Once again we had the chance to witness one of the best S.K.A.T.E games at The Berrics. The night started with Eric Koston and Luan Oliveira followed by Cody Cepeda and Sewa Kroetkov. This guys are seriously amazing, trick after trick they blow our minds until there were only 2 standing. The final was Cody against Luan, go to the Berrics website to check for yourself, we don’t want to tell you who was the winner ;). After the game we had a great time at the after party hanging around and drinking some beers with everybody at the DC Suite inside the Berrics, it was an incredible event and we certainly can’t wait to do it again, Skateboarding is great !!! :)
full of wristbands
With Costa Rica, Brazil and Chile after the game.
The calm before the game.
Eric Koston and Hali estrada at the game after party.
This past weekend was a very busy one for us here at the Studio finishing orders and getting samples ready. We also got the good news that our Flow Team Rider Gonzo Morales got 1st place on his category at the last Edition of the “Let’s Skate” Contest Series organized by Converse Peru on Saturday the 14th at their Skatepark facility in Lima; With only 6 years old Gonzo is definitely the future of Skateboarding and we can’t wait to see more of him in the years to come; Congratulations to Gonzo from everybody here at the Choncordia headquarters and keep shredding buddy !!!!
After a long day of work at the DC HQ I got in Tom Contrera’s beat up BMW and drove up to LA for the BATB4 Finals. Riding along with Kevin B. and Tom T. (part of DC Lurker’s crew) is more than hilarious; It will never stop to amaze me the amount of senseless, useless crap we are able to produce in a matter of 30 minutes, Its awesome!. Finally we got there to realize that we were to early so we crossed the bridge to Salman Agah’s new pizza joint ” TODDY G’s ” (if you are around LA be sure to get a slice of the carnivore pizza), we got a munch and a soda and then off to the bar next door for a drink to kill some time and to tame the heat; After a couple of drinks we headed back to the Berrics to check the situation, we found Berra at the back door and he told us to cruise to the front door for instant access (it pays to look famous), I have not seen the park since they remodeled it and I have to say it looks like a lot of fun. After lurking around the spots we grabbed a couple of free beers and a burger ( In “n” Out ) and waited for the finals. I am not going to tell you about the amazing tricks or the heat that was almost unbearable inside the park cause you can see all that at the Berrics website but I do have to mention that Morgan won “clean” not only because he is a talented skate wizard but also a very humble person and I appreciate that more than anything nowadays since the “Industry” has been plagued with so many wanna be rock stars and douche bags in general. A little amount of real humanity tastes really good, like a refreshing cup of Inka Cola at the beach (In Peru).
After 8 hours of driving we finally arrive to Arizona for the first ever Street League competition, an event that was designed to eliminate any other Skateboarding contests made by non Skateboarders.
Set in a massive stadium with a huge screen set on top of the course just like a basketball game made us think we were inside of a time machine that send us back to the 80’s when Skateboarders were more like rocks stars, I had images from my first Skate videos flashing inside my skull like “Savannah Slamma”.
When the competition finally started the “real-time Scoring” format designed to make every trick count rapidly separated the consistent Skateboarders from the others, the massive concentration of some of the Skateboarders was Clearly visible and when the time for the finals started the last guys standing were without a doubt the 7 best Skateboarders out there. An incredible determination from Nyjah Huston and Tory Pudwill along with the precise style of Shane O’Neill quickly put them onto the verge of the winning line finally crowning Nyjah Huston as the winner of the first Street League 2010 Arizona style. We had a lot of fun and here are some pictures and a little video of the contest, the second stop will be Ontario CA., so see you guys there !!
It was a Sunny California day when we showed up at Gate 5 of the OC Fair to witness the Maloof Money Cup for the third consecutive year. This year the Street course had way more transition but the nice Street obstacles made up for it. After getting some drinks we went to watch the practice and take some pictures.
Torey Pudwill, Adelmo Jr., Ishod Wair and Matt Miller were killing it at practice; Adelmo broke his elbow later that day but not before landing perfect Nollie Heelflips on the bump over the gap. Torey was doing perfect backside 360 full body Kickflips and later that day Corey Kennedy was landing every trick he tried. We got the chance to meet Fabian Alomar on the second day. He is back in the game after many years, and if you don’t know who is Fabian you better check out “20 Shot Sequence”, one of the best videos of the 90’s.
Alvaro Santillana, Fabian Alomar and Hali Estrada.
The Girls were better than last year and it was very refreshing to watch Alexis Sablone, Marisa del Santo, Lacey baker and specially the winner Leticia Bufoni landing a perfect Backside Smith on the big rail. The Amateurs were incredible as always; Theotis Beasley was landing every trick with a perfect style, Kechaud Johnson and Tom Asta didn’t disappoint and little Loui Lopez was landing perfect Switch Frontside Bigspin Heelflips on the bump.
Tom Asta, Nose Blunt.
Steve Caballero and Christian Hosoi were there for the Masters demo along with Sal barbier who landed a perfect Backside Nose Blunt on the Volcano area of the course. We also had the chance to meet young Skateboarder Youness Amrani from Belgium, a super talented down to earth kid who was at the Maloof contest for the frist time; we are sure you’ll be hearing more about him in the near future.( Good luck in New York man !!!) .
