The Master Blog — February 2009 Archive

From Mark Berndt in Winnipeg comes news of the Battle of the Crews, a small contest based around the idea of various local skate crews battlin' against each other.

The battle will be held at the Edge Skatepark on Friday, March 13, with four crew members per team (only two sponsored members per team), and they must be homies skated with on a regular basis. It's for crew pride only, and sounds like it could be really interesting.

For more info, check with Mark at Sk8 Skates in Winnipeg

"I still have a poster size drawing of his that he did in high school." —Jessie Van Roechoudt

from Color 3.2 (2005) interview pages 59-64

by Kyle Shura, words by Sandro Grison

"[Jeff] was one of the 'good guys' when I was just getting started about 15 years ago." —Jon Bunyan

The most confusing time in a typical boy’s life was for me the most simple and concise period I can ever recall. Age fourteen was the first time I felt free to do whatever, and it was the last time I didn’t have to work to get by – just be home for dinner and the moms was happy. Looking back on memories filled with the scent of vintage clothing stores and Slurpees, I’m reminded of what it was like to skate for a consecutive eight hours and still have the energy to watch videos all night, then do it all over again.

Summer at fourteen involved taking the city bus into town every day at 11:10am to our quaint skatepark on the lakefront/beach. Shaded by the ancient, giant Cottonwood trees that once stood before the epic windstorm, I’d show up to the park with an abrupt entrance where the bricks ended and the concrete began sending you forward when your front wheels hit the raised concrete – for some reason I’d always be drinking a slurpee, failing to remember this crack. Kyle Shura and his video camera would be sitting on the top of the 3ft bank with his legs out, so you had to avoid that area; Simon – who you could have sworn was raised by skateboarders the way he handled his BMX – would be in some nose wheelie stall on the pyramid; Aaron Loyie sweating it out in his XL crew neck sweater during 35 degree temperatures; Dickie-dee (who got his name from when he’d ride his Dickie-dee ice cream bike to the park and make a killing off all us skaters) shredding around looking like the young Steve Olson in polyester pants three inches too short; Bunyan, Aamon, Derrick and his brothers; Mike Balogna – post gym days – looking like Schwarzenegger; Danny Knorr and the 540 guys, launching huge backside airs off the first pyramid – everyone staying clear of Les for reasons of his temper; Mike Harding and his nollie hardflips... everyone would be in sequence every day. Around 1:00, Ryan Smith would show up for an immediate, non-stop, charging destruction session for about 30 minutes where you’d get to witness all the new tricks that just came out on whatever World, Toy Machine or Plan B video was currently in rotation. Around 1:30, the park was safe to skate again and Ryan would join Rheal, Kurt and his other Rutland homies on the bank with Kyle and commence to unintentionally intimidate every little kid who entered. It never seemed to faze Pablo though (or “Pepsi” as Kyle would call him, citing an episode of The Simpsons). He skated consistently for 10 years, and in that time I did not witness a single sign of progression from probably the first day he stepped on the board. But it didn’t seem to stop him from trying frontside bigspin heels over the pyramid, though... if that’s what you’d call it. Every day of the week, just around 3:00, Mike McKinlay would pull up in his green Austin Mini – fresh off work from his job at the local juice plant – to perform a flawless routine of trickery that would blow any mind who didn’t have the privilege to see it go down every single day. Yes, there was no shortage of characters. But while these seemingly scheduled spectacles would take place every day, only one subtle element would go noticed if it would have been absent. He was the guy who was friends with everyone, but needed nobody. Worldly, but went nowhere, said nothing, yet made you smile. A role model without reason, Jeff Ferner is the only fine detail that personifies the free and easy time in my life where I discovered that everything I really needed could be found in skateboarding, and he reminds me of this every time I see him back home at the park.

Check back next week when we look at Mike McKinlay's part – the week leading to Ryan Smith's first video part... the finale. Click here to view all Nobodys entries and check back every monday for additional parts.

new from the Corner Store:

premium "miki" tee by Color and Tim Barber.

Iast week I joined the rest of the skateboard media (that matters) in Newport Beach, CA to tour the headquarters of Etnies Shoes aka Sole Technology. We got the lowdown on the lines (also éS, Emierica, and Altamont), but there's plenty of time for us to catch you up on that.

Here you'll find some photos none of the other blogging magazine editors could bring you. That's because they're mine!

if you can't view the slideshow below, click here.

This kid is feeling no pain...

Glory Days presents "No Gold" live on Saturday, February 21st at the The Biltmore in Vancouver (395 Kingsway). Doors at 11pm, Band starts at midnight - with Glory Days deejays Ian Wyatt + Expendable Youth.

The new Enjoi catalog is online now announcing the return of the Tilt Mode Army and featuring all new coloured slim fit denim.

Showdown Tattoo Skate and Ink, Just like the Old Days by Jay Revelle

Thankfully, and in stark contrast to recent trends, the days of hardcore skate and tattoo shops aren't over. In Edmonton, for example, sits a classic example of the type of shop that every social outcast and scumbag skater of yesteryear can be proud of: Showdown Tattoo.

Thriving within the urban landscape of a colourful Edmonton ghetto, owners Steve Batt and Dustin Lowry set out in April 2007 to strengthen their local scene by providing a place for the type of skateboarding brotherhood that was perhaps more common during skateboarding’s previous heydays. Set within the walls of an old building filled with a character all its own—circa 1916—Showdown Tattoo embodies the ideal mix between tattoo artistry and the culture of skateboarding, all tied together in just the right package. The shop’s walls are adorned with classic and old school skate memorabilia and welcomes customers with an aura that causes many to comment when walking through the doors. Thus, since its opening, the shop has gathered quite a following based on this “old skateshop/tattoo shop feel”, relates co-owner Lowry. “We are dirtbags,” he says, “and so many skaters miss the days of being shunned and rejected. The corporate involvement in skating has no place in our shop.”

Overall, the shop prides itself on it “roots” type of stance: Deluxe brands such as Indy, Thrasher, Creature, and Consolidated, etc., fill the skateboarding side of the shop, which Lowry is the manager of. Meanwhile, fellow friend and skater Max Poulter puts his best foot forward and fills in the gaps. Furthermore, the shop’s ties to Edmonton’s skate scene are also close, as the shop considers itself part of Edmonton’s well-known Plush/Famous family.

In the tattoo side of the shop, three ink artists man the ship—co-owner Batt runs the show joined by artists Chris Iwaniuk and Andrew Christou. After the day’s work is done, time is often spent entertaining another shop pastime: the popular Wheel of Fortune TV show.

“As a team, every night at 5:30PM, we put the Wheel of Fortune on the shop TVs and destroy all! We are waiting for them to have a scumbag week so we can get on!!” Lowry states with unbridled enthusiasm.

Any other moments between duties is sometimes spent entertaining the random ghetto crack heads that happen to wander in from the eclectic mix of street life swirling around like a cloud outside the front door. Due to such close proximity, break-ins have, on occasion, put a damper on daily operations, but Showdown Tattoo takes it all in stride, proud to be a part of the area’s colorful social landscape.

Personally, this was my first encounter with Showdown, and it didn’t take long to pick up on their overall sense of brotherhood and their flair for creating an aura of nostalgia. In the age of mall skateshops and scumsucking corporate elites, you should definitely come on down to Showdown Tattoo and pick yourself a letter. Lowry, Batt, and the rest of the crew, plus Vanna White herself, are waiting.

For more info, check the article on Showdown Tattoo in Knowshow Magazine, the mag of Canada's premiere lifestyle trade show!

Fever Ray is the solo project of The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson, and this is the video for "If I Had a Heart".