The Making of the Grounded Book...
Posted by: Sandy Carson | Friday, March 30, 2007
I flew out to the Lake Forest etnies HQ recently to work on the BOOK that etnies is producing, to accompany the Grounded DVD.
Yep, you heard right, a book! A legit stand alone Coffee table book! It's gonna be 48 PAGES, perfect bound and comes with the Grounded DVD inside, featuring all the etnies team rider's artwork.
This is going to be one you can look at on your bookshelf for years to come. 18 etnies team and flow rider's artwork. You already know the riders can ride, but did you know they all did some kind of artwork in their spare time off their bikes? Well, I guess you do....now! So, this is their chance to show their artsy fartsy side.
I've been collecting and editing all the team's artwork for over a year and went out to Sole Tech's art department .
We got down to business editing all the stuff from the variety of content that was submitted and stowed in a huge Hard Drive!
It wasn't easy! The content ranges from all types of media--photography, drawing, painting, stenciling and a bonus documentation of photo stills from the DVD filming trips.
I went there for a week and pretty much had a work experience from 9-5 at Sole Technology, then hung out with Povah, his wife Jaqui and their wee son Garrett Gray at nights. He's a wee star in the making!
In true last minute fashion we dragged Stricker out on a photoshoot to shoot the cover of the DVD to tie in with the whole Grounded theme and came through with this image. Bigtime Stricker!!
The DVD is in the final completion stages and we stopped by editing wizard Mike Manzoori's house to check out some footy. Mike looked a bit nuts from all the editing!
Right before I left, we went to see Austin band The Applicators who rocked out.
I got to briefly walk around downtown LA to shoot some of my favouirite tweakers and then I came back to Austin right in time for a snow storm.
Shit, this just in, the DVD world premiere date!
Grounded - DVD Available June, 2007!
Posted by: Cropley | Thursday, March 29, 2007Mark your calendars boys and girls! The etnies "GROUNDED" BMX DVD will make its WORLD Premiere at the etnies HQ in Lake Forest, California on Friday May 18, 2007!!! Come down and enjoy the festivities with etnies team riders, industry and other top pros. The party starts around 7PM and will go ‘til late.
Check out some live music, enjoy some “refreshments" and win a bunch of free crap courtesy of etnies!
Check back to etniesbmx.com for the latest info and all new video trailers. We’ll keep you updated on the many nationwide and worldwide premieres being planned and hosted by some of your favorite stores and pros.
Grounded will be available this June!
ratty fest news with Dave
Posted by: Dave Freimuth | Tuesday, March 27, 2007
- Brian Hunt
Hey guys,
We did well at Ratty...me, Quinn, Brian Hunt, and some Greg kid, friend of Quinn's that's really good, were on a team. We all pulled some shit but we all wrecked a few times. Whitesnake's group won. Whitesnake really did some remarkable stuff...a huge alleyoop downside whip transfer, and a 360 double downside whip over the box. Like Alistair's thing but with another whip. It looked amazing.
- Quinn
The really good local kid that works at 4 seasons (Little John) won the bowl jam. I think either Little John or Brian Hunt could have won it. John went fast and huge, and Brian blasted nearly 10 ft out of the deep end. Mark Potozny did a 5ft high abubaca out of an 8 foot vert quarter. Quinn barspun to fuf the big wall behind the mini. There was almost as much action in the parking lot as inside the park it seemed. Catfish was amazing on the mic as usual and Jeff K's girlfriend did some sweet freestyle.
bbye.
davey.
- Brian Vowell
WTF Award of the week!
Posted by: Brink | Monday, March 26, 2007Safe to say, this dude is probably creepy...
Holy Shamrocks! Back on the Horse!!!
Posted by: Brian Kachinsky | Thursday, March 22, 2007
Well, first thing's first; I am back on the horse again (and by horse I mean...my bike!). I was instructed to take it easy and basic for a little while, so I've ridden four times and haven't really done a trick yet. Feels really good to be on my bike, though, even though I can't ride it like I want to...for now.
