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Vol.12 No.3, HOLIDAYS 2013
SKATING FORINNER PEACE
$4.95
16 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013
HOLID
AYS
2013
Guto
Lam
era.
Pho
to: M
icha
el B
ream
30 EDITORIAL40 NOTEWORTHY48 COMPANY PROFILE: SEVEN SUNS50 LONGBOARD THERAPY52 GOT STEEZ?54 OPEN: LGC SKATES ISRAEL60 VIETNAM SCENE REPORT66 SKATING FOR INNER PEACE70 A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO GOING FAST72 PUSH CULTURE FAMILY PICNIC74 SPAIN PHOTO ESSAY86 KRYPTONICS: THE REBIRTH92 WATER WORLDS: SLALOM CHAMPIONSHIPS96 ABLE-BOARDED: PROFILE OF KATH KILCULLEN98 LONGBOARDING FOR PEACE UPDATE102 ARTIST PROFILE: MIKE NIELSEN
CONTENTS
22 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013 CONCRETEWAVEMAGAZINE.COM
We’ve had a pretty good fall this year, and well into October, I’ve found myself baskingin a great deal of sunshine while I skate. That’s the good news. The bad news is thatthose of us in the eastern parts of North America are staring down at least five to sixmonths of winter. On top of that, it seems like there is one crisis after the other. If it’snot government shutdowns, it’s chemical warfare — and if that doesn’t freak you out,there’s always Miley Cyrus. But as many of you have read in these pages, longboardingkeeps me sane. After a bad day, all it takes is a ride on my skate and I am transportedboth physically and mentally. This is the “why” of Concrete Wave; we know that somany more people could benefit by the joy that longboarding brings. I just hit my 38th
year riding, and I can’t imagine what it will be like to hit my 76th year. While we loveexposing people to the joy of skateboarding, the truth is that Hollywood has an abilityto reach millions. Think about the legacy of Back to the Future. That film inspired ageneration of folks to take up skateboarding. On December 25, moviegoers will betreated to a new film from Ben Stiller called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The filmhas had some good reviews so far. But what intrigues me the most are the longboardscenes. There’s footage of Ben rolling around New York City and bombing a randomhill. The film looks promising. Will this inspire a whole new generation of skaters? It’s hard to say, but it sure can’t hurt. Here’s wishing you all the very best for 2014!
Rider: Mauricio Cadore at Parque Marinha, Porto Alegre, Brazil.Photo: Daniel Souza
THE F
INE P
RINT
30 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013
EDITORIAL
The above two photos weretaken on October 22,2013. Concrete Wave, in
conjunction with Long-boarding for Peace, workedwith Canada Blood Servicesto get longboarders to donateblood. The plan worked, anddozens of longboarders from
across Canada rolled up their sleeves and gave the gift of life. Some people might findthis story somewhat unusual for an action sports magazine. My sense is, however, thatthe world of longboarding can accommodate a lot of different stories.
I’ve known Patrick Switzer and Anna O’Neill for many years. I’ve seen them both risethrough the ranks and mature as strong competitors. It was quite a trip to seePatrick’s devoted fans at last year’s Board Meeting in Toronto. Anna has made quitea name for herself in the Philippines. While I am proud of their accomplishments ona race course, I am doubly proud to have them come out and support the Blood fromBoarders initiative.
We hope that this event turns into a regular affair. Our next goal is to team up withMusic Saves Lives and start a longboard blood-donation program in the USA. Fromthere, the plan is to eventually go worldwide and get 50,000 longboarders to donateblood. This will help save the lives of 150,000.
A number of people who don’t longboard sometimes ask what makes it so special.There are all kinds of responses. Skaters will tell you they definitely enjoy thefreedom, the speed and the blissful feeling under their feet. But I’d say there is onething that definitely rivals all these feelings, and that’s the amazing people you meetthrough longboarding. So here’s to the heroes, both on and off the race course.
Enjoy the issue!Michael Brooke, Publisher
TM
Vol. 12 No. 3 HOLIDAYS 2013
PUBLISHER/EDITORMichael Brooke | [email protected]
ART DIRECTORMark Tzerelshtein | MarkintoshDesign.com
CORRESPONDENTJim Kuiack
I.T. DEPT. HEADRick Tetz of CalStreets.com
COPY EDITORJonathan Harms
ASSOCIATE EDITORJoey Bidner
HEAD OFFICE1136-3 Center Street, Suite 293, Thornhill, Ontario, L4J 3M8Ph: 905.738.0804
SKATESHOP DISTRIBUTIONBuddy Carr DesignsPO Box 1895, Carlsbad, CA [email protected]: 760.722.4111
CONTRIBUTORS (In order of appearance): Christopher Vanderyajt, Gádor Salís, MichaelBream, Daniel Souza, Laetitia Weyerman, IsaacFarin, Valeria Kechichian, Ben Kaufman, KatieNeilson, Anna-Selina Kager, Sunny Horsnell,Anonymous, Shane Poss Crosland, Dan Herzog,Jonathan Nuss, Danielle De Jesus, Jack Smith,Jim Goodrich, Judi Oyama, John Janik, RachelPramesi, Steve Pederson, Pierre Hazera, MartinDrayton, Dave Timermanis, Steve Quinn, AnahíRossel, Chris Bennett, Mike Nielsen.
COVERS:1. Rider: Axel Serrat
Photo: Christopher Vanderyajt
2. Rider: Cami BestPhoto: Gádor Salís
CONCRETEWAVEMAGAZINE.COMConcrete Wave is published by North of La Jolla Inc. Subscriptions (5 issues) are US$26 FIRST CLASSor CAN$26.
Address change? Mag not arriving? Email us...don’t go postal. We can sort it [email protected]. We will notify you whenyour subscription expires. Publisher’s permissionis required before reproducing any part of thismagazine. The views and opinions expressed inConcrete Wave are not necessarily those of thepublisher. We happily accept articles and photos.Please contact the publisher directly [email protected] before you submitanything. We are looking for a variety of storiesand images as long as they are skate-related.
WE CAN BE WE CAN BEHEROES …
Photo: Rick Tetz
DTCThis brandnew DTCwheel wasdevelopedto have funskatingunder fullcontrol and with an insanely predictable slide. Theresult is a truly speed carving/hardcore freeride wheel.dtc-wheels.com
RAYNEThe 36” Darkside hybrid deck crossesover a love of radial drops for DHleverage, control and lock-in with ayearning for a kicktail to get up, over andaround everything and anything. Like afun button for around town, now you canollie, manual, blunt and firecracker yourway from place to place instead of justpushing. raynelongboards.com
TUNNEL
Tunnel announces the reissue of the 1978 TunnelBlackhart model. The legendary Rick Blackhart is adominant skateboarder who attacks pools, parks andpipes without fear. The limited-edition 31” by 8.5”deck is solid alder wood. These beauties, built byLongboard Larry, are offered in the original colorways:natural, black, black and red, and black and yellow.tunnelskateboards.com
BRAKER
Braker Boards are 100% hardwood, smooth riding,customizable longboards for the high-end consumer.These boards will cut and carve the perfect hill as wellas aesthetically please all generations. Braker offersplenty of shapes and designs to fit the end consumer.brakerboards.com
40 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013 CONCRETEWAVEMAGAZINE.COM
EARTHWINGThe 3D moldin the Super-model 2014 isavailable inboth symmet-rical topmountand drop-through. This3D mold offersmuch morecontrol withlocked-in confidence. There are mild fendersover the wheels, providing added control andwheel clearance. That same geometry is mirroredat the instep to create an almost 360-degreeconcave for each foot. A “W” runs up the centerthat slides right into the arches of your feet todistribute pressure evenly across the bottom ofyour foot for more control. earthwingnyc.com
COBRA SLIDEGLOVESAimless Skate is a new Cana-dian company that has pickedthe brains of the scene’s bestriders to produce the top-quality Cobra slide gloves.Made from a super-soft,super-durable goatskinleather, these gloves feature double thickness inhigh-wear areas like the fingertips and aroundthe thumbs. They utilize doubled-up stitching tohold all the seams together for keeps. The short,piped cuff of the Cobra slide gloves makes for acomfy, tight fit that integrates great with thesleeve of leather racing suits. In order to ensureideal hand temperature and to maximize theextraction of perspiration, the Cobra gloves con-tain perforated leather on the dorsal.aimlessskate.com
DUSTERSDusters California announces therelease of the Farrah Fawcettcruiser and longboard. Bothboards will feature one of themost iconic images of the past 40years, the Farrah Fawcett pinupposter. Dusters California willdonate a percentage of sales tothe Farrah Fawcett Foundation foreach skateboard and T-shirt sold.dusterscalifornia.com and thefarrahfawcettfoundation.org
BLOOD ORANGEBlood Orange have come out witha new bushing shape that comesin the same five duros as their bar-rels and cones. It provides aunique feel that blurs the linebetween barrel and cone.They have also released newbearings. On top of this, sevennew colors of grip tape havejust hit. skatebloodorange.com
HONEYThe 32” Mini V is a descen-dant of the popular 42” Velocityand 40” V2 Velocity. Pressed with thesame concave as its big brothers, theMini V is comfortable and responsive underfoot.If you’re looking for a smaller, lighter board tocarry around campus or just want something dif-ferent to zip around on, the Mini V will bringsmiles to your face with its quick and snappyturns. honeyskateboards.com
FACEPLANTThis company wasfounded with thehopes of creating aquality lineup ofwheels at an affordableprice. The feedbackhas been incredible so far. Also look for theirFaceplant Boardriders longboards. wheelrz.com
WEIRDWOODWeirdwood Skateboards cometo you from the undergroundof Maine, USA. Owner RodKendall is an avid skateboardcollector and ramp builder wholikes to showcase trippy,unconventional shapes andartists that break new groundwith function and innovation.Weirdwood is very proud to debut the first JeffTatum signature decks released in eight years. Jeffis a legend and pioneer in the skateboarding andlongboarding world. Weirdwood will start the J Tseries (featuring graphics by Jeff) with a Hybrid42” double kick for transition, parks and bowlsand the 37” double kick for transition, bowls,parks, air, slides and cruising. East Coast: 207-650-0926; West Coast: 760-216-9129.weirdwoodskateboards.com
NOTEWORTHY PRODUCTS, PEOPLE, EVENTS
NOTEWORTHY PRODUCTS, PEOPLE, EVENTS
42 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013 CONCRETEWAVEMAGAZINE.COM
KOALACombine firsthand skate-board experience with acraftsman’s eye for origi-nality and you have DaveMcleod’s one-of-a-kindKoala Custom Boards.Tiring of the sameness thatdefines mass-producedfactory boards, a few yearsago Mcleod decided to dosomething about it, establishing Koala CustomBoards. Inspired by skateboard design from an erawhen the sport was still in its infancy, Mcleod’s hand-pressed birch skateboards intentionally fuse form tothe desired function of individual riders. KoalaCustom Boards reflect a bygone era when skate-board designs boasted their own unique [email protected]
RIPTIDERipTide hasfinallyunleashed theStreet Series,which includestwo traditionalshapes — theboardside androadside Cone and Barrel — plus three new board-side shapes for Indys and other traditional-kingpintrucks. Listed in order of stability: the StreetFat-Cone, StreetMagnum and the StreetChubby.Available as a kit or in pairs at riptidebushings.com.
DB LONGBOARDSYour feet aren’t the same from toeto heel, so why should your boardbe the same side to side? TheRobot Special is Spencer Smith’spro model and board of choice,incorporating one-of-a-kind asym-metrical concave with arider-friendly design. The finalproduct of many hours of develop-ment, this is one of the mostwell-thought-out, progressiveboards on the market. The Robot Special delivers abidirectional design that is suitable for both goofyand regular riders alike. dblongboards.com
HOLESOMNew gloves by Holesom. Reinforced everything.Doubled-up leather where needed. Breathable
palms. Tongue closure. Comfy palm padding.Bitchin’ knuckle embossing. Ride with a smile andkeep it Holesom. All gloves come with Holesompucks. holesom.com
JATI
The Karate Chop is the result of rider requests fora smaller Chop Suey. Karate Chop has ¼” rockerand flared 3D wheel wells that create a nice andcomfortable pocket. It also has generous kicktailand a small nose kick. Lastly, at 9.75” wide and38” long, with 22”/24”/26” wheelbases, it’s agreat compact yet versatile deck. jatiboards.com
NUKEThe W.M.D. is thenewest wheel in theNuke arsenal. For thosewho demanded a 75mm wheel for more rollspeed and predictablegripping in corners, webring you the “Wheel of Mass Destruction,” a 75mm/83A square-lip race wheel with gobs of speedand control. nukewheels.com
KLEVERThe Patriot is Klever’smost advancedfreeride and racingdeck. It is 9.5” x 36.5”and features a .625”micro-drop. There aremultiple wheelbaseoptions (27”/28”/29”)and large CNC-machined wheel wells.The almost symmet-rical shape makes itideal for freeriding. kleverskateboards.com
LONGBOARD RACK
This rack comes in two sizes, with three or fiveboard slots that will hold longboards, skate-boards, wakeboards and snowboards. It’s madeof lightweight aluminum and has unique plasticinserts to cradle your board like a baby. It alsohas hooks on the bottom for helmet and gloves.The rack mounts on the wall with just threescrews and retails for $29.mylongboardrack.com
DADDIES FOUNDERBECOMES AUTHOR
Congratulations to Melanie Loveland, who hasjust co-authored a children’s book entitledCoconut Jack. The book features illustrations byTalli Ettinger, wife of longboard pro Yoni Ettinger.Available on amazon.com.
