Dan Peterka

Inspired by Drake Jones' Facebook. Dan Peterka in H-Street Next Generation. So casual, stylish and technical. Super good part and song. I remember my local shop got this video in the spring of 1992. Luckily it was released before Questionable, which gave it a fair shake at my VCR skate video rotation for several weeks/months.

Crailtap's Mini DV Drawer. Tapes 25 and 26

This is one of the best of the clips they've posted. SJ, SLB, Gino... Oozing with style. The Guy clip at the end was a nice one.

Open - Japan Relief

Open has a limited number of Japan Relief boards for sale in their online shop. All proceeds go to the relief effort.

Also, Music Skateboards doing their part to help the cause. From their facebook page:

Japan Relief Drive: We at MUSIC are trying to do our part to help the people of Japan. Proceeds from our webstore for T-Shirts, Wheels & Sticker Packs will be donated to Red Cross for Japan Relief. Please click here (or visit the shop via music-skateboards.com, just click "Shop")

Nippon 1100 iron shafts

For this golf season, I've decided to build a new set of irons. I wanted to try something different for shafts so I talked to my good buddy who's an amazing clubmaker and he suggested I try to get my hands on some Nippons, which are known for their consistency and quality. I ended up grabbing these 4-pw pullout Nippon 1100 shafts off ebay for $78 shipped. They came out of some Callaway Diablo Forged irons and were not butt trimmed so they have lots of room to trim to various playing lengths. The butts of each shaft is marked with "S" and the length of the shaft as well as "Made in Japan" and a date of manufacture. They have Callaway shafts bands that say Uniflex.

Each shaft was 0.75" shorter than the stated measurement on the butt and they are constant weight... all of them were 108 grams (+/- 0.5). The balance point on all the shafts was also very close... 49.5% (+/- 0.5). The frequency slope on them is a little steep... roughly 7 cpm/club, assuming 7 gram head weight and 1/2" club length progression. This could be an artifact of the constant weight shaft and the stiffness between adjacent clubs won't be as severe as the freq meter suggests. Overall, very happy with the consistency of the shafts.

The heads I decided to go with are Infiniti 422's, which are from their 2006 line... 431 stainless steel mid-size cavity backs with constant low offset and a 4-way cambered sole. I built 5 to gap wedge so the shafts were soft stepped. I tried to adjust everything to make the set as consistent as possible... spine check, flo check, freq check, loft and lie adjustment, progressive swingweight. I think it's kind of silly for Callaway to call them uniflex, the butt says stiff and they frequency to a typical regular. In any case, they feel fine to me... getting my typical 150 yards out of a 7 iron.

Blind Keenan Milton

I'm pretty sure this was Keenan's first pro model. I also remember there being two versions on this board... this one, with a kid sitting on a fridge, and the other was the kid sitting on a bull, or something like that. Image from skateboard graphics dot com.

Concrete Powder circa 1992

This is a weird one. Talk about a trip down memory lane. Concrete Powder was a Canadian skateboard and snowboard magazine back in the early 90's. They started off as a glossy paper paid publication but evolved into a free magazine that was printed on newsprint and was the size of a small newspaper. It's now just called Concrete Skateboarding.

It looks like they are uploading all the old issues on their website and in Volume 2, #3, I guess page 36, there's a full pager of me doing a bs 180 nose grind at the archives in Ottawa, shot by Jody Morris. This was in grade 12... my school was on strike so I was skating a lot that spring. My friend Drew is on the opposite page doing a nose slide in front of Parliament Hill and the dude lipsliding the rail at Dows Lake is Trevor... he broke his ankle on that attempt.

D-D-D-D-Drake Jones!

varial heel

Sweet mix tape from abd. Psyched on the Drake Jones coverage. These photos below are even more awesome! Drake caddies for PGA player David Lutterus.

More to come. Golf images from google. HF varial from CBI.

Dennis Busenitz at Tampa Pro 2011

Such a good flow. Uninterrupted trick after trick. That is how skateboarding a park should look.

Japan Realief

Double graphic post today. Buy a Real Japan Realief Edition here and proceeds go directly to the Red Cross and their relief effort in Japan.

Open Skateboards is also donating all proceeds of board sales to the Red Cross for Japan relief. $50 shipped to where ever you are. The power of the tsunami is incredible. Check out these before and after shots.

UPDATE 3/17/11: Autobahn is offering a limited edition wheel with all proceeds going to the Japan relief effort. Click here to support.

