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Ok, so here’s the official press release to address all of the rumors about the Create Originals pro team. When the three of us started Create, we had a vision for how we wanted to portray the company, team and image. Our goal is to provide the best for the skate community in all aspects, not only with our product, but with our team image and riders as well. Basically, we wanted to offer more than a new product, we wanted to give the skate community something to be excited about and proud of. That being said, we at Create Originals are very proud to announce our TWO newest pro riders, Chris Farmer and Alex Broskow. We’re excited to have them onboard, and you can expect to see a lot of cool things coming from Create Originals in 2010. Welcome to the team, fellas! CO. — Billy O’Neill
Edit beneath the break!
How many times you’ve been to the Winterclash?
This will be the third time.
What was the best year for you?
I would have to say last year.
I took this photo of Timm Kittlitz while we were driving through the tiny European country of Lichtenstein. We drove around, searching for something fun to end the day with, as we had already shot some hammers earlier. Luckily, we found this small bank behind a bush and an electricity box. Timm ended the day with a steezy Fishy on a unique spot. — Lui Summer
Jeremy Townsend hosted the belated second showing of the Beat The Chump competition in Seattle at the City of Bellvue’s indoor park. It was a morning-time event, with guys like Jeremy, Rob Inks, and Aaron Feinberg judging (and as seen above, shredding). The event welcomed bladers of all levels, and had prominent area dudes like Randy Juarez, Kawika Jarman, Brandon Weller, Jake Dotson, along with with up and coming stars like Adam Exline, JT Truitt, Dustin Jamieson and Brendan Phillips in attendance. Check out the action in the edit, along with another pic and full results beneath the break! — ONE
Stop, rant, and roll! This week Krans brings us some questionable blade ‘news’ regarding Shaq, adds perspective to the many digs at blading taking place in the swelling social network blogosphere, shares ways to spread blading, finds an edit that didn’t drown in a sea of hate when it hit the news sites, and realizes, thanks to Winterclash, that rollerblading is far from dead. But then you already knew that, right? — ONE
Carlos Montenegro, or as other rollers in NYC know him, “Loso,” laced this Topsoul in complete darkness. We began our day around 10 a.m. at Penn Station, waiting for people to meet up with us. But after many flakes, we were able to arrive at Drop In skatepark with only five minutes to spare. After walking tracks, hoping trains, and skating it all the way up hill from a long travel, we barely made it in. Everyone knows that most skateparks charge an entrance fee, but luckily the guys over at Drop In were kind enough to let us in for free after hearing our struggle to get there. One minute after setting up my camera and having a friend hold my flash by hand, I was able to capture this shot with only the use of my manual focus and sense of hearing. The run up of the ramp was the only indication that Carlos was taking off. I was set at 0.004 sec (1/250) at an aperture of f3.5 on my regular 18mm kit lens. To get a better perspective of how the day went feel free to check out the set. — David Toro (okasu)
Mark Heuss just sent out this bonus slam edit from PARTY. Filmed in Munich, Berlin, Ruhrpott, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, Mannheim, Regensburg, Budapest and Barcelona, and shot with a Canon XH-A1 (sometimes with the Redrock Micro and Canon FD lenses), this edit with no color correction and no music is all about pure pain. You asked where the fall sections on today’s videos went, and here’s your answer. — ONE
Our dudes in Poland sent this through today (Thanks, Bart), so we thought we’d put it up for your viewing pleasure. There’s sections from bladers that show off the scene in Cracow City. Though we can’t understand anything anyone says, the international language of blading, and passion for blading, translates just fine. — ONE
How many times you’ve been to the Winterclash?
I think this will be my fourth time!
What was the best year for you?
2008… because my bros Worapoj Boonim and Alan Mak were there.
I can remember watching Sean Cowen thrown down in at the AIL competitions when he was just a little grom, competing against all the 18 & ups. These days, Sean has definitely grown into his skates and is skating solid in local comps like the LA All Day, and is coming just as strong on the street. We sessioned SoCal’s Pepperdine University recently, and after a bit of exploring and skating fast rails, David Jones got us kicked out for scratching the new paint on the University’s handrails. This shot was a quick setup on our way out — literally last shot of the day — and Sean only had to go twice before I had my flashes exposed right. I set one flash at the top right of the stairs, aiming down towards Sean, and the other was on-camera and angled up, as to not blowout the ground in front of me. Equipment used: Nikon Speedlight SB-900 off-camera, Nikon Speedlight SB-800 on-camera, Nikon D300 DSLR and a Nikkor 10.5mm Fisheye lens. — Scott Moffat
How many times you’ve been to the Winterclash?
I’ve been to all of them. Never missed one since the beginning. Not always competed though.
What was the best year for you?
I think the last Muhlhausen, so that must’ve been like, 2008, I think? That one was the illest for me. I came there with a van with like 10 friends, and we all just enjoyed that weekend so much. It will be hard to top that one…
This bridge underpass has been in the back of my mind since the first time I saw it in 2004. But I never took the opportunity to go out and photograph it, and in all honesty I am glad I didn’t, ’cause this shot with Frank Joubert, one of South Africa’s top skaters, turned out to be one of my favorite images ever shot.
We spent a Sunday morning in the banking district of Johannesburg, which is notorious for being a bust, although luck was on our side this morning and Frank managed to get three shots for his magazine profile before we decided to leave for spot two, on this strangely quite Jozi morning. I recalled this bridge a couple of blocks down, and we left to go and have a look. I asked Frank to do whatever he could from the bank (the angle is extremely severe), so he managed to run from across the road, side stepping up the bank as high as he possibly could, and doing this Mute 180 off. I am not sure how he managed to get this high!
The lighting was fairly simple, seeing that there wasn’t enough natural light on the background. I used two Sunpak Auto 555 flashes, placed almost 45 degrees front right to light Frank, and the same from the back left, used as both a rim on Frank and background light on the bank. I used whatever little natural light there was on the foreground to frame the shot. Shot on a Nikon D700 DSLR with a 24-70mm lens. — George Rabe
Being a German Rollerblader, what do you have to say about the Winterclash? being in Berlin this year, and are you going?
First of all, I’m proud that the biggest comp in rollerblading is held in Germany. I would love to go but I do not have enough money to go this year.
What do you enjoy most about the Winterclash?
The skatepark where they have the comps are always sick. Just everybody is always there, and skating in front of over 1,500 people kinda pushes me. There is just no other comp like the Wintertrash.
Can you believe it’s been over seven months? Well, another week, another look at both the inspirational and idiotic rumblings of online bladerhood. Get the rundown on why you HAVE to make it to one of the blade events in February, Xsjado announcing their newest pro, getting over the FML mentality, a wag of the finger at drunk divers, and more in this latest dose of verbal venom from our man by the bay. — ONE
How many times you’ve been to the Winterclash?
Four times; I just missed the first one.
What was the best year for you?
I think it was 2008. Had a great apartment with all good people around, and the natural Winterclash flair, of course! Mühlhausen was a good place.
Martin Walchshofer came to my place to shoot for an interview in Balance Magazine. As there happened to be a RollTogether session in Switzerland, we went there. Before anybody arrived, we took the chance to get a shot without any lurkers in the background — Martin Walchshofer, the Austrian Nimh flow rider, representing with a Truespin Backside Savannah.
As the sun was shining, I stopped down to f9 at iso100 and 1/250. I used two flashes for the skater, as well as a rimlight right behind the ledge. I chose to make the shot black and white because the colors in the skatepark are not too nice. — Lui Summer
How many times you’ve been to the Winterclash?
Didn’t miss a single Clash ’till now.
What was the best year for you?
First year was mad!
How many times you’ve been to the Winterclash?
Four times. This will be the fifth.
What was the best year for you?
2006 and 2009.
Our homies at NY’s Psyko Clothing hit us up to announce that they are living it up, having a great time touring in Puerto Rico. While most of use contend with sub-zero temps, typhoons and mudslides, Damien Wilson, Franky Morales, Miguel Ramos and Alejandro Velez are partying and blading in the sun. (Dicks!) For more info and updates check out the Pysko site, and while you’re there, check out the new lineup of artists Josh Diaz has got lined up. There’s moves a-brewin’ for this Brooklyn-based company. — ONE
What is your full name?
Mason Joseph Richard.
My middle name is Joseph too! Right on.
Yeahhhh!
How old are you, and how long have you been blading?
I’m 16 and I’ve been in the blade game for five years now. Six years on June 21st.
How many times you’ve been to the Winterclash?
I think three times now(?). At least three… maybe four? I think this year will be four.
What was the best year for you?
I always have a good time catching up with friends I don’t get to see that much and at the parties, but I have yet to skate well in one! Ha, ha.
Chris Lorimer is normally hitting rails when we skate street, so as I watched him scope out this gap and lace it, I was still walking down the hill to set up my lights. We were skating Malibu High School and had already been kicked out, but the security was chill and let us skate in the parking lot. This parking lot’s driveway had a long, continuous bank to fence, which was interrupted by two additional features, one being a very mellow handicapped rail, and the other being this gap that Chris holds a solid Mute Air over. It was partially overcast, so I lit the scene with three Speedlights; two you can see in the frame, and the third is on camera. The first two created the highlights I wanted on his front and back, and the third is on camera to fill the shadows. The equipment used was 2x Nikon Speedlight SB-900 off-camera, Nikon Speedlight SB-800 on-camera, Nikon D300 DSLR, and a Nikkor 10.5mm Fisheye lens. — Scott Moffat
After nearly two years of filming, Ricky Coster, myself, and everyone else invovled in B-ROLL are anxious to fianlly be able to drop it online. B-ROLL is an video showcasing the Buffalo, NY scene, as well as keeping you tuned in on the great bladers of Rochester, NY. Featuring Ricky Coster, Dan Barnes, Josh Marlinski, Cris Parwulski, Malik Glen, Neil Heary, Tim Adams, Grant Hazelton, Steve Bruning, Mike Torres, Kris Troyer, and Nate Hall, it was filmed by Ricky Coster, Cris Parwulski, Josh Marlinski and myself. Ricky handled the editing.
The video started as a rather loose idea and was going rather slow at first. However, this past summer everyone jumped fully on board and busted out as much and as hard as we possibly could. I can speak for everyone, saying that it was one of the best summers ever, skating-wise, and we are all excited to have it captured. Most importantly, we are thrilled to put Buffalo on the map as a major blade scene with dedicated skaters who have nothing but love and heart for the sport.
I hope you guys enjoy the skating, filming and editing, and if it makes you want to go strap on a pair of blades… mission accomplished! Keep blading and staying to true to yourself and one of the most unique sports out there. Enjoy. — Dan Barnes
All right, ONE #14 (V4N2) is online now, but we’re mixing things up a bit. Instead of simply providing the download link to the PDF, we’re trying out the online publication browser Issuu. We think you’ll like the faster, easier viewing experience when re-reading Chris Farmer’s interview, or catching up with Ross Kuhn, or wrapping your mind around Dave Paine’s 15 Minutes one more time. Better yet, pass it along to anyone or post it anywhere you want to make a statement about blading. After all, that’s what it’s all about. #14 viewer embedded beneath the break, or click a link to get started. — ONE
After last week’s shit storm of blade-bashing, Krans brings haters of all sorts to task, with the full-force of four-lettered profanity and amusing anecdotal reference — which is sort of his thing. But, as WEB ROLL continues to prove, sometimes there’s things that just need to be said. This week is no exception. — ONE
BCSD and ONE present an open call for video submissions documenting YOUR best BCSD experiences. Whether you went to shred or to watch the shredding, now’s the time to get in front of the camera and tell the world about it. When you’ve got your video ready to send, fire it off to dk@bittercoldshowdown.com to help celebrate this momentous 10th anniversary, being sure to include your name and location. And while we’ve got your attention, check out this first installment featuring bladers like JC Rowe, Casey Geraghty, Chris Haffey, Stefan Brandow, and Jason Reyna, with guest appearances by Lamar Odom! — ONE
This particular shot was taken in Lower Manhattan, at what LES skaters call “The AMP” (Fish did a front torque on the down-rails seen in “Truth II” located further right from where the shot was taken). Jesus’ warm up to this 540 was a 180 that itself was inspired by a Dare-To-Straight-Air from a fellow blader known only as Buffalo. I captured the 1:30 shot free hand with what I believed to be a fast enough shutter speed (1/400sec), but anyone paying close attention can tell that the shot is a little out of focus. I didn’t expect Jesus to jump straight in and go mach 5, which he did. Personally, I thought the grab was on point.
For those of you who aren’t so familiar with Jesus Medina, he’s a pretty well-known-yet-underrated roller in the NY scene who has had the pleasure of being featured in some of your favorite magazines and videos. For those of you that are familiar with him, you know that he is very on point with the hammers that he laces from time to time. I would have to describe him as really laid back, yet a cool dude to be around. Being the humble guy that he is, he never lets anyone down when it comes to staying true to his word, and showing up on time to a session. — David Toro (okasu)
Grif Kerry of RollCam packed up his bags this summer and made the voyage from the UK to the US, where he landed straight on the RocKillers’ couch. Not bad! Here’s an edit he put together featuring bladers like Russell Day, Demetrios George, Colin Mcleod, Iain Mcleod, Anthony Williams, Demetrios George, and Winston Wardwell. (We suggest putting in your summer 2010 stay-over requests with the RocKillers now, cause floor space reservations are filling up fast.) — ONE
Just three years ago, the Pow Wow was one of those local competitions that only one or two big names showed up to. Today, it has become one of the fastest-growing competitions in America. The event this past weekend was no exception, and it was only the amateur qualifiers…
Full results and more pics below.
The day Chris and I shot this image was one of those driving around days. You know, the days where you spend more time in the car looking for new spots than you do actually skating. After messing around here and there, we ended up back in the city at the spot you see here. It’s a launch up to the rail, that you can’t see due to the low angle I chose. I still had a friend’s Canon 10-22mm lens in my bag that he left in there from the wedding he shot with me the night before, so I threw it on and got low. One flash was off to camera right and the other was next to me on my left, extended about 6 feet up. I love catching the golden hour, and that contributed to the nice warm light that falls everywhere in the rest of the photo. Image link not working for you? Try this link right here. — Nick DeMarchi
When Jeph Howard and Brett Dasovic told us they were working on their next installment of “A Day with Brett & Jeph” over two days and at two parks, and planned to end the whole thing with some sledding, we said “Count us in!” And here’s the results, twenty minutes of blading, blade lifestyle, and some commentary on the new issue from our homies in MN. Featuring: Jeph, Brett, Chris Farmer, Blake O’Brien, Shane McClay, Aaron Peterson, John Haynes, Michael Garlinghouse, and more! And since our Twitter widget funks up the coding for the above links, click right here to watch on Vimeo. — ONE
I wanted to call his one “Cigarettes and Alcohol and Rollerblading,” but I guess that name is already taken.
I came up with the idea after drinking a fifth of the Beam and smoking half a pack of Pall Malls. Then I tried stealing Ivan’s car while he was sleeping, failed to find his keys, put on my blades, skated to the Castro, looked for a transvestite hooker, offered he/she or she/he fifty bucks to drop trou just so I could point and go, “Eww.”
That’s when I realized I didn’t have $50. I later awoke up on someone’s couch. It smelled of two decades of dried farts and a long, Viagra-fueled weekend of giz.
Either way, I saw some blading shit on the Internet this week. Wrote a column about it. Like to read it? Here it go…
It has gotten to be that time of the year where skating outside for fun can become a challenge. Getting more than three skaters out at the same time can seem impossible. A simple fall turns into a more a painfull one. I’m talking about the cold weather. Lately, since it gets dark around 3:30 pm, getting some day shots requires days of advance notice and a keen sense of coming weather patterns.
While looking out the window and getting fooled by the blue sky I forgot for a second that it would be freezing, so I started to call skater after skater to see who was down for a productive photo shoot. As I called, emailed and texted it seemed that no one was available, and then Dave Lang appeared on Facebook.
All right, the Black Lips are coming back to San Diego! And they’re coming to a town near you (probably), so we’ve got all the tour dates below the break so you can plan your encounter. But in case your forgot and to protect ourselves from YOU saying that we don’t remember shit, we posted the write up we ran in Issue #9 recounting the last time we saw them play The Casbah. Hoping it’s not too much different when we catch up with ‘em on the 24th (minus the moshing, of course). — ONE
A few months back, the Razors team stopped in Buffalo for a day to film for their upcoming video. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to call in to work “sick” so I could go skate and shoot photos. We shot this image early in the day at the University at Buffalo. There is a short run up to the rail, and to make the trick and line harder, Brian did a big 360 over the first set and had to jump just after he landed the spin. I chose to shoot long in order to frame him between the two rails and wall to his back. One flash was set up directly facing him from camera left, while the other was back and to the right on top of the first set. The flat, overcast lighting made for a great black and white image. — Nick DeMarchi
Starting with the obvious questions, who is Jeph Howard, where does he call home, and what is he doing as we speak? (well, type rather)?
Well, he is a 25-year-old, really awesome dude, who works at a dope pizza shop called Punch Pizza. I currently live in St. Paul, Minnesota with Michael Garlinghouse, and I am waiting in my living room for a box of ONE magazines to arrive for the next “Day with Brett and Jeph” edit. Ha, ha.
