the KNOW SKATEBOARDING project

Skateboarding is awesome.

Published January 26, 2010 in media and tangents. 4 Comments

Holy shit, I won the Nikon Festival Audience Award!

I’m working on a slightly more eloquent write up to express how much this all means to me, in the meantime here’s the announcement:

the official press release and judge Chase Jarvis blog write up that hits the nail on the head regarding the revival of 411.

Huge thanks to the almost 15,000 people that watched and rated my video, I couldn’t have done it without you! Extra special super thanks to Josiah Gatlyn and Steve Berra whose personal efforts to inform the skate community of the contest made all the difference. 411vm will be back, skateboarding is fucking awesome.

Passion Makes It Possible…

Published December 30, 2009 in media and the KNOW SKATEBOARDING project. 0 Comments

Something awesome is in the works.

Watch and vote/rate HERE!

Nikon Festival Entry: New York State Of Mind

Published December 22, 2009 in media and tangents. 0 Comments

So, last night I found out that the film I submitted for the Nikon Festival was selected as one of the 50 finalists out of over 1200 entries. I was super hyped and didn’t get much sleep to say the least! Now, here’s where you come in…There’s an audience award based on the (number of views) multiplied by (the star rating), so please watch the video below, then follow this link: New York State of Mind and click on the 5th star to the right underneath the title to rate my entry. Tell yo friends, to tell they friends and we can all be friends…
Thank you very much!

Vida Sobre Rodas - Promo Oficial

Published December 2, 2009 in media and the KNOW SKATEBOARDING project. 0 Comments

I just saw this trailer for a history of Brazil skateboarding project by Daniel Baccaro called Vida Sobre Rodas which translates to Life About Wheels. Well produced, engaging and even though I can’t understand what they’re saying, the language of skateboarding is loud and clear. The project covers from the sketchy 80’s to the success achieved by guys like Bob Burnquist, Sandro Dias, Lincoln Ueda and Christiano Mateus. Looking forward to the full-length.

How Does This Still Happen?

Published December 2, 2009 in media, tangents and the KNOW SKATEBOARDING project. 0 Comments

How? Why?

Pilot Light broke it down better than I ever could, but I’ll just leave you with a quote from the director.

“Hey I’m Jeff Richter* and I’m a filmmaker who loves skateboarding. I also love the new Mustang. This is how I would unleash my Mustang. I would make the Mustang do skateboard tricks, wall grinds, tail grinds, 360 kickflips.”

Hey Jeff, I’m Josh Friedberg. Just a little FYI, those first two tricks you mentioned, aren’t even tricks. Ford, next time you try and make a commercial with skateboarding, hire someone that knows what they’re doing, or at least an editor that can link together Jeff’s insanely hacky cliche ass skateboarding shots in a semi-coherent manner.

I’m pretty sure this is how Jeff remembers skateboarding. 1:02 look familiar?

Pure garbage, hope Jake and Pat got paid $$$.

*Jeff Richter also produced, edited and directed the 2004 mega-hit, William Hung: Hangin’ with Hung.

Bastien Salabanzi celebrates his win, just slightly early.

Published November 30, 2009 in media. 1 Comment

Chill man, it’s cool. The tricks speak for themselves…

Bastien Salabanzi at the Tony Hawk Show in the Grand Palais, Paris, France.

Chris Cole via TWS
What would you have to win or land specifically to get as hyped as Bastien was in that clip?
A double Cab flip. Just kidding.
Not possible. I don’t get to that point, I think I would have to be wasted, kill the contest, and in between go shred a guitar solo, deliver a baby, kick a terrorist’s ass, and shoot a flaming arrow into my name on the jumbo screen. I’m so happy he did that though, that’s awesome. -Chris Cole

Battle at the Berrics 2 Trick Transcript and Results

Published November 22, 2009 in event and the KNOW SKATEBOARDING project. 0 Comments

