Ride Contraband Binding

So a couple months ago on South of the North, I read about these new bindings Ride is coming out with for the 08/09 season and was a little skeptical about how they would handle on the snow and how they would hold up over a seasons worth of abuse. They eliminate the standard toe strap and opt for a flexible rubber like strap that creates a one piece, single rachet system binding. Well it seems they handle pretty well, how they hold up is yet to be determined. I found a pretty good review of the new bindings here.

Check out this video about the new Ride Contraband binding and decide for yourself.

Also, here's a limited edition Contraband for the upcoming season.

Skateboarding...

Is so much fun. Even alone, in the cool Reno weather, at 9pm, at a skate park that is barely lit up by the surrounding baseball field lights. My life is a little chaotic right now and it felt fucking amazing to go push around for an hour by myself... Especially after the 5 day rain delay. When life is gettin you down... Just go skate.

Rain Sucks!

WTF?! Last Sunday when I rolled into Reno the weather was incredible... Super hot and sunny, finally starting to look like summer. I guess the shitty Fort Collins weather followed me home because it's been cold and rainy the past 3 days, which means zero skating. I had plans to hit the lake this weekend and get a wake surf sesh in but guess what's in the forecast for the Memorial Day weekend? You guessed it, more rain! Shit.

I guess the only good to come out of this lame ass weather is I now can update the blog with some rad happenings from world O' shred. Things have been pretty hectic as of late, I'm trying to mobilize for my upcoming move to Irvine, get all the Love Bus Adventure photos organized, edit all the footy and make a sweet ass road trip vid, build cabinets with my pops to make a little cash money, and continue my skate rehabilitation so until shit slows down a wee bit, postings will probably be every couple days. This is like 5 posts within one post so here are goods....


Transworld's And Now Trailer #2
"The" Now, "And" Now... Who knows what the official name is but here's the second trailer for the much anticipated new Transworld skate film starting Sean Malto, Nick Trapasso, Matt Miller, Richie Jackson, Kenny Hoyle, and David Gravette. The/And Now drops this summer so make sure to peep this one. The youtube video is a little Shit-ty so click here to watch the nice quality version. Also if you missed it, here's the first trailer.





Bobby Worrest Krooked & eS Shoe Collab


eS footwear, Krooked, and Bobby Worrest recently teamed up for a new shoe collaboration and the goods are in. I've never skated or even put on a pair of eS shoes, (Vans till death) but I love everything about Krooked and these shoes actually look pretty dope. The Prequel Mid and Square One are the two models featured, and you can definitely see the hand of Gonz in the shoes. The shoes are available June 1st. Here are a couple funny videos promoting the new shoes. The second one is hilarious. Check out Hypebeast for more pics of the shoes.

Ask Lando!
every dream of asking your favorite pro shred any question your twisted brain could think of? Well here's your chance... Lib Tech ultra ripper Mark Landvik is taking your questions. Head on over to Lib Tech's site and post a question... or five. If it's a good one Lando himself will answer in the new Lib Techno Zine #4. Lib did this with T Rice a while back and it's pretty funny, you really can ask anything. If you don't know who Mark Landvik is you're a huge tool. He kills everything. Check out some sweet lando footy.

Well I was going to post a couple more things but I think I'm going down town to have a few drinks instead. It's Saturday night and there should be something fun to do in DT Reno. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on here tomorrow and get up another post. Love Bus Adventure photos and vid coming soon, stay tunned!

Vans Pool Party Re-broadcast

For anyone who missed the live webcast of the Vans Pro Tec Pool Party on Saturday, don't feel too bad. Thanks to Skateboard.com, you can watch the re-broadcast of all the super rad pool riding RIGHT HERE. Be sure to peep the masters portion of the contest... Sick!

