Here's a clip from the éS Skatepark of Tampa demo featuring Kelly Hart, Justin Eldridge, Mike Anderson, Cale Nuske, Javier Sarmiento and Bobby Worrest.

And a few sequences too!

Bobby Worrest: switch frontside flip

Javier Sarmiento: switch backside flip

Javier Sarmiento: switch frontside flip

Justin Eldridge: bigspin front board

Justin Eldridge: nollie front board

And a clip:

I'm on my first éS tour right now. Leaving Tampa heading to the ATL. It's hot.

Sean Malto
Words: Rob Brink
Slap, July 2008

A few years ago it was “Everybody loves Leo.” And, don’t get me wrong, we all still do. However, as of late, it seems Sean Malto has taken the “Everyone loves” title by a mile. His energy is infectious. Watching him, you can’t help but smile. Sean makes skateboarding look really fun and really easy. The former is true for all of us. The latter, for most of us, not so much. The best part about Sean though, is that he doesn’t really seem to care how fun or cool or talented he is… he’s just humbly enjoying the ride. In fact, he’d probably just smile at this sappy little intro, deny it all, saying someone else is cooler and better and more fun, then push off and switch flip a 12 first try.

Do you get weirded out when I say you have the best hair in skateboarding?
Uh, a little bit. I don’t know why you say that. My hair kinda sucks.

Your mom cuts it still?
Yeah.

If I ever come to Kansas City, I’m having your mom cut my hair. Do you think she’ll be down?
Oh yeah, for sure. Whoever comes to Kansas City, free haircuts.

In Barcelona you started the chai tea latte with a shot of espresso craze for the entire etnies team…
Oh yeah, the grandé chai teas. I just get one shot.

Someone started getting like three after that.
That was Heath [Brinkley, etnies team manager]. I just really like the chai teas and people ask me “What do you get?” and I tell ‘em I just get the chai tea with one shot of espresso. I don’t know what happened but he was getting three, four shots at a time in his drink.

It happened in a matter of two days. And Tyler Bledsoe and them were getting two, three shots.
Seriously, I don’t know what happened. Everyone started going overboard with shots of espresso and I was feeling kinda guilty. I was talking to Heath and he was like “Yeah I know, it’s getting kind of bad and stuff.” I was like “Yeah.”

I talked to him recently and he was at Starbucks getting another chai tea with like 15 shots of espresso in it. He’s hooked.

What’s the lamest thing anyone’s ever said about you?
There’s a story in Oklahoma or Omaha that some kid made up. I don’t know who it was but it was like “Sean Malto came to Oklahoma and was skating this handrail and rolled up and was stressing over it and was like, ‘why am I stressing? I am Sean Malto! I can do this!’” Which is completely untrue. That story spread to Kansas City and people were asking about it and I was like, “No I haven’t been there in so long and I wouldn’t say that.” Then it just became a joke and all my friends would be like, “You’re Sean Malto. You can do this!”

What about the first thing Pat Channita ever said to you?
We were at Carl’s Jr. and Pat Channita walks up… it was me and Heath at a table and he says to Heath, “Hey, tell your boy over here to loosen up his pants,” and walks away. I’m just like, “What?” I did have tight pants on at the time but there was no need to say that. I was like “Who is this guy?”

You didn’t even know him?
I knew who he was. He didn’t know me. I was just some flow kid on DC back then. He’s a cool dude. Me and Heath still laugh about it.

How much money do you spend altering your pants?
I just blew out two pairs of cords this month so…

Is that because you didn’t get them altered or was that after you got them altered?
No. I will alter some pants if I don’t really like how they stretch. It’s usually ten dollars a pair, which is pretty sick. I blow out cords for some reason. I can’t keep a pair of cords. No matter what I blow them out. Like the crotch to the inside of my kneecap, so I get both fixed a lot. I just think my body is different or something.

Do you have short legs or longer legs or something?
Probably. I’m getting fat I think.

You still have a girlfriend?
Yeah.

You been taking to the boneyard or what?
No comment there.

