Winter Solstice w Rasa Libre

Please people, appreciate this mentality.  Follow their example and make skateboarding your own.


Winter Solstice- from Rasa Libre on Vimeo.

the streets of rage

frame by frame

Frame by Frame from Romain Batard on Vimeo.

ian storm

Just something that's gotten me excited to roll lately.

Stolen pt. 10: Sam Cole at Greenlake

A talented individual using his brain to do cool things on a skateboard.

12/11/10 (Funday 14)

Some Alone Time

I never posted this it's kinda fun

11/27/10 (Funday 13)

Sessions at Shoreline and Martha Lake!

Best of Funday (1-11) pt. 1

  I'm beginning to realize a slight correlation between Funday and 411... So, just to tighten that bond a little more, I made a Best of Funday compilation.  There won't be any Chaos or Switch Stance sections but try to enjoy it anyway!

Send Me Footy pt. 11

"super secret montage"

This is essentially a highlight reel of offcuts and just about any other clips Jake fancied from the periods between filming for his video Magnum Opus and the 35th video Sorry We're Open, between 04'ish and early 07' at the very latest.

Josh on a very cold day in Mercer Island

Dirty Dan says hello

The Wallride

  To me, nothing in skateboarding really compares. There's something so simple and natural about the wallride that makes it so pleasing to the body and mind. It transcends the definition of a trick entirely, like carving or pushing. If you think about it, it's pretty amazing that we can accomplish this feet of riding on a vertical wall at all. The body, perfectly poised, applying the precise amount of force to keep the board on the wall and itself on the board. A marvel in the world of physics, if you ask me.

11/13/10, 11/14/10 (Funday 12)

Stolen pt. 9: Randy Ploesser, Jordan Sanchez and Andy Froberg.

I'm sure you've seen em, but here are two ridiculous videos of uncomprehendible skateboarding.

Send Me Footy pt. 10: "Eat Shit"

This is a video mainly of Brendan (not sure of last name), well, eating shit on a rail I'm sure you are all familiar with.  There's some Eric Logan thrown in there too.  Enjoy.

i spy with my little eye...

a villager at 1:09!

VILLAGERS IN CONTEXT, Vol. 1

Luke Elliott on breast cancer:
"SHOW ME YOUR TIT!"

Villagers: Out of Context, vol. 3

"Fucking in a car would be easier than putting on a suit" - Eric Logan

Villagers: Out of Context, vol. 2

"He's the only person I know who has a haircut I desire." - Eric Logan

10/23/10 and 10/30/10 (Funday 11)

matt nialson!?!!?

Send Me Footy pt. 9: "Hazah"

Another semi-exciting batch of tricks. The first spot seems really cool but we had to set up a sign to get up the quick curb before the ledge, and that sign was later parked on by a bus right in front of the ledge. I vaguely remember a small altercation arising from this situation involving the persistent "good samaritan" bus driver. The next spot is at Clover Park Technical College. Just a couple of flat gaps. Apparently Andy was still in pre-voice drop/big boots stage. Enjoy.



P.S. Sorry for the lack of fundays. Between moving, school, the premiere, and misplacing my camera, it just hasn't happened. But fear not, we are all moved in and I have relocated my camera so fundays are soon to be had.

WE DID IT

you are all awesome!

"FINAL" PROMO

Send Me Footy pt. 8: "Booooooo"

  This video features mainly Eric Logan destroying this really bad ledge off some stairs.  He was one of the few to skate it before the angle iron fell off or disappeared, I can't remember which.  There's also some old Marginal footage in here, featuring Eric again, myself, and our good friend and fellow villager Chris Lee, or as some know him, Chree.  On one of Eric's hurricane attempts he managed to kick Jake's fisheye right off the camera, which resulted in about an 8 foot drop for the poor lens.  No damage done, but that definitely had everyone worried for a minute.  Enjoy.



P.S.  Don't miss the Balsamic Villagers premiere this coming Thursday (October 14th) at either 7 or 8PM!!!

Lucky 1

This song and video is excellent.  View it.


Lucky 1 from Abby Portner on Vimeo.

SECOND SHOWING ADDED

now playing at 7 and 8pm

Stolen pt. 8: Dave Waite and Sean Harris at Foss

Not sure how old this is but I hadn't seen it until now. Dave kills the mini, as always, and Sean does something I would never imagine possible, as per usual with him.

it was just me and eric

'BALSAMIC VILLAGERS' premiere

See you there!

Villagers: Out of Context, vol. 1

You wouldn't believe how easy it is to kill a baby... -Matt Nielsen

Villagers: Out of Context, Introduction

Ever get real deep into a topical conversation with friends or acquaintances, and then for whatever reason you take a small step back from the conversation and realize how obsurd a specific sentence would sound to an outsider who had no context at all? Well, this segment is dedicated to those moments.