Pro-tec Pool Party 2008 Final Results

Pro
1. Rune Glifberg $25,000
2. Omar Hassan $15,000
3. Bucky Lasek $7,500
4. Bob Burnquist $3,000
5. Benji Galloway $2,000
6. Sergie Ventura $1,500
7. Bruno Passos $1,000
8. Joshua Borden $700
9. Nolan Munroe $500
10. Adam Taylor $300

Masters
1. Chris Miller $10,000
2. Steve Caballero $6,000
3. Nicky Guerrero $3,000
4. Eric Nash $1,000
5. Lester Kasai $500
6. Pat Ngoho $200
7. Steve Steadham $200
8. Tony Mag $200
9. Buck Smith $200
10. Ben Schroeder $200

Ladies
1. Mimi Knoop $4,000
2. Julie Kindstrand $2,500
3. Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins $1,000
4. Allysha Bergado $650
5. Amelia Brodka $350
6. Elise Dabby $100
7. Holly Lyons $100
8. Lea Taylor $100
9. Cressey Rice $100
10. Heidi Fitzgerald $100

Thrasher/Vans “Block$ for Buck$”Longest Boardslide Contest
1st Steve Caballero 18 blocks $1800
2nd (tie) Eddie Reategui 15 1/4 blocks2nd (tie) Steve Steadham 15 1/4 blocks

1 Block = 2 feet1 Block = $100

Reno!

Yeesh! So after 3 days of driving and lots of catching up with all my friends and family I finally have some time to give a little update on the Love Bus Adventure. We rolled into Reno Sunday night at about 10:30pm and after 3 days on the road home never looked so good! The road trip was a fucking blast though. We had such a good time, met a bunch of really cool people, met some really weird people, skated like 12 different parks, slept in the Bus 2 nights, Jacob met his future wife, my stomach was annihilated by way too much greasy truck stop food... Pretty much one of the funnest adventures of my life.

We took about 400 pictures and got over 3 hours of footy so once I sort through all the pics and edit the footy I'll have a full Love Bus Adventure recap with some awesome photos and hopefully a cool video.

I'll be in Reno for about a week and a half before I head to Irvine for the summer so I still hve another 8-12 hours of road trippin left. The Bus ran like a freaking Corvette the whole trip, except for the 5 times we had to start the Bus Little Miss Sunshine style, and it wasn't exactally as fast as a Corvette.

To all the skaters we met I'll try to have the photos and video posted as soon as possible so keep checking back!

It's Go Time

We're hittin the road, next post from Reno!

Just a Quickie

Well it's almost time for the Love Bus adventure and I still have so much shit to do. Why get everything done in advance when you can wait until the last minute, not sleep at all, and scramble to get all your shit together? I guess that's just the way I function... Anyway, this will just be a quick post about some stuff that's gone down the past couple days.

Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party
This Saturday, May 17, is the 4th annual Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party at the Vans Skate Park in Orange County. There's going to be a live web cast of the event starting at 1:00pm pacific time so you can watch heavy hitters Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg, Bob Burnquist, Omar Hassan, Steve Caballero and many others rip up the legendary Combi Bowl. As a bowl riding fiend myself I'm super stoked to watch this. Hopefully I wont be stuck in the middle of nowhere sleeping in my broken down Love Bus. This is such a rad event, everyone should definitely watch on Saturday.

Watch the webcast here on Saturday @ 1:00pm.

Here's a little taste of last year's Pool Party


A couple new web sites
Lakai Limited Footwear and Toy Machine Skateboards have their new websites up and running and they're pretty cool. I haven't had a chance to really check out the Lakai site yet but Toy Machine's is pretty rad. It's similar to their old one but a little more user friendly I think. Check em out.

Lakai

Toy Machine

Vans, Vans, Vans
Again from Off The Wall Site comes the summer '08 Vans line up. This is probably old news but I just came across them and again I'm super stoked. What's better than a Half Cab? A Full Cab that's what. Fucking rad. Vans is killing it this year. Click the link above to check em out.

Love Bus Adventure!

To all the loyal Hybrid Sessions readers out there, and really anyone who is reading this, you may have noticed my numerous references to my vehicle, the Love Bus. You also may have noticed the "Love Bus repair for SoCal journey" donation area on the left side of the blog. Well I feel I should shed some light on the Love Bus situation a little so first here is just a brief history of the legendary Love Bus.