Shane O'Neill Keg Stand

lol. Hilarious graphics... Tupac and Biggy doing keg stands while being held up by kangaroos. Skatemental does some funny shit.

A Glimpse of Wade

More Ottawa. This time, Wade D. Holy crap. He's got a nice nonchalant way of getting around on a board. Switch 360 flip 5-0 on a hubba is pretty ridiculous! And the sw fs tail hard flip out was sick. I already moved away from Ottawa when he was coming up and had no idea who he was until my buddy showed me his part in some local video called 5 foot 12.

Phoenix - Part 3 of 3

I'm going to jam in three course reviews in this post.

Las Sendas - This course is gnarly! Just look at the slope and rating. It's located east of Phoenix in Mesa. We booked our 11:40 tee time through ezlinks.com's "name your price" for $60 per player, range balls included.

The green here were by far the fastest and smoothest we played. They were also the toughest with severe undulations. I putt off the green twice on the same hole 8( Doesn't get much worse than a triple bogey on a GIR. Brutal! The fairways were in great condition and the rough was actual rough, although not very long. The course is quite scenic, although some of the holes are lined with houses. There's also rabbits all over the place. There was at least one hole where we didn't know what to do off the tee. It was a dogleg and we had no idea which way it went. Overall, it was the worst round I played but I pulled it together a bit on the back 9 after taping up my thumb. Paul shot 1 over on the front 9 and then proceeded to throw all his hard work away by shooting 10 over on the back. I'd definitely play it again for the sake of redemption.

Sanctuary - This 18 hole Troon facility up in Scottsdale is one of the most desert style target golf courses I've ever played. Ball placement and strategy was definitely key on this course. We booked our 12:07 tee time through ezlinks.com's "name your price" for $61 per player, range balls not included.

The greens were spotty but cut short so they weren't very fast and not very smooth... pretty much the 2nd slowest on our trip. The fairways were spotty as well. The rough was actual rough, although not very long. For most of the front nine, every fairway is slanted to the left or the right so you gotta aim your tee shot to account for the sideways roll. The bunkers seemed to be fluffier than any others on our trip, which made them tough to get out of, particularly the fairway traps. I couldn't believe how many dog leg lefts there were on this course! The tee box options were, again, sort of limited. Either tee off from 6600+ yards or 6000 yards and like Lookout Mountain, I ended up at the shorter tee box and it felt short. The longer tee box would for sure have been too long... something in between would have been nice. Overall, I'd play this course again.

Ahwatukee Country Club - This course is located in Phoenix just south of the airport. We booked our 7:15 tee time through ezlinks.com's for $28 per player, range balls not included.

This was our last round of the trip and we were flying out in the afternoon. It was tough to get an early Saturday tee time near the airport for a reasonable price. We had it narrowed down to Ahwatukee Country Club, Vistal, Dobson Ranch and Arizona Golf Resort. I've read and heard negative comments about all of them (speed of play, course conditions etc) so I just booked whatever was available. Needless to say, this was by far the worst course we played this week. Actually, I'd go as far as saying it's the worst course we've ever played in Phoenix! I have no idea how this place can place the moniker "country club" on their facility. It had slow and bumpy greens, worst course conditions and worst scenery. The course is not a desert style layout. There's lots of trees and there are basically retaining walls from houses along all holes. I'll never play this course again. I'll add it to Bougainvillea and Kokopelli as courses I'll never play again.

FJ Street

With the popularity of the street style golf shoe last season, FootJoy has jumped on the bandwangon and released their version called the FJ Street, which looks like it was inspired by a Jack Purcell or Chuck Taylor.

I like em. Compared to the Ecco Street Premier, IMO they look better, they're cheaper ($90 retail price) and they look more waterproof (1-year warranty for leakage). Not sure if the spikes are removable. I will say the newer version of the Ecco Streets with the Stan Smith toe look better than the Freddie ones.

Speaking of the Ecco Street, when I was in Phoenix, I got to see and try them on for the first time and they were super comfortable. The sizing was rather crazy... I wear a 10 in everything else and I fit into a 42, which is an 8-8.5.

Supra 3 Amigos Pack

Three Supra riders get a signature colorway of the Amigo model. Not particularly psyched on any of the colors but I am super stoked on Spencer Hamilton's usage of the Ottawa Senators on the insole. T-Ferg used it, Wade used it and now Spencer. Great job representing Ottawa. Images from here.

