Hippie Mike is a man of many talents, many skills and many creations. A master of construction, Mike loves to build and create unique and custom projects, but he also takes the same mind frame to everything else he does.
After Day 2 of the World Round Up contest there is a whole new light we can see inside the tunnel. The Amateur Division standings stayed pretty much the same from yesterday but every competitor stepped up their game big time. Andy Anderson came out super string in Run 1 with a unique and flawless display which only made Kaue Arouja go twice as hard. I have no idea who will take 1st place tomorrow but I am pretty sure it will be one of them.
The Pro’s on the other hand just proved that it really could be anyone’s game. Mike Osterman bumped GuenterMokulys off the mountain top taking over the 1st place ranking, while Stefan Lillis Akesson, Per Canguru and TakashiSuzuki slid down to make room that little 12 year old I keep talking about from Japan. That’s right Isamu Yamamoto moved up from 8th place to 3rd today. The crazy part is every single one of the Pro’s had at least one killer run that were all comparable. These guys are in a serious battle and the question remains the same –
Who will be the Champion of 2015?
Will Osterman get the repeat? Will Guenter Mokulys take his 11th title? Could 12 year old Isamu actually beat out the entire group and win his first ever Pro contest? Or will we be totally surprised by someone else in the mix?
It really could be anyone. You might wanna show up for this one…
After Day 1 of the 4th annual World Round Up Freestyle Contest the questions are real, Who will be the ones to make those Finals on Sunday, Who will be the Champions, and Who is better – the guys with 20-30 years of experience or those crazy young kids full of energy and changing the face of freestyle?
It’s always an eye-opener to be at this event as you see some insane skateboarding going on everywhere you look. But every year there’s competitors that you haven’t seen before, competitors that you know are at the top of their game and the toughest ones to beat, and competitors who just blow you away with their improved style and consistency from the year previous. Either way, it is always exciting to watch.
This year the Amateur Division has a lot of people in it and the 2nd and 3rd place guys from last year are ready to battle it out for the win. Kaue Arouja and Andy Anderson went neck and neck on the first day with 2 completely different styles, but both had solid and flawless runs and the pressure will be on during semi-finals.
In the Pro’s it was the usual deal with Guenter Mokyulus and Mike Osterman scoring at the top but with others running closely behind. The excitement this year is that young Japanese wonder Isamu Yamamoto has moved up to the Pro Division at age 12. This kid might not win the event but he definitely gets the entire place cheering every time he steps on his board. His consistency is unstoppable.
Semi-Finals are next and those 3 questions come back to mind, who will move on to Finals…..
Here’s a recap video showcasing the smooth and diverse styles of the 2 youngest competitors at the event
Year number 4 of this amazing and unique skateboard event starts Friday May 15th at the Cloverdale Rodeo, it’s The World Round Up featuring the best of the best of Freestyle Skateboarders from around the world showcasing their skills and trying to beat out their friends for the cash.
Last year Mike Osterman did the impossible in the Pro division and took out Guenter Mokyulus, but the phenomenon was in the Amateur division when 11 year old Isamu Yamamoto flew in from Japan and owned the podium the entire weekend. Will he be in the Pro division this year or still ride it out in Am? Only 1 way to find out.
We will be on site filming the event and keeping you updated all weekend. Here is the recap video from last year to get you stoked
It’s not about being the champ, it’s about being the best they can be and hoping that’s better than the next guy. These guys train themselves to be awesome and on point and it is a tough event to judge.
The event runs all weekend long with the Finals happening on Sunday. It takes place inside the curling rink and once you pay to get in to the Rodeo and Fair you can come in and out of the arena.
Youth Week on the Island is happening this year inside the Langford Heritage Skate Shop with the 2nd Annual Langford Slamma Contest hosted by Hippie Mike. The ramps are all built and ready for serious action. Come out Saturday night May 2nd, 6pm and join in the fun while you try and win yourself some cash and prizes!!!
