B-MORE State Of Mind

Nick's video the Midwig project just came out and our flow homey Fritz has a good little part in it. He puts out good stuff.

Adam's Awesome SF trip

A clip Adam Dorobiala sent me after his trip to SF about a month ago.

Bolts!

Contest Footage

Some clips Blose filmed during the Advanced/Sponsored Division Tournament (An Annapolis First). We missed a bunch of great tricks, Fritz was the only one to hit the high ledge switch with a huge back 5050, Teta pulled off the hardflip back tail, and Jeff pulled the sickest trick of the day with a huge backside 360 over the pyramid.

Annapolis Contest Photos

Some shots Blose took with my little camera while I was on the Mic. Group shot was the beginner winners (l-r - Matt 2nd, Pierce 3rd, Connor Rode 1st). Intermediate was the best Intermediate contest I have witnessed in my long life, at the end it was a 3 way tie for 1st, after the playoff jam session Conor Zell (5-0 down the hubba) took 1st, with Russell coming in 2nd and Marshall at 3rd. James Williams won the Advanced Sevenfold ledge/rail competition with Fritz Hofer coming in a close second and Gordo ally-ooping into 3rd. I want to give a huge THANK YOU to Sherry and Whitney from Annapolis Parks & Rec and Mrs White the mother who helped us with registration all day, Leonard Brown & Wayne from Atonement along with all of the other skaters who helped judge all day, my homey who helped me keep time all day, and all of the kids who came out and skated with positive attitudes all day, this was the best contest we have ever had here thanks to all of you. We couldn't have made any of this happen without the generous help of our key sponsors Fila, Sevenfold Skateboards, and Split clothing. Big ups to Chad the DANK crew and East of Maui who put on a great game of SKATE after the contest and thanks element for the wax.

Teta's Trick

Chris Teta gets blunted in the middle of on coming traffic during practice at the Annapolis Skate Contest on Saturday.

Tyler Price Mag Minute

My Homey Tyler Price has a sick clip over at the skateboard mag. Tyler got his start with Null Skateboards, do a search on them their videos are good and Tyler has a couple dope parts. Then he ended up on my flow program at element for a hot minute around the same time Caleb and Fritz were getting hooked up their too, then I think it was Pop War for a second and now he's got a part in the new Toebock video.
Speaking of the mag, I got my chirp on in the latest issue.

Knowing Who your Friends are

I want to give a huge shout out to Fila for coming through big time for the Annapolis Skate Contest, providing free shoes for the first place winners in each division, a bunch of hoodies and gear. Thanks for making it possible for me to get some sleep tonight.

James Williams Flow Footage

This was on a flash drive James handed me last Saturday, I forgot about it until just now, enjoy!

Banned in SLC?

\I'm waiting for word from our affiliates in the Great Salt Lake to see how this whole mess got to where it is today, but go check out the website for yourself.
* after a little investigating I found the actual written law here -
4.5.21. Sporting Ramps. No person shall build or use nor shall any person cause, allow,
or permit anyone to build or allow anyone to use any skateboard, roller blade,
bicycle, or snowboard ramp or half-pipe or similar configuration within 800 feet
of a dwelling, except within facilities that have been designated for such use by a
government entity.
(wow I'm bordering on actual journalism here, a skhateboarding first)

Roughneck bart tour 08

This is the first what will hopefully be many clips from the 2008 Roughneck BART tour. Sevenfold is so stoked on board for this year and the future tours.

Annapolis Contest 9-20-2008

Saturday is my second annual contest at Truxton park you can win some Sevenfold Stuff!!!

Atonement Contest Photos

Chris Teta dominated the best trick on the picnic table with Noseblunts, Lipslides, Kgrinds switch and regular, and a bunch of manuals. Christian pulled out the Front big spin heelflip on the one hit wonder hump. Danny from Delaware won the sponsored consistency contest. A young ripper named Austin took Intermediate and little Judah owned the grom division.

All Killer No Filler

The only video I shot at Saturday's contest just happens to be the best second of the day! Matt wasn't even originally planning to skate that day either.

Have a Drink on Me

One of my good friends sweated it out Sunday in the pint glass suit for a good cause - saving breasts from cancer!

Broken English - Promo II

Our Brazilian friends in Colorado put out this new trailer for their video.

BART Tour Sunday 9-14-08

So stoked to be able to help out with this year's BART tour in SF with Roughneck. This is such a great original contest concept, we have been a huge fan of it since day one! Any of our affiliates in Nor Cal need to come out and participate.

500

500th post, When I started this thing a little over a year ago I didn't have a plan, I just felt like the only guy in my universe without a blog. First post was a simple spot check... it's funny that the second ever post (an article Scott wrote for the now defunct Flavor magazine) is most like the direction that we are heading moving forward. It was kind of a journal at first, self portraits of me skating by myself, basketball and my opinions. Originally I would use every 7th post to take a historic American quote and spin into an endorsement of Sevenfold Skateboards, that kind of faded away as the nation focused on the words of today's ambitious politicians. Late 2007 the blog began to finally take the proper shape of things to come, I opened up my vault of old footage over December dropping gifts all month long, even leading to the greatest post we never made (a text message sent in by a former Sevenfold team rider, maybe it will be revealed in the bonus section on the next dvd?kind of like his sack was in what?!...). Talking with shops and people in skateboarding everyday I began to realize that there was a need to put out content that we can not afford to buy in magazines, so the last couple months I have concentrated on the maturation of Skhateboarding, focusing on quality content, some news people should be aware of, still some inside jokes and opinions, regular features and a whole bunch of random skateboarding clips and photos. Happy Skating!