Sometimes my impatience borderlines a handicap. So, I’ve decided to not wait for ONE to come up with the democratically-decided Skater of the Year Award. However, one award for the whole year seems a bit lazy, so here is an amassing of people I think should deserve some recognition for what they did in 2009…
(And to clarify, these awards do not reflect the thoughts or opinions of the ONE editorial board. They were decided solely by me, Brian Krans, in an attempt to show some respect and/or be funny.)
Sacha Lopez originally came to Wangen to check out the newly-built kinked ledges, and I went there to take a few photos. Unfortunately, the new ledges were way too crowded to place my flashes properly, so we decided snap a few photos at the good old Ucon ledge. After warming up with a few super-steezy Truespin Topsouls, Sacha decided that this trick was too easy for a photo he wanted to get used somewhere. So, after four attempts, he killed the ledge with an ultra-fast Truespin Crossgrab Fishbrain. Then he did it three more times to get a shot that looked exactly the way he wanted it to look. — Lui Summer
Remember that guy we mentioned, um, yesterday, named Jason Staine, who was making a video called “Signature”? Well, it looks like his trailer got posted today, and thanks to I Roll NY we saw it. Looks like some fresh blading from Alex Nunez, Jeff Dalnas, John Bolino, Mark Wojda and more. See the rest from Rolling Film Media here. — ONE
While filming for a new video coming out of New York/New Jersey from Jason Staine called “Signature,” my friend Ryan Many and I took a drive out to Jersey City to get clips. In NJ we met up with Jason and some other bladers and some serious hammers were thrown down for the video, so be on the lookout for it soon. During the session we found this spot next to some rails. Ryan hopped over this rail that was maybe 4 ft high (or more) to ledge roll to 180. — Cesar Macay
Jason Zwack and I went to this spot hoping to get a nice soyale on a much larger drop rail, but it had rained a few days before and there was some residual moisture on the run up. This nearby kinker, on the other hand, was puddle-free, so Jason agreed to give it a good old fashioned Topsoul. Right after I set up and fired off a test shot, security came out and informed us that we couldn’t “shoot movies” there. After the guard was done threatening our lives, he went inside and Jason gave it a few tries. Pictured here is try number three… laced. Note the swell color coordination on Jason’s part. — Greg King
To watch evolution is amazing. Since I started skating, I have been lucky enough to watch and be part of one of the most progressive and innovative ’sports’ that the world has to offer. During this period of time, rollerblading as we know it went through a vast change, going through innovations in skate technology and trends. Skates were getting better, and skaters were becoming more aware of how they presented themselves. What was once an entire group of guys skating Tarmacs, wearing wide-legged jeans with chain wallets, became something more. The stereotypical ideal of what a skater was supposed to look like became harder to pinpoint. These trends transitioned through a few different phases, and some of your favorite skaters grew into their present day personas before our eyes. Today, I look at what rollerblading has become and I am amazed. There’s more style and diversity than I’ve ever seen. We as a community should be celebrating these things and being proud of rollerblading and how far it’s come and will continue to grow. In my eyes, we are at our peak and continuing to mature and present ourselves better as a community, year by year. We are all a part of that evolution.
I spent too much of this week working and getting inappropriately drunk, so I have no clue what was going on in the blading world. Well, less than usual. So, I rant…
Another trip, another Photo Journal. A few months ago I needed to take a brake from the crazy mess of New York City, so I asked my friend to get me on a flight to Puerto Rico with one of his buddy passes. Which worked, and was amazing ’cause it was a red-eye flight on a Monday and one of my long-lost friends was working at the departure gate. I got to travel first class; there is nothing like a free ticket and first class meal.
Jeremy Townsend is planning an event on January 31, 2010 at the newly-remodeled City of Bellevue indoor park. Turns out Jeremy worked there 10 years ago, and actually held his first-ever comp at the park 1999. That event was called Beat the Chump, so this “follow up” event will carry that legacy by being dubbed Beat the Chump 2. This year’s event is open to all ages and abilities; perfect for a city with a large and diverse community of rollers ranging in ages from 10–30+. If you’re in the PacWest on the 31st, try to make it to the park to see what’s up. — ONE
Adam Ehalt from Atlanta gets to come visit his family and friends in Macon whenever he’s out of school. Pending my work schedule, I try to come up with time to go out and take some pictures of him while he is here. We went to this spot, originally to skate some curved handicap rails, and Adam ended up doing a line across the bridge behind the rails pictured. He started with a hop onto a line of bricks, did a backside across a little rail, then jumped a stairset over the top rail onto the middle flat of the steps, then one big hop later jumped into a soul on this tall kink rail. For light on Adam, I decided to put one flash to camera right to light the stairs, and the key light for the subject. To light the top of the rail and add some rim light to Adam, I put one above the stairs at camera left, just out of the frame. — Corey Oringderff
All your holiday spirit, wants, likes, loves, and disappointment is wrapped up with a verbal bow by your lyrical laureate, Brian Krans. Here’s another present you can rip into without fear of leaving scraps on your mom’s floors or finding another sweater from your Aunt Lucy. Enjoy! — ONE
It’s that time of year when the major contests series and events have come and gone, hotly-anticipated videos have made their ways into viewers’ hands, and most of us are ready to rip open some presents and toss back some bubbly. Which means it’s the perfect time to reflect on the year in blading and decide who should earn the prestigious honor of being the second-ever ONE magazine Skater Of The Year. From this moment until the end of January we’ll be accepting YOUR nominations through the form below. Submit your choice now, and at the end of the month we’ll figure out the top ten most voted-for bladers, then let you decide which of those finalists takes the title. Got questions? Leave a comment and we’ll address as needed. Thanks for participating again. — ONE
Skating and shooting photos with David Jones is always a good time that leaves me juiced about skating. Our afternoon of skating in the L.A. area ended here, in between a parking structure and a business building. We took full advantage of the rail-happy landscaping. Numerous grinds were held through the entire length of this rail with its nine sections. Likewise, David had no problem with this Savannah. My exposure for this shot was 1/13 @ f/5 ISO 320. To expose for the lights on the trees, I dragged the shutter. I had no tripod, so that’s what’s up with the blurry trees. I used two Quantum Flash units to light David, and was shooting on a Nikon D3 with a Sigma 50-500mm lens (thanks Richie!). — Scott Moffat
The holiday spirit (panic?) and a major snowstorm may have you dreaming of sugarplums and new blade gear in your stocking, but Krans is busy finding new and unusual ways to rant about blading. This week amongst carpet skating, Shred Till You’re Dead sections, and bizarre presents he braves the turgid waters of online discussion regarding gender equality in blading. “Chicks, man?” Indeed. Read on. — ONE
I shot this photo of Alex “Dench” Harlan at some random apartment complex somewhere on the East side of Austin. It was my first day in town and Alex had skipped work to show me around, trying to get some photos. By the time we arrived at this particular spot, Alex only had an hour before he had to be at school. I quickly set up my flashes while he sweatstanced the rail several times to get the feel for it. The rail itself was perfect, but as always, there were a few factors to take into account… narrow approach, jagged rocks, and oncoming traffic to name a few. Knowing how sweet an AO Top Acid would be, Alex didn’t let those things get to him. After getting some support from one of the nearby tenants, and eating shit a couple times, he hammered it out and was off to school. — Greg King
This interview, what the kids really want to know is: Whose boobs are those in your Be-Mag signature, are they real, and if your plane had to make an emergency landing in the ocean, could you use them as a flotation device ;)?
HAHAHA, best question I think I’ve ever got in an interview. Yeah, that would be my girlfriend’s boobs you’re talking about — ha, ha — and yes, they’re real. And if we crash landed into the ocean you bet your ass I’m holding on to those for floation.
Shooting in LA recently, I got some great photos of one of Santa Monica’s locals, Byron Snatchywaters. This 19-stair had a run-up with one push worth of space before you had to jump for the rail. This was no problem for Byron though, and after he had landed a clean Soul and a Makio with Rocket grab, I shot this Acid grind. This shot was for Jon Julio for hooking Byron up with his new Valos. Camera settings were 1/320 @ f/5.6 ISO 320. I set up two Quantum Flashes at 45º left and right of the rail, pointing them up so that they would fall off towards the foreground. Camera: Nikon D3. Lens: Sigma 50-500mm. — Scott Moffat
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re a day late getting Krans’ latest foray into the blade-o-sphere up onto the web for eager eyes, but life happens. Which is saying more than a little about this week’s topics: pint-sized interviewers, badger-surfing babies, some discourse about online “debate,” and the latest-breaking news item that is sure to have you thinking “2010!” — ONE
The day started out pretty rough. Brian Long and I had just gotten kicked out of a spot in Cambridge that I’ve that wanted to shoot at for a while, and I was already an hour late for work. Given the situation, we ended up getting escorted out of there by the fuzz. I don’t think we’ll be welcome there for a while. Walking back to the train station I was bummed, until I remembered a unique spot nearby that no one ever skates. By the time we got there the sun had gone down completely, so I set up one flash at camera right and another slightly behind Brian. Thankfully, Brian is one of the most talented, stylish skaters I know, and laced this Zero Fishbrain with ease. — John O’Donnell
The Nimh team went to Europe and all Brian Shima got was this cover! Sam Butt shoots and writes the story of their travels, offering his two cents on the increasing importance of being skater-owned and the energy of Montre Livingston. Joey Chase wasn’t on that tour, but as chance would have it he nabbed himself the feature interview in the very same issue. We sent Drew Amato to shoot in Florida during the Pow-Wow but Joey broke his ankle, so shooting was postponed until a hectic three-day stretch in San Diego. Called in for the job of capturing the action was NorCal’s Nick Korompilas, and the results are every bit as raw as Joey’s reputation. See all this and more when ONE Issue #15 ships this month. — ONE
Alright Brett, I figured that I could come up with better questions if I could sympathize with you Minnesota kids as far as terribly cold weather goes, so I waited until getting home to Cleveland to write these. You know, step into your shoes a bit… Now that we have that on the table (pause for sip of hot chocolate), tell us a little bit about yourself.
Well, my name is Brett Anthony Dasovic, I am 23 years young, I am the type of person who gets excited about the smallest details, and is known by his friends and family for being excitable and talkative. I do my best to be articulate and care for everyone around me. I skate just like I live my life. I care about every detail, and I use that caring attitude to be productive, as well as defined, in what I choose to do with my tricks and attitude towards the sport. I am influenced by everything from music and life events, to how my friends are feeling and what my current living situation is. I am who I am, and even though it can be a bit too much for some people, I have learned who truly appreciates my attitude and demeanor, and I do my best to show them all the respect in the world because in the end that is who I am… a person in the world who just wants to gain respect, and show the same to others.
Adam Ehalt is one of the funnest people to take pictures with. No matter how hard or absurd the trick is, he will do it over and over until he gets a picture that looks just right. Like, arms controlled, and he has to make sure he was leaning inside the rail perfectly. This picture had some obvious obstacles as far as the photo taking process itself. I wanted to really show the heel lift, yet have the whole rail, and ran into the problem of the rail I took the picture through covering up some of the parts I wanted to show. So I decided to frame him inside the second rail, and this is what we got. — Corey Oringderff
Given the ass-ripping Krans laid down the past two weeks, we figured he’d have reached maximum velocity and be due for a flame-out. Wrong. With his web-scouring and mega-bitching skills in place, here’s a piece of what’s on Krans’ mind this week. — ONE
This is a shot of Johnny Wu (John Williams) steezing out a crossgrab fishbrian. I had a hard time deciding which of these two photos were better, so here are both: The stair set is a bit claustrophobic with walls on both sides and I wanted to show that. I shot the long angle first and liked it because at first glance it’s not exactly clear what he’s doing. Is he gapping the stair set, or is he grinding the rail? It’s tough to tell without a closer look. The second fisheye angle I thought was cool because it’s easier to see the skater, and I also liked the composition, even though I’m not usually a fan of the crooked fisheye. Which shot do you prefer? — Gabe Holm
First and foremost, I want to set the record straight. In spite of whatever misconceptions are out there and the nonsense that the message board trolls have to say, in your own words, who is David Sizemore?
I am one of 327 David Sizemores in the U.S.
Do you simply just let the haters hate, or does this ever really get to you?
I try not to let the hate on message boards get to me personally, but I do try to at least hear what the people have to say. While some people have a huge internet ego and post mindless hatred against people just to get their reactions, other people actually know what they are talking about and post their blunt opinions for more of an outcome than just just to piss someone off. Some posts can help someone fine tune their skating. I’m not saying that someone should completely change their style or tricks because of what some posts say, but to improve the tricks by hearing out the flaws that the person might not see or choose to ignore.
It was a cold night in Austin when we arrived at this slick drop rail. I was excited to find a spot that could do without the fisheye, and Mason was excited to be out of school for Thanksgiving. When he told me he could do an AO Unity, I knew exactly where I wanted to shoot it from. I set one flash off to my left, and another on the stairs for some backlight. One thing you can’t really tell from this photo is that riding off the end of the rail puts you directly on top of the curb, making for a difficult landing. But Mason kills, so, a few flashes and butt-scrapes later, the trick was laced. — Greg King
From the middle of nowhere comes a small blade flick from an even smaller town. Branching out of Cheshire, CT, BREAKFAST features sections of Casey Geraghty, Mike Dempsey, John Lyke, and a split section with Nick Taylor and Zach Smith. This video will be posted online for free (in HD) on December first. You can view the trailer here. — Drew Amato
Tell people who you are.
My name is Erik Stokley, I’m 19, I don’t go to school, I live in New Jersey but I will soon be bailing from this shit-hole once again. I love beer and sluts. Rollerblading’s pretty cool if you ask me.
Should they care about you? Or, are you concerned with saying anything that will make people care about Erik Stokley for more than just his sweet blade maneuvers?
Nope.
Blake Taylor (founder of the Panhandle Pow-Wow) and Geoff Valcourt (of the legendary FU Circuit) have created a qualifier event for the upcoming 2010 Panhandle Pow-Wow. The event is designed for area Ams to skate for a chance to pre-qualify for the 2010 Pro Event. The top 5 get pre-qualification and the winner receives a cash prize. For more details check the web site and flyer. — ONE
In celebration of the Thanksgiving holiday, Krans takes the time to thank some of the basic, fundamental elements that make rollerblading even possible. Join us with this unlikely rundown while you finish digesting that glut of turkey and stuffing you jammed down your gullet over the past two days. — ONE
Skating on the central coast of California has been a solo event for me until recently. I finally found another rollerblader to not only skate with, but also go to school and live with. Chris Lorimer moved out here from Ohio to study photography, I intercepted him at school orientation, and we’ve been skating and shooting quite a bit. We were skating some street in Ventura and came upon Camarillo Middle school which, among many other obstacles, had an amazing five kink rail. There was no run up, and Chris was throwing himself off the fence just to get speed. After a few attempts Chris smoothly layed down a solid Pornstar all the way through the last six inch length of the rail. Chris is representing Ohio strong out here in Cali. — Scott Moffat
I feel like I need to say something about an alarming trend I have seen in skating. I read a photo caption in Be-Mag saying “we just watch skateboarding edits online and go to the spots.” I have also been taken to several skateboarding spots in the last several months to get photos. This is something that is overwhelmingly detrimental to skating. We need to stop, once and for all, trying to be skateboarders. I am not sure if rollerblading will ever “get cool” again, but the sooner that we can stop feeling like “skateboarding jr.” the better. Our sport is invisible, people who care hate us, and people who don’t care can’t see us.
Print Brigade co-owner and ONE supporter Jamie Murrett sent in this edit of him putting in his blade work. Filmed and edited by Erik Ustach, here’s a little look at the pain and pleasure Jamie experiences while getting his blade on in Connecticut.— ONE
You are one of the toughest critics of style in our industry, and for good reasons; what do you think led to the way that blading as a whole has changed from the FP days to how we know it today?
Skating changes, like anything else that progresses or is new. Skating has changed due to many things over the years… it’s hard to pinpoint, but in my head, as I’m thinking about it, the word ‘trends’ keeps comming to mind. Tricks that are in, fashions, prominent pros; all things that have changed in skating. I guess if you’re trying to compare how the “FP Days” were compared to how skating is today, it’s the attitude that FP brought and the way we portrayed skating and the way we felt we should skate. Maybe it’s because FP was in the spotlight and our general delivery of skating was very raw, uncut, hard. So to me I feel like I related these things to skating more-so then, than I do now. The more personality, and origionality you have as an individual, the more it’s going to rub off in your skating. It’s not that we don’t have that with pros nowadays, I just think with FP being at the forfront at the time, and with that being the first representation of rollerblading being portrayed like that, that maybe it felt different? But that wasn’t really the first, ’cause weren’t Brian Smith, Arlo and Brooke pulling knives, wearing halos, and baking cookies and all that?
When the weather is overcast, which it usually is this time of year, it’s important to try and divert from having the sky dominate the image, so I chose an angle which would be interesting enough in the foreground and would use the grey sky as a nice background to keep the skater clear. I set up one rear flash behind the hedges to light up the rail and the skater’s body, and another on the front right to make sure the skates were gleaming and there were no boring shadows hiding details behind the skater or in the hedges he was grinding over. Simon’s arm is slightly blurred from the motion, so a higher shutter speed would probably have been a better choice, and the glare on the right is due to the flash not being placed a sufficient distance out of the shot. — Tom McClelland
Six months of doing this and I think I’ve earned a little space to rant more than usual, so I use it for revolving door-bitching topics. So, I’ll be the guy on the right and let you readers be the guy on the left…
Your humble narrator Ben Price and Tim Kelly, Boston Street Battle blood brothers.
