I was in Fort Collins for a couple days to get my snowboard fixed and hang with some friends, and the weather there was incredible the whole time. Like 65 degrees and bluebird... and it's February? Hmmmm.... As long as it snows in the mountains I don't care how warm it is anywhere else!
So, yesterday I went and skated the Northside Park in the morning and had the place all to myself which was very nice. I had a great mini ramp session and it felt great to push around on the ole skate again. Since it was such an epic day, I couldn't waste it sitting inside so I went and recruited JB and he suggested we go cruise down this nice little hill he knew about. I hadn't bombed hills for such a long time and since I wasn't snowboarding, I thought I'd get some turns in, just on a different surface. I grabbed my Krooked Gonz cruiser board and we were on our way.
The hill was really mellow and it was such a fun session. We towed each other with the car a few times to get some more speed and soaked in the sunny day.
Soooo, as you just saw I had a little wipe out. Nothing serious, just a totally fucking amateur move on my part. Embarrassing really... I was pushing to get some speed and when I went to put my foot back on the board I got a little squirley, bailed off and started to run. Well I was going a little faster than I thought and my legs couldn't catch up to the rest of my body and I fell forward, rolled once and popped back up. My left hand got the worst of it, and my arm, shoulder and hip were a little scrapped up. No harm done, except to my ego. Thankfully that wasn't captured on film...
You remember the 4 Star crew shredding the pool at the Pink Motel and hitting up the legendary Brooklyn Banks right? Of course you do. Well, here's the last installment of their catalog shoot, this time in San Francisco. Great song, great skating, and the Gonz wins two bucks.
I would click here and watch the fancy crystal clear version... But you can watch the poop youtube version below if you're feeling lazy.
The Active Am competition is going down today and you can watch a live webcast of the event today, right here. There will undoubtedly be some sick skating going down so be sure to peep the event starting at 11am Pacific time. Dig it.
This past week Thrasher posted up a 5 part video interview with one of my all time favorite skaters, the Master of Disaster, Duane Peters.
This dude is straight up, I don't give a fuck, punk rock, I mean just look at him. Tattoos all over his body, missing front teeth, safety pins for earrings, completely fucking radical. He absolutely shreds on a skateboard and has been in some sick punk bands, the U.S. Bombs and The Hunns are my favorite.
Duane pretty much embodies everything that is good in skateboarding. He skates like he lives his life, hard and fast. I wish I would have been born in that era of skating where the only things that mattered were finding the next pool to shred and a punk show to go to at night. So fucking awesome.
Be sure to check out all 5 parts of the interview as Duane is pretty entertaining to listen to. Dig it.
The Ethan Fowler series concludes with episodes 5 and 6 and the last episode couldn't have been any better. Truly some one who just doesn't give a fuck. Dig it.
Episode 5 - From Stereo to Foundation
Episode 6 - Bummer High, not getting wrapped up in the industry
If you didn't read the words in the above image, Stereo Skateboards is re-releasing two of skateboarding's best films, A Visual Sound and Tincan Folklore, in a two-disk DVD box set. The films also include commentary by Stereo co-owners Jason Lee and Chris Pastra.
These really are two great films, you'd be smart to check em out, if you haven't already that is.
Hey weren't we talking about these two films recently? Yes, right here.
Ahhh yeah! The Northside Skatepark grand opening event/party/skate contest/punk rock and metal show/what ever the fuck you want it went down on Saturday and it was so much fun. The weather was absolutely perfect, warm and sunny, and there was an awesome turn out of people to support and skate the new park. I was in photographer mode the entire day so I didn't skate all that much. Plus, my photography skills are far greater than my skating skills... But none-the-less, I had a blast. Just being around skating and watching everyone rip is enough for me, I love that shit.
I was on a solo mission all day so I wasn't able to get much video footy, but I was able to snap about 400 photos... Of which 225 turned out pretty nice. Call me Ansel Adams.
Since I have so many rad photos I'm going to post, I'll give you the Cliff Notes version of the days events. It was a pretty mellow day really, every one was just so stoked to skate the new park. Once the initial madness subsided, a few best-trick contests were held on the different features, there was live music on the quarter pipe, I got stung in the forehead by a wasp, free product was given away, a couple pros showed up to skate, There was free food and drinks, 99.9 The Point radio station came out and played some shitty soft rock music for a while, and of course, some incredible skating took place. All in all it was a pretty nice little Saturday...
