Sneak Peek: Vans No Skool Tre

The funny thing about having lived and skated in Australia a long ways back is this: I can see how somebody like Dustin Dollin evolves. Every time I stepped out my door in Oz I usually found something new to skate or when rolling around the spots just magically appeared. The great thing is that none of them were a bust the way things are today in the states. With the fertile terrain why the hell shouldn't you have these little children of gnar?

OK, more to the point Vans is rollin' out the seventh Dustin Dollin pro model the No Skool Tre. A few things you may or may not appreciate, first up, slimmer cut. Yep, while some shoes are drifting back to moon boot turf this one is cut down nice and slim. Next up, and the thing I am looking forward to in Vans shoes this summer, a low profile cupsole. I know everybody loves them some vulcanized shoes. Try being old and on your third set of knees. Trust me the shock absorption will come in handy. As a matter of fact I think we should ask Convoy Skater Jason Choi to test these out. Jason or Big E hit me up and lets see what we can work out...



yep, Jason can jump down some big stuff...he just needs to land that 21 stair. back to the task at hand though the Dollin No Skool Tre. vans has been getting a bit funkier and more progressive with their shoes it seems year over year. Mining their past and updating it for the present is the way to go. there's more coming form vans over the course of the summer for fall 09 ad we'll have some sneak peeks here and there. stay tuned. In the mean time watch Dollin in bake has a Deathwish...

The Greatest Drinking Game

The Greatest Drinking Game from Laura Austin on Vimeo.

Yeah ... pretty hilarious and don't front. You've done some stupid shit while out drinking with your friends. Although I might classify this under awesome 'casue we are the South of the North.

Nike SB Omar Salazar Pro Model Samples

I promise we'll get back to the real writing and infowebtainment here shortly. It's been a hellacious few weeks so lets just throw out some more pics courtesy of some site that ends with dot org.

5th Annual Vans Pro Tec Pool Party

In short: fuck yes. Having been to this contest before I can only begin to tell you how much of a good time it is. Let me go on record and say I'm a pretty cheap bastard but, for the past few years I've managed to pull together a few California skating expeditions and when i do I plan at least one of them around the Pro Tec pool party.

Now you can say whatever you want about transition skating but go and skate the Combi at the Block. It may be tamer than the original but it's still a wicked fun ride. At all times you are trying to figure out where to go next because there are so many choices. I really dig how the whole thing is big and effortless for hauling ass through your line.

Unfortunately due to the economy, Somalian Pirates, Swine Flu and this thing called "work" I'll be unable to attend. However Fuel TV is coming through strong! Hot on the heels of their Tampa Pro webcast the HD webcast glory will now come to the Pro Tec pool party. What does this mean? Skate in the AM, watch Pro Tec pool party. Have a beer. Fall asleep. Sounds like a nice little Saturday right there Frank the Tank style. All the official info is below.

2009 Pro-tec Pool Party

What – It’s time for the most anticipated bowl contest of the year! Join us for the 5th Annual Pro-tec Pool Party and see 40 top pros, masters and ladies vie for their piece of a $90,000 purse in one of the most unforgiving bowls ever built. Held in a near exact replica of the infamous Upland Combi at the Vans Skatepark in Orange, the 2009 Pool Party is going to turn out some of the best bowl action of the year.

When – Saturday, May 16 from 1 pm to 9 pm (PST)

Where - Vans Skatepark at The Block in Orange, CA

Watch it on the Web! Catch a live HD webcast of the entire event powered by FUEL TV at vans.com/poolparty

Expected Riders Include:
Pros – Rune Glifberg (’05, ’07, ’08 Winner), Omar Hassan (’06 Winner), Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist, Benji Galloway, Bruno Passos, Josh Borden, Nolan Munroe, Sergie Ventura, Adam Taylor, Tim Johnson, Morgan Burgess and more.

Masters – Chris Miller (’05-’08 Winner), Steve Caballero, Nicky Guerrero, Eric Nash, Lester Kasai, Ben Schroeder, Buck Smith, Micke Alba, Tony Magnusson, Pat Ngoho, Steve Steadham, Josh Nelson and more.

Girls – Mimi Knoop (’08 Winner), Cara-Beth Burnside (’05-’07 Winner), Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, Allysha Bergado, Julie Kindstrand, Holly Lyons, Heidi Fitzgerald, Cressey Rice, Amelia Brodka, Elise Dabby, Lea Taylor and more.

