Concrete Skateboarding

POP, LOCK and DROP
cover photo and caption Dan Zaslavsky

This particular San Francisco session with Toronto’s LEE YANKOU happened after a full day of skating with some of his Stereo teammates. After showing Lee a photo of this bump-to-ledge in the Financial District (which Geoff Clifford had previously brought to my knowledge in the city I live in!), we decided to call it quits and reunite later that night. I was pretty skeptical about anyone’s ability to get something on this ledge – it’s stomach-high. Lee gave up on trying a 5-0 after landing a sketchy 50-50, then proceeded to do the most humanly proper SMITH GRIND on it. Pop, lock, and drop – plus a spark thrown in for good measure. After reviewing the photo we realized the smith was so dipped that Lee’s front truck was grazing the lower ledge.

BAY AREA HIDEOUT: PAUL TREP IN SF
“The fact that Paul Trep can manipulate a skateboard with skilled precision is far from uncommon knowledge at this point. While Vancouver skaters are used to seeing him handle things at the plaza, there was a wrinkle in time where his presence on Canada’s west coast seemingly evaporated.

I was in Vancouver most of the summer, just kinda not skating as much as I should’ve been. I was being a bit lazy,” Trep explains. “Then I went down to ‘Frisco and got really hyped on all the spots.”

TAILORED GOODS: KEVIN WU INTERVIEW
“Late one night, The Comedy Network re-aired a dated stand-up performance by the Greater Toronto Area’s Russell Peters. He warmed up with his standard fare, which generally consists of pointing out every different ethnic background in the crowd and subsequently making fun of them. But when he made his way to the people of Chinese decent, he actually made a somewhat thought-provoking statement along the lines of: “There’s no such language called Chinese.”

“I think the official language in Hong Kong is still Cantonese, but the rest of China speaks Mandarin,” confirms 22 year-old Kevin Wu, who was born in Hong Kong. His family relocated to Halifax by the time he was one, and then to Richmond, BC soon after. “I can survive speaking and understanding Cantonese in Hong Kong, but I can’t really read or write it. I guess you could say I’m kind of dyslexic in China [laughs].

After what Wu refered to as a period of “experimenting”, skateboarding became his focus nearly 10 years ago. His clean work on the wood-wheel has led to support from éS shoes through Timebomb, SK8MAFIA through Ultimate, Livestock, and Matix flow through Supra Distribution.”

SPENNY DOWN UNDER
“Having already spent some time in the States, China and Korea, 20 year-old Spencer Hamilton is becoming less and less of a stranger when it comes to navigating the travel frontier. In late ’09 he took his first trip to Australia (with a little NZ in the mix) to enjoy the Southern Hemisphere’s opposite-season sun.

We started off in Melbourne, went to Canberra, and then went to Sydney before flying into Auckland, New Zealand,” he explains. “I flew over from LA and kinda had the States in my head, so it felt more like flying into Canada when we landed in Australia. It’s got that multicultural vibe, which made me feel at home right off the bat.”

A PERFECT 24 IN THAILAND: with MACHNAU, OUGHTON and CHORNEY
“The words “elephants” and “tigers” were all I really needed to hear while deciding on whether or not to visit Thailand for two weeks with the likes of Ryan Oughton, Justin Chorney and Paul Machnau. Well, there’s also the beautiful beaches, 40-degree weather, an English-speaking skate guide, and the fact that Machnau’s girlfriend was doing some major modeling over there and had lots of hook-ups to parties in Bangkok.”

ART BLENDER // TIM GOUGH
Tim Gough is an illustrator, educator, designer, and artist who hails from the “City of Brotherly Love” and the birthplace of the American Revolution. He lives and works in an old Italian neighbourhood in South Philadelphia, and you may have seen his work on a variety of Foundation boards or on the many screened tees, art prints and posters he creates. He also produces a zine called Cut and Paste.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 1:23 pm and is filed under Features, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.