Man if this doesn’t take things up a notch, I don’t know what will. First Tony Hawk with Jeep, now Greg Lutzka with Toyota. Yes, Greg Lutzka has a signature car coming out soon from Toyota. If that’s not pimp then I don’t know what is.
Seriously though, you don’t see other professional athletes getting signature cars. Its crazy the appeal that skateboarding has nowadays. I’m ot sure how many will be made, but I have a feeling it might be super limited. I noticed it states that a snowboard roof rack will be attached on top of the car. What happened to the trunk skateboard rack? Dude needs some skate orientated features up in his ride. Maybe like a built in compartment for a portable skate rail or something. Or some built in skateboard racks in the back trunk, that would be awesome.
There are probably tons of haters hating on Lutzka, saying he is selling out. But with all honesty, you know everyone out there hating would have to be stupid not to accept a free car from Toyota. Let alone whatever deal he is getting in top of that for using his name.
With skateboarding nowadays, anything is possible. Getting car deals has just taken things to an entirely different level and beyond. Cadillac? Ferrari anyone? Anything’s possible right?
$8,250 dollars for a skateboard? That’s what they’re asking for a skateboard deck that comes inside of a ‘purse company’s’ case. Wow! Louis Vuitton and skateboarding is not something I would’ve foreseen happening. This collab is super random, and we all know that the skateboard deck does not even cost 1/100th the price they’re selling it there for.
I do admit the case looks pretty sweet though and I am sure that alone is worth a good amount. But the board looks pretty standard to me. On top of that, I’m assuming either the board has no griptape or the case inside is going to slowly get torn by the gritty surface.
Regardless of my thoughts, there are 3 of these Louis Vuitton skateboard sets and by now, they’re probably already sold out. On top of this, 70 T-shirts were printed and are being sold for $250 a piece. Without question, they will probably sell out of those as well.
I assure you, the crazy skateboard collabs aren’t going to stop any time soon. Skateboarding is and forever in our time will be known and recognized by society around us more than ever before. Plus, for many its seen as a “cool” thing to do. Even if I had the $8,250 dollars to blow in the air, I still wouldn’t buy one of these deck sets. But if Stephen Sprouse etched a skateboard purely out of gold and diamonds and put it up for sale, then we could talk.
If you happen to live in San Diego County or anywhere near Imperial County, this is a contest definitely worth checking out. Last year, there were 500+ people in attendance. Close to 200 entrants in the game of SKATE competition alone. There were massive product raffles and product tosses that went down all day as well. The energy of the event was heavy all day and the competition took place within rectangular fenced walls which made it feel like a full on cage match.
This year will be even more epic with the addition of a full year sponsorship from Struggle Skateboards for the 1st place winner. On top of this there will be a Sk8mafia team signing earlier in the day prior to the competition and free drinks during the day. There is no bigger game of skate in the entire region, or hundreds of miles for that matter.
El Centro is the city where the competition is taking place in. It’s about 35 minutes away from Yuma, Arizona, 15 minutes away from Mexicali, Mexico and about 1 hour and 40 minutes away from San Diego County. I have no doubt that there will be competitors from all of those different regions which is what really makes the competition diverse and even more challenging for many. It all takes place in front of Driscolls, the last core skate shop existing in Imperial County, which to me is even more fitting.
So come on out and watch, compete, or just take advantage of all the free stuff being given out. And remember if your going to enter the competition, bring your “A” game.
Never thought I would be hearing this news so quickly but if you happen to live in the San Diego County area, you are in great luck. Due to the budget crisis currently going on, all skate parks will now be free and unmonitored. Yup, that means no one telling you to put your pads on and no fees or gear you have to rent.
More than half the skate parks were free to begin with but this opens up all the ones you probably wouldn’t skate on a regular basis. It almost feels like a New Year’s present to all of us skateboarders. Take massive advantage of all this though. I hope it lasts throughout the entire year because for sure we probably won’t see this going down in 2010. Oh and its important to point out that the YMCA park in Encinitas, isn’t going to be free because it is not a city park. That is the only one I can think of that you will probably still have to pay for.
In my opinion, “Memorial” skatepark and “PQ” park are the standouts of the free park bunch. They have some interesting and different types of obstacles that I found enjoyable to skate. Coincidentally though, I had to jump the front gate illegally when I skated both of those skate parks. And as for the Carmel Valley skatepark which is also now “Free” to skate. I recently paid $5.00 to skate it only to find out that less than a month later it was free. It’s funny the way some things in this world work.
The title of the New York Times article reads “Skaters jump in as Foreclosures Drain the Pool”. Quite the surprise, don’t you think? Basically an article about the economic hardships for everyone and how it benefits skateboarders.
You see foreclosures hitting people hard. They lose their homes and just like that, you got a new pool to skate. On top of that, the pool services just haven’t been doing as well and rarely anyone maintains their pool according to the article. But skateboarders do!