Hope you enjoy Villagers: Out of Context.
-e

Lost Fundays (Funday 10)

The first funday video I made was in January of 2009. This blog existed for some time before then and videos were posted as individual tricks, as some of you remember. I realized that a lot of those clips, if not all of them, were probably forgotten shortly after they were posted. So, I decided to make a Funday with all the leftover clips, aptly titled Lost Fundays. I hope you enjoy!

Weger

Steve Gonzales, skate coach.

Balsamic Ballard

  A little montage by Jake Knapp featuring the Villagers skating the once thriving Ballard ledge spot.

Send Me Footy pt. 7: "Banksy"

  I remember this day was super fun.  This spot was across from Redmond High School but I think it has been demolished, or at least fully skate stopped, since then.  That day was also one of the first tricks I can think of where Jake was in front of the lens instead of behind it.  You should see the tricks he gets now... (filmer part!).

Villagers in Yakima

A day in Yakima.

9/12/10 (Funday 9)

Funday in Woodinville and Duvall:

luke bought an iphone!

Elephant Direct

if you haven't seen this, you need to

http://www.colormagazine.ca/features/post/118/now-live

Send Me Footy pt. 6: "Hoorah"

Jamie Bernard

  My brother Kyle skated with Jamie many years ago, probably around 1991-94.  They were pretty good friends for a while.  I was rather young and barely skated but I remember going over to Jamie's house once, where he had a slew of ramps in his back yard.  The guy seemed like a pro to me he was so good.  When my family moved away from Seattle to Issaquah, Jamie and Kyle's friendship sort of ended.  Years and years went by.  One day at Innerspace, I saw someone who looked familiar.  I asked who he was and sure enough it was Jamie.  He remembered me and my brother, which was cool.  And, of course, his skating was still  unbelievable.  He was doing transfers I had never even thought of, much less witnessed.  Sadly, that man is now gone.  I wish I had known him better, but I'm glad I can say that I did at all.  You'll be missed man.

Send Me Footy pt. 5: "May 4"

9/5/10 (Funday 8)

Extra special funday in Kent this time. No pictures but one record length video...

WOOOHOOO

superstition...

The balsalmic moon, as defined by wikipedia...

Send Me Footy pt. 4: "Seattle Is Keen"

  I'm bored so here's a short one.  Another aspect of the videos I enjoy are the titles given to them by Jake.  This one was labeled "Seattle is keen."

Send Me Footy pt. 3: "New" // ACS 2010 snippits

Also, here are the few pictures I took today during All City Showdown:

Stretching is painful sometimes

Eric Logan: MVP

Landing tricks makes you smile

We won't be winning any prize money, but it was a super fun and successful day!

Send Me Footy pt. 2

I distinctly remember this being the coldest day of Winter, 06'.

Send Me Footy pt. I: "Stuff"

Back in the day when us would-be villagers were still in high school and living at our respective parents' houses, we would spend many nights talking on AIM with each other, primarily about skateboarding. We'd talk about new videos, magazines, tricks, and so on, but it would inevitably come down to our own footage. Jake Knapp, being the main filmer/editor and, thus, holder of thy sacred footy, would be ceaselessly harassed to share anything and everything that was newly filmed amongst our group of friends. He would share his harvest by sending us little videos, usually consisting of nothing but raw footy, and that would tide us over for the next few days or so. I also love that they are mostly footage from one day of skating. A lot of these tricks ended up in Sorry We're Open but the vast majority remains primarily unseen.
I recently rediscovered a large quantity of these little videos on my computer and decided they should be shared with others who may enjoy them. I decided to post one or two up every weekend starting today. Be warned, they mostly date back to 2005, when the world was a much different place. Love them, hate them, the choice is yours. I hope you enjoy.

look what i found!

8/13/10-8/15/10: Plundering Villagers (Funday 7)

So we took a way overdue camping trip to Oregon this past weekend. The crew included Zeb Bruser, Luke Elliot, Eric Logan, Jake Knapp, Josh Peterson, Cody Sewell, Andy Snyder, Dave Waite, and myself Matt Nielsen. We ended up staying right next to Windell's, allowing us to skate the holy grounds as much as we could. Two days of skating there was not even close to enough. I didn't take as many pictures or videos as I would've liked, as I was so engulfed in skating myself, but here's what was captured:

The above video takes care of most of the pictures, but here are the highlights of the trip.

We all met up at Eric's house to pack up, go over the game plan, get hyped, etc.

The three whips (left to right: Cody's, Jake's and Andy's)

Our first stop was the Kelso park, which was super fun, as you can probably tell from the picture below. Such smooth, fast tranny and fun weird things to be discovered. Apparently some locals of Oregon refer to it as "janky." That's the difference between Oregon and Washington I guess...

Next, we hit up Battleground. It was ridiculously hot and very hard to stay skating for more than ten minutes at a time. Nonetheless, everyone ripped the place apart, including Eric seen below front rocking a beast.

