2012

50 mph in a straight line down a chip sealed road. This is how they used to race in the 90′s. 2012 is a new day an age and skateboarding has come a long way since the 90′s. Downhill skateboard races nowadays aren’t considered exciting unless there are turns and what not.

Not dump road though. The race has been running for quite some time and is part of the infamous Cali Outlaw Series. No sponsors, no permits, just a group of friends both old and new meeting up to race a road nestled in the Badlands of California.

The race is exciting and each finish is a photo finish. The packs are so tight and it actually takes some strategy to win.

Some try to push out to the front of the pack and stay there while others try to get into that persons draft in an attempt to pass them somewhere along the way down the almost 1 mile stretch of road.

Riders pay their entry fees, run a few practice runs followed by the race runs. Heats are run, riders are eliminated and finally it becomes time for the finals. Everyone cheers on their friends and a champion is crowned.

Open Class

1st- Tim Del Rosario

2nd- Daniel Luna

3rd- Key Dougherty

Groms

1st- Ethan Vinograd

2nd- Chance Gaul

3rd- Roger Jones

Luge

1st- Mike Mc Intyre

2nd- Key Dougherty

3rd- John Rogers

Bonelli is always a fun time but as far as all the racers are concerned it’s a super lame race…..yet they still come.
The course used to be a straight line until quite a few years back now they added the right hand turn into it.
The turn is kind of technical though. It is pretty flat after the turn so riders must hold their speed as much as possible through the turn to win it.

This causes many crashes since everyone is trying to take the line as fast as they can but not so fast that they slide or crash into the hay bails.
The hay bails lining the turn are the best 3rd basemen in skateboarding. I call it crash corner due to the large amount of crashes.

This actually makes for a very entertaining event for the spectators also.
There seemed to be a lot less crashes this year compared to the 2010 or 2011 races we attended. That’s not to say there weren’t a lot of crashes, but there weren’t as many.

For those who don’t already know Bonelli is a sanctioned IGSA race. It is actually the U.S. Nationals. The race is not just downhill skateboarding but also includes street luge, classic street luge and inline rollerblading.
The big story of the day is 18 year old Daniel Luna taking 1st place in the open division. Great job Daniel!

Team Movember soars to first place at Red Bull Flugtag San Francisco in McCovey Cove. Photo By: Garth Milan, Red Bull Content Pool

An entertaining day full of cheesy dance skits, colorful costumes and many unsuccessful attempts at flight. The Red Bull Flugtag event brought 116,000 spectators to McCovey Cove, right outside of the San Francisco Giants stadium.

Thirty-five teams lined the streets getting ready for their turn to launch their homemade crafts off a 30 ft tall ramp. These crafts had requirements to be under 450 lbs including the pilot and to be less than 30 feet wide.

The Red Bull Air Force Team skydove in and landed on the dock. Soon after that a song that must have been named “jump” started playing. All I could see was orange hair and pom pom’s bouncing around everywhere as the team danced around their float.

“Extra long, super talented, their sweating. Time to get into your pizza tub. ” said the announcer.

The pilot got into the craft as the other 4 members of the pilot crew pushed the craft off he end. The craft flipped off the end catapulting the pilot off the top. He ended up in the water at about the 30 ft mark.

Team Sugarskull shows that freeing your mind is a good thing through their craft. Photo from:Garth Milan, Red Bull

Each team had their own little skit they performed. Everything from men painted in full body paint as different cats, to guys in American flag speedo’s. There was a banana float, a Nyan cat, a flying Dia Del Muerte style skull (2nd place) and even a flying dragon.

Team Movember decked out with fake mustache’s won the contest flying 58 ft. “The superior engineering of the most distinguished of mustaches cannot fail,” said team captain William A. Hinkamp.

The Californauts won the people’s choice awards flying a huge surfboard into the sea.

