In the face of a global pandemic skateboarders face the ultimate challenge, not being able to skate. Although we can’t enjoy relief that a good session with the homies provides, we can still contribute to the culture in meaningful ways. Unlike many sports where the fan lacks the skill to participate, we rarely spend any creative energy on anything other than the act itself. Here are a few ways you can use your free time to stay connected to skateboarding during your time off-board.
Top 5 Drinks for Skateboarders
After a lack of content, I bring to you the worst listicle you never asked for. What are the top beverages for us as skaters. We are all thirsty after a good session but what is the best coolest (or most profitable) way to quench that thirst? well look no further because the Bologna will provide answers.
Energy Drinks
So its basically just sugar in a can, but they give
you a ugly billboard of a hat to wear. They also pay you to wear this hat. Unfortunately if you decide to take the hat off for any reason at all, you are in breach of contract and will be shot. Rumor has it that Nyjah has sex in socks AND his Monster hat. You get to become not just part of a skate team, but of an elite action sports conglomerate along with your favorite motocross riders and snowboarders. It unleashes the wings and gives you the beast or some shit. You also get to be in soulless videos that look like they were edited in a boardroom. If you drink enough you can die of heart disease before your career is even over.
RajonTV – Viss Safe
The Baltics. Latvia. I bet you can’t point to the zone on a map first try. I was lucky enough to meet Edvard of RajonTV on my first day in Malmo. I was headed to the skatepark and stumbled across them filming on a spot. They were instantly welcoming and headed to the skatepark as well. When we got to the park it started raining so we all snuck into a parking garage across the street and skated flatground. Over the next few days I would see him and his crew everywhere, they seemed twice as active as everyone else. Not only were they there to enjoy the talks, but they were there to skate! After only a few hours I felt like I was with old friends whenever I saw them. Edvard has a magnetic personality and truly loves skateboarding and promoting his friends. This full length shows how important a scene builder can be. Even in a remote corner of the world a a scene that is treated with love shines through and shows the best part of skateboarding. This video fills me with the warm comfy feeling you get when you think back on skating in your hometown as a kid with your crew. Cheers Ed!
Residual 3
Couple of kids getting it in at Oside. I’m a big fan of Monny and Nick Hall seems to be making himself stand out more and more with a constant stream of footage. Let’s get that most recent Monny part uploaded to youtube because the kids rips and has a great style. There may or may not be a backtail in that part that I wanna see. Give the people what they want!
Grant Fiero – Slappy’s Garage
Slappy’s Garage just released a full length video and it was great to see that Grant got a full part himself. A streetwear website recently reposted it was the odd line “Claiming his crown as the prince of the Late-Shuv” I have a feeling whoever typed that blurb only watched the first trick and then moved on. His part is good for much more than that. Some SF and Toronto footy keeps things interesting throughout. My favorite trick is a fakie bigspin over a pole and there is also a 3 trick line on some butter benches. Good shit Grant!
Bones Love Milk
The milk industry is fucked. This is my first statement because we cant ignore that the dairy industry is extremely harmful to the environment and has questionable health benefits. But at the same time I can’t hate on anyone giving to skateboarding and not expecting anything in return. Bones Love Milk built this park and let these kids skate every day for over a week. There were rippers and there were kids who had never skated before. There was Christian Hosoi, Steve Cab, Jonas Wray, and there were employees who wanted try it out for the first time. It was a blast to teach skating and hangout with these kids all week. 
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5 Videos I’ve Watched Back 2 Back
I had a thought today about how I haven’t watched the same thing twice in a long time. There is way too much good skateboarding and my memory is like a goldfish. Although I remember a time when I would watch the same video over and over again. Repeated viewing helps you notice the fine details and really build a relationship with a video.
Keep gore out of skateboard videos!
I really don’t understand skateboarding’s obsession with showing gruesome slams in a video part. It does the exact opposite of hype me up, its makes me want to quit skateboarding and stay on the couch.
French Fred – Barcelona w/Flip 2001
ETB is headed to Spain for spring break! The hype levels have been slowly simmering since we bought tickets but they are reaching an all time high. Everything that has to do with Barcelona just looks different when I watch footage. I find myself looking at tiny cracks in the tile, the bevel on a ledge, the traffic on the street.
Flip’s Sorry is the video that brainwashed me into skateboarding for life and essentially built the image of what I thought skateboarding could be. So much of that video was filmed in Europe and Barcelona that they didn’t even seem like real places. They might as well be The Shire or Modor.
Well now we are making our pilgrimage to MACBA and all the holy sites we have seen for years. Here is Fred capturing a golden moment in skateboarding to get us hyped for our own trip.
2018 Phoenix Trip
Our trips aren’t like other trips you are going to read about in magazines. We aren’t doing this because we need to make a 3 min montage to sell some shoes to some remote section of the country. We don’t have to put on demos for 2 dozen pre-teens. Weedmaps didn’t put us up in a tropical paradise. We aren’t out here on a mission for a certain trick and we didn’t drive 15 hours just to realize the spot was too big. We just want to skate new stuff. It is the combination of seeing new things and getting out of the old.
So with no plan greater than a hotel room booked, we headed out to Arizona for a weekend. We left San Diego on a weekday evening and while everyone was driving home work we were headed out the other direction. A list of probably 20 parks got pared down into about 8 ones that we really wanted to skate and by the time we got there it had already been totally changed up to a separate set of parks.
eatthebologna 