Welcome to the first installation of “The Hot Ball.” From now on, when you stop by the Transworld Business office, we reserve the right to grill you about whatever we want, and then put it on our site. RP and Keith from World Industries were the first subjects—in fact, RP named it mid-interview.
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Terry Kennedy, Lizard, and Slash have all spilled the beans at one point or another. The Internet was buzzing with rumors even months before that. It hasn’t been a secret for quite some time, but now, at long last, it’s official: Deathwish skateboards exists.
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Terry Kennedy, Lizard, and Slash have all spilled the beans at one point or another. The Internet was buzzing with rumors even months before that. It hasn’t been a secret for quite some time, but now, at long last, it’s official: Deathwish skateboards exists.
Here’s the officially official roster, according to Owner Andrew Reynolds: Erik Ellington, Jim Greco, Lizard King, Antwaun Dixon on the pro squad, and Brian Hansen and Furby as ams.
When the rumors first surfaced in late 2007, Web-savvy skaters discovered that the domain name deathwishskateboards.com was, in fact, taken, registered to Erik Ellington of a familiar-sounding “Borgata Eyewear,” and was registered way back in December of 2006.
In a January interview, Lizard King told 48blocks.com: “Now I’m going to go with this new company Reynolds is starting. I mostly skate with all of the Baker guys in L.A. so it just made sense. It’s such a better move and such a big opportunity. What do you do when Reynolds asks you to skate for a board company he’s starting? You say yes, you can’t say no!”
In the March issue of Thrasher, Terry Kennedy further confirms the rumor: “It’s the new company they’re doing off Baker, like a Girl and Chocolate type situation.”
And in a March transworldbusiness.com interview, Brian Hansen explains how he was approached: “I was on that Wild Ride with the Emerica dudes, and Reynolds just said ‘Hey we’re making a new company, do you think you’ll be down?’ and this was way before it [Deathwish] was really in the works, no name, no nothing. He said ‘I don’t know who’s going to be on the team, but I want you to be the first one.’”
According to Reynolds, the first run of products will be hitting shops in May, roughly the same time as the highly anticipated Baker Has A Deathwish promo video. “There’s no premieres or anything,” he says. “It’s just for the diehard fans that love our shit.”
Deathwish products will ship May 15, and Dan Rogers is the point man for sales. His email is dan@bakerboysdist.com.
The IASC Summit at Woodward West was productive and beneficial for dozens of reasons, but it was a hell of a lot of fun, too. Several attendees spent their leisure time blasting into the giant foam pit. Whether dusting off some 360 Judos, or trying the elusive Superman dive, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. Getting out’s a bitch, though. Thanks to Duncan Hooper, whose name makes him sound destined for the NBA, for the photos. 
Jeff Kendall was leading the charge with a rocket-air Sal flip.
Sole Tech’s Timothy Nickloff was blasting tuck-knee airs. 
Bod Boyle back 360’s into the abyss that smelled like piss. 
Sk8ology’s Mark Schmid was going for broke. Sorry Schmiddy, I have no idea what you’re trying.
Me, thinking I can hang with the vert pros, and Timothy, thinking I can’t. 
Tod Swank was up in the mix. 
Kendall doesn’t even need his board. Superman dive. 
After getting internet-famous for his ping-pong ball throwing antics, Toy Machine pro Billy Marks showed up in a Turbo Tax video. Check it out HERE. I mean, it’s cool and all, but the guy can Cab-kickflip down stairs. Isn’t that slightly more impressive?
Woodward West is a skate utopia. It’s beautiful, if not a bit far away. And it’s got tons to skate. And if that wasn’t enough of a draw, for the first weekend in April, and my birthday, most of the industry’s top decision makers got together to discuss all the topics concerning skateboarding in 2008. Here are some of the highlights:
This isn’t even a third of what we had available to skate. Seriously, this place is enormous,
Before we go on, these three are the team that made it all possible—IASC’s Molly Katzman, Laurie Bergthold, and John Bernards. Thanks, guys.
The first discussion panel was “Putting The Government To Work For Skateboarding.” The panelists were Zumiez’ Tom Campion, skater/politician Michael Anadon, and the MPA’s Kori Bernards-Eisenhauer. The group was moderated by ABC’s Jim Gray.
Tum Yeto’s Matt Barker hides from the paparazzi (me) while Dekline’s Kevin Furtado rats him out. Kevin and I had the same jacket on the whole time. He felt dumb, I felt cool.
Skin Phillips, Michael Furukawa, Paul Schmitt, Jim Gray, John Bernards, and Bod Boyle pose with awards they were given for being founding IASC members who are still active today.
