Thrasher Magazine

Vans threw a big contest last weekend with a bunch of skaters you don’t usually associate with the words “organized competition.” Tyler Bledsoe, Breana Geering, Taylor Kirby, Austyn Gillette, Simon Bannerot, Mason Silva and hella more throw down the gauntlet for some fun in the OC sun.

In the van with Matt B. No better place to be

Hey, I know that guy!

Scooping up Dressen and Frank at the hotel

A flood of familiar faces

Ah, the official bev of summer

Warning: Dylan Christopher’s mustache may be closer than it appears

Arrived at Vans HQ

Lil’ vert ses going off on Grosso’s Swingset

Hey!

Peter, already slammed

Fun on the deck. Not shown: Pedro’s first-run frontside invert

Back on the streets, comparing knee-caps. We’ll get there, Tyson

Never one for understatement. This was Geoff’s big night!

Nothing feeds a photographer’s ego like their photos printed gigantic

Oh yeah!

They had a slideshow with Geoff and I before the main attraction – the new Take It Back video starring Geoff, Pedro Barros and Ronnie Sandoval, created by Ryan Lovell. This is me looking at the empty stage

Slideshow practice

Back on the concourse, ephemera for days

Keep moving, nothing to see here …

The fine art of eating photography!

I was actually warned not to do this in my photojournalism classes

Taking a selfie of your ice-cream though? That’s always fun

You could get a custom-screened Freedome Rowley board if you wanted to brave the line

‘He did that in the Eras? Oh no …’

Ceddy taking some technical arm tape to a double slider dinner

Oh, hey Beatrice

Up there! I knew I had friends!

Thrasher’s finest – Bublitz, Rye and BoDefSon

Always time for the fans, SVD

Filling up

And now, show time!

Baby, you look great today

Intro by Tony Alva. Not exactly a lightweight

My slideshow with Geoff went well, if a little long. But let’s skip ahead here to the main attraction – dun, dun, duhhhh!

The stars of this thing!

Everyone got a chance to speak. Eloquent bunch, these guys

The crowd went ape shit! Coming to the Thrasher site August 12th. I just know you’re gonna like it

Congrats, boys! When do we start on the next one?

Legends, reeling from the stoke

Quasi bros, out West

Rocket from the Crypt played but I needed to get back to the hotel and start applying sunscreen for the weekend’s Showdown contest. Thanks for reminding me, y’all

Up with the early-morning haze of HB

A lone surfer emerges from the frothy depths

Oh, hey Bobby

Another boardsman comes a charging

What, you thought the 1-8 don’t surf? Think again!

First one here …

Frank skulks the course. Teams were invited to create their own obstacles like in the old Downtown Showdown days, though this one was a bit looser. This red thing was the Baker obstacle

A volcano for the high-flying Quasi squad …

Girl got a Euro gap and embuttenent

And finally, Toy Machine had a sort-of recreation of the famous HB Skatepark rail. A fun, fast course all the way around

A little media training for Justin Henry

Reporting live!

Matt B, another sunscreen reminder. It wouldn’t stay cloudy for long

The Cheez-Its have more fiber. And, well, the cheez

‘Uhm, am I good?’

Mid-morning from the stands



This is how close we were to the water. This was part of a surf contest, after all

‘When’s it gonna start, anyway?’

Seemed like a good time to check out the rest of the US Open of Surf action

Like a whole village of stoke-related commerce and engagement opportunities

Bring your mags, if you got ‘em

Lines for free stuff snaked around and around the zone. Not stingy with the promo, these Wafflers

Make a surfboard

Kanfoush made one of these

A child’s DJ training zone

Hard to get ‘em away from it, right?

Repped out and double bagged

Vert dogs Danielle and Duncan, holding court at the halfpipe (not shown)

Hosoi fans, everywhere ….

Kovacs brothers, fresh from the curl

The infamous HB Pier

Mount it, if you dare

The lone Boogier of the apocalypse

I can see why Ed likes it up here so much

Skate town

For all the grief I feel dealing with the sad cadre of photographers I have to battle at the rare contest I attend, it’s nothing compared to shooting surfing

Best bring the ’tude! There was hundreds of these guys

Looking back towards the park

What’s that smell?

The HB police are gnarly. Exhibit A: they have a fucking tank thing parked right on the sand. Guess you can’t be too cautious

Just follow any Ray Bones fan to get back to the park

Frank, always fashion forward

There’s always money in the banana stand

Made it

Sunscreen reminder, take three

The Acostas!