My personal favorite was Team Skyjackers which was the third place team. The team all dressed up as Jack from Jack in the Box in all suits and a big white bobble heads. They all started bouncing and dancing around “kinda in coordination” to a popular rap song….”Poppin’ bottles in the ice. Like a blizzard. When we drink we do it right getting slizzard……” After shaking their buts around and dancing like corporate geeks the pilot climber up a ladder and into the taco pilot cabin on top of the aircraft. “You gotta go faster then that, you gotta go faster than that. Go, go!” Yelled the announcer. They pushed the craft off the end and it soared to about 60 ft. The pilot didn’t even get wet, still safely on top of the craft in the taco he sat.

Winners celebrate at Red Bull Flugtag in San Francisco, California, USA on November 10, 2012. Photo by: Garth Milan, Red Bull

At the end of all this hilarity Team Movember got the bragging rights and won an unforgettable day of skydiving alongside the Red Bull Air Force team.

The second prize winners Team Sugarskull won a chance to sail the sea’s with ORACLE TEAM USA in ttheir chase boat.

The third prize winner s Team Skyjackers won a chance to go to iFly and participate in some indoor skydiving with a member of the Red Bull Air Force team.

Francisco Javier Solario, 39 was surfing at a popular surf spot in Santa Barbara called Surf Beach Tuesday (10/24/12) when he was attacked and killed by a shark.

The type of shark is still being investigated but experts are guessing it was a Great White.

The shark bit Solario while he was laying on hos surfboard. It bit him in the torso and bite marks were found on his surfboard.

Solario’s friend pulled him out of the water and administered first aid but he was pronounced dead on the scene when paramedics arrived.

THRASH! Let me just start off this post by saying that the Bake and Destroy skateboard “riot” was both rad and bad.

Having an event that gets this many skateboarders in the community together is rad no matter what. This video premiere didn’t have skateboarding included in the schedule of events. Nor did it have a riot planned, but that doesn’t mean an adrenaline rush wasn’t about to be experienced by all 500 eager skateboarders waiting in line to see the Bake and Destroy video. The excited skaters lined the streets to see Baker Skateboard’s first video in 5 years.

I’m sure that being among the crowd of 500 skateboarders with 100 cops in riot gear and 3 helicopters hovering above, that had to have been a pretty rad time.

Now with that being said the whole thing kinda makes the whole skateboard world look pretty bad. As far as riots go this was extremely tame. Cops showed up and people for the most part didn’t know what to do.

Usually when you see a riot on TV cars are being flipped, burned and cops are forcing people off the streets with their riot shields. This DID NOT happen here.

Unfortunately people will not look at it that way. They will see the videos of everyone chanting “fuck the police, fuck the police” and just think we are all punk kids. There were also kids running over cars, shop windows were broken and bottles and rocks were being thrown.

Here’s how the day went…

Saturday October, 13 2012 The Bake and Destroy video was premiering on Hollywood Blvd. A crowd of around 500 skateboarders waited outside lining the Hollywood Blvd, some of them there all day. “I got here at 7:30 a.m. If you get here 2 hours before your fucking up,” said the guy in the front of the line.

With 2 showings planned, the first was an industry premiere for all the pros and company owners. As the first showing was underway kids in the back of the line and people who had been waiting all day started to get bored. Unfortunately bored, skateboarders and kids don’t all go together too well.

Laser pointers were being flashed into apartment windows. Someone in an apartment started shining a laser pointer right back. There were then kids throwing rocks and beer cans at cars and buses.

It wasn’t long until police were dispersed. 2 police helicopters arrived to spotlight the happenings and 100 officers in full tactical swat gear arrived making a perimeter and shutting down Hollywood Blvd.

People threw rocks and bottles at police officers and it took officers around 3 hrs to disperse the crowd of 500 skateboarders. No injuries were reported and 2 cars were reported damaged during the incident.

As all this was happening outside the premiere, inside the industry viewing was underway. “This is a fucking skateboard video! You live and die for skateboarding! You want some? Get some! Bake and fucking destroy!!!!” and with that being said the “play that shit” button was pressed and the video was under way.

