State of Skate

Above photo courtesy of chrome ball incident.

Just finished watching Dennis Busenitz in Real Skateboards’ newest video, Since Day One, and have a few thoughts.

1. Real is just that- Real. They have kept it real for two decades now by showcasing pure skateboarding. No skits, no gimmicks, no B.S. Sure, we all love Max Schaaf, but a lot of companies would have hit their vert button and sent him packing.

2. I hate to rank skateboarders, but I often think about the legacies they will leave behind. With his most recent part, Dennis Busenitz has begun to approach the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) category. He isn’t in it yet, but if he keeps pushing as fast as he is, he’ll get there within the next five years. Of course, that is a long time, but am I wrong (and is it hearsay?) to say that he is basically Cardiel status at this point?

Unrelated to Busenitz’s awesomeness is a short little Converse Thailand tour. More than any of the big guns (Nike, Vans), Converse’s Asia game is on point. Below comes courtesy of Legion of Sorts:

Wait. Can’t embed the video for some reason. Check it HERE.

Bad things happening with the Maloofs and their Kings in Sacramento.

Before the skateboard became a viable tool with which to strive for fame, fortune, and hot blonde babes with annoying valley girl accents, much of its appeal lay in that a skateboard seemed to be a pretty effective way of sticking it to the man. Not an extreme, jihad-a-funeral-type sticking, or an overthrow-the-government way. No, sticking it to the man with a skateboard was rather a means of expressing that mild but persistent (writers block- adjectives taken from the lamisil on my night stand) desire to rebel, but just enough, that I think sits especially hard in young American males.

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Blog game, as well as skate game, have been suffering lately in Shenzhen. Time to get back on board in both respects. For now, peep Kool Keith in Plastic World, off his classic Sex Styles album.

Next to Extreme, adrenaline is probably the second most tiring word used to describe skateboarding and other Action Sports: “Up next, this Nor-Cal shredder gets ready to hit our adrenaline-pumping Monster-sponsored Skate PlazZa, the world’s first ever ALL GREEN Skate Plaza designed by Rob Dyrdrek and Bob Costas!”

The word adrenaline sucks. It’s played out, a cliche. Funny then, that the first skateboard company to use it was pretty much the complete opposite of the 00′s mentality of big sponsors, big money, and big contests. Adrenalin, the oft-forgotten wood company formed sometime in the mid-90′s, was broke and gritty, and never spectacular.

I don’t mean it wasn’t good- it was. I don’t remember much about the art direction, but the overall vibe definitely had a Stereo Visual Sound influence. Check the clip below to see what I mean.

The team was talented, and one that a northern Californian like myself can’t help but be attached too with riders like Hanzy Driscoll, Justin Strubing and Toad. I don’t know where Hanzy or Strubing come from originally, but I think most associate them with the Bay Area. Maybe Hanzy lived in Santa Rosa?

Englishman Mike Manzoori as an answer to Stero’s Carl Shipman, a promising Mike Chin, and Jaya Bonderov, who eventually took his skills from board to camera, all have good footage in addition to the aforementioned dudes. From the beginning, with Hanzy’s wallride nose manual, until the end, with Jaya’s 50-50 on the Golden Gate Bridge, this 411 Adrenaline Industry section is full of memorable skating and editing.

Behold, the longed-for opposite of Extreme:

At the age of 32, Heath Kirchart has retired from professional skateboarding.

It’s nice to see a guy walk away from skateboarding at the top of his game (which I argued that Jereme Rogers did) and with his dignity firmly intact (which was not the case with Rogers, unless your definition of dignity is praising Jesus Christ nude on your rooftop at 3:00AM and then resisting arrest from Redondo Beach’s finest).

Everything Heath skated was bigger, longer, sketchier than what people were skating at the time. And he made it look great. Check his ride away from the back noseblunt in Sight Unseen- classic Heath.

Go and visit UC Irvine one day, then you’ll see.

It’s also nice that dude seems to be leaving the skate industry entirely. No hanging on, no sad fall from revered pro to fat TM, or to crouched and aching videographer.

Instead, Heath has ambitions and investments outside of the skate industry, and according to him, he already has enough money to never have to work another day of his life if he chooses not to.

Skateboarding can be sickening insular culture, and it needs Heath a lot more than Heath needs it. Here you can keep up with Heath’s current project of riding a bicycle from California to NYC.

Here’s Heath, back when it all began:

I remember when I was a kid, I couldn’t figure out what the hell the Wu Tang Clan was. The Wu bat was everywhere- on skateboards, on CD’s, on Wu Wear clothing. It was all very confusing for a kid without much knowledge of branding. I remember skating a parking lot with a kid a year older than me. I asked him what he was riding and he flipped up a Wu Tang skateboard. OK, that solves it, I thought. These dudes obviously make skateboards. But later that week I saw a video for Shimmy Shimmy Ya and was confused all over again.

Eventually I learned that 36 Chambers is one of the greatest rap albums of all time, and that The Wu was just a group that started off on the islan’, AK Shaolin, willing to lease their name and logo to whoever came callin’. Their endorsements ran the gamut, from appropriate (St. Ides) to shameless (Method Man’s endorsement of Right Guard). In the end, I can’t blame any of the Wu for using the success of a few albums as a platform to try to get filthy rich. After all, they had kids to feed- in ODB’s case, 15 of them. Continue reading

Coming Soon!

In honor of announcing video release dates and then postponing them and then postponing them again and then postponing them again and then finally releasing a video that is good, but not three years of extended deadlines good, I am hyping up my next blog post.

In honor of The Storm, Fully Flared, and Stay Gold, I would like to announce that, Sometime In July, State of Skate will drop:

A New Blog Post!!!!!!!!!

The biggest Blog Post!!!!!! Ever to come from State of Skate!!!!

Bigger than a Donger Ollie!!! Bigger than Gerwer’s Nose!!! Bigger than Active Erica’s Bosom!!!

This Post Will Be Big!!!

Or maybe not. Maybe I’ll just keep pushing it’s release date back to generate hype.

Truthfully though, I am sitting on 1200 words that have been giving me as many problems as kickflips do Mike Vallely.

We’ll see…

Even though it was released over six months ago, Gift Skateboards and Nike SB’s video “It’s a Wrap” has remained under the radar, at least as far as mainstream coverage is concerned. I think a better name for the video might have been “Under Wraps”, because China’s local skate scenes, like so many things in the country, remain outside of the world spotlight. Actually, that’s a pretty lame name, but take a minute to compare Shenzhen to Barcelona, Spain. I think it’s a valid comparison because both cities were ‘put on the map’ by footage from visiting American pros rather than locals. But when you think of Barca, there are some local dudes like Daniel Lebron and Raul Navarro who come to mind. Shanghai? Unless you are connected to the scene in some way, you are probably drawing a blank.

As a friend of several of the SB crew, I can vouch for the fact that they are keeping a very close watch on skateboarding in China. This video is a good start. I’m really just posting it because I have an 800 word piece about Rob Dyrdrek and the Wu Tang Clan that I need to rewrite after an unfortunate incident with Starbucks Wifi. That will come soon. Until then, I will post outdated clips as long as I can peripherally connect them to China, skateboarding, or beef jerky. Enjoi It’s a Wrap.