March 31, 2006
Pat Channita on Rodil Jr.
Since Pat Channita and Rodil were friends at the time of the Rodil piece I did for ESPN and EXPN.com, this was intended to go with the story, but the editors cut it. Not much, but hey, why not post it?
What separates Rodil from the rest of the pack?
From his looks, one can say he's Brazilian. He's got a lot of contest wins under his belt and it seems like he never really falls and has his tricks wired.
March 29, 2006
Festivus: Tampa Am ‘06
By Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag May 2006
Of all skateboard wordsmiths out there, none have inspired like Dave Carnie. Mentally—never vocally, as to not “fan out” so much—I sometimes equate him to Shakespeare in the sense that, if you look at all the plays ever written since Shakespeare's day, it's nearly impossible not to rip off or be influenced by the works of Old Bill.
So I can't even pretend this Tampa Am contest article won't be influenced by Dave's Goofy vs. Regular article from issue #24, which I read on the plane to Tampa. In fact, my article will be worse and prove that Dave's a far bigger celebrity skateboard journalist than I.
March 29, 2006
Baker Christmas Demo
By Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag May 2006
Have you ever read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein? It's about two friends—one is a young boy and the other, a tree. The young boy, throughout his life, comes to the tree for various things. The tree, having such unconditional love for the young boy joyfully gives him everything she can—from a place to climb and play as a young child, her apples to sell when he needed money, a place to make out with chicks as a teenage boy, branches to build a home for his family with, the her trunk to build a boat with for him to sail away in, and finally, years later, when nothing is left of the tree but a stump, the boy returns as an old man and he asks the tree for just a place to sit and rest. The tree, overjoyed to see her friend and be of service, gladly offers herself one last time, and she and the old man are happy together once again as the tale ends.
March 29, 2006
Trying my hand at something besides being Online Content Manager, I submitted this idea for an Arto Saari tee to the designers at etnies a few months back. I figured the play on the Flip/Arto/etnies relationship seemed logical to work off of. When I saw the new Holiday '06 catalogs today, to my surprise, I discovered they are actually producing it. Whoot!
March 25, 2006
According to skateornot.com, I'm a "Blogger and industry provocateur." I've never been called that before so I thought I would link to them.
March 24, 2006
Once again, I was out of town, at Tampa Am, when I posted this little gem of a blog on etnies.com:
For a limited time only, get these exclusive new etnies sandals, made from 100% recycled materials, at a shop near you! etnies proudly introduces its new limited edition sandal...
Trife!
The explanation:
This photo was sent to me via email by Don Brown, Vice President of Marketing for Sole Technology, who always sends me tons of funny stuff to put on the site. Don is a fun guy with a great sense of humor, who is loved and respected by many in this industry. Myself included. Posting it seemed humorous and logical to me, perhaps it was even a slow newsday or whatever, so I went with it.
March 23, 2006
Riding Solo
By Rob Brink
EXPN.com August 2003
Unfortunately, my ESPN magazine story with Rodil Jr. had to be cut down for space in the mag, so EXPN.com decided to run the full-length interview. When it finally hit stands and the web, Dragon contacted me for the original transcripts of the interview because evidently Rodil claimed I left out his sponsors, when, in reality, he was denying having any sponsors at all. The proof is in the first answer below. the result: Rodil got his ass booted from Dragon. Good move buddy. Thanks for trying to throw me under the bus 'cuz your ass is bitter.
March 23, 2006
One day, about eight or so months ago, I posted a link to snowboarderssuck.com, one of the funniest sites ever, on the etnies.com as a news item. It was taken down from the site by someone unbeknownst to me, once again, while I was out of the office. Who knows why? Who cares? It was still funny and everyone knows that snowboarders are the new rollerbladers.
March 15, 2006
Ryan Sheckler simply killed it at Tampa Pro. Had bashing his head on the ground not jammed him up, I think he could have won it. His runs were sick and I put $20 down on him for the win. I mean, look what he even came back and did after the slam. Love this guy.
Oh, and the disclaimer: I am not a filmer nor a professional editor. I just get this footage because I can. I edit in what I like and what I think skateboarders from all over the world might want to see. The quality might suck because it has to be compressed for web. I pick songs that I like and they probably aren't cool. So save the hating for one of those queer message board sites and just enjoi the damn video.
March 13, 2006
I think this is what they mean when they use the term "banger." Billy Marks won Best Trick at Tampa Pro '06 with this tre flip to boardslide and about 8 million other tricks. You'll see them all here soon.