Thursday, June 24, 2010

Go Skateboarding Day VANCOUVER

We hear the hard wheels rolling down the street near Dunsmir park in Downtown Vancouver and naturally, both being skateboarders, look where the sound is coming from. The tail cracks, the boy jumps and the young man to my right lets out a quick bout of laughter as the guy manages to fail ollieing up the small curb placed in front of him on this mild summer night. "What a douche" he exclaims. "Excuse me?" I say with a rather protective and defensive tone, "at least hes' trying." I look back down to the longboard on my lap that managed to survive a full days worth of verbal abuse and think to myself..."fuuuck. why do these motherfuckers have to hate so hard!?." Keeping my fingers busy with the pile of green leaves on its surface, I continue conversation.

Its been a long day. I have been at work, he has been skating and we are tired from the activities presented to us through out the day. Many subjects are being spoken freely and with him still trying to check his ego from undoubted success at Vancouvers massive and heavily stacked edition of Go Skateboarding Day, I can tell that his shitty attitude towards your everyday, no talent skater and my longboard is nothing other than influence from other shitty attitudes he is forced to be around all year as a very talented rider in one of the biggest skateboarding cities in the world. I tell you, that fucking hater influence...it is such a shame for a fine young man to be a part of, but worry not my friends, the story gets better.

The evening before, he has gotten his first taste of what I do with his own eyes after watching and being amazed at the speed of bombing this 'gnarly hill' which in anyone of our opinions would be considered childs play. Sure, its full of some cracks and bumps...but after trying to explain to him that people, myself included, bomb entire highways multiple kilometers/miles long that rough- he is having a hard time grasping his head around my choice of activity. It is now a full day later and within the consistant (yet joking tone) of hate I saw all day, my patience pays off and I am finally starting to see little shimmers of light in his eye as he cautiously continues asking questions about my board, technique, and what the fuck a tuck is anyways. I answer every question with a question back to him, aimed at helping him break free from the influence of his peers and make up his own mind about what he thinks is fun.

"Where did you get that skate and enjoy sticker anyways?" He gestures to the bottom of my deck where a black sticker in the same writing as the infamous 'skate and destroy' is placed and with a smile on my face and a true adoration for the sticker and story behind it I say, "Oh, a couple buddies of mine that live in Portland made them, aren't they sweet?" He peers into the sky and with no eye contact says, "Are they longboarders?" "Well..." I say, slightly huming and hawing about how to appropriately answer this question, "They are skateboarders that are known to slay a longboard on occasion." He lets out a chuckle and I know that I have said the right thing. I look up from the ground and see a cyclist in the distance. Pointing at a stereotypical fixed gear rider hauling down the street, I give my board a tap. "It could be worse, bud" I say. "I could be one of those hipsters on a bike!" "Yeah, but bikes are fun" he quickly exclaims back. "So is my longboard." I wink and with a chuckle from both of us, we both know I have just won an argument.

The tail of the unknown skaters board cracks again, its probably only 5 minutes later and our conversation has finally cooled down enough to be able to hear the sounds of our surroundings once again. It cracks again. And again. And then what do you know...again. We both know that in the last few seconds where we have heard alot of skateboard, absolutley nothing has been landed successful. Thats when it happend, I finally heard something I knew I was going to hear, I just didn't think it would be so soon.

"Look at that guy! He's stoked. He's so stoked to be riding a skateboard that he waits until the middle of the night when noone is around to finally come out. I bet he's too scared to go to the plaza. I can't believe it. There are so many haters in Vancouver. 3 days ago I would have hated on this guy so hard for even attempting to skateboard, simply because of the shitty Vancouver attitude and now Im just stoked."

I look at him with a look I can't quite discribe, and I know that he finally has the vibe that I have been trying to pass along to his young, impressionable mind. With a couple carefully placed words and encouragement to do whatever he thinks is right I put out the offer to set him up with a downhill board and anything else he needs to join me in some longboarding fun one day, no strings attatched. I know he will be capable of riding any hill I place him on, so I let him know that and give him some gruesome examples of what the safetly equiptment is for to further peak his interest and curb his resistance to gloves and other protection. Bashfully accepting the offer, I light a match that was in my pocket and we move on to other conversation.