What’s your favorite trick to do?
There’s a lot of fun tricks. Powerslides are pretty fun.

What’s a pancake flip?
It’s like that frontside flip but where the board goes straight between your legs.

Oh, like an illusion flip? A phantom flip? Is that how you do yours?
Yeah. I can’t do real ones. My frontside flips just go straight between the legs. And I can’t spin for some reason.

What, like a 360 ollie or something?
Yeah, it’s hard for me to do 360s. When I try backside flips or backside bigspins, it’s hard for me to turn my body that way.

So two video parts and two big interviews this year. You’re going to be “Skater of the Year” and you’re not even pro yet, dude!
Yeah right. There are so many people better than me at skating.

What’s the last book you read?
Oh wow. I don’t even know. Probably To Catch a Mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird, you mean?
To Kill a Mockingbird. Whatever. See! That’s how long it’s been since I’ve read a book.

How do you feel about Mikey Taylor’s man crush on you?
He has a man crush?

Totally. Does that change your friendship?
Yeah, well now I need to call him up and tell him I’m not coming over to his house anymore.

What’s weirder? Man crush or hair envy?
Man I don’t know. That’s pretty crazy. Man crush or hair envy? You’re giving me some hard questions.

I’m not making this like every other interview.
Man crush seems pretty bad. I don’t know that Mikey actually has a man crush, but obviously I’m not looking at it from another person’s perspective.

How about hug envy?
Who has hug envy?

When you showed up at the Tempe park and you and I had a bro hug…
Because I came up to Mikey and gave him a high five and then I was like, “What’s up Brink?” and I gave you a hug, and like, yeah, he got bummed.

I’m just that kind of dude. I’m down for hugs. Does Mikey get bummed when you beat him at stuff?
He’s really competitive. The thing about Mikey is he’s a cheater. He’ll do whatever it takes to win. Whatever it takes. I’ve seen him in wrestling matches, biting people and stuff. I think he races cars a lot and I think he really wants to win and he always wants to get the best stuff. Mikey’s just competitive.

Do you ever tell him he is cheating?
No. He’s actually pretty funny.

You just let him have it so he feels good?
It’s always one trick too. Last time it was impossibles. He’ll try impossibles all day until he can do it and then he’ll keep doing it until he gets better than you at it. Which is sick. It’s really fun just being around him. He’s always trying to start something, too. Like the water balloon fight in Phoenix. Do you remember that? He had to get the last throw in. It was all over and he had to take Vince outside and smash a balloon in his face.

The ender. What’s the worst advice anyone ever gave you?
Lizard King had real cool advice. He goes, “You know what? When you get money just go and spend it all as fast as you can.” I think that was his advice, which is pretty sick, but not my style.

Who do you think is the weirdest dude on Girl/Chocolate?
Marc Johnson probably. He’s awesome, don’t get me wrong. He just reads a lot and he has a lot of theories and stuff. It gets crazy… like galaxies and Bigfoot and going outside of your body. He studies on it and I have no idea what’s going on.

He’s just trying to enlighten you.
Maybe.

Back in the day, did you ever send a sponsor-me video to any companies and get rejected?
Yeah, I did actually.

Who turned you down?
Zero turned me down. Twice. I was really hyped on Jamie Thomas. He was my favorite skater. I had his shoes and stuff and he came to a demo and I handed him a tape and never got that call back. I’m glad it worked out the way it did. Zero is cool but Girl is obviously so fun.

I guess you going over to etnies caused a little stir in the industry, huh?
I don’t think people knew I wanted to be with Heath and Mikey and stuff. They didn’t know Mikey was getting on. I think people thought I was going over there for no reason at all. It’s changing a lot. We get to do a lot of cool stuff. I’m pretty psyched.

Is it weird feeling that pressure that everyone thinks you’re making a mistake?
That was so hard to deal with. I had so many people talking to me like, “Why are you doing this? You should do this and you should do that.” It was hard to stick with what I was just trying to do, but I’m glad I did.