Jim Gray's Letter to Transworld

Good morning bloggers, today I would like to share a letter I read from the abcboards.com site. *A little background info for you younger kids, Jim Gray was pro in the 80's and later started brands such as Acme, A-1 Meats, and Scarecrow. He is well respected in the Orange County circles I used to run in, and here he is explaining what I've been trying to tell you kids this whole time.



My final thoughts I'd like to share with you are derived from a letter I sent the the editors of Transworld Skateboarding Business Magazine last month, but they refused to publish it. You can consider that when wondering if you are being given all the information available about things going on in skateboarding.

American Skateboard Manufacturers and dealers are facing a heavy threat. A few people have decided that their control of skateboarding, and desire for money, are far more important than 30+ years of history and hard work that has made skateboarding what it is. It's too late to stop entirely, but whether manufacturing of Chinese boards (or Bangladesh or whatever will come next) for the high end market will take over, has yet to be proven. There are many factors, much passion, and far too much history to place your bets outright. It's about greed, not need, and I hope skaters and skateboard dealers will take that into account before inadvertently helping destroy our industry here in the states. I offer the following thoughts:

Skateboarding was Born, Raised, and Built in America. Many skateboarders care about this, and will not be sold out easily, especially when they know all their options, and they are starting to be educated, and it will continue.

Does skateboarding, skateboard dealers, or skateboarders benefit from putting several hundred US workers out of work? Who benefits--A communist country, overseas toy companies, and skate brands without factories!!

Price decreases on these imported decks are likely to be short term. It has been proven in other industries that once the US manufacturing base is killed, the wholesale prices will rise right back to where they have been. Can it be proved that this is not the case? The US furniture manufacturing business is almost dead, and now the Chinese made furniture is now selling for about the same price as what the American Made furniture used to sell for, even though it being manufactured for a fraction of the cost. Who won that battle?

It's also only fair to mention that there are already many US manufactured skateboard products that compete with the pricing offered for these China made decks, so why divert the money away to non skaters?

Will these companies going to China open up the door for more sales of major brand names to large chains? I think the passion of skaters who've fought being sold out for generations, and the passion of dealers who've fought off major chain stores for generations as well may be severely underestimated.

Boards that have been coming in for the last 12 to 18 months or more from China into the high end market have not had a "Made in China" label on them. I don't think it's because China boards are so good, and they were proud to sell them. There are some companies still not marking them with their country of origin, and are trying to sell them for the same price. These guys are lying, deceptive cowards who can't sell on an even playing field. Do skaters and dealers appreciate being lied to, or trust those who have been lying to them?

Do you really think we'll get better quality products out of China just because some big name pro told you so? He doesn't buy his boards, and he probably hasn't ridden a "production deck" in years.

How can credibility be given to those who've imported Chinese made products for quite a while and failed to label them "Made in China", as per the Customs Laws and Federal Trade Commission regulations? These same cheaper produced decks have been sold for the same wholesale as the American Made decks for quite some time, until recently, when these guys got caught. Does this add to the trustworthiness of companies who would do this? Beware of the intentions of those willing to use you as pawns in their little game, and lie to you while they are doing it!

Should you take their paid skaters word that the boards are good? I can give you a list of skaters who will tell you all the China boards suck!

Who will win when there is nobody left to do the R&D in America? I can walk 100 feet from here and grab a deck right off the production line, and go skate on it right away. Do you think we lose anything when we have to rely on emails for communication with a country thousands of miles away? "Why does my board weigh more than last time?" I can just hear. "It's the same" might be the reply. "But my team guys say it feels different!" again "It's the same", and since no-one will really ever be able to control what happens over there from here, you will never have a real answer no matter who tries to tell you they will have complete control over their factories.

People that built their factory's capacity up to 40-50,000 decks a month are not just going to walk away from their investments in America? Can you say bloody price war? A factory here in America could sell you a deck for less than a major brand can sell you a supposedly comparable deck from China, so don't you think they'll do that before they just close their doors? Is anyone naive enough to think that won't happen. There are about 5-6 major US Marketing labels who don't have woodshops who are trying to make this happen. The former leader of one of them, now retired, rich, and back in Europe, actually lobbied several other companies to try and get them to go over and do this with him so they didn't look so bad. Do these people deserve any Credibility????

Do you realize that between those 15 or so woodshops in the US, there are at least a couple hundred small brands produced that are not going to take so well to being stepped on an manipulated by a few greedy marketers. Can 5 Goliaths survive 250 little guys nipping at their ankles? I hope the dealers will put Goliath back in his place.

How could it be that 30+ years of US skateboard manufacturing could be outdone in China just like that, or at least according to the paid proponents of this product? Isn't that a little suspect to you?

Bottom line, this is a power play, and a control game. Dealers and skaters do not win. Please put the big boys in their place, and support those who've committed to making their boards in the US. Dealers don't want Walmart, Toy R Us, Sportmart, Sports Authority, Big 5 etc... to take their business from them, skaters don't want to give up their skateparks to inliners and bmx riders, and we don't want China to take our business from us. Lets stick together and kick the sellouts to the curb. It's about time we all did that anyway.

When times get tough, will the Chinese factories support skateboarding to help get it back on its feet. I think not!!

Long live Pure Skateboarding, Run by Skateboarders!!

Jim Gray
Life Long Skateboarder
and Proud Owner of Abc Board Supply

Church and Skate

Anyone following Teta's blog knows that there is going to be an Atonement Contest Saturday the 13th over on Kent Island.

Where's Sevenfoldo?

I found these four on my way to the post office...