After my first year of school at CSU without any transportation, I decided to get myself some wheels. I really wanted to get a VW bus so while I was home in Reno I searched every where for one. Turns out, a buddy of my pops had a 1984 and was willing to trade the bus for some construction work. I really wanted an older bus, like the round ones from the 60's but I couldn't find one and I took it as a sign that this one was an '84, the year I was born. We got the bus, got it tuned, and headed for CO. When I first drove to Fort Collins it took us about 15 hours in a normal car, but this time in the bus.... at least 24 hours of driving. The top speed of the Bus is about 65 mph, unless it's going down hill, in which case it can reach speeds in excess of mach 5, or 75 mph. There were times when we were driving through the Rocky Mountains when I had to drive in the shoulder because we were going so slow, 18 wheelers flying by me. But hey, the bus was meant to be driven like we snowboard... Slow n low, and super stylish. I consider the Love Bus an extension of my personality have been driving it the last 4 years and loving every minute of it.

So as for the SoCal journey. In order to complete all the requirements for my major, construction management, I have to do a 3 month internship and I'm doing mine in Irvine, CA. I chose to go down to Southern Cal pretty much for the sole purpose of being able to surf. Irvine is about 15 minutes from the beach, so that is where I will be spending every minute of free time I have, unless I'm skating of course. This is my last week of school and on Friday morning, my buddy Jacob Biddle and I will embark on an epic road trip in the Love Bus. First we are driving to Boise, ID to visit one of my best friends, Eddy Man Perriera. We're going to stay there a night or two, party a little bit and let the Bus rest, then head for Reno. I'll be in Reno for a couple weeks to visit the fam and some friends, then I'll be off to Irvine.

We have about 8 different skate parks mapped out on the way from Fort Collins to Boise, and Boise to Reno, so we're going to have a nice little skate tour through Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada which of course I will be documenting. I have yet to map out skate parks from Reno to Irvine but I still have some time to do that.

So will the Love Bus survive this most excellent adventure? Only time will tell. The Bus has had its fair share of breakdowns and I've put in about 4 times as much money as it's worth but I'm taking it in to the shop on Wednesday for a full tune up. The whole trip, from Ft. Collins to Irvine is about 1,800 miles so this most definitely push the Bus to its limits. I can only hope we don't get stranded in the middle of the freaking Nevada desert.

I'm super stoked for the road trip! It's going to be a blast. If there is anyone who would like to contribute to the Love Bus journey fund, please feel free. Just click the donate button on the left of this page. As expensive as gas is these days anything would be greatly appreciated! I'll post all the pix we take of the skate tour and have a journey recap when I get to Reno.

I'm going to be pretty busy the next few days with finals and moving all my shit so hopefully I'll be able to get a couple more posts up before we leave. I have some pretty rad stuff coming up for the site including a Hybrid Sessions exclusive interview with pro snow shred TJ Schneider so stay tuned in for that.

Hybrid Sessions is taking over the West Coast... Yea boyeee!

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New Vans... Boo Ya!

I just came across this about 5 minutes ago and man am I stoked! From, Off The Wall Site, an awesome blog dedicated to everything vans, comes a preview of the Holiday '08 Vans sneaker line. I'm becoming more and more of a sneaker head these days, well actually, more and more of a Vans sneaker head because I refuse to put anything else on my feet, and I want a pair of all these new Vans. The big drop seems to be the Rowley Shambles Hi and these look sooo sick! Also the new TNT mid, Chukka Low, and Half Cab pro are looking so tasty. There's also a Steve Caballero legends pack with a SK8 Hi, Era Pro and of course a Half Cab. The shoes feature the bat graphic from one of his old Powell Peralta decks. There are a bunch of new rad color ways so click the Off The Wall link above to peep the new Vans!

