Roger is not BUNK

This is exactly why Roger is hands down one of the dopest companies out there. If your local shop doesn't carry Roger boards, get on their ass to get on that!

Arto Saari Epicly Laterd: Episode 5

Dude is a fucking legend. Nuff said. Glad he's back where he belongs, Flip needs the legitimacy these days.

Arto Epicly Laterd Episode 5

SHANE CROSS RIP SHANE CROSS RIP SHANE CROSS RIP SHANE CROSS RIP SHANE CROSS RIP

X Games Real Street

It's that time of the year again. Time for the X Games Real Street comp. In years prior, I couldn't give a flying fuck about the X Games or anything that goes on there, or really any contest for that matter. In 2010 however, X Games came up with a new and exciting concept that actually got me hyped, and it's back again in 2012. The comp takes 16 pro skaters and gives them the opportunity to film the best 1 minute video part they can, pitting the parts against each other until one is proclaimed a winner. It's really not like any skateboard comp involving pros we've seen in the past and I think it's a rad idea. My whole reasoning behind hating comps is the whole jockish mentality behind them; what with they're choreographed runs and points being awarded for consistency over style. Real Street kind of eliminates all of that because, us as the viewers has no idea what went into making the part, all we see is the final product, song choice and all. The first round which has just begun pits all 16 skaters in head to head comps with the winning video part moving onto the next round. I'm not gonna talk about all the parts, just the ones I voted for and think deserve to move forward

Bobby Worrest vs. Matt Bennett

This was the first match up I watched and daaaaaamn. Both sick skaters and sick parts. I honestly hovered my finger over the mouse for about 2 minutes before I could decide which one to vote for here, but I eventually decided that Bobby most aptly deserved my click. All in all it's a pretty cool little part with some sick skating considering it's only a minute. The beat is pretty mellow and goes well with the editing. Some of the highlights are definitely the 1st line which is downhill and he does the back tail, back nose blunt and the back feeble through the curved flat bar. He deserves to win for the back smith, car ride, tre flip on the street line alone, shit was tight! The 5050 down the decent sized rail ollie out over the curb was gnarly and his gab to frontside wallride ender was legit. Like I said before both dudes rip and both parts were sick, but I think I enjoyed Bobby's just a bit more.

Jaws vs. Fred Gall

FRED GALL. This one is a no brainer. Jaws rips and his part was gnarly as fuck but come on, it's Freddie Gall. The fact homey is even in the comp, he gets my vote the whole way through. Straight legend status.

Dan Murphy vs. Taylor Bingaman

As far as skating goes I think Bingaman's part is without a doubt one of the gnarliest in the entire competition. This dude is a straight up skaters skater. He rips absolutely everything; rails, ledges, stairs, tranny. It's pretty sick to watch and he has some straight bangers in here. The 3 flip to fakie on that super tight natural tranny thing, front crook the 10 stair, the line with the front tail the bench, ollie the fire hydrant to nose manny off the curb an then the bump to huge back tail were all super sick. Standouts were definitely the fs 180 switch nose grind and halfcab overcrook. Jaw droppers!

Cory Kennedy vs. Manny Santiago

I was pretty surprised by this one. I thought for sure Cory Kennedy would walk away with is, no questions asked. That definitely wasn't the case. I have never paid much attention to Manny's skating, as I'm too into whole famous stars and straps shit, so I have to be honest I underestimated him. I also know how insanely talented Cory Kennedy is though, so I thought Manny had his work cut out for him. That wasn't the case however, Manny blew me away with some fucking crazy handrail skating including some nbd's.

Colin Provost vs. Joey Pepper

Much like the Worrest/Bennett combo, this one was also a difficult decision to come to as to which video part I enjoyed more. I'm a huge fan of both of these dudes, for different reasons, as their skating is nothing alike. To make matters even harder, they came through in this comp with amazing parts, that both rank up there with the best in the bunch. At the end of the day though the creativity in Joey Pepper's part was just too sick, leading me to vote for him.  There was some seriously cool skating in this part, this guy is incredible. The slightly banked wall to ledge thing where he bs 180s wallrides up the wall to fakie 5050 and rides fakie back down is so fucking cool, I watched it like 10 times. He is straight hauling ass when he does the line with the back feeble on the green electrical box then busts a sick 3 flip is awesome. Who doesn't love fast skating? The tightest trick in the part, maybe even the whole comp in my opinion is the nollie 180 sw crooks to regular on that weird bank to tall down ledge. This is almost incomprehensible to me, one of those tricks I can't even begin to wrap my head around doing. I love watching it. His ender bump to gap to fs wallride is also sick as fuck. This dude is up there with Freddie for my vote to win the whole thing.

Chad Tim Tim vs. Silas Baxter Neal

This was another one where my expectations were totally fucked. I've never really been a huge Tim Tim fan so couldn't really think of too much of his skating before watching this. Silas on the other hand is a fucking boss who always come out with amazing parts and whose skating is almost universally loved. That being said I was pretty confident Silas was going to have the more impressive part of the two. Not the case. Neither of them got me all that stoked. The skating in both is amazing, don't get me wrong, but they both kind of plateaued at that. If I had to re watch either of them though, I'd probably watch Tim Tim's again. He had some pretty sick shit in there. The first line he does with the 3 flip, ollies up the curb then bs blunt slides bs bigspins out is pretty sick. Actually now that I think about it, it was all his bigspin out of tricks shit that I liked the most, like the nose grind nollie fs bigspin and the back smith bigspin. The sort of shifty over the bump over bar was sick too. I doubt either of these dudes will take it all, but who knows, I'm a moron.

