CHAMPEEN

Look closely at the dude in the middle of the photo below. No, not Barack Obama; the gangly, floppy-haired fellow. Yeah, Tony Hawk. Now, check out what he’s wearing on his footsies. Yep, that’s right, skate shoes. Birdman opted to wear skate shoes to meet the president.

This is history being made right before our eyes, people. First-ever pro skater invited to the White House (I would imagine), and he wore skate shoes. Classic.

(More: Hawk skates the halls of the White House)

We’ll see how long this lasts. Sherm’s 24 for flip’s sake. He’s just dealing with the stress of becoming a responsible (?) young man. Smart money says he’ll be back.

(Besides, how seriously can you take a retirement that’s coulpled with a mag release party?)

(Tailtap: Skate Daily)

Per Nike’s site …

More at the Berrics, natch.

I talked to Reda about this on Sunday at Manny Mania and he kidded around, saying that he told Eric he should sign with three companies at once; one for magazine coverage, one for a salary, one for shoes, etc. He was obviously withholding the goods on us. Go figure.

Either way, congrats Eric. To me, it’s a smart move.

Though adidas would’ve had a dream team if you went there. Oh wells.

Plenty of content to come from the 2009 Red Bull Manny Mania (CHMP was back in the VIP/press area), but for now here are full vids of both semifinals and the finals. Quality isn’t all that great (pretty jumpy), but it gives you a good idea of who really stepped up. (Congrats to Eli Reed on the big win. He definitely earned it.)

And no offense, but Joey Brezinski got jobbed. That dude should’ve arguably been the top qualifier for the finals, but didn’t even advance? More on that later, including interviews with Joey, Kelly Hart, and Reda. Whoomp.

Semifinal 1 (Joey Brezinski, Eli Reed, Forrest Kirby, Flo From France)

Semifinal 2 (Mikey Mo Capaldi, Kelly Hart, Stevie Williams, Ronson Lambert)

Finals (Mikey Mo Capaldi, Kelly Hart, Eli Reed)

While Frosty leaks a hint as to who his next sponsor might be …

Mike and BA and the crew take London by storm.

For the love of God, please stay tuned.

Traded e-mails with someone at Adidas, and they gave me more info on Adidas’ upcoming European video, “Diagonal”, which will feature Dennis Busenitz amazing part that was leaked online recently. (Adidas asked me very nicely — sans threats — to pull the clip down, which I did, but not before it got over 600 views in about 24 hours. Pretty impressive.)

Anyway, “Diagonal” will be released online in July, but Adidas is saying it’s going to be a really advanced release with the option of downloading the video in chapters or in its entirety, all super high quality. Sounds pretty wunderbar.

Said video will have full parts with:
Dennis Busenitz
Lem Villemin
Chewy Cannon
Raul Navarro
Marcos Gomez
Jeremy Reinhard
Seb Daurel
Julien Bachelier
Petr Horvat
Günes Özdogan

(More info after the jump.)

(more…)

Pro skateboarding news stories don’t get much juicier than this. As reported in the Daily Breeze, an L.A. newspaper, none other than Plan B pro Jereme Rogers was arrested earlier this week for eating mushrooms, bugging out, and preaching naked from his L.A. rooftop.

From the article:

Rogers pulled off his boxer shorts about 6:40 a.m. Monday and climbed onto the roof of the two-story house he shares with roommates on Havemeyer Lane and Goodman Avenue.

“It was obviously something I shouldn’t have done,” Rogers said as he rolled a marijuana joint in his bedroom. “It was just something that happened.”

Redondo Beach police Lt. Jim Acquarelli climbed about 20 to 30 feet to the roof, where he found Rogers yelling and screaming. Acquarelli said Rogers’ roommates told him that he had ingested the hallucinogenic drug.

Uh, Sherm? You’re rolling a joint while talking to newspaper reporters? Points for being ballsy, but not exactly the best way to show that you really think this was something you shouldn’t have done.

Besides that, this is actually a pretty scary incident. More from the article:

Rogers never tried to jump or talked of suicide, but he came very close to falling.

“He never lost his balance,” the lieutenant said. “The potential was there for it. If he had taken a few negligible steps to the right, that would have impeded his balance and would have led to his demise.”

Rogers, who is religious and often talks about spirituality, said in the interview that he was preaching to the neighbors and talking about God.

“I literally was walking on the edge,” he said. “They said my balance was amazing.”

