Red Bull – Curb Kings

Another weekend in LA means another unique event supporting our beloved skateboarding world. It seems like more than once a week, there is a reason for skateboarders in Los Angeles to gather for the sake of gathering …and… skating together. This time, on September 10th, the occasion was one of a contest series called “Curb Kings,” put together by the worldly folks at Red Bull.

Curb Kings highlights talent of many backgrounds in skating, including, but not limited to, the purist and basic element of curb skating. Every skater who has spent years or even decades on and off their board has, at least in some capacity, experienced the thrill of grinding their trucks and sliding their deck on the painted (or raw) constructed curbs we find on almost any street. The absolute joy created from that controlled friction, mimicking the raw feel of moving across the edge of a pool deep in the drought of Southern California. Whether we are aware of its roots or not, each one of us wants to pull one type of grind or another on some obstacle – the curb on the corner in our neighborhood, the handrail at our own middle school or the coping of the our local skatepark quarterpipe.

It doesn’t matter where we lay our trucks down to grind, but it will always be relevant how each of us seeks, executes and conquers the grind on our skateboards. Red Bull’s “Curb Kings” is born by the testament of that thrill, but it also adds to what’s possible on a little red curb, in a contest setting. In the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles, “Curb Kings” was held in a warehouse full of various curbs, ledges and banks, of all variations. Some are meant to pop over, some meant to pop onto and some meant to jam up or into. But all the same, everyone was essentially curb skating.

Every skater was welcome to enter the contest, at no charge, yet there were only a few that advanced to the finals and eventually took the podium. Current skateboarding media stars were in the mix, such as Zion Wright, Alex Midler, Blake Johnson and Torey Pudwill. But at the end of the day, the man with the win was Justin Drysen.

Congrats Justin! And to everyone that came out to be a part. See you next year. 😉

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