powerHouse Books will be releasing a new book of photos and text featuring Vancouver’s mythical Barrier Kult skateboarding gang titled BA. KU. The words will be provided by Deer Man of Dark Woods with photography by Anthony Tafuro.
They’re an assembly of incognito professional skateboarders that ritualize their skill on concrete barriers. The team was created ten years ago by Deer Man of Dark Woods and Depth Leviathan Dweller, who decided to adorn a mask of anonymity after growing tired of the repetition of the professional skate world. One would argue that the Barrier Kult’s entire way of skating is repetitive, but the team takes this as a challenge to land big tricks… on stone cold concrete.
There were rumors. There were rumors that it “only took Trevor Colden one session to destroy the Diamond Park and hook up the locals up with some free trucks for the newest Thunder Trucks Parks & Wreck.”
Okay, it wasn’t a rumor. It was a press release. But that’s okay, isn’t it?
For over 30 years, riders from around the country have descended on Northern California to celebrate the history of snowboarding with retro boards from brands like Barfoot, Sims, Burton, K2, Gnu, and Santa Cruz, hand-dug halfpipes, grand slalom courses and great friends.
If you’re up for the party event of the somewhat sad Tahoe shred season, then pony up. Click the link. Register and compete. Do it now.
Stoked, the organization founded by entrepreneur Steve Larosiliere and action sports announcer Sal Masekela turned 10 this year and they’re taking this as a the perfect time to update everyone on all the great things theme been doing for low-income high school students in New York City and Los Angeles. How’s this:
The Brooklyn-based organization, which has a satellite office in Los Angeles, proudly boasts a 100% high school graduation rate among program participants; roughly 30% higher than the national average for disadvantaged students in New York and California. Through their involvement with STOKED, students receive 41% more education and career development experience than traditional classroom learning provides.
That’s a pretty amazing statistic, right? For the official word from Stoked, please follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Damn, this winter (or lack thereof) just keeps getting worse and worse. First Mt. Baker announced they were shutting down the lifts until they got some snow, and now Sierra-at-Tahoe says that shut it all down for the season on Monday, March 16, 2015. Shut and done. Sadly, that means no Vans Hi-Standard Tahoe event.
“It is with a heavy heart we must announce Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort will be suspending winter operations beginning tomorrow, Monday, March 16,” said general manager of Sierra-at-Tahoe John Rice. “Conditions around the mountain have deteriorated to the point where we can no longer deliver a product that meets our standards.”
The next Vans Hi-Standard is scheduled for the Vans Penke Park in Maxyrhofen, Austria on March 21, 2015. So if you’re in the area, drop on by for Vans “homage to more than 20 years of Vans heritage in snowboarding, bringing modern day competition back to the basics by rewarding riders for individual style, creativity and self-expression.”
Otherwise, may we suggest skateboarding? Or surfing during spring break?
See kids, once you get away from an “all-over” sponsor you can start reeling in all the brands you’ve liked, but not been able to ride before. Take John Jackson for example. Now that he’s on Signal Snowboards he can ride whatever bindings, clothing, goggles, shoes, and boots he wants. His most recent choice is Flux Bindings.
“I’m really amped to be joining the Flux team,” says Jackson. “The first time I set up my bindings this year, I was amazed at how good they felt. Super durable, stylish, simple, and lightweight. That’s everything I look for in a binding. I’ve been putting the same pair of bindings through abuse all year and they are just like new. Sad to say, but that’s rare these days. I’m very excited to start this relationship and help Flux continue to create seamless board to foot happiness.”
A privately owned entertainment company specializing in event and online streamed content production held a surf apparel sponsored event at Coolangatta, Australia’s Snapper Rocks last week. Well, the finals were last week, but the event seemed to drag on for days and weeks before that (February 28 – March 13, 2015).
This ground breaking event was a live, online video presentation of scantily clad, fit, young men and women riding waves on foam and fiberglass boards. The production did not go off without a few hitches, however. Sadly, the ocean did not cooperate with the event production company’s timeline and days had to be added to their content procurement schedule. Then one of the performers (who happened to have received the event production company’s highest honor last year) spoke honestly and passionately about his performance in substandard location conditions against another performer who apparently became surly during the shooting of one scene. Because the event production company is focused on producing high value promotional entertainment content in an efficient, professional way, they didn’t seem to appreciate one of their actors going off script.
Aside from that, and a few instances where certain actors appeared to receive higher scores than they should have, the event was a success. The content created by the event production company was of very high production values. The camera work was amazing, the graphics stunning, the online stream stayed up most of the time, and the actors appeared to enjoy performing their parts in the production. Even the local people visiting the production set appeared to enjoy watching the content being created. Guess that’s a win for everyone.
For the event production company’s official overview of exactly how their commercial entertainment package was produced, performed, and concluded, please follow the jump. [click to continue…]
Skateboarding auteur Greg Hunt is back with Propeller a new video for Vans featuring the talents of: Anthony Van Engelen, Tony Trujillo, Geoff Rowley, Gilbert Crockett, Chris Pfanner, Kyle Wlker, Daniel Lutheran, Elijah Berle, Pedro Barros, Curren Caples, Andrew Allen, Dustin Dollin, Jason Dill, Omar Hassan, Rowan Zorilla, Steve Caballero, Christian Hosoi, Jeff Grosso, Ray Barbee, John Cardiel, and Tony Alva. If that isn’t stacked enough it features original music from Ray Barbee with John Herndon and The Mattson 2.
Looks like this is going to be huge. The film drops in May 2015. We’ll keep you posted.
See that little, tiny spec on that monstrous white wall? That’s Forrest Shearer, the newest member of the Zeal Optics team, working his big mountain magic. Now, he’s going to charge all the harder because he’s got some proper eyewear showing him the way (and someone paying him to wear it) which isn’t all bad these days.
“Forrest is one of the most legendary and inspiring snowboarders out there, and we’re so excited to have him in the ZEAL Family as he holds a passion that is found deep within every ZEAL ambassador,” says ZEAL Marketing’s Mike Lewis. “A passion and desire to explore more and a constant push to challenge himself and those around him to make the world a better place with his work with the POW Riders Alliance makes Forrest a perfect fit with the brand.”
