Since 1996

ISSUE 6TABLE OF CONTENTS

UNDER THE COVERS MATT PRICE DISCUSSES BLUE HEADEY’S BS 360 DOWNTOWN.

FINDING FLAGSTAFFA PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRIPPING UP NORTH.

SPEAK.JOHN MOTTA TALKS.

PRO VS LEAP PROARI SHIFFRIN IN PHOTOGRAPHS AND QUOTES.

PUBLISHER

TOMMY KOWALSKI

COPY EDITOR

ARI SHIFFRIN

PHOTO EDITOR

MATT PRICE

PHOTOGRAPHERS

TY BUSHPATRICK DRISCOLL

MIKE TINDLETOMMY KOWALSKI

MATT PRICE

4

AARON GOURE DROP IN 50-50 PHOTO: KOWALSKI

COVER: BLUE HEADEY BS 360 PHOTO: PRICE

MATT PRICE DISCUSSES BLUE HEADEY’S BS 360 DOWNTOWN.

6

If a tree falls in the woods, rumor has it that it still makes a sound, but you wouldn’t know because you weren’t there. So as far as you’re concerned that tree never existed, much less shook the earth when it slammed into the forest floor. A heavy skateboard trick is kind of the same way. When someone rolls away from the proverbial “banger” but the filmer and the photographer hold on to the only documentation of it, it pretty much doesn’t exist in time or space as far as the majority of skateboarders are concerned. Except of course to the per-son who landed the trick, which is the most important of all, but that’s not what this particular rant is about.

The reason I am babbling about this is that Blue Headey landed this ball bash-ing backside 360 (seen on the cover of this issue) about two years ago and we shot this sequence the day he did it. It took him less than 10 tries and it was beautiful. The footage and the photos, however, sat on a couple of hard drives until a few weeks ago when the trick was premiered to the world as Blue’s last trick in the L.E. Theatrix video. Bringing me back to my point. As far as anyone is concerned, this trick is only a couple of weeks old in their brains and the fact that the sequence and the still were shot two years apart matters about as much as what I ate for lunch the day I shot them. It was pizza. On both days it was pizza, in case you were wondering.

UNDER THE COVERS.

TUNAGEMUSIC & SKATEBOARDING WRITTEN BY TOMMY KOWALSKI

DeMarco’s laid back instrumental style fused with blues guitar is

a perfect match to your highwater pants and summertime skate

romance. Going for a swim after skating a park and taking polaroid

pictures of your crush in her onesie may put you just a Mac

DeMarco song away from getting your sweaty skater crotch to

second base. Play your cards right and you might be looking at

some serious one on one time. That’s of course after you stack a

few clips with the homies.

A blatant salute to pretty much every Habitat video ever made.

There’s something about Joe Castrucci’s environmental art mixed

with a lo-fi guitar riff from this four-piece Brooklyn band. Beach Fos-

sils gets the blood rushing in your love muscle. Get in a few front

shuv-its with a nice steely roll away, grab some norm-core gear,

and tie a flannel around your waist. Even though it’s 114 degrees,

we still need to look nice while we watch the new Mark Suciu part

cut to some fossil, and that we respect.

Flashback to when éS was cool and wearing a wife-beater on your

7.75 Think board was something to be proud of. The Tennessee rap

gang Three Six Mafia runs real smooth with a varial flip on VHS. A

monotone rap style mixed with DJ Paul’s demonic track samples

made skating really sick to watch, and to this day it is still used quite

a bit, including in the new Shepdawgs video. Maybe our style has

changed up a lot, but our sense of good music will always stick.

MAC DEMARCO

BEACH FOSSILS

THREE SIX MAFIA

Finding Flagstaff

A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRIPPING UP NORTHWORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY TOMMY KOWALSKI

I’ve been trying to live vicariously through my more adventurous self

lately, if that seems to make any sense. There is something to saying

“fuck it” and channeling your inner free spirit. Skating just has a way of

doing that in basically any situation.

