Archives

James Craig Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
There're reasons why Southern California produces more amazing skateboarders per capita than anywhere else on Earth (with the possible exception of Vancouver, British Columbia): it's warm and dry 340-plus days of the year, it's almost completely covered in concrete, and, because it's the hub of the skateboarding industry, the skaters who grow up there are exposed to amazing talent at a young age. Anaheim resident James Craig is a perfect example. I called him at the skate shop where he works in Orange County, California to ask him about growing... Read more...
1,000 to 1
|TransWorld Skateboarding
A dozen amateur skateboarders answer questions about living the dream.What are you willing to do to be a known skateboarder?Are you willing to have multiple knee surgeries? Would you drop out of college? How about high school? Will you leave your family? Your friends? Your girlfriend? Will you sleep on a dirty couch? For two years? Would you move to a foreign country full of people who scream in the streets? Would you submit to a strip search by U.S. Customs agents with cold hands? Are you prepared to skip... Read more...
Jeff Lenoce Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Jeff Lenoce , 17When it comes to seeking out quality amateur talent, Birdhouse is no joke. As well as finding Brian Sumner and Ali Cairns, they can also be credited with helping elevate Heath Kirchart and Andrew Reynolds from the level of talented kids to household names. Connecticut-born Jeff Lenoce looks to be a member of the next wave. I called Jeff at his home in Clearwater, Florida where he lives with his family.A lot of people from the East Coast aren't too stoked on California. How do you feel... Read more...
J. B. Gillet Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
J. B. is nearly impossible to get in touch with. He comes here from his hometown of Lyon, France and goes on three-month-long couch tours. Every time I finally got the number where he was staying, by the time I'd call, he'd have already moved on. With the help of World Industries employees I talked to him from World's El Segundo, California offices.How long have you been in the U.S.?Three months. I can't stay more than three months. I'm illegal today. I'm gonna go back on the 28th of February.... Read more...
Forrest Kirby Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
The skateboarding world isn't the friendliest place. It's teeming with adversarial peers, agenda-driven magazines, pushy advertising agencies, and cubic tons of cold, hard concrete. So it's not uncommon to see the quieter, gentler skateboarders disappear after they've been introduced to the mean-spirited personality of the industry. Fortunately, San Antonio, Texas nice guy Forrest Kirby has yet to be physically repelled by skateboarding's darker side. He phoned me from the offices of Rhythm skateboards.What aspect of skateboarding draws you to it the most?I like the way certain people skate¿it's inspirational to... Read more...
Erik Ellington Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
When you're around sponsored skateboarders a lot, you get the feeling that many of them think they've earned something they haven't yet received. Maybe it's respect, or money, or fancy cars and necklaces. But you get none of that when you talk to Erik Ellington. Born in Anchorage, Alaska and currently living day-to-day in Huntington Beach, California, the Zero team's tallest member is putting in his time and trying not to jinx himself. Tell me what it was like to grow up in Alaska.Winters were nine months long, and the... Read more...
Ed Selego Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Like many major cities in the U.S., Tampa, Florida has seen its day. As suburban life becomes more and more desirable, Tampa's downtown becomes more and more a haven for city types. Being an amateur skateboarder, and therefore a city type, Ed Selego has moved from Temple, Texas to the Gulf of Mexico's most skatable abandoned concrete jungle. I called him at Jeff Taylor's house in Encinitas, California to ask him if being big got in his way.Explain to me why so many good skateboarders come out of the Tampa... Read more...
Dave Coyne Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Two years ago, with no set plan, Dave Coyne got on a bus in Bridgeport, Ohio and headed for San Diego, California. He showed up at Chad Knight's, whom he'd met in passing on a few different occasions, and never left. Since his impromptu move, he's began establishing a name for himself in the world of amateur skateboarding. I called him at his friend's house in San Jose, California where he was staying.Tell me about moving to California. You moved in with Chad Knight?Yeah, about two years ago. I was... Read more...
Alex Chalmers Am Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Anyone who's ever seen North Vancouver, Canada's Alex Chalmers skate knows he's a player. His ability in a skatepark is mind-numbing, but he's earned the unfortunate tag "park skater," which for years has impeded his ability to get connected with a quality board sponsor¿until now. I called him at his home in North Van and we discussed his riding for Flip and the pitfalls of growing up in skateboard paradise. Canadians hate it when you associate them with Americans. Tell me what it means to be Canadian.I don't want to... Read more...
