In recent skate news, young ripper David Gonzalez has turned pro for Flip Skateboards. If I am not mistaken David is only 16 years old. He hails from Medellin, Columbia and absolutely kills it on a skateboard. There are some who argue that he is too young to be turning pro, but if his peers at Flip are confident enough to bestow him with this honor - who are we to argue?

He has two huge video parts that will be dropping in the near future; his Globe United by Fate section as well as his long anticipated Extremely Sorry appearance. He is one of the new generation of foreign rippers that have been taking the skateboard industry by storm. Shredding on every terrain you can think of, he is an all-around versatile skateboarding fiend.

About the only notable fact I could question as far as his pro rank status goes would be the lack of video footage prior to being sponsored. To date, Gonzalez hasn’t really released a full video part. On average, even the young pros today like Sheckler, Tony Tave, and Garret Hill have had significant video parts during there Am years. I almost feel like maybe there should be a line drawn just before one can turn pro. To be a professional, there is more to it than just possessing an amazing skill on a board. He is undoubtedly gnarly enough to be a professional skateboarder. The question is - did he truly earn it?

The X-Games have decided to keep the skateboarding vert competitions around for at least one more summer. What was a widely criticized decision, ESPN had originally announced they were killing off the vert skate events from the Summer X-Games and that prompted me to write that they’ve officially jumped the shark.

While I still think the X-Games have been on a decline, it’s pretty refreshing that they have listened to their audience and changed their minds. They had a poll up on their site asking if the decision to drop the vert event was a good idea. The people spoke and 80% said it was a bad decision. I can’t help but think this decision to reinstate the vert comps was also influenced by the athletes of the games.

Even tough ESPN went back on their original decision, it says a lot about them to drop this event in the first place. I think it’s pretty obvious at this point where their intentions lie and they’re willing to sell us out in a second for the almighty dollar. I guess that shouldn’t really come as a surprise, afterall they’re owned by ABC and we both know ABC doesn’t care about much besides their bottom-line.

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If you have stayed in the Phoenix Am loop you know Ryan Decenzo won. This is the same kid that took the Tampa Am as well. So that’s two major contest victories in a 2 month span for Ryan! His run was flawless, as was the run of second place runner up Chazz Ortiz.

Skateboarding is getting crazier and crazier, and the progression doesn’t seem to slowing down whatsoever. For example, the Best Trick competition at the Phoenix Am was ridiculous. The winning trick by Robbie Brockell was absolutely insane. If I get it right, I believe it was a 360 Ollie bigger flip. I have seen people calling it a big flip, but if I am not mistaken it does a 540 flip. I don’t think anyone there argued with calling him the winner. I don’t even recall seeing that trick done before, let alone down a ten stair. With his victory in Best Trick, Robbie took home just as much cash for doing one trick as Ryan Decenzo was awarded for winning the entire Phoenix Am.

This solidified my previous post about how gnarly Phoenix Am was truly going to be. I knew it was going to be insane, but this year was more so than the rest. Basically, Skateboarding is breaking all boundaries of what was thought to be possible. Young up and coming rippers are starting to throw down tricks that were once only seen in video games. I can only imagine what will happen next.

Ruben’s post about the X-Games killing vert skateboarding today really caught my attention. Why? Simply because I associate much of the Summer X-Games with vert skateboarding and I think this is a huge mistake by ESPN. Just about every time I’ve watched the games on TV, they’ve almost always had vert skate on. And I enjoyed watching it, even though the only time I ever tried dropping in on a vert ramp I ate shit.

Some of my best Summer X memories consist of vert highlights, most notably Tony’s 900 that none of us will soon forget. I can’t help but think I’m not alone with my Summer X/vert connection. I’m willing to bet a large number of people who either are or aren’t heavily involved in action sports see it as their signature sport.

I’m sure ESPN has good reasons for making this move, financial being the top. But I can’t help but think this rubs many of us the wrong way and is (in my opinion) a huge slap in the face to athletes like Tony Hawk. Because of old media decisions like this, the games have slowly been getting worse over the years and now they’ve just completely jumped the shark.

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On April 3rd, ESPN announced the “death” of the Vert competition in the upcoming X-Games. They are getting rid of it entirely and replacing it with a superpark style competition.

First off, since when did we start using the term known as “superpark”? And secondly, Vert has always come and gone but when I think of the X-Games I think of the Vert competition right away. I am pretty sure many other skateboarders and spectators do as well. Afterall, it seems to be a highly-featured event every year.

The signature moment in X-Games skateboarding, as well as for the X-Games in general was Tony Hawks 900. This of course was done on the Vert ramp. It’s cool that they have the street competition now, but I feel like no matter what they do its always never going to really be a “street” competition. And if I am not mistaken, don’t motocross and countless other categories have over 3 events in the X-Games?

It would be a real bummer if skateboarding was downgraded and left with only the Mega Ramp and “superpark” event. I personally have never dropped in on a full sized vert ramp but I could only imagine what it must be like. I have an immense amount of respect for the vert skateboarders who are out doing their thing. I really enjoy watching them throw it down on the massive vert ramp.

On top of that, there are tons of skateboarding street competitions but not that many for the vert guys. The X-Games to me was the contest that all vert skateboarders look forward to winning. And yes, X-Games style vert ramps seem limited almost solely to California when it comes to availability. But you have to remember that the X-Games have almost always taken place in California. I’m a street skateboarder and have always skated street. Here I am telling you that we need the Vert competition badly. Don’t let it be pulled away from us. They’re our brothers just as much as the dudes you skate street with. Help vote to keep the Vert competition around!