NEWTONThe Newtonretains thegeometry ofpopular RKPtrucks in ashorter, lighter,topmountedpackage. With Newton’s 50o angle baseplate and5 mm offset 180 mm hanger, axle height is only 53mm and weight is only 13.25 ounces. Die cast alu-minum, premium axles and kingpins complementthe clean lines. Natural and colored finishes withmultiple bushing options available. Works ideallyon cutaway-style decks and is a highly desirableconcept for LDP decks. newtonskate.com
NOTEWORTHY PRODUCTS, PEOPLE, EVENTS
44 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013
CADILLAC
Poured in the same THC slide urethane as the81A Swingers, the 70 mm/78A Cadillac Swingersare made for busting out giant slides with ease.The 78A formula provides some extra grip forconfidence at higher speeds. Stone-ground toslide smoothly right away, the Swingers wearevenly down to the high-performance hub. Witha centerset hub and graphics printed on bothsides, these wheels can be flipped to promotemore even wear. fullcircledistribution.com
CORRECTIONSIn the September issue, the photos on pages 84,85 and 125 were shot by Marion Ross. The photoon p. 158 (David Dean) was taken by KhaleeqAlfred. Cover #3 was actually Jamie Jacobson.
NATIONAL SKATEBOARD REVIEWFrom Oct. 5-19, 2013, Di Dootson Rose and National Skateboard Review (NSR) hosted the “Home-GrownSan Diego Skateboard History” exhibit at ArtLab in San Diego. More than 250 people attended theopening reception to meet some of the pioneers of California skate history, view the exhibit items and buyskateboard-related art.
Guests included Patti McGee, Henry Hester, Bruce Logan, Robin Logan, Brad Logan, Tommy Ryan, LarryBalma, Dale Smith, Lynn Kramer, Tim Stahl, Mike Williams, John Hughes, Glenn Miyoda, Jim Goodrich,Steve Cathey, Denis Shufeldt, Lance Smith, Chris Yandall and Layne Oaks. The closing reception attractedLaura Thornhill-Caswell, Brian Logan, Debbie Gordon, Tom Stewart, Todd Huber, Gregg Weaver and DaveDominy. The art and product for sale was produced by Chris Yandall, Dave Hackett, Jim Goodrich, LanceSmith, Natalie Das, Patti McGee, Steve Evans and Tim Stahl. Event T-shirts are available. CW
From left: Tommy Ryan, Robin Logan, Glenn Miyoda, Bruce Logan and Di Dootson Rose.
48 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013
What are some of your earliest skate memories?
Gael Canonne: Everything started when I was7 or 8, somewhere around 1985. At that time Iwas living in California and my mom had thegood idea to get me a skateboard. I rode likecrazy. Not long after that, I moved to Paris,France, with my dad and rode my new skate-board down my street all the way to Place Clichyand used old bus tickets found on the way to takea ride back up to my building.
At the time I used to ride on my knees. Atsome point I realized that by using harderwheels, the board would start to drift and slide inthe sharp turns. That’s when I decided to makemy first pair of slide gloves! Years went by, and Iended up leaving my skateboard in the closet as Istarted using my bike and eventually a moped atage 14. Then, later on, still attracted by boardsports, I started to snowboard as soon as I sawthe first boards popping out here and there.
How did you start making longboards?
My first longboards were made in 2006. I had beenwanting a longboard for a long time but nevercrossed the step yet. Building and handcraftingthings myself has always been an obsession, so Inaturally came to the conclusion that the best way
to get what I wanted was to fire up the Skil saw!Last thing I remember is that the two old snow-boards I had sitting there disappeared! By thetime they were finished and I started riding them,lots of friends and people in the street would askme where I “bought” my board. I ended up makinga few for some friends and quickly realized thatfinding old snowboards at a good price was notthat easy, plus I was frustrated that you have noconcave or camber and cannot have any nice finishor design underneath the deck due to the sole ofwhat was once a snowboard.
After some research I decided to create my ownbrand. My dad lent me a little space in Paris. Ibought some wood, resin, fiberglass and carbonfiber. Made a hydraulic press with steel beams andmade some molds out of wooden casings andplaster. Not long after that I had my first-everhomemade longboard built from scratch, and on topof that it was perfectly rideable — and still is today!
At that time I started by myself. Not long after,my brother joined in, and by 2009/2010 our com-pany, Blackkross, was one of the biggest, if not thebiggest, longboard manufacturers in France.Unfortunately, by that time, things didn’t go wellwith my brother, so I decided to quit with him andstart a whole new longboard company called
Seven Suns Longboards. At that point I changedthe whole manufacturing process and materialsused with the goal of making top-of-the-line long-boards with a more positive vibration.
What is it like being a part of the French
longboard scene?
When we first started introducing our boards thatwere radically different than what riders were usedto, we had a lot of criticism, and for some reason itwasn’t always easy. But on the other hand, theamount of riders, friends and family encouragingus helped us not to give up and keep on going!
After that we participated in a lot of skate-board events (freerides, world and Francedownhill championships and slalom champi-onships) throughout France. This allowed us tocreate a strong relationship with the core move-ment of longboarders and slowly extend to thenewcomers as the sport grew bigger and biggerall over the world.
We also sponsored riders from the very begin-ning in order to help develop our boards and spreadthe word by riding, making videos and pictures.
This experience was really fun and exciting, aswe felt that we were directly pushing up thelongboard scene in France at our scale!
SEVEN SUNSC O M P A N Y P R O F I L E
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HOLIDAYS 2013 CONCRETE WAVE 49
As I created Seven Suns, this new adventuretook a whole new meaning to me, as the markethas evolved so much that most of my customersare now riders buying their second or first long-board. They are full of curiosity about the sportand have many questions about their newacquisition. This is why I also created an onlinelongboard guide (www.longboard-guide.com)explaining almost all you would want to knowabout longboarding when you just arrived inthe scene! Customers really feel reassured to beable to speak directly to the shaper and areexcited about buying a local, handcrafted, high-quality deck. Many customers also like to comeand visit our workshop to see how their boardscome to life — and of course to test them, as wehave the whole range ready to test! They arealways welcome here!
So, being part of the longboard scene inFrance has been a lot of work but very fun, andallowed us to meet many interesting people, andwe really feel that we are part of the develop-ment of the sport over here.
What are some of the reasons that your
boards are different?
Well, we really tried to find our own way: mate-rials used, designs, way of making the boards. Wealways tried out many different constructions toget where we are today and not just use what weread here and there or what people have beentelling us to do or not. Many prototypes havebeen made and tested so we could see for our-selves how things turn out in real.
Our aim is to offer high-quality boards madewith high-tech materials but in a craftsman-ship way. We like to make custom boards forcustomers. And we always try to have thelightest and toughest boards out there. Per-formance is as important to us as design andfinish. And we have enough different models totry to satisfy all types of riders. There areabout 15 different models in the range at themoment, and we are planning on coming outwith some really high-tech stuff soon! All alongthe process we also try to be as environmentalfriendly as possible and always aiming to dobetter. But the best way to see the difference ofour boards is to see them for real and ridethem! In general people are simply blown awaywhen they hold one of our boards for the firsttime! Many people tell us that they are afraidto ride them because they don’t want to ruinthe finish, and they even think of hanging themon their wall! (Is that a good thing?) No matterhow many pictures we put up on the Internetor in magazines, they never completely appearwhat they really are like.
How did you come up with the name Seven Suns?
Our company philosophy is to make the bestboards possible and always try to improve that.Never compromise on quality. Have a positiveimage and way of dealing with every aspect ofthe company. From this positive sight of this allcame out the “Seven Suns” name: seven being a“magic” and positive number in numerology andthe sun being an extremely warm, strong andpositive emblem. Both together sounded good, sohere we go!
Is it difficult to be in Europe developing long-
board products? Do you have plans to move
to the United States?
The longboard market in France and Europe is
totally different than it is in the U.S. For a start,it is way smaller. All the American big longboardcompanies sell in France and are all over theskate shops at prices that are hard to competewith; same thing for the brands made in China.So today if I want to sell my longboards in askate shop and be competitive, it is extremelyhard, and for me almost impossible, as I cannotinclude the shop’s margin and make a living atthe same time.
All this makes it extremely difficult to make aliving out of it if you only sell your boards. Theonly way to make it work would be to have amore “industrial” approach, which I amabsolutely not interested in. I’d rather not makelongboards any more than have to create a “fac-tory” to mass-produce. This is why we startedspecializing in other things like electric guitars,motorcycles, bikes and more. This way we cankeep each one of these activities in a customquality, small production spirit. All together theywill allow us to still have fun and make a living.
I was born in France and grew up in Cali-fornia until I was 7 or 8 years old. My mom hasbeen living out there since then, and I have vis-ited her almost every year for vacation. I loveCalifornia and have thought about moving theremany times. I’ve been torn between the two coun-tries. It is hard to make a decision, but when Ilost my green card and tried to [get] a new one, itwas such a hassle — not to mention how I wastreated at Immigration! — that I slowly made mylife in France. I’m sure that I could have devel-oped a bigger business out there and not struggleso much, and even today I still think aboutmoving out there once in a while … But hey! I’monly 35. Many things can still change! CW
W hen I first received a call from Alexis’*mother, I had no idea if LongboardTherapy would be the most therapeutic
option for her. Alexis was 11 years old andalready had two open-heart surgeries. Hermother described her as having fears and pho-bias, anxiety, intruding thoughts,obsessive-compulsive behaviors and a major fearof illness. On top of all that, Alex lives with her17-year-old brother who has autism, which hasbeen quite a challenge for her.
During her first visit to my office, Alexis wasintrigued with the idea of Longboard Therapy.She asked many questions about the LongboardTherapy news article on the wall of my office andthe longboard hanging from the ceiling in thewaiting room. She shared that although shethought it would be a good idea to try LongboardTherapy, she figured she would have a very hardtime, because she was not good at skateboardingwhen she tried it years ago.
Alexis and I spent quite a few sessionsworking on her relational issues with familyand friends, as well as her fears and phobias.We renamed some of her phobias to change herrelational connection to them, and we practicedmindfulness and hypnotic interventions to pro-vide a different context for her to make changes.Although we were not longboarding yet, wewere working through the metaphor of Long-
board Therapy: learning to live in the presentmoment with mindfulness, focus and balanceand stepping outside her comfort zone.
During my first formal Longboard Therapysession with Alexis, I was admittedly not veryhopeful that she would pick up the basics quickly,especially since she was quite scared the firsttime we moved off the grass and put our boardson the pavement. But by the second session,Alexis was riding comfortably and feeling theflow. I was shocked, she was shocked, and wewere both thrilled. I will never forget the smile onher face; I could feel her sense of accomplishmentwhile her mother and grandmother watched herride. I suggested to Alexis that she could take thisflow with her into other areas of her life. She cer-tainly took that to heart. After five sessionsinvolving the longboard as an intervention, Alexishas learned to ride, turn, brake and go downhill.She no longer complains of fears or phobias, and
she is doing much better at home. She evenstepped out of her comfort zone by auditioning fora particular play—something she normally wouldnot have done—and she got a part in it whenmany others did not. In addition to this, Alexis’grades have improved; she recently made thequarterly honor roll at school, which was also anew development for her.
Alexis continues to ride through her chal-lenges, exceeding even her own expectationsabout what is possible. During our most recentsession, I asked Alexis to articulate how Long-board Therapy has been helpful to her. Sheshared, “Ever since I started longboarding I feelfree, and I never thought I would be able to belongboarding. I didn’t believe I had balance. Ittaught me to get out of my comfort zone, andwhen I am longboarding, I ditch the negativityand skate away so they can’t catch me.” CW
*Names have been changed for confidentiality.
50 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013
By ISAAC FARIN, LMFT
LONGBOARD THERAPY:FROMFEAR TOFREEDOM
52 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013
Cami BestPhoto: Gádor Salís
HOLIDAYS 2013 CONCRETE WAVE 55
I WAS FIRMLY HOLDING CINDY ZHOU’S HAND while shewas getting her first tattoo. She was getting the Hebrew letterAyn inked on the back of her neck surrounded by 14 dots: onedot for each rider on an amazing trip. Ayn is a letter in thePhoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Maltese and New Persianalphabets. It means eye, openness, spring, water … Ayn isOPEN’s official symbol and general concept for this trip. It wasthe last night of our journey and we were at our goodbye partyat a house in the middle of an open field, somewhere near TelAviv, but it felt like the middle of nowhere. A lot of people werethere, in the house, on the porch, on the grass and in the halls. Itwas hot, humid, loud and noisy. We were exhausted and dirty,but we were perfectly fine. We all knew we were ending a journeyof a lifetime. Nine of the 14 riders got the same tattoo, becausethat’s how much it meant to us all — a memory that will be inour bodies forever, about those 13 days in Israel shooting the firstever full-length movie about female longboarding.
The idea of this trip started some months before, when JackyMadenfrost, Monica Madenfrost and I were heading to the Long-board Girls Crew office in Madrid on a public bus. We startedfantasizing about how cool it would be to go to Israel and skateover there. We had just received a visit from our brothers atDasilva Boards, a native Israeli longboard brand, and had madesuch a strong bond that we were inspired to do something withthem — so why not in Israel? The excitement only grew as theidea became more ambitious. At first we thought it would justbe us with a GoPro, but the idea of taking some of the best femaleriders to Israel quickly started to gain more weight. The list ofriders, the filmmaker, the route, the plan, the cost, the money …we got carried away so fast it was a constant explosion of ideas.Needless to say we missed our bus stop, but we had just createdsomething that after three months of extremely hard work wouldturn into our biggest project to date.
