Archives

Weird Story
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Eric Koston remembers the night of the Northridge earthquake.In 1994, I was living in Hollywood with Tim Gavin. Matt Schnurr was staying over at the time, too. It was a little after 4:00 in the morning, and we'd just gone to bed. We'd been up watching TV and playing Mortal Combat. I'd just fallen asleep when it hit; the whole building started rocking. I was swaying in bed. I thought, "Oh shit! I've been in an earthquake before, but never when four stories of building could fall on me."I got... Read more...
Video Review - Wonder Years
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Duffs Shoes - Wonder YearsKris Markovich is in this video. Where I'm from, that's enough to sell a video. And with an assembled cast of characters like the Duffs team, you know that there is plenty more worth seeing. Matt Hensley and Chris Pastras (that's "Dune" to all of those over 21) are fun to watch, with Mr. Hensley proving he isn't just a billiards hustler these days and Dune ripping the mini ramps. Young upstarts Danny Montoya and Chris Lambert make impressive showings, as does most everyone else on... Read more...
Set Up
|TransWorld Skateboarding
What the pros ride, and why. This month: Jeremy Wray.I've been riding different Element boards, but now that my model is out, I've been riding that. The concave is what they call Featherlight: a thinner board with a steeper concave. I like a mellow tail and a steep concave. The nose is pretty steep on the Featherlight, but I'm getting used to it. I like stiff boards. I can go through a board in a few days if I'm filming, but if I'm just skating normal, a board can last... Read more...
A night on the town with Jeremy Klein and Heath Kirchart.
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Disclaimer: Don't be an idiot and try any of the stunts described in this article. Everyone involved is a professional idiot. We've all spent years honing our idiotic skills, and are much more accomplished at it than you'll ever be.The second fire was by far the largest. Heath Kirchart started it in the back of the Hook-Ups van while we were bombing down the highway at 80 miles an hour. The van is the perfect firebox: the exterior has already been torched and the inside is gutted, exposing bare, fire-retardant,... Read more...
Pro Nearly Loses Arm
|TransWorld Skateboarding
In mid November the Converse team was on tour in Mexico City when Felix Arguelles nearly severed his arm. While ollieing a balcony-to-balcony gap, Felix stretched to make the landing, lost his balance, and, in an attempt to stabilize himself as he fell, put his arm through a ten-foot-by-ten-foot plate-glass window. His momentum pulled him forward and jagged glass sliced open his arm."I could see straight through all the muscles and tendons in my forearm and hand," Felix remembers.Bleeding badly, Felix's arm was wrapped in a T-shirt and the group... Read more...
Favorites: Chris Senn
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Movies: The Deer HunterSchindler's ListLa Femme NikkitaStar WarsThe DeepBooks:The Secret LifeLes MisérablesDon Quixote de la ManchaOf Mice and MenChicken HawkArtists:Vincent Van GoghPablo PicassoSalvador DalíPaul CézanneWayne ThiebaudTricks:handplants (I'm serious)backside airsrailslidesfrontside grindsnolliesVacation Spots:Rome, ItalyMexicoVancouver, CanadaSpainParis, FranceMontreal in the summerPeople:Anakin (Chris' son)Erika (Chris' girlfriend) Read more...
Last Words:Kris Markovich
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Last time you left the U.S.: Last week, I went to London for a couple of days.Last C.D. you bought: Oasis, The Master Plan.Last album you listened to on a Walkman: Elliot Smith.Last video you saw: The Birdhouse video The End.Last movie you saw in the cinema: The Waterboy.Last magazine you read: The new TransWorld.Last book you read: Out Of The Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis.Last time you were in a fight: I can't remember … a long time ago.Last time an airline lost your luggage: Three weeks ago, coming... Read more...
The Editors' Favorite Issue
|TransWorld Skateboarding
The editors love the Photo Issue. By "editors," I'm referring to writers, fact checkers, and copy cleaners–word people. It's the one month of the year they find themselves with "free time," a concept normally reserved for the sales staff.During this glorious month, the editors drop the 8:00 a.m.-'til-exhaustion grind and adopt a more "relaxed" daily schedule. Here's how it's gone this month:10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.Arrive at work. (The entire edit staff arrives promptly around 10:00-ish to check voice mail and browse the Internet. Popular sites: www.hotwheels.com, www.playersonly.com, www.footballunlimited.co.uk.)11:00 a.m.... Read more...
