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Skate or Die: Skater Dater

Check out landmark 1965 skate video Skater Dater, which unbelievably was nominated for the Palme D'Or at Cannes and even an Oscar.

Via Glen E. Friedman

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18th May 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

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Skate or die: Charles Bergquist

some verrrrrrrry slo-mo tricks in this skate vid from Charles Bergquist 

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14th May 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Open Horizon - Russell Houghten

boards, concrete and slo-mo skies - this short from Russell Houghten has it all (via MashKULTURE)

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10th May 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Very Old School

Nomad take things way back in this ad for a new cruiser - more #PreSkate than #PostSkate

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23rd Apr 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Pretty Sweet Trailer

Trailer up for the new Girl / Choclate film Pretty Sweet. Good description. Great photography. Via @TheRealCrailtap

#CSF
#Film
#PostSkate
#Skateboarding

19th Apr 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: GoPro

Skateboarding's probably pretty close to porn when it comes to using advances in film technology. Check out this quick how-to about mounting a mini GoPro HD camera under a skateboard, from @RideChannel's excellent In Focus series.

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#Film
#Skateboarding
#Tech

22nd Feb 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Chris Pastras

Always been a big fan of Stereo, since way back before Jason Lee started popping up in the movies. Thanks to the newly launched Ride Channel, here we have a two part (1 / 2) interview with Pastras, discussing the history behind him and Jason Lee's Stereo Skates.

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#Skateboarding

10th Feb 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Tony Hawk's Ride Channel

@YouTube have been setting up some new content partnerships recently and @RIDEChannel is one such offering, from Tony Hawk's 900 Films. The idea is to push channels with regular, programmed content - as YouTube attempst to push itself as a TV replacement.

Ride Channel features a number of skateboard-related shows, such as Jamie Thomas' Let The Good Times Roll, Trick-a-day, Hand in Hand - which features interviews with musicians who have inspired skating (Thurston Moore, for example), Free Lunch which rolls down memory lane with famous skaters and In Focus, which provies great technical tips on making your own skate movies.

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#Film
#Skateboarding
#Websites

2nd Feb 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

fIREHOSE rEUNION

More info on that fIREHOSE reunion: Consequence of Sound are reporting that as well as playing at Coachella, the band will reunite after 18 years for a US tour. Which makes me 18+ years older than I thought, as me and Cnrth saw them at the Marquee in 1991-ish.

Needless Natas Kaupas plug below.

fIREHOSE 2012 Tour Dates:
04/05 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s
04/06 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir
04/07 – Seattle, WA @ Neumos
04/09 – Bellingham, WA @ Wild Buffalo House of Music
04/10 – Eugene, OR @ WOW Hall
04/11 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s
04/12 – Santa Cruz, CA @ Historic Coconut Grove Ballroom *
04/13 – Fresno, CA @ Fulton 55
04/14 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom *
04/18 – Flagstaff, AZ @ Orpheum Theatre *
04/19 – Tucson, AZ @ Plush
04/20 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival

#CSF
#Heroes
#Music
#Skateboarding

13th Jan 2012 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Mister Heavenly

Fucked up promo for Mister Heavenly's track Bronx Sniper. Modern Lynchian distopia.

eS Skateboarding have a spin off.

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#Music
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29th Nov 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Barbarians at the Gate

Great slice of 90's skate action with Josh Beagle, Ronnie Creager and Heath Kirchart leading the charge in this Spike Jonze-related skate classic which sends the under-age drinkers on an irrsponsible road-trip accross America. It starts with a ridiculous Land Rover jump and heads downhill from there, beautifully soundtracked along the way.

I've been Googling for this skate video classic every 12 months or so, and finally some conscience-free skate fan has had the decency to dump the whole thing onto YouTube as a playlist. My US NTSC VHS copy was getting a little unplayable.

Via Skate.ly - an awesome archive of online skate movies.

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#Film
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#Stupido

12th Aug 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Inside Stereo Skates

Now this looks like a fun place to work.

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28th Jul 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: HD

Skateboarding has always been a fertile culture for creative types. My first films were inspired and based around the sport and the art/photo/film output of skateboarders never ceases to amaze me.