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The Phoenix Am is a world renowned skateboard contest that takes place in Peoria, Arizona. It is an exciting contest to watch because the upcoming skateboard amateurs in the contest are super hungry for the contest win. Not only are there cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, but the exposure level being highlighted for the contest is immense. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the gnarly carcass tossing that will be going down during the best trick contest held that same day.

The skateboarders in this contest may not be pro but they definitely seem to have way more energy out on the course. If you’re in Arizona this weekend be sure to check it out. I guarantee you it will be entertaining and worth the watch. There is an entrance fee of five dollars, but if you are one of the first five hundred to show up you leave with a free shirt. (more…)

So I checked out the new revamped Skateboard.com website and I must say that it’s looking good. The layout is super nice and there are tons of new community features that have been added. There are a lot of other skate websites just like it but you can never really have too many skateboarding websites. It seems like these days, as websites push toward more social media features, you see a lot of the same concepts repeated over and over again, no matter what skate site you go to. But that’s just kind of the way it is. Trick tips, photos, user-generated videos, blogs, and forums - it’s all kind of the same when it comes to community sites like this.

One huge bonus that makes them standout is their domain name. I mean seriously, wow what a site name to pull off. I guarantee they have people logging onto there website that weren’t even trying to find it to begin with. Just based on people typing in ’skateboarding.com.’ To be honest with you, the first time I ever viewed skateboard.com it was out of shear boredom. I seriously just thought to myself about typing skateboard.com in my browser just to see what would pop up.

Props to Skateboard.com for a fantastic looking site and the new addition of all those community features. It seems to be really updated and laid out very well. The question is what makes this site, besides the fancy domain name, different from the rest. There’s already tons of skate communities I can join that have a lot more activity going on. It’s going to take awhile for them to build up the user base but it’s a site I’ll keep my eye on in the meantime.

One of my greatest inspirations is watching skateboard videos. We all love skateboarding videos. I have seen hundreds of skateboarding videos and I never get tired of watching them. I have a whole collection of them, many that I had anticipated purchasing and watching well before they were even released.

It’s an awesome feeling to open up your new skate video and pop it into the player. It would be spectacular if skateboarders three years down the line got to experience this exact feeling. Nowadays though, it seems as though the entire industry (as has all industries) has been shaken up by the media monster known as YouTube. There are many other video uploading websites out there but YouTube is by far the most popular. It’s becoming common for skateboarding videos to be uploaded onto the ‘tube before they are released on DVD.

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A recent article sparked my attention about the take over of Earth Products (which includes the likes of Planet Earth Clothing and Adio Shoes) by K2 Sports. It also seems like they want to make room in their Adio warehouse for what I am guessing is more shoes? Which would in some way explain why they would be tearing down the indoor skatepark they have within their facility.

I myself have skated the Adio park before and I must say it is a super fun park to session. But seriously, back to the main course. Not to long ago I read a somewhat similar article about Alien Workshop and Habitat being purchased by a mighty large Snowboard company as well. This all really makes me think about the skateboarding brands of today.

Honestly, how many skateboard brands exist today that are owned and operated solely by skateboarders? The answer is, not that many. It seems every company is signing there lives away this day and age for the almighty dollar. And a lot of these companies “used” to be the core brands of the industry. I remember personally looking up to them and being stoked on there products. I won’t even get into throwing in other companies names either. But let’s just say you would be amazed at what other companies are “faking the funk” as I would like to say.

It seems that if the skateboard companies aren’t being purchased by snowboard companies then it’s some corporation that has nothing to do with action sports in general. And its not that I have anything against snowboard companies, its just that I think it would be fantastic if they would stick to there designated audience.

Skateboarding has always had its ups and downs. But you and I both know that right now, skateboarding has never been more accepted than it is. You can thank television for that one. From shows on MTV to the X games being broadcast on some of the world’s biggest stations. Tons of companies are now trying to get there hands into the skateboarding market. More than half of them weren’t even into skateboarding to begin with. But in the words of the WU TANG CLAN “Cash Rules Everything Around Us Cream get the money dolla dolla bill yall”.

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Being a skateboarder in this day and age is an amazing thing . Seriously, you can travel anywhere in the world and have something in common with people in foreign lands. It doesn’t matter where he/she is from or what his/her beliefs are, a kickflip is still a kickflip. It’s the coolest thing in the world to be able to connect with others like that. I have played games of “skate” with skateboarders that I can’t even have a conversation with due to the language barrier. But we still understand each other through our skateboarding. When one of us would miss or land a trick we knew exactly what was up despite those barriers that would otherwise keep us from communicating.

Of course, there is always the outer society that surrounds us and despises the fact that we skateboard. Not everyone of course, but there are some individuals in the world that think of skateboarding as a complete waste of time. This leads me to the sub topic of “hate”. We have enough to deal with individuals crashing our skateboard sessions and kicking us out of everywhere we try to skate. But to have to deal with hate from within our own kind is even worse.

The dreaded “haters” within our skateboard community are what I am talking about. So what if little Timmy can’t land his heelflips yet? Who cares if Bobby Anderson pushes mongo? I know that no matter what I say and feel there will always be skateboarders hating on other skateboarders. It really bothers me to know that instead of us all sticking together and pushing each other, we have to constantly hear haters talk crap about others, or sometimes even ourselves. For all of you that read this that have hated on another boarder, remember this - you skateboard. He skateboards. We skateboard. No joke, we all have this in common. we should stick together and enjoy what we love doing most. In that way alone we are brothers.. Skateboarding is our lifestyle, it is our art-form, it is our universal language.