Walker Ryan Shuffl

Super sick Walker Ryan video part. Wish I could sw bs big spin like that.

T-shirt Raiders

So stoked on this High Five shirt. Had a hard time finding one but eventually a friend of mine hooked it up for me. Thanks AC.

Mystery Sascha Daley Intro

Well worth the visit to Blackbox's website. Dude is really going for it in this clip. Quintuple set?! Crazy! Gotta give props to Jamie Thomas for showing so much love to Canadian skateboarders.

Music Product Review

I gave a preview of the Music wheels and deck I was sent here. I've gotten out a handful of times but due to rain and general lame weather, I'm not gonna be skating as much as I'd like. Here's my experience.

I'll preface that I'm not a wheel snob. I'll try just about anything that is around 52-53mm. I tend to ride my wheels for a long time. I'm not a heavy flatspotter. I don't really do boardslides, lipslides or bluntslides. I don't pivot/drive my 180 tricks.

The last set of wheel I rode were blue 52mm Zero wheels I found in the garbage area of my condo. They were practically new (still had full tread on the riding surface) with some Bones Reds. For me, when wheels are too hard, my ride feels rough and bumpy. If they're too soft, it feels slow and grippy... gummy feeling, if that makes any sense. Those Zero wheels felt super hard and it was a rough ride... Foot massage style like when I was in grade 8 in the 80's and was pushing all over the neighbourhood and had numb feet after cruising around for hours.

These Music wheels feel just right... not too hard nor soft. For whatever reason, they are not as barky as other wheels when powersliding. So far, no issues with durability but like I said earlier, I'm not a heavy flatspotter and tend to ride my wheels for a long time. These wheels are as good, if not better, than others I've ridden over the past 20 years and they're eco friendly so why not save the planet one set of wheels at a time.

When it comes to decks, I'm super particular. Width, concave, shape... it only takes one of them to be off to ruin a set-up for me. I break a lot of boards... 70% I ride I'll snap skating. It might be a coincidence but the majority of the decks that didn't break on me were pressed by PS Stix in the States, which doesn't exist anymore and has now moved all their facilities to China and Mexico. Back to the Music board... it really is a solid deck and took almost no getting used to. The shape is right up my alley and the concave feels proper as well. Some boards start to feel soggy/slug-ish after a few sessions. This Music board, 7 sessions in, still feels nice and crispy. I've had some wonky landings on it and it didn't crack, which is always a positive.

If you're looking for some solid gear and want to support a great new small company, go out and buy some Music product. Hopefully your local shop carries Music and if not, ask them to do so. As of a few weeks ago, you can purchase directly from their new online store. One more thing that is super awesome is they were just recently featured in New York Magazines gift finder issue.

Alien Workshop Heath Kirchart limited 120

This laser engraved Heath retirement commemorative edition board is way too awesome.

T-shirts

For some reason, the past few months, I've been accumulating logo shirts, which is rather odd for me. I typically just wear plain t's, usually heather gray. Figure I'll start posting a shirt every once in a while.

At the end of October, my wife was in Orlando and got me this shirt.


Yes... I'm a giant nerd and I'm stoked on Harry Potter. Part one of the Deathly Hallows opens up this weekend. Looks sick.

Bank shot

Speaking of hole in ones... sick bank shot ace by Leif Olson during the second round of the 2009 Canadian Open at Glen Abbey.

Heath Kirchart- First Alien Workshop Interview

Found this in the archives. A nine years old welcome to the Workshop interview with Heath. There's also a Berra one.


Kirchart answers some questions.....

Motivations for coming to the Workshop? Was it mostly a business decision for you? Could you relate to the identity more?

Heath: When it comes down to it Alien is a better fit for me. First, I believe with the current team we have a very diverse team which will make for a great video when the time comes. Second, the direction of the brand (meaning graphics, etc.) are more along the lines of what I would like to be riding. Third, I like Alien.

What are your first memories of the Alien Workshop as a young skater? Any impressions?

Heath: When I was a little kid I bought the Alien video and thought that the skating in it was great. Hated the art though because that could have been more footage of those guys skating. I still have that video at my parents house.

What's it like being teammates with Berra for so long. You guys have been on Foundation and Birdhouse together. How do you guys push each other/influence each other?

Heath: This will be the third board company that we have rode for at the same time. We are good friends but not the greatest of friends, but their seems to be this silent loyalty between us that has been there since the early Foundation years.

Any short-term or long-term goals now that you're on AWS?

Heath: Well once the other guys and I get these other videos that we are working on right now out of the way it will be time to make an Alien Workshop video.

What's your main motivation in skating at this day and age? Gnarly tricks? Does coverage influence those motivations? Has it changed over the years?

Heath: When you make or even try something that your scared of you get this feeling of accomplishment that is impossible for me to describe. For me, skating is the only way to get that feeling.

I heard in the Dill interview that you don't get too excited over your graphics...can you remember what was on your very first pro model graphic? Before you turned pro did you have graphics fantasies of what you'd have on your boards?

Heath: Yeah my name coming out of a dog's ass, real happy about that one. Only when I was real little did I care about graphics, and all I wanted were some skull and bones graphics. I was real into the Peralta Powell thing.

Immediate or long-term future plans in skating or outside of skating?

Heath: Sure.

You travel around quite a bit with filming and everything... is there one city you like better or feel more comfortable at?

