Justin Fabus from Brampton is welcomed to San Diego’s Vagrant Skates.. check his youtube welcome out.. also featured on lowcard etc. Pretty sweet Justin!

Every month we get dozens of sponsor me videos in the mail, email, and through facebook. Over the past 6 months, we’ve heard about Trevon Casselmanfrom Cobourg, and he’s now put his best stuff together for you to peep. It’s a no brainer to put a kid like this on the West 49 Flow Team, and he should inspire you to get a hot promo together if you’re thinking of joining our family.  His homey Ricky Gouin came along last Go Skate Day and has been a  good dude to add to the mix, contests and what not. That whole Peterborough store has the goods with long timer Coy Calver and new jack James Willis rounding it out.

If you think you’ve got a good enough promo to send in, let’s see it. Hit us on our facebook page

Our friends at SBC have just published a full feature Web Article on this trip so head there to check it out at  SBCSkateboard.com!

Enjoy the Montage, and check out a few behind the scenes snaps and stories  from our journey that we found in our iPhoto.

Fresh off the plane we showed up to meet the Element team at the Coquitlam West 49 where Appleyard was stoking kids by the hundreds with a simple signature or two.

Lookie who it is in the background, almighty Hashbrown! He’s shut down many spots out there apparently, makes it tough to get work done when he’s run up in every area of BC! Yeah Mike.. nice to finally meet you in MTL.

Every day is a new 24, and Tom’s not sure where to skate, let alone where to live. I think he’s got the Van City bug, so Calgary love him while he’s there!

Tom has this trick too well, but was one try away from a long roll away, so we used the clip anyway when security was on his back and he still rolled a bit, earned it though.

Perhaps our most productive day was championed by Shawn Beaupre from Langley. He is killing it at the tech game and brought us by the still waters in White Rock to get some sun and a steezy clip or two.

Bummer of the day comes about when we show up at the Brittania beach ramp site and theres nothing to be found but seizure notices and trespass warnings. Why can’t we live in a world without that word “liability” that haters like to hide behind. That’s the number one excuse for losers to rain on a perfect skate parade.

Squamish is that town in between Whistler and Van, and totally worth checking out because new spots are there weekly!

You also can’t go to Vancouver and not peep the grime on Hastings. That OWL drugs store is too ironic on the corner.

Perhaps one of the oldest bowls (snakeruns) in the area, Seylynn is still too fun to skate. Looks like the Sector 9 crew has been there before us shredding on tour.

No kidding its a tight fit with 7 in a van with photo gear, luggage, boards and everything else. AC blasting is key to keep the fumes from taking over.

Every city visit has it’s surprises. Alex Kotanko didn’t even know how buck he could get. Look for his acid drop in print soon!

We really saved the best til last and headed to Tofino to shoot some surf action with our homey Billabong Pro, Sepp Bruhwiler from Westside Surf. With an evening to just unwind and sort through some photos, SBC Photographer Jay Delaney makes sure theres no salsa left in the bowl for the rest of us. The more you live this life, you get hungrier for more photos and food apparently! LOL

Sepp’s been working hard at getting this shop running at full capacity and by the looks of it, he’s fully booked for lessons. Best teacher out there i’m sure, he got Keegan on some in no time. Tofino is actually like a Canadian Hawaii, it’d been a while and it was a real seller for surf culture in Canada. Sort of like a 70’s version of what Whistler must have been like before it blew right up.

Who says you can’t surf in Canada? Damn these waves get big out here Sepp was saying, 25 footers? That’s insane.

When it’s all said and done, theres one more early start to tackle, but it’s worth turning the key on the Grand Caravan when the views actually take your yawns away real quick.  Thanks for having us BC!

CHECK OUT SBC’S SITE FOR THE WEB ARTICLE ON THIS TRIP!

We started out with a Ford Flex. Rad ride actually fit all our stuff, and had satellite radio. Essential.

The Edmonton crew was amazing. New recruit Taren Kootenhayoo is a free spirit, who just relies on skateboarding to escape, like we all do. It’s a sight to see how tight this crew is, like an actual family. Seated at the Strat 10 we have from L to R: John Masuda, RJ Park, Alliesha, Manager Mike, Taren and Zach. Missing from this mix is Mac Bauer and Ty Peterson who you’ll be seeing later in this post, and the near future.

Taking a break after RJ landed his trick, they love the camera.

Did I mention we skated so many parks that I lost touch with where we were at? In Edmonton, it was so hot that I forgot to shoot a pano of the New Line, Callingwood Park. It’s so sick actually. There’s a heap of footage from there though so look for a park montage to drop asap. Peep some of these other parks out here, they tell a story of the past 15 years. My favorite was and is Canmore, because it’s just the most intriguing sight to behold surrounded by beauty.