Holy Shamrocks! Last weekend was St. Patrick's Day and it is celebrated hard here. In Chicago, when the Christmas decorations go down, the St. Pat's day ones go up. They dye the entire Chicago river bright green, people wear lots of shamrocks, and everyone is three sheets to the wind by noon. Entertaining.
Over the next couple weeks I will be attending Ratty BMX Fest in Milwaukee, taking a trip to Woodward, attending a rodeo (don't ask), watching Rockstar daily, continuing physical therapy and exploring the streets of Chicago.
see y'all soon!
Brian
Kachinsky on The Daily Habit!
Posted by: Cropley | Thursday, March 22, 2007
Check out Brian Kachinsky on the Daily Habit tomorrow, Friday, March 23rd at 6pm PST/9pm EST on Fuel TV, and later in the evening at 9pm PST/12am EST. Don't miss it!
the goods...
Posted by: Cropley | Wednesday, March 21, 2007
- Photo: Ride BMX
Jamie Bestwick just came back from a great road trip with the Levi Strauss Signature team, along with etnies teammate Morgan Wade, as well as Cory Martinez and Anthony Napoliton. They hit some great spots on their way from the LSS HQ in San Francisco, Woodward West, Rick’s trails in Corona and The “Grind for life” charity event at the YMCA in Claremont. Jamie said it was great hanging out with those guys and spending some time riding places he’s never been to. The whole trip will be online pretty soon when the LSSBMX site is up, so look out. Jamie’s been busy designing some new colors for an etnies shoe.
Check out the video from the YMCA demo at BMX Online...
Ruben Alcantara in his words: Well...now we didn’t have much rain here in Malaga but I found a way to water the jumps very easily...and works great! My van has a big water tank for the shower that I can use to water the jumps and make it smooth and sticky...works awesome! Each day I love this van more and more...this was my last nice session at the trails for a while because I’m leaving tomorrow to Austin...
UPDATE: Check this video of Ruben at the trails...
Mike Escamilla is probably busy as usual but I haven’t heard from him in a week. I’ll keep you posted.
Joe Rich is working hard at T1, enjoying the new ramp set up and trying to get some sleep in there somewhere. South by Southwest is in town and isn’t too forgiving, if you know what I mean..?
- Photo: Ride BMX
Morgan Wade spent a week in AZ with his girlfriend Natalie and her family and friends. It was rad! He had a great time hanging out and riding bikes. He got to ride the Goodyear Park near Phoenix! That place is nuts! Morgan filmed some clips with Kyle Carlson, who’s going to make a little web vid for VitalBMX with it, so look out for that one. Anyway, Morgan’s back in Tyler now, and on Wednesday he will be getting his dental implants where he had that tooth pulled on the etnies trip!
Morgan Saw “300”!!!!!! and says it might just be one of the best movies of all time!!!!!!!!!
Taj Mihelich. In Taj’s words:
Holy shit, what a lot happened this week. Rode a lot, and had a few heavy rain days. Jon Taylor and his girl Emma showed up from jolly old England, so hung out with them. There's about 1000 other riders in town now too, including Steven Hamilton, Sergio Layos, Shawn "Elf" Walters, Little Jeff from Portland, Tony Cardona, Oliver from Sweden, Tom and Mike from Chicago, Leland, John Paul, Adam Baker etc etc etc. It’s nuts these days. Good times on the ramp for sure. And, we had a big show on the ramp on Thursday. The Portals from Portland and Jape were the Enders for the night. Jape is Richie from The Redneck Manifesto and will be used for Adam Bakers part in the new video coming out.
- Jape on the ramp
Good lord, I saw 100 bands during SXSW. I saw Blonde Redhead, 31 Knots, The River Boat Gamblers, Big Business, Turbo Negro, The Raunch Hands, Messiah J and The Expert, The Portals, Green Milk From The Planet Orange, The Kittens, Anti MC, Tia Carrera, Jape, Matt And Kim and about a million more I can't remember. I would ride a little bit in the morning and then rock out out all day. My band played one night, too, and that was super fun. Felt really inspired after all this other music.