Video Review - Consolidated No Tommorrow
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Dear TransWorld,Please use this video review of my new favorite video No Tomorrow by Consolidated Skateboards. This is a twenty-minute pixel masterpiece "about being in love and hate with skateboarding full spectrum." It features my favorite skateboarders Jackson Taylor and Scott Bourne (a.k.a. Black Arm). Those guys rip! Jackson feebles a gnarly rail and skates transition like a man. Scott Biggety Bourne 50-50s the crap out of a burly rail, and dominates all ramps big and small. I'm gonna get a black arm when I turn eighteen and get away... Read more...
The Kingdom Calendar
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Just when you think you've seen it all, Chris and Ricca Gentry have something for your wall! Yes, that's right, the new 1999 Kingdom calendar. Each month has a full-page color photo of Chris and his better-half Ricca in different theme scenes. On each page Ricca, the star of the calendar, is wearing her sexy swimsuits with Chris usually chillin' somewhere in the background. (Chris, don't think we didn't notice.) Every time you flip a page, you'll find something new: it might be the hidden logo or the shotgun cane.... Read more...
Free Tibet
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Over 1,000,000 people killed in crimes against humanity and a world-famous rap band: what do they have to do with DC shoes?In 1949 The Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet, a defenseless, nonviolent country. The invasion was approximately equivalent to a squad of Navy Seals raiding an elementary school. They killed Tibetans and swept the land like a swarm of coked-up locust, trying their best to devour Tibetan culture and erase it from the Earth. The problem persists today; the Chinese government seems to possess amazing concentration and endurance. For... Read more...
Tampa Am Fest '99
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Today's amateurs are no joke. Two-hundred hungry upstarts competed over the weekend of January 8 - 10 to win what has become known as the most important amateur contest of the year. Virtually every company with their hooks in skateboarding has scouts in Tampa to check out skating's future flavors. An entire 10,000-square-foot warehouse filled to the rafters with kids willing to flip, jump, spin, and throw themselves off of every thing in sight just to win S.P.o.T. '99. With dozens of photographers and sponsors surrounding the street course, every... Read more...
North Carolina
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Skateboarders from North Carolina are a different breed. Maybe it's in the water, maybe it's the rich red clay we're molded from. Forgot all the hillbilly references and redneck crap, because while that may be a part of us, it's not what sets us apart. People here have a certain underdog mentality. Being from North Carolina gives a unique perspective on the world and a chance to see skateboarding for what it really is–no more, no less. Outside of the fame game, outside of the hype, for us skateboarding is... Read more...
Last Words: Carl Shipman
|TransWorld Skateboarding
P>Last trick you landed:A 360 flip.Last time you went to the cinema:To see Dangerous Minds. That was almost three years ago.Last video you rented:Truth Or Consequences.Last TV show you watched:Blind Date.Last time you left the country:Last May, when I went to Europe on the DC Super Tour.Last radio station you listened to:Galaxy 105.Last album you bought:Alanis Morrisette, Jagged Little Pill.Last dream you had:I won 25-million on the lottery.Last person you skated with:My brother Lee.Last football English for soccer match you attended:I went to watch some local Sunday league games with... Read more...
Gasbag
|TransWorld Skateboarding
In over sixteen years of publication, TransWorld SKATEboarding has employed only one photo editor; his name is J. Grant Brittain.In that time, he's outlasted six editors in chief (including himself for a short time); four art directors; dozens of managing, senior, contributing, and assistant editors; hundreds of contributing photographers and writers; and literally thousands of professional skateboarders. They've come and gone like so many waves washing ashore. They form and peak, then crumble and vanish.Another one bites the dust.Grant's photos of everyone from Steve Caballero to Kris Markovich have found... Read more...