Red Deer.

Calgary, Millennium.

Edmonton, Kaskitayo.

Canmore. Period.

Zach from Edmonton lays down a bs 180 for my point and shoot.

Ty makes friends everywhere he goes, don't under estimate him!

Tom Mok finds this flat bar to be the perfect smith pop out height.

Calgary is just a short three hour drive away, and I say short, because this distance isn’t considered much an issue to keep these 2 crews from skating together. Matt told me of the many times he’d day trip it up north to Edmonton to get some skating in, and I compare that to Toronto where many skaters don’t leave their own block to find new spots. This helped alleviate any newer introductions between the 2 crews and we all were focused on getting a trick from everybody. In this photo below, we finally got a chance to drive up to the three block in downtown Edmonton where Alliesha had her mind set to kickflip it. I poached an angle of one attempt which was one of the many that were inches away from a clean roll away.

Alliesha Proctor, Kickflip

This summer has been really rainy, and it seems that most days on this trip were either threatened by rain, or straight up written off by it.  Edmonton’s spots were so far spread out that most of our time was spent sitting in the vehicle, talking about where to shoot, and who has what. Once we did get out and down to business it was often this guy pictured below who had shuffled the deck and had the cards play out in his favor. John “HJ” Masuda straight up merks spots that many don’t skate, or at least like he does.  Full pipes to gapping out to grind 2 foot long curbs, he found ways to get a photo or two.

HJ Takes a break

Gumball-Sized hail, no big.

Following a dehydrating day at the Edmonton Warped Tour, our West 49 flow team did skate super hard trying to put their heads together thinking of spots, and backup plans if all else failed. RJ Park stomped the “trick of his summer”, and was left wondering what else was left to do. Ty got what I hope turns out to be his recognize photo on a ten stair rail in Sherwood Park.  With the help of Mike and Josh at the West Ed store, we had the crew up and at it every morning, high on life and Rockstar energy drinks.  Those guys have so much passion for what we’re doing, and we felt we owed it to them to make the most of our time.

TM Pasi Posti, focused on getting it done.

After Edmonton’s time was up, we made our way down to Calgary to meet up with these guys. From L to R: TM Matt Allen, Tom Mok, Hernan Flores, Kurt Ropchan and Connor Rempal.  All of these guys are fully dedicated to skateboarding, and had this super spotlist printed up to make sure we weren’t left twiddling our thumbs. Tom’s ankle was on the mend, and Kurt’s was just good enough to walk, so that left us with 2 guys to be mindful of when suggesting spots and tricks. Kurt actually left to Peru for a travel-cation and the rest of us, plus Ty got down to business, shooting with Geoff Clifford from SBC.

At the first spot we all hit in Edmonton there was this rainbow wall which sort of became an occurring theme of discussion.

Daily spot check and footage recap, who's got what so far?

Without giving away GPS Co-ordinates, we let you know where we went.

The best start to a productive filming mission is a spot list. Matt and his crew pulled together a spreadsheet of spots that we hit really hard during our stay in Calgary. Many spots were un-seshable because of cars blocking, or  in one case, where we pulled up to a cemented barrier that looked like it had been attacked by a jack hammer. Regardless, we put the vehicle in drive, checked weather network app on the iPhone and GPS’d our way to the next spot.  Connor joined us on the one day, and banged out a sequence on this ledge, proving to himself that patience pays off.

Connor Rempal, Warms up with this front lip.

To close off this blog posting, let’s enjoy the view on the road as we head a short 75 km’s out of Calgary into the mountains in Canmore. The foothills turn into this high alpine spectacle in just minutes as you cruise the limit at 110.  Vans/Consilidated AM Drew Merriman convinced us that it was the right time to get up there. He got a sick photo with Clifford to add to the trip, and our park montage got that much deeper.

Matt adds to his odometer for the cause. Next stop Canmore.

Double Rainbows! What does it all mean?

With all the effort that went into our time spent in Alberta we left exhausted yet satisfied knowing that we’ve done our best. It’s one more step closer to us all achieving our dreams and starting out on some new ones.  An upcoming teaser will shed more light on our experience as a team, and hopefully stoke you to skate! Look for Montage 2 which will feature the best from this trip, set to release in Mid September.

My technology stockpile that comes with me everywhere I go. This is one heavy carry-on. Minus the camera dolly and tripod of course. Whatever happened to the days when a filmer just wrapped up a hi-8 in a tee shirt and stuffed it in between some cold ones in a backpack.

