DAY OF THE DEAD 2 / CHANNEL STREET / ZOMBIES, HEARSES, SKATEBOARDING.
BLKPRJKT
Greenwood, coroner.
Proper transportation.
ALL HAIL SPSA!
Deans, well-dressed demon.
I.E., Fool!
Skateboarding is Alive and Well---
For all of the whining, complaining, bitching and moaning, Skateboarding is better than it has ever been. People get so wound up in doomsaying, the slacking health of the industry, and the overall malaise that surrounds us. If these are the things that one chooses to focus upon, this is the inevitable result. This is the taint, the sour taste. If we succumb to it, we are lost. Fortunately most of us don't define how good or bad skateboarding is in these terms. And some of us turn misfortune or disadvantage into a positive situation. The founding fathers of the SPSA took the concept of not having a place to skate as a challenge to create one. It started simply enough, with loaf of concrete here and there, a lumpy quarter pipe over there, the beginnings of a half-bowl at one end, and so on. No one could have foreseen the the concrete wonderland under the bridge that exists today, but in a few short years of back-breaking labor and an immense amount of love, these guys made it happen. Like Burnside before it, WSVT during it, Bordertown, Marginal Way, and all of the DIY projects around the world that have sprung up in its wake, Channel Street Skatepark represents the fact that skateboarding is as good as it has ever been. If you happened to be under the bridge on Sunday, you know this to be true.
Yamo, Sarge, Beardo, kings among men.
Talkin' just 1 of a few product tosses.
Stoked kids.
You just knew Rob would show up. Mach 9 5-0.
The Dead Also Rise---
Zombie movies. If you don't like them, something is wrong with you. What's not to like about the dead coming back to life to feast on the flesh of the living? Obviously a few of these films flat out suck, but the early, original George Romero / Tom Savini flicks can still creep you out, in all of their anachronistic gorey glory. Shambling, rotting corpses bent on chasing you down and dining on your intestines after you make a fatal error in judgement, like stopping to use a free blood pressure testing machine at the local mall. Yeah. The Day of the Dead is probably the closest thing we can have to a celebration of death and dismemberment and paying in flesh comes with the territory. It's skateboarding. Blood-sucking, gut-ripping, flesh-eating skateboarding. Every dead body that is not exterminated gets up and kills. The people it kills get up and kill. They kill for one reason. They kill for food. They eat their victims you understand? That's what keeps them going. These bodies must be exterminated, either by destroying the brain, or severing the brain from the rest of the body.
Yamo does his best Jim Henson.
Oh shit more product tossin'.
Satan's Little Helper---
Last year MRZ brought his signature Devil's Utensil / Bike KIller / Blader Hater set up to Fontuckee to see if anyone could even ride it. Ronnie Yerman test-piloted the ridiculous thing into first place with a big stale fish in the Romeoba. I thought there was no way in hell anyone could even ride the thing at Channel Street. Our first contest of the day this year was a best trick throw down on this same monstrosity of a board. A smaller, grom-sized version also came out for the little rippers like Tristan Rennie to take a crack at it. It didn't take too long for the event to heat up, especially with MC Billy Deans whipping the riders and the crowd into a frenzy. Look out Duncan! A lot of heavy stuff went down on both the salad and dinner sized forks, but SP local Jay Weigelt had been trying to knock down a frontside invert throughout the ten-minute jam. In the final 2 seconds, Jay stuck it like it was nothing and the crowd went berzerk. Jay won 25 bucks and a Creature deck and we matched his cash winnings with a 25 buck donation to the SPSA. This is the way it was going to go down all day. Perfect so far. And even more perfect was the timely arrival of the loudest lowrider hearse in the universe, ready to cart off the dead from the next event.
Tristan Rennie ignored the grom-sized Satan's Little Helper and went for the the fork that is as tall as he is.
Jay Weigelt's winning frontside invert, definitely an NBD on the forkboard.
Talking Dick Cheney. Jeep. Yeah if I was a penis, I think I'd avoid contact with forks myself. Then again... Backside? Boneless? Hmmm...
And You Thought Swine Flu Was Scary---
The Zombie virus makes swine flu look like a hangnail. When we enlisted the help of Idaho and the Market to build us a tombstone, we didn't realize they were going to attempt to add to the legions of walking dead by constructing a multi-extension of death. In the early morning hours, Aaron, Andrew, and crew installed the seemingly un-rideable death trap for our second contest of the day. It didn't take long for Josh Borden, Skreech, and Riley Stevens to start unlocking the potential as well as the danger. Once the jam was underway, It was pretty obvious I was going to have to pay out the top 3 guys, and if I could have, I would have paid the top 5 at least, that's just how heavy things got. Little Tristan Rennie had the invert reverts on lock. Jake Piasecki hurled a hip transfer to Smith grind on the death wall in traffic repeatedly. Skreech threw down a punk roll-in, a backside boneless fakie, and a backside boneless transfer from the wall into the tombstone. Hyphy Cody Hager got loose with a front nosepick and then took one to fakie in the final seconds. Riley started off with front d's but started hucking himself up and over in a transfer to tailslide, which he pulled moments before Billy sounded the final horn. After a group review with the founding fathers viewing each trick in both video and still, The top 3 were Jake 3rd-20 bucks, Cody 2nd-20 bucks, and Riley 1st-25 bucks. Jeep ponied up a 20 spot for Skreech's boneless transfer as well. Again, matching funds went into the fund bucket for the winner.
Tristan, invert revert.
Skreech, backside boneless.
Jake got one clean run at it, hip transfer to Smith, but the money winner was the one he pulled in traffic.
Cody Hager. Insane nosepick, he took this to fakie in the final seconds to finish in the money.