Josh Stricker has the flu and he feels like death warmed over. Life kicks ass.
Sergio Layos flew from Madrid to Austin of Friday and is doing his best to get over some jetlag while also dealing with the house full of lazy-ass BMXers, including etnies riders Aaron Ross and Danny Hickerson.
etnies & Chester Bennington Launch the Club Tattoo Collaboration Series!
Posted by: Brink | Tuesday, March 20, 2007
etnies and etnies Girl are officially launching the Club Tattoo collaboration shoes for Fall 2007, with a little help from Linkin Park lead singer and Club Tattoo co-founder, Chester Bennington, this week.
“I’m really excited about the collaboration because it gives us a chance to blend our mutual passion for art, body and lifestyle in a unique way,” says Bennington. “etnies and Club Tattoo live what we do, love what we do and together we’ve created a perfect connection between body art and street style.”
Inspired by art, self-expression, individuality and skateboarding, all of the shoes feature traditional tattoo artwork and are available in two vulcanized styles, the etnies Bernie and Fakie, for both men and women. The shoes will be available in stores this June. Stay tuned to etnies.com for more exclusive news, info and surprises from etnies and Club Tattoo!
Chester Bennington founded Club Tattoo with friend Sean Dowdell in 1995. The now renowned tattoo shop has locations in Phoenix and their newest location opening in Las Vegas’ newest casino on the strip, the Cosmopolitan, in Spring 2008. Club Tattoo has plans for expansion globally, and has come to be known for its artistry and professionalism.
For Guys
Both men’s styles utilize traditional Japanese art and a variation on a dragon design. The Bernie (left above) integrates a Koi fish with a dragon which represents courage, luck and strength in Eastern culture. The Fakie (right above) continues the traditional Eastern art theme with a design that depicts an ancient perspective of a mythical creature that often protects and symbolizes strength.
For Girls
The women’s Bernie (pictured on the left) has a rose design which is derived from a passion for femininity. A common choice for representing a diverse attitude regarding integrating body art into lifestyle, the art is traditional in nature, with a modern flair. The women’s Fakie (on the right) features a dove which symbolizes peace and tranquility. It is a very traditional tattoo art design with an updated twist.
The 5's with...
Posted by: Cropley | Friday, March 16, 2007Aaron Ross and Danny Hickerson give 5 answers to a bunch of random questions, courtesy of Defgrip. Enjoy.
A Dustin Guenther Home Invasion
Posted by: Cropley | Wednesday, March 14, 2007
- Dustin's porcelain throne
Rip TV has a full-on home/apartment invasion on Dustin's pad in Vancouver, Canad'eh on their site. It's quite entertaining and the garage ramp addition is badass and worth checking out...you'll be jealous! Watch it!
Also, check out Dustin's etnies blog...even if it is a little outdated!
Rainy Day Home Ec. 101
Posted by: Taj Mihelich | Monday, March 12, 2007
- Good thing my camera fit in my pocket to so I had it with me to shoot Adam Baker at the trails.
Its raining here today in Austin so how about another completely random blog from me? Well, I just sold my old Canon S-60 camera on Craigslist (which by the way was a great camera) so that I could get a smaller camera. Seems like I'm always missing taking a photo of something hilarious or weird 'coz my old camera was just too big to ride with.
I picked out the Casio Ex-S770 so I could always keep a camera nearby. It's a decent camera, maybe not quite as good of lens quality as the Canon, BUT, its tiny! Totally small enough to fit in a pocket and have it with you all the time. I searched around for a little camera bag for it, but they were all too big and made it too bulky. Luckily my mom was in town so she helped me sew up a cool little solution. We picked up a set of little girl socks for 2.99 and did a little altering.
- Step 1. Get a sock and cut it to size.
- Step 2. Turn the sock inside out and sew the bottom edge together.
- Step 4. Drop in a camera and have a camera party in your pocket.
- Step 3. Cut a little hole in the cuff and insert a draw string.
I suppose this kind of thing might work good for an iPod or all your D&D dice too!
- Be warned, goats love these things!
Team Update...
