Battle at Hastings III – Recap

Sep 3,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

[youtube id=”2Y2L7kfUorA” width=”620″ height=”360″]

What an insane contest. You couldn’t pick a better name for this event because it was absolutely nothing but a battle. Soldiers giving it their all and getting their asses kicked in return. Dave Priest went down with a dislocated knee, Adam Hopkins popped his shoulder out and smacked his face on a 540 in the finals, and many others slammed as hard as possible multiple times. It was more like the battle for survival at times. This was the most hardcore contest I’ve been at in years. Everyone wanted their share of the $10,000.

Thanks to Vans, Real, Bones, BLVD, Kevin Kelly and the rest of the guys that made today possible. It was sick.

A lot of head bangs, knee bongs and solid lands.

Here’s a little slideshow of some good times, we’ll get the video up soon.

And congrats to the top 5

Mason Merlino
Mike from Seattle
Chris Steggles
Adam Hopkins
Frontside Kid – James Clarke

It’s all up to the Voters Now!!

Sep 3,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Who will be the winner of the $500? That’s up to the voters now.

You have until 11:59pm – September 11^th to cast your votes.

Make it count…

Vote Here – http://www.protestskateboards.com/leaderboard/

The winner will be announced September 15^th, 2012 at the Grand Finale of Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey competition held at South Surrey/White Rock Skate Park, approximately 4:00pm.

Guess Who’s Back

Aug 31,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

It’s a long boring story, but it ends well. Years and years ago I was sponsored by Substance Skate Shop and I was the Team Manager. In ignorance I brought Jay Mykyte, Stu Benoit and Drew Boyle on to the Team from the other Surrey Sk8 Shop – Coastal Riders. I say ignorance not because it was a bad move to bring them on, I love all those guys and am stoked for the relationships we built, but in hindsight it should have gone the other way and instead of taking 3 riders from Coastal’s Team, I should have moved on to theirs. Eventually the atmosphere at Substance was getting a little weird, and people were not as happy, and I ended up leaving the Team and going into Coastal Riders and asking if they’d hook me up. I didn’t need my name published, and I don’t really need any product because I already get everything I need for free or for cost. It was just for the sake of having a shop to promote. Then last year Jay Mykyte started his underground shop, Royalty Skate Shop in New West and so I started reppin’ for him to help promote his shop, but unfortunately things fell apart and the shop closed during the winter. Hopefully Jay will get it reopened one day, somewhere in Surrey.

So through all this battle of life, and a decade of chaos, I watched all these skate shops close in my part of town, West49 closed both their Surrey locations, Fluid disappeared of the planet, Board Kennel went under, Paul’s Boutique lives in the mall and doesn’t count in my eye as a Skate Shop, and Coastal Riders stood there alone, eventually moving out to Langley where majority of the clientele had been coming from for the past 10 years. I have always been strong friends with all the guys from Coastal and never had any bad blood, and I was looking at their team on the website one day and it just astonished me. I helped create that team in a sense. Most of the guys on the team grew up under my wings, learning through the contests and events I provided for them, and even just from being around me in their younger years. And I love all of them like my children. I remember little Magnus when he was like 12 years old and I called him “Mr. Varial Heelflip” because he demoed them everywhere. I knew way back then that we were gonna see his skills go off the chart someday. I remember watching John Hanlon learning back lips on the Bear Creek rail, and teaching Scotty Tyson Blunt Airwalks, and putting Andrew Classon on the Protest Team when he was barely 11 and filming him kickflipping huge sets of stairs and hittin’ rails. Almost every single one of these guys grew up competing in my contests and have fully impressed me at some point their young lives and I’m proud to be a part of their future. Dustin, Zaz, Hashbrown, Machnau, Stu, Derek Mayer and more. It’s a true team of real skateboarders who are out there to have fun while they skate, it’s a solid skate shop that is committed to promoting and supporting skateboarding to the fullest, and it’s where I belong.

Thanks to Billy McElhinney, Scott Fierbach and Adam Field for always supporting me without question.