Judges – Include Steve Olson and Bryce Kanights

Television – Debuts August 10 during Meet & Brotatoes at 8 pm (EST/PST) on FUEL TV, the 24/7 action sports lifestyle network

The Pro-tec Pool Party is made possible by the support of Vans, FUEL TV, Rockstar Energy Drink and Epiphone

For more information on the Pro-tec Pool Party including past contest photos and videos and pre-event coverage, please visit:
www.vans.com/poolparty

Nike SB May 2009 Part 2

And of course everything from part 1 all pics courtesy CCS. Yeesh.

We Now Take a Break to Say "Thank You"

Being bitter and jaded is a pretty easy thing. Typically in this modus operandi everything sucks and nothing is good enough. lately though things have been looking up especially in the world of all things digital. I'm not sure if it's the migration of audience primarily from print to web but today was the first day that I can ever remember saying ...there's too much good stuff out there on the web.

I'm talking about skateboarding. Videos, blogs, articles, essays, applications, interviews, as of right now ... it's endless. That's a very good thing. It's old news to most of you but just listening to BA and Phelps talk about the Wallenberg comp was enough to get my hyped for any footage that may filter out .... or god forbid go watch it. So since it doesn't get said enough thank you all the filmers, web nerds, writers, editors, photogs and media jack of all trades whoa re keeping this giant digital thing rolling. Video below

Thrasher Skateboard Magazine

The Last Easter Shoe Hunt Post of 2009 (maybe)

I hit up Transworld Business prior to Easter Shoe hunt to see if they could promote and received radio silence. A few weeks later they reached out to me inquiring how it went etc. So, click on the art below or this fancy link to find out. (or you can just scroll down)





Leveraging Twitter for Event Marketing
Mike Lewis

This year, Washington D.C. blog South of the North brought the Easter Bunny to the nation’s capital with a new take on the power of twitter. In conjunction with Vans, DC, Nike SB, Loyal Laces, Index Ink, and Convoy Skateboards they created a treasure hunt tweeted clues to the location of fifteen golden eggs, good for a free pair of kicks, one at a time to everybody that signed up. “The goal was to hook up some local skaters, drive business into local shops, and figure out the appropriate level of brand integration,” says Jonny Burns, the man behind South of the North. The idea was spawned by Tony Hawk’s recent twitter scavenger hunt, and Burns, an action sports consultant, wanted to see if he could achieve something similar without Hawk’s name recognition.

We caught up with Burns to find out more about how he’s using twitter and the event. Here’s what he had to say:

The South of the North twitter account saw an increase of 190 subscribers over a 5 day period which was pretty good for no marketing and word of mouth. Considering how small the skate community is in Washington D.C. It was more interesting to see how many non-skate people got involved by discovering the event via twitter hashtags. (#Free, #D.C., #Washington, etc)

On the brand side we tied back retweets, new features, product features, etc into the contest over the course of the day. We also tweeted the brands twitter account with the message to support the sponsors. Same as promoters sponsors any contest only our megaphone/microphone is twitter.

The overall goal was to see if it works for “the little guy.” Tony hawk can do this because … well he’s Tony Hawk. He’s worth millions and has the same number of fans. But, can somebody whose name is not a brand name still pull this off? I thought it could be done and pulled it all together with the help of some generous sponsors and friends. This wasn’t a money making venture for myself or any of the sponsors. The biggest take away is that we provided a fun event for seven hours in Washington D.C. handing out shoes, giving brands and a local shop some additional exposure and the out of pocket expense was mostly time. Local shops, brands, they can be doing this today if they wanted. It’s a model that works if you’re name is Tony Hawk or your blog is named SouthoftheNorth.com. The web can level the playing field if you are creative enough.

A few funny things happened. First we were en route to drop an egg off at the 4th stop of the day and we tweeted a clue that “Mel Gibson yelled this and Pepe used to skate it” Obviously a shout out to Freedom Plaza and Pepe Martiniez. However at this point we didn’t know who was actually playing along. So we rolled up to freedom and there were a handful of guys rifling through bushes, trees, picking up panels searching for the egg. We went stealth mode walked over and tossed it down. When one of the guys found it another lost his shit and started screaming he had just looked there. I felt bad for a minute but somebody wins and somebody loses.

