Lizard King Passion Trip Episode 6: Figgy and Jaws WTF!!!

This, the concluding episode in the Passion Trip, is super skate heavy, unlike the previous 2 episodes. It kicks off with the crew waking up only to take Figgy straight to a super skinny 17 stair rail which he proceeds to front smith like it ain't no thang. This series has really made me realized how fucking gnarly Figgy is and I'm so stoked on all the upcoming coverage I anticipate coming our way in upcoming months. After the breakfast rail, they proceed to flat bar to 3 stair spot which looked super fun to skate. Figgy front lips to fake and 5050s the rail to pop out over the 3 stair. Jaws back crooks the rail and Nuge fs 5-0s and front smiths it. The destruction is far from over at this point however, and after a quick signing at Krooks skate shop they head to a demo at a skate park, where for the first time in the series Neen steps up to the plate and puts the hammer down. After seeing Neen skate in person a few months ago I've begun considering myself a huge fan, as this dude is super talented and seems to have a rad attitude in regards to skating in general. He absolutely kills the park, rattling tricks off one by one. He front crooks, back tails and back smiths the 8 stair rail and then varial heels, hardflips, heelflip and inward heels the set of stairs, all in smooth butta pop style. The skating continues after the demo and the drew head over to an after party/session at a locals crib. On the backyard mini ramp Lizard drops in off the roof to 5050 to fakie on the mini which was rad and then it looks like the boys have a rad ol' night with some locals. Probably the craziest part of this episode, if not the whole series is Jaws' fucking gigantor Ollie over the 25 stair with the 6 stair on the side. This thing is seriously huuuuuuge and I can't fathom even trying to huck myself down it. By now we all know that Jaws is not human and that his knees are made from some kind of space aged adamantium wolverine type shit, but even for him this is fucking gnaaaarly. He breaks his own board on one of the first attempts, but I get the feeling it takes a lot to shut this kid down. He hops on Nuge's board and within a few tries stomps the fucking craziest ollie I've seen in a long time. This dude is a beast and I honestly don't expect to see him riding for Birdhouse for much longer, but I guess we shall see. The level of motivation and "passion" that they possess in regards to skateboarding is seriously unparallelled by anything I have seen in a long time. After the insane 25 stair carcass toss, they move onto a double set, where Jaws insanely continues to skate. Jaws heelflips it and Figgy bs flips it, all in a day's work. The craziness is far from over however and while back in the RV, late night style, but still the same day, the dudes spot a gnarly knobbed 11 stair rail. I don't know how they skate a rail as gnarly as this, especially one that is knobbed and especially especially after skating their ass off all day, but Jaws and Figgy continue to fuck shit up on this rail. Figgy front boards it and Jaws front lips it before hopping back on the RV like nothing happened. Whatever amount of shit people talk about the Baker/Deathwish dudes and their proclivity for partying need to watch this. Most of us that consider ourselves actual skaters would be hard pressed to find this level of motivation and dedication on any given day and the fact that they do, all while having put on a demo earlier in the day is pretty indicative of how they got to where they did in the skate world.

Endless Buzz

                               

It's no secret I'm pretty hyped on this weekend buzz series, contrived drinking scenarios aside. The level of familiarity we have with today's pros, as a direct result of an over abundance of Internet coverage, is unparalleled in relation to years prior. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for transparency. I don't think things should be sugar coated, especially in a culture such as skateboarding, which has always seemed to embody the idea of anti censorship. I mean just look at the old big brother mags. I think that skateboarders tend to be a strange collection of odd personalities, that makes a lot of them quite entertaining. It's probably the journalist in me but I'm always drawn to any form of candid interview involving skaters, as I think it lends itself to spontaneity pretty well.In the saturated media landscape that makes up today's world, you would be hard pressed to find such an honest and straightforward interview with any other form of professional athlete, especially ones who are still active and making a living off of their involvement.

That being said, I found today's episode featuring Lizard and the Nuge, not only refreshingly honest but also completely entertaining. These dudes, perhaps with the exception of their fashion sense and skateboarding, seem worlds apart as far as their personalities are concerned. Lizard, as anyone who knows anything about skateboarding knows, is a rambunctious, energetic ball of passion who tends to torture those who he surrounds himself with. I don't know either of these dudes, I've met Lizard once at a signing in Toronto, but I feel like there is enough lifestyle footage of him out there to make this assumption. Nuge I have never met, but also feel as though as far as he has been portrayed in the past, seems like a super mellow, laid back, fun loving dude. Their friendship has been pretty well documented since the Hellrose days and I think it's super sick to see how skateboarding can bond too totally different people, and turn them into the tightest of homeys.