In the middle of the industry viewing the people inside the theater started to hear about the riots outside the theater. At the end of the video security started to let everyone out the back doors of the theater.

As people filed out the back doors a police helicopter spotlight lit up the back exit. “That’s when we knew it was going down out front.” Police officers in riot gear quickly shut down that exit figuring that letting these people out would only add to the chaos.

After all was said and done this was just another night in the skateboard world. Bake and Destroy will be sent out with the next issue of Thrasher Magazine and it will be available on the internet in a couple months for free. Skateboarding rules! – Leecifer

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The Etnies Skatepark Speed Demon race, known to many (or at least me and my friends) as the death race was happening but no one was showing up for it. That just meant more heats and runs for everyone. It was a cool event having riders start near a pole jam, push their way down into some transition, whip around a bank and over a cone, then over the hump whip around another bank, cross over to the next bank and then go around yet another bank. This is the spot where riders ended up crossing paths and collissions were a good possobility although we didnt get to see anyone collide. Crashes did happen though. The race was fun if you were riding in it which looking back I should have done. Watching it sucked. Even video taping and photographing. It took forever and I couldn’t wait for it to end. Another heat, they said…….”shit” I thought to myself. Anyways the next one I probably will compete in and it is a really cool event, just not many people came out to it. The worst part is I know people who could have shredded the shit out of this course but no one was there. Anyways it was all a good time and everyone who entered was stoked.

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Hello fellow adrenaline junkies, my name is Stephen. I am 30 years young, and I have been skating for about 25. My first board was a Vision Gator with the neon tail guard and rails, most of you probably weren’t even born yet.

After years of skating street, a lady named Cathy White gave me my first longboard. You may have heard of her son, Shaun. The board was a Sector 9 Luke Nosewalker. When she handed  me the board she said, “promise me you won’t be going down any hills on this, that’s why I’m giving it to you. I don’t want Shaun to kill himself.” Naturally, I said I wouldn’t. At the time, I had no intention of doing downhill… at the time.

Eventually I ran into a kid at school with a S9 mini cruiser that wanted to skate with me. Every time we would skate he would say,”let’s go bomb some hills dude!’ So we did… and then I knew that I had found my new hobby.

Fast forward to June 28th… I was skating with my friend, Doron, in downtown Long Beach. We frequent some garages in the area that are 7 floors with one lane spirals that are super fun. After a few runs in the garage, we decided to move on because there were a lot of cars. We made our way to the lighthouse to wait out the traffic. While Doron talked to a guy we met at the top of the hill, I went down for my first run. The hill is slow, maybe 25 if you get a good push. At the bottom I made the decision to roll into the grass to slow down… wrong decision. My front wheels hit a hole, and my board stopped. I probably would have been fine, but my foot stop pulled my front foot out from under me. My shoulder dug into the ground and I heard a snap. I knew what it was.

My clavicle was obviously broken and almost coming through the skin. So I walked back up the hill to get Doron.

“Hey man…hey… dude…  we like, gotta roll to the E.R.” I said.

“What?! Why?”

“I am pretty sure this bone isn’t supposed to be poking this way,” I said as I dropped my board and put my foot on it.

“What are you doing?! You can’t skate back like that!’ Doron said.

But it was too late, I was already headed back down the hill. The car was about 2 miles away, but we were in a spot that is hard to get to with a car. As I skated back i could hear Doron’s wheels hitting the cracks behind me. As he skated next to me he said, “dude, is it okay that I’m filming this?’ “Of course,” I said. Why not? I’d be filming your ass if you fell, i thought. When we got to the road, I stopped skating and told him to get the car.

Doron did about 55mph to whole way to the ER. Screaming around corners in his little Fiat, he seemed more freaked out than I was. I appreciated the gesture so much that I could not tell him how much he was hurting me by driving that way.

In the ER I didn’t get anything for pain, they only gave me some anti-inflammatory medicine. A few hours later, the doctor came in with my X-rays. Before I tell you what he said, take a look at it.

“Here is a sling, it will set itself,” the doctor said.

