As Ryan Sheckler was announced as the winner of the Dew Tour Skate Open park competition last night, the female-laden crowd at TD Garden erupted in exultation. It was a fitting conclusion to a weekend of Sheckler-mania in Boston.
Sheckler, the 19-year-old sensation who has a large female fan base thanks to his good looks and MTV show “Life of Ryan,” also captured the inaugural International Skateboarding Federation world championship with the victory.
“It’s cool,” Sheckler said of his accomplishments. “Like I said earlier, I’m not the world champion – that’s crazy, that’s crazy talk. These guys out here are absolutely amazing on a skateboard. . . . It’s anyone’s day. You come out and someone could be on, someone could be off. Today was my day.”
In the vert event, skate legend Bucky Lasek pulled off an eggplant variation called the McEgg at the end of his first run, putting him firmly in first for the rest of the competition.
The 36-year-old Lasek reveled in the notion that he’s at the very top of his game. “It’s an honor. I set my goals high today and I had fun reaching them,” Lasek said. “Just to know the amount of fans that showed up just for skateboarding, it’s seriously . . . a pretty good feeling.”
Boston native Andy Macdonald’s stellar second run put him in third place in the vert, one spot behind Pierre-Luc Gagnon.
“It means the world to me to come out and skate in front of my hometown and to be able to do well,” Macdonald said. “All these thousands of people were here to support skateboarding.”
Sheckler gave those people a thrill earlier but was pretty excited about the experience, too. “I totally didn’t think I won, but I guess I landed the tricks that I needed to land,” Sheckler said. “I’m very lucky, very blessed and I love skateboarding. I’ll never stop skateboarding, ever.”
Although the rest of the field included stars like Paul Rodriguez, Greg Lutzka and Chaz Ortiz, second place in the park event went to a relative unknown. Ryan Decenzo, 23, earned runner-up status after a first run that left everyone speechless.
“Oh my goodness, Decenzo,” gushed third-place finisher Chris Cole. “It was like he had no clue that it was worth as much as it was, so he just went and skated. I can’t believe the stuff he did.”
Jordan Hoffart won the Transworld Skateboarding Big Trick contest.
Rune Glifberg competes in the ‘vert prelims,’ at the Skateboarding World Championships at the TD Garden, Saturday.
Sixteen-year-old Leticia Bufoni of Brazil competes in the ‘women’s park final.’
Chaz Ortiz warms up for the ‘men’s park final.’
Ryan Sheckler warms up for the ‘men’s park final.’
SKATEBOARDS.COM TV got invited to Red Bull Manny Mania in San Francisco on Saturday July 25th and we readily agreed to show up. I grabbed B-Lo Brando (of the SKATEBOARDS.COM TV the B-Lo Brando Show), Micah Szoke and Canada and we loaded up in the SKATEBOARDS.COM team van and made a beeline for the city we love…San Francisco. We showed up to blow up and set up…what…sorry after hanging with Del the Funky Homosapien I get a bit lyrical. SKATEBOARDS.COM TV set up to stream and our skaters primed themselves on the course..it was time to get down to biznass. Red Bull Manny Mania San Francisco was about to jump off city style and SKATEBOARDS.COM TV was there to capture it all. High noon and Red Bull Manny Mania San Francisco was off the a whitehot start, the weather was great we had a smooth course, chicks were everywhere and the beats kept every ones heads dipping and bobbing all day. After 4 plus hours of skating and an insane performance by Del the Funky Homosapien the winners were declared and given their loot including the coveted Red Bull Manny Mania gold medallion. Here is a post from the Red Bull Manny Mania Site…WINNERS
1st Place – Dane Vaughan (Oceanside, CA)
2nd Place – Ryan Guiso (Tracy, CA)
3rd Place – Dwayne Galloway (San Francisco, CA)
Check these photo’s of the day and make sure to check the footage on SKATEBOARDS.COM TV
After Red Bull Manny Mania it was off to LIVE105 and on air with White Menace to discuss the days events and interview Josh from Rebel8 clothing. Overall it was a great skate day and I didn’t leave the city until after midnight.
P.S. before the event started I saw Jake Phelps of Thrasher Magazine cruising the scene and he informed me that San Francisco was on track to build a legit skatepark at Waller St enclosure, thanks for the tip and looking forward to skating another new park!
We just spoke to Bam Margera who said he was rushed to the hospital Sunday after a four day drinking binge — not because of a possible drug overdose.