These dudes were both so honest and funny in this interview, it kind of reminded me why, not including their skating, skateboarders are such rad people. It's obvious these dudes don't give a shit what people think about them and in today's image obsessed climate, that's pretty admirable. From Nuge explaining how he met his wife topless, to married life to Lizard's insane story about 2 month drug binges, his Sunday school teacher Mom, Wicca weddings and subsequent sobriety, were to someone like me who enjoys fucked up shit, pretty engaging. I heard some people at the park this morning talking about how fucked up that was and how many kids, actually mostly kids watch this shit and they shouldn't have put it all in there. To an extent I can see the relevance of this point, but I think if you have any analytical ability you'll see this just doesn't hold true. Yea Lizard talked about doing drugs and shit, but he's also done that before in numerous outlets. The point he was making in this segment, the point that should be absorbed, is that he is sober, he quite doing drugs. He straight up explains how he's 27 now, he's a professional skateboarder with responsibilities and deadlines, and partying just really isn't a priority. I think this is actually a pretty positive message. Tons of people experiment and go through rough times, but if you have a purpose and keep your priorities straight, it's totally possible to emerge from these dark times. I'd also imagine that most of the kids who watch these things, skate themselves, or at least I would hope so. That being said, Lizard is pretty much explaining that if you want to have a career in skateboarding, and actually want to make it last, drugs probably aren't the best route to go. All in all I thought this was pretty cool. As someone who has been obsessed with skateboarding for the majority of my life, I have an invested interest in the people who ride these boards, and I can't help but caring what they have to say. Most of the time.

Passion Trip: Episode 2

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The second episode of Lizard's Passion Trip aired today on the Thrasher site and once again it was pretty entertaining. This episode kicked off with the crew waking up lakeside at their campsite to find Dickson completely soaked after getting flooded during the night. I think it's pretty rad that these dudes are roughing it this gnarly and are still able to keep the skate life mentality alive throughout. It's probably pretty safe to say that Supra, as far as brands are concerned, probably have a pretty big budget, as they sell a ton of shit to hipsters and asian sneakerheads. That being said I'm sure Lizard could have rigged up some ballin hotel rooms for the homey's to stay in over the course of the trip, but the fact that they chose to go dirtbag style and camp the whole way makes the trip that much more rad. After a demo at BLX skateshop the dudes on the trip are led to one of the craziest houses I've ever seen, equipped with a gnarly backyard bowl deemed Satan's Bowl This crib is so crazy, full on hesh house with buses, gravestones, skeletons and a ton of tranny littering the backyard. The dudes, especially Lizard and Jaws absolutely kill this bowl and anyone who likes to watch pool skating is gonna love this. Lizard King does a bunch of weird tricks on the pool coping, including one I've never seen before that Lizard calls a crack pipe, surprise surprise. After the crack pipe, Lizard handles a super sick feeble right over the pool's loveseat, and I thought the session was shut down, but fuck no. Every bit of coverage I see of Jaws convinces me further and further that this kid is the ballsiest, gnarliest dude in skating right now. He absolutely shuts down Satan's Bowl with a bunch of insane airs in the pool including one insaaaaaaane bs air in the corner. After Satan's Bowl session the boys board back on the bus only to have Nuge bust out the tattoo gun for some late night, homey style prison tats. Bring on episode 3.