“Hahaha, that is super funny,” I said, “you are joking, right?’

“No, it is just a clavicle. These things heal themselves.”

“Okay, but I’m pretty sure I need surgery.”

There it was, I had a sling and 12 vicodin. The next morning, I drove myself back to the hospital to see a real doctor. When I walked into the room he had my x-ray on the screen and he was shaking his head.

“I guess I don’t have to tell you that you need surgery,” he said.

I had seen this doctor before, you see, I’m no stranger to injury. About 18% of my body is covered in burn scars. That is another story all together.

So I spent a week with my bones completely separated, and it was hell. I had a titanium plate and six screws put in, and healing has  been going pretty well.

This bone is no joke though, not an injury I would want to go through again. I skated 25 years without breaking a bone, but when I finally did it; I did it right. I have no feeling in my entire left shoulder, and you can see the plate sticking up through my skin. The doctors said it would be 3 months before I can pick my daughter up, but I don’t listen. I was lifting her the day after surgery. I know I shouldn’t be, but come on… I’m a single dad, what am I supposed to do?

~Stephen

“Think we should give a card to those cops and tell them to go check out the police encounters section of the site?” said Stephen Johnson

“I’ll leave that up to you. I don’t wanna talk to them.” Said Lee Eisler

(Stephen proceeds forward to hand them a card and to tell them to go check out the Police encounters section)

“Hey do you guys like skate videos?” Stephen asked the cops.

“Didn’t you know skateboardings a crime.” said the cop.

“Police and skateboarders” said the cop as he starts to shake his head no.

“Cops hate skateboarders” said the other cop.

“Well do you like watching cops bust skateboarders because we have a police encounters section.” said Stephen

“I hate cops too.” Said the cop

“Well do like veterans?” asked Stephen.

“Not really, it’s on a case to case basis.” said the cop.

Needless to say we gave up didn’t pursue to find out his name and had all the people around us smiling.

“I can’t believe what I just heard. Did he just say skateboarding is a crime?” said Lee

“He did, what a dick?” said Stephen.

Hiking to an abandoned road nestled in the hills of southern Orange County the sketchiness was already happening with kids jumping, grinding, sliding and crashing. With a great view of Saddleback Mountain and overlooking the busy freeway with cars speeding in both directions off to some important event in their lives, oblivious to the event going on in the hills above them we busted out the camera to capture some of the memorable moments.

The hill had a few features set up which included Wyatt Gibb’s kicker ramp, another ramp made by Gravity Skateboards and a round bar rainbow rail that was steep and short. To add to the sketchiness after a few kids got stung a beehive was discovered at the top of the hill. The sides of the road were over grown with spiky weeds taller than me for the most part and they seemed to find a way to use those to their advantage with gaps over them and shit.

After hiking back to the cars we headed over to the shop for a Bar-B-Q and to shred the shop’s mini ramp. With some rest and stomachs full, some missing faces and some new faces kids were bouncing off the walls and dropping in one after another after another. It was overall a great time and many disciples of skating were shown. We even saw Elijah Vinograd’s head get unscrewed with a wrench skateboard.

The day ended with these troopers winning some shwag.

King of the Jam- Wyatt Gibbs

Gnarliest Crash- Danny Ronsen

King of the Hill- Andrew Schumaker

King of the Ramp- Some shredder doing epic wallrides seen in the pics and video.

Burliest skater- Justin Beavers

Runner Up- Nicolas Escamilla

Elijah Vinograd- Best Style

It doesn’t look painful but it is. Strapped into your snowboard you don’t have many bail options. This one was straight to the kneecap. The simple action of being unbalanced on snow, a rail or a box can cause this to happen. Time and time again until you get it right. Sharp edges will of course catch easier than dull ones. Lots of Big Bear and Mt high riders file their edges way down and spin on boxes for days. I only have one shredstick however so I like to keep it an all mountain board. I can take it from the park to the pow pow. Anyways enough of my banter. Enjoy this short little clip of a first person view of this stupid little bank thing that screwed me.