When my buddy Andrew first approached me on a hot summer day at

the skatepark and said, “Dude, I have the next two days off, you have

the next two days off, let’s go to Flagstaff!” I couldn’t help but just

say, well, fuck it. That one spontaneous skate trip turned into two and

before I knew it, two weeks and four trips later I was a damn Flagstaff

local.

Our simple curiosity lead to so many different counts of mischief and

exploration. From climbing to the top of the NAU football stadium, to

skating through the forest, to running into a few hot college girls with

a warm place to stay (turns out they were mormon, total bummer

am I right?). All these things, on top of prime 80 degree weather and

more spots then you can count makes Flagstaff pretty chill, ya? JOHN ONEAL TOUCHES DOWN ON A RATHER TALL LOOKING HUBBA;FASTPLANT

11

ANDREW JACQUEZ UNIQUE APPROACH TO A 360 FLIP WITH A BACK FOOTED CATCH

Channeling your inner lumberjack can be quite vigorous. We’re

not gonna go chop down a tree anytime soon, but there was

quite an abundance of trees in a nearby radius and it’s good to

know that we have that option open to us. There were probably

12 to 15 trips to Sprouts Farmers Market between spots - let’s just

take a moment to commemorate their $3.00 deli sandwich. If it

wasn’t for that deal, we would have gone hungry, which may not

be the best recipe for a day trip in the woods.

Living in the spur of the moment is a healthy choice that you

cannot find at your local farmers market, so who cares where,

when, or why if you’ve got a huge group of good friends in one

car, maybe a little smelly and sweaty, just skating and having

some damn good fun. Sorry to go full blown hippie on you there

for a moment; my inner woodsman was showing.

If you looked at this from the perspective of a normal person for

even the slightest second, you might think every skateboarder

in the world has gone a bit crazy. Going up to Flagstaff to skate

handrails at a middle school and throw water balloons at each

other? That’s total nonsense! (we did throw water balloons and it

was a good time) Green grass and a little running around can be

a natural supplement to happiness (also not found at Sprouts). It

just so happened there was a summer camp in session and they

were gracious enough to allow our waterballooning and hand-

railing as long as no one got hurt.

A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRIPPING UP NORTH

Finding Flagstaff

13

GARRITT GILBERT FRONT BOARD

A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF TRIPPING UP NORTH

So, to the adventurous side

of everybody out there: go

visit Flagstaff, skate your

ass off, and check out the

rad shop up there, Oncore.

Skate through the pine

trees, pop some good

flatground ollies, go get

dinner with your friends, and

I mean, fuck it, have

some fun.

CHRIS MILIC CAVEMAN 50-50S THIS RAIL JUST NICE

Finding Flagstaff

SPOTLIGHTNorthern D i tch

Nestled between meth houses and mountains, Northern Ditch is located in an area of Phoenix called Sunnyslope, which is pretty funny considering the ditch itself is a giant, sunny slope. This spot has been around for a few generations and for good reason because it’s better than some cities’ skateparks. Whether you’re skating over the top of the pyramid and running out like a sissy before hitting the long three at the bottom (as some have done), tailsliding the little bank that was sent from heaven for tailsliding, or flipping your board to fakie on the Large Marge bank that will give you a nice little jolt as you mash up the bottom of it, you’re guaranteed a grand old time.

Rumor has it that, before our time, there used to be curbs cemented on the top of the little bank, but then the city ripped them out only to let the ditch fill with water and a couple feet of dirt for a few years. After some seriously heavy rains, the skate gods were once again smiling down on this ditch that in the months between May and October could cook you alive. The tricks over the top of the pyramid really started getting ridiculous after Ty Evans came to town to give her one of his patented Bon-do jobs, and ever since it’s been a staple of Arizona skate spots, seeing almost every visiting team and pro skater that has come through the desert in the last decade. So next time you’re in need of a ditch fix, pack a lunch, fill your water bottle, and set up camp for the day. Just keep an eye out for the bush people.