If Razors’ toe-brakes were even halfway functional, this article would be a lot better. But they aren’t, so I accidentally head-butted the hell out of Tim Kelly, and you’re getting writing that’s slightly… concussed. Blame Geoff Acers. It was kind of fitting though — blood was sort of the thing to wear at the 2009 Boston Street Battle. But I’m ahead of myself. I’ll back up.
Our buddies at RB sent us this edit highlighting their team riders at the WRS Finals. Check it out. — ONE
Gainesville, FL is known for football and college parties. A little-known secret is that it has some of the nicest skate spots in Florida. Having spent my whole childhood in Gainesville, I knew the potential, but to be honest I was really surprised when I came back. The girls seemed to have gotten better-looking, the parties seemed to have gotten wilder, the rails seemed to have gotten more-perfect, and the scenery couldn’t be better. So when Jon Fromm told me he and a bunch of my good buddies from down south were coming up, I couldn’t wait to show them a good time. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take them to any of the good spots, but at least they got to see the town a little bit, as well as the skatepark. Another thing that Gainesville is known for is its lack of bladers, so when some good ones came into town the skateboarders were nothing less than appalled. — Dustin Spengler
We know, we know, it’s been a while, but in the ensuing months the ONE team has been busy building the new issue, and we’re glad to say it’s on its way. This time out Nimh tours Europe and Sam Butt was there to document the action, John Haynes Spotlights Blake O’Brien shredding the Twin Cities, Joey Chase gets a high-pressure interview shoot with Nick Korompilas, Carlos Pianowski gives us a Take 5, Marc Moreno shreds Barcelona for an Am Hour, Danish vert legend Rene Hulgreen gets his 15 Minutes, Mike Rios delivers a Folio, the largest Picks gallery ever, and too much more to list. Reserve your copy now, or be on the lookout for a copy at your local retailer in December. — ONE
I captured this shot on our last trip with Matthias von Gostomski and Maik Lojewski in the so called “Ruhrgebiet,” which is in western Germany. We had been there for three days and were trying to shoot as much as possible to get something for an upcoming Be-Mag, a new RollTogether flyer, and some shots for web only. This shot here from Matthias was on our last day, at Bochum University’s parking lot. I used a stativ, for a long exposure which was at 1/2 second, ISO 100 and a 50mm lens at f 2.2. It took Matthias a couple tries to grind the rail, but after like five tries he laced this Front Farv to 180 gap perfectly, so we finished our little trip with this shot and a nice pizza after it. — Peter Bender
Scott Moffat met up with ONE at the 2009 LA All Day series finals not only to shoot photos, but to blade in the Advanced division. Long story short: he won, and is no longer allowed to skate Advanced… so next year check him out in the Elite Division. But we’re digressing. Here’s a look at the action Scott captured last weekend in Santa Monica. If you weren’t there you missed some top-notch blading. — ONE
Watch out! Krans is shooting from the hip this week and you’re bound to get clipped. From litigiousness as a road to riches for bladers, Arlo ranting and people ranting about Arlo, and the upside to being unemployed, Krans has your week-in-blading wrap right here. — ONE
Ireland blade homies from KALTIK sent this our way to show off their upcoming second team video. Includes footage from Albert Hooi, Balazs Zima, Kevin and Paraic McGlouhlin, Beethoven Pitanga, Conor Manweiler, Jirka Tomasek, Joey Egan, Johny Mulligan and Keir Lindsay. Edited by Kevin McGloughlin. — ONE
An interesting thing about the band Wrong Crowd is that Brenton Wheeler is on drums. They toured and John Haynes caught up with them to shoot pics. This is what he got. — ONE
After a long day in Manhattan looking for an HD camera for Mr. Ramos, we headed out to find a cool spot to film and shoot. I remembered going to this crazy-looking spot with some skaters from Long Island this summer, and told Miguel about it, so we head out. After two hours in Manhattan traffic we got there and got so upset because there were a whole bunch of trucks parked in front. After long negotiations with the drivers we got them to move the trucks, and they let us skate for a few shots. We got three: the first was an AO Top Soul; second, a Mute Grab Air; third, this sweet, stylish AO Top Acid. Miguel sure is one talented guy, and a genuine dude. — Josh Diaz
On our way to the Kamloops Popularity Contest this summer, the goal was to skate as many skateparks as possible. First stop was the town of Golden and their amazing skatepark. A relatively new and small park, but extremely well-built and empty! For a few hours we had the park to ourselves. With an empty skatepark at his disposal Jack Phavone took advantage of the opportunity. He began charging from one end to the other and launching massive airs out of the quarter bowl. I suggested he throw down a few different grabs and we get a photo. We settled on a Cross Grab Liu Kang, I set up three flashes, I tried a few different angles, and this was our result. — Chris Wedman
In his issue #14 interview, Chris Farmer opened up to ONE like we were Barbara Walters. He told us about playing in his brother’s band, realizing skating was a job, and why he dicks around at contests. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For an in-depth look at what’s going on inside the mind of one of blading’s most prolific innovators, be sure to check this out. — ONE
Okay, so the zombie hoax thing must have blown over since Krans is back in the saddle, again, (with respects, Steve Tyler) delivering a dose of WEB ROLL. This week brings lots of video and more than a little praise for Footage Tape. There’s also something about liners with teeth, shredding in houses, and some event that went down in Vegas(?). Guess you’ll just have to read it. — ONE
On a rare fair-weather fall day, Jeph Howard did a 180 over this fence. I just got a new camera that shoots video, so it took me longer to set up than normal because I was playing around with it. I lit this with a strobe about 11 feet up and on the other side of the fence to the left of camera. Another strobe was hidden in the gap between the ledge and fence at about eye level. The second light was much brighter to really rim a specific part of the fence as well as separate Jeph from the tree in the background. The sun was directly camera right and filling the whole thing in. The lighting was not the special thing about this photo. The most challenging part is shooting at a different point in a grab. When someone jumps over something, they very rarely grab as they are ascending, and almost always grab as they are just beginning to descend. I was getting the grab on his first two failed attempts, but he was slightly below the fence which was not cool looking. I knew he would land it the next try and this is not the kind of trick that it’s okay to ask for another try on, so I honed my seven years of experience and watched, getting the grab before he started to drop. I shot this before even he knew he was grabbing. — John Haynes
Okay, so this video is completely unedited, straight off the pocket rocket, but it’s 1:15 of bladers just being bladers, partying on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas on Friday night before the WRS finals. Includes the obligatory “I Love You, Man” moment from our man Rob G, a motley cast of characters, and, well, just a pretty unprecedented look at bladers mixing it up socially, in the wild. — ONE
It was only Friday night but the natives were restless.
Didn’t get to Vegas? Well, that’s too bad, ’cause it was a good time. But thankfully plenty of us folks with cameras were, and the media trove is stacking up. We’ll throw some more pics on the pile with these snapshots from Friday and Saturday on Fremont Street, Saturday night after the comp, and a couple shots of costumes at the skatepark. Check ‘em out while we sort out our video clips for an edit and decide what we need to hold for print. — ONE
Sounds like some hectic times are ahead for Krans, but while he wrangles with the legal implications of being involved with the creation of a bogus (obviously) zombie epidemic, you can get a sordid glimpse into the online world of blading in this week’s WEB ROLL. It may be a couple days late, but as Brian pointed out in his title, Everyone’s in Vegas anyway. (Except him!) — ONE
When we were creating our AM team at Create, we wanted to keep the same ideas and principles in mind that we had when we made the Pro team. For the Pro team, our idea was to have a small group of skaters that we feel have not only been progressing skating for many years already, but will continue to progress for years to come. With the AM team, we wanted to have a small group of guys that we feel are headed in this same direction.
This years AIL World Championships was an event filled with tons of positive energy, friends skating with friends, and countless rollers coming together from all over the world to do what they dig the most, skate! There were rollers tearing up The Hanger at Woodward West from all over the States, East Asia and Europe. There were countless Pro riders like Demetrios George, Chris Haffey, Erik Bailey, Alex Broskow, Dustin Latimer and many more, along with industry Legends such as Arlo Eisenberg, Chris Edwards and Jon Julio…
Thought the WRS Finals next weekend marked the end of the contest season? Think again. November 7th is the LA All Day 2009 Finals, marking another year of blading outreach in the heart of Santa Monica. Come out for another chill day of Tracy White and Carlos Kessell’s irreproachable hospitality. — ONE
A bunch of the Missoula heads and I made a trip down to Idaho to meet up with the Shred ’till You’re Dead Tour. During our days with the tour we hit up a lot of insanely tight concrete parks out in the middle of nowhere. After camping and skating for four days, it was time to head back. We drove into a small town and stopped to get gas. As we got out of the car, Brandon saw a mural with a real truck bed coming out of the wall. I said, “We have to get a photo on this.” The people inside the gas station were watching us and did not look like they would approve of us skating it. While Howie pumped the gas, Brandon put on his skates, I set up, and he threw down a quick 270 back savannah. Then we all jumped back in the car and headed home. — Josh Hayes
If you’ve ever gone anywhere near a blade message board, then you’ve probably been exposed to the Mamba phenomenon. His search for what some may call a fictitious product knows no bounds. And this week it’s just one of the blade-o-sphere goings-on that came across Krans’ screen. Thought you knew about board-rage at the skateparks? Read the rest to see just how wrong you are… — ONE
Be on the lookout for the ONE booth at the AIL finals weekend, kicking off tomorrow, October 23. Come cop back issues, DVDs, ONE t-shirts, or just shoot the breeze. There’s a 10-hour window for booths, so you’ll know where to find us. Best of luck to all the young shredders looking to blade strong. We’ll see you there. — ONE
Have you ever wondered what the climate or behind-the-scenes-goings-ons were like when, at the peak of rollerblading popularity, the ASA formed and became the defacto business of blade contests? We’re pretty sure some of you have, just like us, so it’s lucky that our friend and blade memorabilia collector and former pro skater, Tracy White, dug up some letters he received from the ASA back in ‘94/’95, as the organization was setting its agenda and signing on talent for its inaugural year. For blade history buffs it’s pretty fascinating stuff. In them there’s mention of skaters signing deals to skate ASA exclusively, and ESPN 2 coverage to millions of people, in hundreds of countries. Oh, not to overlook a little experimental event called ESPN’s Extreme Games. All this was happening 14 years ago, but there’s knowledge to be gained just the same. On the eve of this year’s AIL and WRS Finals, the WRS itself wrapping up its inaugural year, let’s celebrate a strong 2009 of grassroots blade efforts, and focus on carving out a future for our athletes, sport and enthusiasts that lives up to a standard set long, long ago. With the diverse talent and dedication present and interconnected in the blade world, we can make it happen.— ONE
This year the Boston Street Battle is on November 14th. As a cold street contest this event marks the end of 2009 and comfortable street skating weather and the beginning of indoor, winter skatepark sessions in New England.
6th Place Josh Glowicki and 2009 Hoedown winner CJ Wellsmore.
I truly thought 2008 was going to be the last Hoedown EVER. At least concerning the way over-hyped rumors circulated around this giant talent cess pool of a state! Ha, ha! Anyhow, not one of these words, including the shamelessly abused adjectives, nouns, the punctuations, any “terrible angles” online edit, the over exposed photos due to innumerable flashes simultaneously firing, do any justice as to what the Hoedown REALLY is.
With the city of Calgary receiving an early dose of snow from Mother Nature, we had no choice but to escape. The mission: drive as far south as possible to find a place to skate with warm weather and no snow. We immediately loaded up the car and set our sights south on the city of Medicine Hat…
Besides dissing the “Save Rollerblading” post that accompanies the phony photo above, lamenting missing the Hoedown, and paying respects to a fallen roller, Krans delivers that thing he does. Now do your part and read it. — ONE
The cross country road trip is one of those things that is nostalgic for almost everyone. Whether the people romanticizing the idea have ever been on one is only half relevant. We all have memories of them, or thoughts of what one would be like. Both are likely equally inaccurate. Driving across this country is something I have done many times, and what I remember and look forward to, and what it actually is, happen to be starkly different things. What I remember and look forward to is antics, ridiculous stories, middle of no where pit stops, and local yokels. What I always conveniently forget and will forget this time as well is the hours of looking out windows at nothing, missing my wife, being crowded and uncomfortable, and needing to pee the whole time. This is a photo essay of a group of skaters waking up, getting in a car in Dallas, Texas and driving to a skate stop in Wichita, Kansas. Alex Broskow, Adam Johnson, Adam Exline, John Bolino, Don Bambrick, Mike Garlinghouse, and me. Driving to blade. No big deal. — John Haynes
Mark Heuss sent us this section from his video project PARTY that features skater Alex Rudolf and a giant backpack. As the description that accompanied the section said: “It’s a not so serious way of looking at skating starring Alex Rudolf.” Watch and see for yourself just how accurate that statement really is! Filmed during the summer of 2008 all across Germany (check out the river surfing!), it’s got some great skating… with a great big “rucksack.” Think you could do it? — ONE
Check out this site to learn more about a group of Romanian bladers planning their second chartered bus trip to Winterclash, appropriately called We Tour II. Last time they partnered up with Mountain Dew and Hedonskate, so we’re curious to see what they come up with this year. Guess we’ll see them in Berlin and find out for ourselves. — ONE
If everything went the way we wanted, then Brian Scott would have continued to impress the skaters around him and would have eventually established himself among the long line of great skaters in NYC. The title “great” has been thrown around a lot in NYC, but I think we need to look into the word “great” and compare it to Cozmik and see what the two had in common. Cozmik was a great friend to many, and made great jokes, he had great skating skills, and had a great inner personality. He was grateful for what skating had done for him, and skating was grateful for what he has done for it. When it comes down to it, “great” may be an understatement. The word we are looking for to define this great human being may not even exist. If we as fellow skaters felt his presence this strongly then imagine the family that was fortunate enough to have known him for years…
Long-time German super shredder Daniel Prell finally answered the questions we sent him like a month ago now that he’s been released from the hospital. Turns out this guy knows how to have a little bit too much of a good time, and what happened in Barcelona didn’t exactly stay in Barcelona. Glad to hear you’re better man! Anyway, here’s some insight and imagery to familiarize you with this staple of the European skate scene. — ONE
Superstitions are some of the weirdest things that I have encountered while rolleblading. They seem to always hold a special significance for me when I’m out skating, or when I’m about to go skate…
I built a practice rail out of a fat PVC pipe that I skate on a roller hockey rink outside of my apartment in southeastern Massachusetts. Jeff came up to skate it with me and naturally destroyed it. This is a shot of his signature grabbed backslide holding the grab and popping off to fakie. Shot in natural light at ISO400 and a f-8, I used a shutter speed of 1/2500. — Gabe Holm
Krans sent this in with a note that he thought it might not make any sense. Hence the self-appointed title. But with some commentary on “Whip It” and other instances of blading creeping up in mainstream channels and how we can benefit from it with open minds, dude is right on the money. Preach on brother Krans! Educate the masses. We know you will next week too. — ONE
This was shot during Intuition week up at Woodward West this past summer. A few of us were having a session in the Hanger after all the campers went to lunch, this being the only time we could get it to ourselves. Intuition Team Rider Derek Henderson started throwing bank-to-bank hammers on the box right off the bat. After a couple takes I shot this AO Soul 360. This was day one of the week and the following days were full of more sick skating. For this shoot I set up two flashes, one to the left and one to the right. This created the trapped shadow that I filled in with my on-camera flash. Camera settings were f/5.6 @ 1/250, ISO 400. — Scott Moffat
From Ben Shelbourne comes “Let It Never End,” starring Nick Lomax, Mike Salt, Andy Spary and Alex Burston, including mini-views on Lee Devereux and Scott Hallows, and featuring skaters such as Frazer Watson, Andrew Hosker, Chaz Sands, Si Cox, Sim Warren, Leon Humphries, Blake Bird, Joey Egan, Matt Chilvers, Elliot Stevens and many more. You can check out all the details at the film’s website. — ONE
Dean, getting right down to biz, why don’t we start off with you telling the readers a little something about yourself; who is Dean Coward?
I’m a 17 year old blader from Orange County California (the home of Ryan Sheckler), who is attending Saddleback College and skating every chance that I can.