Things have come a long way since the VHS-C cameras of the 80's however. Check out Nike SB's (Nike? Skateboarding? Bah!) Debacle film above and check out a slow-mo skate clip shot on the new Scarlet 3K Red Camera below.

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#Film
#Skateboarding

20th Jun 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: The Get By - Skating NYC

In support of last year's New York-set dramedy How To Make It In America, HBO made this nice little film The Get By - documenting the New York skate scene.

The show also features references to a supposed New York skate 'legend' - Wilfredo Gomez ... a film about whom you can see above.

#CSF
#Skateboarding
#TV

7th Mar 2011 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: More Mark Gonzales

Following a successful art career, legendary skater Mark Gonzales can be seen out and about again more and more.... Here's a nice little day-in-the-life from 2009.

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#Art
#Film
#Skateboarding

21st Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Guy Mariano

Nice little video series over at VBS.tv following the career of Guy Mariano, who made his name as a kid in Ban This and Video Days, then as a teenager in Mouse - before disappearing until a come back in 2007's Fully Flared from Lakai. Look out for some extra footage from skate-classic Video Dayz with a young Jason Lee doing his thing.

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#Film
#Skateboarding

14th Oct 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Trailer Park: MachoTailDrop

Could be interesting: MachoTailDrop looks like a goofy skateboard conspiracy thriller/comedy. starring James Faulkner, Rick McCrank, Anthony Amadorri, Vanessa Guide, Steve Olson.

#chimp71
#Film
#Skateboarding

26th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Forties - Amigos

A stellar slice of 90's skateboarding for today's episode of Skate or Die. I've been digging around for this one for ages, so great to finally find it buried away on the defunct Google Video.

Arty pixel-vision, jazzy music and best-of-all hair-raising downhill skating on the streets of San Francisco.

Forties: 'Amigos'.

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#Film
#Skateboarding

14th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Will It Shred? iPad

Built To Shred host Jeff King and pro skater Chad Knight test the new iPad 3G

#chimp71
#IPhone
#Skateboarding
#Tech

10th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Ian MacKaye and The Solitary Arts

Great piece up at Fistfulayen regarding the contribution of skateboarding to many people's world view (mine included). The article is in reference to an Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi) interview done for The Skateboard Mag. Interesting, as MacKaye's world view was itself was an inspiration to many skateboarders and pre 'alternative' music US-punk fans (me again).

"I think when skaters walk down the street, they’re looking at it with an entirely different grid in their minds .......To this day I swim to the bottom of swimming pools just to check out the transition."

Via Fistfulayen, via Atiba Jefferson, via The Skateboard Mag

#CSF
#Music
#Skateboarding

4th May 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Best Fails of 2009

Here's a 2009 round up with a difference. Best Fails Of 2009 is like a skate slam section crossed with You've Been Framed crossed with every other police chase show but there's some real gems in there.

#BC
#Skateboarding
#Stupido

13th Jan 2010 - Add Comment - Tweet

Promo Promo: Wishing On A Star

Great early trip hop video, notable for highlighting some classic Bristolian skate spots.

#CSF
#Music
#PromoPromo
#Skateboarding

22nd Dec 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Death To The Pixies: The Vans

80's-College-Rock-Legacy website Slicing Up Eyeballs points out that the Pixies have entered the al.rock/skate show mash up genre, taking on the No Age Emerica shoe with their own range for Vans. A slip-on and a high-top, no less.

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#Music
#Skateboarding

25th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Huck + Little White Lies

nice to see some magazines still experimenting and having fun - check this cover team-up designed by Geoff McFetridge for Huck and Little White Lies for their Where The Wild Things Are covers (via Notes From My Sofa)

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#Books&Comics
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#Skateboarding

18th Nov 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: SMA Hobo Tour

Some nice home video footage of 1989's SMA Hobo Tour, with evidence that Jason Lee was a great skater. Mike Vallely and Jesse Martinez also feature, with Vallely riding his innovative double-ended board - a first.

