Finally, a reason to crawl out of my hole and post some new content. I’ve been dug in deep working on finishing up a couple of customer websites and have been neglecting Riders Union as a result. This morning I came across the full version of Team Thunder’s Beauville, a fun little piece of HD cinematography and a great way to get stoked for the upcoming season.
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Team Thunder Beauville Full Movie
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
Mike Rogers Talks about Fighting Cancer and Grind For Life
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Professional skateboarder Mike Rogers knows a thing or two about pain. We’re not talking pain from a gnarly bail or a missed trick here. Twice diagnosed with sarcoma, Rogers has endured hours of excruciating surgeries, a brain lift and removal of his right eye, parts of his skull and several teeth. In spite of the traumatic experience, these days Mike Rogers is again skateboarding competitively.
Grind For Life was founded by Rogers in 2003 as a way to help cancer patients and their families with financial assistance when traveling for medical care. The organization provides qualifying families with help covering expenses for travel, food, lodging and personal needs. Grind For Life also provides education and inspiration for families and patients concerning survival and recovery. The organization raises funds through skateboarding contests, demos and events including Florida’s Grind For Life Series.
Inspirational is only one of many adjectives that can be used to describe Rogers. Friendly, outgoing, humble and thoughtful also come to mind. And don’t forget stylish and smooth to describe Mike’s skateboarding talents. Get to know Mike Rogers and his Grind For Life organization in this short video interview courtesy of Hollywood Summit.
If In Tahiti
Friday, October 16th, 2009Can’t get enough video of Tahiti’s Teahupoo, one of the world’s most revered breaks outside of Hawaii’s North Shore. The consistency of this wave never ceases to amaze me. Here’s a short little Chase Burns edit featuring the legendary left and the bad boys that conquer her.
Can’t get enough video of Tahiti’s Teahupoo, one of the world’s most revered breaks outside of Hawaii’s North Shore. The consistency of this wave never ceases to amaze me. Here’s a short little Chase Burns edit featuring the legendary left and the bad boys that conquer her. Downtown Throwdown Seattle 2009, Occidental Park
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
With flurries starting to fly in the Cascades, the Northwest contingent once again kicked off the snow season in style with the 4th Annual Lib Tech/Snowboy Productions Downtown Throwdown. The team from Snowboy set up scaffolding in Seattle’s Occidental Park, just spitting distance from the birthplace of Seattle in Pioneer Square, and with an audience of drunks, bums, homeless dudes and such, a crew of 20 invited riders proceeded to put on a show.
Even though everyone is complaining about tough times and recession hardships, it seems like Lib Tech, Quiksilver and the rest of the sponsors must have dug deep this year anyway, as there were definitely improvements over previous efforts. The setup was quite a bit more professionally rendered than what I’ve seen in the past. And it just looked safer, from a rider’s perspective.
As for those 20 riders, the group included several Throwdown vets and a couple of new faces. Ben Bogart, Chris Brewster, Gus Engle, Austen Sweetin, Forrest Bailey, Austin Hironaka, Ben Bilocq, Ivan Marcinko, Austen Granger, Scott Stevens, Pat Milvery, Johnny Lazz, Jason Robinson, and Nick Visconti all dusted off their boots and brought out their boards for the first time in months, and it looked like there weren’t too many cobwebs to shake off.
Head Banger Full Movie
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
Head makes a fine tennis racket. Squash, racquetball, even badminton. Somewhere in their product portfolio, I’m sure they cover paddle tennis. They also make skis and snowboards. They make some mighty fine snowboards, actually, and they have a decent team of rippers to back up the product. As a huge mega billion sporting goods conglomerate though, they can afford to back the best riders. This is probably one of the only companies in the industry with the money and wherewithall to go up against the big B.
Their 2009 team movie, gloriously entitled Banger (or maybe it really is Head Banger?), recently turned up on the Internet, so I’ll just keep spreading the viral love until the cease and desist letters arrive. Although I can’t imagine the Head lawyers would complain, considering their stupid logo is up in the top right corner of the vid, so the 20+ minutes of subliminal advertising they’d get from even our meager readership would be in their favor.