Open to all ages and all skill levels. Plus we are raising some money towards a new skate park project in the area. Show your support!
It’s Youth Week again and you know we are stoked to get the kids skating. Kick it off with Hippie Mike and Andy Anderson as they MC the annual Surrey Youth Week Jam at Chuck Bailey Skate Park this Friday night starting at 4pm.
If you’re a youth 18 or under come out and join in, or just come hang out and show your support!
We headed over to Vancouver Island at the beginning of March to compete in a Skate Comp at the Sooke Skate Park and then help out with the final premiere of the Conspiracy Video at One Six Boards and Bikes. It was a little bit of the Protest team and the Vulcan Bolts team. Merrick Orr represented hard for Protest at the contest, of course Sooke is his local park but he definitely put on a Demo. Andy Anderson got 2nd and Giver Mike placed 3rd. All the kids had a blst at the comp and amazingly enough it was just like a summer day out there, and it was only March 7th.
After leaving our presence at the park we headed back towards Victoria stopping off at a couple little spots we saw to let Andy loose for a few minutes. Off to One Six where Ty Williamson’s Conspiracy Video was showing for the 3rd time. Tons of people showed up and all were loving the vid, but it was that Best Trick Comp in the ramp that people were itching for. Merrick Orr, Cam Blaney, Todd Tessier, Andy Anderson and more walked away with tons of prizes and tons of bruises.
It was a great day, check out the recap video from www.rollingbonespodcast.com to feel like you were there, and stay tuned for more recap action from this trip coming soon…
It was a quick decision when Rob from The Boardr sent Andy Anderson an invite to compete in the first ever Boardr Am contest series that qualifies 1 person automatically into an upcoming X-Games Am comp. The question wasn’t whether or not Andy wanted to go and compete but more about which ones of the 6 stops would be best to go to. Well, stop 1 happened to be in LA, in January, that made the decision easy. We flew down on the 21st giving us a couple days to hang out and see the town before the event. Day 1 we hit up Venice Beach, starting off with the Skate Park of course. What a great place, 3 bowls, some fun shaped clam shell quarters and a little bit of street obstacles. Andy and I (Hippie Mike) both shredded the snake bowl mostly, just having fun going fast and catching waves. After filming a couple quick Instagram videos I pulled out the real camera and caught a sick line of Andy in the deep bowl. He was wowing the audience both inside and outside of the park.
After a solid session we strolled down the strip a bit and saw the sights that reminded us of good old Hastings Street in East Van except with actual tourists around. It was a gorgeous day to hang out in Venice and then we headed off to some street spots and finished off the day with an evening LA Clippers game at Staples Centre. Blake Griffin demo!
The next morning we went over to Sheldon Skate Park where we thought the contest was to check in and warm up, but the contest location had been changed to Stoner Plaza because of them not getting the right permits for Sheldon. Oh well, we had to stay and shred this Sheldon Park, it was sick – Triple set, ledges, rails, quarter pipes everywhere, Andy put on a show at this park for sure. After getting heated up and filming a few lines we ventured off to Stoner. Stoner Plaza is a lot more streety and all the kids were bangin’ out the tech tricks. The most popular obstacles were definitely the bank to bank gap, the quarter pipe hip, the hubba and the rail. This location change definitely changed the style of the contest, but that didn’t change our attitudes. We were here to skate, and Andy was there to be seen. He definitely did some tricks that turned heads while we were there. After a solid warm up session and some quick filming we headed down the street to skate the ledges at Santa Monica Courtyard. The sun was going down so we didn’t stay long, but we made sure to get some footage. After that we jumped in the car and blasted off to Anaheim to check out the infamous Wouldshop Skateboards backyard pool and DIY park. Ben Butler was a great host letting us shred away until we felt like it was time to quit. Andy shredded hard in that pool and learned some fresh lines that had some danger factor in there for sure. What a sick time!!