Jason Lee is riding an SMA Jeff Hartsel - a model favoured by CJ.

#CSF
#Film
#Skateboarding

25th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Where The Wild Things Are: Spike Jonze Interview

interesting piece talking to Spike Jonze about getting the Wild Things project off the ground, his early skate/BMX history and losing two cameras on the Sabotage shoot

#chimp71
#Film
#Skateboarding

9th Sep 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Beautiful Losers

Aaron Rose's Beautiful Losers movie is finally coming to the UK, with screenings at the ICA followed by a DVD release through Revolver on August 24th. Buy your copy here.

The Guardian has a piece on the film and the scene it documents, focusing on Barry McGee's tragically deceased wife - the artist Margaret Kigallen.

An exhibition inspired by and featuring some of the artists starts on August 17th at Watch This Space, Unit 11, The Market, London WC2.

#CSF
#Art
#Film
#Skateboarding

13th Aug 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or Dinosaur vs Promo Promo

It's Skate or Die vs Promo Promo this week, for this cleverly put together video for Dinosaur Jr's new single Over It. Keep an eye out for Mike Watt too.

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#Music
#PromoPromo
#Skateboarding

16th Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: This Is My Element

Monday 8th of June sees the release of veteran Anticon producer Odd Nosdam's new record T.I.M.E Soundtrack. T.I.M.E stands for This Is My Element - the title of the new Element Skateboards film - and Odd Nosdam composed each song to fit the skater it accompanies.

It's a rare thing indeed to have a whole skate film composed by one artist and Nosdam does a fine job. Featuring some heavyweights like Mike Vallely and Bam Margera, This Is My Element is beautifully shot and the soundtrack really raises some of the scenes to epic status. These two clips are from the young Nyjah Huston (above) and the legendary Chad Muska (below).

Chimpomatic review of T.I.M.E Soundtrack online here.

#HHG
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#Skateboarding

8th Jun 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Days Of Their Lives

Two nice day-in-the-life videos for you. The beautifully filmed Tom Knox clip is set in London and shot by his film-maker brother Josh Knox. The clip below features smooth-skating from Parisian artist and skater Soy Panday.

#WellerTime
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21st May 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Chimp Vans

A little less punk-rock than anticipated, but it doesn't get much better than Chimps + Skateboards + Vans.

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#Chimpsetc
#Skateboarding

24th Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Jason Lee-tyle

The world has indeed been a duller place since the demise of Jason Lytle's Grandaddy so in eager anticipation of the May 12th release of Yours Truly, The Commuter - the first solo work by Lytle, here's a cheeky video he's put up on his DIY website. I'm feeling Lytle's casual skate skills in a big way and loving the slam section at the end. Check out some new tracks on his myspace page.

 

#BC
#Music
#Skateboarding

1st Apr 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Fully Flared

After UNKLE provided the music for the opening of Spike Jonze/Ty Evans' 2007 skate video Fully Flared, the directors have returned the favour - extending and re-editing the footage to serve as a video for the UNKLE single Heaven.

Promo up top, original down below.

 

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24th Mar 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Vans

While these days they might be synonymous with Hoxton hipsters, there was a time when you could walk up to anyone with the familiar Vans 'Off The Wall' logo on the back of their shoe and talk skateboarding. They would know where the local spots were and of course, the local skate shop.

Vans were always made in the USA and, as long as you were in the US, super cheap ($20 or so). Started in 1966 by the Van Doren brothers, the company had 70 stores in California by the 1970's, before hitting bankruptcy in the early 80's. As skateboarding re-emerged and became a more mainstream sport, the brand was revived by new investment and expanded, eventually being listed on the NASDAQ.

Through all this, they have always kept a pretty solid grip on their roots, financing the Warped tour and even backing the production of the excellent Dogtown and Z-boys documentary. Since 2007 production has totally moved to China and Vans even have a 'flagship' store on Carnaby Street - which perhaps (unfortunately) due to the more sweatshop-style manufacturing has managed to kept the prices low, with slip-ons still going for a very reasonable £30.