Hey everyone, sorry this week’s WEB ROLL is a couple days late. Life sorta got busy this weekend, and, well, good things are worth waiting for. Krans is back up and running with full internet access and the ability to peddle his prose. We’ve read it; it’s worth a read. — ONE
Featuring Joe Atkinson, Pete Bexley, Blake Bird, James Bower, Matt Chlivers, Sunni Hodge, Neil Ingall, Fergus Jenkins, Mike McCann, and Phil Ryan, check out this edit from England that Grif Kerry sent over. — ONE
Leiterman is known for his cess slides and front flips. While trying this trick Andy got worked several times. After slipping out and falling over the drop a couple times, he laced this front royale cess slide to drop perfectly, rolled away for a few feet, and then body checked the fence post on the right hand side. Andy Leiterman is a beast and put together a badass section skating to T-Rex for my new video “It’s About Time” which I actually just uploaded. Who else front flips off switch sweatstances on rails? No one. — Gabe Holm
All right, all right, all right. You saw the online Vibralux edits, right? Well, AJ just hooked ya’ll up with this m4v version of all three edited together, and formatted for your iPods. Quality looks proper on Quicktime through the ‘puter and we can imagine it’ll look damn good on your 3″ LCD. Download and enjoy. — ONE
Wondering what Krans dug up for this week’s sacrificial offering to the lords of blade bloggery? Well, dig into the new, and congratulate Brian for keeping this up for four months… with many more installments to come. We think this week’s high water mark is the letter to David Sizemore… — ONE
Many of you may not recognize the name Howie Bennett, but he’s one of the sickest skaters I have had the privilege of skating with. He makes a photographer’s job easy because his style is so good. Howie and I had talked about getting a unique shot to show off his fresh new turquoise skates and I thought it would be the perfect chance to try out a technique called HDR (high dynamic range), a series of shots at different exposures that are combined to make one super-detailed photo. HDR is a technique that is hard to make look good, but if done right can produce a natural, yet dramatic effect. I haven’t seen very much of this in rollerblading photography, but I think it suits it very well. — Josh Hayes
David Allen Paine is 38 years old and living the dream… no, seriously, he is! He quit a very stable, decent-paying job — probably with a union — one that your parents told you to get after college, where after your 40 years of services you’re on Easy Street. But he wanted more out of life and wasn’t going to settle just for a decent job. Dave had dreams and he made them come true. At a young age he always wanted to skate and film. Growing up in the Philadelphia area is where he cut his teeth, and in the early ’90s, like most of you now, found that filming could be just as gratifying as skating. Now he’s been rolling and filming for 17 years. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Irene, and works for the action sports TV channel Fuel. — Mike Opalek
When rolling on his home turf, Richie’s skating is filled with an intense energy that comes out in the form of random Flatspin 360s over boxes that most are down to just grind. This was an awesome session, with all of the inline campers getting pumped off Richie’s skating, and throwing down hammers themselves. Setting up this shot, I positioned two of my flashes at 90 degrees to the left and right of the ramp. This lighting is great for separating the skater from the background, especially in an indoor park like the Hanger at Woodward West. My third flash was on-camera, and used to set off the other two, in addition to adding some fill light to the shadow areas. Camera settings were f/5 @ 1/200, ISO 400. — Scott Moffat
I first met Rob in the summer of ‘98, at the local skating rink in Corpus Christi, TX. “City Skates” was the place to be at the time. They had the traditional skating rink in the middle, and off to the side was a miniature skate park set-up. Ballpark nachos, sick grind rails, girls in booty shorts, ghetto rap music and dope sessions were what was happening on Saturday nights.
We all got kicked out of the rink eventually, but it was cool, because that was the beginning of our progression, our lives taking shape. At the time, Corpus had no public skateparks, so we opted to take our skating from the rink to the streets of downtown Corpus Christi. We quickly accepted the fact that downtown was our new skating rink, and we had more than nachos and prop rails. We had huge stair rails, bums with shanks, prostitutes, and a kick-ass view of the bay.
This shot of Kyle Couture doing a 180 over a double set was taken on a hot and humid August day this past summer in Maine. After taking a few run ups to size up the gap, Kyle charged at it with plenty of speed, spun 180, and threw a safety grab in there for style. Everything looked good until his wheels touched the pavement, where they fell off. I’m not sure if this was due to riding anti-rocker, the heat, the wheels, or a combination of all three, but I’ve never seen something like this happen before with rollerblade wheels. Both of his back wheels were cracked through the cores, leaving only the rear axles and bearings in place. Falling back instantly, sliding about eight feet on his back, Kyle managed to keep his head up and roll it out onto his side. Although he was lucky enough to walk away from this one, he was walking on frames with no back wheels. Lesson learned? Use caution skating on hot days in Maine. Your wheels might explode. (Shot in natural light with a shutter speed of 1/1600 at f.10 and ISO800) — Gabe Holm
Who is Mark Korte and what does he have to do with rollerblading?
I can basically answer that by saying… I am the USD Enforcer, one of the founders of the Stretch Crew, and a Powerslide veteran… since a lot of kids might not know what in the hell that means, I will break it down. I came to be part of USD in the late part of ‘98, when the team was Arlo, Champ, Dustin, Jon, and Josh… at the time I was only hired by Powerslide to push papers, but that changed after a week or so. To make a long story short, I had found my calling. I got to know all of the USD team (which was going through a transition period, much like we are now) and I ended up being the filter between the company and the team; I might even go as far as to say the glue, and at the same time I was the International Sales Manager at Powerslide. So I was able to combine all of that into helping make USD (and The Conference Brands that followed) the hottest thing available. During this period, of which I am very proud to be a part of, we had the undisputed best team in Rolling, I built a worldwide flow team to rival all others at the time, and worked with distributors in over 40 countries building USD. I was very adament about everything having structure, and working with the best team of rollers in the world has moulded my personality to this day, and I am grateful to each and every one who ever rolled for USD.
Another week and another WEB ROLL. Busy entertaining some friends from Iowa in SF for a little visit, Krans found time to cobble together a quick look at some of the trending blade topics that caught his attention. Give it a look, and let this screen grab of Montre from the WRS trailer motivate you along the way. — ONE
I remember being 17 when my best friend and only friend within a 2-hour radius who skated went to college. I was happy to see him go, but a different feeling overcame me, too. It was the end of an era, it was the first time “growing up” and my skate world had intersected; it would not be the last. I always swore that I would never quit skating, that I would not stop loving this no matter what happened. That has been true, though “growing up” has made some very serious footprints in every part of my life. Shortly after the watershed moment of my best friend moving from our rural area to Minneapolis, I took a picture of Anders Carlson-Wee doing a backslide on a tiny rail reflected in a metalic sphere. I put that photo on my Myspace, and two years later it caught the eye of a young woman who thought it was so cool that she wrote me an email. That girl is Rachel Rueter, and on September 12, 2009 I married her, almost eight years after the photo was taken. I have been her boyfriend for a long time, our relationship has cut in to the amount of time I spend making the images that you see in ONE, but the time I spend at skate sessions also cuts in to the time I want to spend loving Rachel. I will spend my life with her, and I will also spend my life taking pictures of some of the most memorable moments in skating. Grown-up life is inevitable for virtually everyone reading this, but as real as getting older is, and what it may mean for you, skating is just as real. Cherish the carefree moments you have skating, but don’t be foolish when the most amazing woman on the planet wants some of your time. I count my self infinitely blessed to be both gifted in photography, and in love with a woman as beautiful, kind, courageous, faithful, and joyful as Rachel. I look forward to many more pictures and even more years of being in love. — John Haynes
The finals of the European Halfpipe Championship were held the second weekend of September. This event takes place in Mallorca, Montana, and Rotterdam; all European cities. Particpants are from all around the globe, among them big names like Fabiola da Silva and Eito Yasutoko. As to be expected the level of skating was phenomenal. Nowdays all the vert pros do their tricks in “double-mode.” Double backflip, double flatspin, double-anything! I also saw some complicated grind combinations, and of course the original crazy spins from mister Yasutoko. Marco de Santi from Brazil performed a perfect run, with loads of air time and hard spins high above the coping. This capture of a Cross Rocket Air was one the many tricks he pulled to impress the judges and win the whole event. (Technical data: 50mm, F2.2, 1/1600, 200 iso) — Thomas Vahe
This last weekend was a big one for New York City. As you guys all know, Last Man Standing went down, and we had a good share of visitors from all over the world. Miguel Ramos showed up at my door this past week and was like, “Yo, was up. Let’s go and skate some spots.” After a long day traveling around from spot to spot, we found this bank that apparently is a local spot for bikers and Miguel banged out this beautiful wallride; Miguel Ramos is def one great skater. — Josh Diaz
I made it down to Santa Monica last weekend and got some shots at the LA All Day, which was an awesome event, you should have been there! Amazing skating went down in not only the Beginner division, but even the Intermediate, Advanced, and Elite. Competitions like the LA All Day are so diverse in the level of skating, and that’s the way it needs to be! There are little Groms out there skating their hearts out and looking up to the upper divisions with hopes and ambitions of the next year’s season. They are the future and people like Tracy White, Carlos Kessell, and Matt Mickey are fueling the fire of Rollerblading.
Brian Scott, known to his friends as Cozmik, is a new school skater with less than six years under his belt. His skills, however, are superb, and versatile to the point that many of his friends are amazed by how quickly he has managed climb up the ranks in NYC. With a very humble personality and a constant smile on his face, he is one of the first to come to mind when thinking about up-and-comers in our skate scene. Now, New York City can be a very big place, which makes it hard to meet up with skaters from the other side of the city, and after a couple months of planning we were able to meet up in Manhattan for a photo shoot. The challenge for me was that I had to find a spot that has not been covered lately in order to stay diverse in terms of the skate spots that I shoot. My first instinct was to think of a spot that you would normally find skateboarders at; that’s when I came up with this highway divider spot. This spot is famous for being featured in skateboard ads and videos as a challenging yet interesting obstacle. When we arrived, of course, we found a couple of skateboarders sessioning it. When Cozmik got started, it was as if they were surprised that a rollerblader could hit the ledge after using the little make-shift bank that was attached to the divider. During the weeks before this photo my flashes kept breaking, but I was fortunate enough to have received three Sunpak 544 flashes the night before. I was more than stoked to have a chance to light things up a bit, and set up a nice shot while Cozmik waxed the ledge. It was literally within the first minute of the photo shoot that Cozmik laced a Truespin Topside Pornstar on the ledge with a 270 out. With the cheers of the skateboards when he landed it, I was sure that this would make a great photo. I can’t usually be too sure of whether a shot is good or bad, but something felt right about this shot the second I took it. With that we packed up before our time was spent, and went to get more shots. — Angelo Ferrer
It’s pretty amazing how much better the blade community is getting recently in video production. Everybody is stepping their game up. Paul John is no exception. Recently, Paul John has been working on creating skate edits that focus on style. There is a lot of talk about how contemporary skate videos/edits don’t capture the style of the skaters as well as they did in the mid-90’s. Many people are trying to change this. It is my opinion that PJ is one of the best film makers at capturing people’s style and making blading look good. Here are some behind the scenes stills of a production PJ is working on with Jon Murakami featuring Chris Farmer. — Collin Martin
There’s a lot of finger pointing going on this week, well, at least in the TruTV video we’ve got for you, along with a look at the Supergirl Jam, NYC’s Last Man Standing, Ashley Peterson’s latest edit, and some controversy surrounding the announced finalists for the 2009 “Industry Awards.” See how Krans fits it all together in his latest WEB ROLL. — ONE
Ian had come to visit from San Antonio, Texas, for the summer so I wanted to build up a nice little archive of photos from the trip. We travelled two hours on barely any fuel just to get to this one spot with only 45 minutes to skate, film and shoot photos before having to rush back for work. Normally I have a shot in my head when I arrive, but this turned out to be the most boring looking rail around, in the middle of a field with dull brown green colours on a horribly overcast white sky. This meant the only angle that would suit was up close and personal to capture the action. My flashes were set on high power to capture the skater and rail as the aperature was pretty small to at least capture some grey from the sky and keep the image sharp. After trying some conventional fisheye angles from the bottom and top of the steps the shots were coming out fine, but nothing to make the trip worth the hassle. Filming still had to come so we decided to wrap up the photos with one last shot, by walking around the spot with camera-to-eye I finally saw the angle that made the shot. Camera Settings: Canon EOS-1D 1/320s f/9 — Tom McClelland
What’s your name and how old are you?
My name is Steve Iacono, and I am 24 years old.
Where are you from?
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Cameron Talbott, Howie Bennett, and myself decided to make a trip to middle-of-nowhere, MT, which consists of some cows, a grocery store and one church. We were headed there to check out a new concrete skate park that we had heard was small, but free, and very good. After having a good session at the park — which lived up to our expectations — we spotted the church and what appeared to be a really sick kinked rail. We skated over to it and Cameron immediately walked to the top of the stairs and said, “Do you want to get a photo of this?” “You bet,” I replied. It seemed to be an easy shot at first. However, when I looked at the different angles from which to take the photo, they did not show all of the challenging aspects of the trick. I moved back and zoomed to 35mm, which allowed me to show the big drop on one side and also what Cameron was going to have to gap off of from his topsoul at the end of the rail. I set the exposure to f/4.5 at 1/400 of a second (ISO 320). I told him I was ready and he laced it. — Josh Hayes
Greetings from Jamaica! I have met several kind and knowledgeable rastas in West End Negril this week. Ras Rody (local organic, vegetarian roadside shack owner) has two sons who got hooked up with rollerblades from Dre Powell’s mom. Random, yet incredible…
Sure, the big news this week was Joe Navran announcing the end of Franco Shade, which pretty much no one saw coming. But our favorite online troll, Krans, is here to add some perspective to that news, as well as sprinkling in some other bits about Der Führer and the X-Games, K2’s “new” boot, Jeff Dalnas’ b-ball prowess, and plenty more. Link, links and links — there’s plenty to keep you amused and informed in this week’s WEB ROLL. — ONE
Brandon Sanwick is Mr. Fishbrain, although gnarly ledges and rails are more his style than makeshift banks to walls.
I recently drove an hour southwest of Milwaukee to a town called Janesville, to shoot some banger photos on Wisconsin ripper Ashley Peterson’s home turf. We didn’t get to shoot the two craziest spots (a wood drop kink and a drop rail on a lonesome staircase in a field), but blame unforeseeable difficulties.
As we wrapped up our abbreviated session, Brandon nailed this trick behind a supposedly haunted manor house. One strobe lit Brandon, the wall and the bank from just outside the left of the frame. A second strobe kicked in a little light from atop the wall outside the right edge of the photo. My Canon 70-200 f2.8 lens provided the proper perspective. Nice way to end the day. — Adam Morris
Daniel Kinney just shot over this preview of the new BCSD DVD, and tells us the disk is in stock now and shipping from Integrated Distribution. Featuring solid blading from shredders Brandon Smith and Jeff Dalnas, here’s a look at just some of the many tricks that went down during the contest. For the rest, check the DVD. — ONE
This Jeph Howard photo is something we shot this spring and just never found its way into the pages of ONE even though it’s totally nasty. The conditions were great — open shade with enough ambient light to focus on just lighting Jeph and knowing the spot would still be well exposed. The trick is AO Makio, which is really, really insane to do on the inside so I wanted to be very clear about the nature of this beast rail. A fisheye when used correctly can really exaggerate aspects of a scene. In this case I wanted the first support very distorted and pointing in to the frame, which meant (as it frequently does) being scary close. This is when experience comes in to play. Not only do you not want your piece getting smashed but you also don’t want the skater to be unable to do their trick ’cause you are laying on the stairs. Finding out how close is too close can be an expensive operation, but unless you are retarded-close there is really no point putting your fisheye on in the first place. I framed up on a few practice runs, which consisted of Jeph jumping over the rail, and found a place where he could skate but still showed the double rail perfectly, and we went to work. Lighting is a light straight on from the end of the rail about eye level and very close. The other is boomed to the fence using Manfrotto grip clamps; also very close. It’s important to have your lights close to your subject during the day to be able to freeze the action (turning your lights down means a faster flash duration, thus more stopping power). The flecks are water droplets kicked up by Jeph’s skates from the melting snow everywhere. And yes, that is Chris Farmer in the background watching for cars. Safety first. — John Haynes
As the edit we posted a week ago showed, the Denial team was recently at Camp Woodward. Besides taking their own advice to GO & ROLL, the team shot pics for their Fall 2009 Lookbook and undoubtedly had themselves a swell, if not hotter-than-satan’s-own-sauna, time. Photographer Andrew Nemiroski was kind enough to share these shots of the team in action, and since Ross Anthony’s article about the week finally showed up, we’ve got that in here too. — ONE
For rollers in the Kentucky area, this weekend is the 9th Annual Kentucky Battle. For full details check out their blog. Organizer Doug Williams worked with local businesses to drum up awareness, an idea we think sounds pretty cool. Good luck everyone. — ONE
This was our first day of shooting. I had just moved back up to Missoula, MT, and had only been in town a couple days. It was good to see the old crew — with one new face, Brandon Mateer, who had moved up here five months ago. We all met up and started sessioning the park. Brandon asked if I wanted to shoot a topsoul up a ledge, so I grabbed my 14-24mm lens and threw it on. Shooting with such a wide angle means that you are right in there. You are able to see the skater’s facial expressions, but can also get the entire trick and landing in the frame. I took a quick meter reading and set it to f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/3000 at ISO 200. I focused on the part of the ledge that I thought Brandon would be most steezed out at. I released the shutter when he reached my focus point and quickly jumped out of the way as he flew by. When I looked at this photo on the computer, Brandon just happened to be wearing the perfect shirt to separate him from the background, so I instantly turned it black and white. To finish the photo, I used burning and dodging in order to direct the viewer’s eye, which is key for me when I use natural light. — Josh Hayes
Make your way to the Santa Monica Boys & Girls Club on Saturday, September 5th, for the next installment of LA All Day. If you’re wondering how to grow blading in your spot, come take notes. — ONE
There’s no way to do the normal WEB ROLL when such a terrible thing happened in the blade community this week.