One part of the article that was pretty sketchy though was when it was talking about west Nile and the health hazard of it all. I almost feel like the city should actually just pay the skateboarders who clean each pool. For all you know, they may have saved the lives of many in the neighborhood. But of course they’re still probably getting the boot from the cops because some irate neighbor made the call in to get them in trouble.
It would have been worthy to mention that not all pools are skateable to begin with. Some have too much vert and some just don’t have a decent shape. So if the dude in the article is saying he has too many to even choose from, then he must have found a gold mine. On top of all this, if you go to mapquest and check out your local neighborhood. Zoom in to the maximum and check out all the local pools in your area. Ever wonder if that abandoned house in the corner has a pool in the back? Now you can find out!
4 years in the making and the first Alien Workshop video since Photosynthesis. I grew up watching Photosynthesis and it was a huge inspiration to me in various different aspects.
First off, the skateboarding was amazing and the cinematics and filming were in a league of their own. It introduced a lot of new skateboarders to me at the time. And I actually hold that video and Josh Kalis’ part responsible for making me want to learn 360 flips. Watch his part to see what I mean.
Alien still has some of its original riders but with a whole new batch of fresh rippers. Arto Saari , Heath Kirchart. Mike Taylor, Dylan Rieder, Omar Salazar, Steve Berra, and various Am’s have since joined the team. The video without a doubt in my mind will be the next best thing to a skateboarding film in recent years aside from Lakai’s Fully Flared.
The DVD promises to provide you with a 60+ page booklet of photos from the making of the flick. Bonus footage is also going to be included with the DVD, which is awesome. And this time around it seems as though the video is actually going to have more of a futuristic type theme to it. Well, judging by the title header and a lot of the recent ads it has given that sort of vibe off. Perhaps a trade-off from seagulls to spaceships? Just maybe. Mind Field is released February 6th, of 2009.
Not quite a week ago, I received an e-mail from a friend that contained a YouTube link. This is pretty standard for me, clips from YouTube and other video sites frequently end up in my inbox for my viewing pleasure. This particular video, however, has stood out in my mind in a way that few others have. The clip is only 1 minute and 35 seconds long, but it’s a 1:35 that has kept me playing it over and over, helping remind myself once again why it is I love being immersed in the world of boardsports.
When I tell you that the clip featured our very own Ruben Najera, you’ll probably have the word “homer” come to the tip of your tongue. Oh well I guess. All I can say is that all of us who have had the pleasure to work with Ruben have come to know one of the most driven, passionate skateboarders, or any type of boarder for that matter that I have ever come across. And to put mildly….the guy absolutely shreds. He truly lives to skate, and he skates to live.
The clip is a Struggle Skateboards production. Ruben runs Struggle and is doing some really remarkable things with the endeavor. While this type of stoke and passion isn’t unique to only surfing, skating, or any of the other boardsports that makes our world go round, it’s very common to see and makes you realize that, for many of us, these sports are the loves of our lives.
So take a glance and check out a world class skateboarder with a world class outlook. And of course, be sure to suss out Struggle Skateboarders.
It’s that time of year again and here are the top 10 moments in skateboarding for 2008. Drop us a comment below if you disagree of if we missed something you strongly feel should have made the list.
10. Chaz Ortiz winning a Dew Tour stop! Why did this make the list? Because someone finally won one of the darn contest stops other than Sheckler or P-Rod. So stoked to see some new blood winning a contest. This kid is breaking through fast. Pretty soon it’s going to be him winning all the contests.
9. Split clothing going down and out! This shocked and not only surprised a lot of people, but it let many know that even the big companies aren’t safe from the economic pinch. I would have never guessed that Split was going to call it quits. Especially with the new video about to drop. Where did all that footage go? I still want to see it. DEMONS IN THE ATTIC?! Where’s it at?
8. Southern California Skate parks! Yes this has been a massive year for newly opened skate parks here in So-Cal. including what I consider our first legit Skate Plaza. Well first one that I think looks spectacular. If you are ever in Wilmington, Ca go on by and have a sweet session there. Its so worth it, seriously.
7. Thrashers Bust or Bail contest had to make the list. The contest was held at the world famous Paul Revere 16 stair in San Francisco. $25,000 was at stake and none other than Ryan Sheckler took top honors. Tons of first time tricks were done there as well and the bar was set super high. I honestly don’t even know what else to think of someone doing on the set anymore.
6. Goofy vs. Regular is always a highly anticipated contest. This year the Regulars took the trophy back. Chris Cole seriously annihilated the course. Although I still don’t agree on the way they settled who won by playing a game of skate in the manner they did. I do agree that the Regular team killed it. I skate Goofy so I voted for my side but I got to hand it to the regulars this year. Goofy has it next year though just watch!
5. The Berrics!!!! Everybody knows about Eric Koston and Steve Berra’s private training facility. The Berrics took 2008 by storm. All year long there was something big happening underneath that warehouse of theirs. Not only that, but just the whole indoor training facility footage craze this year has grown tremendously. The Berrics has my vote though for the gnarliest. Clever, unique, intriguing, and always entertaining to watch. 5 stars for the Berrics!