While watching Steve Berra and Eric Koston’s Total World Domination Head-to-Head Championship Freestyle Battle aka Battle at the Berrics 2 aka BATB 2 I had a full skate nerd moment and decided to transcribe the tricks just to see what went down. The final match was epic and took 35 tricks landed to decide the winner. For comparison, the shortest match was decided in just 13 tricks. Warning: this contains spoilers so if you haven’t watched the matches, and don’t want to know who won, stop reading now. If you don’t give a shit and just want to see what tricks went down by who and when, then read on. more ‘Battle at the Berrics 2 Trick Transcript and Results’

Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins first female McTwist, and it’s not a 540.

Published November 21, 2009 in media and the KNOW SKATEBOARDING project. 0 Comments

Another NBD bites the dust. Quiksilver and Tony Hawk put on the insane French concert version of Boom Boom Huck Jam called the Tony Hawk Show at the Grand Palais in Paris this weekend. He’s progressed to living in an alternate reality at this point. No hate, just feeling a little bewildered. On the upside, Tony put down another 900º and Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins became the first woman, female, girl to land a McTwist. Yes, a McTwist, not a 540º. It was legit as shit too, nice work Lyn-Z! Peep the video below.

Tony Hawk Show Highlights
Uploaded by quiksilver.

Nikon Festival Entry

Published November 20, 2009 in media and tangents. 2 Comments

I put together this piece for a contest Nikon is having, give it a look. Thanks!

UPDATE: Here’s a higher res version that captures a lot of the nuances the Nikon compression lost.

New York State of Mind
24 hours in New York City, shot over two different days last year. Working with the Driendl Group I’m lucky enough to gain access to some amazing locations. Starting with sunrise over the East River, moving on to shoot Jerry Driendl at the old Yankee Stadium, back to the lab for a bit, then out to a packed Times Square. Just when I thought the day was done, huge snowflakes started falling from the sky, so it was time to break out the kit again and try to capture the fleeting interaction of nature and the city that never sleeps. A beautiful end to another day in the city. I love the energy of NYC.

2nd Annual Johnny Romano Skate Jam Photos and Results

Published November 10, 2009 in media and the KNOW SKATEBOARDING project. 0 Comments

Saturday I drove the 3 hours over to Houston for the 2nd Annual Johnny Romano Skate Jam at Southside Skatepark. I’ve been a big fan since we first covered the Make A Wish benefit in 411VM in the 90’s and I was stoked that due to my proximity, I’d be able to attend this year. This is actually the 13th time the event has been held, being re-named in Johnny’s honor after his passing. Without a doubt this is skateboarding’s most feel good event, and it was great to catch up with everyone that made it out. I had a chance to speak to South Shore Distribution’s Damian Hebert for a bit about how the whole thing came about. It’s really nice to see the family aspect of skateboarding make an appearance after being doused in circus contests and deodorant commercials for so much of the time. For a solid write-up with actual details and history, check out this piece Josh Brooks did on ESPN. More coverage courtesy of Rob Brink.

I decided to try and do a real world video test with my Canon 5D Mark II for most of the day, it was interesting. I’m editing the video and will have more on that later.

If you haven’t seen this video of Chris Cole you’re blowing it!

Results
Bowl
1. Ben Hatchell
2. Tony Cervantes
3. Raney Beres

Zumiez Ledge
1. James Hardy - frontside 180 to fakie backside nosegrind
2. Davis Torgerson - switch frontside 180 to backside krooked grind
3. Andrew Pott - hardflip backside nosegrind

Tech Center
1. Chris Cole - 270 backside kickflip to frontside lipslide
2. Daniel Espinoza - Schaefer wrote SB CAB FLIP, whatever the hell that is.
3. Joey Brezinski - 1/2 cab manual frontside railslide 270 out

Destroyer Award
Luis Tolentino for standout tricks on the ledge and tech center.

Here’s my roundup of photos from the day. The Zero Strange World premiere was sick, nice work.