The “Jackass” star blames the “4-day bender” on marital problems, telling us “I may get a divorce … booze helps.”
TMZ also spoke to Bam’s mother — who told us Bam’s wife Missy called 911 because she was worried about his health after learning that he popped an Ambien during the drinking bender.
Margera says his kidney and leg muscles were a mess from not eating or drinking enough water — but the hospital flushed out his system and he was released to his home after speaking to a psychiatrist.
Now, Bam claims he’s in good health and he even sent us this photo — taken after he was released from the hospital — to prove it.
In an op-ed in Friday’s New York Times, on the eve of President Obama’s first official trip to Africa, Bono highlighted that opportunity is indeed on the rise in Africa, while simultaneously cautioning that assistance is still needed:
“Amid poverty and disease are opportunities for investment and growth — investment and growth that won’t eliminate overnight the need for assistance … but that in time can build roads, schools and power grids and propel commerce to the point where aid is replaced by trade pacts, business deals and home-grown income.”
In addition to the need for assistance in building the infrastructure, many African countries will undoubtedly continue to require assistance in fighting the HIV/AIDS and Malaria epidemics. That’s just what Bono’s RED Campaign continues to provide by raising money and awareness for The Global Fund. RED has been extremely successful since Bono founded it with Bobby Shriver in 2004, with more than $130 million contributed to The Global Fund to date. In part due to this ongoing contribution, according to the website, The Global Fund has reached 62 million people with HIV counseling and testing, provided 3.2 million AIDS orphans with basic care and support, reached 91 million people with community outreach services for one or several of the three diseases, and trained 7.6 million health or community workers to deliver service.
RED is a smart combination of philanthropy and consumerism. Brands involved thus far include American Express, Apple, Dell, Starbucks and Girl Skateboards, who introduced their first contribution to the Product(RED) line in 2007 with a pair of skateboard decks designed by Girl Art Director Andy Jenkins. Says Jenkins:
“I think with skateboarding, like with any other subculture, if you’re in or around it long enough you have a tendency to kind of get insulated in that little world that you’re in. … With the RED project it helps us to reach outside of our own little world without really changing what we really do.”
The formula of the Girl/RED partnership is a smart, simple pairing of great design (based on original paintings by Jenkins) and a great cause, making it easy for people to raise awareness for Africans in need. Skaters are already buying decks (lots of them: More than 5 million sold in 2004) and Girl is donating more than half the profits directly to The Global Fund. I spoke with Girl co-founder Megan Baltimore about the partnership.
How did the RED/Girl partnership form back in 2007 when you launched the first set of decks?
MB: I had read several articles about RED and the philosophy and was really impressed with the idea. Spike [Jonze] got in touch with Bono and we went from there.
Is this a limited edition or will you manufacture additional decks if the demand presents itself?
We want to make as many decks as we can sell. We want to raise the awareness for such a great effort that is RED.
I love that some of my friends collect decks as pieces of art and often display them prominently as such. Do you find that people are actually skating with the decks or saving them as art? Who designed this year’s set?
People are definitely collecting them. Andy Jenkins has designed both sets of decks so far and his art is always pretty special.
Was there any concern about partnering with RED based on the criticisms about the lack of transparency, and some estimates the campaign has spent upwards of $100 million on advertising, marketing, events and salaries?
We’re proud of our partnership. In a perfect world, you could generate funds for a cause with no press and attention but this is something that is working.
TP: What has been the response from the skating community?
The skateboard community has given us great feedback. For me, the skaters that are so happy to be part of the partnership is really great.
Is Girl involved in other charitable projects that you’d like to highlight for our audience?
Right now, RED is the only project like this we are involved in.
Where can we send people interested in purchasing the decks?
If you go to any of our websites, it will take you to a list of shops that carry our product. Or you can call us at 800 948 SKATE and we will help you find the shop in your area.
This summer, UCSB marked off a pilot skateboard lane in the main campus corridor to judge the possibility of keeping the skate-friendly portion of the student body from thrashing the pedestrian and bike population.
The first of its kind at the university, the 5-foot wide path is considered a first attempt at a project to improve the safety of pedestrians and skateboarders alike. According to Ron Cortez, the associate vice chancellor and chair of the skateboard committee at UCSB, the skate lane, which consists of several hundred feet of paint, graphics and signs cost $12,500 to install.
Cortez said Summer and Fall traffic on the skate path will be guinea pigs so the university can judge if the paths are effective.
