Coming Soon...

It's been a busy weekend. I just got back from a two-day round-trip to Evansville, Indiana where I enjoyed Killer Skatepark's Two-Year Anniversary bash. There will be a full-feature story on my excursions later this week, plus a boatload of new articles... but until then, enjoy this flawless switch frontside bigflip by Evansville's own Nate Ives. Lates...!

Stickers...!

Stickers are available! Finally...! And honestly, it's about time that we figure out how to promote this stupid site effectively. They're paper, and they're inexpensive... but they stick like glue, and in the right environment, they can even last for a couple years.

If you'd like a few sent your way, drop us an e-mail to the same 'ol, same 'ol e-mail address, and we'll hook you up...! Because we still love our readers more than any other crappy blog on the interweb ever could...!






*That e-mail addy is still budstratford@aol.com, by the way. Got it? Good...

The Editor Wonders: Who's Job Is It...?

Recently, I was talking to a skateshop owner about "kids these days". Us old guys... we spend a lot of time talking about "kids these days", these days. It's mostly a function of skating's recent popularity, I suppose. Too much coverage has somehow blessed us with too many wussy little kids that defected from rollerblading and razor scootering in search of cooler pastures, we theorize. It's so true: Old, bitter bastards tend to do a lot of complaining. I should know, since I'm generally regarded as being one of them.

Anyway... during our discussion, this shop owner quite frankly admitted to me that he had a tendency to be a little bit rough with his little-bastard customers. Sort of surprised by this revelation, I asked why in the good grace of gawd he would do such a thing? Surprised himself by my reaction, he told me that he honestly felt that it was his duty, as a skater, to "harden 'em up" a little bit. Rough 'em up in order to toughen 'em up, so to speak.


Next month, Everything Skateboarding will be running a full-feature initiative called "Spotlight On The Independent Skateshop". We have gone to some pretty stupendous lengths to round up some of the very best and brightest that this industry has to offer, to offer up some tactics and strategies that hopefully, will help guide these skateshops forward on a more sustainable and profitable pathway to success. Why...? Because we all feel that these locally-owned skateshops are a valuable and irreplaceable resource that we just can't afford to lose. So, why not launch a wide-ranging, bold, and brutally honest initiative to help them stay in business...? It only seemed like the right thing to do. And if you know me... or, any one of us... at all, then you certainly understand that we're pretty huge on doing "the right thing" around here. It's kinda what we're known for. And we don't apologize for it one damned bit. We're sorta known for that one, too.

The problem, though, is that bold and brutal honesty usually cuts both ways. Brutally and boldly, we are the guys that will always stand fast in support of the independent, skater-run skateshop. On the other hand: We typically don't support abject stupidity. And that's where that bold and brutal honesty starts working against some of our independent skateshop buddies. Because it's our position that the skateshop does not exist to fuck with it's customers. Not as far as I can see, anyway. Actually, I'd go so far as to say that the mission of any good, solid, and legit skateboard shop is really, quite the opposite: It's actually there to serve the customers. My position has always been that the industry exists to support skateboarders of every age, race, gender, or ability. Not to belittle and brutalize them.





We're not exactly the guys that'll shy away from staking out a position, and standing firmly behind it. You'll probably be seeing more of this kind of message over the next few months. Hey, little kids...? Never, ever forget this: If anyone,anywhere ever gives you crap for being a little kid, you've got our permission to go right on ahead, and tell them to suck it.



I think that one of the great mistakes that this industry makes too often, is the mistake of not thinking things through before marrying a concept. I think that's why this industry ends up marrying way, waaayyyy too many shitty concepts. Like, telling kids that they drink their own pee if they buy blank skateboards (I'll never forget that one). Or, telling skaters that longboarding isn't "really" skateboarding... which is another fully flaky concept that we're still battling, today. I mean, try telling Tom Sims that one, for cripes' sakes. See how far you get when you're confronted by a living legend that's also a lot smarter than you'll ever be.





When we look for leadership on this issue, we certainly don't have to look much farther than our own excellent staff. Here's a brief overview of one of AJ Kohn's pet projects, Gear 4 Groms. I doubt that you'll ever hear him spewing about how kids need to be kicked around a little bit. Even if it might be "for their own good".



So, yeah... this damned industry of ours. Always ramming stupid ideas into everyone's heads. Like the idea that we need to ostracize and embarass little kids for the high crime of being... little kids? I mean, seriously? Let me tell you something: There's more than enough parents, guidance counselors, coaches, principals, geeks, jocks, skinheads, landlords, pedestrians, security guards, cops, old geezers, little bitties, bosses, pundits, politicians, neo-conservatives, neo-liberals, skatepark police, bitter old skaters, and other assorted bitches, bastards,and assholes out there already... and all too ready and willing to 'harden up' the kids for making the major life mistake of picking up a skateboard. I'd go so far as to say that even life itself will probably 'harden up' the kids just fine. So surely, they don't need any additional help from us.