Bod Boyle and his award for financing IASC’s rebirth in 2003.
Don Brown with his award for the same. Also, the tequila he made me drink for my birthday.
On the eve of the first night, Transworld Business hosted a bowling-and-drinks event. We bowled, and drank drinks. This photo is Fuel TV’s John Stouffer, Geoff Koboldt of BambooSK8, Yulin Wu, and Sk8ology’s Mark Schmid, Transworld Business’ Me, and Dekline’s Kevin “Nelly” Furtado.
Don Brown opted for drinking and playing pool.
This conference was kind of a sausage-fest. There were five chicks there. IASC’s Molly Katzman and Laurie Bergthold, and Fuel TV’s Yulin Wu.
Apparently I got canoodled by three-fifths of the chicks there. Did I mention it was my birthday?
This is a debate waiting to happen—Jeff Harbaugh, John Bernards, Paul Schmitt, and Jim Gray.
Watch what you say around these guys—Surf Expo’s Sean O’Brien, Transworld Business’ Rob Campbell, and Fuel TV’s John Stouffer. In fact, if you see them coming, just run.
Tod Swank fielding questions from Don Brown and Harley Davidson’s Andrew Smith.
Mark Schmid and Pete “PT” Townend were stoked to be a part of the summit.
Harley-Davidson’s Andrew Smith gave a speech on the history of Harley, its correlation to skateboarding, and open-minded business practices in general. Shitty photo, I know, but this guy was pretty damn inspirational.
The third day began with a panel of influential retailers discussing ethics, business practices, and when to try out a fledgling brand. Calavera’s Bob Culberson, Modern Skate’s George Leichtweis, Skatepark of Tampa’s Ryan Clements, and ZJ Boarding House’s Todd Roberts.
Per Welinder, Paul Schmitt, Don Brown, Board Trac’s Angelo Ponzi, Skateboarder’s Publisher Roger Harrell, and John Bernards discuss the use of market research and data in a progressive roundtable.
One of the progressive round tables focused on amateur competitions. Here it looks like Neal Hendrix is talking to Tod Swank, Bob Denike, Jeff Kendall, Gary Ream, and Michael Furukawa. IASC is supporting the USAS contests.
Trade Shows were a big part of the progressive roundtable. ASR’s Andy Tompkins hosted a discussion on the role of shows in skateboarding.Miki Vuckovich hosted a roundtable on the proliferation of skateparks.
Dave Metty had some great ideas at the Youth Participation table.
This is everyone in the progressive roundtables getting down to brass tacks.
After the progressive roundtables we went outside for the Retailer Roundtable.
The big event on the third day was the media panel—Skin from Transworld, Niall from Kingpin, Brad from Vital, CJ from Fuel TV, and Ben from Vice answered questions on responsibility, multi-media, and the future of skate media. I think everyone agreed that manufacturers should buy more ads. Especially in Transworld Business. Hint hint.
The media panel audience.
Don Brown and Michael Furukawa say farewell, and send me some bearings/shoes.
Jeff Kendall and Ryan Clements say goodbye as well. Jeff was shredding into the foam pit.
Niall and Alex from Kingpin. Niall was an important part of the media panel.
That’s right. According to the Plan B site, Sheckler is the latest skater to tackle the Mega Ramp. Wenning? Gallant? Which one of you guys is next?
In more shoe shakeup news, Oceanside’s Duffs and Vista’s Adio both had a round of layoffs and terminations recently.
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According to the people at Laureus in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Flying Tomato out-action-sportsed everyone this year, winning the Action Sports Person Of The Year award. White joins the ranks of anti-doping campaigner Dick Pound, and Ukranian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka.
For people outside the action-sports bubble, Laureus did alright. One of the two photos on the site are actually of White, and they definitely referred to his Xgames performance as “video game moves.” No mention of the Birdhouse video, though. I’m kinda pissed about that.
From White’s profile: “In the vert event, White exhibited video-game moves: Backside 540 to heelflip body varial to McTwist to air to fakie to 720 to frontside 540 stalefish to frontside 540 to nose grind to lipslide to blunt to fakie to fakie air to frontside 540 to backside 540 to frontside gay twist. Suddenly, a summer X Gold was his.”
Jesus, that’s one hell of a trick. Up-up-down-down-circle-circle-square, indeed.
From what I gather, the Tampa pro contest is going off. There’s a lot of talk about who is ripping, a couple names thrown out were Brian Anderson and Paul Rodriguez. I wouldn’t know, though, because I got food poisoning.
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