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| EMBASSY SKATEBOARDS Classic 9" Pool Shape (Product Review) |
| BLKPRJKT |
Texas. The word that can strike fear into some people's coronary pumping stations. While other states might be known for their scenic qualities, their hospitality, or some false sense of the utopian ideal, Texas is known for 3 main things; Oil, being the home state of the worst president ever, and skateboarding. And since the first 2 don't count, we can focus on what really matters. When I see some pussy wearing a t shirt emblazoned with some cheesy state-based slogan like "Wisconsin is for lovers", or, "I heart Virginia", all I can think about is that famous skate photo featuring 4 horsemen of the skate apocalypse, Prince, Phillips, Gibson, and Fillion wearing helmets spelling out "Don't Mess With Texas". Any way you slice it, Texas is heavy, always has been, always will be.
For many years Zorlac was the brand synonymous with Texas skateboarding, but sadly it eventually disappeared. It has re-surfaced in various forms lately, but most younger bucks don't have a long enough timeline to remember it. Enter Embassy Skateboards, 2009 A.D. Born out of the same hot, dusty, and dangerous Texas crucible as anything that has preceded it. Craig Johnson, John Gibson, and Ken Fillion are the foundation and front man Lee Leal is handling the wild west mafia aspect of Embassy. In addition to this heavyweight royalty, you will also find Texas legends floating around in the fold like Troy Chason and Todd Prince. Embassy is also supporting a hot crew of youngsters including Ben Johnson, Mad Max, Gary Morris, and young switch phenom Priscilla Lee.
Classic in every way. I even took a decent photo of it.
I recently received a nice fat box of gear from Embassy, (Thanks Lee!) including one very bad-ass deck, the EMT Classic Pool Shape 9" model. Super sick shape, nearly identical to Grosso's personal shape, with a rounder nose. The deck is 32.25" long with a 15" wheelbase and is built out of really good wood, not heavy and with plenty of stiff pop that endures through any torture you care to dole out. The graphic is pretty kick ass as well, oil rigs, classic rusted out Chevy truck grille, all with a nice crusty and dusty Texas aesthetic. You can't go wrong with product this good. If you're as sick of corpo greed companies sucking the life out of skateboarding as much as I am, Embassy is definitely a breath of fresh air, skater-run, a deep history affiliation, NOT from HB, and as core as they come. Ride with Pride is their slogan. 'nuf said.
Check out Embassy Skateboards' shop and photo-rich blog here:
EMBASSY SKATEBOARDS
-BLKPRJKT / PHOTOS MRZ |
| July 1st, 2009 07:10 |
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