Finally we met up with Dave's friend Tim, who used to work at Windell's and was the guy who made all of this possible (much thanks to him). He led us to this sick camping spot in the middle of the woods. We set up tents, got some food going, and settled down for the night. By settling down, I mean we began a multiple hour long drinking, yelling, singing, music playing, yelling, laughing, eating, yelling session which took us well into the night. Good good times.

We awoke early, ate, and headed out to Windell's.

Hard to tell, but this was Windell's. That thing they're sitting on isn't even part of the park, and there was stuff like this everywhere you looked. In fact, the park took up maybe one sixth of the property. There was also and indoor park, crazy front area with ramps going through trees and the like, a bmx course, even a fucking mega ramp. This place had it all, and it was all amazingly well constructed and ridiculously fun. I wish I took more pictures and stuff, but I couldn't help satisfying my own skateboard urges.

I don't need to tell you what was done here.

Moments before Eric tried to pull the canoe onto shore with Josh still in it...

...dumping him in the water.

Some of us went back to Windell's again later that night to try and get some more skating in. It got dark pretty quickly, but there was one ramp that was still lit up. Zeb took the opportunity to do this gnarly tail drop. What you might not be able to tell from this picture is that the transition is about four feet away from the edge of the roof. Obviously, it wasn't a problem for Zeb.

This night was even crazier than the last. The smarter ones who tried to get some sleep found no such thing over the shouts and rampage spewed by the remaining troopers. Sorry...

Alas, it was time to leave. We packed up and headed out to this secluded swimming hole Tim told us about to get nice and refreshed for the trip back.

This place had a fun little cliff to jump off of, which we took full advantage of.

After swimming, we headed out to our last stop, the Hood River park, where much fun was had despite fatigue and heat. Again, Zeb killed it with a precise gap ollie into a skinny back. On the way there, we pulled over to take some majestic photos.

Eric, of course, threw rocks down the hill.

Brave Captain ponders the next excursion.

Overall, it was an awesome trip. We all skated way too much than our bodies would have liked us to, ate good food, drank good drinks (besides the mandatory PBR), laughed, argued, yelled, sang, hardly slept, and just enjoyed each other's company. Thank you fellow villagers!

everyone's in oregon.

:(

an update

Sadly, no real Funday came to fruition this weekend, but that didn't keep Dave from getting his slice of the Funday pie



While Dave was crushing the curbs of Kent, Zebbediah Bruiser and I set aside time to figure out how to put classy images like this on skateboards. Soon that meeting dissolved into us going to Foss where we met up with one Cody Sewell, Matt Goreman, and eventually, one Dave Waite himself.

Meanwhile back in Seattle, Matt Neilsen kept himself busy by destroying his foot/ankle in a much cooler way than skateboarding, a wizard's duel!

I can only speculate how those villagers not aforementioned decided to spend their day. I imagine Jake spent the day growing out his beard in the presence of Yukari, Josh managed to squeeze in some skating between his innumerable daddy duties, Luke got off work at 2pm, forever fucking up his day, Reilly skated a place where a lot of people knew who he was, Wes lived the life he lives, behind a shroud of secrecy and mystery, and Andy took post modern abstract photos of his 3 square meals of the day.

After a hearty miniramp session with all those villagers and balsamic associates who could attend, Dave headed home, probably to lay pipe in his new abode. Matt Goreman, Cody Sewell, our good friend and Cody's significant other Jacqueline and myself met back at Cody's place where to Jacqueline's ever growing disgust, we pigged out on beers galore, and bbq potato chips that tasted alarmingly like they were actually barbecued as we wound down the night watching the Future War episode of Mystery Science Theater 3,000 on Netflix.

And dear reader, at last... the world was quiet.

-e

7/17/10 (Funday 6)

Funday in Tacoma with Zeb Bruser, Jake Knapp, Eric Logan, Josh Peterson, Dave Waite, Wes Ellis, Luke Elliott, Reilly Schlitt, Weston Horner, and myself, Matt Nielsen. Started out at Foss, as is required upon arriving in Tacoma, then moved on to some street.

Got kicked out of the first spot by this guy:

We stopped skating but he demanded we leave the premises, even though we were doing nothing more than this:

Eventually we were able to skate some random fun spots.

Jake brought his filmer shoe.

Throwing rocks into pipes is guaranteed entertainment.

Tossing the old pigskin with your opposite hand is also guaranteed entertainment.

Trying to make a pole jam... not so much.

Dave and the beloved wallride.

Jake fell filming.

Luke switch crooking a mammoth of a flat bar.

Someone focused their board, which somehow spurred multiple other focusings in a matter of seconds.

Not even trucks were spared.

Afterwards we all headed to Eric's for a bbq enriched with beer, brats, and storytelling.

Zeb ran the grill and did a damn fine job.

Another wonderful day with friends.