Monday, July 9

The Weekly Grind

By Sean Mulligan

So first the big news...

It's official, Billabong has purchased the Element skateboard company. So what does this mean for all the "for lifers" out there? Only time will tell, but with no real changes expected on the business or distribution end of things, there shouldn't be any real problems. Besides, all that additional flow from Billabong can't be a bad thing...can it?

Staying with the Element camp, Donny Barley is currently in Germany filming for the new Emerica video. Donny and Colt Cannon were entered in the Mastership contest in Dortmund this past week. The Cannon is coming off of a second place finish at Slam City Jam and a 3rd in Copenhagen. Not bad for being pro for only a few months. Be sure to check out his stylin' new pro deck as well.

Bam Margera has opened up his own website. www.bamargera.com. Comes complete with photos, schedule, message board (coming soon) and heartagram.

The official date for Bam's bash at this year's summer X Games has been announced. The party is set to take place at the Trocedero in Philadelphia on August 19th. Both CKY and H.I.M. will be performing. The place is all ages but there is a bar upstairs for the older crowd to do their thing. Tickets will be available through Ticketmaster shortly.

So what is new at the X Games these days? For the first time the Games will feature a street skating comp. The session will take place on the west side of City Hall. Apparently original plans were to use Love Park but city officials are in the midst of cracking down on the famous spot so the location was moved. The comp will feature 10 riders including hometown boys Kerry Getz, Josh Kalis and Stevie Williams. There are also a couple of guys named Koston and McCrank entered in there so look out.

In other eS news Eric Koston has been kicking it on the East Coast, filming for the new Girl video. He has also been spotted on the Tony Hawk Incredible Skatepark Tour. Rodrigo Teixeira is currently in Europe with The Firm, filming for their new video. Rick McCrank is in Europe as well, competing in the summer European Contest Series. Rick is looking forward to getting back from Europe as he is planning out a new mini ramp in his backyard. It'll be 5' tall, 24' wide with crazy extensions. Speaking of backyard ramps, Bob Burnquist has completed his backyard monster, look for it in plenty of upcoming ads. Tom Penny is in Europe as well as Arto Saari and the rest of the Flip crew, skating in the Summer European Contest Series. This should be a new beginning for Tom Penny, if he skates all 3 contests. You will definitely be seeing some good footage and photos from Tom. Look out for his part in the upcoming Flip video due out in September.

The guys over at Alien Workshop have come through with some new decks for your summer skating pleasure. There are four new series. Check out all the new graphics at the AWS website.

The team will also be hitting the road for a tour in August. Here are all the details so far.

August 26 - Synergy skateshop, Conshohocken Pa.
August 27 - Phatman boardshop, Lockport Ny
August 28 - Side skateshop, Burlington Vt
August 29 - Eastern Boarder, Nashua NH
August 30 - Eastern Boarder, Fitchburg Mass
August 31 - Coliseum skates, Melrose Mass
September 1 - Day off. Stay in Boston, film and be tourists.
September 2 - Luna Sea, Providence RI
September 3- Axis skates, Brookfield Conn
September 4 - Special Sauce, Sayville Ny

Dynasty pro Kien Lieu is now living in Hong Kong. Satva Leung was just cruising through the south with Ezekiel.

Dan Roberts has dislocated his elbow and will be chilling for a little bit longer.

Justin Case is now an AM for Universal Hardware

Foundation is set to release their recent video Art Bars on DVD. Also be on the lookout for their new tour video. "The Good Times are Killing Me.".

Both CKY and CKY2K will be released on DVD later this summer as well. Word is that Bam is close to finishing the third installment in the CKY line and that the first pubilc screening will take place sometime at the X Games. More info on that as it comes in.

In the newest issue of Rolling Stone there is an article on Jim Greco and the Piss Drunx Check it out to see how many bottles Grecs can put away.

On the result front the Mastership Contest went down a few weeks ago in Dortmund, Germany. Here is who did what.

Vert Finals

1st Rune Glifberg
2nd Sandro Dias
3rd Matt Dove
4th Pierre Luc Gagnon
5th Omar Hassan
6th Lincoln Ueda
7th Christiano Mateus
8th Renton Miller
9th Neal Hendrix
10th Sergio N. De Paula

Street Finals

1st Bastien Salabanzi
2nd Rodil Araujo Jr.
3rd Rick McCrank
4th Chad Bartie
5th Chris Senn
6th Omar Hassan
7th Stefan Lehnert
8th Kristian Svitak
9th Chet Childress
10th Kyle Berard

High Air Contest

1st Lincoln Ueda Brazil
2nd Sandro Dias Brazil
3rd Christiano Mateus Brazil