Anyway, check it out, good production quality, and good riding by Shayne Pospisil, Fredrik Evensen, Christophe Schmidt, Thomas Franc, Daisuke Honso, Per Loken, Dan Wakeham and many more. Good advertising for the folks at Head.
Cool Story HD Webisode
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Have you seen Cool Story, the latest offering from the Pacific Northwest’s Think Thank? Jesse Burtner and friends put together a nice little movie yet again this year, and again it is a departure from the usual big-budget banger-fests, but with plenty of the hard riding that the PNW boys are known for.
I dug up this HD clip which really is more Back Story behind the scenes than Cool Story front-line riding. Still it is worth the watch, and with Cool Story available in your local shred shop or online, you can check this out while you’re waiting for the shop to open or the UPS man to show up. And if you aren’t familiar with Think Thank, check out their catalog of fine film work, including Thanks Brain! and Stack Footy.
The Arena: North Shore Winter 2008 Trailer
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009Surfing isn’t always the first thing on my mind this time of year. With snowboard season looming, I’m thinking about frozen waves at Whistler, Mammoth and Mount Baker. Just as my winters are my lifeblood, there is a group of surfers for whom winter is equally as essential. These are the guys who surf the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii.
The Arena takes you behind the scenes and into the lineup of one of the heaviest breaks on earth, where making the wrong move in the zone can get you a beatdown, and making the wrong move on a wave can get you killed. With nearly every move made at Pipeline documented extensively on film and video, it seems there is never any shortage of stock footy. The Arena looks to go beyond the beach view and into the psyche of the men and women who challenge themselves on Oahu’s North Shore.
And there’s plenty of good footage too.
Shapes Full Length Movie
Sunday, October 11th, 2009From Europe comes Shapes, a full length feature skateboard film from Horsefeathers. Featuring the riding of Arnost Ceral, Tomas Svoboda, Tomas Weimann and many more, Shapes will take you to locations all over the European continent, including Tenerife, Athens, Warsaw, Sofia, Paris, Berlin and Prague among others.
Filmed and edited in part by Vit Kratochvile, Shapes was put together over the course of three years, giving us an interesting perspective into the progression of the riders and of European skateboarding through time.
Get in the Van Full Movie
Friday, October 9th, 2009Here’s a short little HD movie called Get in the Van. Not sure if they knew that Henry Rollins already took that name. I know I wouldn’t want Rollins after me for trademark infringement or otherwise. Much like Rollins’ memoir, this is a road flick. And the boys do a nice job of outfitting the Astro Van for the trip.
This is more of a homespun bro-brah movie than a backed production release. These guys picked up a few big-name sponsors in Ride, Capita, Airblaster and Coal, among others, but they don’t make any effort to list the riders names in the promos, so I’m assuming it’s bro-brah.
Get to know the likes of Alex Horgan, who does a nice job ripping through the park on a vintage Gnu Hypercarve. Alex does fine on his new Capita too. Get to know Alex’s compadre Jordan Basurto, who made it his mission to find and destroy every handrail obstacle possible along the way. Blake Geis settles a nice wooden kink by gapping it all manly style, then proceeds to throw down multiple variations on it.
Chris Gulick, Cameron McCutcheon, Tyler Walker, Alex Pederson, Raleigh Butler, Danny Buller, Johnny Brady, How did they fit all these guys in the van?
Curtis Woodman rips some sick powder lines and probably the biggest cliff lines in the film. As Brandon Cocard threw down a few lipslides on an old growth log, I thought I spotted a familiar sight in the background, so I hit the rewind and paused to recognize the Donner Ski Ranch lodge, my old stomping grounds. Nice.
The production quality is decent and as always, HD looks very nice. Oh, and the riding is pretty good too.
Find out more about the crew, check out the blog, and donate to the cause at the Get in the Van website.
Loveland Ski Area Opens Tomorrow!
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
It’s official, the news you’ve been waiting for! The North American ski and snowboard season is officially on, with the announcement by Loveland Ski Area in Colorado that they will open for business tomorrow October 7th at 9:00 a.m. Check out the official announcement below by Loveland’s Rob Goodell and go to www.skiloveland.com for details.
