AG + RS + VE + ML

Latimer 1’s, Latimers 2’s, Basics, Stockwell’s are back in stock for a limited time. Check them out here.

Long awaited Throne V-cut cuffs are now in-stock and only $27.00

Team 2 to Houston. We have a problem. Ok I pretty much blew it on the whole “update” deal every couple hours like Brandon smith and Ivan. I had a few technical difficulties one being my camera, the other being my brain. I will point most of the blame towards my highly defective brain though. I will try and detail as much as the trip as possible from my point of view with my terrible, terrible pictures.
After our nice little 20-minute session Thursday night (the only chance I really get to skate the park btw) we head on down to the Microtel hotel. The trip is normally around 5 minutes…it was snowing and the road was covered. I decided to make the trip a little interesting. We hit up about 10 parking lots with our supreme dodge charger and side showed and Tokyo Drifted the hell out of it, I was loving the Ohio weather for the moment…there are not a lot of things I like more than getting a car sideways. Many of 360’s, 720’s and nearly wiping out a quarter panel or 2 later we arrive at the beloved Microtel Inn. Check in is made easy and we start “settling” in. Once we were settled we needed to hit the Bar…and it’s a good thing the Holiday Inn had a decent little bar set up right across the street. Victor Ivan the Crid and I went over and met up with the Eulogy crew (Isaac Oltmans, Gonzo, Robert Lievanos) who had all been drinking long before we got there.

(Ivan the Crid on his way to the Holiday Inn bar)

(Victor, Gonzo, and Ivan the Crid. caught at the Holiday Inn bar.) By the way next time anyone goes to BCSD it is well worth your money to stay at the Holiday Inn…When you call to make reservations be sure to say the secret password. “Boardman Bucks” as they will give $100 free dollars to spend in the bar…I don’t even think I have to mention how much the free moneys would have come in handy. The only bad thing is that the bar sometimes closes a bit early, no big deal though. As there is a terrible bar across the street again called Salty Grogs, which quickly became known as Salty Balls.

Alright, we head on over to the “Salty Balls” bar now. Just the 4 of the AM G’s. The walk is really only about 100 yards but keep in mind it’s about 10 degrees out and we came dressed straight from California and I know I sure as hell wasn’t thinking I would need anything more than a sweatshirt.

Peter D. ends up coming over and meeting us as well. We start getting more drinks and notice that Ohio runs a completely backwards system of rating women. A 10 being a 1, and a 1 being a 10. With that said this extremely fat pig (nearly 600lbs) is working it at the pool table and seems to be getting more attention from the locals than anyone, not to mention the pigs at the table next to us are getting a good amount of looks as well.

(Gonzo & Ivan peeping pics)

(the cool Canadian dudes we met at Salty Balls)

(idiot boy)

Ok Freeze time for a second.
At about this time an off duty waitress notices about 30 AM stickers have made their way onto our table. She then proceeds to start an argument with Gonzo (who is completely loaded by the way) the argument escalates and the fat pig playing pool now gets involved. She then says she’s going to somehow kick all of our asses and eat us… She nearly gets into a brawl with the Canadian guys (who would have destroyed her) The Fat Nasty trys calling “security” to get us kicked out which doesn’t work. We then proceed slam a few more beers and decide to call it a night. Keep in Mind Gonzo has been drinking heavily since about 9, he’s having slight trouble with judgment and walking. It’s snowing like crazy so what does he decide to do?

(play in the snow of course. He stars doing snow angeles and then blacks out. and pretty much needs help getting out of the snow.)

Later I heard he peed in the elevator at the Holiday Inn. (HA!)

Friday comes about at about 4PM (late night) where the AM/Grom contest is being held.
Friday ends in pretty much the same fashion. Go to the bar, meet some more folks… Head back to the hotel. 10AM (or 11AM) the next day we were supposed to be setting up for the BCSD tradeshow. We ended up getting a bite to eat at Chick-fil-a, which is probably the worst fast food restaurant I have ever eaten at, simply terrible. We then get set up for the tradeshow at about 12 noon where we had tons of our own sweatshirts, hats, beanies and tees for sale and a bunch of our colored parts set up. Ivan sold nearly all his remaining copies of Hyphy 3 at the tradeshow as well.