4. The Blind team! These dudes took every team contest this year, like the Vans Downtown contest! These dudes held it down big time. And its rad because it seems that everyone voted against them or for some other team throughout the competitions only to watch these guys come up big. Still got my Gideon Choi deck! Blind goes way back. History for days.
3. S.O.T.Y. winner Silas Baxter Neal. Yes the man deserves it. A fabulous part in Es “eSpecial”, and a worthy winning of “Best Rookie” at the Transworld awards. Oh yea and an “Inhabitants”, and more recent Strange Notes part. Don’t forget all of the magazine covers and the mass array of photos featured just about everywhere. The dude needs his own pro shoe already!
2. Lakai’s the Final Flare!This skateboard video absolutely obliterated the stereotype that skate videos would no longer sell. It just goes to show that if you make a video actually worth buying, it WILL sell! It will forever go down as one of the greatest skateboarding videos of all time. And all throughout 2008 everyone around you was talking about this video and you know it. Hats down and a massive applause to the Lakai dudes for this masterpiece.
1. The Maloof Money Cup! This contest had the largest cash purse of any skateboard competition of all time. I was there and witnessed the craziness go down firsthand. It was amazing! Probably the biggest batch of big time skateboarding names in one location at one time skateboarding. The course was unlike anything I had ever seen. And to make it even more insane they destroyed the entire thing after its contest use. The skateboarding that went down during the contest was unheard of. And the star studded guests and world wide attention it grabbed shook the year 2008 with a seismic 10.0 magnitude earthquake. And the best part is that it looks like the contest is here to stay.
5ones: First off how do you prepare for so many kickflips? 1,546 kickflips is alot!!!! Do you have any training techniques, or do you just go at it?
Zach: I skate all the time, but didn’t do anything special to get ready. I should have eaten breakfast that day. We started at 10:00 in the morning. I could have done more if I’d eaten something.
5ones: Aside from the kickflip record, you’re an all around talented skateboarder as well. What are your goals in skateboarding?
ZK: Thanks for the compliment! I just want to keep working and learning new tricks until I’m good enough to be pro. I want to learn really really long mannys from you.
5ones: Any new tricks you are working on at the moment? And which tricks do enjoy doing the most?
ZK: I just learned front board kickflip out. It took about an hour to get it down. Now I’m working on back krook halfcab out. I like to do kf frontboard, kf backlip, back feeb, back 50 & kickflip pretzle stance.
5ones: If you could skateboard with anyone in the world who would you choose to skate with?
ZK: I’d love to learn from Dave Bachinsky. His signatures – nollie big heelflip & hard flip. I skated with Greg Lutzka a few times. He’s from 4Seasons in Milwaukee, too. He’s a great guy!
5ones: Shoutouts! Who would you like to thank out there?
ZK: All my sponsors that are so awesome to me. I get to go to a lot of competitions around the country because of them. They are all really good people!
So the long awaited, Final Flare Lakai video, is finally up for purchase. Now you can check out all the bonus goodness that comes along with it. On top of that, you get the Blu-Ray disc that comes along with it.
This is the perfect item arriving at the perfect time of the year. It’s raining over here in the Valley and snowing in many other parts of the United States. Since we can’t go out and actually skate, and since there is no indoor park over here in the Valley, watching the Lakai Final Flare DVD sounds like the perfect plan.
According to the Lakai website all the DVD’s shipped out Friday and whatever didn’t get shipped out on that day went out this past Monday. So your local shop should have them in stock by now. And by all means, try to get it at your local skateshop and support your scene. Get the Lakai video and get yourself pumped up to skate when the weather clears.
Looking out at the rain right now reminds me a lot of Marc Johnson’s entrance trick to 3rd and final song of his part. Right when he looks into the camera and says “See those little dots right there Ty? That means its raining.” And then he commences to do a lipslide to blunt on these two gnarly benches all while it is pouring rain around him. Classic.
@5ones - follow us on twitter
If you happen to live in San Diego County or anywhere near Imperial County, this is a contest definitely worth checking out. Last year, there were 500+ people in attendance. Close to 200 entrants in the game of SKATE competition alone. There were massive product raffles and product tosses that went down all day as well. The energy of the event was heavy all day and the competition took place within rectangular fenced walls which made it feel like a full on cage match. 
The title of the New York Times article reads “
4 years in the making and the first Alien Workshop video since Photosynthesis. I grew up watching Photosynthesis and it was a huge inspiration to me in various different aspects. 
Not quite a week ago, I received an e-mail from a friend that contained a YouTube link. This is pretty standard for me, clips from YouTube and other video sites frequently end up in my inbox for my viewing pleasure. This particular video, however, has stood out in my mind in a way that few others have. The clip is only 1 minute and 35 seconds long, but it’s a 1:35 that has kept me playing it over and over, helping remind myself once again why it is I love being immersed in the world of boardsports.
5ones Categories