Afterward we rolled up to U Street in D.C. and hid a shoe egg in the Washington Times newspaper box in front of the world famous restaurant Ben’s Chili bowl. There was only one newspaper left in the box and we had to ward off a lady who wanted to buy the paper ( I handed her the one I picked up when I deposited the egg) and then the players/contestants came. The first guy who ran up didn’t believe us that he needed 50 cents to get a paper and the egg. He flipped out looking for change. Next a lady ran up deposited the change and nearly ripped the handle off the newspaper box opening it up. Needless to say she got the shoes and walked away pretty happy. I handed off a t-shirt to the first guy…

It was a really fun but long day and I’ll be doing something similar to it for go skate day and likely expanding to NYC, LA, Chicago and continuing in D.C. This type of thing to hook up skaters, do something fun and DIY … to me this is one example of finding common ground and use for things like twitter in the world of action sports.

Nick Dompierre Joins DC Footwear and Apparel

So it looks like Nick D. is lacing up with DC shoe on his feet and their threads on his back. This is good. I'm happy to see this breed/generation of skaters finding a good match in the trenches of the sponsor war. All joking aside watch the video below and if you can check out some of the Real Skateboard clips or the Vans Downtown Showdown. Amazing skating and typically makes me smile to watch Guys like him ruling it at age 22. Best of luck with DC Nick.



PRESS RELEASE

NICK DOMPIERRE JOINS DC SHOES AND APPAREL


APRIL 24, 2009 – Vista, CA – DC is proud to welcome professional skateboarder Nick Dompierre to its footwear and apparel team. It takes just one look at this month’s cover of TransWorld SKATEboarding (June 2009) magazine to witness the raw talent Nick brings to the team.

“I’m excited to be a part of one of the most legendary skate companies of all time – on the same team as Danny, Colin, Kalis and everyone else; getting to shoot photos with Blabac - it’s pretty amazing,” said Nick. “Working with DC is giving some great opportunities, like building my first DC pro model shoe. I’m looking forward to a long future here.”

At only 22 years old, Nick just landed on his fourth cover – having now appeared on the covers of Thrasher, Slap, The Skateboard Mag, and most recently (and arguably the heaviest) TransWorld SKATEboarding. Add that to his long list of additional accomplishments, including his 2006 nomination for TransWorld’s Street Skater of the Year as an AM, and it’s no wonder why skateboarders around the world are anticipating his latest video part in the upcoming Real Skateboards film.

“The dynamic that Nick’s aggressive style brings to the DC team is an amazing addition to our roster. He’s fast, raw and so talented,” said Ken Block, DC Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer. "We look forward to working with Nick.”

DC is excited to release to the world Nick’s intro part featuring unseen and new footage today at www.dcskateboarding.tv.

New Buried Life Trailer

The new Buried Life trailer has been making the rounds and it's interesting to see what four guys have managed to start as a grass roots intitiative has grown into a unique forthcoming MTV show. Even the New York Times is getting in on the hype. Well, maybe it's not all that unique but imagine if you took the movies 'Road Trip', 'Bucket List' and combined them with the vibe of 'Extreme Home Makeover' you get a show for the MTV crowd that's a little more in tune with the state of our nation.

I wonder if this will be MTV's attempt to offset the excess on frequent display with the Sheckler show? Don't get me wrong - Sheckler is a solid skater and I have no issues with the guy at all. Hey, get paid while you can. Build that empire. But in a day and age when kids are going to work to help pay for groceries I don't know how much anybody can relate to a 20-something that has a mansion and wears diamond laced watches. yes, he earned it but the world is a very different place from when Life of Ryan first was broadcast. That's why the time is perfect for 'The Buried Life'. The next few months maybe years are ones where we are all going to have to pitch in.

Skating, snowboarding, surfing, all of the things that embrace the DIY ethic understand pitching in to build our own scene and our own community. Maybe The Buried Life can help spread the idea of just doing something versus talking or complaining about it.

Nike SB May 2009

Issue #2 of Quiksilver Roam Brazil Now Available

Just sayin' if you are in a download mood ... check it out.

Eric Koston on Nike SB ?

From the Twitpic of Felix Arguilles ... Koston sporting some Nike SB Dunk Highs.

Here's another possibility ... he might just like the shoe. Who knows...

