The festival weekend will kick off at 7:30pm with a small selection of films in our Creative Short category followed by a local premier of Scott Yamamura’sA Day at the Park. Nominated films will be screened Saturday, August 15th with an award ceremony later that evening. Skatopia has been selected as the last film of the festival weekend.
Click here for a list of the films and to buy tickets. A film fest pass is $20.
Tony Waters has followed all the online marketing tips to move his skateboarding trick tips video. He holds a secret truth:
I’m coming out from the underground after months of developing methods and techniques to reveal to you real, proven ways to effortlessly learn tricks and land them higher, smoother, and more consistently.
He’s got a personal testimonial:
Well, you probably haven’t heard of me, so here’s my story: . . . I started skating in 2003 in hopes of going pro. Back then, I had a cheap Wal-Mart board with plastic trucks. I practiced almost every day and finally learned the Ollie after 5 or 6 weeks. . . . For my next birthday, my parents bought me a pretty decent complete deck. I vowed to work hard and learn all the tricks. I practiced around 4 times a week for 6 months until I landed my first Kickflip- well, kinda. My Kickflips back then always bounced off the ground. . . . So after about 7 months of skating almost daily, I could land two tricks- an Ollie and a sketchy Kickflip. So much for going pro.
He teases:
This is just a taste of the juicy techniques you’ll find in Secrets of Skateboarding. There’s much more and the best thing about it is that it’s laid out in a simple step-by-step guide that absolutely anyone can follow… even if you’ve never landed a single trick in your life!
And best of all, he got a “Special Offer Limited Time Only” offer:
For a Very Limited Time, You Can Get The Secrets of Skateboarding Master Guide For Only… $87 $27! . . . That’s An Instant Savings Of $60! . . Take Advantage Of This Special Price Now!
Looks like Bryan Johnston’s new job at the Ultimate Fighting Championship is working out well for Transworld as the fight promotion company has bought out the backgrounds of all of Transworld’s websites.
Sweaty macho men beating each other’s asses into Octagonal submission is apparently the newest action sport.
Michael Oblowitz’sSea of Darkness screens tonight (August 7, 2009) at 8 PM at the Malibu Film Festival . The festival kicked off last night with the Jesse Billauer’s documentary Jesse’s Story. Click here for more info.
Ah, just like old times. . . The Skateboard Mag’sGrant Brittain and Dave Swift sit down with Shred Or Die for a little lunchtime chat. . . “Cheecken wice bow heaar!”
Hell, why not. Check it out tonight (August 6, 2009) at The Lido in Newport Beach. We’re guessing Danny Qwock, Preston Murray, et al. will be there, too.
Chris Cutri is an assistant professor in the communications department of Brigham Young University. That may seem like a strange place to make surf films, but being a little land-locked hasn’t stopped Cutri from turning out two solid surf films. His latest, Hanging Five, is showing Wednesday August 5, 2009 at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, California. Chris says:
I find that I’m interested in the peripheral elements of the surf culture. My second surf doc, Hanging Five follows five extremely talented artists and examines their work. It also tries to discover why the surf culture produces and supports the arts. The artists: Andy Davis, Tyler Warren, Julie Goldstein, Wolfgang Bloch, and Alex Knost.
Thomas Pynchon, the writer many consider to be the best still alive, has dropped in on Kem Nunn territory with his lastest work, Inherent Vice.
The story, set in LA, follows a stoned private investigator Larry “Doc” Sportello along the streets and beaches of Southern California during the dying days of the psychadelic 60s. Featuring the alleged kidnapping of a wealthy real estate developer, Inherent Vice, like Southern California itself often slides off into the surf:
For the last few weeks now, St. Flip of Lawndale, for whom Jesus Christ was not only personal savior but surfing consultant as well, who rode an old-school redwood plank running just under ten feet with an inlaid mother-of-pearl cross on top and two plastic skegs of a violent pink color on the bottom, had been hitching rides from a friend with a little fiberglass runabout far out into the Outside, to surf what he swore was the gnarliest break in the world, with waves bigger than Waimea, bigger than Maverick’s up the coast at Half Moon Bay or Todos Santos in Baja. Stewardii on transpacific flights making their final approaches to LAX reported seeing him below, surfing where no surf should’ve been, a figure in white baggy trunks, whiter than the prevailing light could really account for. . .
We’re only on page 99, but already know that Inherent Vice deserves space on the bookshelf of any surfer who reads, and vise versa.
We just purchased the Transworld Snowboarding Team Shoot Outvideo from the iTunes store. And while the Rome Team’s winning segment is well-worth the $4.99 in and of itself, we did get the feeling that we were paying money to watch 35 minutes of advertising. And in reality we were.
Borrowed from a similar sort of team competition that Transworld Skateboarding did previously in their print magazine, the Transworld Snowboarding Team Shoot Out video is really a promo video in four parts featuring teams from DC, Burton, Forum, and Rome (click for team bios via TWS). And yeah, it was kind of weird that of all the companies in the snowboard world this video would be 50 percent Burton, but we’re guessing that these were the only companies who bought into the concept of Transworld’s editorial/video package.
Each team, armed with a Transworld Snowboarding photographer, was allowed to do whatever they wanted to set up the best possible photo/video shoot. All the teams had to complete their builds and shoot in the same two week period each at a different resort. The teams then were to submit a five minute video and 10 images for the judges to rate. The five minutes videos were then compiled and released as the Team Shoot Out, while the still photos were used as editorial in Transworld’s print magazine. [click to continue…]
Pro snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler and pro skater Lauren Perkins are joining pro baller Steve Nash, pro paintballer Johnny Perchak (and others) in backing a new website that reportedly will help people learn how to become pro athletes. The site, which launches Wednesday July 29, 2009 is called Makeitpro.com, according to a story on Forbes.com.
These optimists are launching MakeItPro.com July 29, a site targeted to young athletes, especially those not growing up in sports hotbeds, offering them sport-by-sport advice as well as a social network to help connect with coaches and recruiters.
Because we all know that by following a few tips from our favorite pros we all be living the good life in no time. God, we just hope Gretchen and Lauren are getting paid upfront. . .
The Skateboard Film Festival kicks off tonight August 14, 2009 in Seattle at the siff cinema at 321 Mercer Street, McCaw Hall, Seattle Center.