Vans also run a pretty successful skate team (see below) and while their more modern models do compete with Etnies and DC in the chunky-skate-shoe market, they have perhaps been more successful with their clothing lines - and of course, the iconic slip-on. Favourite of hipsters the world over.

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16th Jan 2009 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Jason Lee

Quite possibly the world's most well-recognised skateboarder, Jason Lee is now far better known as that cheeky chap actor from My Name Is Earl - but as a teenage skater he was known to me as that young dude with big lambchops.

Riding with Gonz for Blind in 1991, Jason Lee was the co-star of the mega-influential skate movie Video Dayz, directed by Spike Jonze (see above). He pioneered a lot of street skating moves, and was well known for big ollies and kickflips. As his acting career took off, insurance issues put an end to Lee's skateboarding career and he was forced to hang up his trucks.

I strangely recall the moment I read about him landing an acting job in a film by that Clerks guy, with that girl from 90210. Mallrats was a so-so affair, but Jason Lee's Banky character easily stole the show. Another amusingly obnoxious role in Chasing Amy sealed the deal and Hollywood came calling. Parts in the likes of Enemy of the State, Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky and Alvin and the Chipmunks followed and IMDB reports that he netted a cool $3M for the overlooked movie A Guy Thing.

No grumbling from me however, as Lee must now have enough clout to sidestep the insurance issue and has re-invested in skating - and re-started his once defunkt label Stereo with business partner Chris Pastras. Great artwork, great photography, great attitude.

And Earl? Great moustache.

Bonus Fact: Don't get cornered at a party, he's a Scientologist. So is Earl's brother, Randy.

Double bonus fact: Jason Lee's son is called Pilot Inspektor Riesgraf-Lee. Ouch.

Final bonus fact: He made a cameo as Kevin Bacon in the Yacht Rock episode Footloose.

Music Fact: The song from his part in Video Days was so in demand that it was released as a single, titled Jason's Song.

Photo by Atiba Jefferson. I urge you to visit his website.

#CSF
#Skateboarding

19th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Gator

Another hall-of-famer from the 80's was Mark Rogowski - aka Gator.

Alongside Mark Gonzales, he was one of the top riders for the high-flying Vision Street Wear line - and one of the top personalities of the era, frequently appearing in the top vert skater list, as well as a stunt skater role in the Christian Slater exploit-a-thon Gleaming The Cube.

Check him out above, calling his tricks out, 9 ball style.

Sadly, it all went wrong in the early 90's - culminating in him murdering a friend of his troublesome girlfriend, and burying her body in the desert. His surfing spiritual advisor pushed him to turn himself in, which he did - waiving all legal rights and receiving a 31 year sentence. He was also diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Continuing last week's movie inspired installment, Gator's story was eventually documented by the film Stoked: the Rise and Fall of Gator. See clip below.

 

#CSF
#Skateboarding

12th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

THE Aaron Rose

You may have heard us mention Aaron Rose on this site, as a pioneer of the Lower East Side art scene, one-time boss of English Steve, promotor of many fine Skateboard related artists and director of the recent documentary Beautiful Losers.

Well it turns out he's now in Gossip Girl as rich chick Selena's artist squeeze. Or is he? Huffington Post has the details, via the New York Post.

#CSF
#Art
#Skateboarding

10th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Spike Jonze

This week we celebrate the skate-related films of Spike Jonze. In his youth Jonze was more into BMXs and was a member of the Rockville BMX crew. He has been involved in the making of some of the most creative skate videos in the genre and co-owns Girl Skateboards which is where the first clip comes from. Featured on the Yea Right video this is a clever little piece of what has now become classic Jonze quirky effects. The second clip is his legendary intro to the Lakai - Fully Flared video. Apparently all the explosions are totally real.

#BC
#Skateboarding

5th Dec 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Mike Maldonado

I've been listening to a lot of The Misfits recently so it would be wrong not to feature the "East Coast Powerhouse" Mike Maldonado in this weeks Skate Or Die. Reaching his peak with his slot in the legendary Welcome To Hell video, when signed to Toy Machine he became famous for the sheer size of his tricks. While other guys were perfecting their flips Mike would pull the gutsiest ollies over walls, trash cans and off buildings. His section, included here, is set to The Misfits' London Dungeon and has got to be one of the best sections on the film. Check his ollie onto a bench then clean over the wall at the end of it, incredible.