The bottom line is that kids, newbies, upstarts... they ultimately look up to us for guidance. More than we'd probably like to acknowledge, or even admit. Well, since skateboarding has given us all so much in our lives... I think that we sort of owe it to skateboarding to make at least some feeble attempt to help bring the next generation up right. We should probably be teaching them the same things that other skateboarders taught us. Stuff like, "Look, kid... you can be a dick to whoever you want, on your own time. But when you're a skater...? You always, always, always be
cool to your fellow skater. Because that's just the way it is. Get in line, or get the fuck out." There's a practical reason for that, of course. Because if we can't rely on each other to get the right shit done, then who in the hell are we gonna rely on...? Skaters really can't rely on anyone else in this world for a helping hand, so it's basically up to us to help each other. And skateshops are an integral part of making that ethos, a reality. But first, they've gotta practicing what they're preaching. Or, they risk looking hypocritical. All I'm asking for here is that indy skateshops do us all a favor, and leave the hypocricy to the experts at IASC.

Now, I'm not going the high-and-mighty route here, and start claiming that we should all strive to be some sort of holier-than-thou role-model-figure here. I'm a big believer in the Charles Barkley doctrine, which basically says that everyone else is a hell of a lot more qualified to be a "role model" than I'll ever be. What I am saying here, though, is that role model or not... it's still a damn snappy idea to maybe use some simple common sense from time to time.

The hard truth is that, the more that blatant jerks like me keep drilling crap like "self-respect", "self-worth", "self reliance"and "self determination" into the kids... you know, more of that worthless stuff that skateboarding taught me... the more they're gonna stop taking your- or, anybody else's- shit. And, that's great! Because that's exactly the way it outta be.

Still Crankin' Out The New Artwork...

This week, I'm taking some time to further update the art offerings before I hit the road this weekend to destinations far and away. Here's a few of the most recent pieces:




The "Aperture" column at The Solitary Life originally had "found" (read: "swooped") artwork for the camera photo, so I updated this with an old hand-drawing of my very first camera, a silver-bodied Minolta X-370 SLR. I still shoot from time to time with a film-guzzling (and wallet-draining) Minolta X-Series, but nowadays it's a black-bodied X-370N with a 17-35mm zoom lens.





Some of the art simply had to be tracked down, and cleaned up a smidge. The Solitary Life archives are a bleedin' mess, due to the editors' utter inability to organize competently. "The Editor", of course, is yours truly... and boy, do I suck sometimes. I spent most of tonight, cursing myself. That's becoming commonplace these days.





Heads Up, kids: We'll soon be running the "Better Letter Contest" as a regular feature, and it'll be a choice means of winning tons of free swag. All y'gotta do is write a legible, entertaining, funny, and smart letter. I know it's hard. But seriously, you can do it. Get those letters in...! The addy is still budstratford@aol.com.





The beloved "Smoking Pig" logo makes it's return (we'd never, ever even think of retiring that one), cleaned up for it's new home...





...while the "Commuter" logo also gets a minor makeover, and a newer, bolder ink treatment courtesy of a fistful of brand-new Sharpies...



Doing the art has been a mighty good time, but I'm seriously looking forward to hitting the road, and causing some major trouble along the way. Stay tuned...!

Upcoming Events: October 2011

Indianapolis, Indiana; Saturday, October 22nd, 2011:

Old Indy Skaters "Zombie Longboard Cruz"
10:00 am
Frank & Judy O'Bannon Soccer Park
(16th St. and the Monon Trail)
$5.00 donation. Donations benefit William Cole.

www.oldindyskaters.com

___________________________________________________________________

Evansville, Indiana; Saturday, October 29th, 2011:

Killer Skatepark 2 Year Anniversary Bash
Killer will be open 12:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Free Skate All Day
Street Contest:
Sign Ups 1:00 PM CST, Contest Starts 2:00 PM CST
3 Classes: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Prizes Given
$5 to Enter

Also:

“KILLER or DIE” Video Premiere – Killer's 2nd shop video
6:00 PM CST
Video Features: Jay Lauf, Deekler, Coby Krieg, Joe Lester, Zach Newhouse, Josh Griffin, Josh Brown & Glenn Davidson

812.402.2940
www.killerskatepark.com

___________________________________________________________________

Evansville, Indiana; November 21st, 2011:

1031 Demo
6:00 PM CST at Killer Skatepark
$10.00 at the door

812.402.2940
www.killerskatepark.com

___________________________________________________________________


Attention all skate shops...! Make sure that we have the latest information on all of your upcoming events! E-mail the editor at budstratford@aol.com today.