The Passion Trip

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Thrasher just released the first part in a pretty Keroucesque tour video Of Lizard King's signature Supra tour.Lots of people love Lizard and lots of people hate him, but I obviously wouldn't be writing about this vid if I didn't enjoy the dude and his skating. Even if you aren't that stoked on Lizard himself, there are enough gnarly supporting characters along for this ride, that any one who likes skating should be able to find something in here to get them psyched. One word; Figgy!! It looks like the premise of this trip was that Supra, in celebration of his new shoe, let Lizard hand pick a crew of his homey's to drive around the Western US in an RV and do some demos, while promoting the shoe I guess. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig. In attendance, in addition to the Liz man himself was Nuge, Figgy, Dickson, Thomas Bonilla, Mumford and Neen; a pretty stellar crew considering everyone of these dudes fucking kills it, and who doesn't love them some Mutt coverage. In obvious Green Room fashion, the trip started out with mandatory beers and spliff, before embarking on what was sure to be one hell of a time. The first stop on the tour is CCS Ventura, which appears to be a mall shop. Not being accustomed to skateboarding being very welcomed in a mall setting here in Toronto, I was super surprised to the see the heavy turnout of kids at the mall. It looked like a Bieber signing or something along those lines, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez... The dudes didn't actually skate at the mall signing, which blows me away even further that that crazy amount of kids showed up for a simple signing. I love skateboarding and skateboarders are rad ass people, but I definitely don't think I'd wait in line all day to meet them, if they weren't skating. But then again most of the dudes are pretty entertaining, so who can really blame the kids. After the signing, the spirit of the passion trip is embodied in sketchy human form when the crew meet a young trail hopping woman by the name of Cali May and bring her in the RV for a quick spliff and beer. I think that's a testament to the idea with a positive and adventurous attitude, who knows what you'll run into. After releasing the train hopper back into the wild, the boys start the day off with some obligatory shotguns before making their way onto Arizona. Stopping at a park for a demo, we get to see the first actual skate footage of the episode, which I was stoked on, as I can only watch so much party footage before I want to crack a brew myself. Dickson, who I can't fucking wait to see in the Deathwish video, puts down a pretty tight nose slide kickflip on the parks hubba. Lizard, the man for whom the tour is named, laces up some fresh blue passions and lands a pretty sick fakie ollie fakie manny and Thomas Bonilla comes through with s super tight lien to tail on the arm rest of crippled Richie Belton's wheelchair, with him sitting in it. Fucking Rad. Some more hype skate footage is soon to follow and it's safe to say Figgy is a fuckin bowse. Kickflip the channel at the Cowtown demo was gnar and I can't wait for another video part from this dude either. The part of the episode that got my most psyched was definitely the late night, after demo session Lizard solo missions at the bump to flat. A lot of people talk a lot of shit about the Baker dudes and their whole laissez faire, don't give a fuck attitude, but I really don't think this is the fact with these dudes at all. If nothing else, this episode is a testament to how fucking motivated these guys are to skate, despite all the partying, and I think that speaks volumes. The fact that they did 2 demos in the sweltering Arizona heat while still searching out a street spot to skate after and finding time to thrown down a pretty gnarly hammer on (fs 180) it really suggests nothing else but passion. These guys truly are passionate about skating, and life in general and I think that's super inspiring. That's pretty much the end of the first episode, but I'll definitely tune into the ones that follow. They're pretty funny and the skating is pretty sick fa sho! So why not watch?

Arto Saari is a fucking Viking Warrior. This dude is the shit, straight up. I am a huge huge fan of the Epicly Laterd series, but this was without a doubt one of my favorite in a while. I've been such a huge Arto fan since I was a little kid, since before Menikmati came out, but that video certainly cemented him in my mind as one fo the gnarliest dudes ever. That video was kind of pre Bam weirdness and I remember thinking the CKY song in Arto's part was so hype, and it fitted his skating so well. I used to watch that on repeat on the daily. The back crook on that up, metal triangle ledge and the back crook through that entire cement curved ledge were the most proper shits ever, the sw bs 180 down the Santa Monica triple set made me want to try sw bs 180s down everything in my town and to my 12 year old self that looooong ass back blunt to fakie was bonkers. I don't want to for a second even try to say that my admiration, respect and love for Arto and his skating waned at all over the last few years, he just hasn't been on my radar as much as he was when I was a little youth. I used to be straight obsessed, but since there are sooooooo many skaters and sooooooo much content that comes out these days, my interest was diverted predominantly elsewhere over the last few years. That's why watching this episode not only got me super hyped to go skate and to re watch all of his old parts, but the first part of the Arto epicly laterd was also super nostalgic to me. A lot of people talk a lot of shit about Menikmati, and perhaps not entirely for naught. I mean the intros were super long and a lot of the music was pretty craze, but I think a lot of people also tend to forget how fucking amazing the team was and how rad and progressive all that skating was. I was reminded of that today when I watched this episode. Not only that, but being a skater growing up outside of Toronto in the late 90s, I wasn't really exposed to Arto until he really started making waves in big American publications and videos, so it was really informative and entertaining for me to learn about how he got there in the first place, his involvement with Platinum and the eventual joining of flip. The archive footy of him when he was super young is sooooo funny, it really shows the extent to which his fish out water situation was accentuated. It's also pretty ironic to think that Arto's sponsor me tape got denied by Cliche, lol wtf were they thinking. People, myself included, make such a big deal about the prominence of contest skating these days and how so many skaters define their careers by them, but this episode was also a reminder of how this has always kind of been the case. When Arto was coming out, the contest circuit in Europe was a huge part of the pro scene, and it's cool to see footage from this. I can't even begin to imagine how difficult of a situation that would be for a young skater, being surrounded by people representing all the companies you look up to, and all the skaters you look up, trying to talk to you and get you involved and not being able to understand or communicate with them all. I think it's pretty indicative that he was able to emerge from that and make an almost seamless transition into the American professional skateboarding industry. I'm so psyched for the rest of these episodes. There are so many interesting topics that could be touched on here (flip, sorry, Bastien, Shane, the Workshop, pools) and I can't wait to see what Arto delves into in weeks to come.