In late August, the first of us slowly started arriving in Israelfrom our hometowns. We were all coming from different citiesand countries, so the first three days until we all got there andstarted shooting were messy. There was no defined sleeping timeor eating time. If you woke up at 5 a.m. you would find peopletalking in the kitchen or playing guitar. If you woke up at 3 p.m.it would happen the same. People were coming from so manycountries and time zones that it was jet-lag chaos.
For the first half of the trip we rented a house in Ein Kerem,an hour away from Tel Aviv. It was a beautiful Romanic housewith a lovely garden. Those first days we spent the time talking,setting up our boards, playing musical instruments, going forshort walks in that small neighborhood, shooting the first inter-views, talking about the longboard scene … I remember thosedays being very slow, but that wouldn’t last.
The first day of shooting and all the following would be hectic.DH, freestyle, freeride, dancing, skatepark, street … we hadeverything. We met with the local Israeli crew the first afternoonand the stoke was sky-level. I always say that the best part oftraveling is meeting with the locals and having human (andsometimes alien) interactions. It was such a great afternoon.You’re in a country that is far away and different from where youlive, and all these people show up to meet, skate and share somelove for this sport. It’s heart-filling. I have this image of us in thevan leaving and everyone outside waving us goodbye, feeling thesame stoke we were feeling. Truly special.
By VALERIA KECHICHIAN
In late August and earlySeptember 2013, 14 femaleriders from 11 differentcountries gathered in Israelto shoot OPEN, the first full-length female longboardmovie. This is a shortchronicle on how we livedthis lifetime adventure.
LGCSKATESISRAEL
OPEN:
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The first days of shooting were particularly hard due to allthe production issues coming up. We had the Dasilva Boardscrew in charge of the local production, but moving 20 peoplearound a country like Israel was no easy task. Solving problemsin Israel is not like solving them in Spain, Canada or the U.S.,where you basically know how things work. The roads in Israelcan be sketchy, narrow, oily, extremely old or fantastic, dependingon the spot, so every day was a wild ride.
We spent the first half of the trip in the north of the countryand the second half in the south. Most of the days we split up intwo groups according to the spot and the riders’ discipline.
Tel Aviv is a very Mediterranean city, so it wasn’t veryshocking landscape-wise. We enjoyed the boardwalk, the beaches,bars and restaurants. The real cultural shock would come inJerusalem. The cultural mix there is amazing: Jews, Arabs, Chris-tians, Muslims, Orthodox … everyone living in the same ancientcity packed with history. We skated the rooftops, visited themarket, had the tastiest falafel of our lives and rocked the buddysystem so no one would get lost. We wanted to go to the Orthodoxneighborhood but the Dasilva guys told us it was not a good idea.Their “dress code” is very strict, and not following it would bringus major trouble. I also wanted to go to the occupied territories,but again, they told us it could get sketchy. We learned a lot aboutthe conflicts and heard very neutral people talking about them.
The Sea of Galilee is in the north, and all the surroundingroads flow into it, so basically everything is downhill. We had arad session over there and finished the day sitting in the seawatching sunset in the place where Christians believe thatJesus walked on the water. Regardless of religious beliefs, beingin these places was blowing our minds.
We moved south after almost a week. The Sde Boker Kibbutzin the Negev desert was going to be our home for the last daysof the trip. We were supposed to arrive early but stopped on aslope we found and ended up spending the whole afternoon inan amazing slide session, all 14 of us. We were genuinely stokedabout being together, teaching each other new tricks, trying newslides and getting them as long as we could. Rad, rad day. We gotto the desert late at night, so we didn’t really see where we were.The next morning we gathered for breakfast and Daniel Etura,the director, asked me, “Did you look out the bathroom window?”We were in the middle of the desert, right next to a crater, some-thing I’ve never seen before. We screamed as much as we couldwith excitement, hardly believing our luck of being there.
The desert sessions were out of this world. The landscape,the roads, the colors … so different from what we are used to.Ramon Crater may have been one of the most amazing roads ofthe trip.
The south was filled with fun activities besides skating, likecamel riding or going to the Dead Sea. In case you don’t know,the Dead Sea has nine times the amount of salt a regular seahas, so nothing can really live there. The water is thick and oilyand you float. Yes, float — you can’t go down. It’s a really badidea to put your head down in the water or scrub your eyes ifyour hands have touched the seawater, though — it’s a premiumticket to painland. But the major fear above all was the scarsand the salt. Most of us were full of road rash, so this didn’tseem like a pleasant ride. It turned out it wasn’t as bad as wethought, but it was far from being fun, I guess.
Sharing the experience.Photo: Ben Kaufman
Cami Best ripping Jerusalem’s rooftops.Photo: Katie Neilson
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The desert sessions at Makhtesh Ramon (Ramon Crater) were out of this world. Photo: Ben Kaufman
Planning lines at Ramon Crater.Photo: Ben Kaufman
Ishtar Bäcklund (left) and Amanda Powell.Photo: Ben Kaufman
58 CONCRETE WAVE HOLIDAYS 2013
Cristina Sánchez and Valeria Kechichian feeling some serious stoke in the Negev Desert.Photo: Gádor Salís
From left: Jacky Madenfrost, Micaela Wilson, Jenna Russo, Cristina Sánchez and Gina Mendez, ready to hit the hill.Photo: Gádor Salís
Katie Neilson (top) and Amanda Powell in Ramon Crater.Photo: Gádor Salí
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The last day we came back north to Yafo, as we were meetinglocal Arab, Muslim and Jewish kids in the Twinned Peace SportSchools as part of the program with Longboarding for Peace. It wasan amazing and rewarding experience. Bringing people together,especially kids, through longboarding is one of the biggest thingswe can do. Longboarding for Peace is doing an amazing job world-wide, and supporting this cause in Israel was the only way to gowhen we first thought about this whole project. Three differentnational TV channels covered the event on the news, and it was alittle step ahead to reach acknowledgement for the cause.
That night was our goodbye party at Dasilva’s and the night weall got tattooed with the Ayn symbol. That summarizes a bit thewhole meaning of this trip: exciting new place, new friends, thegift of learning, rad skating and amazing adventures with eyes,heart and mind wide OPEN. Life is a journey, and we don’t wantto miss any of it. Build your own adventures, learn while livingthem, have fun and be good.
The OPEN trailer was released some weeks ago, and it’s just aglimpse of the kind of movie it will be. We honestly can’t wait.
And we couldn’t have done any of this without the awesomeriders who came and gave their best to make it big. Thanks toDaniel Etura, the director of the movie and the guy with the mostpatience of anyone I know so far. To the Dasilva Boards crew —Alon Meiri, Ben Kaufman, Tom Goldwasser, Ty Charap and IdoCami — we couldn’t have done it without them. To Matt K forbeing the most talented follow-camera person I know and gettingthe sickest shots at ridiculous speeds. (He was also the most whinyperson of the trip!) To the local crew, everyone we met, everyonewho’s helping now and everyone who supported us with ourIndiegogo campaign: THANK YOU. Your support means the worldto us. Big ups for our sponsors that got us there and believed inthe project as much as we do: Loaded Boards; Orangatang Wheels;Daddies Board Shop; Sector 9; Landyachtz; Kahalani; Vault; G-Form; Bustin; Riviera; the Israel Ministry of Tourism; El AlAirlines; Índigo Energías Renovables; Rayne; RipTide Bushings;Ennui; Slipstream; Concrete Wave Skateshop Cologne; BastlBoards; Kaina; Solo Freeride; Rey Trucks; Inercia; Cult Wheels;Marta Guillén; Divine Wheels; Incus; XS Helmets; Zero Gravity;Caliber Trucks; Concrete Wave magazine; Sickboards; Toxic WorldSkateshop; The Pucks; Paris Trucks; Triple Eight; and Abec 11.
This adventure was epic. Here’s for dreaming big.And me, I’m again, as part of this column’s tradition, writing
this article on a plane, this time while flying from NYC to L.A. Ijust attended the Broadway Bomb and am heading to L.A. for newskate adventures. The Bomb was a sick event that, as usual, gath-ered skaters from all over the world in New York, so I got thechance to meet with great humans. I was deeply touched bymeeting the girls that attended the event: Anna O’Neill, JenicaDavenport, Keyla Denise, Monica Mejía, Lyndsay McLaren, KatyFry … they are all SO amazing and lovely and rad! Some OPENriders also reunited in NYC during the Bomb: Cami Best, MicaelaWilson, Cindy Zhou, Gina Mendez and I. The level of excitementwas over the moon, because that’s how much we love, support andcare for each other.
We continue working. The female longboard scene is doing itright. Follow us daily at:LongboardGirlsCrew.com | Facebook.com/longboardgcTwitter: @longboardgirls | Instagram: LongboardGirlsCrew CW
Valeria Kechichian enjoys the moment.Photo: Ben Kaufman
Gádor Salis kickflips in Tel Aviv.Photo: Katie Neilson
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B y A N N A - S E L I N A K A G E R
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Bush Lâm shredding in Tây Hổ, Hà Nội (Hanoi). Photo: Sunny Horsnell
Regardless of where you live on this planet, sportis the essence of social cohesion and gives a com-munity or society the strength and courage to
consciously build a healthier environment.Vietnam, a country historically marked by several
wars and political setbacks, is on its way to economicrecovery and therefore also open for free minds andspirits to share new ideas and visions. The revolu-tionary communist leader Ho Chi Minh, who is stillhailed by a significant percentage of the Vietnamesepopulation, left his traces on the characteristics ofVietnamese society. But these characteristics and thehistory make this beautiful country and its inhabi-tants conspicuous and eager to build up a new worldof freedom and diversity of ideas.
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Vietnam is a country where people stilldo a lot of things manually and enjoy thepureness of handcrafted items and home-made food, which also means people dependon each other’s skills and therefore givehigh priority to family and community. Alsoa big part of their lives still takes place out-side, starting with a morning sport sessionevery day, which might include dancing,stretching, martial arts or yoga on the side-walk or in a park. Briefly speaking,Vietnamese citizens try to keep a balancebetween the wave of digitalism, globaliza-tion, outdoor activities and solidarity.
I wanted to tell my story of my Vietnam,how I arrived here and how I experience adifferent society through an approach ofskating for a better lifestyle and cohesionon the other side of the world. It’s a societywhose story has been taught in every his-tory class, and a country that earns all myrespect to be such a proud nation of humanpotential and natural resources.
A series of coincidences brought me toVietnam. While living in the Netherlands,working for SNV Netherlands Develop-ment Organisation as a communicationsintern, I suddenly got kicked out of thebubble and had to make a choice betweenmoving back to Austria — a country I stilllove and call home, but left because of goodreasons — or moving to Vietnam.
The little nomad in me taught me rightand made me decide to relocate to Vietnam.
Vietnam is one of the least-developedcountries in Southeast Asia. It seems veryodd to Westerners at first glance, but thisimpression is mainly a typical cultureshock. You always imagine what a devel-oping country might look like, but you can
never fully imagine how it would be to livethere if you have never lived there before.
I found a place with busy roads, the nar-rowest alleys you have ever seen in yourlife, hoots from every corner and the mostsignificant smells of delicious Pho and BunCha everywhere. I was here, in Hà Nội(Hanoi), with both feet on the ground, a newjob, new friends and a society and culture Ieagerly wanted to be part of from now on.
Expats here have different approaches tohelp them become part of the society. Somego for excessive partying every weekend,some go to yoga or meditation classes, andothers choose to join an internationalcharity club. The tool I used was my long-board. If you share the same passion ofshredding down on the concrete waves ofVietnam, you overcome every cultural dif-ference and you suddenly speak the samelanguage as anybody else in the world.There is no need of explaining yourself ifyou ride down a road together with a bunchof Vietnamese guys and girls and just enjoybeing there, having a blast and learningfrom each other.
Bush doing his little morning dance in Hanoi.
Quang Văn chilling with a friend in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.
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Because the proportion of people whospeak good English is quite low in the northof Vietnam, however, I first had to makefriends with expats. So in the beginning Ishared my passion and my ideas related tolongboarding with Westerners I met. A long-board is already very exotic in Vietnam, anda longboarding girl is like being the 10th
world wonder: What the heck is that girldoing on the streets on that big weird thing?I started enjoying this “wow” effect. Peoplestarted talking about it in Hanoi, andstrangers came to me in clubs and asked mewhere they could get a longboard here. Andthen I suddenly met Timm — with a doublem — a German shredder who told me abouta crazy tall Dutch guy who would skateevery meter in Hanoi on his longboard. So Itried to find this dude — unfortunatelywithout success.
On my way to longboard enlightenmentin Vietnam, however, I met Quang and hisfriend Bush, a down-to-earth guy with a pas-sion for reggae, dubstep, drum and bass and— who would have known — for sliding.Both got their first longboards in China andhave been totally stoked ever since.
Through Quang and Bush I finally alsomet the crazy Dutch dude, Marco, and hiswife (now ex-wife) Francine, both stokedlongboarders. The lost boys and girls foundeach other.
I remember we wanted to meet up on aThursday evening, right after work, to goskating around Westlake, the biggest lakein town, with a shore length of 17 km.Totally excited, I ran out of the securitydoor of my house and bumped into a Cana-dian guy, who almost started crying out ofhappiness when he saw me with all mygear. “Girl, this is awesome!” he said. “Yougot a longboard here? Can I join you?”