And Now, A Word From Our Advertisers...

That's Us, Alright.

Happenings: Transition Jam, Terre Haute

Last Saturday, I took an impromptu day trip over to Terre Haute for the Transition Skateshop Skate Jam/Contest/Get Together that they were hosting at Vorhees Park. I say "impromptu", because I didn't really plan on going. Truth is, I hadn't been back there since Jeremy and Liz sold the late (and great) TOC Skateshop to some young buck named Michael Ramsey. And figuring that Jeremy and Liz were pretty much an impossible act to follow, I'd planned on being elsewhere for the day. But either circumstance, or divine intervention (you pick) stepped in and spoiled my original plans, while a couple of the Terre Haute locs kept gently reminding me that this shindig was fast approaching. Finally, the night right before the contest, I decided that maybe it was high time that I went and checked everything out. After all, I'd been hearing some pretty good stuff about the new shop. So maybe this "Mike" kid had it figured out after all.


Because I get so, so sick of listening to myself babble incessantly, I decided to tell take a little departure from "the norm", and tell the entire story solely in photos and captions. I think they pretty much say it all, anyway. Ready? Alright! Here we go:








As usual, the turnout for this event was really, really impressive. Terre Haute really has a pretty sizeable skate scene that really turns out for these sorts of events. Everyone comes, because flaking it is strictly verboten... and in any rate, you'd be the ultimate loser in the whole deal for missing out in the first place.

You probably wouldn't imagine that there would even be this many skaters in a small, out-of-the-way town like Terre Haute. But Jeremy and Liz at TOC always somehow understood that their mission in life was to encourage the next generation(s) of up-and-coming skaters, and keep them engaged and on board at all times. Plus, they definitely knew how to throw a killer contest/jam, complete with bands and BBQ, and a more-than-welcoming vibe for anyone and everyone... which always meant that everyone came, even if it meant driving from hours away [like I did]. And much to my happy surprise, the guys at Transition do at least as good of a job as Jeremy and Liz did. Which is really saying a lot, considering the ridiculously high bar that they set.







I wish I'd gotten this guys' name... but as I get older and older, it gets harder and harder for me to actually remember to do basic reporting sometimes. Five-O grind on the tombstone.







Troyt Sweitzer came into town from Champaign, Illinois on Saturday to see some family, and do a little bit of skating. When he heard there was a contest at the park the next day, he decided to stay in town for the night. Lucky for us! Because, he rips. And as a photographer, this is the kind of guy that I just love to work with. We spent the next twenty minutes or so, having a quiet little photo sesh in the far corner of the park. Kickflip back lip.

As Troyt and I were having our private, out-of-the-way photo sesh, this little guy comes booking along, and does a buttery-smooth boardslide right in front of my camera lens. Thinking that it was still Troyt, I snapped a photo off. It was only when I got home, and uploaded my photos to my laptop, that I realized my mistake. If anybody wants to drop me a line and give me this little ripper's name, then maybe I can give him the caption-credit that he fully deserves.

Troyt and I probably shot about twenty killer photos in less less than 10 minutes. The kid's definitely got some super-consistent skills. Bank to bank kickflip over the handrail.







Good advice right there.









The bowl complex is where most of the heavy stuff happens, so I spent a lot of my day camping out there. Saint Nick, Nick Whitaker... whatever you call him, this ollie out of the bowl to backside fifty on the tombstone is pretty damn burly.







The illustrious (and legendary) Miles Keller, and his brand-new swellbow. Ouch.







Transition Skateshop not only hosted, organized, and funded the event... they were even doling out free lunches to everyone that attended. Did I just say "free lunches"...?! Oh, yes I did! This guy right here was my hero of the day. Hey, for reals: Anybody that gives me free hot dogs and cold Cokes is my hero of the day, every day.







It's good to see that the spirit of inclusion is still alive and well in Terre Haute.

As the skies turned gray, Coby Krieg brightened things up a little bit with a layback rollout on the tombstone. Skaters in Terre Haute don't seem at all afraid to borrow tricks and styles from every era of skateboarding.






Swellbow or not, this guy is going to go skating nevertheless. And he does not screw around. He had a grand 'ol time bossing me around, and setting me up for the next photo for like, thirty photos in a row! I'm not even complaining in the least- because if I can respect anything at all, it's a dude with a whole lotta enthusiasm and initiative. He's exactly half all work, and half all play. Miles Keller, aka Marshall Law, defying pain, sanity, and gravity all at the same time to get the shot he wants. Backside disaster on the tombstone.