Ok, time to get to work

I mean, do I need that weird tape too?

Could definitely use that sunscreen … after J Lay, of course

75% of the Pabiches! Nice

Henry on dangle. You seen it here first

Blockheads, reunited

Huggin’, not thuggin’. Right, Ronnie?!

The fans started getting fired up

And then the next thing you know shit was going off!

Mason, up the bar

A very relaxed, fun vibe at this one

More skate camaraderie, less weird shit

The Quasi juker produced some of the more magical moments

Party wave!

Good ol’ cannonball

Heavy traffic

Yes!







Hard not to have a blast when it comes to Free Air™

The rainbow bar was a good time too. Berle, half-Cab 50

Dudes sliced over it like nothin’

I prefer Kooks Mostly

Stands filling up

CJ and Glick

Henry, tucked and ready

Yet the waves beckon ..

So anyway, I jammed two days into one run-on post here. There was a whole day of prelims and shit, but I don’t really think anyone looking at this would really care so it’s all smushed into one. That’s why you may see some people in different outfits from shot to shot. Loose ship, around here! Evan Smith, bone zone

No shirt, all action, all weekend long

Rye’s got a video today, too. Better have Griffin in there

The kicker was an extremely popular obstacle for the purists

And the fans alike

Big QP for scraping ‘em out, Berle style

So yeah, Tyler Bledsoe was there. Qualified first! When’s the last time you saw T-Bleds at a contest?

Riley, BS NBS

Back in the tent, couple of handsome strangers

Oh shit! Mumford and Hassan?!

Whose board is this?

DFL, always

Wilson and Rizzo, plotting runs

Henry don’t just talk about it …

Stellar!

Must get back to shade

Tension building

CJ on air

This park was made for him

Oop from Wes, SOTY 2014

Simon steps to the wave

Stalled out eggs. He went to fakie on ‘em too

Aborted hip plant! He was fine

Beanwater!

Thought Danny Brady wasn’t at the comp?

Figgy taking his Prince Park slashback to the high wall

David G, boned down

Evan was on one. 360 the jump

Stand by your man

Backside 180 nosegrind down the slope

Cover boy Myles Willard styled all over the course. Good to see him out there

Oh yeah, brought to you by Vans!

Ok so Kirby is incredible, but people might not know that. He’s pretty much the Ishod of the Shep Dawgs. He can do it all. (Foreshadowing!)

Axel’s no slouch either

The men and women skated together but had separate results. Fabiana rides walls

Diego Todd, taking it down

Man, it was getting hot

Jake Anderson can catch air! Didn’t know that. Lot’s of fun surprises with this line up

Brady pops in from a jaunty NBS

Chima made it! Varial heel

Ah-hah!

One of the many incredible tricks Tyler did over the hip into the slam wall. Backside flip

En fuego!

Nollie flip, super casual

Got everyone hyped

Out of focus, but you get the idea

Clive Dixon was going top rope all weekend. Powerful stuff

Then skateboarding’s Gallagher, Simon Woodstock, stormed the course

He’d done his prop-comedy routine earlier in practice but decided to go for an encore performance during other people’s runs. This is a board being thrown at him

Eventually the powers that be intervened

Back to biz, Mason on biggie

Cab-tastic!

Austyn Gillette at a contest?!

With style!

Kader made it

Stoked to see Beatrice out there

Taking slams with a smile on her face


Keep on pushin’, Bea

Spider meets Glick

It was this kind of contest


Again?

This was a Neil Blender tribute. Discuss among yourselves

‘Hey, go wax that thing …’

Elaborate pro reveal for Yüng CJ

Which I was wildly offsides for

You get the vibe though

These surprises are getting more and more complicated

Congrats, dude



What a time to be alive!

Fisheye-on-jump-ramp time

Shanahan!

This kid from Brazil is nuts

Heavy flow

The Euro-gap rail was a fave obstacle

Kicky back lip, Berle-wise

There was the little hip and the BIG hip gap. Jake backside flips the latter

Likewise, there was a bigger Euro option that Kirby explored

As did Mason. Wow!

Shari White rips! Circumventing the patriarchy via a frontside grind

And styling it off the end. Too smooth

Here’s Tyler over that hip with the backside nollie flip. I know!