Best Trick at Bridgespot

Earth Day Gone a Skatin' With Ipath and Element

Remember when Earth Day was a Big Deal? I think it was back in 1990 or 1991 when all of the sudden people really began to give a damn about the environment. Maybe it was the bizzaro Hollywood-fashion-entertainment-music world machine that tends to spit out trends the way Paris Hilton spits out Chihuahua bones or maybe it was more of grass roots thing. I'm unsure but for some reason every year Earth Day rears it's head and reminds us that you should get out there and pick up some trash, recycle, yadda yadda yadda. OK, I can tell you this is more than a once a day thing but considering I participate in skating and snowboarding which can be very environmentally un-friendly (have purchased your carbon offsets for all that glue, epoxy and diesel fuel for heli time? I sure haven't) I'll avoid the soapbox speech.

But, it is nice to see a few companies out there who are contributing. That being said I do enjoy seeing Ipath and Element continually put their best foot forward with regards to the environment. While it may be good for business every little bit is good for the environment as well. IPath does an exceedingly good job at keeping hemp in their lines and it shows from their latest offerings. Specifically the newer shoe the Darius. It's been a few years since a pair of shoes has come along with a normal silhouette but a good line to it. I'm pretty happy that this shoe looks like it will be a 20 minute break in period. Natural fibers tends to be structurally sound but break down quick for wear. All is well when you think inside the outbox. Well done Ipath.

Element on the other hand is pushing forward their power to the planet message pretty hard. Again, nice to see the marketing at least have a good message. I wouldn't necessarily classify other ads as a "bad" message but seriously Baker I don't need to know how drunk Dustin Dollin is not do I care. Ah well, to each their own but we should start the Dustin Dollin liver transplant gambling pool. That's a whole separate post for later this week. Until then, get out of your car. Skate to your next skate spot and have fun contributing to the world of skating under your own power on Earth day.

Apple Computers Will Make You Rad ... Sort of

So I was out riding with Monument Dave at Ski Liberty in PA this past winter. I'm sure he was gaping out in a classy Virginia tech jacket and fine thread that only he can pull off when he said "I have my airtime watch today." Clearly my head half turned inquisitive dog look was more than enough to make him explain a bit more. "It records your hang time." Pulling a carabiner off a belt loop and he tossed it in the air. Upon catching it the little watch face showed how long this device had been up and about defying then regretfully accepting the laws of gravity. maybe it was the tone of the six espressos I had consumed but we both pretty much erupted into laughter. Another piece of useless junk marketed to snowboarders and showing why not all technology finds a relevant home. Then fast forward to today ... this popped up on my radar.

The USPTO has officially revealed one of Apple’s great Issued Patents which covers extreme sports. Apple is apparently working on an activity monitoring system that uses speed and loft sensors amongst others to monitor ski, snowboard and mountain bike jumps. For example, a typical snowboarding person might regularly exclaim after a jump that they “caught” some “big sky,” “big air” or “phat air” without ever quantitatively knowing how much time really elapsed in the air. Apple’s invention is to provide an apparatus and method for determining the “air” time of participants in sporting activities. The system is also shown to work with a monitoring watch, very much like a Polar style device. As in the case of Apple working with Nike, Apple may now be working with leaders in other sporting arenas. Whether Apple will modify the iPod in any way or simply debut a series of new devices like a smart-watch is unknown at this time. But for now, it’s clear that Apple has their eyes on advancing deeper into the sporting market. Extreme Sport enthusiasts - get ready!

It looks like the mac posse is working on the same thing. Who's ready for a Burton snowboard than will tell them how fast, miles, vertical feet and all the other pertinent data that is best left too people with excess in the time and money department. Like Burton or Lib's $1,200 snowboards targeting a newer high end of the market this feels like an attempt to create a new market in snowboarding. However this one is based around hardware and data that isn't relevant. let me put it to you this way. Logging more vertical feet, air time, speed these things do not make you a better rider. Sure, knowing if you are riding faster will help if you are a boardercross or slalom racer. But, if you are waiting on this tech and you are in that category ....you're an idiot. Buy a stop watch. On the the slightly blurrier side of all things park, half pipe and free riding things are very clear. Judging on hang time, or god forbid "phat air", has never really entered the equation. Style, effort and that little life affirming action of "going for it" tend to count for more in the judges rule books. In short this doesn't make sense and it's nice to know what crap we will see at SIA cluttering the shelves.