This article is dedicated to Jeremy and Liz, who will always be fondly remembered for everything that they've done for skateboarding, and skateboarders, in Terre Haute... and to Michael Ramsey, who seems to be doing a damn fine job of carrying the torch.

It was a great time. I'm glad I went.

The Freestyle Report, October 2011

I can't lie. One of the greatest things about being the editor of The Solitary Life was getting AJ Kohn's Freestyle Reports every month. First of all, I was extremely proud that we covered freestyle on a consistent and recurring basis in the first place (something that virtually nobody else will even dare to do... why, we have no idea). But even better, I always loved getting AJ's enthusiastic calls about what he had up his sleeve for his newest reports. I was never, ever disappointed. Mostly because the freestyle community has so many cool, talented, and interesting people involved that really, you can never go wrong with that crowd.

So, when I called AJ last week with my proposal for Everything Skateboarding, one of the first things out of his mouth was, "Hey, have you seen Kilian's newest YouTube video yet...?!" Well, damn! No, I hadn't! The reason?! There hasn't been a Freestyle Reporter around in seven months to give me the heads-up on this sort of stuff (my fault, of course- not AJ's). But, given that Kilian is one of our house favorites here at The Solita... ummm, Everything Skateboarding... well, you know damn good and well that checking that shit out suddenly became Job One on my to-do shit list.

I don't think that much needs to be said, really. Just watch it, and prepare for the usual blowing away that Kilian (and his partner in crime, Brett Novak) deliver every time.

There is one thing that we might point out, though. In some clips, we can see that Kilian is riding his first-ever pro model that cameout on Sk8Kings last year. If we never congratulated Kilian on that... well, congratulations buddy! In other clips, we can see that Kilian recently got officially accepted by the legandary Powell-Peralta as their newest teamrider. Kilian...! Congratulations again, buddy!

Copyright 2011 Everything Skateboarding Magazine

Busy Making New Art...!

As we're getting ready to re-launch the blog/magazine, there's quite a few fun things that I have to accomplish before we "go to press". And one of those few fun things is making brand-new art and icons for the not-so-brand-new site.


Many of you probably don't know this, but all of the art that's featured on The Solitary Life/Everything Skateboarding is either entirely hand-drawn... or, created on my laptop, pixel by pixel, using an old Windows "paint" program.

In the case of hand-drawn artwork, I first draw the art on copy paper, using various Sharpie permanent markers. Then, I use an old point-and-shoot camera to take a photo of the artwork.





Here's the hand-drawn version of our new "footer" logo (ie, the little logos that define the end of every Everything Skateboarding artice). Get a load of that ten-year-old laptop in the upper right hand corner. Yup, that's us, alright. Only the "latest and greatest" for our people...!



Once I have the photo, I save it on my laptop as a monochrome bitmap paintfile, which seperates it into stark black and white. Curiously, newer versions of paint don't seem to have this feature. Which is why we still love running Windows 98 over here in the Everything Skateboarding dinosaur cave.





Here's the same photo, after we save it in the "Dino-Tron 1990", an Apple IIe that was built in 1986. Okay, you caught me- I'm totally kidding. Wait... make that, "half kidding".



Once saved as a monochrome, we save it again as a 24-bit color file. This is where we invert the colors (another feature that's curiously missing from newer paint versions...), and make the drawing our trademark black-and-yellow. Lastly, we save it once again, this time as a .jpg photo file. So that we can upload it quickly, since larger files only serve to confuse and confound our geezer computers over here.





Yes, it's an incredibly huge pain in the ass. On the other hand, I've gotta admit that I do love the results. It's kinda funny, because it's starting to sound like the daily struggle of an average skateboarder, isn't it...? Learning tricks, slamming a few times, and then finally making it...? That's precisely why it's so fun, guys! It's fun, because it's hard.



We (I) get my ass made fun of every single day by the rest of the staff, my friends, and my family, for using such a long, tedious, and convoluted process to create what amounts to pretty shitty drawings for this site. But the thing is, all of these "technologies" are readily available to any kid with a nonexistent budget. Or, in my case: Any old, fat geezer on a nonexistent budget. But more importantly, it's a great life lesson on using what you've got readily accessible, at hand... even if it's not very much at all... and utilizing it in the most effective manner possible, to create something far better than you could have ever imagined.





The final, large-size logo. Complete with our other "trademark", the "Condensed-as-hell Arial font", just before it's scaled down to "mini logo" proportions.



And, where'd I learn this resourcefulness from, you ask...? Skateboarding. Of course...





And here it is, the footer we've all been waiting for. See ya tomorrow...!
Copyright 2011 Everything Skateboarding Magazine