I haven't been around online much and I know that, so once again I appreciate all you followers that have managed to stick around despite my ability to dissapear. But with that being said, although I haven't been working hard on here, I have been working hard where it matters and seeing a smile on that boys face yesterday was a true example of my effect on others in a situation with so much outside influence of hate. Vancouver has a shitty diaper on all these babies and I'd like to think that slowly but surely I, and all the companies that support me are starting to get seen in a better light regarding all this 'wrongboarding' that we are in to. Im looking forward to my future of sharing everything possible on a skateboard with everyone possible that I can get to listen.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Brittania GOLD RUSH CHALLENGE

Sector Nine was the Title Sponsor of this past weekends GOLD RUSH CHALLENGE in Brittania Beach, British Columbia. Practise day was wetter than a...;) and Race day was dry until the finals. Noone knew what to expect, but the nineball knew how to have a good time! Keep an eye out at www.youtube.com/sector9media for the footage from the event!

Evren Looks Behind To Confirm That Noone Was Able To Keep Up Going Down The World Class Race Track.

Jeff Budro And Hawaiian Sector Nine Rider Ethan Lau Take A Ride To The Top Of The Course On The Side Of The U-Haul

Kyle Martin FTW



SlopeStyle Was A New Addition To The Agenda Being Run Between Heats, It Came As No Suprise That Some Of The Most Stylish Vancouver Locals Were A Fans Of The Yellow Urethane.



George Mackenzie Bustin A Phatty ToeSide Drift Into The Final Hairpin Of The Technical Track.


Who Likes Free Wheels???


This Guy Better Cause He Won Em!

DC Rounded Up His Appearance In Canada With A Trip And a Half Down The Race Course

Waiting For The U-Haul. Best Part Of The Day. Cough.


Thanks To Sector Nine The Podium Riders Came Away With Cold Hard Cash Instead Of Points On A Peice Of Paper.

From A to B












JAKES RASH!

America may have cheap beer, but at least Canadians have a habit of bringing a Keg wherever they go. Louis gets a cold one in an effort to forget about the cold.




What a pissy, rainy, ugly day. I dont know whats better...the fact we had a tent to keep dry, or the fact that the guy in the ditch is taking a phat pee instead of watching the finals...?!

DANGER BAY RACE DAY!!!


Race day was shared with my Sisters wedding day, so with that being said...Thank you to the Lovely Heidi Germann for the Race day Photos!


Get him Kyle! Get him! Get Him! Get him! Master of the Urethane in action. Kyle Finished 6th overall!


Oh, Louis. We know your a fantastic skater from California...getting aquainted with the haybails is almost to be expected on a rainy day!



UGH SON! Dudebro hucks a predrift into Carnage Corner

SLIDE OR DIE!!!

Danger Bay Slide Comp is arguably one of the most stacked Slide Contests in the World. Taking place during the biggest Longboard event globally, Sector 9 was representing hard between Louis Pilloni killing it on the soft wheels and Kyle Martin Killing it on the hard.


Oh Mister Martin, we appreciate the fact that you SLAYED the competition with a 50 foot long one footed blunt slide shovet out. Although this little check is nothing in comparison, tucked in behind him is a certain mister Budro who is most likely going to have the slide runs of the centry coming off that follow cam. Keep a watchful eye out at www.youtube.com/sector9media


Can't wait to see it? Thats okay, we just wanna look again...



Louis, the freaking master of the Launch Ramp. Nice 180 bud!

BUFFALO BILLS DOWNHILL BLOODSPILLLLLLLLL

Alright. Colorado is not Canadian, but it might as well be as it can get so freaking Cold at times! Why are we talking about America here? Well...thats cause this Canadian decided to go along for the ride despite not being able to enjoy the hill. What happened you ask? Well, alot did-but these photos should give you at least an idea or two...


Waking up 5 skaters is hard enough...But at least its easy to remind them to make healthy choices for breakfast!


Big Lou fought like a madman to keep this Colorado boy off his ass throughout the Preliminaries...if you look close enough, his face just may project that to you



our little Flying Feather Evren Ozan did a great job all week, and in one of the most impressive heats of the day pulled a beauty on Kyle Martin for an inside pass in the middle hairpin of the bottom section. America +1, Canada +0



Im not too sure whats going on here, but my best guess is that Dudebro is trying to sum up the essence of the female form, and Kyle is lost in the moment thinking about it



And with the Ladies being so important to us here at Sector 9, Dave Angeles does a damn good job at not only staying good looking, but full of scabs and blood as well. (Yes!)