Coming from Ontario, it’s been a nice change showing up here in Alberta where the heat is actually bearable, and that makes everything enjoyable. We will be spending the next 3 days up here on the usual program of hitting spot after spot with our flow team. With Vans being one of our sponsors for this project, they also had us roll with them at the Vans Warped Tour here in Edmonton.

Pano of the scene at Northland's Grounds. Gretzky would be proud.

Amazing day at the mini ramp, watching the dudes slay the aluminum transition. By the time the ramp jam started, it turned out to be a big snake fest, where if you weren’t a snaker, you didn’t get a drop of action.   It was tight seeing dudes that didn’t snake, get a chance to skate, made for a nice break in the action.

Patient and obviously well practiced on his home ramp, DVS team rider Devin Morrison shows us how it's done.

It took the boys a bit to get used to the aluminum, even though the ramp is the same every year. It’s was really just a fun day hanging out like a cat watching ping pong.  Bobby, Stefan, Mike and the rest of the Vans crew were the best hosts, and repped hard!  Get some vans on your feet for Back to School, I am.

Ty Peterson had a little cheering section too.

L-R: Matt Allen, Hernan Flores, Ty Peterson, Connor Rempal. Post jam groupie pic.

Hernan takes a minute to pose with some fans, they couldn't get enough of his tan.

After the Warped experience left us wanting some more skating, we headed to a few street spots en route to the Callingwood plaza. It is actually one of the finest new line parks i’ve ever seen. Just took a few hours shooting on the hip alone. Look for more from here in the Alberta parktage. Should be amazing.

John "HJ" Masuda, blasts a front heel at sunset.

Ex-Pat Ontario local Justin Barnes shows us how to flex an elbow.

Let me close off this posting by hyping up Jamie Tancowny .  It’s dudes like this that just light me up for Canadian skating. Local talent that’s been raised up by local skateshops and crews that are dedicated to skating. I remember Jamie skating when he was just coming out and doing small things, and now he’s at the top in my books, but down as a clown to just take a minute to pose out on Whyte ave.  If you felt his Zero part you’ll most certainly be counting down the minutes for Stay Gold to drop.  Support your skaters! That’s exactly what we’re trying to do here.

]]> http://www.49days.ca/on-the-road-again-chilling-in-edmonton/feed/ 0 http://www.49days.ca/first-t-all-day/ http://www.49days.ca/first-t-all-day/#comments Wed, 21 Jul 2010 05:07:15 +0000 49 Days http://www.49days.ca/?p=748 Rolling into a skatepark with Kirk is like going to the batting cage with Willy Mays. He knows exactly what he’s capable of, and then some. The morning of go skate day he set up a new redstar and looked out the window telling me “I’m feelin good today, I really wanna kill it”. That’s the spirit homey! Look at what 60 shutter actuations absorbed in a matter of minutes in a packed house.

Kirk Harriott, Switch Front Tail, Sequence: Curtis Rothney

Kirk Harriott, Switch 270 Front Board, Sequence: Curtis Rothney

Kirk Harriott, BS Tail, Sequence: Curtis Rothney

Kirk Harriott, Krooks, Sequence: Curtis Rothney

Kirk Harriott, BS Lip, Sequence: Curtis Rothney

On the road again.

As expected the scenario has had us on the move since the landing gear smoked on the Saint John landing strip.  Hooking up with the SJ crew is always a moment, and nothing ever changes out here but the weather.  First thing Saturday we met up at the skatepark and headed to Halifax only to pull off the highway to discover we’re smack dab in the middle of Moncton.   Some street skating went down at the theatre banks, and the re-done park which is fun. Copped some more clips for a park montage we’re working on. Should be fun.

Matt Lane, used to be am for Seek when they were around, him and J.B.

So the photo below describes the crew to Halifax. Back benching it was Terrill “Sandsdoval” Sands, Matt “Hazen” McFarlane, Colby “Pronger” Hansen, Kirk Harriott (no nickname yet) and I, just guzzling to Hali, Hali.  Good mix. It worked out well on a space level to pick up shutter-grom Curtis Rothney in Dartmouth before shredding back to SJ.

Rather starbucks, but at least its caffffee.

Crossing the border to Nova Scotia, and a helmet law.

It can’t all be skateboarding can it. We had to take in some monster truck action at the scotia speedway. Too good seeing the trucks freestyling, breathing in the tire fires and getting amused by all the mullets. So good. Terrill says thumbs up.

Thumbs up

Airtime! Too bad the gravedigger had a bent axle.