Eric Koston on Vans ?

Who knows it's just all in good fun for the rumor factory. Maybe Koston found out how much another former Lakai rider is making. The screen grab is from the latest Wednesdays with Reda and as we all know skaters only wear their shoe sponsors kicks at all times. That was sarcasm by the way

Demo and Product Drops: Convoy Skateboards

Coming hot on the heels of Easter Shoe Hunt Convoy Skateboards is rolling out several new decks and hitting up Charm City this weekend with a few other skate lumber companies for a little Demo on Sunday April 19th.

So first things first. get your ass out to Baltimore this weekend and go see or skate with the Convoy team. That's always a good time. Road trip, skate, hang out, lurk, roll the bones. Do what you gotta do but be there. I think you'll be quite pleased with yourself if you do.

Next up if you need new wood it doesn't hurt to support the little guy. Sure you might not have your "Berrics x Deathwish Lizard King" collabo deck but hey that would only make you look kinda douchey. Nothing against the Berrics or Deathwish but c'mon people spread the wealth. Mew graphics are solid and this is D.C. are we all sorts of DIY? Keep the cash local and grow our scene here. lets not export our dollars. I personally am a fan of the anchors away in an eight. Well done Convoy Skateboards. Now enjoy a battle of the Pyramid video edit ... hooray video!

Easter Shoe Hunt 2009 Recap

So lets take a brief minute to recap how Easter Shoe Hunt 2009 came into existence. Two weeks ago I scanned the twitter feed and saw Tony Hawk hid some decks around Southern California and twitterd locations. "What a great idea" I thought. How could I do something like this quickly and be timely to capitalize on the energy? Easter was right around the corner and I loved the idea of an egg hunt. Seeing as how shoes have become intertwined with skating an Easter Shoe Hunt made sense. I only needed to find shoes ... so I quickly put out notes to a few shoe companies who have been friendly in sharing content with South of the North. Vans was first on board quickly followed by DC Shoes. This was all in the span of 3 hours. A day later Nike SB was on board and we were off and running. Convoy skateboards quickly stepped up and in with more prizes as did Loyal Laces. A big win was getting Chad Carothers from Index Ink on board to do the art. Four days after the initial idea the promotion started.

There were a good number of sign ups and plenty of press from Transworld Skateboarding, to SkateDaily.net to a number of blogs, sneaker and skate sites ...a good number of people got behind this so a big thanks to all of you who helped spread the word.

Saturday was a bit of a crazy weather day and after hiding the first few eggs we didn't know if people were going to be showing up. Soon the @SouthoftheNorth messages began blowing up. Once we hit the District we knew it was going to be a crazy day. By this point Dave Tran from Monument joined me the chaos. At this point it's best to let the pictures tell the story ...enjoy.


Stop one was in Arlington, VA at a mini golf course. Later on this would get picked up.

Ah the first tweet goes out!
This kid hit up Arlington Skatepark before we hid the egg. he still walked away with a Convoy hoody.
The Arlington Skatepark egg and Convoy deck go down. This was picked up 20 minutes later.
Down at Iwo Jima it was raining and we thought the day would be a bust until...
.... Shep showed up and came running up the field looking for the egg. I may have told him try to get the Smith 2.0's they are amazing to skate in.
Down at Freedom Plaza we had a posse searching left and right. Homeboy in the flannel lost is sh*t when his buddy found the egg.

My favorite stop was up at Bens Chili Bowl. The egg is inside the red newspaper box.

The clue was "U Street Bens Chili Bowl 50 cents gets you a Washington Times and a new pair of kicks". What happened next ws pretty funny.
A tale of two Easter shoe hunters... the guy on the left walking away was first on the scene but didn't have 50 cents. The young woman came running up in flip flops with change and scored the shoes. The guy walked away with a convoy t-shirt and our flip flop friend had her own story to tell...
This was the second newspaper box she checked near Bens Chili Bowl. The first had a full 5 pound ham inside. Yup, an Easter ham. Welcome to D.C.

The next drop went outside the Beltway to VA and into one of the Easter Shoe Hunt sponsors. The crew at Alpine Ski Shop hooked up two lucky winners with Snearkers, Convoy Decks and a grip of stickers.