That’s sort of scary. I mean, haven’t we seen enough skaters die while partying? And if Mark “Gator” Rogowski has taught us nothing else, it’s that the whole drug-and-religion mix doesn’t always work out so well with guys who have plenty of bank, female adoration, and spare time on their hands.

I’m not saying we still shouldn’t still be Sherm fans, but you have to at least acknowledge that this could be a sign of bad things to come.

Just be careful, Sherm. This is said as an outsider, but you’re too talented and seemingly personable to travel too far down this road, man.

(Photo credit: chadjwilson)

For those too lazy to watch the entire video (and there’s no shame to that, by the way … we live in a hectic, go-go modern world where time is money [and our currency is crumbling]), here’s the lineup for the first “quadrant” at Battle at the Berrics 2:

Mike Vallely vs. Chris Cole
Corey Duffel vs. Rick Howard
Lizard King vs. Heath Kirchart
Dennis Busenitz vs. Jamie Thomas

No offense to aged legends, but I think I can pretty safely predict the outcome of one of these matches.

Some funny shots of Omar Salazar sawing through frozen steak to cook in his Nu Wave …

All are via his Twitter account @OzarSalazar. He’s definitely worth the follow. Funny dude (who gives on-stage presentations at the Nike campus, which might impress me about as much as anything).

– Footy of Chaz Ortiz at his home park

– Benny Fairfax is now riding for/with HUF, which has a very impressive team (shocker)

– Speaking of HUF, they’re going to premiere Nike’s “Debacle” am vid on June 17. Sac gets June 11, Portland gets June 12, and Seattle gets June 15.

– Guy Mariano sends his first tweet; Ty Evans rolls on

– Random photo goodness of P-Rod kickin’ it at Atiba’s pad

– Mini Megaramp Eco Cup to go down in Santa Rosa, Calif. from June 12-14. Expected to bridge gaps via aerial maneuvers: Bob Burnquist, Twitta King PLG (!), Jake Brown, Andy MacDonald, Omar Hassan and more.

– Brandon Biebel shows us all how buttery the Palms is. Literally.

The following is a photo that was posted today on Eric Koston’s Twitter …

Personally, I’d love to see him on adidas. Frosty, Gonz and Busenitz? That’s pretty much a dream team, no? (Especially for those of us who reside a little bit North of 30.)

This is honestly one of the most innovative online vids I’ve seen in a long time. Click the grab below to view. But mad props to Quiksilver. (Video stars Tony Hawk, Alex Olson, Kyle Leeper, Danny Garcia and Reese Forbes.)

The following is a clip that’s rapidly making its way over, around and across the Internets. I haven’t been able to verify where it came from; and some claim that it’s being pulled off of the pages Youtube by controlling sorts shortly after being uploaded. I can’t vouch for this — for the clip being so earnestly and zealously policed — but unqualified rumors of this kind of watchful lore sort of adds to the clip’s legend, no?

Anyhow, what you’ve got below is nearly four minutes of some vintage, yet brand spankin’ new, Dennis Busenitz. And that, in this humble blogger’s view, is about as good as it gets.

I don’t know. My opinion is highly unqualified. But as a longtime observer of the craft of skateboarding, I do know this much: Nobody amongst the current crop of street skateboarders goes as consistently fast as Dennis Busenitz. Nobody goes as fast, and nobody rides with as much flow as Dennis Busenitz. Speed, flow, trickery, complexity … he’s the complete package. He might not be as tech as some might want from the street pilots of the new millennium, but if you believe that the pursuit of plankery isn’t just how you get there, but also about how much ground you cover along the way, then at some point you have to start thinking that Dennis Busenitz just might be the best skateboarder alive. That maybe, just maybe, he deserves to notch a SOTY before his window closes … that, basically, he just deserves to be recognized for his unique abilities before it’s too late. (I mean, Jakie, I beg of you … don’t turn him into a modern-day Mark Gonzales. Please don’t turn your back on the closest thing the street set has to [gulp] Jeff Phillips. I mean, look at him flying all over the place, long limbs akimbo, yet nailing every trick. I mean … AG-GRO.)