Baltimore Minute
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Our city is a major metropolitan area on the eastern seaboard nestled in between Washington D.C. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Located on the Chesapeake Bay, the birthplace of the historic "Star Spangled Banner," home to the "Blue Crab," and the final resting place of Edger Allen Poe.Baltimore has a good amount of skaters who all know each other or have at least seen one another before. You can actually skate from one side of the city to the other in less than an hour, which is always fun when you want... Read more...
Brazil
|TransWorld Skateboarding
There's nothing like the smell of hot exhaust in your face to remind you that you're in a Third World country. I'm not sure what the exact definition of a Third World country is, but from what I saw on my visits to Brazil, the traffic was bad and it wasn't a good idea to drink the water. This was my second trip to Brazil. I went there about three years ago–the first time I'd ever left the States–so it was interesting to go back again. This time my mission... Read more...
Etnies Adventures In Plywood Paradise II
|TransWorld Skateboarding
It was an insane year for skateboarding. There were more tours, more contests, and more prize money paid than ever before. Ninety-eight saw the X-Games peak in popularity, and the birth of another extreme-sports Olympiad - the Gravity Games, which will debut in Summer '99. There were the televised compedramas, and there were the 'roots events like March's SkatePark of Tampa contest. There was also the MTV Sports And Music Festival, which wasn't really a contest at all (and thanks to the rain, was itself a wash).Skateboarding, if you think... Read more...
Weird Story - Sluggo
|TransWorld Skateboarding
I was in Lanai, Hawaii for a World Industry and Blind vacation. Rocco paid for the trip; he usually does that every year. All the Blind guys were on quads four-wheel dirt bikes, me, Jody Morris, and Gideon Choi took the Land Rover to meet them at the beach, so we could switch and ride the quads.We went through Garden of the Gods - a ceremonial place with all these rocks stacked up like snowmen. The rocks are very sacred. I'd been down this road to the beach before, but... Read more...
Schmitt Likes Candy
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Paul Schmitt has a bright-yellow tape measure. I mean really bright. You can't miss the thing. It's perpetually clipped to his front pocket like a piece of jewelry, advertising his character like a fancy cell phone or tricked-out beeper the homies flash around to impress. But it's not meant to impress, in fact, people occasionally make fun of it. The truth is, he wears it like you'd wear a watch. That's what separates Schmitt from the rest of us - he actually needs a tape measure. And we should all... Read more...
Tom "The Rock" Boyle
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Tom: "It was either 1987 or 1988 at the Virginia Beach ramp. The ramp was super-slick, so I slammed every run. I slammed a lot. I guess it didn't look like I got hurt." Darren Menditto interjects: "It was that he slammed so hard, and everybody said, 'What are you - made out of rock?'" "Sometimes I don't like it, but sometimes I do. Kids will come up and say, 'Hey, Rock!' I'm always taken aback, 'Huh? They still call me that?'" Read more...
Favorites: Marc Johnson
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Foods:bean and cheese burrito from the freezer sectioncheese and sprouts sandwich on oatmeal breadAuthors:Ernest HemingwayCharles BukowskiJ.D. SalingerWilliam BurroughsLao TzeTricks:backside tailslidefakie nosegrindfakie pivot grindPlaces:SwitzerlandWashington stateAlaskaSan Gabrielle beach, Californiathe couch by my front doorMovies:Five Easy PiecesHouse Of YesCarnal KnowledgeRiver's EdgeA Separate PeaceJudeMusicians:B.B. KingJohn Lee HookerPalaceArtists:BasquiatAndy WarholEgon SchieleWorst injury:My broken heart Read more...
Conspiracy Theory
|TransWorld Skateboarding
This is a good rumor. It's up there with the one about the kid's guts exploding after simultaneously eating Pop Rocks and drinking Pepsi.Kevin Harris, the former freestyler who skated for Powell-Peralta and was ranked second in the world, supposedly heads a special anti-skate task force in Vancouver, Canada. He travels around with a SWAT-like team, finds a skate spot, and renders it unskateble. Harris' diabolical actions know no bounds. People as far away as Europe have blamed him for ruining their spots. Soon, you'll see his face on wanted... Read more...