Coastal Riders for life…

Now get ready for some nasty Hippie Mike footage again

http://www.coastalriders.com/cstl/?p=5136

Ollie North Skate Shop Photo Book – Cloverdale Contest

Aug 31,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Here’s a little slide show by Laine Siebert showcasing some of the Ollie North Crew at the Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey Cloverdale Contest last Saturday. Nothing too crazy in these photos, just a bunch of skater dudes having a good time at a fun event. My favorite is the one of Mitch Salter and Jay White hugging and cheering. Makes you wonder what the hell was happening behind the camera.

Check it out now!!

Whistler Video

Aug 31,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Just saw the Whistler Bowl Series Video posted up on www.bcskateparks.com and had to put the link up.

My favorite place to be each August.

It’s a great video, really showcases how the day went, but it makes me jealous that I wasn’t able to skate in the contest this year, stupid pulled back… At least I got to be on the mic, another place I love.

Filmed and edited by Lenny Rubenovitch,

Check the vid

http://www.bcskateparks.com/archives/whistler-bowl-series-final-video

Bowl Battles – Yes!!

Aug 29,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Don’t forget that this Saturday is Battle at Hastings #3. Presented by Vans, Bones, Thunder, Thrasher Mag, Alien Workshop, 187, Real, Fourstar, Brixton, BLVD and Kevin Kelly, lots of cash to be won. It’ll be a sick event with some of the gnarliest Bowl Skaters Vancouver area has to offer. We’ll be entering Andy Anderson and Stu Benoit to represent for Protest Skateboards, they both know that bowl very well.

There’s gonna be a ton of rippers there. Pro or Am doesn’t matter, it’s a battle.

The big question is – who will beat Hopkins??

Saturday, September 1^st, 2012

Hasting Park

Mackin Park Session in Coquitlam

Aug 29,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

A few of us Chuck Bailey Locs went to peep out the new Skate Park in Coquitlam, Mackin Park last Friday. Luckily there weren’t too many kids there because it’s tiny and you can see in the video how much they get in the way. I had my back brace on so I could skate, and everyone had a good time. I found a lot of the obstacles hard to get speed for, and others tough to go slow enough. I’m not the most excited about these small back and forth parks when they come out but I’m sure I will give it a shred every now and then. It was me, Cisco Gooding, Jordan Strong, Fighter and a few friends, Calvin killed it…

Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey 2012 – Stop #4 Cloverdale

Aug 28,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Finally a super sunny day in Cloverdale for a Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey. 3 years in a row it rained and then last year it was just cloudy and cold. But not this time, sunny, clear and hot…

The Mini started off the day with aggressive moves, Jon Schrack was flying into the bowl, Mark Melyukov was stomping flip tricks and even little Aiden threw himself off the big drop which is taller than he is. Those Mini’s are crazy, and if you haven’t seen them in action, make sure you come out to the next comp on September 15^th.

The Beginners are even more nuts. Morgan Skinner and Kai Searle led the crowd with outstanding runs. Kai had a completely flawless run and was not trying easy tricks, and Morgan was busting huge gap tricks including fakie Ollie off the halfpipe drop and a big half cab into the bowl. 1 point separated their total scores, wow!! They demolished the rest of the competition but it was super close for 3^rd place between Justin Fiorante and Zacc Laster, but Zacc managed to hold on for the prizes. That’s two 4^th places in a row Justin, step it up buddy…

The Girls category was just Carrie Williams and Cali Martin but they both did their best and landed everything they tried, so it was all good.

The Intermediates got busy on the ledges and rails but were all dominated by ex-longhair William LeTourneau. This kid has been skating this Cloverdale Skate Park religiously since he started skateboarding and it shows. He’s got all the tranny lines in the nasty bowl and grew up to lock down a whole bunch of ledge and rail tricks. Won by a mile. Little Luke Thodus could be in the Mini category since he’s 10 years old, but entered the Intermediate where he belonged. This kid’s pushing 4’ tall and is completely fearless, and super skilled. 50-50’s down the kinked rail, lipslide on the rail down the stairs and whatever else he felt like going for. The best part of Intermediate was seeing Francois LeBlanc with his pants and socks hiked up as far as he could get them for his second run, just cruising around doing pointless old school for a laugh, but landing everything. Francois is heading back to the East Coast this week so that was the last contest we’ll see him in for a while…

Shawn Jafarnejad from Ollie North Skate Shop had a Best Trick Contest on the 3 stair rail before Advanced and gave away a Deck, a Shirt and a Pair of Shoes. Quick and serious.