Well, there he was, Tim (with one m),another member of our freshly baked crew,lovingly named The Hanoian Longboarders.
The Hanoian Longboarders is a Facebookgroup that began growing significantly inthe first few weeks. We tried to meet up atleast once a week. Soon the guys started tomake those meetings a multifaceted targetdate where people came together to skate,play music, meet new people and enjoy thebeautiful view from the northern banks ofthe lake over the hustle and bustle of thecity center.
Pha Hoang from the Surfpoint Vietnam crew after a session on the Mui Ne highway.
Anna-Selina with her favorite board on the secrethighway spot in Ho Chi Minh City.
Anna-Selina doing a spot check on Mui Ne's amazing highway.
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The group has 40 members now, which isa big number for a country lacking in accessto real longboard equipment. I’ve sincemoved to the South, so I hope someone elsewill take over the lead and further spreadthe stoke in the beautiful North.
Building a longboard community in a for-merly communist country gives us theopportunity to connect people through some-thing other than just work and structure.It’s all about having fun, enjoying freedomand sharing interests. People near our spotsstarted asking our Vietnamese shredders ifthey could come and bring their kids, try itout themselves or just watch us skating.
After seven months living in Hanoi, Itraveled back to Europe to reconsider myfuture plans and to meet my friends and
family back in Austria and the Netherlands.Nothing had changed back home, but I sawthe importance of being part of a commu-nity to be able to achieve goals together andlearn from each other. People were stilldoing the same things — working duringthe day, skating on the boulevard ofScheveningen in the evening, drinking acocktail at the Zahara Cocktailbar after-wards — but skating strengthened thecommunity in The Hague, where I used tolive before I moved to Vietnam, more andmore. The shared stoke helped people todevelop themselves both skating- and per-sonality-wise.
After going back to Europe, I accepted anew job offer in the south of Vietnam and,along with my new Bastl Boards Bolero,
moved to Ho Chi Minh City. As this movewas also be a small restart, I thought ofmaking my vision of a growing longboardfamily in Southeast Asia more tangible. So Icontacted Jacky Madenfrost and decided totake over the lead for the Longboard GirlsCrew here in Vietnam.
Exciting days followed this decision andbrought me to meet a wonderful bunch ofpeople from all around Southeast Asia inone place: Putrajaya, Malaysia. The TFYSkate crew organized a downhill event, witha rad crew shredding down a track with amaximum speed of 70km/h. Amazing dayswith probably the most interesting people Ihave met so far on my Southeast Asianadventure. Everybody is totally stoked togrow the sport and the community. We even
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created a group on Facebook with the name SouthEast Asian Longboarding, which rapidly gainedmembers, from 50 members on the first day to 200on the third.
Here in Ho Chi Minh City I’ve already man-aged to get some girls together for a LongboardGirls Crew. We’re still quite small, but we’regrowing. We are very proud to call Saigon Out-cast, a venue in District 2, which also features ahalfpipe and some good roads around it, oursecond home.
I have met wonderful people with the samekind of mindset and vision here. Andy Ngo, ThaiNguyen and Boris Dufour all want to give furtherand do what they can do best, skating. We areplanning to create a new venue for street skatersand longboarders somewhere in the city and if pos-sible also organize some epic downhill events outthere in the beautiful mountains of Dalat, Mui Ne,Tam Dao and some other spots in the North. We’renot sure where our mission will lead us, but we allwant to use skating as a tool to strengthen theVietnamese society and teach kids and others tolaugh and enjoy life on a plank and four wheels.
I would say we are ready for a big season, withmany more events in Southeast Asia on theschedule right now — for example the upcomingannual Haven’s Gate: Tanay Mayor’s Cup in thePhilippines on my birthday, December 7. Andremember our season here is infinite. We canskate here all year! No snow, and if it rains duringrainy season the roads are usually dry again after30 minutes.
We would all be totally stoked to welcome someof you guys (and girls!) here in Southeast Asia. Soif you plan a trip, just let us know via one of theabove-mentioned FB groups.
Big love from the lovely country of rice noodles! CW
The Longboard Girls Crew Vietnam at their firstmeeting at Saigon Outcast.
A couple of Saigon's best groms at Saigon Outcast.
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When I told this magazine’s publisherwhy I would not be meeting thedeadline for an article I pitched to
him some time ago, I felt it necessary to explainwhy. To be honest, I couldn’t write, I couldn’tthink, and happiness in general eluded me,which severely inhibits one’s ability to write.When I explained my situation, all he could saywas, “That’s some heavy stuff.”
I considered myself a strong and confidentindividual throughout my young adult life; Iclimbed up trail-less mountains that wereinfested with poisonous snakes and spiders andnearly broke my leg on the descent, among manyother near-death experiences. Yet despite mydeath-defying actions, death caught up to me ina different way and nearly destroyed me. It wasindeed some heavy stuff. I explained it to thepublisher as this: Whenever a door starts toslowly crack open, giving me a glimpse ofsunshine, it’s slammed shut in my face.
I suppose this is where I should tell my story.Like many stories, it starts with a girl. I met heron Valentine’s Day through a friend. I hadn’tthought much of her at the time, though I could
certainly tell she was very outgoing. I hadn’tparticularly planned on hanging out with anyonethat day; I had been going solo for a year at thatpoint and was pretty comfortable with it. Insteadof trying to talk much with this girl, I insteadleft early in favor of going home to edit somevideo footage that I had been working on. Thenext day my friend told me that this girl hadbeen checking me out, so I thought I would giveit a shot. I ended up getting the girl’s numberand started hanging out with her.
It seems like it should be a fairly happy storyat this point: boy meets girl on Valentine’s Day,girl is really cool, boy starts dating said girl. Ihad been seeing her for a month, and I reallyliked her and enjoyed being around her. I feltreally happy and everything felt natural — butthat’s when my life turned into a nightmare.
I received a phone call from her one day withsome shocking news: She found out that she hadcontracted a “silent symptom” STD from an ex-boyfriend who had cheated on her. She wasconcerned that I might now have it too, so sheinsisted that I get tested. Of course I agreed to it,and I made an appointment with a doctor.
I wasn’t too happy with her at that time, forobvious reasons, but a few days before myappointment I had started talking with heragain. She gave me the whole story and insistedthat I find a way for her to make it up to me. Shewas an extremely talented apprentice at a tattooshop, so we decided some new ink would be adecent way for her to do so. She had otherwiseproven to me that she actually did care about meand really felt bad about what had happened,even though it wasn’t necessarily her fault.
The day of my doctor appointment was theworst day of my life. I went for the test, whichwasn’t exactly a pleasant experience to beginwith. Right after I got done with the test, I senther a text message that if she could provide herlab results, I could be treated immediatelyinstead of having to wait for my results to comeback. It was a fairly long message, and she neverresponded. I figured she was just at work.
Hours later I was lying in bed watching TVwhen the friend who had introduced us called meup in tears. She told me that my girl was dead —that she’d been killed in a car crash. I wasspeechless. I asked her what time it had
SkatingINNERPEACEF
OR
Author's note: This is written anonymously both for my sake and that of my family.
happened, and she said it was about four hoursbefore the call. It was 11 p.m. at that time, andfour hours ago was exactly when I’d sent her mylong text message. I locked up. At first I couldn’tdo anything; I just stared into space, notbelieving that it happened, thinking that it mustbe a mistake of some sort. Then it dawned on methat I had killed my own girlfriend, as she wasthe type to text and drive.
I wasn’t sure what to do, so I went into workas usual the next day. I hadn’t told anyone atthat point because there wasn’t anyone around totell. I didn’t want to be alone with my thoughtsbecause I knew I would simply lie around andcry, and possibly try to do something to myselfthat would be final and irreversible. I didn’t talkto anyone at work; I didn’t listen to music like Ialways do; I simply immersed myself in bitterand painful silence.
It wasn’t until several days later that Idiscovered the truth: She had died just an hourbefore I sent the text message to her. I supposeyou could say I was relieved that I didn’t actuallykill my girlfriend, but she was still dead, whichwasn’t exactly comforting. She was simply drivingto work when her car lost control and shesmashed into a guardrail. Seconds later a schoolbus plowed into her car and broke her neck,killing her. She was 19 years old, and her 20th
birthday would have been in two weeks. She wasan only child. I had experienced the death of afriend before, but this was different. I had a strongemotional connection with this girl, and theempathy that I felt for her parents on top of whatI felt was mentally excruciating. I have alwaysbeen a proponent of the Chaos Theory, and thissolidified my beliefs in it.
I stopped doing everything that I loved:skating, rock climbing, hanging out with friends ...it was all too much. Living felt like it was toomuch. I turned to drugs, thinking they might helpme. But that was certainly not the route to go, as Irealized after weeks of bingeing. It took me almosta month to get back to my life as it once was,being physically active and going out with friends.My family tried to be there for me as best as theycould, but I couldn’t be helped. I needed to figurethings out on my own.
Her parents held an open-casket viewing ather memorial. It was terrifying to look at herlifeless face that so frequently had a giant smileon it. Her entire face was swollen up to the pointthat she didn’t even look like herself. To makematters worse, this was the first time I wasactually meeting her parents. I was barely ableto tell them who I was, and that I wished I couldhave met them under better circumstances.
Two weeks after her death, I went back to the
testing clinic. I had to speak with the staffcounselor who was to give me my lab results. “Ihave good news!” she said, but when she lookedat my face she could instantly see that it didn’tmatter much to me. I explained to her that I wasglad I didn’t have any STDs, but that exactly twoweeks and one hour before that very moment,the girl who might have given me any possibledisease had died. It has taken me a very longtime to get over the fact that my last memory ofher relates to an STD clinic.
But that’s not where this story ends. I have acousin who’s five years older than I am. He was apolice officer in a city nearby that’s known forbeing rather violent, especially where he wasstationed. He was injured on the job whileresponding to a call: A man on PCP was causingtrouble in a bar that was trying to close. Longstory short, my cousin had three full bottles ofvodka smashed over his head before backupcame to subdue the drugged-up man. My cousin,who is like a brother to me, ended up with a
brain contusion. He was no longer allowed towork on duty and spent almost a year on medicalleave against his will. When he did finally returnto working, he was assigned to serving in courtas a representative for his district — a dull,insipid job for a man who, like me, thrives onexcitement and action. Both of us rely on thesethings to keep ourselves happy. He becamedepressed with his lifestyle, but he was recentlymarried so he had someone to support him —until she wanted a divorce.
His wife kicked him out of the house. He laterfound out that she had started seeing her ex-boyfriend. He was devastated by this, knowingthat another man was in his own house, sleepingin his bed with his wife. Three weeks after mygirlfriend died, he attempted to kill himself byoverdosing on his medication and drinkingheavily. Thankfully, it didn’t work, and he lived tosee the next day, on which he and I weresupposed to go to the beach.
Two days later, as he was walking at night
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near the new apartment that he was forced tomove into, he was mugged in the streets by twomen. My cousin put up a fight again. He endedup being stabbed in the stomach, but hecontinued fighting. He got one of them to theground and started pummeling his face with hisfist when the other mugger took a rock andsmashed it over my cousin’s head, giving him yetanother head injury — thankfully “just” aconcussion this time around.
All of this added to the emotional pain I wasalready dealing with. My life had gone from apretty carefree one to feeling like I was the starof a really bad soap opera. I dabbled with theidea of just giving up, putting my car in fifth gearand driving directly into the nearest telephonepole, but I couldn’t — not because I was afraid ofdeath, but because I decided there were still toomany fun things to experience on this planet.
Since then I’ve graduated from college, andI’ve noticed myself contemplating life more thanI ever used to — and I used to think about it a
lot. Now that I’m done getting my education,where am I going? What am I going to do? Howcan I achieve the happy life that I tried to set upfor myself?
To this day, one of the few things thatmanages to keep me grounded is skateboarding.For me, skating offers an escape like nothing elsecan. It keeps me focused, positive and lookingahead. It makes me want to progress, to makemy life better and richer in quality. It gives mesomething to work on. With skating, it’simpossible to become stagnant; there’s alwayssomething new to master. Got that switchheelside down? Great, now do a switch toeside.Got all those standup slides down? Nothing elseto do ... right? WRONG! Go ride some vert, ridesome street, skate 50 miles nonstop, learnslalom, ollie on that longboard that isn’t meantfor ollies ... do whatever you can possibly come upwith. Skating is amazing because it allows youthe freedom to do and learn and create whateveryou please. The path to perfection is an endless
one, and quite frankly, that’s the way it shouldbe. I get bored with hobbies once I get too good atthem, which is why I have so many. But the onething that’s never left my repertoire is skating.It’s always there, and once you have the setupsyou want, it’s always free. There’s no lift ticket topay to get to the top of your favorite local hill,and many skateparks are free.
The act of skating can be meditative for manypeople, and I know it certainly is for me.Meditation implies that you block out all otherthoughts and matters in your life to focus on onespecific thing. In this fashion, longboarding canbe very meditatively therapeutic because whenyou’re bombing hills at 40 mph or throwing outhuge standies, you cannot afford to focus onanything but the matter at hand. When I get tothe bottom of a hill, all I think about is myskating and how I can do it better, instead of allthat has gone wrong in my life. The entireexperience is focused only on skating, which isvery liberating for someone with a worried ortroubled conscious mind like me — or perhapsyou. You could consider it “longboarding forinner peace.”
