Grant Taylor Skater of the Muthafuckin Year!!!

Congrats Grant!!!!!

Mafia Days

The day with SK8 Mafia clip has been on Transworld for a bit now but I still wanted to touch upon it, because it's a pretty rad little video. Not only is it sick because it's a clip with both Brandon Turner and Wes Kremer in it, but it's also sick because it's pretty refreshing. As I'm sure any readers out there have gathered that I'm pretty psyched on things in skateboarding that portray it as the super fun thing it is. To me skateboarding has always meant being outside with the homeys having fun. This short clip is pretty much the embodiment of that idea.

Normally when you see a day in the life clip you see what ever featured pro it is waking up, meeting up with a couple homeys, skating etc etc etc. It's not very often that you see clips of day to day life where the majority of a team meets up as part of a daily routine, cruises the city and shreds (except maybe on the bakerboys site). I personally think that's pretty sick and although I was already a fan of the Mafia, it definitely gets me more hyped on them as a team. It's rad to see that the riders are actually homeys and enjoy being around each other, as I can imagine this isn't the case with every team. It's refreshing to see these dudes are still spending every day doing what I did when I first started getting really sparked on skating; meeting up with the crew, cruising the city and having good times. It's also awesome that they start the day at the strip club and end the day with Wes Kremer being presented his Transworld cover, pretty tight.

Oh yea and the Jamie Palmore no look heelflip, B Turner fat chick kick out swerve and Larelle Gray switch ollie the bar were tight too.

Fresh Till Death and Full of Smiles

I recently finished watching the Fresh til Death tour clips on the Thrasher site and I was definitely not disappointed. When I heard that this tour was going to go down my initial thoughts were; "tight idea" and "there better be a tour dvd". In much the same vein as the Beauty and the Beast tours, Fresh til Death found the uncanny pairing of the Zero team with the DGK camp for a cross US tour. Zero and DGK together on one tour is like a hot chick driving a really nice car. On their own each thing is awesome, but combine the two and the level of awesome is elevated to a much higher ground, and this is for sure the case with Fresh til Death. If ever there were two lessunlikely teams to hit the road together then Zero and DGK, I can't imagine them. The tight pants, even tighter schedules and choreographed destruction characteristic of the Chief backed Zero is a far cry from the hightops, snapbacks and hip hop influenced brainchild of S dot Williams; DGK. This sentiment is best expressed in part 1 of the videos in the words of one perpetually stony Tommy Sandoval " Like shred, like hesh, gnar and then just like chill, gangster thug. You bring those two together, put em on one tour...just seeing everyone come in was like 'this tour's gonna be fuckin insane".

That's exactly where the beauty of this tour lies. It's a direct extension of one of the most compelling things about skateboarding; it's unrivaled ability to unite, in common bond, a huge variety of walks of life. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what your other interests are, all we need is skateboarding in common and instantly the flame of friendship is ignited. These tour videos illustrate this pretty succinctly and make for a super enjoyable watch .

There are so many sick things about these videos. Some completely expected, like how sick Stevie Williams' pop is, how consistently fucking gnarly Tommy Sandoval is and that Jamie Thomas will probably still be jumping down rails when he's 60. There are some things in these vids that weren't quite so expected and actually had me pretty surprised. Namely, the fact that Keelan Dadd is a smooth ass beast who was tearing shit up on every single stop on the tour. There were way too many sick tricks of his to list here but the nollie front foot flip was pretty craze.

Can I also say, as a Canadian, how tight it was to see Wade Desarmo killing it full force once again. It's pretty common knowledge that Desarmo had been dealing with injuries for the last little while and that he was purportedly back in good health and back on the board, and these vids did nothing but solidify that fact. He's killing it.

I previously hadn't paid much attention to Marquis Henry in the past, but if nothing else these videos serve as a reminder that there's a reason he's Kalis' DGK protege, dudes good. The inward heel 5-0 was crazy and he made that shit look like nothing. Rewind it to really see how nutty that trick is, especially on the ledge he did it on.

Another dude I was pleasantly surprised by was Derrick Wilson. I haven't seen much footage or coverage of him other then the fairly recent DGK ad and welcome video of the pretty burly switch ollie, but these videos were definitely a good intro for the dude. In his interviews he seems like a cool guy and he straight kills it on the board. The section in part 2 of the crews skating the triple set in New Mexico is proof in the pudding of the fact that Wilson can hang. The three flip and switch front bigspin down the triple were both real sick, not to mention he's got some serious steeze to boot.

Oh yea, I can't forget about Sandoval's bs noseblunt up the down near the end of the video, shit was proper!!

So if you ever need a reminder of why you started skating, a reminder that it's fun, a reminder that all this image bullshit that is so important these days is just that, bullshit, and that at the end of the day we're all skaters, then check this shit out!!

Goat Cheese

goat da goat da goat goat mouuuuth

It warmed my heart endlessly yesterday when I checked out Burnett's post on the Thrasher site highlighting the Shake Junt video premier on Sunday night. Not only, as expected, did Burnett's pics give the reader a glimpse into what appears to be a joyful evening full of bros, brews and much anticipated video footage but in addition all this this was the undesputable highlight of the night. It continues to put a smile on my as I think of it now.

The Goat Father, Shane Heyl, is Baker's newest pro. I wasn't even necessarily aware that Mr. Heyl was actually an am for Baker,or that he was legitimately considered to be a rider on the team. This is irrelevant however, as he obviously was and is. It isn't nor never has been a secret that Heyl has always been a fixture in the whole Baker/Deathwish camp and his noseslide heavy footage has been popping up in their videos since the
game changing release of Baker Bootleg, but I never honestly thought I would see the day when Shane's name was adorned in the infamous black block graphic that has become so synonymous with Baker.

I am definitely and wholeheartedly pleased that this is now an actual reality. Word on the street lately has it that Heyl has absoutely been killing it since recovering from a gnarly knee surgery and in preparation for the junt video, but once again this is completely irrelevant to his new found pro status. What is relevant is that Shane is a skateboarder and deserves to be a professional skateboarder, regardless of his skill level or lack of magazine coverage. He has been down for skateboarding and more specifically down for Baker since day one. It's obvious that Shane has been on the scene for so long not only because he loves skateboarding but he obviously also loves the homeys with whom he gets to do it with on a daily basis.

What is a pro? A human representative of skateboarding and what a company represents, made available to the kids. If Shane Heyl is not the ideal characterization of skateboarding to offer up to kids and fans, someone who skates because he loves skateboarding and having fun with his friends, then seriously who is?

shake junt shots

http://videos.theskateboardmag.com/shows.php?cid=15439&mid=53876&title=Dollin-&-Herman-Speak-Easy&page=1

There's a new series of clips of on the skateboard site's web series the speak easy with the grinders from Shake Junt. Everyone knows there a new release on the horizon from the extended fam that is shake junt, and whether you want to admit it nor not, pretty much everyone is looking forward to it. These short clips are a quick reminder of what's to love about these dudes and what will probably be the main contributing factor in this video being a beast....these dudes love skating and love skating because it's fun. I could get into a whole diatribe that has been exhausted endlessly over the web in recent years about contests killing skating and how everyone is forgetting about the roots of why we all started. Then of course their is the flip side and grass is greener scenario about companies like baker/deathwish contributing to the negative stereotype associated with skating and the constant glorification of partying etc etc etc blah blah blah. Fact of the matter is that we all want to see the shakejunt vid that is soon to be released and of course the subsequent deathwish full length coming soon....so watch these clips, get hyped for the vid and remember...it's skateboarding....it's just for fun and these dudes remember that.

P.S will talk more about these topics...just an appy.