“The lane has emerged as a way to make the campus pathways safer for everyone,” Cortez said. “[The committee] will be judging closely throughout the Fall Quarter to see whether or not it works and how the students are reacting to it. It may make things safer, but then again it may make things difficult. It’s all going to decide whether we want to expand and put more lanes throughout campus in the future.”
With the implementation of the lane, skateboarders must now abide by it at all times and stay clear of the pedestrian pathways beside it.
Associated Students and the campus “Be Smart About Safety” fund matched the $7,500 that two students from the Skateboard Committee, Jose Magana and Raymond Collins, fundraised for the construction of the lane.
“Ray and I raised $7,500 for the lane and have done a lot to spread awareness for skateboarding safety,” Magana said. “I think this lane will reduce skateboard related injuries because pedestrians will have their own area to walk in. We just don’t have sufficient amounts of bike racks, so by skateboarding, it alleviates bike congestion on the paths.”
Of the total $15,000 allocated for the skate path, only $2,500 remains, Cortez said, in case the skate path is not received well and needs to be removed.
Magana said that if the lane proves to be a success, it will only make sense to install more lanes around campus. However, the most important thing right now, he said, is for skateboarders to unite and ensure that skateboarding doesn’t get banned.
Tina Cheng, a third-year comparative literature major who regularly skates to class, gave a skateboarder’s perspective on the new lane.
“I’m happy that there’s a lane because that means skateboarding won’t get banned anytime soon, but I am a bit skeptical about how the lane will work,” Cheng said. “Skateboarding has a different way of control than biking in a sense of its speed and direction. I’m sure there will be less crashes towards pedestrians, but there may be more crashes between skateboarders. The lane just seems too narrow for comfort.”
Magana noted he is currently in talks with Cortez for possible ways to get students accustomed to the new lane, one idea being a skateboarding education section in this summer’s freshman orientation.
“I saw a lot of people on campus looking at them in confusion,” Magana said. “I want to make sure that skateboarders know the laws and the rules so that everyone can get to class in peace.”
While the pavement of the skate lane may be rough and patchy in spots, Cortez said the whole campus corridor cement is scheduled for replacement in the next several years and no large-scale work is planned before that.
Back in the day, the story that usually got written following a hot afternoon spent at a Carl’s Jr. sponsored blow-out skateboarding event in the heart of Orange County, California would have been filled with whining and complaining–loads of it.
There would have been whining about not having access to the proper locations, or about how far away media parking was, or that the event wasn’t treating the skaters or the endemic media right. Those stories were reckless fun to write, but they really can’t be written anymore because those days are over. This was especially true at the Maloof Money Cup Presented by etnies and Monster.
We rolled in skeptical. Anything this slickly produced can’t be good, right? We watched the seemingly flawless Fuel HD live webcast on Saturday night and thought that it all might just be some kind of TV hoax. But when we arrived at the Orange County Fair Grounds on Sunday afternoon July 12, 2009 we discovered that it really was as good as it looked online.
The Money Cup was set up perfectly from the parking, to the media access, to the grand stands
for the civilians, all the way to the vert ramp/mini mega and the street set up that California Skateparks built. Media got front row seats to the entire street course, and great spots at either end of the vert ramp. The fans had elevated grandstands that offered a great view on the entire event. There was even shaded VIP seating up top for the super VIPs (we got shut trying to get up there, but then so did Pierre Andre (click the watch the video) so we didn’t feel so bad).
The only problem was that the skate action was so rapid fire that it was really difficult to keep up with what was going on. It was almost easier to follow on the webcast because at least then someone was eliminating the options and forcing us to focus on one thing at a time.
When faced with P-Rod, Chris Cole, Sean Malto, Peter Ramondetta, Nyjah Huston (pictured left), and Torey Pudwill in a jam format heat skating on different parts of the section it got kind of crazy. We found that they only way to follow along was to sit with three or four friends who we could turn to when we heard the crowd erupt and say, “What was that?” The amount of quality skating being thrown down literally required eight eyes to take it all in.
So, rather than try to get any of it down here, we’re going to suggest that everyone do what we’re going to do as soon as we post this: point the browser over to Fuel.TV and watch the vert and street finals again so we can figure out exactly what we saw. Either way we know one thing: we’re already looking forward to seeing it again next year.
We want to make as many decks as we can sell. We want to raise the awareness for such a great effort that is RED.
Back in the day, the story that usually got written following a hot afternoon spent at a Carl’s Jr. sponsored blow-out skateboarding event in the heart of Orange County, California would have been filled with whining and complaining–loads of it.