RYAN REYES STALEFISH CIRCA 2008PHOTO: PRICEWORDS: MAXWELL DOPE

RYAN REYES STALEFISH CIRCA 2008PHOTO: PRICEWORDS: MAXWELL DOPE

A John MottaInterview.

Speak.So John, what’s it like to be back out in the daylight after years spent underground filming for A Happy Medium 3?

Oh man, way different than I could have imagined. That tunnel stuff was rough. Work-ing on that part got cut short because Buster has asthma and he would get sick after every trick we would try to film down there. It really started to interfere with the productivity of the video as a whole. So I was planning on going back down there right after AHM3 to film another tunnel part for Skate Mental, but that too has fizzled out. I’d say I’m in one of the biggest transitional phases of my life right now. I no longer have the luxury of earning an income from skateboarding sponsors. I’m kind of being forced into the real world now, but I’ve never had a real job so I don’t have much to fill out on a job application. Luckily I’m get-ting by on the income I make from a business I started so I’m focusing on making that grow right now. I’m happy with that and also helping start another project with my friends. So yeah, not so much how it used to be filming every-day anymore, but trying to make that all work out as fast as possible so I can get back to filming all the time again. It’s all great though. I’m learning so much new shit right now, so it’s fun and very entertaining to sit back and get some laughs out of how different things are now, that’s for sure.

PHOTOS : TY BUSH | WORDS: MATT PRICE

PHOTO: PRICE

Is that how you guys got into making RAWr!?

You could kind of say that. Joey definitely was taking RAWr! before I was. RAWr! came about from my mom always suggesting I start my own business. I wanted to wait until I built more of a name for myself though. Then I had that manic episode which I’m sure everyone has kind of heard about, labeling me bipolar. So yeah, RAWr! came about from the time I spent helping myself out of that situation. Really getting myself healthy to be a functional human again that didn’t have to rely on

What’s the deal with your brother, Joey Motta? Is he a BMX pro or an 85 year old man who is president of the Rare Fruit Growers Association of Arizona?

He’s both actually, but he’s only 21 and not the president, YET. I guess you could say he’s a BMX pro but he’s not on an actual frame company at the moment. He’s been on a few and has gotten free bikes and stuff. He’s pro for a company called The Gully Factory which to my understanding was more so a crew that started making clothes and other things. Pretty much everyone on the team is an actual pro BMXer on a “legit” company and they’re all awesome people. He’s also the youngest member by far of The Rare Fruit Growers Association of Arizona. He’s always been into gardening and that sort of thing. He’s definitely is an “old soul” you could say. He can tell you the name of any fruit in the whole world even down to the specific variety and possibly even the scientific name. He might even be able to do that with vegetables and almost any tree or plant as well. He’s also taught me a bunch of cool stuff and led me on to the work of so many people I’m really interested in, especially David Wolfe and Daniel Vitalis.

psychiatric meds. I researched a lot about diet and nutrition to heal myself and while I was doing that my mom already had a product with her boyfriend called Envy Greens. I no-ticed that Envy Greens is what helped me the most all around, so Joey and I decided to pri-vate label their product and call it RAWr! Since then we’ve branched off on our own, changed the ingredients slightly, and got it Certified Organic through the USDA.

For the people who don’t know, can you explain what RAWr! is and what it’s all about?

It’s labeled a “dietary supplement” for certi-fication reasons, but I don’t necessarily like to call it a supplement at all. There’s nothing synthetic in it and I think when people hear the word “supplement,” what pops into their heads is a synthetic pill. It’s not that at all. It’s really just foods that are dried and crushed into a powder, using special techniques to retain the most nutrients for that specific food ingredient. Then it’s all blended together and all you have to do with it is just mix it in water and drink it. To be more specific, it’s 33 farmed or wild-crafted plant foods that are all Certi-fied Organic through the USDA ranging from greens, algae, vegetables, fruits, berries, and herbs. We also included additional plant based digestive enzymes, prebiotics, and probiotics to benefit digestive health and absorption by the body. It can basically be used by anyone. It’s produced in an FDA GMP facility and we had to follow strict guidelines from the USDA to layout the label for consumer information, safety, and accuracy.

