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Skateboarding in the Olympics? I say no. Haaayuuuul naaaaw.

I humbly present, Skateboard Olympics!

A bit of skating with some of my underground associates, edited by my friend Shawn Fleming, and including the dopest and most fitting song evarz!

Xplex Skatepark from Shawn Fleming on Vimeo.

…but I’ll just let him speak for himself.

Video creds: Boardistan.

Holy shit, we won the Superbowl! Sorry, I’m unusually fuckin’ hyped over here…

First video: dorking in a park right before hitting the new age marker.

Second: Pre Superbowl. I hate football, but I love the Saints because they’re always getting the gas face.

I’m 35 now.

Wow!

Ah bullshit, it’s the same as being 34, just older.

This piece is mainly written towards folks that have some familiarity with skateboarding (as in, active participant or someone who ingests a lot of skate media I guess). Then again, if you don’t skate, this might make some sense… the problem is I just don’t know. After being on board for roughly 25 years now (I hit the big 35 next week), I never know if the way I dialog about skateboarding goes over like a Saints fan (to which I am in spirit ’cause they’re our team) going over all the rules of NFL football to me… so apologies in advance. The site will resume political nonsense and general stupidity shortly.

I try to avoid too much personal crap on here except for skateboarding… there have been exceptions, but for the most part, I like bouncing from one thing to another since most of the people that read this site don’t even skate. Anyways…

Deluxe Distribution
Deluxe Distribution (DLX) is a heavyweight in the world of skateboard hardware, teams, brands, and most importantly… legitimacy. I was fortunate to become friends with several people at DLX, notably “former” pros MicE Reyes (left) and Jim Thiebaud (giving me rabbit ears):

…personally I think of skateboarding pros the same way Marines think about themselves, and by that, I mean “once a pro, always a pro.” Regardless, the company has gone out of it’s way for not only me, but the city I live in and my entire skate community.
Outside of that, I’ve spent hours on the phone, face to face, and skating with Jim, which is all a mindfuck (MicE’s included in this) because growing up, these guys were heroes to me. I recently heard a Ted Talk in which the speaker said “Meeting your childhood heroes is cool.” I’ll one up him and say that befriending your heroes is way better.
(Sorry to embarrass you fellas, but keep in mind that I grew up with you in magazines and videos while living in the middle of the woods.)

I’ve done an ad for Deluxe before (in the form of a video for Spitfire Wheels… a brand I ride exclusively unless I’m doing a product review), and I’ve made my personal bias towards their stuff pretty open in various online networking sites as well as virtual communities. Now I’m stepping it up a notch, and this is how it’s happening:

The skate scenes in Louisiana are clustered and vary in age. In the capital of Baton Rouge and cultural capitols of New Orleans and Lafayette, the skate scenes are healthy, huge, and steeped in long skate histories… Lafayette and Baton Rouge alone account for just about every professional skateboarder I know of to come from Louisiana.

However, to the west, north, and north west of Baton Rouge are some areas with developing skate scenes… small towns that have recently gotten shitty pre-fab parks that I sometimes hit after work since it’s often too dark to skate when I make my commute from BR back to Hammond (because of traffic, my commute home is often over two hours, whereas the three towns are 30 and 40 minutes away). I grew up skating in two of these rural and semi rural locations… part of the old guard in a way. I know a lot of the kids in these areas because of coverage that Hammond has had, as well as from being a You Tube whore (if you do searches for “Louisiana” and “skateboarding” I wind up in the results).

I approached Jim with the idea of letting me do a grassroots sticker campaign… just send me a bunch of stickers, and while I’m skating with these kids I can give them away (stickers are better than money to many skaters, me included) in an attempt to promote Deluxe brands. On one hand, I want to do this to reciprocate the immense amount of support that my crew and I have received from the company, on the other I want to promote what I already feel is the best shit you can get. Even if I’d never met anyone from the company, I’d ride Deluxe gear because it’s just really fucking good. On the third hand, Deluxe is a family of skaters and I consider myself one of the company’s out of town 2nd cousins. They’re my people.

Jim took my idea and stepped it up… he sent a box with boards (I’ll be sporting one or two, a lucky grom on a shitty plank will probably be getting one as well), more stickers than you’d ever believe (not pictured, but you wouldn’t believe, for realz), shirts, and a shit ton of wheels… above and beyond the awesomeness of mere mortals:

A lot of the kids I skate with in these rural suburbs are on some busted gear, or have gear but ride (what I perceive to be) really bunk products. Thanks to Deluxe, a lot of kids in the country are going to be covered in stickers, wearing new threads, and rolling hard on (what I consider) the best wheels on the market (F1 Streetburners to be precise).

This goes out to Deluxe, as well as the kids and skaters I’ll be rolling with in Plaquemine, St. Francisville, and Zachary Louisiana. I appreciate the opportunity to hype up the locals in these towns and keep the fire burning.

Regular will posts resume shortly.

…according to a recent ad campaign from RaceTrac gas stations, if you dip terbaccy, you’ve got mad class. If you smoke cigs, you’re an adult film star from the 80’s with rather nice shoulders.

At one of the Rite Aids in Baton Rouge, it’s cheaper to get tangled in a threesome than it is to buy a bottle of party time wine: