June 17, 2009
Tampa Pro '09
Photos by Rob Brink
Kingpin, June 2009
Normally I don't really post any published photo work as part of my portfolio, 'cuz I'd never dare call myself a "photographer," but Kingpin asked me for some photos from Tampa Pro this year and ended up making it a full-pager, plus I've never really been featured in Kingpin before, so I figured it was worth it.
April 22, 2009
Davis Torgerson
By Rob Brink
etnies.com April 2009
Last September on the Japan tour, Sean Malto was raving over this one video part he saw on YouTube—bringing his laptop into everyone’s rooms and making us watch. After witnessing four and a half minutes of some of more stylish ripping we’d seen in a while, followed by the nollie frontside hurricane ender, we were all pretty blown away.
“Oh isn’t that the kid who nollie heeled the Brooklyn Banks rail?” Someone said. A web clip here, a photo there, an in-person spotting at Tampa Am or the Brooklyn Banks… as it turns out, we all kinda knew about Davis in one form or another.
It wasn’t long before everyone was saying “We need to get Davis on etnies!” And lucky for us, he was down to join the crew. We took him to Florida last month and it felt like he’d been on the team for years. There was no weirdness, no “getting to know you” nonsense… just skating and good times.
The way Davis skates doesn’t need to be compared to anyone else out there. He’s not the “If you mixed Skater X with Skater Y and a little of Skater Z you get Davis Torgerson” type of dude. We’re just flat-out down for him and looking forward to our future with him. Welcome to the etnies team, Davis.
Top three reasons Minnesota is better than California:
1. Lakes
2. Seasons
3. Homies
Top three reasons California is better than Minnesota:
1. Ocean
2. Weather
3. More homies
March 25, 2009
Festivus: YBAm / Damn Am Awards
By Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag, May 2009
Skateboarders totally deserve awards.
I mean, after all, we’re the best, right? Plus, winning is utterly important. You’re cool if you win stuff. When you win, kids (and even adults in some cases) all over the world want to be like you. Chicks want you to penetrate them. People throw money and free crap at you. You don’t have to wait in line to get into cool parties, and then, once you’re in the party, everyone will buy you free drinks and stare at you and want to stand by you… the possibilities are endless when you’re a winner in this world.
Don’t ever be a loser or your life will suck. You will fail at everything and get pimples and girls will ignore you and your friends and total strangers will ostracize you until you cry and there will be YouTube videos of you doing embarrassing stuff and you’ll want to Elliot Smith yourself. Just ask someone you know who’s a loser. They’ll tell you it sucks. Not every loser is cool and triumphant like Napoleon Dynamite. He’s a romanticized and idealized utopian loser. Real losers don’t come out on top of the world and catch a delicious bass to give to their girl in the end like he did. Real losers are miserable and have the worst luck ever and would never catch a delicious bass. They’d end up reeling in an old shoe or a tire and just as they are doing that, some winner will run up behind them and push them into the mucky, brackish lake.
March 25, 2009
Festivus: Emerica's Braydon Szafranski Shoe Release Party
By Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag, May 2009
In the world of skateboarding journalism, there are three very common ways to document a party: “Press release-style,” which tends to be rather embellishing, dry and unimaginative; “Zany party guy-style,” which is essentially the drunk frat boy perspective; and “Cryptic/abstract-style,” popularized in the '90s by Big Brother magazine, which employs a technique of avoiding the actual subject matter and exploring a peripheral perspective.
Since we have that great new president in office, why not celebrate and keep the democratic spirit going strong by offering all three methods to tell the tale of Braydon's Emerica pro model shoe release party? This way you can choose the one you like the best-just like voting!
March 16, 2009
Milestone: Omar Salazar
By Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag, March 2009
Nearly a decade ago, when Alien Workshop’s Photosynthesis was released, Omar Salazar was busy with part time gigs at JC Penny and a Mexican restaurant where he’d hide out in the refrigerator smuggling free chips, salsa and whip-its. He was also just beginning his life as a sponsored skateboarder, riding for Foundation.
“Back then,” Omar recalls, “Foundation was as good as it gets. Never in my dreams would I even think about riding for Alien because it would bum me out when it didn’t happen, you know? They were my favorite company, the first board I ever got and Photosynthesis was obviously, like, the best video ever.”
March 6, 2009
Mikey Taylor for Thunder
By Rob Brink
ThunderTrucks.com, March 2009
So how and when did you get on Thunder?
I've been on Thunder for about a year now. I would always ask Malto for trucks, till one day I just asked him if he could try and get me on. He came through big time!
What made you want to switch?
I think Reda was the real reason I switched to Thunder. He'd always make fun of me for not riding my sponsor’s trucks. He'd tell me," Why don't you just...
February 25, 2009
JT Aultz for Real Manifest
By Rob Brink
RealSkateboards.com, March 2009
Why do so many people ask you about San Diego, Mohawks and Blink 182 in interviews? It’s getting old.
Well I live in San Diego and ride for a SF company so I think that’s why. When I was younger I rode for this clothing company that Blink owned.
Give us another musical guilty pleasure.
Musical guilty pleasures... well, do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since...
December 19, 2008
Question Mark: Justin Schulte
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag February 2009
The day before our interview, 22-year-old Justin Schulte missed his connecting flight from Dallas TX to Newark, NJ by about 30 seconds and was preparing for a night of less-than-comfortable sleep on an airport floor.
“I watched my plane leave, dude!” Justin says, “And all because I had to go and buy a Whopper.”
“Is that a typical Schulte circumstance?” I asked.
“Yeah, I’m pretty much the last-minute guy. ‘Oh no worries, the plane’s not gonna leave without me.’ Then I get to the front and they’re like, ‘You’re Justin Schulte right? We paged you four times.’ But somehow I foreshadowed myself blowing it. I had a feeling that something wasn’t gonna pan out right, so I didn’t check a bag in. I just carried on my bag with the skate.”
December 19, 2008
Festivus: Downtown Showdown '08
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag February 2009
It’s virtually impossible to be surrounded by a few hundred of your friends in a Hollywood replica of downtown Manhattan, with Slayer’s "Angel of Death" playing at mind-shearing volumes while Jon Ponts kamikazes himself twenty-something feet across a pentagram-shaped monstrosity of a skateboarding obstacle named the “Five Points of Pure Evil” and not have a good time. Im-fucking-possible.
December 19, 2008
Festivus: Goofy Vs. regular 2008
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag February 2009
Winning is played. Seriously. Throughout all of history, people just want to win shit. Free stuff, games, wars, bets, the affection of another person or many people, skateboarding contests. Wanting to win just starts trouble and drama and usually results in mental anguish or a loss of income and pride. So, in an unprecedented new marketing strategy that will soon resonate and be imitated throughout the entire industry, The Skateboard Mag decided to lose this year’s GvR on purpose. Keep an eye on your inboxes for the big press release next week.