(Peter D working the booth)

While the tradeshow died down the darkness of Vertigo skatepark filled with spectators. I never even knew that so many rollerbladers existed and could pack into one skate park. The event was obvioulsy going to be huge.

(Ivan the crid)

(more randomness)

The park was brimmed. The competitors could hardly skate the park. Bleachers should have been installed but that is a bit much to ask considering there would be no place to put them in the narrow park. I tried to snap a few photos at the places I was at but 99% of them were terrible. I should have brought a real camera instead of my measly little Digital Elph, not to mention I was probably in the worst spot ever.

(360 topsoul)

(Bailey back royal transfer front royale. It was a big gap for sure.)

The contest ended on a down note after Aragon laced his 540 AO top acid considering no one could top that. I always like it when contests just end on the last big trick, everyone is juiced and it’s just obvious who won. I think that is how it should be, but it doesn’t always work like that. I think part of the problem was that people were giving it their all in the prelims even though the round had ended 10 minutes prior. Nonetheless I saw some of the best skating I have seen in a long time and props to anyone that skated in the contest. (For a contest edit and more photos see brandonsmith-photo.com and Ivan’s edit.)

What contest would be a contest without a big product toss?  I am sure people got stampeded punched and kicked for tee shirts that didn’t fit them and magazines that were being given away for free at the tradeshow. It was a mess that was worth witnessing as I saw some of those shirts being torn in half and DVD’s flying from their cases only to hit some one else in the face and be grabbed by another guy who grabbed it so hard it grenaded and showered the crowd with “DVD confetti.” To say the least it was grand event.

We went back to the hotel, counted our cash and gathered our things and headed on over to the bar once again. We chilled it up one last time and Ivan drank himself into the oblivion. Fast forward a few hours and he is passed out like a little fool.

For my first time to Ohio I must say I had fun. Vertigo is a cool park and the Bitter cold Showdown is one of those “Must Attend” events of the year that it seems anyone who is anyone attends. Props to Daniel Kinny for putting on such a large event, and props to Vertigo for having it at there park…Well Ohio…Until Next year.

Team 1 & 2, Peace out at Denver Co. at “Steak Escape” last photo by Bsmith.

Bittercold Showdown contest edit

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Get the Remz 0702 Skate at Aggressivemall.

Skating by Victor Arias, Vinny Minton & Jon Morciglio

Ok… I know I promised updates for all you out there on the entire trip… Basically I got tied up in the BrandonSmith-photo.com update (which is really timely by the way) which you can basically check all the trips happening so far on his site.

The day started out real early, about 5am it was storming real bad back at the home base and we boarded our United airlines flight at around 7am.

Here is a little photo story (photos taken from www.brandonsmith-photo.com)

We had ourselves a little race.

Team 1 (leaving from Oakland CA): Brandon Smith, Eric Garcia, Sean Keane.

Team 2 (leaving from San Jose CA): Ivan Narez, Peter Drozdowski, Justin Herel

Wildcard mystery hombre: Ross Kuhn

Destination layover for both flights: Denver Colorado.

6am: Morning stars out super stormy. Could mean trouble for both flights…

Too bad it only means that team 1’s air plane will end up being broken having them have to take a super budget flight all the way over to Washington D.C. Where it turns out that the ESG has a little trouble with airsickness again…This could have have had partly something to do with the twin infant children located on board; one which received an inflight row 22, seat D number 2 diaper change and the other happend to reject a cetain gerber meal shortly their after… Aren’t baby’s just too cute?

Meanwhile team 2 takes the lead as their flight bounces out without a hitch all the way to planned destination layover 1.

Team 1: Arrives in Denver Colorado with time to spare (so we thought) Mountain time is aparently a whole ‘nother time zone! Peter D. and Justin get stuck in SKybar 1. Ivan notices a someone we know! Fellow rollerblader Ross Kuhn fresh outta’ Oregon and just happens to be on our same flight. (How random is that?) Peter and Justin end up making their connection by mere seconds and are frowned on upon US airways flight attendants and patrons. While even more of a random deal, Ross is only sitting one seat away from us.

Team 2’s flight is then followed with a few drinks to ease the nerves

At around 5PM EST. we arrive and surprisingly team 2 makes it their first. Unfortunately Ross’s bag is lost, but both traveling teams meet up at the rent a car spot to share their exciting story’s of what went on through out the day.

With everything picked up from baggage (with exception of Ross’s luggage) we rent El Dodge Charger (in which team 2 was charged an additional $25 a day considering no one in this particular team was over 25) Dollar rent a car my A$$. How about like 600 dollar rent a car with no coverage…

We get the car and of course it’s dirty as all hell… Soda spilled all over the console, popcorn all over the floor… It looks as if Justin had gotten a hold of the car mere hours before and had his sweet way with it. Oh and by the way they aren’t kidding when they say it’s bitter cold. The outside temp is comfortable 27 degrees and we are in the middle of a snow storm.

The Journey now starts from Pittsburg, PA to Boardman, OH. Turnpikes and snowstorms don’t mix. Near tempertantrums and spin outs and many a tolls later we finally find ourselves arriving at the ol’ Vertigo skatepark. Where we meet up with Vinny Minton, Victor Arias, and Jon Morciglio.

A late night session then ensued while Ivan, Brandon and Eric went bowling. The only trick that seems to be captured so far is Vinny Minton’s half cab soul (even though a lot of incredibly sick tricks already went down tonight, Justin was behind the camera and probably didn’t take but 2 photo’s worth a damn. DAMN HIM! DAMN HIM TO HELL!)

That’s it for Thursday at the BCSD… more madness and tricks to ensure tomorrow!

For more photos and story’s go to www.brandonsmith-photo.com

The Bitter Cold Showdown is going down this weekend (Feb. 23rd-25th) in Boardman Ohio at the infamous Vertigo skate park and you best believe that your hommies from Aggressivemall will be in full attendance. Aggressivemall is proud to sponsor one of the biggest rollerblading events of the year and will be posting up in our own booth slangin’ all of our gear for a a deal that you can’t afford to pass up.

For those of you that check the blog we will be attempting to update it each night with photo’s and various stories.

For more info on this contest please vist The Bitter Cold Showdown website.

Congratulations to Logan McMillan, from Houston Texas. He has just won himself a pair of Sifika Lampton II shoes and some AM gear to go with them. Anyone who didn’t win this time around be sure to keep reviewing products to be entered to win twice a month. For more info click here.

	One - a rollerblading magazine. The new rollerblading magazine. Issue #3 is full of the new aggressive skating content you have been waiting for such as interviews, dvd and product reviews, lifestyles, photos and more.

	Features 10. Letter Editor 12. Scene: Philly 15. Take 5: Mike Johnson 16. Gear: Winter 2007 19. Sound Check: Pigeon John 20. Spotlight: Treehous Gallery 22. Tidbits 24. Blade DVD Reviews 25. Contest: SDSF Open 26. Interviewed: Chris Chesire 36. 15 Minutes: Jon Elliott 38. Interviewed: Ben Schwab 44. Amateur Hour: Brad Magnuson 46. Picks 54. Spotlight: Brian Konoske 60. Wellness 62. Last Year

Get it here. 

Hop on the Ecko Unltd. Camo Rhino tip with some of their hot new gear for Feburary. Here are a few of our favorite pieces this month.

Check out all the new Ecko gear here. 

Ground Control is proud to introduce their brand new Phantom 2 inline skate backpack.  This GC bag does more than just hold skates as it has 2 large compartments for binders, books and lap tops, 1 medium sized zippered side pocket  with a stretchy mesh pocket on its outside, 3 smaller sized compartments built to hold all sorts of accessories and smaller items and 1 side mesh drink holder for your beverage. The padded straps feature a zippered stash pocket and a mesh pocket that could hold a small beverage.  One of the large compartments comes with an extra padded piece and velcro strap to secure your lap top in. Overall this Ground Control backpack offers style, functionality and comfort for rollerbladers of all types.

Check out more photos and details here. 

Check out the new “The Skateboard Mag” for the full 2 page Volcom spread that is blatently slapped up with one of our old stickers. Nothing big, just kind of funny because it would have taken the art guy about 20 seconds to photoshop it out.

-JH

Check them out in detail here.

More Samples of stunning set ups have been uploaded. Check the sample section out here.