There’s a phrase that many longboarders jestwith: “It’s all downhill from here.” And while thatmay be appropriate for the DH scene, it doesn’tnecessarily have to be true for your life. Whilesome of the most interesting rides in life may be“downhill,” both figuratively and literally, there’salways still that hill or mountain to climb backup. Just like longboarding, life is a perpetualdrop with the struggle to get back to the top.
To this day, I still find myself thinking aboutthose hypothetical “what ifs.” What if she hadn’tdied? What would my life be like right now? It’simpossible to say. But I can say that life is a ride,and mine has very much been a winding rollercoaster, the kind that makes you throw up. It’sstrange how different it feels to lose tractionwhen doing slides in comparison to losingtraction in life. I guess the best lesson I’velearned from all this is that even when lifefiguratively jams up your bearings and makesyou eat pavement hard, when things seem likethey can’t possibly go worse but then do, givingup is not the answer. Life is very precious, andthere are so many wonderful things we can dowith it. You never really know how lucky you arewhen you’ve got it good until that momentbecomes a very distant memory. I am sharing mystory with you right now because I wanteveryone to understand that skating gives mesomething to live for. It is more than just anactivity; it is a lifestyle, and there is a very largeand welcoming community that comes alongwith it. A skater is never alone. CW
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Nick Burkus finds his inner peace.Photo: Shane Poss Crosland
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Dan Herzog. Photo: Jonathan Nuss
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE
TO GOING
FASTYOU CAN’T SIT DOWN IN A CLASSROOM AND LEARNwhat it means to go fast and how to do it. You can be told how todraft, how to take a line around a corner properly, what setup toride in certain situations and how to do a slide with perfect form,but when you get on the hill, all that “book learning” flies rightout the window.
I am not saying that learning about the factors of the hill is abad thing. But if you’re not learning these things at a hill andapplying them time and time again, you’re not going to knowwhen to use them. When you’re skating a hill, anything canhappen. You can’t afford to be going by the book; you have to learnto make these skills second nature.
A very important part of going fast is headspace. If this is yourfirst time exceeding 35 mph, remember that. You are about to expe-rience something completely new for the first time in your life, andthat is always exciting. Don’t try to be the cool kid and act like it’snothing. In my case it was probably the scariest, most life-changingmoment of my life. Even though you may have watched yourfavorite skaters ride like this hundreds of times on the Internet,that doesn’t mean you have done it too — nor does it mean thatyou are as good as them when you finally get around to trying it.
Your gear is really important. Ride hard bushings and a boardwith a lot of reference points on it until you get comfortable. Youwill probably regret getting a board with only radial concave anda basic shape. There is no worse feeling than hitting the fastestpart of the hill and forgetting where your feet are on the board,only to look down and see that your front foot is over the farthestbolt holes. Gear can be very technical, though. With the amountof variety available in today’s market, you’re going to want to getsome advice from someone experienced.
If you have a proper shop in your hometown, they probablyemploy at least one experienced rider. So go to that shop, be nice tothe employees, make good friends and take their advice, becausethey know what is good for you and they are there to help youbecome a better skater.
You are going to want to go downhilling with people who aremore experienced because it pushes you to learn. As a grom,gaining acceptance with the older, more experienced skaters canseem difficult. Offer to pitch in for gas or snacks, and start working
on your driver’s license if you don’t have it. At the very least, beappreciative of those trying to teach you.
Don’t push out to the front of the pack if all you are going todo is wobble the whole way down. That ruins everyone’s fun. Mostimportantly, don’t try to snake lines, even on a closed course. Itdoesn’t get respect, and it just disrupts people’s runs.
The thing about skating fast is that you’re not going to be com-bining your freeride skills with your downhill skills for a long time.It is simply terrifying for you and others around you. It’s a fairlyadvanced way of riding, and you don’t just learn how to do itovernight. It’s something that you as a rider have to get comfortabledoing, and it takes a long time to become confident with it. The bestplace to really learn how to up your high-speed freeriding is in a con-trolled environment. So, next time you have a chance to skate aclosed road, as tempting as it may be to take it slow, try doing oneless slide out of each run and see how fast you can get yourself to go.
Challenging yourself to do fewer slides in a run will make youmore confident about doing them at higher speeds. Just makesure you take proper precautions. When you’re learning, you aregoing to fall, and if you’re not falling, you’re not learning. Beaware of your surroundings, because if you think you’re puttingyourself in any sort of danger, then you are definitely puttingthose close by you in danger too.
That brings me to the most important part of this column, andthat is falling. Falling isn’t something that happens and that youshouldn’t be doing; it is a part of life, and rather than justembracing it, get good at it. What I mean by that is every time youdo fall, put as much focus and effort into falling properly, on twohands and dragging your toes, as you were into not falling. Forme the true sign of an experienced skater is when they avoidsliding on their bellies; they straighten their arms and never losetrack of what is in front of them. Knowing how to fall means thatyou are one step closer to falling less, because you eventuallygrow to understand falling. I’m not saying you don’t fear falling;never become completely fearless or arrogant. Rather, becomemore confident in yourself so that if you do fall, you and thosearound you will be safe.
Going fast is really fun. All you have to do is find that hill topractice on and gain experience on, and enjoy it. CW
BY DAN HERZOG
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A GREAT EVENT DOES MORE than just getyou excited about longboarding. It pushes our cul-ture, forms relationships and shapes the ways inwhich our sport can grow by bringing so manypeople to one place in commonality. How weorganize and form these events has a direct impacton how potent this concoction can be. The Push Cul-ture Family Picnic set out to accomplish all of this,but happened to fall on the worst of storms andintense weather conditions imaginable. You mightbe thinking about how this most likely pulled theevent apart, but due to the dynamic format of afreeride and ambitiously creative organizers, thisevent had a fight to survive. This motivated all ofus to make the most of the weekend, leaving withthe inspiration of the stoke pumping through ourveins as if the storm never hit.
The event took place at Vermont’s BurkeMountain Ski resort. Our weekend of madnessbegan with the excitement and anticipation ofriding the amazing one-mile Burke track withouta race, simply to ride it as friends and experiencea weekend skate trip. A freeride is especially funbecause you get to bro down with new people andconnect with people you may have raced against
before — but this time without the threateningenvironment of a race. This gives you a chance tomellow out, shred hard and have fun without thegoal or pressure to win and perform. This kind ofevent is what pushes our culture, as the roots oflongboarding initially came from these kinds ofgroup rides, which then stemmed to the racingscene we now know. This sense of camaraderiecan be lost or forgotten in the competitive envi-ronment of downhill racing, but it was theattitude we subconsciously adopted that allowedthe weekend to run smoothly despite what wewere about to get hit with.
We all knew about the warning of probablerain, and most were OK with it: simply bringsome rain wheels and thank the heavens forleathers, as they doubled as one-piece raincoats.In the same fashion as most crews that came tothe event, we also drove down for hours packed inseveral cars and arrived late at night, antici-pating a wet campground as the downpour beganon the drive in. To our surprise, the campgroundwas empty. We soon found out that the graciousevent organizers had made the impulse decisionto rent a big house for all of us to crash in. What
PUSH CULTURE FAMILYPICNIC
By JOEY BIDNERPhotos: DANIELLE DE JESUS
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better way to kick off this weekend of debaucherythan to find a skate house packed with boards,good people and loud music? This would be ourspot to jam out for the weekend. As expected, thefirst late night of shenanigans came to a close aswe geared up for some rain riding the followingmorning. With leathers zipped up and plasticbags around our feet, what could possibly stop us?
After a solid cooked breakfast in the cafeteriaof the lodge, we piled into the cube van. Our jawshit the floor as we climbed up the seemingly end-less track of perfect pavement and steep pitcheswith back-to-back hairpins and sweepers, some-thing you seldom come across in Eastern NorthAmerica. If you see Patrick Switzer grinningfrom ear to ear about a track, you know you’re infor a treat. After climbing almost 1,000 feet,though, our hearts sank, as a drop in tempera-ture caused the harmless rain at the base to turninto a torrential downpour of snow at the top.
But even with flakes from hell pouring over usand winds howling, we didn’t hesitate to chargethe track! After four runs of madness we wereforced to stop, as we were now riding in morethan 4 inches of snow and soaked from head totoe. We later found out we had been hit withsome of the tang from a freak tornado that hadstruck just south of us. It turned out that thiswould be our only chance to hit the track allweekend, as the snow did not stop, but it wasonly the beginning of what was to unfold for us.
I was not sure what to expect when we gotback to the lodge. Sure, some of us were stillhappy and excited in the truck on the way downafter four of the wildest runs of our life, but somewere seriously frustrated and disappointed aftertraveling so far and sacrificing so much to be at ablown-out track. But to our surprise, once we hitthe lodge, almost everybody was still hyped to bethere. It was clear we were not going to be able to
skate anymore this weekend, but because ourintentions were to get away and have fun at thisfreeride, not to compete or win a race, we weresubconsciously wired to find something else tofuel the drive. This laid-back vibe is whatallowed the riders to relax and just have fun withthe situation. This format of an event is new toeastern Canada, but has been done in Europe foryears and has recently been picking up on theWest Coast. It’s the perfect environment for aculture to grow, as it brings communitiestogether for a unique purpose.
Once we realized there was not going to beany more riding, we began the search to findsome stoke to keep our motors going. We bustedout the Vew-Do balance boards and even had atuck-off contest. Outside we had snowball fightsand did some buttboard sledding. We then movedto the house to start the night off and found ourway to a local bar that had an amazing miniramp to get some skate going. Sure, some people
were disgruntled and may have gone home, butfor the rest of us who stayed and went to findsome fun, I can say we had a worthy time!
On day three, it was clear there was still noriding, so event organizers Marc Dean and TravisDavenport pulled some strings and spent somemoney on getting every rider access to an indoorwater park nearby. It was then clear that thesetwo were truly in the business of organizingevents to fuel all the people there and to createan atmosphere to have fun and get inspired.They did not care about the money to be made byhosting an event, or the recognition. They caredabout making sure the riders were having funand left the event motivated.
Organizers like Marc and Travis deserve to bein the business of event planning because they goabove and beyond. I hope to see more freerides onthis side of the world, as they are true nourish-ment for our culture. Get inspired and bring oneto your community! CW
Joey Bidner is wishing for rain wheels right now,but scrubbies, a will to live and plastic bags overhis socks will be enough to charge this hill.
Brian Bishop (in red leathers) shares anenthusiastic high five — proof that goodtimes were had despite the weather!
Eric Chernushenko (aka Junker) grabbingrail as though his life depended on it.
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SpainSpainPHOTO ESSAYPHOTO ESSAYRider: AXEL SERRATPhotos: CHRISTOPHER VANDERYAJTRider: AXEL SERRATPhotos: CHRISTOPHER VANDERYAJT
Last November Original Skateboards sent me toBarcelona, Spain, to photograph Original teamrider Axel Serrat.
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SpainPHOTO ESSAY
Even thoroughly rested, we were not ready to fullyabsorb the dramatic landscapes that surrounded us.This summer vacation town on the sea, contrasted byendless mountain roads overlooking towns, capes andocean landscapes, with the French Alps to top off theviews, cannot be summed up in only a few words.
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SpainSpainPHOTO ESSAYPHOTO ESSAYWhen I touched down in “España,” I linked upwith Original cinematographer Nick Patrick, andwe headed up the cost to El Puerto De La Selva,Girona. We got to our hostel exhausted afterthe 22.5-hour trip and immediately passed outto recharge for the coming days.
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SpainSpainPHOTO ESSAYPHOTO ESSAY After three days of early morning and late night film
sessions, we trekked back to Barcelona for a day ofrest and relaxation (FUN), and to shoot some streetskating in a city that seemed architecturallydesigned for skateboarding.
SpainSpainPHOTO ESSAYPHOTO ESSAY
The prospect of an eight-day, nonstopshooting trip had been daunting, and I headed home feeling like I had capturedjust the surface of what Spain and Barcelonahave to offer. But I am excited to go back again.
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KRYPTONICS
The RebirthMore than 35 years ago, Kryptonics wheels hit the skate world. Their urethaneformula was revolutionary, and a sea of red, blue and green wheels appearedalmost overnight. The company’s marketing was brilliant, too — color-codingeach durometer, measuring wheels in millimeters instead of inches, even sellingwheels in a canister — and its print ads in SkateBoarder magazine causedmillions of skaters to drool over them. But times eventually changed; the brandwas taken over a number of times, and its products ended up being sold mainlyin discount stores. But through an interesting turn of events, Kryptonics hasrelaunched. We wanted to share with readers the history of this brand becausethe people who were associated with it had a dramatic effect on skateboarding.
Photos by JIM GOODRICHInterviews by JACK SMITH
Doug “Pineapple” Saladino, 1978.
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D. DAVID MORININTERVIEW July 2013
How did you originally hook up with Kryptonics?D. David Morin: I originally hooked up withKryptonics while I was attending the University ofColorado in Boulder, circa 1975. I had met DuaneHermanson, the then VP, and he told me abouttheir wheel development. Jimmy Ford was in theshipping department and was busy pushing Kryp-tonics to expand their product line from deadeningformulas to reduce industrial machine vibration tomore resilient compounds for the burgeoningskateboard wheel market. We went up againstRoad Rider wheels and OJs.
I rode for Krypto while finishing college as anR & D guy, and started meeting a lot of the earlystreet racing guys. Randy “R” Smith was a localfavorite on the cool-looking Turner skates. Iskated as a kid in Hollywood and used to go tothe Teenage Fair at the Hollywood Palladium andwatch the Hobie team. My early skateboardswere Makaha decks with Hobie wheels withChicago trucks.