19

Sounds awesome. Speaking of starting companies, what happened with A Happy Medium Skateboards? I think a lot of people thought that you would end up riding for them.

Yeah, I was going to ride for them. There’s a lot to this but what hap-pened was Skate Mental was having me film everything in HD but wasn’t

able to get me a camera or a filmer. They also wanted to shoot all their ads themselves but never came out here to shoot photos of me. They only advertise in Thrasher as well, so once Hammeke moved from AZ I couldn’t really help them out by getting in the magazine either. All my resources to help the company were gone. Then towards the end of last year, I had to take a pay cut

when they put their newest rider on the team. So things started to fizzle out with that and that’s when I started to really focus on helping my friends out with filming for A Happy Medium 3, with only a few months left to film. I was doing the graphics for the Happy Medium stuff as well. On January 1st of this year, A Happy Medium came out with shirts and boards to promote

A KINKY WALLRIDE

the video. Then towards the end of March of this year I had to let Skate Mental know that they missed my pay for February and March. They responded by telling me that their fiscal year had recently ended and that their numbers weren’t looking right. They didn’t kick me off. They said they still wanted to make at least one pro board for me for every catalog but that they just couldn’t pay me my regular salary any longer. So by then it was decided that A Happy Medium was going to be an actual company with a team and pros. I let them know my situation with Skate Mental and of course they were down to have me on the team. I called up Skate Mental to explain that I never really found the resources I needed to help them out. I told them about all the stuff my friends were working on and that in the long run leaving Skate Mental to help my friends just made more sense. I left on good terms. They were nothing but good to me while I rode for them, and they were very understanding of the situation. Then I started design-ing boards for myself for A Happy Medium with a plan to release my part online announcing I was on the team about a month after the pre-miere. It was nearing time to release my part so I started asking how the boards were coming along and instead of them telling me it was all going good, Buster and Hunter took me out to lunch to tell me the crazy shit that had been happening all along. Their friend that they went

into business with had paid for the shirts and boards to be made so his bank account was hooked to the website first. Once presale tickets and presale DVDs started they never switched the actual bank account to Buster or Hunter’s. They just ver-bally agreed that their friend would write them checks as things went. So around the time of the premiere, after a majority of the DVD sales were done, Buster and Hunter had still never received any checks. Buster saw how much money was being made and suggested to their friend that it might be wise to write the checks now so he wouldn’t have to write one huge check later on. About a month after the video premiere, they all went out for their friend’s brother’s birthday and Bust-er brought up the money situation again, resulting in their friend freak-ing out on them and making it really clear that Buster and Hunter were not going to get their money from the video. They still haven’t received any money. Obviously they’re mad at that person and don’t want to continue doing business with him. So that’s that. The name A Happy Medium and the company is done with.

So you guys are working on some-thing new then? Tell us about your new project with Buster.

So yeah, we’re trying our best to rebound from that whole situa-tion. Buster says what happened was kind of a blessing in disguise

and I totally agree. It’s good that it happened so soon instead of down the road when everything had a chance to really pick up. It gives us a chance to start fresh. Like I said, I was doing the graphics for the Hap-py Medium stuff and it hadn’t even really started. It was hard to think of designs and there wasn’t really a theme or general idea to work with. So we’re starting something new with a theme in mind, funded by the money Buster actually made from the video premiere, all the per-sonal sales that were not linked to the website, and whatever he made that wasn’t stolen. Only about five people know we have anything in the works. People with full parts in AHM3 don’t even know what we’re working on. We kept quiet about it just in case there was any chance to get their money back until now, because if word got out we were making boards, there’s no way the person that stole the money would ever give it back. So thank you for this interview to help get the word out and clear up any confusion. We’ll see how it goes and hopefully people are into it!