Posted by: Cropley | Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Mike Escamilla was in Utah last week snowboarding with Todd Richards and he got home this week and put a new Volume Union together...so if anybody wants a Redline reeeeeal cheap call Mike…. He chilled mostly in LA this week, had lunch with Kat Von D where they got these drawings done...ha-ha. Wednesday Mike films an MTV show he is involved with. Mike’s pretty much home most of March trying film a bit on the bike.
Jamie Bestwick has been back in the State College, PA with his wife and son. They just bought a condo there and will be spending more time now in the States. Jamie is currently on a Levi’s tour with etnies teammate Morgan Wade cruising from San Francisco down to San Diego, culminating in a demo at the Claremont YMCA on Saturday March 10th where he will be doing a demo with the likes of Mat Hoffman and Tony Hawk.
Ruben Alcantara is checking on tickets to make his way back out to Austin. Tickets are pretty expensive right now, but he’s coming nonetheless. In other news, Ruben headed to Burgos, Spain where the new FLY Bikes video was premiered (the video is AWESOME!), and along the way he hit up some trails between Malaga and Madrid. He also got to ride some ramps at a warehouse in Burgos, as well as a real weird full pipe that he and his friends found in the middle of nowhere.
Taj Mihelich has been buried under hanging out with and trying to entertain his mom and step dad. He’s been doing a good job of sneaking for a quick session at 9th street once in a while and the T1 ramp when he can. Taj’s Mom leaves in a couple days. He’s also been doing a lot of computer work for RIDE BMX on the Ride Magazine buyer’s guide issue coming up. He played a show on Saturday; it actually ended up being this very interesting improv jam with two other bands at an art show that no one was at. Taj got sick, almost got better, and then got very sick again. Bad cough and feeling pretty low the last couple of days, so he’s been reading a lot and watching movies and TV as well as playing the Warcraft video game.
Check out Taj's etnies Blog for tons of cool shit...
Josh Stricker is in Austin doing his thing riding and working on Happy Hour. Keep an eye out for Josh’s interview coming up in RIDE UK, as well as a colorway of an etnies Faction shoe later this year.
Morgan Wade is in San Francisco right now for a Levi Strauss Signature tour. From there he’s going on a little road trip to get some footy together for a Levi’s team video that should be out by the end of the summer. Morgan should be at Woodward West on Wednesday with the team, including etnies teammate Jamie Bestwick. He’s going to be in Arizona for spring break hangin’ out with his girl Natalie’s family for a few days, then ride a bunch of parks and stuff…should be a good time. A “crack head” offered to suck Will Stroud's toes for money on the Levi Tour…so far it seems things are very interesting and probably going to get even stranger.
Check out Morgan's recent etnies Blog about his trip to Australia and NZ.
Joe Rich has been busy as fuck, but good. Lately his life has been all about T1, which is not really a big surprise to be honest. Working there, working on the ramp out back, working on the inside. Joe got a crash course in door hanging and dry walling from some friends as he has been doing some renovations to make the T1 warehouse a little more efficient and separate some offices. Joe has also been riding the cement park as well as the trails and the ramp. It’s the Austin triathlon--3 spots in a day, on a good day.
Joe’s heading out to California for a Fox photo shoot with Chase Hawk. Joe also got invited for that “Red Bull Empire of Dirt” comp and is soooooo excited about it. Aside of all this, Joe’s good friend Logan just moved to Austin from Hawaii and has been staying with Joe for a couple of days. Joe, Chris Hallman and Ryan Corrigan are all going to San Angelo cement tomorrow.
Sergio Layos was at the premiere for the new FLY Bikes video in Burgos, Spain, just an hour away from his home in Madrid. Sergio rode in a little contest and also did a little demo for the people there…that was really fun. One of Sergio’s friends invited him to try out driving his Porsche on a race track. Needless to say, it was Really Really fun! This is something that was definitely a once in a lifetime experience for Sergio, and he was so excited yet nervous at the same time in case he crashed such an expensive car. During the week he was doing the usual thing…just riding around by his house. Next week Sergio heads to Austin for a few months. Keep an eye out for a Sergio etnies colorway coming later this year.