The Advanced was stacked with rippers, a lot of them who had plenty of experience at the old Cloverdale Park, Mitch Salter, Jay Mykyte, Jordan Strong, Brendan Nielsen, Keegan Anderson, Andre Bissonnette…. But they were all trying their hardest not to lose to The Dominator, Dominic Devries. Nice try boys, maybe next time. Brendan came the closest. We finished off the contest with a chance to see if anyone could Ollie the old gap into the shallow end of the bowl and land on the hotdog. Jordan Strong, Allen Handley and Mitch Salter went for it and nasty as it was, Allen won it as the only one to ride away. Good job dude.

Well, this was most likely the last ever Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey Contest at the Old Cloverdale Skate Park since New Line Skate Parks is already trying to lock down the designs for the new one. The old park will be removed and the new one will be built around the corner beside the Cloverdale Recreation Centre – 6188 176st and should be done Spring 2013. I’ll be left with a ton of awesome memories of lots of kids that I raised as skateboarders in that park through skateboard lessons, camps, and tons of competitions.

RIP old Clovy, and Good Riddance…

Results

Mini: 1. Mark Melyukov; 2.Jon Schrack; 3. Parker Sherwin; 4. Joe Maillet & Isaiah Stroud; 6. Aiden Eastman; 7. Eli Paad; 8. Kaelen Faux

Beginner: 1. Kai Searle; 2. Morgan Skinner; 3. Zacc Lester; 4. Justin Fiorante; 5. Nick Bachmeier; 6. David Martin & Justin Gouthier; 8. Riley Allen & Weston Hutchinson; 10. Patrick Jonas; 11. Adam Lewis; 12. Riley Robertson; 13. Bachouch Michael; 14. Finn Schanlka; 15. Matthew Lalim

Girls: 1. Carrie Williams; 2. Cali Martin

Advanced: 1. Dominic Devries; 2. Brendan Nielsen; 3. Jay Mykyte; 4. Calvin Dignard; 5. Jordan Strong; 6. Mitch Salter; 7. Keegan Anderson; 8. Allen Handley; 9. Ryan Barron; 10. Alexander Savage; 11. Quinton Salter; 12. Andre Bissonnette; 13. Ben; 14. Robert Wylie

See you next time at this year’s Grand Finale

South Surrey – September 15^th, 2012

Remember to prepare for a full day as I won’t announce any winners until the end that day. Top 3 in each category will receive plaques, the King of Surrey 2012 will be announced and the so will the winner of the Show Up Mike Contest…

Sheldon Barr – “Beef Under The Chief” Video

Aug 26,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

A fresh video for “Beef Under the Chief”, the Squamish stop on the Bowl Series is now up on Push.ca

Have a look and see Adam Hopkins, Eve Feaver, Andy Anderson, Steve Denham, Bushman and more slay the bowl. I guess I should have tried to skate better that day, I could’ve been in it…

Nice video Sheldon

http://push.ca/blogs/skatenews/archive/2012/08/24/video-beef-under-the-chief-2012.aspx

Kitsch at Chuck Bailey

Aug 25,2012 / By Hippie Mike / No Comment

Another successful demo at Chuck Bailey Skate Park. Geoff Dermer, Stacy Gabriel, Will Blakley and Mike Hastie along with a couple other special guests represented at Chuck last night, August 23^rd, 2012. We threw in some Coastal Riders dudes for the Demo, like Dustin Locke, Jordan Zazula, John Hanlon and Paul Machnau, and then of course I was on the mic. We had a sweet BBQ with free hot dogs to start the night off right. The Demo was good and there were lots of kids that showed up for the show, and then Dermer threw out some product and had a Best Trick Contest on the 3block. Stephan Burke took home a fresh Kitsch Deck for a solid backside 360.

After all that we got to watch the infamous Bric-a-Brac Video on the Urban Screen (the outside wall of the rec centre). This was the first movie ever played on the Urban Screen and due to the success of the event, the people from The Surrey Arts Centre were stoked and want to do it more often.

Thanks to Geoff, the Kitsch guys, Coastal dudes, DJ Cuzo, the Arts Centre, and the 150 people that came out throughout the night…

If you liked the Kitsch guys, check out more on the site

www.kitschskateboards.com

Author Archives: Hippie Mike