Kikkor Golf - A day at the office

Here's a fun video by Vancouver-based Kikkor Golf - "A Day at the Office". There's even a skateboard in there! Looks like the warehouse also houses Ogio, Travis Mathews and Westbeach. Full new line of shoes for 2011. It's warming up in Vancouver and we're getting an extra hour of day light soon so, if you haven't already, dig your clubs out and get them ready!

Cliche x McKee and Cliver

Stoked on these graphics. Cliche is releasing a limited run of these decks with actual silk screened graphics on the old school shapes. You could win one of these decks through Slap's website and Facebook page. See the screening process here.

Phoenix - Part 2 of 3

Whirlwind Golf Club is a 36 hole Troon facility located in Chandler south of Phoenix. We got to play both courses on separate days. We booked both tee times through ezlinks.com's "name your price" for $66 and $62 per player, range balls included. The practice facility is great. Nice big range with lots of targets, multiple putting greens, chipping and bunker area.

The greens on both courses were fast and smooth, 2nd best on our trip. The fairways were in great condition (slightly better on the Devil's Claw) and the rough was dormant grass framed by red pebble wasteland. The finishing hole on Devil's Claw wasn't particularly memorable. There were lots of challenging holes and the hole-by-hole guide was great to help a first timer navigate the course. I'd give the nod to Cattail as the more fun and memorable eighteen. I'll definitely visit Whirlwind again.

Phoenix - Part 1 of 3

This was our 5th or 6th trip down here and in the past, we always seemed to play the same 4 or 5 courses... Lonetree, Legacy, Phantom Horse (now Arizona Grand Resort), Vistal and Estrella Mountain Ranch (now Golf Club of Estrella). Not that there's anything wrong with those courses but we decided to try some different ones this time around. With the bad economy and the dollar at par, we were able to play quite a few that were out of our price range before. I'll try to do a review of each course we played. FWIW, we both track our handicaps using Gametrack. I'm a 16 and Paul is a 12 so neither of us are world beaters. In terms of strengths, I think Paul's is his ballstriking, and I guess mine is my chipping.

Trilogy and Power Ranch - This course is located southeast of Phoenix in a Gilbert community development. It's lined with hundreds of houses and is definitely not the most scenic course. We booked our 1:06 tee time through golfnow for $62 per player, no range balls included.

We got quite a bit of rain in the 24 hours before the round and it rained for at least 9 of the holes. I've definitely never played in as windy, cold and rainy conditions in Phoenix as we did this round. Regardless, it was still lots of fun. The fairways were well manicured and the next cut was dormant bermuda. Pretty much every course down here is framed by desert wasteland. In this case, the wasteland was mostly red clay/packed dirt. The greens were good... smooth and relatively fast. Adjusting to yardages down here took a little bit. Airmailing greens into the street/wasteland/water occurred on more than one occasion. I'd player here again.


Lookout Mountain - This course is located at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in Phoenix. We booked our 11:32 tee time through ezlinks.com's "name your price" for $46 per player, range balls included.

The course was fun, challenging and in good condition. It underwent renovations recently and has changed quite a bit compared to what is shown on the course layout. In order to be more environmental, they removed water from pretty much every hole except for #15. The fairways were lush and in great shape and the next cut was rough that was actual rough, although not very long. The wasteland was mostly pebbles and rock. The greens were decent enough, although not the smoothest or fastest we played. The tee box options were sort of limited. Either tee off from 6500+ yards or 6000 yards. I didn't want to get stuck playing a 230+ yard par 3 or forced carries over desert that I couldn't make so I dropped down to the shorter of the two while Paul played the longer one. The variety of holes is definitely there. Long par 3's and 4's as well as short ones. Lots of elevation changes as well. It's a bit of a gimmicky/tricked out course with weird holes... sort of reminds me of Furry Creek up near Squamish. I did have my best stretch of holes during the trip going 2 over through 5 holes to finish the round. For what we paid, I'd definitely player here again.

Back from Vacation

Got back on the weekend from a vacation down south. Got to spend a few nights in Vegas with my wife and then parted ways and went to Phoenix to meet up with a friend for a week of golf. It definitely wasn't warm in Vegas and was below average temperatures in Phoenix but it was still nice to be somewhere sunny.

Course reviews to come. Booked 6 of 7 rounds through ezlinks.