JUN 22: Go Skateboarding Day.

By Gunther Estrada.

The international day of Skate a.k.a “Go Skateboarding day” was celebrated this past Sunday June the 21st, everyone took the streets and local parks to celebrate our passion and to pay tribute to our useless wooden toy.

 The day of the global event we got a call telling us about the inauguration of the “Paul Rodriguez Skate Plaza” in the City of Pacoima north of Los Angeles. The new plaza was planning a BBQ and gathering for the Go Skateboarding Day and we knew this was going to be a fun time so we took our boards and roll up to north Los Angeles to get this exclusive footage we are bringing you from that afternoon of friends and hammers. 

 

The Skate Plaza has a very diverse set up that goes from a pyramid to a flat gound area, ledges, benches, hand rails, stairs, mini hubbas etc…Two thumbs ups on the new battle ground.

JUNE 19: “God Save the Label”

I got on my car after a long day of work and drove south to Carlsbad for the Black Label Premiere of “God Save the Label”; After a 45 minute drive on traffic I got to my final destination “The Hensley’s Bar” , The flying Elephant is the name of this Irish Dive bar located by the 405 FWY and owned by one of my fucking hero’s Mr. Matt Hensley!

I didnt have to drive to long to find a parking spot and I thought it might be because I got there like an hour before the movie, little did I know the place was already packed and due to a “California Department of bullshit” law, we werent able to enter the place until the people inside had left the joint.
The guys organizing the premier were forced to have 2 shows and I was one of the lucky ones to wait for the sloopy seconds. Anyways, I got in, got a beer and walk straight to the area were the movie was going to show, the room had some Black Label boards on the walls and on the screen as a manner of previews before the movie they were showing Animal Chin!! I got a chair and watched the movie that brought back all the memories still alive from the good old times.
After the “Animal Chin” preview the feature movie started and I noticed a couple of names right away Ben Skrzypek and Peter Raffin…really good stuff, also Shuriken Shanon and Vince del Valle were throwing down good tricks in this video but definitely Chris Troy had the heaviest hammers in it, overall a pretty good video.  

Here are a couple pics from the event.




JUN 13: 11th Annual Transworld Skateboarding Awards.

By Gunther Estrada

We found ourselves once again driving North on the 405, on our way to the star covered streets of Hollywood for one of the biggest events of the year; the Transworld Skateboarding Awards!. Tom Contreras, Alvaro, Pepe and Jonnhy Pacheco all had the chance to get in as soon as the doors opened and went straight to the Lobby of the AVALON to get the pre-party started.

Tom Contreras introduced us to some friends from his old street days, Jeron Wilson, Kellen James, Jimmy Carlin…Etc. Finally the time to sit down came and my brother Hali went to the VIP room for extra pictures, then Bill Weiss took over the stage to kick off the 11th annual TWS awards.

Lance Mountain, Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk after the Awards.

Overall a great event that brought together some of the biggest names in the industry. After the awards Bill Weiss annouced the Premiere of the TWS Video “Right foot forward”, that was greatly anticipated by everybody. The video had crazy technical tricks, great filming and editing work, along with the talented skateboarding abilities of all of the riders but specially Kellen James, Joey Brezinski and Matt Beach that brought back a little of the oldschool fun feeling.

We had a great time :) and can’t wait to do it again !!!

Chad Fernandez, Hali Estrada and Peter Smolik.

Gunther Estrada, Jeff Garza, Jeron Wilson and Tom Contreras.

Joey before the awards.

Hali Estrada and the beautiful Designer Beth Richards.

Gunther Estrada, Tom Contreras, Alvaro Santillana and Danny Brady.

Hali Estrada and Mic-E Reyes.

Vans is in the house; Adrianna , Nikki and Amy :)

Erik Ellington and Braydon Szafranski.

Hali Estrada and Pornstars Alektra Blue and Mikayla Mendez. Yeah, that was weird..

JUN 10: Nike “Debacle” Premiere.

Wednesday June the 10th, finally the day has come. Tom Contreras picked me up and we were on our way to meet Hali, Alvaro and Rod for the Nike video premiere event.
We had seeing the trailer for the movie and were stoked to watch the Am’s for this company since we had a great previous experience with “Nothing but the Truth” about a year ago. Finally after 45 minutes flying on the carpool lane we got to the land of the broken dreams “Hollywood”. This event was a little different from their first movie premiere, lets say a little less exuberant. The premiere was taking place at a theater in Vine Street called “Ricardo Montalban Theather” named after the recently deceased actor from Fantasy Island…The Plane!!! The Plane!!! Remember?
Anyways, through the door straight to the freebies  hahaha!  They had a large variaty of free chocolate, candy , popcorn , redbulls, and sodas for everybody assisting this event and up on the second floor a nice bar set up with the delicious PBR Pabst Blue Ribbon (American Beer delicatesen) that was distribute for free to everyone with the red wristband.
The sitting area doors open and we got some spots close to the action, the movie had  amazing editing in it and combined with the talents of Justin Brook and Grant Taylor (favorite parts) delivered a great work from this up and coming Amateurs. Good Work!, and by the way, KOSTON rides for NIKE now.

Here are some pics of the event.

The Entrance way before everything started.

Alvaro, Gunther and Tom.

Gunther and Hali.

Koston rides now for NIKE. Brad and Erick for Fuel TV.

Tom and the candies.

Finally The Video .