What’s the name and what direc-tion are you guys trying to go with the brand?

It’s called “sometimes” and it’s about how backwards everything is. How people’s work lives dominate their time doing what they really like to do. It’s about how we all, not just skateboarders, but how we all

only get to do what we really want to do sometimes. And that “sometimes” for skate-boarders is skateboarding. I think it’s important for kids to know that the average pro skateboarder usually has priori-ties and another job to support themselves and that they only really skate sometimes. Also, sometimes is a funny word in itself, and can be used in so many ways. It should be fun and make it really easy for ev-eryone to contribute and come up with ideas for it. The idea is to always have a graphic dedi-cated to different jobs that we think the average skateboarder usually has as well. So we’re starting it off with a call center employee graphic.

Are you guys going to stay on the vx train or will there be any HD video offerings?

I think as far as Buster and Hunter are concerned, skate-board filming starts and ends with the vx. Of course anyone is going to use what they think looks best and I think they have their reasons why it’s a vx. They talk about it often but just aren’t publically vocal about their viewpoint, as they assume their work will speak for itself. BACKSIDE FLIP UP

AND OVER

I think everyone will be excited for any video projects coming from you guys. What’s in the works for the near future?

To start it off, I think just a promo/montage of everyone that ends up being a part of the company and that’ll be our way of letting everyone know who’s actually on the team. Again, no one knows what’s going on so that’s not going to start until this interview comes out and people know they can even be a part of it.

NOSEGRIND POP OUT

For the last 7 years we made videos, now some of us

are going to make skateboards sometimes.

.sometimesskateboards.www com

Perhaps we can’t expect the glamour in all the magazines nowadays to always be honestly recorded. Our own self made skate-law states that we can-not truly assess content as a credible source of skatetocracy if something that’s recorded as a make was actually just a stick with a heel drag. It is a given that we must talk shit to those who do this, referring back to our own personal mandate that: he who fakes a trick, gets talked shit. Thats just the way it is.

In different conditions, say in the matter of local and regional skate-law, if a trick is falsely recorded without proper knowl-edge by the surrounding skate scene, then others will continue to accept the trick as a land, respect the glory of that skater and the unspoken ABD guidelines, and back it up as credible. That is until the truth eventually surfaces. “Hell yeah dude, he totally did that here! It’s fucked up... Wait. He didn’t land it?! That’s so lame!”

Consider that maybe you weren’t actu-ally there to witness the event. Maybe what you thought was a false statement of trickery was simply not the right type of trick to look good on film. Where are the guidelines that tell us what is a film-able trick and what is not? Maybe over time we will make up some more rules to follow in our skate kingdom, but for now that future is unclear. Until then, we’ll continue to talk shit. We all have a need to voice an opinion on the un-just crime of bailed out skate photography, hand and toe touches included.

JULIAN ALVIA LANDED THIS SLAPPY BUT RAN INTO A TREE AFTER.WORDS & PHOTO: KOWALSKI

WORDS

SEQUENTIAL

PHOTOS: PRICE

CHRIS MILICROOF RIDE TO OLLIETO JERRY ROCK DROP

Street Style In Tempe was the very first pro skateboarding contest that I attend-ed, in 1986. It was part of the Bare Cover Festival of Sports and it was put on by the NSA (National Skateboarding Association). Street skating at the time was in its infancy and since it was so new there was a good mixture of freestyle skaters and vert riders all trying to adapt and get into this new scene. All the top skateboarders of that time came out to this event, such as Steve Rocco, Rob Roskopp, John Thomas, Gary Scott Davis, John Lucero, Mark “Gator” Rowgowski, Lester Kasai, Neil Blender, Bill Danforth, Natas Kaupas, Eric Dressen, Bryce Kanights, Jesse Martinez, Christian Hosoi, and many more! Jump ramps, hand plants, and wall rides were the go-to tricks and the major standouts in the event were Jesse Martinez, Hosoi, Natas, and Neil Blender. They all skat-ed every obstacle on the course!