08/09 Snow Trailers

Tis the season for snowboard film trailers. These things are seemingly dropping every other day and getting harder to keep track of so the good people at Snowboard Magazine have organized all the trailers released thus far into one giant list. There are over 60 already and more on the way. I will be updating this post as new trailers are released so stay tuned into HS. If you don't want to watch all 60 or so, I recommend checking out the red titles.

Aesthetica - Standard Films

All Day Every Day - Sandbox

All Smiles - Syndicate Clothing

Alpha - JoyTron

Back East - I Heart Snow Productions

Bad Ideas - Newsroom Cinema

Bash - KBR

Bread and Butter - Tearoom Productions

Car Danchi 3 - Neil Hartmann

Chuch - Prospekt Industries

Colortelevision - Colortelevision

Dream of Pop - Factor Films

Double Decade - Mack Dawg Productions

Down With People - Mack Dawg Productions

Chuch - Prospekt Industries

Eastern Boarder Team Movie - Eastern Boarder

Familia - Finger On Da Trigger

Finally Moving - S Cut Productions

Forum Or Against'em - Forum Snowboards

Fresh Air - Fresh Air

Goofy Movie - Via Montana

Guns Out - Variety Pack

Here and There - Pahtman Shop

Homies - Snow World Productions

Huh?- FYC Pictures

Hurts So Good! - Sacred Board Shop

I Ride Park City - Park City Mountain Resort

It's Always Snowing Somewhere - Burton

!Jouk! - Tea Spoon

Just Trying to Fit In - Dudeguy Films

Knockout - Alterna Films

Knock On Wood - First Track Productions

Leisure Time - Mattress In a Box

Love Over Money - Bluebird Wax

Moving Pictures - Black Sessions Films

My Own Two Feet - Leward Cinema

No Correct Way- Rome SDS

No Lies Just Fibs - Magic Hair Productions

Out Door Education - Voleurz

Pet Projekt - Samuel Kuhn

Pleasure Inc - Sugar Shack

Pony Tale - Actionhorse Films

See What I See - Runaway Films

Shop Floor - Storbis

Shots N' Goggles - Dinobots

Stack Footy - Think Thank

Techicolour - Autumn Line

Teenage Love Graffiti - Isenseven

That's A Wrap - Corey Thompson

That's It, That's All - Travis Rice

The Boned Age - Grenade Entertainment

This Is Snowboarding - Bluedog Productions

This Is The Ticket - Shway Productions

Throw Your Panties - Ubiquitous Media

Trees Please - Bald E-gal Productions

What - Brothers Factory

What Friends Are For - Funland Films

Wuhuu! - Digistyles

Winter Renaissance - NWC

Workin Out The Kinks - At Once Productions

More Terrible Album Covers

A while back I made a post about the 100 worst album covers of all time and today someone left a comment with a link to even more horrendous album covers. These are so freaking funny, I couldn't stop laughing. I can't imagine these pseudo musicians seeing their album art and thinking, "Fuck yea this is gonna sell millions!" I'm sure there is countless more terrible album art out there so if anyone comes across anymore please leave me a comment with a link so I can post it. Check em out here. Here is my favorite...

Duuuude...

The DVS crew dropped their new FREE skate vid this week, Dudes, Dudes, Dudes and it is now available for your viewing pleasure on the DVS website. The site is clogged like a fat dudes arteries with people watching  the vid so my suggestion is to wait till the wee hours of the night to watch or just be patient and let the video load. There are a bunch of extras and you can even put the film on your ipod! Just subscribe to the free podcast and take it with you where ever you go.  The video is sick, there are some pretty unique features skated that I was stoked on. And as they say, the best things in life are free.  

Watch the video here.  

A Nice Little Banana Film

From the best snowboard company on the planet, Lib Technologies, comes the best snowboard in the universe, the Skate Banana. Here's a cool little video with a dude wearing a banana suit, riding a banana. Yay for bananas!