Mr. Small’s Skatepark was hosting its second Summer Skate Xtravaganza in Pittsburgh, PA, and after Montre had already murdered the park and the rain had passed he spotted someone with an umbrella. About a minute later he was he was walking around the park with the umbrella over his head. I was joking around with him about how he should hit a rail with the umbrella in the rain and how sick a photo would be. He just said, “well it’s not raining so I’ll just backslide this rail with it real quick.” He told me to go grab the picture, so I ran down to the bottom of the rail without even getting to check my lighting and within seconds he was on the rail and he laced it first try, umbrella in hand. — Justin Boyd
For the third year in a row, rollerbladers from far and wide gathered for the King Of Street Competition in Calgary, Alberta. Every year, rollerbladers take to three street spots and battle it out for $1,000 in cash which is divided between the top three. Organized and presided over by old school blader Tom Dixon, the skaters are led around the city throwing themselves at the most legendary spots. What makes the competition so special is that the spectators and the competitors vote for the winner, and each individual vote is counted and tallied at the after party in front of everyone…
This photo was taken on Scottish Rolling’s recent trip to Barcelona. We were lucky enough to be staying in an apartment just around the corner form the famous Forum ledges, which was ideal as it made for the perfect spot to hit at night and shoot some photos, as we could just walk there. This is definitely the hardest spot I’ve ever had to light in terms of skating shots, but I had to get by with the equipment I brought with me which was two Vivitar 285HVs. I must have spent between 10-15 minutes setting up for this shot, the reason being having to take several test shots and adjust the powers on my flashes numerous times. The flash placement was one Vivitar just out of shot to the left at the bottom of the ledge around 6ft high on 1/4 power, and the second flash was hand held high up, just out of shot to the right, directly in line with the ledge on 1/2 power. This photo was taken with an aperture of ƒ4.5, a shutter speed of 1/160, and an ISO of 400. The shot was taken while I was standing on top of one of the ledges further along, which didn’t feel very safe, so I wanted to get the shot done as quickly as possible after I was up there. — David Andrew
Well, Krans must be starting to feel at home in his new home because he pulled himself up a soap box this week and decided to let us all know how he really feels. From time at Woodward West, to upstart blade blogs, to thoughts on seeding for the new generation of bladers, he’s all over the place, doing his part to bring the blade-o-sphere to you in easy-to-swallow form. And now it’s time to take your medicine… — ONE
Streetmasters is the Dutch extreme street Olympics, yeah! Skateboarding, bmx, breakdancing, streetdance, freestyle soccer, flatland, free running and, of course, rollerblading, are the disciplines of Streetmasters. There are six preliminaries on six different locations. Everybody has to enter the preliminary round to compete for big cash prizes in the finals and so — unsurprisingly — a lot of excellent extreme street-athletes participate. The preliminary in Amsterdam is held on the streets, which is a big contrast with the other preliminaries organized in skateparks. Daan Hegt, a top Dutch skater showed up and nailed this stylish Fakie Front Farv to 270 off, securing his entry for the finals.
Looking back at the technical data, the ISO cloud be lower. (50mm, F2.8 , 1/2000, ISO 1000) — Thomas Vahe
One of the most unique and forgotten aspects of blading is the fact that as bladers we develop eyes that constantly are on the lookout for the newest and best spots. Whether it be a perfect stair set, ledge, or random object that could be sessioned with a little time and thought. This aspect of skating is one I truly cherish because it is a permanent vision. I often think of how exciting it will be when I am older and randomly walking around an urban area and spotting something new to skate. Chances are my body won’t allow it, but it will still be exciting, envisioning the possibilities and picturing yourself as a youth destroying a spot…
Chris Majette just sent us this edit by Will Start of the Denial team’s week at Camp Woodward. Lots of serious shredding went down, as well as the usual good times with friends. Check it out for a dose of Montre, Jon Jon, Koliner, Iacono, Anthony, Fromm and more. — ONE
Imagine those hot (and I mean really hot) lazy summer days, days you spend with your inline “crew” and friends, days so hot that after 10 minutes of skating you’re totaly wet. Somewhere in the middle of July we had many days like that — skating, shooting, chatting and laughing; pure relaxation. On one of those days we were skating this spot. We spent over two hours there, with many passers-by watching us and children playing around us. I waited for this shot for over an hour. I wanted to catch the sun just before sunset to create this delicate, lazy mood of summer evening. Pollen hovered around, and two children sitting on the ledge in the background helped to build the atmosphere. Madej was doing a perfect Top Porn. Everything was prepared. My job was reduced to setting up two flashes (fill and trim light) and shooting. As easy as possible. Result? Here you are… — Kuba Urbanczyk
Check out this new music video treatment from Paul John and company, capturing a taste of random summer blade sessions. Set in Chicago but with guests appearances by Alex Broskow and Michael Collins, Paul John tells us this is an edit to show viewers a unique look at rollerblading. The song, “Art of Noise” was originally made by an Avant-garde synth pop group formed in 1983 by producer Trevor Horn. It has been modernized by many, but is dopely remastered here by The Cool Kids. — ONE
This photo is from a recent trip that a few friends and I made to San Diego on a mission to shoot some Joey Chase photos, and also have some time to enjoy So-Cal. This trip was probably one of the best I’ve been on, and I also used it as an opportunity to try some new stuff with the camera. Shooting in San Diego was completely different to what I was used to shooting, as far as the light goes at least. All four days we were there it was incredibly bright, aside the session where this picture was taken — lucky for that. As of recent I have been trying to stick with only one flash, which is typically an Alien Bee, however, in this case I used one Nikon SB-28. The reason for this is because it gives me a lot more time to take in other elements that I may not have seen if I was busy setting up lights. Before setting up my light I always try and find a general angle first, so that I can figure out how to place my flashes correctly. One of the first things I noticed was the flag in the background, and decided that I wanted it in the shot to add some visual contrast. Although I had no control of how the wind was going to blow it, I framed the shot and it worked out great. Russell Day laced this Christ Backslide to fakie first try, and there’s even a little gap into the rail that you cannot see. Obviously, you cannot always get away with using only one flash for skate shots, however, if the ambient light is nice, it’s definitely worth a try — it will definitely effect how you compose and light your photos. — Nick Korompilas
Krans is on a roll. Now settling into his SF blade-nest with roommate Ivan Narez, submitting articles (solicited!) to WIRED, writing a column for The Examiner, and last we heard, hanging out with fellow ONE-buddy Mike Opalek on his one-night excursion in the Bay Area. Guess what we’re saying is expect more random ramblings soon. — ONE
This isn’t the obvious choice for a PHOTO JOURNAL, as it’s more about the creative process than the technical aspects. After a decade of skate photos, it’s not always as exciting to shoot with the same setups. I’m usually “supposed” to expose for the skater, separate him from the background, dropping the scene a stop or 2, getting the strobes on the skater, and maybe highlighting him with a strong backlight. This is clearly not the case here…
Paul John just hooked us up with this promotional edit for Blake O’Brien’s pro wheel from Scribe Urethane. Tell us what you think (since you will anyway)! — ONE
If you’ve skated with Fish recently, it’s hard to believe only a couple of months ago he couldn’t walk. Early this summer the “Truth II” boys were in town filming and skating. Now, for most people, a top mistrial on a ledge isn’t one of the first tricks you warm-up with. Fish, however, isn’t like most people. After a few warm-up tricks he came out of nowhere with a perfect Top Mistrial. I told him to do one more for a photo, and sure enough he delivered. — Drew Amato
Daniel Kinney just finished this edit of the inaugural Bearings & Bruises blade comp in Rockford, Illinois. Temperamental weather couldn’t keep the good vibes down, as Tracy White and Carlos Kessell keep their mission of getting new feet in blades spreading to the Midwest. Check out cameos from dudes like Garlinghouse, Luda, Paul John, Melehan, your Skater of the Year Alex Broskow, and more. Looks like a great day for blading in the heartland. — ONE
Demetrios George is a big. strong, grown-ass-man rollerblader who happens to be on a personal mission to keep the legacy of the FP crew alive. A legacy described in the following interview as being based on “Hard hitting, gangster, we know what we’re doing style.” Now teamed up with The Conference as co-Team Manager with Billy O’Neill, he’s got a chance to put his dedicated work ethic and ideas to the test. We decided to let Ben Karris ask him some questions. Here’s what Demetrios had to say. — ONE
It’s that time of year again, time to make your voice heard by participating in the ONE 2009 Blade Survey. You came out in force last year, and we’re counting on you again because we’ve tweaked the format, added some new questions, and are anxious to have the first back-to-back survey of dedicated rollerbladers since, well, probably back in the ’90s! Take some time to fill this out, and be sure to submit your email address for chance to win a pair of CREATE ORIGINALS frames. The frames hit stores in a few weeks, and we’ll do the drawing as soon as they’re available. So don’t wait! Fill out the survey today to get your needs/wants/expectations heard. Thanks! — ONE
Blake O’Brien / Disaster Mute Kind Grind / Spot Two
For the past three years John Haynes has traveled to the Windy City Riot for a variety of print and online coverage. This year, formerly Iowa-based Adam Morris, now in New Berlin, WI, took to the streets with camera in hand to see the event for himself. Here’s his report on this long-standing Midwest street comp, with a look at some of the tricks that went down. — ONE
This week, while settling in to his new home of SF, and managing to secure himself another online outlet for his blade musings, Krans found out that North Carolina bladers can get down with some McDonalds, Dalnas is a master of Savannahs, bladers in New York are on a mission, plenty of chicks are Twittering about rollerblading, and the son of god himself is a blade head. Overall a good haul. See for yourself. — ONE
The Rest In Peace San Francisco party and premiere at DSSF is August 14th at 9 pm. Look for man-on-the-scene Brian Krans to tell us all about it. — ONE
This photo was shot on August 1st 2009, in Boston, Massachusetts. This steep up-ledge is located right in Copley Square next to the John Hancock building, Trinity Church and Boston Public Library. Copley square is known for its upscale restaurants and stores. It’s a very busy area. To skate this ledge you have to skate across a street and hop up a curb. As I set up my flashes, people began to stop and watch behind and to the left of me. After a few backside royales, Jeff zigzagged between traffic and laced this Backside Savannah to Mute Grab out. The photo was shot at ISO 200 with an f-number of 14 and an exposure time of 1/200. You may be able to tell there were two flashes used in this shot. One to camera left against the wall, and the second to my right. — Gabe Holm
Muncie, Indiana is home to the Brass Knuckle Beatdown, now going on its third year. This year’s event is partnered with the AIL, and features Expert, Open, Ladies and 25+ divisions, and possibly the first ever double-down registration offer. Now that’s salesmanship. If you blade in the heartland, this event was made for you, so get out to Muncie to check it out. And like the website says, “If you are tempted to compete, DO IT!” — ONE
From one Midwesterner-west coast transplant to another, I’d like to start off by saying thanks for doing this interview. I’d also like to start off by having you remind our readers who the brainchild behind 4DUB was, is and has yet to be—who is Tracy White?
A “Blade Head.”
What exactly is Bearings & Bruises?
Bearings & Bruises is a bike, skateboard and rollerblade contest put on by the Rockford Park District.org and Fat Wallet.com. In celebration of the Rockford Park District’s 100 years of parks, play and fun.
My superstition was handed down to me and Robert Lievanos and Roadhouse by Champion Baumstimler. It works like a charm if you believe. Basically, it goes like this: Whenever I get a weird feeling or thought, like when you are skating and you start to get kinda scared, you take your pointer finger and put it into a knuckle, kiss it, touch your opposite elbow, then touch your forehead. Now, you can only do this in odd numbers… once, three or five times. Although if you get seen doing this outside of skating, people might think you have OCD… lol. So you might just do it when skating, but the side effect is that it does trickle into everyday life. So be carefull when doing this, it my work for you, it may not, but just know when you are messing with superstions it’s powerful. Be careful.—Eric Schrijn
After all the years Brian, Hakeem, and I have put into skating, the fact that we can be a part of something that we made, which adds to the maturity and growth of skating, is an amazing thing. Today is the official team announcement, and we put a lot of thought into who we wanted to be a part of our dream. We wanted people who we feel represent skating with style, drive and a vision. The Kelsos have been long-time colleagues, friends, and leaders in skating. Working and rolling with them for years has done nothing but inspire and amaze me. These guys are family. I haven’t known Jon Jon as long as the Kelsos, but he’s new family. Watching someone as young as himself with a style as developed and matured as his own, reassures me that the future of skating is in good hands. We worked hard to get here, this is the truth. For skaters, by skaters. CO.
Also, check out this quick edit of the pro team. The official release date for the frames is September 28th. Make sure to check out createoriginals.com, and become a fan on Facebook for all the latest news and updates. — Billy O’Neill
Sean Grossman has exceptional talent, making him an up-and-coming New York City skater. While coming out of Long Island, NY, to shoot for Imagynethat.com, we came across a double set that Sean and I instantly knew would make an awesome photo. Recently, Sean attempted a huge gap and ended up hitting his head really badly, but being the fearless skater that he is, he decided to jump this gap only two weeks after the accident. This time, however, Sean came prepared and was fully protected. Soon, after two attempts came up short of clearing the gap, he came at it twice as fast and jumped twice as far, landing the gap on his third attempt. It is great to see up-and-coming skaters perform at a level that is almost equally nostalgic and euphoric. He jumped so fast that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to capture it; with nothing but natural light, I was able to capture a glimpse into what it feels like to be hovering in the air on a 20 ft gap. — Angelo Ferrer
Cryptic words this week from Krans: “Here she is, once again. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to find some internet connection other than my phone. Monday I’ll be flying out to SF, staying with Jose Fuentes and Chris Bjerre while Ivan and I finish searching for an apartment. At least I’ll know where to walk to when I get off the damn plane with three bags and my blades. I’ll shoot you my address if I ever get one.” Guess we’re lucky we got anything at all! — ONE
This past weekend was the 4th Annual Mr. Smalls Summer Xtravaganza. Bikers, skateboarders and rollerbladers congregated along the Allegheny River for a weekend of competition, concerts and sessions. There were competitors from Michigan, Kentucky and New Jersey as well as some of the top pros in the rollerblading industry…
LA All Day’s own Tracy White got partnered up with his hometown parks department, and the latest result is a new skatepark, blading clinics for the lil’ rippers-to-be, and the Bearings & Bruises comp on August 7th, presented by the Rockford Park District.org and Fat Wallet.com. It’s $5 to skate the event, all participants get a B&B t-shirt designed by Carlos Kessell, and each skater under-17 is entered in a raffle to win a free week visit to Woodward. Since Tracy lives in LA and this event is in Illinois, BCSD organizer Daniel Kinney was called in to lend a helping hand. Given what these two guys have accomplished for their own events, we’re excited to see what comes out of this effort. If you are in the area, or have nothing to do on the 9th, you should definitely get to Bearings & Bruises to show your dedication to a new generation of skaters. — ONE
Downtown Madison is under a lot of construction this summer, making for cool temporary skate spots. This day a skateboarder showed us a bunch of new spots, including this abandoned satellite dish. We all started to skate it while a friend was shooting some super 8 for his video “Yah Dood.” After realizing Mitch was getting the highest on the dish, I decided this would be a nice place for a picture. I set up all my gear and started to shoot away. I changed angles several times until I found the perfect one. I got low with my 18-70mm, then waited until Mitch was framed in the sky. I used two strobes for this picture. One Vivitar 285HV to the far right and a Sunpak 433D just to the right of me. Our 10 minute session here ended with a man parking his van right in front of the spot. Abandoned satellite dishes and Liu Kangs make for a sweet photo! — Cody LaPlant
Whoa, we’re deep with pics from yesterday’s first-ever SD All Day event. Glad to say it was a solid turnout, too. Not the same big bunch of young rippers that Tracy has bred in Santa Monica, but something different — a new flavor for an All Day event. Anyway, check the pics, be at the September comp in LA, and stay tuned for more info on the Bearings & Bruises contest in Illinois that Tracy is also involved in. Need some idea how you can help your blading scene grow? This guy and the All Day have your model. — ONE
On this particular day, we checked out the new Skateplaza in Wiesbaden near the train station. Our aim was to shoot something, but we got kicked out of several spots and didn’t find anything besides this rough kinked rail. It was squared, had a messed up run-up, and a totally-destroyed landing which made it even harder for Konstantin to lace his trick. He was thinking about doing BS Shifty (Royale), but he tried out with some Backsides first. I took some test photos… and you can see the result above. One shot later he fell and didn’t want to skate anymore that afternoon. This photo was shot with a Canon 350d and a 50mm f 1.8 lense at 2.8, with one strobe to the right in the bushes and another as a kind of rimlight from behind left. — Peter Bender
Krans is on the move — homeless, jobless, Jack Kerouac-ing it across the country; in a way, he is a portrait of America (perhaps the world). Although we expect he’s not as up-to-his-eyeballs in debt as most of the sorry sons o’ bitches out there that helped get us into this whole thing anyway, hence the confidence to just transplant as he plans to do. But that’s all besides the point, because this week there was some legitimately cool stuff going around the blade-net, and Krans distills it for you here like a batch of near-lethal jailhouse toilet wine. We don’t know how he found the time to do it, but he did. — ONE
ONE #14 is in stores and on newsstands now, so it’s time to share the #13 Skater of the Year issue online! Catch up on Alex Broskow’s feature interview, see Dom Bambrick shred, learn about Keith and Adam Brierly in their special 4-page Am Hour, read about what Randy “Roadhouse” Spizer is doing these days, and enjoy the biggest photo gallery we’ve ever run. Packing a ton of great content, this ONE speaks volumes. — ONE
I was back in Iowa for a couple of days recently and had a few hours to shoot skate photos. This is one of my favorite tricks from that rapid-fire session. This bank is steep, and like the approach, it’s mighty rugged. Tucked away on a quiet residential street in Des Moines, it’s got lots of possibilities … if your legs and wheels can handle it. What you see here is Shawn Warndorf 270 degrees into his 360. The afternoon sun was directly overhead, and I wanted to splash a little fill light on his front. I used one flash, just to my right and up high. — Adam Morris
In an industry as small as ours, it’s important for everyone to do their part to help us grow not only as an industry, but as a culture. Blading pioneer and LA All Day Contest Series co-founder, Carlos Kessell, is someone who does more than his share, all day, every day! The LA All Day contest series really is an awesome event that not only promotes rollerblading from the grassroots level, it gives skaters of various skill sets a chance to compete and helps them gain some much sought after exposure. Saturday, July 25th, the contest will take a trip from its home at the Santa Monica Boys and Girls Club in Los Angeles to sunny San Diego. In preparation for the first ever SD All Day contest at Chula Vista Skatepark, ONE thought it was a good idea to speak with Carlos to get his thoughts on blading and to learn a little more about SD All Day. So, here’s the first-ever (yeah, really) Carlos Kessell interview. — BK
NASS 2009 was wet. Very wet. Though that didn’t dampen the usual spirit that is brought to NASS year after year. Tents were pitched, booze was drank and over the next two days, hammers were thrown. Here is the full NASS experience courtesy of Ben Shelbourne. Enjoy. — Ben Shelbourne
(Thanks to our friends at Kingdom for coordinating this exclusive edit. — ONE)
Joey Chase and Matty Shrock flew into San Diego to meet up with Brian Shima before heading to Woodward West for Nimh Week. ONE met up with Damien Wilson, Lyle Shivak and the rest of the aforementioned bunch for a mid-day session on Saturday in the hot San Diego sun. Matty’s plane had landed just about an hour before the session got underway at Chicano Park ledges. Dudes chilled, a couple tricks got done, and fun times were had. Plus, we got to mess around again with the HD capabilities on our Canon pocket rocket. — ONE
Krans has been doing some pretty respectable trolling lately, god bless his sick and depraved soul, and this week he gets to rant, rave, and share a funny blast from blading’s more mainstream past. Now, with that out of the way, everyone wish Brian luck on his impending migration from Iowa to San Francisco. Will he be homeless and unemployed in a week? Stay tuned to find out! — ONE
“Print Brigade t-shirts skate for themelves.” That’s the tag line on this new Print Brigade video ad made by PB friend and “team rider” Mike Dempsey for the 2009 BCSD DVD. According to our sources, Mike and his friends (Drew Amato, Casey G, etc) have a production company called Black Bandit Media, and are making a free online HD video for late August called “Breakfast.” They all have those super fancy Sony Ex cameras and they are all going to school for video/photo production, so we’re told the video is going to be something to watch out for. In the meantime, get a taste of what’s to come via this short promo spot. — ONE
Paul John just sent around this gritty slice-of-life look at his world in the streets as he shows off his new blades. We like the attitude and high production values. Nice. — ONE
The Canadian climate can be very unkind to rollerbladers. After an extremely long and ruthless winter, summer has been unpredictable at best. For the past few weeks we’ve been getting a taste of warm weather, only to be bombarded by rain for days on end. Lately, sessions have consisted of skating ’till it rains, or driving around looking for dry spots.