Retarded
|TransWorld Skateboarding
During the month of November '98, Philadelphia's Space 1026 hosted Ed Templeton's second solo show, RETARDED. The opening reception was delightfully crowded beyond comfort with intellects, skateboarders, and art fagians hobbing and nobbing, while eating vegan cookies and taking in the raw beauty of Ed's paintings and the vivid reality of his photos.The evening before the opening, I interviewed Ed and his wife Deanna in Adam Wallacavage's Parlor at the Space. Read and learn, you suckers.A.J.W.: When did you realize you wanted to become serious about art?Ed: It was in... Read more...
A Day In The Life - Steve Salba
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Pool skating is a lot different from ramp skating. Most pools are vert and have coping, but they're also curved, bowled, and have hips and features that add a dimension flat-walled ramps don't have. Pools have character, and each one is as unique as the skaters who ride them. That seems to be what keeps him interested - the possibility that the next one is better than all the rest.He realizes that what he does has become a specialized form - while pools were the dominant terrain in the late... Read more...
Salba's Pool Finding Tips
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Salba is notorious for sniffing out good pools. He's been known to fly with a pilot friend of his and map out different neighborhoods around Los Angeles and the Inland Empire. From the air, pools - their size and shape - are clearly visible. But there are plenty of other ways to locate them, so if you're out pool hunting and don't have an airplane at your disposal, look for the following clues:• "For Sale" sign in front yard of house with "Pool" advertised.• Homes for sale with H.U.D. signs... Read more...
New Mexico Desert Trip: Part One
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Jeremy Wray has an old Foundation sticker on his car. It's a dog with the words "Adventure Today" coming from his mouth. The sticker however isn't on the outside of the car for everyone to see, it's on the inside of the driver's window. More of a reminder for Jeremy than anything else.For a number of years, Jeremy, Jonas Wray (Jeremy's brother), Paul Luna, and I have taken off on various adventures into the deserts of the Southwest. One afternoon, while sitting around Jeremy and Jonas' house in Los Angeles,... Read more...
Last Words-Mark Gonzales
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Last trick you landed: I'm concentrating on not doing tricks.Last thing you bought at a store: Groceries.Last movie you went to see: Logan's Run.Last video you rented: A French movie you haven't heard of.Last magazine you read: Cat Fancy.Last book you read: I'm not intellectual.Last photo you saw that you were stoked on: The mudslides in Nicaragua.Last time you left the country: 2002. I had to escape persecution by the religious right.Last famous person you shook hands with: I'm not saying.Last person you skated with: Warren Sapp.Last art show you... Read more...
Hawaiian Plate Escape
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Approximately 2,228 miles off the coast of California lies an island chain known as Hawaii. This chain has eight islands with some of the most breathtaking nature you've ever seen. Everything from active volcanoes, crystal-clear blue water, black-sand beaches, exotic waterfalls, and the most enchanting and mesmerizing sunsets to ever hit the ocean. This destination has to be the perfect place for relaxation, but for us, it was all about skateboarding.The crew¿Ricky Oyola, Rob Gonzales, Steve Olson, Ryan Kenreich, Jim Menscer, Jesse Paez, Kirk Dianda, Chris Ortiz, and I¿met at... Read more...
Sitting Ducks - Wales, UK
|TransWorld Skateboarding
Something strange is going on in my hometown. The local residents are up in arms about a little patch of tarmac on the seafront. A few months ago it was just a stretch of black nothing no one cared about. This was all before some local skaters (with the aid of the local council, I might add) managed to get the smallest of mini ramps built on this forgotten ground, after suffering a mere six or seven years of government bullshit.The mini-ramp saga came about after skaters were thrown out... Read more...
The DVS European Tour
|TransWorld Skateboarding
I arrived in Lisbon, Portugal on a smooth flight courtesy of those very nice people at British Airways. Tim Gavin had left a brief message the day before confirming that somebody would be waiting at Lisbon Airport to pick me up. While walking through the terminal into the unknown, I wondered if there would be one of those people whose card read "Skin" waiting for me. Luckily the universal skate-camera backpack turned out to be a dead giveaway. Three guys greeted me at the gate. Two of them - Ruio... Read more...