Day 3, contest day, and it was hot. We headed back to Stoner and got right into it. The gate was still locked when we arrived so Andy started warming up in the little picnic area by putting on a Freestyle Demo for the other competitors. Once the gate opened up it was every man for himself and the park was flooded with talent of all ages. There ended up being about 115 competitors altogether that day so warm up time was pretty crazy with people skating fast in every direction. The contest got underway and Andy was in Jam 4 (out of 41 jams), 3 people, 3 minutes. He skated good and did lots of funky tricks that some people couldn’t comprehend and most people would never attempt. It wasn’t one of his best runs ever, but he made a mark with his creativity. Only 18 people were going to advance to the semi-finals so all he could do was hope he made it. The skill level was high at this comp and there were some dominators for sure, Dashawn Jordan, Sebo Walker, Micky Papa, Nate Greenwood, Paul Hart and Jon Cosentino were definitely the guys to watch out for in this one. Jon Cos represented hard all day with consistent style and perfect landings all over the park. He led the entire day, and stepped up his game in the finals to keep his lead and take the first all-expenses paid ticket to X-Games Am!! Way to go Jon, and way to represent Canada. Andy finished in 33rd place which was really good considering the talent he was up against and the fact that Stoner Plaza was not fully his style park. We got some grub and headed back to the hotel to chill for the night. We had all day the next day to go hit the streets before our flight home.
Woke up, got breakfast and started hunting out spots on www.laskatespots.com – first stop was Hollywood High. No warm up and a sneaky move through the gate, Andy started the day with commitment and style dropping 4 solid tricks down the 12 stair rail in about 10 minutes. We headed out from there and found a couple of the popular high schools from all the videos but there wasn’t much luck getting through the gates. We moved over to Santa Monica and ended up back at Stoner Plaza where we got directions to University High School for a little 8 stair action. Andy stuck a couple tricks down the rail and then signed his name with his patented Half Flip (or Anti-Flip) down the set and we called it a day.
It was a great trip and we got to see a lot in 4 days, the contest was sick and it was sweet to see everyone rip it up. It’s too bad the location was changed but it was still a great event. Thanks for travelling with us, now Click the link below for the recap video of Andy Anderson and Hippie Mike in LA
As most of you know I have been featured in the newspaper many times for many different reasons, all positive of course. This past summer I chose to make a change and take what was known as The Best Skateboard Contest Series in Surrey and expand it across the Lower Mainland bringing the same positive experiences and enjoyment to people of all ages in other cities than just Surrey. It was called Hippie Mike’s Super Tour and year 1 was a great success. So many of the regulars from Hippie Mike’s Tour de Surrey made themselves present at each event, and we definitely attracted new competitors from each city. The cities included this year were Surrey, Burnaby and Port Coquitlam. I chose these 3 for specific reasons:
#1 – it had to start in Surrey because that’s where the last series grew to be what it was, plus the new Cloverdale Skate Park was going to be brand new and ready for initiation
#2 – Railside Skate Park in Poco is a great park which has been the host to many amazing contests and demos over the years so it just made sense to go there for the finale of the first year. It was guaranteed that lots of people would show up, and that lots of people would skate good there
#3 – I chose Bonsor Skate Park in Burnaby for a few reasons, first and foremost it is the most centralized park in the Lower Mainland, anyone can get there and it’s always busy. It’s a big size park with lots of variety and a ton of locals, and just like Poco you are guaranteed to see a good show there. But there were more reasons, Bonsor was home to a tiny Skate Shop right across the road since the park had been built, it started as Push with Eve Feaver and Tony, was continued as Push by John, and then bought out and run by Sebastien “Fez” Tellez and his family for the last 2 years, but unfortunately the doors had closed over the winter of 2013 and this left a huge void at the park. They needed someone to come in and run something special to remind them that they were loved, and I was the guy.