I really have gotten good about not complaining about working. The unemployment rate is super high, most of my friends are under or unemployed, and I have had trouble finding work for the first time in years. So a three-week job assisting a French photographer who builds food sculptures for a national retailer was a welcome gold mine. After one particularly long day of work, I get a phone call on my way out of the studio from Jake Moreau.
Superstitions are something it seems almost every athlete faces in one way or another. With hockey players taking the cake, of course, with some of the most bizarre superstitions imaginable. I could imagine though that rollerbladers, who generally follow a normal routine when skating, develop thier own superstitions or beliefs when on their blades.
The first day of true sun. Here on the East Coast, we’ve seen our share of rain. For a few months now, it seems like every day it has rained and rained. (It seems to be the story of my life!) When the first true day of sun arrived, I met up with Mark Steffen and Able Castro at the Statue of Liberty ferry ledge in Manhattan. For few months I have been asking Mark to come out and skate so I could get a shot of his stylish sweatstance on this great spot. Now we have this pic. — Josh Diaz
The art team at Hedonskate sent us this video of them turning a bizarre mural of what appears to be a setting from Lord of the Rings into a scene from some monstrous mix of what could be Godzilla and Cloverfield. Time-lapse documentation of the process was turned into this video on YouTube that’s worth checking out. Mirek told us this all went down in their kitchen, which left us wondering what the rest of the rooms at their fortress look like! — ONE
Just a couple hours ago Rat Tail hosted a warehouse sale, and ONE was hanging around to help out. Some familiar and unexpected faces showed up, so take a look for yourselves. As Adam Brierly and Dean Coward demonstrate above, it was the perfect time to dig for great deals. Lots more pics inside. — ONE
It seems that Aggressive Mall is not only one of the most reliable and popular skate shops, but you guys have become synonymous in our industry with custom skates and creative color jobs on just about any pair of boots offered. Before we get into anything, tell us who is the maniac behind all of this madness, who is Justin Hertel?
For starters, I am a pretty low-key 26-year-old kid that rollerblades and owns a skate shop. I enjoy many things such as blading, watching good people blade, snowboarding, shooting guns, photo, video, working on cars, graphic design, drawing bad stuff, thinking of bad stuff, and working a lot and occasionally making cool stuff. I found out quite some time ago that I was never really good at one particular thing, but was just kind of good at a lot of things — and I think that is the number one positive trait that has enabled me to wear many hats and get a lot done in a short amount of time.
Was it just us, or did anyone else have an excruciatingly difficult week? Well, while we were suffering, Brian Krans was TTLY getting his share of online blade LULZ, UGTBKs, LMAOs, and wwwWTFs. And good for him. Somebody has to do it. So in keeping with a now weekly tradition, here’s his latest batch of online rants. Surprisingly, given the recent trend, this one is the least NSFW yet. Is that an improvement? You tell us. — ONE
Sean Knight is one of the few rollerbladers I know who actually live on their blades. From the moment he wakes up, he has to put his blades on for his work day as an Inline Instructor for the Calgary-based company Alien Inline. As soon as the work day is over, he hits the streets with his partner in crime, “DP,” getting clips for their monthly edits for Shop-Task.com. For the past nine months Sean has managed to put out a fresh edit every month with DP, filled with more sick clips than most “pros” get in a year. His hard work has not gone unnoticed; after a few months of receiving skates from Shop Task he began to receive skates directly from Xsjado/Integrated Distribution. Sean is shining example of professionalism in our industry, representing his sponsors, constantly showing the world his blading skills, and spreading the word about our sport to the next generation of bladers…
Coming (maybe) to a town near you is New York City indie rock outfit Stellastarr*. Today they released their third studio effort, titled Civilzed. Here’s the track “Freak Out”. They’re kinda glam-y, but we suspect a lot of that album polish will dissolve into cool grit during a show. Which is why we’ll be checking them out in San Diego on July 30th when they hit The Casbah. — ONE
ONE Issue #14 features a FOLIO profile on long-time blade photographer-turned-visual artist Dan Busta. Roommate, friend and fellow photographer Ryan Schude provides a brief but accurate summation of Dan’s achievements and work philosophy, but what most bladers will dig is a collection of Dan’s most classic skate imagery. Without showing off too much, here’s a taste of some of the memories we packed into the latest issue. — ONE
A long time ago, in a galaxy, er, magazine, not so far away, there was once a section on pro bladers and their superstitions. At the time, guys like Randy Spizer and Champion Baumstimler or Nick Riggle had little figiddy things they’d do before a trick to ward of said superstition’s demons, and it sort of became a “thing.” But when asked to talk about what these little rituals or spiritual guidelines were, the answers were pretty fascinating. So, after remembering all this, we decided it wouldn’t be too hard to ask some current bladers what sort of things they do for good luck, or to keep away the bad. People of all cultures and faiths have their SUPERSTITIONS, and here Brett Davosic shares one of his… complete with a bonus pic from his pop’s photo stash. — ONE
If you ever come to Brooklyn, you will notice all of these big electrical boxes. I told Damian Michalski that I would like to get a photo of him on one of these. Damian is 16 years old and currently lives in Staten Island, but has spent most of his life growing up in Brooklyn. He has been skating pretty much since I first met him and his brother seven years ago. Damian is a young talent and sure to just keep on getting better as time comes. He called me up one morning telling me that he finally wanted to get the pic, and that he wanted to get True Top Soyale. I was stoked, and knew it would be a great photo. Once there, we had a few problems with some people just stopping and getting in the way, but when it was clear Damian came up and laced the TTS. Check out the family in the background, I am guessing it is the first time they ever saw anything as cool as this. — Drew Humphrey
Our good friends behind the LA All Day events are bringing their competition series to San Diego on July 25th. Helping make the event happen is former pro blader Aaron Churder, who happens to be the grand pooh-bah at Chula Vista’s own Boys and Girls Club Skatepark. Given LA All Day’s roots at the Santa Monica Boys and Girls Club, it’s a perfect match. Come out to a day that’s 100% postitive for blading, dedicated to promoting the sport while fueling a new generation of bladers. Find full details at the La All Day site, and look for coverage post-event right here. — ONE
Whoa, if you were paying attention, this was a pretty controversial week online for rollerblading. From a douchey call-out on the Howard Stern show, to bare-all message board threads, and three prominent MN bladers cruising the scene dressed like it’s 2001, Krans had plenty of material to troll through for this week’s installment of WEB ROLL. — ONE
About a week ago we got an email from this guy in New York who was pissed off that some other emails he’d sent never got responded to. Well, after changing email hosts a few months ago, no one had been checking the “submit” account. Oops. After apologizing, the ensuing dialogue brought ONE into contact with Art of Rolling creator Angelo Ferrer. And now that conversation brings us to this picture of Chauncey Jenkins, and marks the first installment of Angelo’s PHOTO JOURNAL. He assures us there are more to come, and we look forward to seeing more of what’s going on in NYC. — ONE
Geez, it’s been a long time since we offered up any desktop wallpaper designs, so we figured it was time to get back to it. Here’s a little number you might recognize from Alex’s Skater of the Year interview, shot by Brandon Smith. Little known fact: this was a shot we wanted to use for the covers (with the image stretching across the front and back), but logo placement and Alex’s location in the shot related to where the magazine folds made it impossible. Oh well, your monitor don’t care — post it up! — ONE
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As mentioned in his ONE 15 MINUTES, long-time blade warrior Chris Mitchell wrote a memoir about his time “undercover” at Disney World doing inline shows. He learned that like him, the cast members at Disney can be, um, mischievous, and then went and wrote a book all about it. Now it’s going to press, with a release date of when? January… 2010! — ONE
Sometimes a rainy day leads to skating an obstacle that people would not normally skate. On this wet and rainy day in Philadelphia, we decided on heading out to this parking lot and just having fun with the whole crew. We came up on a ShopRite cart that Alf and JonJon started jumping over and grinding. I though I could get some cool pics of them and took my camera out. After a few shots, I noticed the reflection I was getting from the puddle left behind by the rain. So we moved the cart closer to the puddle to get the reflection that we wanted. After JonJon did a few Fishbrains on the handle of the cart, I knew I got the one I liked. — Drew Humphrey
Wow, a week of starring at his computer screen must have rotted Krans’ brain, ’cause this week’s WEB ROLL is a little, um, loopy. Get a dose of what Brian thinks about the video ad for the USD VIII skate, the new VX summer line, vixens sewing Valos and more in this third installment of WEB ROLL, your dose of Friday frivolity to kick off the weekend. — ONE
I believe that there are spots that inspire you every time you skate them, and for me this ledge is one of those spots. It’s located on the opposite side of the river from Wawel Castel in Cracow, Poland. Beautiful view, relaxing area, a place to park a car near it — the perfect spot. The only problem with it (for the photographer only, of course) is that the ledge starts and… almost never ends. It’s about 30–40 meters long, and its end is connected to the building. Length and surrounding buildings limit the variety of framing options we can shoot it from to get a “proper inline shot” (the obvious choice would be a picture taken at acute angle from the begining of the ledge — a poor decision I`d say). After a few test shots I decided to break some rules, showing only the begining of the ledge and no landing. Results? Take a look. — Kuba Urbanczyk
Here’s a true mixed-media BLADE LIFE from Dan Barnes. Spend the day sessioning spots with Dan, Nick Demarchi and Ricky Coster as they take a road trip to Syracuse, NY. Complete with two pics and an edit, be sure to check out the full post below the break. — ONE
Long years as a rollerblader have given Tracy White a respect for the memorabilia surrounding the sport, and he finally let ONE and a select ground of AZ rollers into his secret ‘Blade Museum’ to check out his private stash. Primarily focusing on projects in which he’d participated like Bauer and 4Dub, there were plenty of other established classics amongst the collection. We snapped these pics to let you get a taste for yourselves. — ONE
Saturday’s LA All Day event gave JE the perfect opportunity to check out the HD video feature on his new Powershot SD960 IS pocket rocket. Learning quickly about the zoom/focus limitations, overall the test was a success — mostly in figuring out how to use it more effectively next time. However, it seemed like a waste to not show some highlights from the Elite Division, so we put together this edit to show you why you should plan to be at the next All Day event, on July 25, location to be announced (but already in the works). Props to all the skaters who came out to the Boys and Girls Club skatepark in Santa Monica to shred or check out the scene. Enjoy the edit. — ONE
The second event of the 2009 LA All Day series went down on Saturday, and it was another great day for blading in sunny Santa Monica. We’ll start at the end, when Sean Cowen, Ricky Rodriguez, Tony Rivituso and Jeremy Cloe were named the top four for the Elite division. The whole elite division ripped, but Cowen displayed his lengthly line prowess for the win with Rodriguez’s growing list of technical tricks propelling him to second. Check out these shots of some of the sights around the event, and stay tuned for additional event photos and video coming soon. — ONE
Brian Krans is back for his second installment of WEB ROLL. A.K.A. This Week in Online Blading. Some highlights include a look at the one-sidedness of sponsor promoted “reviews”, the debate sparked by the reappearance of Josh Letona’s pants, the Euro Comp pop that just happened, and awkward things bladers say on message boards to get attention. If you were sleeping on the web this week you don’t want to miss this. — ONE
Gerben Kuiper spotted this rail a long time ago, and ever since he’s been bragging about how many grinds he’d be able to pull on it. In his mind he thought he could use the little bump to get more air. In reality it was not like that. The so-called mini-bank ended up being more of an obstacle and, to make things worse, the square rail is next to speeding traffic. Not really an ideal skate spot. But for a photo it is perfect! After several attempts with a shin as blue as the rail, Gerben souled it from bank to bank. I used two flashes (left and front) to capture the fast movement of the skater and I opened the shutter for one second to capture the speeding traffic. The flashes went off right before the shutter closed. You can find this rail above the train platforms at Central Station in The Hague. (technical data: 17mm, 1 sec, F6,3, 200 iso) — Thomas Vahe
ONE #14 hits the warehouse in a few days with feature coverage of Minnesota’s Chris Farmer. The subject of praise and ridicule since he first burst on the scene, Chris has grown beyond the debate to discover his own voice and personality. And it’s all on display here. From family life, to his musical background, skate evolution and beyond, love him or leave him, you’ll want to read this interview and see these photos. Shot entirely in the land of 10,000 lakes, Chris worked with fellow MN native John Haynes to get his skating captured just the way he wanted it. And now it’s almost here. — ONE
First and foremost, you have many a title: cinematographer, entrepreneur, alleged baby-eater and skater, you are what some may call, a jack-of-all-trades. What the people want to know is: who is the real Adam Johnson?