Riley's winning tailslide. Mad retarded, kid!
Riff Rafflin'---
After the chaotic explosion of the tombstone / wall of death best trick contest, it was time to unload the massive pile of product from our sponsors on the hungry crowd. Everything from completes to helmets, trucks, decks, wheels, you name it, and almost everybody walked away with something. For those who didn't, a second chance product toss erupted. The product toss. Who started that anyway? And what product toss can ever top the MHR contest that featured a dead cat? None probably. No cats were harmed or tossed, dead or alive, but this one looked an awful lot like a food drop in a 3rd world country, with the starving millions battling for a handful of rice and k-rations, dropped from a helicopter. No unnecessary violence broke out and the youngsters managed to scrabble away with pockets full of stickers, tees, tools, Bones glasses, wheels, and so on. And this was the second toss of the day.
That's right. A signed Hosoi deck!
You should have heard the crowd when we held this one up for the raffle! Anti pride runs deep in Pedro!
Hell Yes!!!
More tossin'.
The Doorway To Hell---
Over the past few years, a lot of heavy stuff has been handled over the doorway at Pedro. Much of it has been documented in mags and videos, and the list of ABD's is getting pretty lengthy. Still, the 3rd and final best trick contest of the day got everyone hyped at the possibility of seeing something that hadn't been accomplished yet. The narrow decks were so thick with spectators and entrants that the entire place was vibrating with the finest in skate energy. Once again Billy Deans stirred both the crowd and the skaters into a frenzy and things just came unglued. At times as many as 4 guys were chasing each other around this pinball machine all going at the door with complete abandon. Derek and Tyler went toe-to-toe in doubles runs not more than 3 feet apart, running 5-0's and Smiths on the downslope. Jake Piasecki had been riding in traffic all day, and it was he who came through with the NBD, a madonna tailslide over the door. Robbie Russo, the ringer, was going for a huge tailslide but settled for a 5 foot slob air. El Beardo dove in with a few effortless floating ollies, easily clearing the hole. The crowd favorite was little Ronnie Sandoval. For the entire 10 minute jam, Ronnie was going for an insane back Smith up and over, paying his dues with a few over-committed slams, and with 3 seconds left, he nailed it going about 700 miles an hour. The horn sounded and no instant replay was needed. Ronnie was the obvious winner, he just charged it that hard.
Jake's Madonna was one for the books, kids, please don't try this at home.
El Beardo displaying intimate knowledge of the door area. Perfect floating trajectory.
Dat slob Rob, look at how high this fool is, and he's just now reaching out to grab it? Fuh-huh-huck!
Derek, haul-ass 5-0.
Ronnie Sandoval's winning back Smith, up and over, all the way down to the flat wall. Kid is coming up!
End Of The Day Stuffs---
In addition to the cash prizes for best tricks, trophies were handed out, courtesy of Madrid Skateboards, bitchin' little coffin completes. We even had one for the best costume winner, Jeep. Jeep's get up proved it's never too late to make fun of Dick Cheney. Everybody hung around to the end, and the crowd cheered all of the winners as well as themselves. In the end, the mountains of garbage we expected to be cleaning up were nearly non-existent. That's just sort of the way it goes when you do an event, especially one with multiple, massive product and sticker tosses. Amazingly enough, the cleanup was quick and painless. This is obviously a reflection of how much respect skateboarders have for this place and the guys who built. Even with hordes of groms in the house, things cleaned up nicely.This day was purely about skateboarding and having a good time. In other words, nobody fucked it up. It doesn't get much better than this.
Oh yeah!
My name is Eric S. and I'm an... wait, no... Fuck You!
This tyke skated his lungs out all day, took a heavy slam and came up on a Creature deck for his tenacity.
TABLOID ALERT!!! Demon gives Dick Cheney head, film at 11.
Trophy prep.
That's right, costumes!!!
The Bottom Line---
To our generous sponsors, we cannot thank you enough! Deluxe Familia(Anti Hero, Spitfire), NHS(Creature, Independent Santa Cruz) S-ONE Helmets, Bones Wheels, Team Hosoi / Pocket Pistols, Madrid Flypaper, Element, and Sunken City Skates. All of these companies came up huge for the SPSA in tight times. A special Thanks goes out to the crew from Transitions Skate Shop for not only product, but for grilling dogs to feed everyone all day long. A very special Thank you goes out to Billy Deans and the Skateboarder Mag crew, Billy MC'd it like nobody's business and they dropped a ton of Skateboarder products on kids all day. A lucky several even got the Lance Mountain cover poster personally signed by the man himself. Thank you to the MRZ family for drumming up raffle ticket sales and keeping the kids in line. A special Thanks also goes out to Madrid for donating those bitchin' coffin completes for trophies. Thank you to Idaho and Mercado and crew for the sick extensions. Thanks to each and every person who came out to support the cause and have a blast with us under the bridge. If you missed it because you were too hungover or whatever, too fucking bad for you. The SPSA has supported the skateboarding community for years with one of the best skateparks on earth. The least we can do is support them in any way we can. Beardo, Yamo, Sarge, Stern Face Rob, and the entire SPSA crew, you guys are aces! Thank you!
Jay Weigelt, 1st place, Devil's Utensil.
Riley Stevens, 1st place, Death wall.
Ronnie Sandoval, 1st place, doorway.
Jeep, best costume.
Parting Shot: Coming up Creature at Pedro!
--BLKPRJKT / PHOTOS: MRZ / BRANDON WONG / VIDEO: GREENWOOD / MAD DOG / S-ONE HELMETS
Tuesday 03rd 2009f November 2009 12:07 Print this Page