Why do you think your slam at Tampa Am is so famous?
They gave me a big intro and I just blew it. They were like “Sean Malto rides for Girl Skateboards!” And then someone was like “Yeah this kid is good I’ve seen him in practice!” And then, bam! I was on the flat bar on my stomach teeter-tottering back and forth. It was my first trick.

Then, later, I was watching this video of Tampa footage and they were showing all these guys make tricks and then my part came on and I slammed so hard and that was it for me. They didn’t show my makes. So I was like, “cool.”

Do you know you smile, even while you’re slamming?
Yeah. I’m really bummed in my head but I try to just laugh it off and hopefully people will forget about it.

How about you knocking your teeth out?
That was fun. Yeah.

Fun?
It was such a difficult process to go through. All those dentist appointments and everything. I was just skating a three block into this pool and it starting misting out and it got wet and I bailed and my feet just slipped out from under me and my face hit the ground. My tooth just busted out. Half my tooth shoved up into my nasal cavity and I had to get wired shut and stitches in my lip and my gums. I had half a tooth for so long and I just got it fixed. It seriously took like three years to actually get my teeth back in my mouth.

Were you smiling after that slam?
When I first did it, it scared me so much I didn’t even know what was going on. Ten minutes I calmed down and it was okay. It’s like one of those things, when you get hurt, you’re not really bummed on the pain so much as you know you’re not going to be skating for the next four weeks.

How about the moped incident in Hawaii?
I’m so embarrassed of that. I was skating this demo… me, Devine and Brian Wenning. And Devine had stopped skating early and I didn’t know why. I just kept skating and he comes back and says he was riding a moped all around the city and I was like “What! That’s so sick! I want to do that!”

I had never rode a moped before. So Devine takes off and the guy was telling me “To start it you have to twist the handle back and turn the key.” So I did that and the bike just took off and I was flying. My feet were dragging and my stomach was on the seat and then on the ground. And because I slipped out I pulled the handle even faster and I started wobbling and smashed into this truck and the bike got wedged between two cars and I fell over.

I was just lying on my back with my eyes closed. Just so embarrassed. Everyone thought I was hurt but we all just laughed it off. I think it was Jeff King’s moped rental and I heard he had to pay like 300 dollars for the repair and that kinda sucks for him. Sorry, Jeff. Next time I see you I’ll try to make it up to you.

Sucks that nobody filmed it.
I know. That would’ve been cool.

Olly Todd
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag, August 2008

“Olly is small and skates obscure things that can be only be skated by a similar diminutive person with magical elfven qualities. He's a one of a kind. Get him drunk and he will not stop dancing, but may occasionally get angry and bite your toes off, so wear protective footwear when partying with him. He reads and writes extremely well, which means he's less likely to be homeless than most pros when all is said and done. I think he lives under a bridge somewhere in London, and like most magical elves, he has no phone (he just appears when needed), so getting a hold of him may prove extremely difficult. Not to fear though, Todd Mate is emerging on the scene and making quite the name for himself stateside these days. I think he may even be able to afford a phone by the time you read this.”

—Chris Pastras

They say you’re into reading and writing…
I don’t take it too seriously. To be honest, I don’t like to talk about it in the skateboard media. I prefer to keep it separate.

So then how do you feel about being interviewed?
I hate it! I don’t like being put on the spot. I always freak out about what I’m gonna say and it being taken the wrong way.

Last time you were in the States you had a knife pulled on you?
Yeah I did. I was basically stranded in LA trying to find my friends house where I was supposed to stay, but I couldn’t find it. I heard this house party going on so I went up and knocked on the door. These two guys opened the door, put a knife to my throat and kicked me down the stairs.

After that, I finally found my friends house, go inside and he’s passed out on the couch. Then his dog attacks me so I have to race through the house and out the back door and was stranded again. So I started walking, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. I was pretty cold, so I broke into a hospital and slept in a stairwell.

Did you break a window?
No, I planned it for when a staff member had to swipe his card on the door to get in. I hid behind this pillar and then I shimmied my way in there after him. Luckily the guy behind the desk was reading a mag and didn’t see me.

That’s some James Bond-type shit. Were you scared?
Well, I was drunk so I wasn’t scared. All I was thinking was that I needed to get somewhere warm and I was tired and cold. Survival.

Did anybody find you?
Eventually security guards found me. I basically came around from my drunken slumber. I guess they came to the stairwell where I was on the fourth floor and dragged me down to the reception desk. They were yelling at me, wanting to know why I was in there and I said my friend just had a baby and we were partying. I was making up all this shit and they just let me go.

Is this something you would’ve done if you were sober?
No way. Absolutely no way.

Does this happen frequently?
Sometimes. I’m not opposed to being opportunistic. If there’s a hotel and you don’t need a swipe card to get into the lobby then I would find my way into the laundry room and make a little bed out of sheets. I do that quite often in London. Like if it’s raining and I can’t walk home or if I can’t catch the bus. It’s interesting to see what you can get away with ‘cause you are not actually doing anything wrong.

Is it possible to get away with more than what most people think?
Totally. People don’t realize that if you push the boundaries a little bit more you can get away with a bunch of stuff.

You eat at homeless shelters too?
On the way back from that escapade in the hospital, walking to Clint’s [Peterson] place, I saw a line of dudes queuing up to get coffee and soup, so I got some.

The general vibe from your friends is that you drink their booze and eat their food without replacing anything.
That’s not entirely true! Clint’s place has a fucking bar in it, you know? There’s always all this booze and it’s too tempting not to drink. But the last time I definitely replaced it.

People make you sound homeless.
I like to be out there in the street, prepared to do what it takes.

What are some funny things about Americans?
Lack of geographical knowledge and how they don’t know the difference between London, England and Europe. They think London is a country. I’ve been asked if I speak European as a language. My friend has been asked if we still have unicorns in England.

I hear you drink lots of milk.
Yeah. All my life I’ve drunk milk and if I’m not drinking booze I will go through a couple pints of milk. That’s just what I do.

I don’t think most people see that as refreshing. If I drank more than a glass of milk I would vomit.
Afterwards I’ll just brush my teeth and it won’t feel weird.

How do you take your tea?
Normal English tea. Milk no sugar.

I do it completely black.
Yeah, that’s how my Dad did it during the war. Because they had to ration everything and you couldn’t get a hold of milk and sugar.

Clint says you’ll leave two pairs of shoes at his house for ten months and then get pissed when you come back and they’re gone.
That happened once because Benny sold them and I didn’t see any of the money!

So that’s the other half of the story.
Yeah, exactly.

I heard you’re into Ashlee Simpson?
I just like to wind Clint up because he really gets offended at stuff like that. Like yeah, she’s a pretty girl, but she has no talent whatsoever. And you say you like her music as a joke and he gets offended because he can’t believe you’d like shit like that and that you’d sink that low.

Must be the artist in him. Explain “It ain’t gay if it’s mates.”
Who said that?

I talked to a bunch of people before I talked to you because there isn’t that much dirt on you out there.
I like to keep it that way. That’s just something me and my friends used to say—just being funny. I’m not gonna say anything else about it.

As far as skaters go, who inspires you?
It’s gonna sound obvious, but Ricky Oyola, Puleo and Dill. Paul Shier is a big inspiration to me as well.

People seem to say you like to skate “obscure” things.
I just think if a spot is skateable you should try to skate it—simply because it exists—even if it’s just a basic trick. If that means something’s obscure, then yeah.

Carl Shipman is also one of your favorites? I feel he had the first proper popped and flicked frontside flip. At least that I ever saw in person.
He doesn’t skate much anymore. He’s got a family and a job near Sheffield. As far as British guys go, he was the best and has the best style of all time.

Anything you dislike about skateboarding as a job?
No. Simple fact. No.

What’s the best advice anyone has ever given you?
I was at my Dad’s housewarming party the other day and he told me I have to listen more.

If you could skate like anyone else for a day, who would it be?
Reese Forbes, because of how much fun the guy must have just skating down the streets. He’s incredible.

Agreed. You mentioned earlier you like to keep certain things in your life separate from skateboarding?
I just want to be a skateboarder. When I was a kid and reading interviews with my favorite skaters I would get real bummed if they were into girls, or drugs, or drinking and I would think those things took away from their skating. So I just like to be a skateboarder to the skateboard media.

The Weenabago Projekt 2: Tosh Crosses America
Words: Rob Brink
The Skateboard Mag, April 2008

Back in 2005, Tosh Townend and a friend from high school had the grand idea to bring a low budget skate tour up the West Coast, from Huntington Beach to Vancouver, and do it wild style. Instead of waiting ‘til Tosh’s sponsors initiated and funded a trip, they took it into their own hands, pooled their money together, bought an RV, called a few friends (Wes Lott, Jake Rupp, Brent Achtley), hit the road, had a great skate and a great time and called it the Weenabago Projekt. Shortly after, they released a video of the trip. Somewhere during that time, they knew they’d do it again one day. Then, “again” happened in August 2007…

I saw the trailer for your new video… the Girls Gone Wild vibe…
Yeah, it’s gonna be pretty good. Comedy for sure. We got a lot of good footage. I think it’ll be out in April.

What was the route this time?
From Cali to Vegas to SLC, Denver, Kansas City and Chicago. We went up to Milwaukee. Then went from there straight to Philly and then to NY.

Damn. How long did that take?
35 days. All of August. We had five or six days in each city. Some were shitty, so we’d just go to the next. The whole time, we were selling the Sin Habits video. It’s our little crew’s video. We bought 2,500 copies and sold over 1500 on tour. Every shop in every city, I just full on sales pitched it and every shop pretty much bought ten.

Straight hustlin’!
Pretty much.

You got the nice hot, humid months for Philly and NY…
Yeah, but it was still fun. The two ams, Pat Pasquale and Neen Williams… it was so hard to get ‘em to skate, ‘cause they’d be like, “Dude, it’s too hot outside! Why don’t we wait ‘til nighttime and light shit up?”

I was like, “Whatever, that’s cool.” Chris Senn was there, so we’d just be out skating during the day. We had the Hyphy Twins too. I think they made it to Denver before I was like, “You guys gotta fucking leave.” I kicked ‘em off the tour because they weren’t pulling their weight [laughs].

You gotta boot people if they’re slackin’…
Well, it was a friendship thing. I told ‘em they could come to Vegas. And them being so fuckin’ hyphy, they ended up struggling along. Like, “C’mon, dude! Just let us just go to the next city. We’re trying to get to mom’s house in Iowa.” And I was like, “Alright, you can come to Salt Lake.” But I wasn’t going through fucking Iowa for the fucking Hyphy Twins.

How do you choose people? Homies? Like, “Hey do you wanna go do this thing?”
Yeah. People I either grew up skating with, or friends of friends. Our friend Rehab who does a lot of the artwork for the Sin Habits videos is friends with Pat and Neen. They are all from Chi-Town. We were always skating together so I was like, “You guys should come on my tour. It’ll push your career.” I pitched it to ‘em like that and it worked out. Then Senn flew from Hawaii into Denver, skated, and left from Kansas City.

When did you decide you were gonna tour a second time?
During the first tour. And there are definitely plans for a third one. I’ve been talking to Boost Mobile and we’re gonna end up getting their bus.

So it’s a stepping stone thing… like do a ghetto tour first and then see where you go from there?
Yeah, I’m psyched, dude. I got a lot of backing from the second one. Element, CCS, Map Cargo and Boost gave me money.

Did you guys do demos or was it strictly for fun?
Just strictly for fun. Street skating the whole time. We would show up to parks and it would end up being like a little demo, but more just for whoever was there. We’d go to a skatepark and kids were like, “What the hell are you guys doing here?” We’re just like, “Dude, we’re just on our fuckin’ own tour. Wanna check out our video?” I’d do street sales too. [Laughs].

Worst part of the tour?
Just clashing heads with everyone. After a while, everyone just breaks down like, “Fuck dude, this is strenuous!”