Well, if you ask my real close friends, the ones I’ve been around 15 plus years, they will all tell you I’m an asshole. You ask my mom and she will tell you I am the nicest kid in the world. Ask a random skater from the late ’90s and they will tell you I’m an alcoholic. Ask a new school grom and they probably won’t be able to tell you who I am because they don’t own “KFC3.” If you ask me though, I would tell you I am just a real-ass dude who tells it how it is…
All the way from across the Atlantic, I bring you this PHOTO JOURNAL straight from the Netherlands. Although it took him some time to master the curb perfectly, doing spots like this one for a photographer is no problem for Rik van Huijk. As he was in the process of perfecting this Back Royale, it gave me the time to find the right angle and frame for the shot. I used my favorite 50mm 1.4 lens. To get more defined and brighter colors I used a polarization filter that I always use when the weather is nice. This spot can be found near the train station in Zoetermeer, a suburb of The Hague full of sick skate spots (approximately 45 minutes from Amsterdam). Give us a shout if you’re ever in the area, we’re always down to roll! (technical data: 1/1000, F4, 200 iso) — Thomas Vahe
Like you, our novel-writing, crime beat-covering blader buddy Brian Krans spends a lot of time each week — heck, each day — getting his world wide web blade session on through the pixel-rendered majesty of his trusty computer. And now he’s got a reason to keep it up. Introducing WEB ROLL, a new weekly column where the week’s online blade chatter gets broken down for those without the hours to burn online. From the most ridiculous message board comments to actual interesting news, Krans will be prowling the web for the lurid details of real blade culture. After all, in this day and age, you are what you post. — ONE
Digital cameras seem to make the world go ’round these days, but John Haynes shares his love of 4×5 film cameras and the process he used to capture this image of skater Dereck Larsen. If you like the look of this, be sure to check out John’s “Diana Summer” BLADE LIFE article. — ONE
There’s this guy I know who wears what most would call women’s pants. He also doesn’t shave much, sports a mullet and enjoys the color pink. He gets away with all of this by calling himself an artist! Well, he’s always said, “Randy Spizer was the first true rollerblader.” Meaning that the other pros at the time, who were much older than Randy, came from other action-sport backgrounds. Randy was a true roller, and the guy who wears girls’ pants was right! Randy skated and traveled all over the world, and he has inspired a planet just by being himself! — Mike Opalek
Mirek at Hedonskate got us hooked up with photographer Kuba Urbanczyk, and we’re pleased to present the first of a couple international PHOTO JOURNALS we’ve got in the works. Read this for a glimpse of blading in Poland, and to learn a bit about how Kuba got the shot. Stay tuned for more! — ONE
ONE met up with Apes of Wrath vocalist and guitarist Rob Kent for our Issue #13 Sound Check interview. Hanging out on the patio of the bar where Rob can often be found slinging cocktails, rain falling beyond the awning, the band’s history and quick rise to notoriety came into perspective. But there’s three more things the casual reader should know about the band: Apes is getting more and more attention around San Diego, their rehearsal space is in the Rat Tail warehouse, and the guy pounding the skins is Jon Elliott’s brother. — ONE
ONE #14 is off the press and on its way to our secret hideout right now. The rest of the print world sheds pages while ONE keeps it heavy with a straight-up Minnesota-style Farmer Interview shot by hometown hero John Haynes, Brandon Smith knocks down the photos that help explain just how talented Ross Kuhn really is, while ONEvideo standout Mark Wojda grabs the Am Hour, Sean Kelso gives a Take 5, BCSD 2009 gets a unique perspective, blade photo legend Dan Busta delivers a Folio, Dave Paine breaks off a chunk of history in his 15 Minutes, and much, much more. Reserve your copy now, or look for it in shops this month.
New ONE contributor Ben Karris told us about a tattoo shop in Phoenix that a rollerblader recently opened. We thought it sounded pretty cool, and like a good story for an eager young journalist to tackle, so we let him have at it. Check out these pics and words about Derik Fenstermacher’s new shop to learn how he’s turning his passion into a business. — ONE
Word just came through from Oleg Marchenko in the Ukraine who had this to say about their ONEvideo premiere event: “Sorry for such long respond.. I was out of city… We have made ONE premiere in cinema! It was cool! I attached some photos to you. I hope tomorrow I will be able to send more and in big resolution! Thanks for your help with organizing this event! Everybody were shocked after ONEvideo! It was amazing!! COOL!!!” Those pictures he mentions are posted inside. — ONE
2008 was a great year for Alex Broskow, a year capped off with winning the inaugural title of ONE Skater of the Year, and we’re pleased to finally have his interview cut and edited for online viewing. Learn about how Alex handles filming for multiple projects, promoting his sponsors, working on Vibralux, and finding ways to express himself on blades. Your votes nominated and awarded Alex this special title, now get what you voted for with this revealing look at one of blading’s best. Don’t forget to check out his Issue #13 cover shot here. — ONE
Our NorCal photo man Nick Korompilas comes through with a lil’ diddy from fellow Sacramento blader Sean Keane. Check out the whole deal and get a scoop on why Nick wasn’t sold on some of the choices that he made in shooting this generally pretty fresh clip. Steep, skinny square rail anyone? — ONE
Not five minutes after saying, “I don’t want to skate a drop rail,” here was Michael Froemling skating a drop rail during an unexpected detour. Surely when he spoke he’d been thinking of a much easier spot than this aluminum deal with wooden planks for a runway, steps and landing. But it didn’t faze him…
Drew just sent in another small batch of update photos from his little jaunt across Florida with Joey Chase and Co., and in addition to this swell number with Michael Braud, Drew included a fun story about what some might call arson. For a taste of life on the road, out-of-state, and heading out of control, keep your eyes open for more. — ONE
Blake Taylor and his A/V crew just supplied us with this official edit of the 2009 Panhandle Pow-Wow. See how David Sizemore shredded his way to victory, and catch all the other great skating that went down throughout the comp. If you couldn’t make it to the event, then be sure to check this out. And stay tuned for more updates on Drew Amato’s tour through Florida with Joey Chase and Jon Jon Bolino, coming soon. — ONE
Haynes sent in a new batch of photos, among which there were two angles of the same trick from Brett Dasovic. Not sure if we’d have a chance to print either of the shots, we set John out to write about them. As it turns out, there was more to the story than we anticipated, including some “photo assistance” from Jeph Howard. Find yourself thinking about what photos can look like from different angles? This PHOTO JOURNAL’s for you. — ONE
The Panhandle Pow-Wow just went down. After party to come. Here’s the results:
1st — David Sizemore (GA)
2nd — Jon Jon Bolino (NJ)
3rd — Tim Taylor (SC)
Holy smokes! After sitting back and scratching ours heads at the “micro-blogging” craze that’s sweeping the world, we thought, “Hey, what the hell. Let’s give it a try.” And that’s just what we’re doing with our new page over at Twitter. We’ll have more cross-platform integration coming together over the next couple days, so expect to be hearing about it, one way or the other. — ONE
Panhandle Pow-Wow organizer Blake Taylor just finished up the sponsor grind boxes that will be stashed all around the Tallahassee City Skatepark to add some extra trick options during the comp. But as usual there’s more to the Pow-Wow weekend than just the comp, so check out the site for the full schedule, locations, updates, registration and more. ONE East Coast photo goomba Drew Amato will be there to capture all the action too, so get your asses out of his way when he’s shooin’, and get ready for a good time. — ONE
Skating in Buffalo can often times feel like you are just going through the motions. What I mean is that there are weeks at a time where we all find ourselves at the same spots, doing the same tricks, and skating with the same people. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but change is good. The day we shot this photo was a great spring day, which was a nice change from the long and snowy winter we had this year. Dan and I met in the city and skated some ledges. We were there much longer than we typically are, and debated where to go for a new spot. I suggested checking out this kink rail that you can see from the highway, but as luck would have it, there was a tree growing less than a foot from the rail, and it was unskateable. Dan threw out the idea of heading to Niagara Falls to this semi-pro baseball stadium to do this drop ledge from the roof…
Our friends at RollPhilly put together this edit, composed somewhat of footage that didn’t get into the ONEvideo, and were cool enough to lend it to us to show to you, primarily to remind you to check out the ONEvideo (Available everywhere). Featuring clips from Alf, Jon Jon, Anthony Sereni, Nick Danchuk, Mike Johnson, and more, not to mention even having some super-exclusive clips of internet sensation Colin Kelso skating curbs, we’re sure you’ll want to give this your undivided attention. — ONE
We talk a lot about where skating is going, the uncertainty of the future of our industry seems to be perpetually on the minds of skaters everywhere. Recently, I started to think about my personal past with skating. I grew up in a small town in central Minnesota called Glenwood. Glenwood is about two hours north west of Minneapolis, where I live now. Skating in Minneapolis is unlike anywhere else I have ever been. Seasoned pros like Chris Farmer and Jeph Howard regularly skate with people who have only been skating a short time, and everyone gets along. Everyone is so friendly, they would allow a kid from a small farm and lake town in an unheard of part of the state to crash on their floors, which I did frequently while in high school. Their hospitality influenced my skating and helped me become a photographer. I am still friends with all those people I met in my 16th year, and as they influenced me, I like to think that I gave them a little taste of Greater Minnesota. These photos were taken in Glenwood or the surrounding area over a span of eight years, and with any retrospective you get to see progression. Progression of my friends as skaters and progression of my photographic talent. This is what happens when you take the city kids out of the city. — John Haynes
Legendary videographer Beau Cottington hit us up today with news that he found around 500 copies of his career-encompassing retrospective, aptly titled “Respect.” Follow the link to get a copy for only $10 plus shipping. While you’re at Abstract Collective, check out some of Beau’s recent work filming and editing motocross footage. Check out the production credits on those DVDs for more familiar blade names. — ONE
ONE was at the Santa Monica Boys and Girls Club Skatepark on Saturday, April 25th, for the first event of the LA All Day 2009 series. Bladers from all over the Los Angeles area came by to show their support or to skate in the comp, so here’s a glimpse of what went down. Check the LA All Day site for more info, complete list of final results, and info on upcoming events. See you there next time.
Between Brownies, and just living at Bud’s Barn, my first Woodward experience was definitely, well, an experience. Watching Mike Bennett murder anything and everything, and all of the “Park 2″ guys just flowing through the skate parks linking ridiculous lines, I really had to sit down and take it all in. I had a whole new appreciation for park skating. Somewhere in between the breakfast Shannon Rogers had cooked us and the overload of “characters” at Brownies, Killgore came through with a perfect Zero Spin Stale in the new Lot 8. — Drew Amato
LA All Day and AIL have teamed up to offer a chance to win a week at Camp Woodward West! Competitors in the upcoming April 25th LA All Day event can enter a raffle for a shot at winning a free week at camp. For more details visit the LA All Day site, or better yet be sure to come check out the event on Saturday.
ONE has just confirmed with Jeff Dalnas that he is indeed now riding Pro for USD. After having just officially joined the team in February, Jeff’s move from Am to Pro in such a short time seems unprecedented in recent years for a brand like The Conference which prides itself on long-term relationships. “I was pretty surprised myself, but the move to USD has been great. I thought when my last sponsor fired me it was the worst thing that could happen,” said Jeff, “but instead I ended up with this cool opportunity.” So congrats to Jeff for his new post, and a tip of the hat to USD for picking up a talented shredder. It seems the change is part of a larger shake up at the German-based blade conglomerate, with more details (maybe) coming soon. — ONE
Snow is a memory that does not seem to want to be distant in the minds of Minnesotans. We deal with the stuff for five months, and the mud for two. I took this photo of Kevin Meland at a spot built by skateboarders on March 21st and it was 60 degrees. On March 31st we got hit with a blizzard dumping 16 inches in parts of the state. Even without snow, you can see the factor mud played while Kevin maneuvered to a Zero Porn over the dirt channel. This is in a largely deserted industrial part of west Minneapolis, and the spot has been overgrown with saplings and the concrete is cracked from the winters. I really wanted to communicate the grittiness of the environment itself when choosing my angle. It’s also important to talk to the skater you are shooting and make sure they are doing a trick that works well with your angle. The light was low in the sky to camera left, lighting the spot nicely and dappling the street with shadows that made Kevin’s white shirt really jump off at you. I placed a Dyna-Lite Jack Rabbit II light almost perpendicular to Kevin for a softer overall fill, with a Metz flash back 3/4ths to give him a rim light. The overall lighting from the left and the tightly controlled light on only Kevin from the right draw attention to Kevin quickly and give it a surreal look while still being anchored in the over all scene and not looking fake. — John Haynes
Ever thought of blading in a yacht parking lot? A few weeks ago, Dallas Kilpatrick called me, juiced about this gap over a fence, across water and onto a dock on Lake Michigan. We set out to shoot it a few days later, before the marina filled up for the season. Sure, all those big boats would make for a cool picture, but it would also mean far tighter security.
Dallas navigated a nasty run-up, pushed through a fierce headwind and avoided a patrolling cop to lace several straight airs, but ultimately it was his skates clipping the fence on a 180 attempt that forced us to call it quits before we got the money shot. In fact, why don’t you check out footage of that fall (and a whole lot of others from Dallas) in this edit by Andrew Kazlauskas. — Adam Morris
Hey ONE, I’m currently in San Francisco, but before I left Santee, Lyle had a really big fall off a three-story kinked rail and ended up going to the hospital. I spoke to the guys and they said I could email you this… maybe you want to put it up on the site with the pics from the day. Pretty scary time but he’ll be okay. — Dale Travers
In Issue #13, Chris Haffey shared his passion for skiing in his ALT column. Now Chris’ friends at LINE Skis have posted the article on their blog, which is pretty cool.
Chris Mitchell spouted off so many thought-provoking opinions in his 15 Minutes from Issue #12 that we decided to publish the entire text online. Long-time friend Mike Opalek gets Chris on the record about Box Magazine, rollerblading’s true roots, skating in the movies, the phrase “aggressive inline,” and why he thinks 2010 is the year that blading is going to resurface on pop culture’s radar. Find out a little bit about the self-described “robinhood of rollerblading” in this excellent read. — ONE
With our persistent nagging, and the motivation of a new camera, Drew Amato has been prowling the streets of Philly, racking photos, generating his share of Photo Journal entries. Here’s the latest featuring Jon Jon Bolino, a fat, close-to-the-wall rail, and a solid stale grab. — ONE
The ONE Two Year Anniversary Issue featured Montre Livingston skating for John Haynes’ camera in Charlotte, and Jeph Howard doing the same in Minnesota. Chris Mitchell brought some enlightening opinions on blading into the public forum in his 15 Minutes, UK rockers The Cribs did a Sound Check, VX toured, Connor O’Brien gave us a Take 5, Erik Stokley got some Am Hour love, and more. If you didn’t get your hands on a copy, or just want to relive all this issue’s glory online, here’s another PDF.
Check out some indoor action from Sacramento as Nick K. and Dustin Dixon head to the skatepark. Though we find out one of the two didn’t get to skate (guess which one?!), seems the trip wasn’t a bad rap at all. Frame meets wood meets shutter and flash in this latest PHOTO JOURNAL installment from NorCal. — ONE
This weekend ONE invites you to a special screening of the ONEvideo at the Rat Tail Open House. If you haven’t seen the video, or just want to celebrate blading with some of your blade-brothers, this is the place. See you then!
One of Milwaukee’s first sessions of the spring just went down, and here’s a snap from it. Buoyed by a bright and presumably warm day, we broke out to see what the thawing streets could offer. Janesville’s Ashley Peterson is the small-town guy with the big tricks. What you see here is Half-cab Top Acid, but knowing A.P. it could have just as easily been a hurricane top acid. (Say what you will about the spin-it-to-win-it tricks, but they’re still cool to see in person and on a legit hand rail.) We stuck around long enough for a few tricks to go down, then moved on to the next spot. I mean, who wants to waste a blustery 40-degree day? That’s practically summer in Wisconsin. — Adam Morris
Our friends at LA All Day posted their 2009 schedule, and we wanted to make sure you got to see it. Wanna know what to do to promote new blading in your town? This is a damn good example.
Whoa, it’s been about a month since our spectacularly dramatic friend Tommy Boy made an appearance around here, but all that silence comes crashing to a halt as he delivers this little ditty with Brenton Wheeler. The Bistro steers the conversation to blading, music and what it means in blade videos, rollerblading dietary habits, pissing off your parents, and worshipping the devil. Mark this beast a must-read. — ONE
Philly rolling history right here for you folks, featuring the stylings of Jimmy Shuda. Catch Shuda’s appearance in the ONEvideo, out now, and get a look at the full shot inside in this latest installment of Drew Amato’s Photo Journal. — ONE
The ONEvideo is in stores now and here’s the latest look at what it delivers. Trailer #2 features footage from the RED camera filming weekend in LA, a happening that brought bladers together for two days of set up, patience, blading and beautiful results. Enjoy this glimpse of Shima and Morales in action, and be sure to get your copy now.
See it on YouTube
2008 champs Jon Jon Bolino, Micheal Froemling and Montre Livingston
The Mad City Throwdown returns to 4 Seasons Skate Park in Madison, Wisconsin for its second year. This year’s event is the third Amateur Inline League stop on the 2009 schedule, and will take place Saturday, April 4 at 4:00PM. This year the event will be MC’d by Bitter Cold Showdown founder and organizer Daniel Kinney. Competitor registration is $25.00 and will consist of three divisions, beginner (14 & under), intermediate and advanced. Spectate and support for just $5.
Photo © Sloan Davis
This was a pretty hard shot to take — not only did it land in a street but the gap itself was pretty big, which made it hard to light, and it was starting to get a bit dark. My main concern was lighting Jeff Jackson up so that he wouldn’t get lost in the background, which was dark just like his hoodie — so I set one flash directly to the front side of him and one behind the bush at the bottom of the rail so he would pop. Then, to light up the foreground, I used my third flash. Unfortunately the space was limited because it was in the middle of a road and I was only using a speedlite, so it wasn’t as bright as I would have liked. After I got setup, Jeff laced this Frontside to Gap perfectly, with a grab out.— Nick Korompilas
Ivan Narez filmed, edited and contributed the epic NorCal scene section of the ONEvideo. Today he launched the production blog for his upcoming flick “Connected.” His first post is about working on the ONEvideo project, and he’s got a cool gallery of still frames from the edit. If this edit was a taste of what’s coming in “Connected,” you can bet it’s gonna be real good.
Alex Broskow, your first-ever ONE Skater of the Year, takes the cover of Issue #13. This issue is more jam-packed with content than ever before: 12 pages with Alex shot by Brandon Smith, Jero delivers a Spotlight on Don Bambrick with words by Al Dolega, filming for “Park 2″ in the Caymans by your boys Drew Amato and Ross Anthony, Take 5 with Dominic Sagona, Adam and Keith Brierly Am Hours, 15 Minutes with Randy Spizer, and the biggest photo gallery we’ve ever run. This ONE speaks for itself. Get a copy in your hands and feel it.