T1 FREE Show Next Week!
Posted by: Cropley | Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Terrible One is throwing a FREE show at the T1 ramp for SXSW next week (Thursday 15th from 5-10pm). It's gonna go off! There's gonna be something for everyone from electronic to metal, hip hop and stoner rock, so go check it out!
Here are the times and the MySpace pages of the bands if you want to check 'em out!
-JAPE 9.30pm (Dublin, Ireland)
-PORTALS 8.30pm (Portland, OR)
-ANTIMC 7.30pm (los Angeles,CA)
-TIA CARRERA 6.30pm (Austin, TX)
-MESSIAH J & THE EXPERTS 5:30pm (Dublin, Ireland)
20 Boards + 20 Artists = 1 Fight!
Posted by: Brink | Monday, March 5, 2007
20 ARTISTS, 20 BOARDS, 1 FIGHT
VANCOUVER, BC. February 14, 2007 -- 20 local artists and a skateboard manufacturer have teamed-up to create an inspiring art exhibition of 20 hand-painted boards that commemorate the Push For The Cure skaters and continues their honorable fight against breast cancer.
Last summer, Canadians were moved by Push for the Cure: the story of four young men, skateboarding a record-breaking 7,000 km across Canada to raise funds and awareness for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Push for the Cure rider, Rob Lewis summarized: “We are not doing this because someone we know has been diagnosed; we’re doing it because someone we know will be.” Rob and fellow riders Aaron Jackson, Benjamin Jordan and Carlos Koppen were joined by hundreds of Vancouver area skaters on the final 3-day stretch from Hope to Stanley Park in October 2006.
For this latest fundraising event, local board manufacturer, RAYNE, has donated 20 unique skateboards to be assigned to a local artist. The boards will be painted for an art exhibit and silent auction at the Library Square Public House (330 W Georgia St @ Hamilton) on Thursday, March 8th, at 9pm. Proceeds will be donated to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, BC/Yukon Chapter.
For more information contact:
Benjamin Jordan
Push For The Cure - Skater
604 723 4910
http://pushforthecure.com
Freimuth goes to Aus & New Zealand
Posted by: Dave Freimuth | Monday, March 5, 2007
- View from the Red Bull house!
Just thought I'd get you an update from the tundra. My trip with the Colony team to Australia/New Zealand was amazing. I flew straight into Sydney for the Australian BMX Games. I'd have more than a few complaints about the comp, but after I ended up with 3rd in mini I really couldn't remember what any of them were! They did have one of the most remarkable trophies I've ever seen. It was for the guy that pretty much gave'r the entire weekend. It was made up of 4 bmx frames, misc. sprockets, 4 foot long candles, and a gigantic wolf's head...so crazy.
- Vans team poster...hahah!
At the after party for the comp, Haimona from NZ found this poster announcing the upcoming Vans tour! Hilarious.
We had a couple days off in Sydney before we flew over to New Zealand for an 8 day road trip, so we snuck down to Bondi beach for sun and beverages...Bondi is probably my most favorite place on the planet.
On Wednesday we caught our flight over to NZ and drove straight to the docks in Wellington to catch our ferry over to the South island. We spent the next week or so rambling around the South island camping, riding, eating, drinking, driving... etc. Mike from Triple Six Distribution made some calls and got us into the Red Bull house in Queenstown for 3 days, which was too freakin' sweet! We went from camping in cabins to staying in a decked out house with one of the best views I've ever seen in my life (see top photo!).
On our way back up to Wellington for the X-Air comp we stopped and did the tourist thing. The X-Air comp pretty much lived up to everything I had been hearing about for the last 4 or 5 years now...great city, sweet hotel, huge street course and a monster pro turnout. Not to mention proper after parties, bikini comps, tons of free sausage, and all the free drink tickets your pockets could handle, just the way we like it.
The street comp was off the hook as I'm sure you already know. My group ended up doing pretty well. Spinner did the 1080, Mirra and Diogo had some of the best runs I've ever seen, Osato did a tooth over and back on a huge railing, and Morgan took himself out on the dirt jumps after winning street practice hands down.