Photo Sickness

Photo By: Jack Coleman

I was making my usual rounds on the internet today and while I was checking out Seshn, (a super rad site by the way) I noticed they were featuring a couple different photographers. I've recently been becoming more and more interested in photography, especially after our last trip to the mountains and seeing some amazing sights. I've always been a little hesitant to consider photography an art form because I thought anyone with a camera could be considered a photographer. But after snapping shitty picture after shitty picture and then realizing how much work and preparation actually go into getting a good photo, and how hard it is to get the perfect shot, my perception of photography has floated a huge back side 180. I realized that it takes a lot talent to be a good photographer. During the Market's 12th Anniversary BBQ I snapped about 250 photos with a run-of-the-mill digi camera and some of the shots actually turned out to be pretty awesome. I can only imagine what the photos would have looked like had I some real photo gear.

Anyway, back to what I was trying to say, I was checking out these photographers and was pretty blown away by their work. They all have some amazing photos. Everyone who reads this should check out the pictures these guys have taken. The site they're featured on, Shutter Butter, has audio commentary from the photographers about all of the pictures which is really cool. Shit, enough talk already, go check out the pics and get stoked.

Jack Coleman - Really cool lifestyle photos, the guy definitely has a vision
More of Jack at www.jackcolemanphoto.com

Qunicy Dean - Incredible water, surf, and wildlife photos
More of Qunicy at www.quincydean.com

Tom Zittel - Sick snow and skate photos, hails from Colorado
More of Tom at www.tomzittelphotography.com

AHHHHHH!!!

I've been sitting in the Guggenheim computer lab here at good ole' CSU for over three hours trying to write a bullshit paper for my labor relations class. Labor relations? WTF!? I have zero done. School makes me want to open hand slap people in the face. Fuck it I'm going to skate.

Pow Turns In May!?

Just when I was getting over my post snow season depression and about to write about what an epic year of snowboarding we had, Mother Nature smiled upon all us shred heads and decided to dump 12 inches of fresh in the mountains this past weekend. Last Thursday morning I received a call from fellow shred crew member Brian Heimerdinger in which he told me about the winter storm warming that was in effect for Summit County and the rest of the Colorado high country. 8-16 expected overnight? You gotta be shitting me. I was bummin because the weather was cold and rainy here in Fort Collins that day and I really wanted to skate. Needless to say the phone call from Dinger instantly elevated my mood to stoked out of my mind. We got on the horn with The Gonz and made plans for a Friday pow sesh. It had been about 3 weeks since we last rode so I gathered up all my gear, dusted of the Skate Banana, fired up the Love Bus, and headed for Greely to meet up with Dinger and drive to Denver.

We woke up Friday morning and checked the snow report; 10 inches over night and snowing. Stoked! We met up with the Gonz and we were on our way. The drive up was incredibly windy which was a little disheartening. We initially wanted to ride Loveland Pass but as we got closer the weather got worse and the Pass was closed. At this point the wind was out of control, blowing snow everywhere. It would have been miserable up on the Pass. So where to?.... A-Basin of course! The first to open and the last to close every year, A-Basin is the longest running resort in Colorado. We pulled into the parking lot and it was like Christmas morning. It was snowing pretty hard and we were all super stoked to ride.

And what a sick day of riding it was! It snowed all day and powder was slashed to the maximum on every run we took. We tried to get some action photos but since it was such a gray day and snowing heavily, we gave up trying after about four failed attempts. Up at the top of the mountain the wind and snow was blowing so hard you could barely see your hand in front of your face. A couple times we had to post up and wait for the snow to stop blowing before we could get down the hill. Even with the low light goggle lenses in, it was still hard to see. We weren't about to let a little lack of visibility slow us down and we charged hard all day. The snow was the best in the trees and there were a ton of banks carved out where we threw down with some nice surf style lay backs. There were a bunch of natural lips and other features to air off and we took full advantage of everything in sight. The whole day we couldn't believe we were actually getting powder turns in May and it turned out to be one of the most fun days of riding all year.