On to the photos. Click any for a bigger view.
The Market Skateshop holdin' it down
The man, the myth, the legend. Northside construction manager and MVP Sean Kelly
Orlando Baker & Jason Morgan are homies
Kyle Knight-Johnson blastin huge airs all day... Grabbin' Indy here
Xavier f/s air
Conner Fischer 5-0 pivot
Randy Pritchard pokin' that front rock
Kyle Big time blunt to fakie... Here's an idea of how big time
This little guy was chargin' hard all day going for a shuv on the china bank
Oozing style with the crail side
Shane riding some crazy bike
Tsedeq Baker huge b/s air off the hip to the Ragdoll wall grabbin' Melon
Hard core lurking action
Double front rock? Ah yeah
Orlando & Tsedeq Baker, father son doubles. Nice bail Orlando...
After some incredible skating it was time for a little musical interlude courtesy of AJ, Travis, and Kyle's currently unnamed punk band. Drums, bass, and vocals... Reminiscent of the golden era of punk.
AJ, Kyle, Travis
After the opening act, Fort Collins locals Bill The Welder took the stage... er, quarter pipe. These guys are so fucking rad. They remind a lot of The Vandals. They played a feverish set and were all stoked on the park. The guys got pretty excited a couple times when some tricks were thrown down on, or above the coping directly in front of them. If you ever get a chance to check these guys out, I highly recommend it.
Two thirds of Bill The Welder stuck around after the set to play some Metal music with the band Fear The Vacuum and they melted faces.
It was so rad to have live music playing while everyone was skating. It made the day that much better.
Another awesome part of the day was watching pros Ernie Torres and Jared Stoots shred. Ernie rides for Real and Jared is an am for Toy Machine. Both these Denver dwellers were killing it and were super cool.
It was weird, after watching Ernie skate on Saturday, I've seen him all over the internet and in the skate mags this week. He has a "That's My Shit" page and a two page ad for Adio in the new Thrasher and a video titled Lazy Denver Days from Adio that was posted on all the skate sites as well as a bunch of photos. Pretty rad.
Ernie Torres back nose blunt
Ernie front nose grid as an on-looker gets in the way of my shot... Still, I really like this photo
Jared Stoots tail block crail grab 360 spin-a-roo
Jared front nose blunt
Ernie and the homies chillen'
Product toss time
Jason and Deputy Cody
Nate Likewise front tail slide... Best shirt of the day award also
Grant Garcia blunt slide
Randy Pritchard with a nasty foot plant
Monico Candelaria front Toyota tail slide. Monico rides for Null and is really good
Taylor Dehart bluntin' the Toyota... I hate to say it but he didn't land this trick. He slammed into the back of the cab a couple times though. This is just too rad of a picture not to post
Travis front board
Taylor blasting a huge air over the Toyota. Look for big things from this kid in the future, he absolutely rips.
This little dude had just learned to walk and was crusin' all over the place. He was shredding
The Market god father Andy Weiss and Eric Likewise pondering life's mysteries
Eric wall ride to fakie
Myself and Andy
Nature paints the best pictures.
Since the lighting was so epic at the end of the day and I was able to get a couple good shots with the sunset colors in the background, I decided to play around with the photo shop a little. Not bad...
Holly shit that was lot of photos to post. Those were the best ones I thought but if you want to look at all 225 you can go ahead and peep those here.
The day was a big time success, a lot of people came out and skated and a good time was had by all. Let's go drink some beer!
Yo I'm Zac and Hybrid Sessions is my little platform to discuss all the shit in life I'm super stoked on: Snowboarding, Skateboarding, Music, and Art. A one-stop shop of sorts. Here you'll find my thoughts and opinions on said subjects, local and national shred news and happenings, interviews with rad people, amazing art and music, my adventures, hilarious humor, shit talking, and anything else I deem awesome enough to write about.
Reader participation is STRONGLY encouraged, as anything goes here.
Let's get radical.
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