The trip home was on of the roughest ones I've ever had. All the Absinthe shots that Mirra bought the night before didn't help and neither did the snow storm that shut down the entire east coast. 3 weeks away from home will really make you appreciate it even in a foot of snow and zero degree weather. I still don't know what Cow Drippings are!
I threw in a photo of Thompson at his swimming class... I caught him checking out his gut in the mirror, he must have gotten that from daddy!
thanks Clint for the trip!
A good week
Posted by: Taj Mihelich | Thursday, March 1, 2007Been having some great days here in Austin lately. We got our new ramp addition at T-1 all done and the weather's been incredible and the trails around town have been fantastic.
We ran out of Skatelite for the new ramp section and even though I think I'm still sponsored by them I can't seem to get ahold of them. In desperation late at night I decided to start a Skatelite conservation technique of roaching the tiniest little bits of Skatelite into an almost mosaic like pattern to use every bit. It took some struggling, but we had just barely enough and were digging out the 5 year old scraps we had buried under the ramp from the initial build.
- Ryan Corrigan made the scraps work for a really smooth corner. He's a master!
My band played last night and that was pretty cool. Or, actually it was the most stressful show I've ever played, but still cool in a way. Everyone in the band has been real busy and we haven't had much practice and maybe cause my mom and step dad were in town visiting or something, or maybe cause I got poisoned by my water and was sick but I kept forgetting songs.
- The Snake Trap. Photo by Chris Hallman
- Austin is so crazy, last night I randomly saw Wiz and Stricker ride down the street. Then Sandy Carson came to our show, and then the Homeless Trash crew came walking down the street. You guys ever seen Trash? Ground breaking! Sheps, Steve-O, Jeff (who is standing in for Ruben Castillo), and the Gute.
Its strange, we've played a lot of the songs hundreds of times, but for whatever reason we'd get to some change, I'd know it was coming and I'd forget what to do... and start stressing. Reminds me a lot of riding though. At least a couple times I had to just close my eyes and move my hand up into the general area I knew I was supposed to play and hope that muscle memory would take over.
- Sandy is one of the funniest people you could ever know.
That kind of "diving" into it approach worked mostly... I had a few bad hangups, but it was still fun. Playing music is so humbling!
Riding the ramp has been so a awesome lately, everyone trying to figure out the new parts and what they're capable of. Of course Joe has the biggest lines already, but what's new.
- We've been getting a lot of Rollergirls coming by to have fun on the ramp too... here's Venus Envy and Annie Afterparty.
Chris Hallman isn't far behind. You might need to be a little bit old school to be able to place Chris Hallman's name as a pro rider, but he's a rider/ photographer from Pennsylvania who grew up around Joe and all those PA guys. Lately he's been on a mission, killing the cement park, the trails and the ramp. Supposedly Joe is making him enter a vert contest with him this year, so that should be awesome to see.
Speaking of contests I just got an invite to this this crazy thing. Its the Red Bull Empire of Dirt at the Forte' bros house in England. Its been forever since I entered a dirt comp and I don't really think my bag of one footed variations will really hang with all the double flips and double whips, but even so I'm going to try and go. This thing looks sooooo fun doesn't it?
- Red Bull Empire of Dirt Course
A few days ago the water at my apartments got turned off 'cause some road crew broke the water main. It was off for like 2 days and then when it came back on I thought everything was back to normal. I took a much needed shower, washed clothes and such. Well, after drinking a few glasses I started to feel sick. The next day there was an urgent email from the apartment complex warning us to not drink any for 10 days! I ended up with a bad fever and feeling shitty for a whole day. To stop boredom I changed the optical drive on a friends iBook.
- Yeah, I computer nerded out!
Holy shit! I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I had to take out like 60 screws. It was fun taking it all apart I guess and scary that I was going to ruin it, but, so far, so good.
I hear the entire animal team is in town today and I saw Wiz ride by the bar last night, so I'm off to go ride and see who I can bump into.
Take care!
Taj