What was your title at Krypto?I was a sales rep and all of California was my ter-ritory. I paid my way through law school sellingKrypto wheels.
Were you involved in wheel design ordesigning the great Kryptonics ads?I was never involved in the wheel design or theadvertising. That was all Jim Ford back inBoulder. He was brilliant. I thought our ads reallystood out, and I couldn’t wait, like everyone else,to see what was next every month. Jimmy wasreally clever, and the production was top notch.
My job was promotion mostly, starting withgiving wheels to skaters like Gregg Weaver, RodneyJesse, Stacy Peralta, the G&S team, Jim Muir, JayAdams, Tony Alva, David Hackett, Duane Peters ...Then it was the Krypto team during the HesterSeries with Steve Alba, Micke Alba and ScottDunlap. I think I sponsored Bobby Piercy also. Thestreet racing scene was hardcore. Krypto tried to
break into it. I was driving 100 miles a day whileattending law school in San Diego just to hand outwheels, stickers and T-shirts to skaters likePineapple, Steve Cathey, Dennis Martinez, EllenOneal ... and also up around Venice and all the wayout to the Inland Empire. I was everywhere andhad a cool Porsche 914-6 that got me around untilGeorge Powell totaled it one day.
What about favorite skaters or crazy storiesfrom that time?As far as great skateboard stories, the whole erawas epic. Capitola, the Catalina Classic, the HesterSeries, the skateparks and all the characters ...Rich Novak and the Santa Cruz guys: John Krisik;John Hutson; Fausto; Steve Olson ... Signal Hill, LaCosta ... there’s so many people and places. It was awhole world. Gregg Ayres, Neil Blender, the BonesBrigade guys: Lance; Cab; McGill; Tony Hawk; andso many more like Ray Allen, Vicki Vickers, [Dave]McIntyre, Bolster, [Craig] Stecyk, [James] Cas-simus, Glen E. [Friedman], Mullen, it goes on andon. Lots of favorite skaters — Jay Adams was oneof my faves, as unpredictable as he was stylish.
When did you leave Kryptonics?I left Kryptonics in 1980 when I took at job atSurfer Publishing Group. I had been announcingprofessional skating for years (and surfing) andfreelance writing for SkateBoarder quite a bit.When I graduated from law school Dave Dashasked me if I wanted to be publisher of Skate-Boarder, as he was moving on to a newer mag atSurfer Publications and needed a replacement. I said yes. Then I became editor-in-chief after itbroadened its scope to become ACTION NOW.
The big skating boom was over in the early’80s and advertisers were dropping like flies. Wecouldn’t survive so we adapted. We expanded oureditorial base in the hopes the expanded adver-tising base would follow. We were covering all theextreme sports well before that phrase wasinvented. You’ve heard of the X Games? Westarted X-Journalism back in 1980, combining allthe radical action sports, aka extreme sports, intoACTION NOW: BMX, snowboarding, skating, etc.I guess we were too far ahead of our time.
Why did you kill skateboarding?That’s so funny and ludicrous that people think I killed it, but they do. I was at a rehearsal dinnera decade ago and some guy married to the bride’ssister got drunk and figured out who I was andcame after me because I killed skateboarding.Why would I kill the hand that fed me so well forall those years? Skateboarding was very good tome. But it’s cyclical. SkateBoarder first came outin 1964. Then after four issues it died. It cameback in the early ’70s. Then died.
S. Alba, D. David, Vicki Vickers and M. Alba (sticker on face)
D. David at the first Hester Seriespool contest, Spring Valley, 1978.
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At its zenith, SkateBoarder was a 200-pageglossy monthly, chock full of ads. Everyonewanted in the market and the magazine. By 1980we were at 84 pages and nearly unsustainable.Everybody had gone away. All the big boys ...gone. We were forced to expand or die. We tried.But to say I killed the sport is pretty aggran-dizing. I was a reporter. That’s like saying I killedLincoln if I reported Lincoln was dead.
I somewhat recall our editorial staff talkingabout the upcoming issue and what the covershould be. Paul Haven, Cassimus, Stecyk andmyself always tried to put a clever spin on ourcovers. The mag tone was very tongue-in-cheek,and like any publication, we were in the businessof selling newspapers, or in our case, magazines. I don’t even remember the exact cover — it wasso long ago — but we had a long story about “isskateboarding dead and can it survive?” We werepoking the sacred cow. The readers were out-raged, but the once mega-industry was alreadygone due to lack of sales ... yet we were to blame.
What was your life and career like afterKryptonics?My mom was an actress and my dad was alawyer, but me and law never got along. StacyPeralta got into acting and was doing guest-starroles on Charlie’s Angels and movies and stuff. Heencouraged me to pursue it. After ACTION NOWI went to Saddleback College and hosted a cableshow for two years and acted in a student film. I sucked. So I picked the thing I had the leastamount of talent at and moved back to Hollywoodto pursue that. I went on to do more than 200national commercials, 40 guest-star roles, 40films and a couple of sitcoms as a series regular.My credits are on IMDB.com.
I also trailed directors and was making shortfilms. I ended up writing and directing two features,Cold Play and Johnny. At that time I was living ina loft in downtown L.A. and got a film acting gig inKenya, Africa. After a month in Nairobi, I decided tomove there. I bought a one-way and sold everythingI had and flew to Kenya Oct. 1, 2011.
What are you doing these days?Currently I’m teaching a seminar series on thecinematic arts in Nairobi (Slingshot Seminars onFacebook) and a nine-week Hollywood actingcourse. I own Slingshot Productions and havenumerous projects in various stages of develop-ment. Otherwise, I live on the coast on the IndianOcean near Somalia in Lamu. My current lifecredo is “teach art or make art.”
Kryptonics was the halcyon days for a lot of us.I know it was for me. So many memories, toomany to remember.
JIM FORD INTERVIEW
When did you begin working at Kryptonics?Jim Ford: I think it was early 1975. I moved toBoulder from the East Coast in late ’74, worked afew jobs for a short time, then got hired at Kryp-tonics to work in production. That was beforethey got into skateboard wheels.
What did you do before the Krypto job?Before moving to Boulder I was a lab technicianat a big chemical company near Washington, D.C.I was still going to college part-time then. InBoulder I tried being an oxygen tank deliverymanfor a week and had a random assembly job for afew months before getting hired at Kryptonics.
What was your title?At first I didn’t have one. The best descriptionwould probably be factory worker. I did produc-tion spray-painting of rollers they later coatedwith urethane, some welding and various otherequally unexciting production related jobs.
Did you skateboard as a kid?I did, home-made. A friend and I deconstructedhis sister’s old steel-wheeled roller skates andscrewed them to boards we cut out on a band saw.We could only ride them on sidewalks because thestreets were too rough. I remember using blackelectrical tape to put a racing stripe down themiddle of mine.
Who was hired first, you or D. David?It wasn’t until I convinced the president and VPof Kryptonics to get into the skateboard wheelbusiness that D. David was hired as a rep, so I preceded him by a year or two.
What was the first wheel(s) you wereinvolved with? Were you involved in wheel design?It’s a long story. The very first wheels were proto-types that were developed clandestinely by mewithout the knowledge of Krypto’s management. I designed a wheel and got a friend who workedin the machine shop to make a steel master. Thenwe rigged it so the doors wouldn’t lock after work,snuck back in at night, made a mold from themaster and started pouring different formulas wefound in the lab into the mold. Nobody knewabout it but us. We made a lot of bad ones, buteventually we came across this really soft andbouncy material. They came out white, and Ialmost threw them in the trash because theyseemed way too soft to work or even hold thebearings in place.
Jim Ford tests out the magical Krypto red formula, 1978.
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Just for fun, I put them on one of my boardsjust to try them out. It was unbelievable. At thetime I had a few boards; one had Road Riders, onehad Power Paws and I think one had Bennett Alli-gators. They all performed about the same. In theflat parking lot at Kryptonics, any of those wheelswould glide about 20 feet before you had to pushagain. I got on the wheels we made in the lab andwent all the way across the parking lot and outonto the street. That’s not an exaggeration. Theywere so fast and quiet it didn’t seem possible.
What did you do next?At the time there were some local slalom anddownhill races in Boulder on Columbine Avenue.There was no way I was going to ride thosewheels standing up in the downhill becausethere was no runout at the bottom of the course.So I gave them to this kid who rode lying downon his board. He could stop by dragging his feet.There were a lot of spectators at that race,including the VP of Kryptonics. The downhillrace was about two blocks long. The guy ridingthose white wheels won the race by about ablock. Nobody could believe it. The VP went up tothe kid and asked him about the wheels. I forgot
to tell him they were unauthorized. He told theVP he got them from me and I was busted.
Did you get in trouble?I got in some trouble initially, but soon after I toldthem how much I paid for a set of wheels at alocal retailer, Kryptonics decided they would getinto the business. They even gave me a title,something like Consumer Product Manager,because all they produced was industrial partsfor mining and computers. I got to move up fromthe factory to an office and started marketingand selling wheels. It was a big step up for me. Iwas selling wheels to shops and distributors,designing all the wheels, producing ads andskating almost every day either at the local parkor on mountain roads.
When did you start designing the ads?Right from the start. The first ad was in 1976. Itwas a small, lame, black-and-white ad because Ididn’t have much of a budget. Later that year, wehad an ad agency come up with a logo that the VPapproved but I wasn’t crazy about. It was a cir-cular logo with the Star-Trac written big throughthe center of the logo. Actually, I hated it. We ran
Darren Ho, Wallos, Hawaii, 1978.
Ellen Oneal freestyling in Mission Bay, California, April 1978.
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it a few times in the first few ads and then Iexerted my influence and ditched the Star-Trac.The new logo used the same shape but Kryptonicswas now the only word and it was encircled bythree colored rings that represented the colorcoding of our wheels: green = hard, blue =medium and red = soft.
I got a budget to do color ads and the creativejuices started flowing. It was fun because I lovedskating and I knew we had a product that wasclearly better than the competition at the time.
Any favorite ones?Yes, lots of them were favorites. The one titled“Fast Relief” is one of them. I had a friend backon the East Coast who worked in a plexiglasscompany make a giant pill vial and lid. Then weprinted an equally big label from a local phar-macy. We laid the vial on its side with wheelsspilling out.
There were a few other ads that I reallyliked doing. One was titled “It’s Only Natural,”when we started making wheels with plasticcores for the bearing seats. It had a wheel cut inhalf sitting beside an avocado and a peach, alsocut in half.
Another one was titled “Tired of Playing theName Game?” It didn’t even show our wheels.Instead it had all these different objects that rep-resented the names of our competitors’ wheels.There was a “Weed” (no, not that kind of weed), atoy “Flying Saucer,” a toy railroad “Tunnel,” somedog “Bones,” a glass of “OJ,” a toy “Snake” (slith-ering out of the tunnel and around the glass of
OJ), a toy “Alligator” crushed under the flyingsaucer, and a “Yo Yo.”
Along the same lines, we kind of burned SimsPure Juice and OJ wheels with an ad titled“Tired of the Same Old Juice?” It showed one ofour new hard green park wheels sitting next to alab beaker half-full of green juice with whippedcream on top, a slice of lime and a straw.
The ad we did to promote the successor to thewhite prototype wheels was titled “Rock’n Roll.” Itshowed a soon-to-be-famous Krypto Red sitting onsome rocks. The copy talked about the smoothnessand speed and bragged about how nearly everydownhill race in 1977 was won on Krypto reds.
The other one that sticks out was titled“Faster Than a Speeding Bullet.” We machinedbig brass casings to look like rifle shells. One wasstanding up with a wheel on top, so it looked likea hollow-point bullet. The other shell was lyingdown and had what looked like black powderpouring out. That was it — clean and simple withno copy.
Those were my favorite wheel ads. I had otherones when we got into making the high-techfoam-core decks and wood boards, but that’sanother story.
What was the industry reaction to the ads?It was great. I got a lot compliments and wonsome awards, a few at the annual SkateBoardermagazine banquet for best ad and best ad cam-paign. More importantly, though, it created salesfor the company that were hard to keep up withfrom a production standpoint.
Jim Goodrich displays some of his iconic images.
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Any great skateboard stories?Oh, yeah. I can think of two incidents in Col-orado where the newly developed red wheelscreated some problems for some friends I gavesets to. We used to drive up into the mountainsoutside of Boulder and skate down Four MileCanyon. As the name implies, it was a long ridewith hardly any cars and mostly mellow curvesand steepness. The problem was when youswitched from, say, Road Rider wheels toKryptos, the ride became way faster and prettyhairy in places.
One time a buddy got going too fast, got speedwobbles and tried to run it out. He got in abouttwo huge steps before he went down, rolled andended up in the ditch on the side of the road.When we went back to check on him, both hisfeet had gone through the front of his shoes. Hisshoes were halfway up his shins but they werestill tied on. To get them off, we had to pull themdown and off over his feet.
Another time on the same road, we took aguy who wasn’t much of a skater. He also gotthe speed wobbles, ejected, but never made itto the ditch. It was the middle of summer andhe wasn’t wearing a shirt. Instead of rollingout of the high-speed fall, he opted for a bellyflop. When he got up he had the worst case ofroad rash I’ve ever seen. His entire chest wasscrubbed. Both his nipples were completelygone. He was hating life, but we couldn’t holdin the laughs. At the time he failed to see thehumor in it.