All of these contests were great but the Bonsor one definitely showed how necessary it was to be there. So many great kids with nothing but smiles on their faces. The appreciation was huge and I have no regrets. As the year recently changed to 2015 there was a recap article in the Burnaby Now praising a handful of people who have helped to be an inspiration in their community in 2014 and somehow they featured Hippie Mike in there. It was an honour when I found out that I had been nominated for their “If everyone were like them, the world would be a better place” award and reminded me of how powerful a small event can be to a huge community. I don’t do things like this to win awards or to be praised for it, I do them because I feel that people deserve to have positive experiences in their lives where everyone can feel included. If you do something in life that makes you feel special, why not share that feeling with the next generation and help them to grow up happier, and just maybe some of them will do the same thing for the future generations to come.
You just never know what life is gonna throw at you next, major injuries, people dying, thieves trying to rob you, or maybe there’s positivity in your future, you just never know what’s next until it happens. As a young boy I went to Boy Scouts and learned their motto “Be Prepared” and stuck with this motto for my whole life. It’s good to premeditate the future with options of what’s to come so that you are always ready no matter what. In skateboarding you just always need to be expecting that next injury but you still don’t know what part of your body will be affected, or how serious the injury will be. With this last big injury having my knee fall apart on me I wasn’t ready for it to happen at that time but I definitely was prepared for it to occur at some point in my life. It’s just another day, another battle, another challenge to overcome.
Recently a lot of us have been affected by a few key members of our local skateboard community passing away and it has been tough to accept but this is part of life and we do need to live on. Cherish the people and the memories you had with them and use this experience for yourself to grow. Take time to make plans for your future whether it’s about skateboarding, your career, where you’re going to live, who you’re going to marry, how many kids you might have, etc., and always be positive. Skateboarders are the toughest breed on the planet, let’s build ourselves a positive future that can last forever…
Well, this is it, I’m heading back home to Canada. I am super excited to fly back across the pond and see all the friends and family back in Canada for 6 months before coming back to the land of the rising sun. This has definitely been the fastest year of my life and I can’t believe how much I learned and obtained from this one year. I couldn’t believe all the people I was able to meet and the things I was able to experience. Things like getting my N1 on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, which is the highest level you can get, entering, placing and winning various Japanese speech contests, winning the Japanese Freestyle Skateboard Championships, etc. I have no intention of bragging, in fact one thing I learned through all this is, valuing these kind of achievements themselves have no meaning. It’s all empty. If that’s the case, what was the point in doing all this? It was simply the journey. If you look at the other side of the coin, In this year I also placed low in some speech contests, placed 10th in my first Pro skate contest (ouch), and made so many mistakes with my Japanese along the way I sometimes ended making a complete fool of myself. But that’s all ok, because regardless of the placings or how well I was able to carry out certain tasks I stuck with it, because the journey itself has value.
After falling, getting back up many times (which is definitely something that skateboarding has taught me) I would start to notice things like my Skateboarding and Japanese slowly start to improve. This was something I learned in Canada, however after being on my own for the first time in a foreign country, this definitely became more apparent. The way I look at life is “just keep moving”. What I mean by that is, you don’t have to be exhausting yourself everyday (although it doesn’t hurt to test your limits either), just aim for a goal and keep doing something related to it everyday even if it’s small. The more you put into something and the longer you stick with it, the more you will get back. A goal is something for you to aim at and what’s important is not obtaining what is at the end of it but the experiences and memories you created along the way. To me, that’s how you live a full life without any regrets. Just don’t stop and keep moving.
I have to say, I am forever grateful that I have skateboarding in my life. It’s only because of skateboarding that I was able to take on Japanese with confidence and stick with it. Every time I stumbled on my Japanese and made stupid mistakes, I always thought back to skateboarding and how it was no different than missing a trick. It’s only because I had skateboarding in my life that I was able to go on this amazing journey and meet so many awesome people in the skateboard community as well as the Japanese community. Thank you Skateboarding.