He's also associated with Bam Margera's CKY crew - check him out below with Bam, Mike and Kerry Getz.

 

#BC
#Skateboarding

28th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Lance Mountain

Another one of the Bones Brigade, Lance Mountain has been skating as a pro since 1981, when he signed for Variflex. He was a dominant force in the 80's on Powell Peralta - just check him ruling the pool in the clip above (whizz past the jumpy video at the start). Hand plants, big airs and slides - plus the odd Gay Twist now and then.

As skating evolved into a street sport, Mountain moved with the times, setting up the influential company The Firm, responsible for signing maybe prominent skaters, including last week's Bob Burnquist. Lance has also starred in many notable skate films, including the Mike Watt soundtracked/narrated skate parody The Parallel in Girl's Goldfish video. No YouTube for that one, but skip along to 13:05mins here for this great little film.

Mountain was also the host of the excellent video magazine 411, which started in the 90's and was ahead of the curve in terms of multimedia programming - first on VHS tape, before graduating to DVD then the internet.

The Firm had their own cool videos too, so I've included a clip from Can't Stop below, entitled The Dream.

Bonus Fact: He invented the fingerboard, which grew legs (or wheels) of it's own and turned into one of the dumbest things you ever heard of. Also worth noting is his awesome name...

#CSF
#Skateboarding

21st Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Bob Burnquist

It's more dare-devil stunts this week with Brazilian vert king Bob Burnquist. Burquist is famous for a number of firsts in skateboarding, but most notably he pretty much championed switch skating (that's facing the reverse of your usual stance, sports fans) so then I guess every trick he pulled off after that he became the first to do it in switch. He was also first to pull off the loop-the loop both in a pipe and and a specially designed ramp. He then went on to open up the top of this loop and was the first to land the trick clearing the gap at the top. As if this wasn't enough he assembled one of the biggest run-up ramps and successfully popped a 50-50 grind into the Grand Canyon (below), sadly Homer Simpson had already completed this trick over the Springfield Gorge, even if it was by accident.

#BC
#Skateboarding

14th Nov 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Ed Templeton

Up this week is the multi talented Ed Templeton. Starting out in the mid eighties with buddy Jason Lee, Ed went on to create Toy Machine skateboards in 1993. I always liked his style as he never seemed to bother with the whole image-conscious bullshit that always plagued the sport, wearing drainpipes and sensible shoes he'd pop some of the biggest tricks and all the time looking like a grumpy bastard. Ed claims to be the pioneer of The Impossible, one of the few tricks that doesn't involve an ollie but instead is more of a pressure scoop where you flip the board lengthways around your back foot. He was also a master of the rail slide. One of his best moments came on the now legendary Toy Machine film Welcome To Hell. Soundtrack provided by Sonic Youth with Titanium Expose (above).

Ed has always partnered his skating with a love of art and photography and has, in recent years, become more famous for his involvement in the traveling Beautiful Losers show that features artists like Barry McGee, Shepard Fairey and Aaron Rose who founded the Alleged Gallery in New York. A film about the group featured at this years London Film Festival and charts the rise of these 'outsider' artists who are described as being part of one of the most influential cultural moments of a generation. This autumn sees the publication of Ed Templeton's Deformer book. It's a multimedia scrapbook documenting his life in Orange County California. It's entirely art directed by Ed and features a wealth of photographs, drawings, paintings and letters from his family.

#BC
#Skateboarding

7th Nov 2008 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Mark Gonzales

BC filled the void nicely last week, but I'm now back with a vengence after my sun-soaked So-Cal holiday for another thrilling installment of Skate or Die.

It wasn't all R&R, and while strolling down Sunset Blvd I spotted this Car Wash, where skate legend Mark Gonzales famously launched himself off, in the hallowed pages of Grand Royal magazine - losing an eyebrow in the process. He was already a well-established legend on the skate scene by that time (mid 90's).

