Not to shabby.


Vans x Half Cab Supreme
(Currently unavail unless you have sick hookups or a deep ebay account)