After an adult Pepsi or two were back to DC and in Dupont Circle. Around 10-12 people were running around hunting. This fell walked away with some new Vans ...
New shoes will land on this gals feet courtesy of Easter Shoe Hunt and D.C.
The Final drop started falling in Georgetown ... this guy ran four blocks down the canal to the patagonia store to score some new Nike SB's

Cameron here barged a J. Crew Store display window to score this Nike SB egg. He had the G-Town knowledge to get up to M street quick.


Finally after a 15 minute search down by the new G-Town waterfront park this skater rolled away with some new SB's. His crew was 4-5 deep and would hit Easter shoe hunt spots swarming all over and skating. A smart crew for sure.

That's justa brief sampel of Easter Shoe hunt 2009. As much fun as it was to play it was equally fun to plan and throw down. I really want to thank the 175 people that signed up to follow South of the North on twitter. Alos, without the spnsors this would not have been possible. A huge thanks to

Vans
twitter.com/vans_66

DC Shoes
twitter.com/DCSkateboarding.com

Nike SB
twitter.com/Kevinnikesb

Alpine Ski Shop
twitter.com/alpineskishop

Loyal Laces

Index Ink

Again. Thanks everybody playing, sponsoring and running all over the city looking for kicks.

-Jonny
SouthoftheNorth.com
twitter.com/southofthenorth

Return of Ryan Sheckler: Life of Ryan Season 3 Trailer

Wellllllllll look who's back for more. Interesting to see how this pans out in the skate media. Let me tell you how it will pan out in the mainstream media. I came up with a simple equation

Ryan $heckler + MTV Show x Girls Gone Wild style programming ='$ More main$tream expo$ure for Ryan $heckler.



I hope Ryan has a really good accountant watching his money because right now he's 110% making it hand over fist. I'm guessing this is never work again type money. Which it could be if he's living within his means. i certainly don't think it's cartel/oil/"I know where the hookers body is buried" money but still ... a sizeable piece of change.

South of the North Interview on the Extreme Scene

Hooray! I'm un-famous. Actually let me back up before we dip into narcissism. So, a few weekends ago Cyruss and Steve from The Extreme Scene radio show up in the Bay Area were kind enough to invite me on air and talk for a few minutes. What happened was a 48 minute rambling conversation  covering everything from MFM to the current issues facing shops and even face tattoos. Yep, it was a weird one. But,a  real fun interview. The guys kept the conversation moving and asked some real good questions. Hint if you here me pause for more than 5 seconds I'm pondering what I'm about to say. So listen to the interview and check out theextremescene.com when you can. You might get a chuckle or two.

Tuesday we'll be recapping Easter Shoe Hunt and then back into the regularly scheduled blargin'

Easter Shoe Hunt Update & Free Shoe Friday is here!

Why is this Friday so good besides a multitude of religious overtones? Well for starters today is the day I'm giving away the free pair of Vans customs for those who are registered to follow me on twitter but also because we have an Easter Shoe Hunt announcement to make. So for everybody participating tomorrow we not have a few too many prizes. yes, this is a problem we like to have so I'll be giving away two pairs of shoes every hour instead of one. Your chances to lace up in some new kicks for skating just got a whole lot better. To enter for the free Vans Customs or to get involved with Easter Shoe Hunt click on the link below

Follow South of the North on Twitter

Easter Shoe Hunt Prizes Round 3: DC Shoes & Register for Shoe Giveaway

With the Easter Shoe Hunt coming in hot for Saturday I've been buzzin' around non-stop trying to gt the word out. When the idea to do this first hit me about a week ago it all hinged on a few things including the most important part - where are the shoes coming from? I was pretty lucky that Vans and Nike SB jumped in and pretty excited to see DC Shoes was willing to step up as well.

I didn't hide how stoked I was on DC Shoes last year with the roll out of the Smith 2.0. Getting them to throw in some support is great and I'm psyched to have them on board. Speaking of which if you haven't checked out DC's Ask Video Rob series the rolling under current of laughter doesn't go low tide. Also, in terms of doing something that's fun to watch make sure you check out DC's Project Granite on the Berrics. I love the fact that so many sites are now doing use gen contest and it's spawned off of the Berrics bringing back the notion of how much fun a game of SKATE can be. You can catch the first and second tricks at the home of the Battle. What may be the most impressive piece is how they are drawing incredibly impressive results. Check out these recent winners and runners up selected by PJ. This is why it's exciting to have DC on board for Easter Shoe Hunt. Yes, they make some solid shoes and super suede has yet to surrender but it's what they are doing for skating - keeping it fun and interesting that gets me really excited. So haul ass out to Easter Shoe Hunt in Washington D.C. this weekend and score some DC Shoes. Hell even Renee Renee thinks it's going to be a good time.