Plus, PLUS, Busenitz rides switch better than most. Andandand whenever he nose manuals it looks like he’s consistently on the brink of disaster, like he’s going to go ass-over-tea-kettle at any moment, yet never deos. Oh, oh, AND when he does the run-up to a trick, when he sprints across the unskateable stuff all huffing and puffing and eyes glaring, he looks for all the world to me like a linebacker flying downfield after a kick-off, dead set on knocking the return guy’s head clean from his body. And you can hate on the jockery of that image all you want, but you know, deep down inside, that that kind of intensity is what it’s all about. That it’s actually pretty damn awesome.

Either way, just watch the footy. Watch Busenitz. Watch him swarm.

Then go punch somebody in the head.

Trust me, it’ll just feel right.

Not sure if this vid has made the rounds already, but this is an absolute classic. Mike McGill, Jim Thiebaud, Tommy Guerrero, and Mike Vallely kill a little launch-ramp set-up (well, everyone but Mike “Methods Only” McGill, that is) in a random parking lot over 20 years ago. Bonus: Stacey Peralta emcees the proceedings.

If nothing else, the vid shows just how preternaturally talented Vallely was. The guy went from someone who could only do ho-hos to pulling backside 180 ollies (everyone was doing early-grab airs back then) and smooth mannies. TG shines as well. Great stuff.

(Tailtap: Oldhead)

Other than a cameo by Rob Dyrdek, this rally car trickery vid (I think it’s rally car steez, right? Or is it more Tokyo Drift?) doesn’t have much to do with skateboarding. But the creativity and visuals in this vroom-vroom vid might serve to inspire. Peep, if you’ve got some 450 seconds to spare.

Element released another trailer for its upcoming documentary that will cover the history of … well, Element.

The full documentary will debut on Element’s site on Aug. 1, 2009. So will it be pro-brand fluff, or will the doc actually dig deeper into the struggles the brand has faced and have some bite to it? We’ll have to wait and see. But for now, peep the trailer.

It looks like Mark Gonzales is showing off some photos at the Janet Borden gallery in New York. The show is apparently running through July 31, 2009, and features a slew of digital photos the Gonz snapped on his Sidekick. More details at the Ghost on the Aisle blog; I’m hoping to check it out soon and will post a review if I do.

Want …

Want …

Got …

In case you didn’t pay attention to your Twitter this weekend …

Biebel says hi to the Lakers.

Duffy!

The absurd hilarity that is Jerry Hsu.

Chico Brenes: alive on Twitter.

The Dude.

Or is he the Jesus?

Fellers feasts.

Spanky’s new kicks.

A day in the white-wearin’, sandwich-eatin’, front-rockin’ life of Jerry Hsu. Via Atiba’s and The Skateboard Mag’s Twitter operations.

Honestly, Daniel Castillo’s story about getting shot at a high school party is some serious and interesting, if not seriously interesting, stuff. He opens up on the Crail Couch, natch.

– PHOTO: Then, after opening up, Castillo rocked some hohos

– PHOTO: Could be the photo of the year. Mike Carroll’s bowling ball.

– CONTEST: Ask Mike Carroll some questions, win some goods from his sponsors

– PHOTO: Encinitas barbershop features Hawk, PLG and Colin McKay decks (via the always entertaining PLG)

– PHOTO: Jeron Wilson in the dentist chair (PRO SKATERS! THEY’RE JUST LIKE US!)

– PHOTO: Ed Templeton gets cozy with some big, hairy dude that I should probably know but don’t

– PHOTO: Hey, look, I’m just going to say it … middle-aged Steve Olson is one handsome man

– PHOTO: Thrasher park is under construction, evidently

– PHOTO: Did Brandon Westgate get the cover of Skateboarder because he turned pro, or did he turn pro because he got the cover? Some serious chicken-egg shit there, no?

– PHOTO: I’m not much of an IPATH dude, but this Kenny Reed ad is pretty dope

– PHOTO: Oh, PLG, why you fly so funny? I mean why you so fly, so funny?

– NEWS: 11th annual Transworld Skateboarding nominees were announced today. Pretty obvious where our priorities are by burying this news so far down in the links, no?

– PHOTO: This is a classic via Tony Hawk. The lyrics to the Animal Chin rap taped to the dash of the convertible clunker, so the gang could all rhyme in synch. AWS PWS.

– PHOTO: Man, this Tim Gavin deck is a baggy-jeaned, bad flannel classic

– PHOTO: Rob Dyrdek has his sights set firmly on the 2010 Kentucky Derby. Obviously, not kidding.

– NEWS: Pretty amazing story about Karl Watson and how a skateboard to the noggin actually saved his life