Heath: Not really. The only place I feel comfortable is at home, surrounded by people I choose and am comfortable with. I did just spend some time in Toronto and that was a fun place.

Any kind of inspiration outside of skateboarding that gets you excited? certain music, literature or anything?

Heath: Sure.

If you could skate to one song, all copyrights aside...any song for a video part, what would it be?

Heath: Mostly anything by Pink Floyd, "Wish you where here," in particular.

If you look closely at bottom of your board, it says in very small type, "man of the night." Is nighttime really the right time? Is nighttime best because of the non-bust factor?

Heath: Does it? great. I skate at night mostly because I can't stand anyone that I don't invite watching me. Any spot during the day will have all these people around and people drive me nuts.


p.s. it doesn't really say "man of the night" on the board. I just made that up. I wouldn't do that to you. OK, that's it.

Heath: I hate interviews.

Alife x Girl Skateboards Bedrock

I saw a Japanese kid riding this board last weekend and I kept getting glimpses of the super bright graphic but had no idea what it was. Jef Choy informed me that it's an Alife/Girl collaboration deck and it was Fred Flintstones tie. Very clever. We then talked to the kid about the graphic but he didn't speak very good English so Jef tried to Japan-ify "Flintstones", with some sort of Japanese suffix, to no avail. Later on, I got the official pdf from Tony Ferguson and grabbed this image.


From Alife Vancouver's facebook, it looks like they are clearing out a bunch of old boards for $20 including this Flintstones one. It's pretty odd that there's absolutely no information about this deck anywhere online. You'd think at least one street wear/sneaker nerd blog would have something about it.

Bent Axle

Super lame. Never done this in 20+ years. I suppose these Stage 8 Indy's are super old. I think I got them in the early 2000's but didn't skate very much from 2004-2007. I skipped a whole stage! Got some 139 Stage X's. My old bushings were totally messed up... old, cracked and brittle, which lead to pretty terrible turning trucks for the past little while. My new trucks turn super crazy quick. Took a bit to get used to but it's no big deal two sessions in.


Music deck and wheel review in the process.

Thrasher - Pappalardo Heads

Q: You're really into golf, so that Lakai ad is true. You really were a great golfer who barely skated?

A: Pretty much. when I was younger I would just golf every day with my dad. I grew up golfing. I was getting good, and I almost quit skating to golf all the time. Then I started skating more. I still like to play every once in a while, but I kind of suck now.

From this gem at Chrome Ball Incident. People who start golfing and get good when they're kids will always maintain some of that ingrained talent. His "kind of suck now" is probably still better than my best.

Photosynthesis Retrospective

Head over to Quartersnacks to check out their look back on Photosynthesis, Alien Workshops amazing third video and the introduction of Habitat. One of my favourite videos.

101 Gino Islanders

One of the sickest graphics ever. Only image I have is of a re-issued shirt from here. I rode one of these and it was amazing. Graphic was all white with just the Islanders logo. I also rode the Gino Grave Diggas board. Another sick one!

Seek

This Stevie post got me thinking about Seek. Some comical commentary here including:

"All right. It’s like this: I think that it’s basically headed to take over skateboarding. I think Alien Workshop, Habitat, and Seek are going to get sued by the government for being a monopoly."-Josh Kalis, when asked where Seek was headed.

"I’m sure there’re people in the hype that are thoroughbred." -Josh Kalis

"The future of skateboarding is right around the corner-it’ll be rearing its head in Dayton, Ohio. The cross of the skateboard history will go right through Dayton, Ohio. Thanks to both DC and Seek, but you’ll know about that soon enough."-Rob Dyrdek

"I don’t really know. It will be the most popular pretty soon. I see it pretty much sporadic, you know, all over the place.”-Josh Kalis, when asked if Seek is more popular in certain parts of the country than others.

Florentin Marfaing switch 360 flip

Decent team. I don't remember Bjorn Johnston. A three year run and then in 2005, Alien reabsorbed the majority of the pro's from the team. Colin was left out and ended up rebooting Plan B later that year with Danny Way.

Forging 101

Awesome video of Miura's forging process.

Music Product Preview

Anthony from Music was kind enough to send me some wheels and a deck to try out. Review to come soon.

First impressions:

1. At first glance, the Music wheels have a weird look to them. They aren't super white and the surface texture looks a little different. Anthony explained to me that they look that way because they are an eco friendly formula (USA made) and are actually more durable that typical urethane.

2. The Genre Music deck is my first Pennswood pressed board. I picked this one because 7.75" is my preferred width. The shape and concave are both typical of what I ride. I compared it to a couple of Alien Workshop boards (one Bareback, one PS Stix) I have and the shape is very similar and the concave is pretty close... just a touch flatter in the nose and the tail. The blond unstained top ply isn't my #1 choice.

101 Robot and Girl

I rode this board back in the day and was reminded of it when I saw this photo in one of the Big Bang Theory dvd boxset sleeves.


All the decks I rode that summer were basically the same width and shape and I decided to try this one, which was wider. Felt great. I kept trying to go wider and wider (tried a Flip gold brand deck which was also wider but still workable) and then at some point, it just got too wide (a Real Julien Stranger deck with wolves on it iirc). Not sure who the artist is... probably Cliver or McKee. Image from skateboardgraphics.com.