The first pro skateboard I owned was a G&S Neil Blender so I was the most hyped to see him skate street, especially in my home town! I got into to skating because it was something you could do on your own. Since there is no right or wrong way to ride a skateboard, within reason, it was a great way to be an individual, and that’s exactly what Neil’s contest run was all about! With nose grinds, pivot to fakies, and nollies, Neil was ahead of his time when it came to both vert and street skating. This particular day was all about him

doing what he wanted and not caring what anyone thought. After a few tricks and an air off the jump ramp, Neil rolled over to the ramp to wall combo, pulled out a can of spray paint, and tagged an artsy face on the wall. It was classic! Being a super fan, I retrieved Neil’s empty spray can and kept it with all my skate stuff in my garage for years, but one day my father mistook it for garbage and threw it away! This event was great in the sense that it was pure skateboarding - no huge contracts, no X Games, no Dew tour, no contest runs where they make you wait till the camera guy is ready to film it all for television. While those events have their time and place, this was something special with a more DIY feel to it. The video of this contest was produced by Native Son Entertainment (NSI) circa 1986 and it was put out on VHS as well as DVD, so go find it to get a nice, fun history lesson about skateboarding in the 80’s!

ROOTSMARK CARROLL REVIEWS BLENDER’S LEGENDARY CONTEST RUN

WATCH NEILS RUN IN DUEL AT DIABLO

PROVS

LEAP PRO-ARI SHIFFRIN

IN PHOTOGRAPHS & QUOTES

WORDS & PHOTOS: PRICE

““

In case you have been living under

one of those bridges at the Wedge and don’t

know who Ari Shiffrin is, let me inform you. He

is a skateboarder who has attained a position

in skateboarding that no one else has ever

reached. It is the truly unique and wonderful

career milestone that is called “Leap Pro.” You

see, Ari is a very talented skateboarder, but by

his own standards is nowhere near being a le-

gitimate professional. He’s also far too talented

to hang in the limbo that is “am” status, espe-

cially riding for a joke of a company like Brimley

Skateboards. This dilemma, as far as where to

rank Ari in the world of skateboarding, led the

genius mind behind Brimley (me) to come up

with a professional status that only lasts one day

out of every four years. You see Ari is only con-

sidered professional, and only has a pro model

board release, on February 29th of every leap

year. We figured he was good enough to be pro

about twenty days of his life.

Rather than interview him about the perks

and hardships of being at the top of his game every

1,460 days, we decided to ask some of his qua-

si-colleagues what they thought about his skate-

boarding, not letting them know anything about

Ari aside from what he was doing in each photo. I

texted them the pictures and instructed them to go

off their gut reactions, to give the first words that

came to mind when the picture popped up. This is

Pro Vs. Leap Pro.

- MIKE MO CAPALDI

L e ap f r o g w i t h a mu s t a ch e . . .B o n e r.

“NO COMPLY 180INTO THE ROCKS

N o R e s p o n s e

- NYJAH HUSTON

“BOARDSLIDE TO BOARDSLIDE

“

I t p u t s m e i n a m o m e n t s i m i l a r t o w h a t I i m a g i n e t h e c row d w a s l i ke w h e n J i m m y “ S u p e r -f l y ” S n u ka s p l a s h e d D o n M u r a co f r o m t h e t o p o f t h e c a g e i n 1 9 8 3 t o w i n t h e i n t e r co n t i n e n t a l ch a m p i o n s h i p s .

- CHRIS HASLAM

SWITCH 5-0

“H e w e a r s a n k l es o ck s ? E w w w w w !

- MARC JOHNSON

100WORDS

OR LESS

A picture is worth 1,000 words. In many cases it can be, but who’s to judge? The awesome part about skate photography is the insane story behind each photo that’s taken. Maybe you jumped a barbed wire fence with your buddies and lit up the unskateable without hesitation, or stayed out all night only to stuff your face with Mexican food at 4 am before passing out on your friend’s couch with the horchata still in your hand. Perhaps there’s much more to the picture that needs to be told. But there are also times where there isn’t much to be said. In honor of that, here is 100 words or less, written about the photographed, by the photographer.

