REST IN PEACE VAN WASTELL

What a fucking bummer, just days after his pro board dropped and his behind the griptape was shown to the world. Rest in peace Van, you will be missed, and thanks for blessing skateboarding with originality and a unique style.

You are BLOWING IT

...if you don't check this site daily.
http://awsfilmworks.com
And I thought I'd leave you this, as well.

John Motta

Everyone on the boards has been asking for this, so I figured I'd post it. John Motta's new jack from the new Skateboard Mag. Enjoy.

Riding the Sky

There was a premiere for the new Fallen video here last Saturday. Video premieres are always a good time, and I've been looking forward to this video for a while, so I went. I wasn't dissapointed. Good skating, good editing, good music, good , and I think I even recall a few hi-def shots that weren't slowed down to a quarter of their speed, which was a nice surprise. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! Tommy Sandoval opened the video. I don't remember too many specifics, but he's progressed a bit since his Zero parts. He does a good job mixing tech and gnar, for lack of a better term. His ender is fucked, bs feeble to bs smith on a legit rail. Gilbert Crockett's part was my personal favorite. He's got a good style - excellent pop, flick, catch, all that stuff. Good use of a Brian Jonestown Massacre song, too. Apparently Brian Hansen doesn't want to go by 'Slash' anymore. He took some heavy slams in the beginning of his part, but he still came through with one of the better ones; one of my favorites, in fact. The way he skates just gets me hyped. I don't remember too many specifics, but I do know he did a kickflip front board down the oceanside hubba. Josh Harmony's part was next, he progressed a little bit but his part seems like a rehash of his parts in the Toy Machine videos. Matt Bennett has 10 tricks in Josh's part as well, and that's his only footage in the video. Not too stoked on that. Tony Cervantes' part is probably the most slept on in the video. He still does the weird/original stuff that he had in that Zero video, like an airwalk to front board on a rail and bs wallride grabs down double sets? Sick. The Hendrix song fit nicely, too. Jamie Thomas's part is a lot more like his part in that recent skateshop video, and a lot less like his parts in the old Zero videos. Very enjoyable, it seems that he's been skating stuff that's more out of the normal for him - frontside feeble to fakie over the loveseat at Washington Street for example. I heard rumors that this is his retirement part, which I hope isn't true. James Hardy came through with one of the best parts in the video. He has the ability to make big rails look good, and can still get pretty tech (fakie ollie hurricane on a pretty big rail). I wasn't really too stoked on Billy Marks's part; I'm not feeling his style. His part seems like it's the same as his part in the Toy Machine videos. He ended his part with a switch bigspin heel down Carlsbad. Chris Cole's part is completely crazy! His first trick (before his name even came up on screen) is a bs 180 nosegrind to switch bigspin heel out. From there, it only gets better. I don't even remember half of what he did, but I do remember 2 angles on a bs 360 down the Love gap, fakie ollie switch bs noseblunt fakie varial flip out, and a bs 180 inward heelflip with a body varial (I think that's what it was) down the Le Dome double. None of this was his ender. If he didn't already win the award, he'd have my vote for SOTY. Overall, I thought it was a pretty damn good video. I'll probably grab it sometime within the next month when it falls onto my shop's shelves. Oh, and I was able to get the soundtrack from the credits, so if anyone wants it, hit me up.

So, I have a blog now.

Awesome. Fallen review tomorrow.