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Justin here, back again, bringing you the lowdown on the UnModern Industries Mega Mega Mini Ramp Battle Royale, hosted by the legendary Mike Vallely and his Elephant Skateboards brand. It all went down on August 18th at UnModern Industries Skateshop in Santa Fe Springs – $1,000 was up for grabs in a winner-takes-all showdown, judged by Mike V. himself. Dozens of awesome riders came out to skate – from locals, to the shop owner and team members, to Wheelbase Magazine’s own Marcus Bandy, a legend in his own right. The night started off with a crazy demo from Mike V., then progressed to a couple guys on the ramp – mostly shop riders and the homies from Resource Distribution (where your Paris Trucks, Divine Wheels, and other goodies come from!) – but soon, more and more were dropping in until it got almost too gnarly to ride.

Everyone was respectful and stoke levels were massively high, but some epic bails and collisions were unavoidable. As the night went on, Mike kept a close eye on the shredders until he felt comfortable picking out the top 10 that he wanted to see move on to the finals (with a little crowd input of course!). After that, only those 10 were allowed on the ramp, and one by one Mike picked people off down to the final two. UnModern Riders Eddie Anaya, John Ruzzamenti, Johnny Abernathy, and Jon Trujillo held it down for the shop, but the final came down to two local young guns – Hector Tehuitzil and Steven Palacios.

Hector was throwing down HARD and landing big tricks all night – even going so far as to score a classy finger-flip drop in from the top of the 10ft high restroom in the corner of the warehouse – at least a solid 5ft from the edge of the ramp. But Steven brought his A-game as well and Mike felt that his style and consistency all night won him the top spot, the trophy, and a cool thousand dollars cash.

I can’t thank Adan Garcia, owner of the shop, or Mike Vallely enough for putting this event on. It went amazingly well, and everyone had a great time. Beer, drinks, and snacks were provided and they even had local band The Shrine come out and wrap up the night with some tunes. It was rad, look for it again next year.

Check it out, it even made onto the Ride Channel on TV!

Ride TV Coverage!

You stay classy SoCal,

Justin

See all the pictures HERE.

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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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Showing up to a scene full of hundreds of people, skateboards, helmets, pads and smiles I skated towards the road I have been too many, many times before. I have seen every type of event go down here but I think it is safe to say this was the gnarliest, craziest, most innovative contest I have seen. I turned the corner to see the Mike Vallely rainbow rail, followed by some sort of side ramp, a hump ramp (known as the Honey Hump) and a step up jump. Further down the road there were smaller ramps, spine ramps and the huge kicker from last years Disco. With all that there were cones snaking down the course and groups of skaters walking back up the hill.

Just two years ago I attended my first Disco. There was only a group of around 50 people in attendance and you didn’t need to jump off any ramps, go through any tunnels or ride over spines, step up jumps and sideways hit ramps. The event seemed more of a race than anything else and a strong group of fast racers competed in the event.

I attended the event last year and the place looked like a snowboard park with ramps and jumps, rail and even a tunnel lining the course. A whole new crowd of shredders were competing and people layed down four deep allowing riders to soar over their bodies, people even hucked themselves over their buddies stand or sitting in chairs just past the ramps. The event still a race also had somewhat of a slide jam to it.

This year was so completely insane. There were hundreds of people. Lots of shredders and even a lot of spectators. Cameras were a plenty snapping pictures and recording video capturing everything that happened. The rain brought a halt to the race portion of the event after only a few groms had the chance to take their runs so far. The rain gave  birth to a couple new contests which included who could do the longest stand up slide and who could launch the farthest off the huge ramp. The rain did not let up and with hundreds of soggy shoes, rain soaked boards and bearings and some donated skin and blood Scott Lembach from Muir Skate told everyone to meet back the next day at 9am. Although I did not make it this day I am still finding out who won and will post that when I know. Until then enjoy these pics I snapped. Got many, many more so check back. – Leecifer

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Drew Edwards, Aaron Enns and Brett Ciabattini talk to the po po 5-0. Photo By: Leecifer

The California Slide Jam hill looked fun and promising until the cops showed up before we even had a chance to start. With the first hill busted and no planned backup hill we relied on local Drew Edwards and his extensive local hill research to take us to a new hill. “It’s with in skating distance, it’s really close.” We skating for around 10 minutes with the sun blazing and walked up this hill until we got to the next spot. My armpits and back already soaked in sweat from my backpack and the intense sun rays beating down upon me. (I would have rather had brought my car as the day progressively got hotter and hotter.)