Easter Shoe Hunt Update - Shoe Give Away on Friday!

Over the past 48 hours since The Easter Shoe Hunt was announced both my e-mail inbox and twitter accounts have been blowing up. One common question is "Is this Easter Shoe Hunt only on Saturday?" Quickly this is followed with "I can't make it Saturday. Hey, I understand it's a holiday weekend. People are traveling and you might already have plans. So this Friday night we're going to do a simple hookup/giveaway just for following us on Twitter

The Easter Shoe Hunt is still 110% on for Saturday but now you have an additional chance to win! sign up to follow South of the North on Twitter by 5 pm eastern on Friday April 10th you are entered to win a free pair of Vans from their new custom shoe shop online shop. That's right with the prizes arriving daily and having a little extra I thought what a solid opportunity to make sure everybody has a shot at something. I'll announce the winner Friday night at 5:30 pm Eastern on Southofthenorth.com. Everybody signed up to follow South of the North on twitter is eligible to win. if you win in the give away you can still win a pair of shoes or prizes during Easter Shoe Hunt.

If you are familiar with Vans.com/customs you'll know that you can design your own personal Old Skool, Era or slip on. Vans classic shoes are a timeless piece of skating and as I noted in an earlier post I've been loving the Vans Era/Authentic more than ever and hey... it's one of those "perfect" shoes. The new customs website is looking better than ever with it's new design so check it out.

Now, if you need the simple instructions here they are

• Want a free pair of custom Vans?
• Sign up to follow South of the North on Twitter
• You must be signed up by 5 pm ET Friday April 10
• Check SouthoftheNorth.com on Friday at 5:30 PM ET to see if you won!
• You can still win shoes & prizes the next day in Easter Shoe Hunt

Easter Shoe Hunt Prizes Round 2 - Convoy Skateboards

Tuesday was a pretty crazy day. It was up and at 'em bright and early to stat sending out e-mails for Easter Shoe Hunt publicity. After a long day at the office I was stoked to come home to a bunch of prizes having shown up. The most interesting of which was hand delivered. Yeah, Convoy Skateboards has come through with a grip of decks, some shirts and sweatshirts for this weekends Easter Shoe Hunt. hey, we have to keep it marginally legit for all the skaters.in the area. Eamon from Convoy hand delivered the goods and then broke out for parts unknown. Eamon will be along for part of the Easter Shoe Hunt ride this coming Saturday.

Convoy has been on the D.C. skate scene since 2005 and doe s a great job of putting on local events and making sure skating continues to grow and thrive in DC-MD-VA. Recently Canvoy put on a another Battle of the Pyramid contest at Arlington Skate Park.This was another example of how tight knit our skate community is and what we do to keep it alive. Hopefully Convoy keeps on trucking into more local shops and we get to see them blow up right in front of our eyes.

Easter Shoe Hunt Prizes Round One and Circus Tricks

So the prizes for Easter Shoe Hunt are flowing in. First up from the now blue boxed crew at Nike SB we have kicks certificates to give away. These are what I've been getting tweets on all night. As you know sign up to follow South of the North's Twitter account this Saturday for the Easter Shoe Hunt to upgrade you SB's.

Speaking of contest...not to draw you away from Easter shoe Hunt but you really need to check out our man Hoon's Snowboard Virgins contest. All things being what they are hoot doesn't love a free snowboard and some soda pop? Plus, we will get a few good laughs. Stay tuned for more info on that ... Now back to Easter Shoe Hunt!

JJ and Brad at Loyallaces.com hooked up a box of laces for people to lace up during Easter Shoe Hunt. Really appreciate the support guys.
Finally from Boardistan via West World...William Spencer is back. What's funny is that when this kid isn't doing fancy-shmancy gymnastics he's a damn good skater. We'll delve into this more but in the meantime enjoy the circus tricks.

William Spencer

[Link: Boardistan West World]