Shit’s just not going right. Fucking arguing with those fools all the time. Trying to get ‘em motivated to skate because sometimes they just wouldn’t be. I’d be like, “I’m paying you fools! You gotta get out there and fucking skate!” It ended up working out. Pat fucking killed it and Neen got some fucking really good shit. People were hyped on Neen.

I remember like 10 years ago, seeing your Element sponsor-me tape at Tim O’Connor’s place. You were a little kid and now you’re organizing tours and handling business at 22.
I’m taking it to the next level. I’m trying not to just be a skater. I don’t see my career going that much longer with all these kids coming up killing it. So I’m like, “Dude I might as well get in the game like Jamie Thomas or something,” you know?

So what was the highlight?
My homie got suplexed by a security guard. We had his little mini camera rollin’ the whole time. The guard’s hat fell off and I just grabbed it, put it on backwards and kept filming while I was running away with the other guards chasing me.

You gotta see the video, man. There’s tons of chicks shaking their titties. Just good comedy tour shit. I went to jail twice [laughs].

For what?
The first night in Denver I got arrested for wylin’ out in the street, trying to hail a cab. Out of nowhere this undercover broad just goes like, “Sit on the curb right now, you’re drunk in public!”

They got all my information and put me in an insane asylum. It was a white room with white walls. They’re like, “Handcuff your hands to this bench and wait here!”

Then, the last night we were there we did a Sin Habits premiere at a bar and this fucking bouncer was talking shit to me while I was playing pool. I was like, “Fuck off, man, I ain’t doin’ nothin’ wrong.”

He just came up and tackled me and head-butted me on the ground. Then he picked me up by my hair and threw me outta the fuckin’ bar. Right before he threw me out he fucking head-butted me again, right in the nose. I’m just like, “Fuck you, you faggot! This is bullshit, man! I put on this fucking party and brought you all this fuckin’ business!”

Then, outta nowhere, this stupid little spiky-haired, fuckin’ dyke bitch comes out, like, “Fuck you! Who do you think you are?” She’s got a skateboard and she’s swinging it at me. I just fucking apprehended her. I grabbed the truck and pulled the board from her and threw it in a tree. Like, “Go get that now, bitch!”

I didn’t touch her or nothin’. Then all those bouncers just came running after me. I fuckin’ peaced out and the cops caught up with me. The girl pressed charges. I spent the night in jail.

What was your favorite city of the tour?
Probably New York. We all just balled out. One of the homies got laid. I got a number from this little cutie. It was just a good time.

Why is traveling so important to you?
It just gets me motivated. When I’m at home I’m kinda laid back, not really trying to go out and skate that much. I skate but I ain’t trying to film and shoot photos as much as if I’m on a tour.

Who was tour MVP?
I’d have to go with Pat because he’s gonna have the last trick of the video. Everything we went to, he would kill. Definitely Tour MVP.

What’s one thing you learned on this tour?
Just keep the positive vibes up. No matter what brings you down, you can always turn it around with positive action.

Sometimes email from Jerry Hsu mysteriously arrives in my inbox and it's usually something like this:

Or this:

This is Paul Sharpe... not doing too good.

Jose is sleeping, Jerry is flipping.

My dear friend Leanne Biank is captured on film gettin' artsy over at the Nike 6.0 site! Isn't she cute! Check her site out...

This is Sean Malto practicing at Maloof Money Cup last Wednesday about three minutes after setting up a new deck, wheels and bearings...

Like, seriously Paul... I know it's 100 grand, but really, you don't need to slaughter everyone this badly. Let 'em live a little!

Honestly, I've been known to say that sometimes Paul skates a little "too perfectly" for my taste. But sitting there last weekend watching this thing, I didn't realize how much P-Rod really destroyed everything until I got around to editing the footage today. So many first try bangers on the entire setup all done so perfectly... a well-deserved victory if you ask me.

Due to popular demand, you can now watch my videos again without going blind! OMG YAY!. So take a journey a few weeks back in time and check out:

Malto breaking wood over my head!

Leo Fuckin' Romero & Bryan Herman destroying Maloof!

Maloof Money Cup final three minutes!

And dont forget the Tim O'Connor Roast!