Everytime I see this photo I envision a dusty summer night with my truck full of friends skating just because we love it. We had just FInished skating Scottsdale till about 2:30am and on our way back Jalen called out this gap. It’s always been something people look at but never skate. The insane length might be a factor; 2 rails and a 5 stair is a long haul. Easily enough, Jalen landed this in about 35 minutes and we all hit Filiberto’s to put down some burritos with drunken Tempe street people till the sun came up.

JALEN NOEL OLLIE WORDS & PHOTOKOWALSKI

It’s rare when you’re a skateboarder and you’ve known someone for a long time but never really got a chance to see them skate. I’ve been seeing Matt Jones at Freedom for years and have even ended up at some spots with him here and there, but somehow I never really got to see him skate. It wasn’t until very recently on a late night session in downtown Phoenix when he blew my mind by doing this nipple high caveman nosegrind in a few tries. Now I’m a huge fan. Just think of all the time I spent not knowing.

MATT JONES CAVEMAN NOSEGRINDWORDS & PHOTO PRICE

Classic Wedge, classic Ari. The same night as our issue 5 release, it was 1am. After Price had just Finished a conversation with my mother about how I look up to him and trust his judgement, we left to pull a drowsy Ari out of bed, cut the chain that tied these benches down to the opposite side of the park, stealthily drive them through the grass in my truck with the lights off, and place them at the spot, waking up just a few hours later to watch this double table grind go down before anyone else even knew.

ARI SHIFFRINBENCH GRIND 50-50PHOTO: PRICE WORDS: KOWALSKI

EVERYTHING GOES FULL CIRCLE. PRESTON HARPERCROOKED GRINDS A FOOT.PHOTO: PRICE

WORDS & PHOTOSMATT PRICE

Preston Harper loves to party, and Preston Harper loves to skate, so naturally after an after-noon of swimming pools and libations, Preston wanted to go shoot some photos. He was feel-ing creative and thought that grinding on some lady’s feet was a good idea. Turns out it was and he rolled away from a crooked grind giddy and excited, but in the process, due to my happily delayed reaction time, his back truck ripped my radio slave right off the top of my camera. This led me to a few weeks of holding it in place whenever I needed to shoot a photo. This led to my flashes going off about 2/3 of the time. This led to me missing 1/3 of the photos I was trying to shoot.

Naturally before I was able to replace it Ryan Lay wanted to go shoot a terrifying ride on grind he had already landed and felt the need to test fate to get a still. So I set up and we shot a few that we liked alright, but of course the best one was the one the flashes didn’t fire on. Every try after that, my stomach was turning because it’s just the kind of spot where everything is dying to go wrong. I knew that if something happened at this point, it was my fault because I missed THE ONE. Sure enough, within a few tries the grim reaper came calling and Ryan did the exact thing you never want to do on this spot. His heels went over and the bar clotheslined his legs, flipping him right on to his head with his arm acting as a helmet to cushion the blow. His wrist was a purple grapefruit and he was dazed for a few minutes, but luckily he ended up without any major breaks or head injuries. I felt really bad about it, until I realized it was all Preston’s fault.

FULL CIRCLE

SYNC

XX

RYAN LAYSWITCH OLLIE

PHOTO: KOWALSKI

SYNC

ERIC DOWSWELL

FRONT BOARD

PHOTO: PRICE

XX

CALEB SCHRANK

KICKFLIP CROOK

PHOTO: KOWALSKI

DASHAWN JORDAN

HARDFLIP

PHOTO: TINDLE

KEVIN SKUTNIK

KICKFLIP

PHOTO: DRISCOLL

Get the new LE video “THEATRIX” and see the new boards at Cowtown and other essential skate shops. LE is available through Branch Distribution.

Nick Trapasso@leskateboards

photo: Coulthard