One winter I got to ski with George Powell,Tom Sims and Art Harris (one of our distribu-tors) in Aspen. That was a blast because we allskied well and managed to forget the competitivenature of the business for a short time. Therewere a lot more stories. I had some great roadtrips in California with D. David and some funtrips to Europe for trade shows.
Favorite skater?I think of all the skaters we sponsored over theyears, Stacy is the guy who would rank as myfavorite. He was a great guy, a stylish skater andwent on to do great things with George Powelland the Bones Brigade.
When did you leave Kryptonics?They fired me in 1980 when the skateboardboom ended and sales tanked. It was a pretty sadday for me. Skating was in my blood for a longtime, and all of a sudden it was over. Lookingback, I get why they didn’t need me, but itdoesn’t make that memory suck any less.
I know you worked for Haro. How did thatcome about?D. David made that happen. When he became themain man at ACTION NOW magazine he got toknow Bob Haro, who was just starting to ride hisBMX bike in skateparks. He started running ads inthe magazine and mentioned to D. David that hewas looking for someone to run his company whilehe went on a tour of the U.S. promoting freestyleBMX. D. David recommended me, and Bob flew meout to L.A. for an interview. He picked me up atLAX in a jacked-up Toyota 4Runner that I thinkhad been recently rolled, and he had a big, gnarlyperm that stuck out about six inches. I rememberthinking this might not be such a good idea!
Turns out we hit it off OK, and Bob offered mea job. Bob left around 1991 after we sold the com-pany to Derby Cycles and I became presidentshortly after that. I bought the company back in1993 with a group of investors and ended upstaying with Haro for 24 years, so it all workedout pretty well.
What are you doing these days?I resigned from Haro in 2005 and about sixmonths later started a new BMX company withX Games legend Dave Mirra. It’s still goingstrong. I’m not skating anymore, but I still skifrequently and ride a bike virtually every day. Ialso just celebrated 40 years of marriage to myhigh school sweetheart. Life’s been good.
INTERVIEW WITH BRAND MANAGER STEVE DOUGLASINTERVIEW BY MICHAEL BROOKEWhat were some of the decisions to bringback Kryptonics? Steve Douglas: Once the opportunity to do sobecame a reality we jumped on it. We have abrand called Dusters California [that] is focusedon the late ’60s and ’70s, and we make longboardand cruisers. So to run Kryptonics throughDusters as a pure “play” wheel brand was simple.
Then to have the option to put the wheel on allor some of the completes was a no-brainer.
What are you going to be offering to skatersthat will ignite their interest?Unlocking the rich history of the brand andbringing back quality wheels. Kryptonicsheavily influenced many of today’s wheels.Kryptonics Star-Trac wheels were the originalperformance wheels.
What surprises you most about the re-emer-gence of the brand?The excitement we have seen so far. I have readposts like, “Wow, I used to ride the red ones. Idon’t skate anymore, but I think I’ll buy someand start skating again.” It does not get muchbetter than that. We did a Doors collaborationwith Dusters a few weeks back and I was luckyenough to meet Robby Krieger from the band. Iwas wearing a Kryptonics shirt. He looked at meand said, “I used to ride the red ones.” CLASSIC!
What has been reaction from retailers?From the ones that know the brand from the’70s it’s been amazing. Some retailers I’vespoken to about bringing back Star-Trac wheelssaid with a smile, “I sold s---loads back in theday; I think I could do that again!” The othersthat have heard about the brand but don’tknow the history, it presents us with the oppor-tunity to share it with them.
Who would you consider your key customer?Anyone that rolls, really. But that is a greatquestion. We are going to appeal from the startto the 40-plus-year-olds who know the history,and through them we are going to let them tellstories (with our help) to their kids and others.It’s truly an iconic wheel brand, and a huge partof skateboarding. To me, Kryptonics wheels areto smoothness and quality what Independenttrucks are to turning, and that’s massive.
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. … Iwanted to get your thoughts about cuttingthrough the huge amount of product that’scurrently available.There is only one Kryptonics. The Star-Trac weregame-changers, and with our new technology,new durometers and a new size (75 mm), plusthe truly iconic name, this gives us an edge. Weare not a new brand trying to break into themarket. The brand started in the ’70s and nowwe are back, better than ever. Sometimes you doget a chance. CW
Racers had high hopes for the 2013 WorldChampionships of Slalom Skateboarding,held Oct. 11-13 at the Hockley Soap Box
Derby Hill just northwest of Houston, Texas. Butrepeated rain showers on the second day causedseveral lengthy delays, forcing the organizers tomake difficult decisions about whether to keepracing, and if so, who got to race, and when. Thosedecisions, and the reactions to them, highlightedmany of the larger issues that slalom racing hasfaced over the past 10 or so years: “Pros vs. bros”;timing and software; how much time to devote towarm-up runs; keeping racers’ interest during along day of racing; and how best to keep commu-nication open between organizers and riders.Those issues are present at many races, but atHockley the rain and the added expectations thataccompany slalom’s biggest race of the yearbrought them into sharp relief, like a flash oflightning during a thunderstorm.
It wasn’t for lack of effort. The irrepressibleEddy Martinez and the rest of the Texas Out-laws had lobbied hard for the chance to host theevent and were excited to welcome the world’sbest racers to their home state. The Hockleylocation was an ideal race venue, with easyaccess, a great surface and slope and near-con-stant tailwinds — plus a free ride up the hill viaskitch. The Outlaws provided free food anddrink for all the racers, both carnivore and vege-tarian, and a catered awards party. More than70 riders, from 10 countries and at least 15 U.S.
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WATERWORLDSRAIN DISRUPTS SLALOM’S BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR
BY JONATHAN HARMSS L A L O M R E P O R T
Slalom and rain don't mix well. Lienite Skaraine,playing the waiting game. Photo: Judi Oyama
Longmont, Colorado's Joe McLaren shows the drive and desire that havemade him the No. 1 slalom rider on the planet. Between deluges, "TheBeast" won both the giant and hybrid slalom events at Hockley to capturehis fourth consecutive overall world championship. Photo: John Janik
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states, came to Hockley ready to throw down,and at least $4,000 of prize money was up forgrabs, as well as individual medals for the topthree places in each event in the pro, amateur,women, juniors and masters divisions.
All divisions got full results in Friday’s single-lane giant slalom, with racing starting in the lateafternoon and continuing until about 9:00 p.m.under the bright lights that lined the hill all theway down. One focal point of the event was theBAR, or Big-Ass Ramp, a 9-foot-high beast thatlaunched riders onto the course like a rocket.But the BAR’s presence also caused controversy,because some racers, including most of the Euro-peans, had never gone down a ramp that sizebefore. The drop itself was intimidating, at leastfor the first couple of tries, but especially on aslalom setup; most riders prefer a loose andultra-turny front truck, which makes a big dropmuch more dicey than it would be on a park ordownhill board.
Besides the fear factor, though, it was obviousthat starting from the BAR gave a huge advan-tage over starting from the standard 3-foot-highstart ramp. Thus the well-intentioned desire toinject more excitement into slalom ended upclashing with the need to ensure fair conditions.In hindsight, and looking to the future, it’s anissue that needs to be resolved.
One thing that wasn’t in dispute was JoeMcLaren’s continued dominance of the pro divi-sion. His combined time for his best two runswas more than two seconds faster than thesecond-place finisher, Latvia’s Janis Kuzmins,and another second faster than Canada’s LouisRicard — neither of whom is exactly a slouch.But when he’s on, McLaren is practically unbeat-able. No wonder they call him “The Beast.”
In the amateur division, Joseph “Kyle” Smithfrom Ashland, Kentucky, barely edged CalifornianPaul Chestnut by less than .05 to take the topspot. Canada’s Patrick Brassard grabbed third byonly .02 over Chicago vet Chris “Cfav” Favero.
Lynn Kramer took first in the women’s divisionover Judi Oyama. Latvia’s Lienite Skaraine, NatalyaDudina from Russia and Madee Prez from Texastook third through fifth, respectively. Both Kramerand Oyama used the BAR, while the other threewomen riders used the regular start ramp. Takingnothing away from any of the riders, it’s interestingto speculate on whether the results would have beendifferent if they had all used the same ramp.
In Juniors, Petr Matous of the Czech Republictook first, followed by Californian OsheanLehrmann and Canada’s Hubert Roy.
And in the Masters, former world snowboardchampion Kevin Delaney prevailed over Jonny“The Thriller” Miller for the win. Brad “Jack-hammer” Jackman took third.
Because of the 30-40% chance of rain on Sat-urday, things actually got going by 9:00 a.m. — ararity at most skateboard racing events. ButMother Nature wasn’t impressed. Two lengthyrain delays, one in the morning and the other inthe mid-afternoon, kept qualifying from finishinguntil after 9:00 that night. After more than 12hours on the hill already, and with the prospectof further rain looming large, the organizersdecided that only the pros would get to racehead-to-head — reversing an earlier announce-ment that all the divisions would get to race. Itwas a difficult decision, and not easy to commu-nicate to all the riders, some of whom had leftthe hill during the rain delays.
This decision meant that final results in ams,women, juniors and masters would be decided byeach rider’s single best qualifying time out of tworuns. Not everyone was happy. Both Jonny Millerand Bobby Thomas voiced their disappointmentin no uncertain terms, and numerous other ridersseemed equally, though less vocally, dismayed.
In the pro hybrid finals, McLaren again cameout on top, but in a much closer race than the GS,nipping Sweden’s Viking Hadestrand by .3 sec-onds over two runs. The pro race actually ranvery efficiently, but even so it didn’t finish untilafter 11 p.m., in air so thick with humidity theriders were practically swimming through it.
The last people left the hill at about 11:40p.m. Just after midnight, rain again began to fall,and it continued nonstop until late Sunday after-noon. The organizers spent Sunday trying to findindoor locations in the hope that the tight slalomevent could be contested somehow, even as atruncated flatground event, but even thoseefforts didn’t bear fruit. At about 3:00 Sundayafternoon, the rest of the racing was officiallycanceled. Hypothetically, racing could havestarted late and gone on into the night, but theawards party had been scheduled and flights hadbeen booked, so it just wasn’t feasible. Theresults would have to stand as they were.
To their credit, most if not all of the racersseemed to be in good spirits at the party, so it
had the usual vibe of good times shared amongpeople who genuinely do like each other.
Not surprisingly, however, in the wake of theWorlds, numerous discussions erupted online.Some focused on whether slalom events shouldbe run rain or shine, as most downhill events are.Others debated whether different or more effi-cient organization would allow races to runfaster and more smoothly. Still others discussedthe fairness of favoring “pros over bros,” ofallowing different-sized start ramps in the sameevent, or of limiting the size of major events. Allof these are serious topics, especially at largerraces for which riders often spend considerableamounts of money on travel, food and lodging.The 2013 Worlds showed that organized slalomracing still has some issues to work out.
The one thing that wasn’t discussed as muchwas the amazing quality of the riding itself — per-haps because among those in the know, it’s simplya given. Although some hardcore skaters or mediamay believe otherwise, modern-day slalom is nojoke. It requires plenty of skill, confidence anddedication. Few people, even the most cynical,could fail to be impressed if they were to stand at the course’s edge as riders like McLaren,Kuzmins, Ricard, Kramer or one of the Hade-strands blast by.
Just like any other kind of skateboarding, inthe end, slalom racing is about people testingtheir own limits. That’s why, even when condi-tions are beyond their control, riders keepcoming back. CW
OVERALL RESULTSPRO AMATEUR1. Joe McLaren 1. Joseph “Kyle” Smith2. Janis Kuzmins 2. Sebastian Vorhoelter3. Viking Hadestrand 3. Patrick Brassard
WOMEN JUNIORS1. Lynn Kramer 1. Petr Matous2. Lienite Skaraine 2. Oshean Lehrmann3. Judi Oyama 3. Daniel Duquet
MASTERS1. Kevin Delaney2. Jonny Miller3. John Ravitch
For full results of the Worlds, go to slalomskateboarder.com.
PHOTOS: 1. Amateur overall winners Vorhoelter, Smith and Brassard. 2. Brothers Dan (left) and Gabe Duquet. 3. Kevin Delaney. 4. OG Texas Outlaw Eddy Martinez. 5. Scandinavian power trio Viking Hadestrand, Bruce "Norski" Bjortvedt and Mikael Hadestrand. 6. Lynn Kramer, Lienite Skaraine, Judi Oyama, Natalya Dudina. 7. Juniors HubertRoy (left) and Petr Matous. 8. Masters Jonny Miller, Kevin Delaney and John Ravitch. 9. Steve Pederson on the BAR. 10. Master racer Jamie Hart. 11. Mark "Gumby" Gosser andPaul Coupe. 12. From left: Janis Kuzmins, Joe McLaren and Viking Hadestrand. 13. Smart Car lift to the top. 14. Sebi Vorhoelter. 15. Lynn Kramer, top of the world. Photo credits: Rachel Pramesi - 1, 2, 3, 6, 14; Pierre Hazera - 7, 8, 11, 12, 13; John Janik - 4; Steve Pederson - 5; Martin Drayton - 9; Judi Oyama - 10, 15.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The author is basedin Montreal and handles the distribu-tion for Carver Skateboards. When wemet up this past summer, he told meabout some of the more unusual cus-tomers he’s encountered. From shipcaptains to emergency room surgeons,the range of people he meets is fasci-nating. Even so, nothing prepared mefor the story of Kath Kilcullen.