Ali Mehraban, Are we gonna get to skate? After getting told the cops were being called at the second hill. Photo By: Leecifer

The 2nd hill was a private road (according to the residents) that had a few houses off of it and Drew’s friend lived in one of those houses. We weren’t even there 5 minutes before we were told that it was private property and we had to leave. 5 minutes after that a different neighbor told us that we were unwanted and they were going to call the cops. “We are supposed to tell them that you know someone who lives here.” With that Drew pushed hard and fast to see if his buddy was home. He wasn’t so we moved on to the next hill

We were skating to the 3rd hill and it was all uphill and it did not seem very close. Ali Mehreban and I decided to turn around, go all the way back to the 1st hill to grab the car and see if we could beat everyone there. We skated for awhile, in fact the car was much farther than I had remembered. We finally made it to the car. We found another skater waiting to try to find where the hill had been moved to. He followed us and we easily caught back up to everyone skating to the next spot. Kids begged for rides and tried grabbing onto the car to let us pull them to the next hill. We left most of them in our dust.

We finally made it to what would be our final destination in our journey around some of the hills of Fallbrook. The ramp was put out and the competition was underway before people even knew it. Judging was done by Max Capps, Ali Mehraban and Michael Hinze.

There were lots of kids shredding it up and most of the kids who were hitting the ramp were also attempting 180′s and we even saw some 360 attempts. Although no 360′s were landed plenty of 180′s and a few no comply’s were landed. Not to mention all the different variations of slides. There were attempts at techsliding, we saw some hard wheel sliding and every variation of stand up slide I know of. We skated until the cops came to tell us they got another call and we couldn’t skateboard anymore in Fallbrook that day. “This is my second time talking to you guys and now you’re wasting my time” said the cop. “We won’t skateboard anymore but would it be alright if we finished our bar-b-que” asked Brett Ciabattini.

Ben Young, Chad Gibbs and Aaron Enns talk to the cop again. "Since we got called if I don't kick you out and someone gets hurt it becomes my liabaility so you guys have to go" said the officer. Photo By: Leecfier

We ate hot dogs, did the podium. Passed out some shwag and everyone left. It ended up being a somewhat successful day and everyone had a good time. – Leecifer Eisler

Podium

1st- Wyatt Gibbs

2nd- Phillip “Swagmaster” Crow

3rd- Tyler Hampson

4th- Daniel Luna

5th- Jimmy Riha

Top Grom

Sam Damashek

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Filmed by: Max Capps

Edit by: Lee Eisler

So we didn’t make it out to this one but we hooked Max Capps up with our camera and tripod to see what he would get. After reviewing all the footage we absolutely loved the commentary from Max and Roger Jones. HIlarious stuff! Instead of making this some short video edited to music we decided to pull out a little different flavor, plus we have been digging raw footy lately. We took 45 minutes of footage and turned into 13 minutes taking you through the event.

Roger Jones came back from the grave for this contest. He’s just skin and bones.

Ben Hryn throwing down a super steezy squating stand up slide.

The event seemed really cool. It was a very laid back contest with the crowd choosing the winner through cheering. It was more of a bro down skate session with all the homies. Anyways Daniel Luna won the open section.

Video shot and edited by: Lee Eisler

With an eclectic mix of big name riders and free agents – some hailing from as far as the Philippines – present, the Talega Halloween Slide Jam once again proved that SoCal can provide a world-class course.

It was fun seeing people dressed up and pushing the limit doing absolutely gnarly maneuvers on their skateboards. With the two kicker ramps set up riders had plenty of launch to help them go big. Both kicker ramps were big, however the large kicker ramp was just massive. This ramp made for both big tricks and big falls. 

Everyone got plenty of runs in and before we knew it, it was time for the contest to begin. Hot dogs were consumed and the plenty of grilling was getting done while lights and generators were set up. Darkness was falling and as the road became less and less visible a police chopper flew in and provided  light for some riders. After about 20 minutes of the spotlight as the only light, the generators were fired up and the course was back to daylight.

With a police chopper still circling over head with their spotlight the event began. Run after run, trick after trick, a spotlight from above and tons of riders ripping created a really cool atmosphere. Forty minutes to an hour went by when three police officers came walking up the hill with their flashlights. “Do you know how much money it costs to put a chopper in the air?” one officer said. “We honestly thought you were just helping us out with light,” a skater replied.

Due to a stupid law in San Clemente the event was shut down by the 5-0. Apparently due to the powers of darkness you are not allowed to skateboard at night in the city of San Clemente. The cops were nice about it and let us pack up and leave, with no citations..

We all met at a park right down the street from where the slide jam was. Awards and swag were handed out to anxious skaters. Everyone got a hat, dvd and plenty of stickers. Many riders got trucks, wheels, gloves and several other prizes were handed out to the winners. Three lucky winners left with brand new Sector 9 decks.

1st Place- Duke Degan

Check back for other winners. I have forgotten in all the mayhem.

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