Nyjah Huston vs. Nick Merlino

Nick Merlino fa sho. Nyjah is amazing, has an incredible story, is super young and is super rich and I give him fucking hella props for that but goddamn it if Nick Merlino isn't a maniac, and I love me some crazy. People in the skateboarding industry seem to consistently talk shit about how annoying this kid is, but nobody can deny the fact that he super talented on the board and gets gnarly as shit. And his nickname is squirt gun. Doesn't get any better than that. 

Chris Haslam vs. Daryl Angel

I'm down for Haslam, I really am. He's a Canadian, is super original on his board and has put out a lot of sick shit in the past. I feel like we haven't seen a ton of coverage of him as of late, but that's irrelevant. As much as I do back the guy, I have to give it to my man Mr. Angel here. This dude rips and this is such a sick part, another fave of mine fa sho. It's no secret by now I'm a huge sucker for a nice line (not that kind) and the one at the beginning of Daryl's part is sooo sick. He's skating so fast and puts down the fs nose grind on the ledge, fs 180 over the ledge, switch 3 flip then the sickest sw nose mannys a picnic table, all going mach 10. I also really liked the front board pop out on the handicap ramp rail and the ollie over the fire hydrant gap. The switch bs 5050 and switch backside flip over the street gap were both insane as well.

So there we have it, the first round. This should be interesting to see how all the kids out there vote, not nearly the same as myself and many others I'm sure. My picks to take it all are definitely Freddie Gall, Joey Pepper or Daryl Angel, but I highly doubt that when the competition ends, any of these dudes will be picking up the winners cheque.

Arto Episode 3 and 4

This series is so rad. Every episode makes me like and respect Arto more and more, which I didn't even think was possible. As Arto never rode for Toy, I didn't realize the extent to which he had a relationship with the Tempster, especially during his formative years in the US. I can't really imagine two better and more respectable mentors to have in skateboarding then Ed and Rowley. I think the fact that they wanted to take Arto under their wings and provide him with that support is pretty indicative of not only their characters, but Arto's as well. It's interesting to see how much of an influence some one's physical surrounding has on their subsequent personalities and it seems as though Huntington Beach as a stomping ground was pretty formidable on the person and skater Arto would become. The early footage of him, when he was still fresh to the US and absorbing everything around him, is pretty hilarious. The 411 intro where he is chased by a "big AND gay bear" from Finland to Huntington is amazing. It honestly seems like he had no idea what he was saying or what the skit was even about, which makes it so much better. Him claiming he's going to photoshop himself onto the ledge and that his brain has a virus really illustrates how little knowledge of English he really had, and how far he has come simply by submerging himself in the atmosphere, pretty awesome actually. One thing I really liked about these episodes were the interviews with Alex Moul. This dude is hysterical and cracks me up. I always have a little soft spot for British skaters, as I feel like they can relate to shittier then shit conditions, and I truly wish we saw more of Mouley these days. What ever happened to him as far as a skate career goes? Does Arto not seriously have the most amazing front boards in the history of skateboarding? I'm putting it out there. The footage of him in episode 3 front boarding the 14 or 15 stair rail, the one with the super skinny run up, is insane and beautiful at the same time. I was always a huge fan of the Feedback video, the Philly three part in that video with Bam, Maldonado and Kerry was a personal fave as a kid and I watched that video soooo many times. It was cool to see a bit of behind the scenes footage of the tour some of the dudes took, and it was funny to see an early Arto clicking with a curly haired Dill, two dudes I would love to hang with. I never knew, or if I did, I completely forgot about Arto's heart condition. I think this makes him so much gnarlier in my eyes. The fact that he was committing all this early US destruction while having a bum ticker is nothing short of inspiring. He really is a viking. I got a good laugh from Moul's quote that "He came back from that surgery with a bottle of vodka and a ciggy in his mouth." I can imagine dealing with and overcoming something like that would lead to a much deserved period of celebratory partying. Arto's skating is fucking insane. I would love to have been there the day he back lipped and back feebled the 18 and Ed lipslid it. What a heavy session. And then he proceeds go nollie nose slide the Wilshire 15 the same day. Holy Fuck. With this kind of motivation and productivity it's no surprise he was able to release two absolutely insane video parts in Sorry and Menikmati back to back. Not many people could pull this off, but Arto did, and he did it seamlessly. The kind of skating Arto achieved in those two videos is a kind of skating that most people will never be able to experience or understand. The fact that he literally put himself in life and death situations in some of those clips is incomprehensible to me, and raises his legend status even higher. The slam where he's puking and shit after is probably the gnarliest slam I've ever witnessed on or off film and it is an image that will forever be burned into my brain. Only two weeks later he was at Slam City Jam and ate shit again?? Dude is gnaaaarly. I can't wait for the next episode. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a 20 + part series.