The Finals were unbelievable, Chris Cole and Nyjha Houston had an amazing performance. Bastien Salabanzi was super solid and Torey landed a Backside Smith to backside Kickflip out on the curved ledge….That was fucking insane. At the end the $100,000 went to Chris Cole once again and it was very sad to watch Nyjha crying; I imagine it was a tough decision for the judges, but politics always seem to get in the way.
Chris Cole , Back 180 Nose Grind.
Overall the event was amazing; the best Skateboarders in the world and surprise performances by Nelly, Ludacris and Lil John made the past weekend one to remember. We like to thank Brendi, Maya, Devin, Thea and Jennifer for all their help. You girls are the best :) also Tanya of security and Kish at the fair entrance for the laughs. It was a fun weekend around friends and great Skateboarding. We can’t wait for the next event ;).
RESULTS:
1. Chris Cole 286.33 points $100,000
2. Nyjah Huston 281.67 points $40,000
3. Sean Malto 281.33 points $25,000
4. Torey Pudwill 274.67 points $15,000
5. Tommy Sandoval 260.67 points $6,000
6. Bastien Salabanzi 258.67 points $5,000
7. Ryan Decenzo 255.33 points $4,000
8. Justin Brock 250.33 points $3,000
9. David Gonzalez 246.67 points $2,500
10. Billy Marks 239.67 points $2,000
Here are some more pics and a small video of the contest; Enjoy :). CFL.
Torey, Backside 5.0 to back Tail.
Hali working hard :/....
Ludacris performance; can you be closer???
Taylor Bonin, Brittany Donahue and Sophie Molinari right before Nellys performance.
Alvaro wishing Nelly wasn't there, he was waiting for "BRUJERIA"
Ishod Wair, Backside Nose Blunt.
Gunther was working hard too while Steve Caballero and Corey Kennedy were watching the finals.
Adam Dyet, 540 Melon Grab.
Torey Pudwill and Gunther Estrada after the finals.
Johnny Layton, Switch 360 Kickflip.
David with his Best Trick $10.000 check after landing a 50-50 Kickflip out on the rainbow rail.
And last a very nice pic of the big wheel on the OC Fair....good times.
My weekend started on Thursday Dec 3rd, got to Tampa and went straight to the Skatepark for the art show and DEL’s performance to find out they had free beer (PBR) and Vodka with red bull for everybody so I get off to a good start. The exhibition was alright, 90 different types of bottles with weird designs… on the other hand DEL’s performance was insane, I’ve been listening to DEL since I lived in Peru and I couldn’t believe that I was in front of him, same style, same hip hop feeling; Then I went to the other side of the Skaterpark to watch the Ams practice.
Giancarlo and Tolentino
On Friday I went to DEL’s official concert for the 17th anniversary of the Skatepark of Tampa, it was crazy , the audio was awesome and A PLUS from Hieroglyphics was on the stage with him. The concert was at Czar in Ybor City, which is 5 minutes from the Skatepark of Tampa, Ybor City is like 10 blocks of bars and clubs, the night ended up with a big party and AGAIN free beers so dont ask me how I ended up that night hahahahaha.
Saturday I went back to the Skatepark for a bit, to watch the practice and to try to learn more tricks. The practice was crazy, there were like 40 people trying to Skate at the same time so I couldn’t Skate that much :/. Sunday was the day of the finals and I woke up with a hangover from the night before but I said ‘fuck it’ and decided to go to the skatepark early in the morning so I could see the whole thing. I was there by 10am, lots of cameras, lots of skaters and guess what? more FREE alcohol hahaha, I didnt wanna drink anymore though, I had plans to meet with my old friend Daniel from Peru (AKA legañita) it was cool seeing Daniel, he was on tour in Florida with the 5boro team, we started talking about Skateboarding and reminiscing about all the awesome people that we know from our homeland, Peru.
The finalists.
I was ready to see Nick Tucker and Corey Kennedy; Corey was late and as soon as he arrived his run started, for my surprise Corey didn’t land any trick, but he almost blow my mind trying to do nollie heelflip late shove it over the pyramid, he was so close (maybe next year Corey!). Luan de Olivera blew my mind with his consistence, style, creativity and usual perfection in landing his tricks resulting on his 2nd consecutive year winning the contest.
The results were: 1st place Luan de Oliveira, 2nd Ben Hatchell 3rd Nick Tucker, the highest ollie prize went to Luis tolentino with a 44.5 inch.
I saw a lot of Skaters from different countries trying to reach their dreams and having fun on the way; but none from Peru, which is a bummer since there is so much talent over there but the lack of resources and bureaucracy makes it very difficult for a young Skater to get a Visa and travel for a contest far from home but things are changing quickly, Skateboarding is bigger than ever in Peru and you know guys that the Choncordia family is here to support you when the time comes.
Anyways, that was my weekend, see you at Tampa Pro if im still living in Florida.CFL.