Fast and fluid, Gonz brought together old school carving moves and inventive gnarliness. Always a bit left of centre, he made his name on the neon-drenched Vison Streetwear team in the late 80's, famously using the newly popular ollie to clear a huge gap at San Francisco's Embarcadero - leaving the terrain forever known as the 'Gonz Gap'. Gonz created his own Blind Skateboards, and with future movie star Jason Lee created one of the all-time top video Video Dayz, mixing arty filming with incredible tricks. Clip above.

The arty-farty world was Gonz's other passion and he has built a pretty solid reputation for himself as an artist, with shows at Alleged in NYC (along with Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Geoff Mcfeteridge etc - check out Beautiful Losers, but that's another post) and even 291 in Hackney. A giant pink cat and an a pretty mental in-gallery skate course are amongst his most famous pieces - the latter of which has been appropriated for a promo by Jason Schwartzman (see below).

#CSF
#Skateboarding

31st Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: The Crossover

As CSF is winding up his mammoth tour of California I thought I'd keep his weekly skate section alive with these two selections. Instead of one skater getting all the glory I found two films with a common theme, and that is, they have both been made or presented by an artist of some description who has links to the skate scene. First up is The Foreigners, directed and edited by No Age's Randy Randall. It follows the Altamont skate team on their tour of Paris and is all set to the music of No Age including the atmospheric sounds of Keechie and the awesome Nouns opener Miner. As far as the skating is concerned it's a pretty standard film but Randall manages to evoke a nice sense of nostalgia with the flickering, bleached out footage and there's a healthy display of long hair and beards.

The next film is by Ari Marcopoulos but is presented by the New York fashion designer Adam Kimmel. It's called Claremont and it features some of the most hair-raising downhill, old-school speed skating i've seen for a long time. Again 'beards on boards' seems to be the order of the day as both skaters do the whole run in Kimmel's AW08 collection. Swapping the camera over between each other on the way down and having little concern for oncoming traffic this is an awesome movie.

#BC
#Skateboarding

24th Oct 2008 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Danny Way

While clean-cut superstar Tony Hawk was perfecting the all-American style that would land him big contracts with the likes of Gillette, no-one noticed young tyke Danny Way sneak in the back door. As a young 14 year-old he popped up briefly in Powell's Public Domain video, before he moved over to the more punk H-Street label and quickly excelled on both street and vert. By 1989 he was nipping at Tony's heels - and the H-Street video Risk It ended with a tantalizingly cut-short clip of a 15-year-old Danny apparently landing a 900, the holy grail of vert skating.

Danny Way started Plan B skates in 1991, and invested in DC Shoes in 1993, with fellow bad boy Colin McKay. With DC hitting the big time, funds were available for bigger and crazier stunts - including the aptly titled 'megaramp' (above, from the DC Video), the helicopter Bomb Drop (can't find a clip of that, but it's a drop out of a chopper onto a half pipe?!), and a bizarre jump over the Great Wall of China (below). 

Bonus Fact: Danny Way broke his neck surfing in 1994.

Musical Legacy: Meh.

 

#CSF
#Skateboarding

3rd Oct 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet

Skate or die: Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk may be the undisputed king of vert now, but at the time he was a bit of a dweeb - having evolved through the pastel drenched skate style of the early 80's before street skating kicked in. He was always too gangly for that stuff and seemed uncomfortable anywhere other than 20 feet up in the air ....despite what his Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game might suggest. Have a look at his cameos in Police Academy IV and Gleaming The Cube and you'll see what I mean.

Either way, technically he was a genius and 1987's Powell Peralta video The Search For Animal Chin put him on the map - skating on the monster ramp they built for the video out in the desert (see above).

Desptite putting his retirement on ice since the 90's, he's continued to skate and set some major benchmakers over the year's - beefing McGill's McTwist into first a 720 spin, then even a 900 in 1999 (see below).

Bonus Fact: Hawk's 16 year old son Riley Hawk has been on pro on Tony's own Birdhouse label for several years.

Musical Legacy: None.

#CSF
#Skateboarding

26th Sep 2008 - Add Comment - Tweet