J-Wray, last of the selfie-stick filmers

Ok, so this is wildly out of sequence, but there was an ‘Industry’ contest for dudes and gals in the biz. After J-Lay bowed out with an injury, all eyes were on Matt B!

Our guy Dylan flexing his Skate Camp years

Once Rye did the rainbow the pressure was palpable

Frank bashes walls, Brooklyn style!

Casing his next victim!

But mostly it was just a bunch of old guys out there florfing around. Not Vern, of course, but the rest of us

DLX TM Nate Alton smashes Smith!

Scotty on skid

And then Rye throws the damn curve off with a Cab over the thing!

And in the Shameless Self-Promotion department, this is me grinding over the rainbow after about 16 attempts. All the kids did it like it was a pump bump but I was seriously shitting bricks! Haven’t been that scared in awhile. I recommend it! Photo: Evan Smith

Three-minute heats almost killed Tin

Frank’s wicked tré was just out of reach

Eleven years sober, though, so yeah …

Then B took his rightful place in the top slot

A thousand smacks ain’t chump change!

Couldn’t have gone to a better guy

‘Hey. You get my rainbow grind? Sir? Sir?’

More surprises, birthday style

Here we go ..


HBD Hart man! I smell a tickle fight

‘Is it vegan? No? I thought not …’

Ready for the Olympics: Frank and Nora’s outfits

Meanwhile, Rowan may be down to entertain some drink endorsement offers ...

That’s more like it. My favorite Canadians

Creepin’ in the cuts, White Clam style!

Justin on double dad duty

Poignant tape

How do you put out mind-frying video parts on the frontside of 40?

You don’t wanna know

The Girl/ 1-8 connect

‘No, its not a monarch …’

The crew was hella cool, melting in the heat like the rest of us

Back on course, Breezy nails that half-flip on request

Hey, have you done something different with your hair?

Maybe that Spitfire shirt is new

Logos out, let’s do this!

Quick crowd check before the finals …

Yep

Hey y’all

Uh huh

Ready?

Good?

Ok then

Let’s do this

‘Is Raven out there???’

Final runs! Simon is bananas. This is an alley-oop fakie-to-front-truck 540 thing

Curren sailed in

Egg on bank! Roman was looking hard to beat although this is his first skate photo in the blog post

Nora in the finals?

Uh, yeahhh!

Peek-a-boo BSO from the Crank

Big booster

Don’t let his casual approach fool you, Kirby was out for blood. Shep blood!

Media personalities, everywhere!

Axel battered the ‘bow

While CJ sailed

And boned

Axel probably did 25 different tricks up this thing

Mason, hot Cab

This gap was bananas, as there was no rideaway

From the bank to the raised part. He poweslid into the box

Finally made this thing clean

And the Simon set down that egg to fakie. He can do it all

I had no idea who took it

Best trick on the Euro-gap. Austyn from the stands

Paul Hart, crooks up

Vincent!

Bumped into Rog at the bottom angle. Quick bracelet comparison

Ok, back to work!

Kicky back tail from David G

Paul, flipping deadly

Narrow escape

He’ll be fine

Good ol’ 270

The kid, heelflip front board shove it, among other monstrosities

Jordan Trahan brought marketing departments throughout the industry to their feet with this wallie pole jam!

Austyn skated ’til the bitter end. Wait. Is this the end?

Gotta be! Finalists called to the course

Look at this crew

Pretty rad

Nora earns one of the many ‘thanks for being you’ awards

A thousand bucks!

Kanfoush got one too. Damn straight

You can’t hug steel!

Our guys!

Myles got one, because he’s too damn smooth

You know Manch got an island. Insanely generous these Vans people

David won best trick, with Clive and Jordan snagging some cash too

Rock n roll

And Fabi won!

Equal prize money = equal stoke ‘em

Axel in third

And CJ snagging second

And then the big surprise …

Couldn’t have given it to a more ripping or broker dude

Yeah Kirby!

Overwhelmed

Oh y’all!

Ok, boys. Let’s get out of this sun

That tough Shep wall starts crumbling

Go ahead and cry if you need to

So stoked. Congrats, Kirb Dawg

I know who else was stoked

‘We can finally go home …’

Or stick around …

Goodbye Huntington Beach. Goodbye US Open of Surf. Goodbye third-degree sunburn. See you next year! Thanks for everything, friends