Danny Montoya Interview
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Other than getting this interview together, I've only had one prior experience with Danny Montoya. We were in Vancouver, Canada for the Slam City Jam contest in May of '98, and in between heats a bunch of us, including Danny, went skating downtown.Vancouver is like a huge skatepark, and before long, we found a ten-stair rail Danny and some others wanted to shoot photos on. Being the 26-six-year-old puss I am, I proudly (but quietly) found a corner to watch from. After a while, contest exhaustion forced everyone but Danny... Read more...
Good Stuff - Chad Fernandez
|TransWorld Skateboarding
When I was a freshman in high school, my friend Alex and I used to ditch fifth and sixth periods so we could beat the traffic in Los Angeles and get to Transitions Skatepark before the after-school rush. One guarantee about the park was that Chad Fernandez was sure to show up. Back then he seemed to be about a foot tall. His helmet looked bigger than his whole body. But one thing was unmistakable: Chad had it dialed. Not only the park, but skateboarding in general.Just about the time... Read more...
A-Team Tour
|TransWorld Skateboarding
When I approached the editors of TransWorld about covering the A-Team's mini East Coast Tour, they told me they wanted something different than the usual "On day six, we went here and did this" story. Now, how this particular responsibility fell on my shoulders and not those of any other double-load-carrying senior photographer/contributing writer, I have no idea, but the task was mine, so I set my devious mind in motion. I devised a standard questionnaire, which I gave to each of the riders on the A-Team East Coast Tour¿Marc... Read more...
Check Out - Mark Baines
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Age: 19Home: Worksop, EnglandSponsors: New Deal, Spitfire, Volcom, Vans, FurnishedWhen Mark came to the States a few months back, he was quickly accepted into the drinking partnership of Ali Boulala and Alex Moul. They christened him on his birthday with a night on the town, or should I say a "night in the bathroom rolling in his own vomit." It's their way of welcoming him into the posse. The night will not be forgotten, as it was photographed and a massive collage of the night is displayed on the living-room... Read more...
Check Out - Aaron Yeager
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Age: 21Home: Springfield, MissouriSponsors: Halos, Individual, Grind King, Globe, Lethal skateboards, ProdigyAaron Yeager and I are both from Springfield, Missouri. The first day I saw Aaron he was ripping, cruising around with the smooth, clean, consistent style he possesses. If he's not hacking up gallons of flem in the morning, he's sessioning the streets of San Francisco. A girl the other day said to me, "Aaron is good at getting what he wants, huh?" And I smiled and said, "You would know better than me, wouldn't you?" To make a... Read more...
Check Out - Kristian Svitak
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Age: 23Home: Cleveland, OhioSponsors: Black Label, Vans, Westside, Skates Of ClevelandImagine your name was Kristian Svitak back in third grade when your school peers were particularly venomous and hateful. Imagine the endless possibilities of fun they could have with the name-changing game¿"Kristmas Buttcrack," or how about "Kristina Ballsack."Somewhere along the way, Kristmas Donkeysack found skateboarding and a group of social-misfit friends and they formed Team Insanity. Like an emotionally charged VH-1 Rockumentary, amidst hardship and a torturous youth, he not only excelled at the forbidden activity of skateboarding, he thrived... Read more...
Check Out - Toebee Parkhurst
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Age: 18Home: MaineSponsors: Black Label, Nice, Tornado, ZONE SkateparkI first met Toebee six years ago at a public skatepark in Maine. He was four-eyed, rat-tailed, and soon became my favorite person to skate with. Since then Toebee's grown into a well-rounded, smooth- skating chick magnet. Growing up in Maine, Toebee skated anything he could get his hands on, giving him the ability to skate any kind of obstacle with strength and composure. If you're ever lucky enough to skate with Toebee, check out his positive attitude and incredible skating, but... Read more...
Budget Wreck
|TransWorld Skateboarding
TransWorld photographer Ryan Gee and Alien Workshop-pro Josh Kalis almost had a near-fatal - maybe-see-you-in-another-world - accident in Philadelphia on December 17 at about 11:00 p.m. They'd just shot some photos, and Josh was driving Gee home when he lost control as he rounded a corner, fishtailed, and then crashed into a parked piece-of-junk van. Both of them had neglected to obey that damn seatbelt law, but luckily airbags saved them from flying through the windshield - just minor bangs to head from smashing against the side of the car.... Read more...