All this snow and no one to shred it... Except us


The Gonz

After we finished riding we headed to Breckenridge to get some food and so Brian could settle some unfinished business between him and his cousin involving a certain unpaid for Rome Artifact. Long story short, Brian almost got the Breck cops called on him for trying to take back the board HE owned. Very Funny. We hit the road to get back to Denver and at the Silverthorne exit there was a line of about 100 cars waiting to exit. Turns out there was a huge accident in the Eisenhower Tunnel and no one could get through. Loveland Pass was also still closed so the only way back to Denver was to go back through Breck and take the scenic route. This turned out to be an amazing drive, even though it was about and hour and a half out of the way. We got to drive through a bunch of old 1890's mining towns like Alma, Fairplay, Como, and South Park... Yes the same South Park the TV show is based off of. It was super cool to see all these old towns.

The Gonz and Me in South Park... The only people in town wearing tye dye

Once we got out of the towns and into the country we were treated to Mother Nature at her finest. It was so rad to see how absolutely fucking beautiful this Planet we live on is. We saw a bunch of different wild animals, deer, big horn sheep, mountain goats, and got some epic views of the mountains. We jammed out to the mellow tunes of Mason Jennings and Neil Young which made the long drive even more enjoyable. This drive was the perfect ending to a perfect day in the mountains. We couldn't stop talking about next snow season and everything we want to do on a snowboard next year.

Epic


I wanna ride em!


So rad

This was probably our last day of riding for the 07/08 season, and it was a great one to end on. I know I speak for Brian and The Gonz when I say we're are as stoked as ever on snowboarding and can't wait to get back on the board next year!

Mikey LeBlanc Interview

I just came across a pretty rad website, Idiomlife, that had a pretty good interview with pro snow shred Mikey Leblanc. He is a super sick rider and seems like a way funny guy. Mikey has been spotted a couple times shredding in Denver by The Gonz and if I remember right I believe they might have even had a little chat. Check out Mikey slay some rails in Love/hate and ride a tabogen in this years video Optimistic?

Brandon Russell: Mikey, thanks for taking time off of your busy schedule, touring for loveHate. How is the tour going?
Mikey LeBlanc: A party, a plane, an hour and another party.

B: Are kids getting as stoked as you hoped they would?
M: I think so, the tricks are unquestionable, the video and the music grows on you like fine wine... I'm really at the point where I edited it with Shelby, and have seen it so much. And I still really love the video so... at this point, selfishly, I don't care... because I love it.

B: Tell us a little about Kidsknow and the loveHATE video.
M: Kidsknow is my production company, I did the vid In association with Burning Bridges. That is Shelby's company. loveHATE is a lot of my friends and me making what we do during the winter visible to kids.

B: Who is touring with you for the loveHATE and Positron tour?
M: Mostly Justin Hebbel, Darrel Mathesen and Jon Kooley for loveHATE, and Devun, Dufficy, and Dionne for the Positron video. It's a nightmare, or, a dream come true. Six a.m. flights, one hour in the hotel room, straight to the premiere, straight to the bar after. Drink all night, and then get a cab to the next flight. It's rock star shit.

B: Who are you most stoked to be touring with? Who in this video do we most need to be watching?
M: I like everyone. For loveHATE; Hebbel is insane. So tech. It takes a lot of watching to tell what he's doing. And Darrel is also ridiculous.

B: What is your vision for Kidsknow?
M: Make snow videos that are non-scripted, and in the middle, have some social commentary fun. Possibly say something without beating you over the head with it.

B: Switching gears to some other projects of yours, How is Holden going?
M: Amazing and crazy. The gear is making me happy and I pretty much know the whole business now. From start to finish.

B: Why should kids buy Holden gear?
M: Because they like it.

B: How is the Block doing?
M: Good I guess. It seems like alotta fun down there.

B: So, what did you do this summer when you weren't traveling around looking for snow?
M: I moved to Portland in May. Started designing the Holden gear with Scott Z. and also moved in with Shelby and started editing the loveHATE video... We "finished' editing loveHATE in late July... Then I went to China in August for three weeks to handle the production, and 056 development for Holden. When I got back I left two days later for the premiere tour. That ended for me yesterday.

Read the rest of the interview HERE.