The Northeast Media dudes were touring around, working on their new flick “It’s About Time,” and part of that was importing Winston Wardwell for a week to do deals. This is a story about those deals… and traveling around the upper East Coast. Check it out. — ONE
ONE chops it up with Bitter Cold Showdown founder Daniel Kinney to get the latest on this year’s involvement with the W.R.S., how contests should be judged, the public outreach initiative, and more. If you’re planning to attend BCSD you should check this out. — ONE
This is something you should be looking for Saturday at the BCSD. Second trailer… soon.
Check it out on YouTube!
ONEvideo_trailer720p HD [1:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2820)
ONEvideo_trailer720p iPod [1:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (863)
Catch up with shredder, photographer, and distributor Brandon Smith to learn a bit about his thoughts on the current state of blading, and where he sees it all going. Having traveled the world with Valo and Them Goods, he’s got a pretty wide-open perspective on the whole thing, and given the whole post-Winterclash argument that’s sprung up elsewhere, this is a fascinating, recommended read. — ONE
U.K.-based photographer Dale Travers is in the United States for Bittercold Showdown, but right now he’s in Texas. Check out this shot of Fritz Peitzner and read the story about how Dale got the pic. — ONE
After attending our first Winterclash last year, ONE was for sure onboard for another European adventure to this year’s event. Though only one half of the ONE duo would be able to make the trip, on the Thursday preceding the contest JE met up with Sean and Colin Kelso, Adam Killgore, Montre Livingston, Jonjon Bolino and Jeff Stockwell in Amsterdam to unwind, pick up a rental van, and get on the road to Belgium. But as we all know, that was not to be. So instead we headed to Eindhoven, which meant all five days of our trip would be in The Netherlands. An unexpected surprise leading to the most hectic Winterclash to date. This is how it went down on our end. — ONE
After more than a year of filming and planning, the first-ever ONEvideo is just about ready for duplication. If you’ll be at Winterclash this weekend expect a special Sneak Peak Premiere Friday night, and then get ready for the official DVD release at the 2009 BCSD tradeshow! In the meantime, check out these HD and iPod formatted trailers for an idea of what to expect. We’ll have more trailers and info coming at you over the next two weeks, so stay tuned… and enjoy!
Check it out on YouTube!
ONEvideo_trailer720p HD: Download (2820) ONEvideo_trailer720p iPod: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (863)
Changing gears to the lifestyle portion of our program, Tommy Boy makes some time with Barbie, girlfriend of notorious blade character Sean Cullen, going straight to the source for insight on the creator of videos like “The Apple That Fell Far From The Tree” and “Rough Times In Babylon.” Worshipped by some and damned by many, Sean Sea is one of the most influential, most underground bladers to ever strap on the boots. See what his lady has to say about him, and living with this force of nature. — ONE
So a couple months ago on a Friday night ONE found itself at a posh Hollywood hotel meeting up with England’s punk/rock-press-darlings The Enemy (UK). Even though they’d been put through the ringer during a 6-hour photo shoot for SPIN earlier that day, these lads were hospitable, upbeat, and ready to share their opinion. Check out this conversation with guitarist and lead vocalist Tom Clarke. — ONE
Adam Morris checks in from Wisconsin with a new PHOTO JOURNAL that not only spells out the technical steps of capturing these pictures (yeah, there’s a blade shot inside!), but also shares a lesson learned in never passing up an opportunity to shoot a photo. That’s good advice! — ONE
Dan Barnes shares another peek into his BLADE LIFE with this sunset AO Topside Pornstar. Get a quick lesson in snappy, dedicated photographers, a lucky spot find, and the upside of understanding your area’s weather patterns. — ONE
While sub-zero temperatures and recurring blankets of snow remind most of the Northern Hemisphere that winter is here and determined to freeze your ass, Chicago blader Paul John got out in the streets with Collin Martin on the shutter to show that nasty cold can’t keep these guys down. Tommy Boy puts PJ through the paces as we learn a little too much about what Tommy Boy’s been thinking about and a lot about what’s on PJ’s mind. TOMMY TALK continues with installment numero dos… — ONE
In his first-ever feature interview, 2008 break-out blade talent Montre Livingston discusses life in the Carolinas, getting picked by Brian Shima for Nimh, the support his family gives his skating, and the transition from skateboarding to blades. “Say Word” captain Kenny Owens joins in as special guest dishing the dirt and sharing the laughs as Montre’s dynamic personality shines bright for all to see. Check out the full interview shot by John Haynes in ONE #12, and see Montre’s cover shot here!
Tommy Boy moved to San Diego bursting with energy and enthusiasm, but not sure how to harness it all. So we asked him to work up some content in coordination with his network of homies and hoes all over the place, and the result is our new feature TOMMY TALK. Check out the underrepresented talent and personalities he’ll be featuring in the weeks and months to come, starting off with NorCal’s own Sean Keane. — ONE
Issue #12 workhorse John Haynes just sent us a new PHOTO JOURNAL, and we’ve got it ready to share. Yes, he shot a whole lot of the new issue. Yes, John also shot the Haffey 540 sequence we’re using as the site header right now, and no, he didn’t get hit by a fast-moving blader or car in the process of getting this shot. Read how it all went down. — ONE
It’s a new year, now let’s go make some new friends! Each dedicated rollerblader wants to see our sport and culture grow to its fullest potential, and Get Someone to Blade Day is here to remind us that one person can make a difference. But getting a new person on blades is about more than just making a new rollerblader, it’s a chance to share the unique awesomeness that is blade culture with new people; to pass the fun you get from blading on to someone else’s life. It’s a win-win situation all around. So don’t be shy. Keep your old blades in your trunk and when you hit up the park next time, get them on a pair of feet. Drag your non-skating friends in with you to the local skate shop. Bring ‘em to the video premieres and events in your area. This may sound like a no-brainer to some of us, but there’s plenty of you out there being greedy and keeping blading all to yourselves! No fair! You want your pros to earn more cheddar and your favorite company to make even cooler gear? Go the extra mile and do what you can to help make a whole new army of rollers. Let’s consider this post a forum to discuss ways to get your local scene involved and a place to brainstorm ideas. We’re here to help however we can, so let us know what we can do to help you Get Someone to Blade! — ONE
Get ready for the second installment of Dan Barne’s BLADE LIFE. This time Dan and photographer Nick Demarchi hit up Niagra University for some 100-year-old ledge action. Read along as Dan explains how it all came together. — ONE
It’s better to give than receive (we’re told!), but ’tis the season and what better time to share the complete PDF of ONE Issue #11. Colin Kelso, Austin Paz, The Subways, Rachard Johnson, WCR, Summerclash, Tracy White and everything else you expect ONE to deliver make this an issue worth checking out again and again. Spreadin’ it around since ‘06–Happy Holidays from ONE.
L.A. blader Byron “Snatchy Waters” landed himself on the cover of the new SoCal blade DVD “Shot From Dark,” and gets another healthy dose of exposure in this promo edit from project masterminds Dustin Thompson and Ryan Kofman. Watch Byron show off his trick vocabulary while sessioning a couple spots for the cameras, and play along with a little game we call “guess the camera-guy.”
OMG! Like, another installment of BLADE LIFE! Brooklyn’s own Josh Diaz headed down to Puerto Rico to skate with Franky Morales and Julian Bah during a series of demos. Instead, they had one good afternoon and night shooting before the rain came. Here’s a bit from Josh about his expedition. — ONE
Recently relocating from Iowa to Wisconsin, ONE copy editor and regular contributor Adam Morris resurrects his PHOTO JOURNAL in a new town, with a new crew of skaters, and new spots to discover. Here we hear about one such excursion and the details on this backside royale across and up the rail to mute 180 out by Greg Schlosser. — ONE
BLADE LIFE is an idea that we’ve used in different ways since its beginnings, but the intention was always to provide a skater with a portal through which they could show people what it was like being a rollerblader. Sometimes we’ve used it to show life on tour, and other times we’ve highlighted pros like Dominic Sagona, but in each instance the story is the same: life as a blader. And now that torch is handed off to Hamburg, New York skater Dan Barnes. We first met when Dan came to California to get clips for the ONE video. Later the idea was born for him to show what it takes to be a skater of his caliber when living somewhere like upstate NY. Dan thought the idea sounded promising, so he’s been busy shooting photos and getting clips for a series of these posts about what’s going on in his area in regards to blading and, well, just being a blader. Enjoy his first entry. — ONE
Just in time for the holiday rounds, the ONE Two Year Anniversary Issue delivers the goods on Charlotte, NC’s breakout blader Montre Livingston. Shot on location in Charlotte by John Haynes, get a all-around look at the many sides of Montre’s skating, and read along with Kenny Owens and JE as they expose this infectiously fun personality to the global skating community. Joining Montre this issue is Minnesota’s own Jeph Howard, the undercover legend who’s eager to show off his elevated level of blading, featuring a powerful profile written by long-time friend John Haynes. There’s also a history and perspective-filled 15 Minutes with Chris Mitchell; quick VX filming tour write up by Michael Garlinghouse with Haffey, Broskow and Farmer; and with gallery pics from Morales, Bagozzi, Braud and Powell, ONE #12 is a celebration of blading we can all enjoy.
Sacramento scene fixture Dustin Dixon and photographer Nick Korompilas team up to provide a clip for another PHOTO JOURNAL out of Northern California. Warm lighting and a clean 540 make for a nice combination!
Finding ONE in the United States and Canada has never been easier, thanks to the new ONE Newsstand Locator we’ve set up on Google Maps. Use it to find the closest retailer in your area, or help a friend get his hands on the latest ONE! Either way, we’ll keep updating it as more outlets become available (watch out international newsstands!) and add all the real deal blade shops to it, too.
ONE #12 marks our Two Year Anniversary, and to celebrate the occasion we’ve put together an especially hard-hitting issue! Featuring an INTERVIEW with 2008 break-out star Montre Livingston, SPOTLIGHT coverage with Jeph Howard, TAKE 5 with Connor O’Brien, Andrew Cleary FOLIO, 15 MINUTES with blade forefather Chris Mitchell, SOUND CHECK with The Enemy UK, TOUR with VX in MN, and COMP coverage of the SDSF Open, this is another ONE you do not want to miss. So don’t! Subscribe now, or pick up a copy at a Barnes & Nobles, Hastings, independent newsstand, or skate shop near you.
The results are in. After five months, 2,500+ individually submitted nominations, and sorting through over 4,000 votes, Alex Broskow has been named the first-ever ONE magazine Skater of the Year. Collecting 25.29% of the votes cast, the victory was decisive, and speaks to the depth Alex’s international popularity. We’ll find out what Alex thinks about earning this title with special coverage in an upcoming issue, but you can see even more of him soon in a variety of highly-anticipated videos such as “Valo 3,” 4×4’s “Drip Drop,” and the Vibralux team video. Our sincerest congratulations go out to Alex, and to all of our Top 10 Nominated Finalists, and a load of thanks goes out to all the readers and bladers who took the time to participate.
Photo © 2008 Wes Driver.
John Haynes is unstoppable. Or at least the seemingly-never-ending stream of photos coming from Minneapolis thanks to his efforts is unstoppable. Either way, we’ve always got plenty of John’s work swirling around, so here’s a new PHOTO JOURNAL showcasing the wonder of natural light… and a really nice AO Soul. — ONE
For issue #11, ONE headed to the Warner Bros. Records offices in Burbank to meet up with UK garage/punk outfit The Subways. Mid-tour in support of their sophomore release “All Or Nothing” — following their successful 2005 debut “Young For Eternity” which spawned the hit “Rock & Roll Queen” — they were particularly easy-going during the sometimes-monotonous photo/interview process. After shooting with the band we spoke with singer and guitarist Billy Lunn, learning more about the band’s early days, recoding the new album with Butch Vig, and where they find inspiration. —ONE
Our favorite novel-writing, crime-beat-covering blader Brian Krans jumped in a van of fellow Iowa rollers and made the trek down to Plano, Texas for the last-ever Hoedown to be held in the original Eisenberg’s park. Ranging in age from 13 to 41 years old, this is the story of a seemingly unlikely group of bladers going the distance to live through some history. This is another installment of BLADE LIFE. — ONE
During the ’94 migration to Los Angeles to compete in the National Inline Skate Series, or NISS, Tracy White was one Midwesterner who never left. At 18, he jetted from his hometown of Rockford, Ill., and never looked back. Coming from an ice hockey background you might get confused and think he’s Canadian. Or maybe you saw an older photo of him with his dreadlocks and all his ire and you thought to yourself, “No way, mon.… He’s totally Jamaican.” But no, he’s Midwest all the way (and don’t you hate on his Bears, or he’ll have words with you)! — Mike Opalek
Well, there’s been about 4,000 votes cast for the first-ever ONE Skater of the Year award, and we’d like to thank each and every one of you who has taken a moment to participate. Thanks! Your input has made this the first award of its kind in rollerblading… but it’s not over just yet. If you have not voted, you’ve got until Friday, 11/14, to share your opinion with the world. We’ve put the power in your hands to determine this historical decision, don’t miss out!
Our Canadian photo correspondent Chris Wedman has been getting out and about with his local blade crew, and recently sent us a couple shots from their fall sessions in Calgary. One day they ended up at an 85-stair rail…
When I first met Tommy Boy, he would always rave to me about how he would blade everywhere in SF—on the way to work while wearing a suit and tie, on the way home bombing down hills and skitching up them, on the way to the gym, onto his next hot deal. He was proud of being a rollerblader and wore that pride all over San Francisco from the hills to the flats. I was inspired to follow suit…
About 50 lucky bladers at the SDSF Open got their hands on 11″ x 17″ prints of this image Wes Driver captured during the ONE Video Intro filming session. We decided it wasn’t fair to keep this amazing 540 so exclusive, so here’s a PDF you can print out for yourself! We recommend 11″ x 17″, but 8″ x 11″ will do, too. See the action Connor O’brien caught with the RED Camera when the ONE video hits shops this winter!
Carlos Pianowski just sent this edit around showing off what he did during his first week on his USD 10 Year Anniversary skates. Allow the Rollerblading Angel of Death a moment of appreciation as he celebrates 10 years of USD with black metal and a slew of tricks from way south of the border.
Nick Korompilas delivers another PHOTO JOURNAL capturing the action in the Sacramento area. Check out the story behind this solid Fishbrain by Will Cosgrove inside…
Voting begins NOW for the first-ever ONE Skater of the Year award. These ten finalists were determined by YOUR votes (more than 1,500!), and now the power is in your hands again to decide who will earn this prestigious honor. To help you decide we’ve compiled these “stat cards” for each skater, and listed the finalists in alphabetical order (no bias here!). All you have to do is click on your skater of choice, cruise to the bottom of the survey and hit SUBMIT. That’s it! You’ve just participated in the first blade-ocracy of its kind! Now don’t forget to vote again on November 4th in that OTHER election.
Thanks to Austin Paz’s computer and Mike Johnson’s hospitality, ONE was able to get Colin Kelso on video chat for his issue #11 feature interview. Hear Colin himself discuss juggling school and blading, his involvement with R&D for Deshi, filming for “The Truth 2,” why he’s skating freestyle, and a lot more. Check him out on the cover of #11here!
The LA All Day season comes to a close this weekend with the series finals Saturday, October 11. Everything kicks off at 12 noon, so shake a leg on over to the B&G Club Skatepark to check out the event and find out which skaters roll away as Overall Champs!
Dallas Kurtz is one of few people that truly lives the Blade Life. Every day, Dallas gets paid to skate as one of the head blade instructors of Alien Inline, a company that travels around Alberta, Canada, educating school children on the basics of rollerblading. As well as showing them the basics, Dallas plants the seeds of our lifestyle by showing them a few tricks before he leaves…
Drew Amato, riding high on his cover shot of Colin Kelso on ONE #11, just hooked us up with another Photo Journal submission. So check out the full view of this Steve Iacono shot and read the story behind the image when you follow the link…
The AIL World Championships have ended, and the LIVE Streaming video coverage has come and gone. We hope you checked it out and watched the pro comp today—it looked pretty cool on-screen from what we saw! Congrats to winner David Sizemore, second place skater CJ Wellsmore (from Australia), and third place blader Ben Weis. Now check out a couple shots from all the peripheral action to see what else was going on…
ONE #10 became a quick classic with the long-overdue Damien Wilson interview, a look at the skating and attitude of Jon Jon Bolino, a Folio with Micah Barrett, Sound Check with Atmosphere, the deep knowledge shared in the Mike Opalek 15 Minutes, Take 5 with Chris Farmer, Gabriel Hyden Am Hour, and a lot more. So here it is again, for your online viewing pleasure, and you can thank us later… since this baby is all sold out.
NorCal-based Nick Korompilas has been blowing up our inbox with quality pics so we had him hook one up for his first PHOTO JOURNAL. Get a peek inside the mind of this young, up-and-coming photographer when you follow the link…
Woodward West is again playing host to the AIL World Championship weekend. For everyone who can’t get to Tehachapi to attend the event in person, AIL teamed up with ONE to present LIVE, streaming coverage Saturday from 7 pm- 10 pm PST and Sunday for the main competitions from 10 am – 3 pm PST. You’ll be able to visit believeinone.com and watch as skaters like Brian Aragon, Chris Haffey and many, many more compete head-to-head, right in front of your eyes. Check back soon for full broadcast details, or visit the AIL site for everything else.