I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT whenI got an email from the Department of Leisure andCulture of the city of Dorval (near Montreal). Twostaff members, David Lebrasseur and PaulaChiarella, were contacting me to ask if I could helpa local skater and surfer. Her name was Kath Kil-cullen, and she was looking for a better skateboard.My first reaction was, “Cool!” Then Dave and Paulainformed me that Kath had some challenges.
As of November 2013, Kath has had 50 or moresurgeries. She’s had at least 40 knee procedures,starting at the age of 13. At 24 she got leg bracesand was in a wheelchair at 30. Kath became anamputee in 2010 and a double amputee in 2012.As if all this were not challenging enough, for atleast 25 years she has battled lupus, an autoim-mune disease, and she's also a survivor of a rareform of cancer.
Initially, I was shocked by the request. I couldn’tfathom why a double amputee would require askateboard. Dave explained that Kath was using asmall street skateboard as a mobility aid to help herget around town, and as exercise, which she couldnot get in any other way. But that board wasn’t trulymaneuverable in the way she needed it to be.
I’d never encountered anything similar before,and I wasn't sure how I could help. But as Ibegan my drive to meet Kath, I realized I was offto meet a truly exceptional person.
Kath and her husband, André, turned out tobe one of the coolest couples I had ever met.Their home was filled with two dogs, a few catsand 10 grandkids. A “shaka” was painted on thewall of the bedroom, just below an unusualmechanism designed just to help Kath get onand off the bed each day.
ABLE-BOARDEDRIDER PROFILE: KATH KILCULLENBy Dave Timermanis
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I felt a little nervous as I showed Kath somedifferent decks and trucks. But compared to hersmall street board with hard wheels, the possibil-ities for improvement became obvious —possibilities that Kath had already seen.
Within minutes, Kath was seated on a board,surfing the living room with a huge smile of truejoy. Andre looked on and began filming with anequally big smile. As this was taking place, itcaused me to reflect on my own abilities. Kathtruly was an inspiration to watch.
The new board's turning radius enabled her tomake the sharp turns from one room to the other,gliding with just her hands to push and balance.These maneuvers were not really possible withher old board, or even with her electric wheel-chair, despite its having more controls than a car.
A short while later Kath sent me a video ofher “freeriding” indoors in the Dorval communitycenter (thanks again to the coolest municipaladministration ever). She was smiling from earto ear.
During the past year, Kath’s skateboardingsessions provided the workout she needed togain cardio and strength and burn off the stressof her challenges as she headed for amputationnumber four.
I talked to Kath after the operations, as wewere still trying to figure out a better solutionthan regular grip tape, which was giving herscrapes where no one really deserves them. Weposted our progress on Facebook, which caughtthe attention of Lonnie Morris, the president of acompany called Slushgrip. Lonnie stepped upand sent us a couple of rolls of Slushgrip’s foamygrip tape, which really helped.
Kath being Kath, she kept skating, scrapes orno scrapes. She told me that after the fourthamputation, the doctors were surprised at howfast she was rehabilitating — significantly fasterthan they ever imagined. Thanks to her trainingwith the Carver, she had enough core musclestrength and balance to begin working with herbrand new prosthetic legs well ahead of schedule.Then again, I can’t see Kath believing much inschedules.
Kath has changed things in a big way in asmall part of the world. The city of Dorval, whichlike many other municipalities long frownedupon skateboarding, has now classified Kath’sskateboard as a mobility device, up there withwheelchairs and electric scooters. She is allowedto take her deck into public venues, includingplaces like swimming pools. Kath even has a
special label to place on her board, not unlike thecommon wheelchair logo we all are familiar with.
Through her extraordinary efforts, Kath hasmoved skateboarding into officialdom, “fit-nessdom” and even “rehabilitationdom.” Sherides at the local skatepark. You can often spother out there in the cool rainy weather, mixing itup with all the younger skateboarders who areaiming for the competition rankings. Kath has nofear or inhibitions. Her bravery and drive makeit plain to all skaters that everyone has theirown personal challenges to overcome.
So, connecting the dots, we have some cool citystaff, who contact a local skate guy, who doeswhat he can — and then there’s an incrediblewoman who does what she can, resulting in doc-tors who are amazed. City bylaws get changed.Youth and adults get inspired and motivated.Magazine articles get written. Word continues tospread. Look for Kath at teamnanny.blogspot.caor facebook.com/TeamNanny and watch thisimmensely strong skater challenge and expandthe world’s perceptions of what is possible. CW
KATH BECAME A DOUBLEAMPUTEE IN 2012.
AS IF ALL THIS WAS NOTCHALLENGING ENOUGH,ADD LUPUS TO THE MIX,
AND CANCER!
Peru: The ReturnBy Steve Quinn and Anahí RosselThe kids came flying down the hillin the rain—racing, sliding,some falling—but all smilingand laughing. First, downSan Isidro, known for smoothspeed runs and some intensetight turns. Then, down the S ofLa Molina, to work on how to enter corners andhow to do pre-braking. And, finally, down ValleHermoso de Surco to work on handling speed andto let some of the better riders cut loose. Thesewere kids from Chorrillos, a neighborhood on thesouth side of Lima, Peru—all at risk and under-privileged. A group called Alto Perú organized theevent with the support of sponsors including Con-crete Wave, Longboarding for Peace, DB, Jet andRoad Shark Boards.
Local surfer-skater Diego Villarán started AltoPerú nearly 10 years ago—informally at first bylending kids his surfboards, and later creating fullformal programs to incentivize good behavior bylending equipment and offering training forsurfing, longboarding, self-defense and break-dancing. Joined by Matías Ballón and others, itwas organized into a full nonprofit organizationthat is making a real difference in one of thetougher neighborhoods in Peru. The neighborhoodis famous for being a battleground site in 1881during a war with Chile. It still is a battleground,but now the enemies are drugs, crime and quit-ting school at a young age. Many of its at-riskresidents end up in jail or worse.
I have traveled to, downhilled and worked inmore than 40 countries in my lifetime; theextremes of Peru are something I have seen infew other places.
Peru is a country full of potential, but wherethe vast majority of the people have few opportu-nities. The rich live in neighborhoods next to thepoor, with great views of beautiful beaches infront and blocked views of poverty behind. Thereare many excellent spots to ride, and some of thetop riders in the world come from here, includingFelipe Malaga, Marko Arroyo, Gonzalo Brandonand others. With the mighty Andes Mountains
nearby, smooth roads in the foothills and seem-ingly endless surf spots, it is a country made foraction sports.
Almost all of the younger generation are die-hard longboarders, it seems, or want to be. Thecost of equipment is more than double what youwould expect to pay in the United States. Thereare small groups of wealthy children that havethe best, most modern boards, racing leathers,helmets, slide gloves, etc., and large groups ofothers who could not afford those things withoutyears of saving and sacrifice. Few of the poorpeople can afford to buy a board, much less safetygear. Some have to beg, borrow or steal to ride.
I own a company called Road Shark Boards.When I first came to Peru a few years ago, therewas little doubt that the sport was on fire here.The streets and hills were so full of riders that itwas completely amazing. It was like a scene fromCalifornia during the ’70s, but with longboards.
I organized a Longboarding for Peace event inPeru in 2012, working with Seismic Wheels andTriple 8 to organize materials for that event. Itwas featured in the January 2013 issue of Con-crete Wave. As I was planning several trips to Peruin 2013, CW publisher Michael Brooke and I were
talking about a second event there. Soon after, wewere contacted with a request to organize anevent with a local Peruvian nonprofit, Alto Perú,to do an event near Lima.
Anahí Rossel, the person who contacted LFP,
takes up the story from here:
Everything started when I came across LFP onFacebook. They had shared an article by NeilCarver from Carver Skateboards about weaponsbeing exchanged for longboards in the USA. Thearticle was so shocking and amazing I simplydecided to congratulate LFP for their work andfor the sharing of information of this kind. In mymessage I didn’t just congratulate them, though;I also told them that if they ever wanted to makeany event in Perú, they should let me know to seeif I could be of help on any level. The answer camefaster than I expected, saying they had been herebefore but they would certainly love to comeagain. That’s when I got in touch with the guys ofAlto Perú.
Alto Perú (www.altoperu.org) started in 2004with some free surf lessons for the kids in theneighborhood of Alto Perú, Chorrillos, Lima. Littleby little it evolved into a nonprofit organization (
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Longboarding for Peace:Things continue to build with the Longboarding
for Peace movement. We are so fortunate to
have such strong support from the longboard
community. Companies are stepping up, and
slowly but surely things are growing.
If you’d like to get involved, feel free to email
[email protected] Villarán (second from right) spends time talkingwith young riders at Valle Hermoso de Surco.Photo: Roberto Zamalloa
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LANDYACHTZ DONATES 125COMPLETE SETUPS!
A HUGE note of thanks to our good friends overat Landyachtz, who have donated 125 completes.Yes, you read that correctly — that’s more than$35,000 worth of longboards! We are beyondstoked with this donation. It means we can nowopen programs in Hungary, Vietnam andMalaysia. We will also be expanding LFP inHouston and Toronto.
United Kingdom on BoardChris Pearson lives inthe coastal communityof Cornwall in Eng-land. In early October2013 he contactedLFP and things imme-diately started to roll.He has startedbuilding a network,and workshops arecoming soon. We look
forward to seeing great things coming out of theUnited Kingdom.
Canadian Blood Services and Hema QuebecIn what is surely a first,LFP created a nationalday of giving blood.Dozens of longboardersrolled up their sleeves infive different places acrossCanada. Thanks toSwitchback Longboards,Longboarder Labs, RoyalBoard Shop, LongboardHaven, Top of the Worldand Restless for stepping up. Remember, eachtime you give blood, you save three people. If youwould like to bring this initiative to your country,just contact us directly at [email protected].
New PINS and NEWWebsiteThanks to HeidiLemmon, we now havelongboardingforpeace.org.
Smooth Lion of Longboard Haven.
in 2010) dedicated to creating athletic and cul-tural spaces for low-resources kids in theneighborhood. That way the workshops andactivities started to grow and get better,turning Alto Perú in a place where positivevalues and love of sports like surf, downhill andMuay Thai were being shared.
When I met with Alto Perú representativesDiego Villarán and Matías Ballón, we decidedwe were going to plan the most amazing day offull downhill that we could for the kids whopractice it—kids who didn’t just love long-boarding as we did but who were also behavingin the neighborhood, at school and home. Aftera lot of planning, we met again, jumped in avan with the kids and started our trip.
The day was cold and wet. It had beenraining all night long and we thought it wouldbe a disaster! But surprisingly, the kids werereally excited and enjoyed the challenge ofriding on the wet pavement. The hardest partwas trying to control everyone’s excitement andgetting them all to ride safe. At the end wedecided they would take turns using the hel-mets because, you know, no helmet noriding—and we were a few helmets short.
We visited three classic Lima spots duringthe day and headed back home in the evening.We were all very tired but happy. The kids hadso much fun and got to visit spots that theycouldn’t before because of the distance. We hadfree gear provided by sponsors Road SharkBoards, DB, Jet and Cloud Ride Wheels. Werewarded those kids who showed not onlyriding potential but also good and kind hearts.The only condition for giving them the boardswas that they promise to stay on track, both inschool and in the neighborhood.
It was the most amazing day, and we woulddefinitely do it again. There’s nothing moreincredible than seeing the smiles on those kids’faces when they’re on a board, practicing thesport that we all dearly love!
Thanks to Renzo Alvarado for the supportand all the awesome photos, to LFP, ConcreteWave, Road Shark Boards, DB, Jet, Cloud RideWheels, Alto Perú and everyone else involvedwith making this possible.
So, what does Alto Perú need to continue itswork? They say they need safety equipment,like helmets, slide gloves, knee pads and racingleathers, plus more longboards. They also needsponsors that can support the organizationoverall. Road Shark Boards donated severalcomplete longboards (with Seismic Wheels), asdid DB Longboards (Cloud Ride Wheels) andJet (Abec 11 Wheels). It is a good start, but theyneed more.
We challenge others to support Alto Perú-typeorganizations and Longboarding for Peace wher-ever they find themselves. Working hard to makethe world a better place is worth the hassle—plusyou get to go longboarding a lot! CW
At “La S”, Giomar tucks into a left turn,watching for the upcoming right.Photo: Anahí Rossel
A few of the Chorillos kids who participated share a moment with Alto Perú's DiegoVillarán (with sunglasses) and co-organizer Renzo Alvarado (far right).Photo: Anahí Rossel
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ARTIST PROFILE
MIKE NIELSEN HAS BEEN SKATING ANDDOING ART for most of his life. Originally Chicago and
Northwest Indiana were his stomping grounds, but now he calls
the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, home. Always a
huge fan of skate, comic and game art, Mike forged a long career
as an artist in the game industry, spending his days drawing
horrific monsters, mutants g in pencil, pen and ink and digital
art, he also has schooling for 3D modeling from the Art Institute
of Vancouver. His preferred subject to draw is anything wild,
wicked or imaginative. These days he’s a freelance artist always
on the hunt for cool jobs (hint, hint) and he prefers a longboard
over his old street deck. Recently he’s done a huge amount of
work for Bricin Lyons of Coast Longboarding, including all the
visuals, posters, logos, shirts and hoodie designs for the Danger
Bay 12 race. Mike has also done work for YARDWASTE, Giant’s
Head Freeride and Longboarder Labs. Mike lives in the
mountains of Maple Ridge with his wife, Joan, four kids, two dogs
and the occasional Sasquatch. Mike can be reached at
[email protected]. You can also check out galleries of
some of his other work at facebook.com/ArtOfMikeN. CW
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