Joel, the man, the myth, the website.

Everybody's favorite local fashion mogul Joel Martin has his portfolio online now. Go to this place to check out some his masterpieces. And on a sad note, Joel will be leaving us in a few days. Booooo.

On the mark.

The Billy Marks shoe is now here. If you are looking for a solid, light, comfortable, soft, fancy, pretty shoe....this is the one for you. It has the feel of a simple flat soled shoe for maximum board feel, yet the air bag cushions your heel for all you jumping and sproinging delights. Come and try it on....your feet will love you. No more heel bruises.

Mongoloid Malahat Masacre 2006.

The "Malahat Masacre" road trip was a success. Fun was had by all...except for dan. Despite breaking two boards doing kickflips down gaps, and having to skate Mats broken board for a photo...it was a success. Russ got some beautiful photos, Jay did the splits, Mat had his first green tea frappachino with blackberry drizzle, and we got a 2 hour scenic drive of the Malahat highway. Here's the two photos we got away with. A caught kickflip over a decievingly nice ghetto gap (don't be fooled, it's not that pretty in person)..and an artsy nose manual on a Chemainus manual pad. (done with mats broken board)

Es game of skate. (not to be confused with Pat's game of skate.)

Think you're good? Remember all the times you asked us to put you on the team. Remember all the times you said your friend so and so should be sponsored too?? Huh? Well here's you chance to prove to us your skills. The Es game of skate is taking place in Vancouver this Saturday. Try your luck, test your skills, meet some cool new skaters, win some prizes, attain the glory you oh so strive for. I've got the registration forms at the shop if you want to make it to the mainland.

Three cheers.

Yes that's right people. Mr. Jordan Pletz placed amongst the top 15 in the DC Regional finals!! He placed 13th to be precise. He didn't make the cut for the nationals, but 13th is pretty freakin' amazing. Congrats from your DNA and Concyse brothers. More highlights from the regional finals include Brian Douma placing 15th, and Vahid Mathszyk placing 22nd!!!! Way to go boys. Go to DC Nationals to view final results.

Funday with funsticks.

Tomorrow: Russ, Myself, and Mat are taking a little roadtrip. Mission: we are going on a photo hunt. So stay tuned, and be prepared for the wrath of Russ' photographic ingenuity.

Bank of doom. Pictito 4 munday.

The bank of doom. Don't know where it is? It's a secret. It's not really skateable anyway. You have to run up hill (see pic on left), and ollie like a hip. And if the lumpy transition doesn't throw you off, the 2 inch drop and the weeds at the bottom will take you out. And if that doesn't stop you, the glass and the garbage bins you have to weave around on the outrun will destroy you. This is all unless you are me, Jay, then you do it five times in a row so that Rigo can take a photo. I think this is the only copy in existence, he burned the rest.

Shoes, and more shoes.

It's that time of year already people. Fall shipments have already begun to arrive. I know summer isn't even half over yet, but shipments come a little earlier than the actual seasons. That means you get to put your grubby little fingers on our nice product earlier!!! Yippee!! Some amazing new styles of Lakai footwear have arrived this week. Two new colours of the MJ 3, the LTD. Guy Mariano, and some Kingston 2's are here!!!!! Yesiree, the kingston's are one of the best skate shoes ever made. Don't believe me? John will kill you then. He joined a gang.

Daily pictito. 4 tursdeh.

Blood diamonds Douma comin' your way with a backside smith grind. Little bit of style there. Put some effort into it Brian.

Courtney action.

Here's the deal. Contests aren't suppose to be serious. They are a chance to support your local skate scene, have fun, and meet new skaters. Nobody is there to judge you....well...except the judges. This contest/fun day is especially down for the cause. It's to honour a fallen skateboarder. So car pool your way up to Courtney, hitch hike, take the bus with me. Let's show support for a fellow skateboarder, and his family.

Barnum's circus.

I bring to you my pic of the day. Also known to the general public as Wednesday. Here's Rigo frontside wall slashing. This picture doesn't do the gnarlness factor justice. For those who have skated the Courtney park, you know that to hit this wallride is next to impossible. You have to haul ass from the other side of the park, and if one of the overly steep "barnum banks" doesn't launch you into orbit, then a kid on a mountain bike will. So dig it.
[o]me.

Style tips courtesy of Vahid.

Bringing you the fine style of Vahid today. Can he make that front feeble grind look any easier?? You would never know that was the first one he's done down a rail. Yeah, this kid has the talent.

Jay to tha Z.

There's a really old ( four years ago!!!!) Vic West video montage of your trully...me...Jay Z..on the confusion website. So go to www.confusionmedia.com to check it out....i'm warning you...it's pretty sloppy..so don't make fun of me. Jerks.

Brian "blood diamonds" Douma.

Brian Douma steppin' it up with a backside overcrook grind....crazy kids. Right after landing this one he decided to try a one footed overcrook, and somehow did a kickflip backside noseblunt slide but didn't stick the landing...what? Come on brian, put some effort into it.

Doron who? what?

Mr. Doron Inglis is my photo of the day. I pulled this out of my photo vault, and decided to treat you all today. Doron has one of the biggest ollie's I have ever seen. So here you go. Enjoy this fine Sunday sun, go skate.

The German.

Remember Felix the German? He's coming to visit us again on July 19th!! You think there's some funny street names in Nanaimo? Well look at Felix's...he actually lives on Hofacker st. Felix is a Hofacker...I knew it. Damn ho's.

Cheese and crackers.

Almost Skateboards presents a video project by Chris Haslam and Daewon Song. "Cheese and Crackers" hits the shop early next week. If you haven't veiwed the trailer for it, go to here. It is nothing like you've ever seen before. Mini ramp skating taken to another level!! The trailer for this video made me want to go and skate more than most videos that have come out in the last year. But don't worry my street techin' rail jumpers...there are plenty of non-mini ramp sections in this video. Plenty of friends footage, and a part from Almost's newest AM Lewis Marnell....this guy deserves a place amongst the elite Almost team. So come down and reserve your copy of Crackers and Cheese....cause they are going quick.

Turning old spots into new ones.

Myself and Russ took a three hour walk around downtown last night, and happened to shoot a photo along the way. Only 1 out of 3 of Russ' flashes was working, but we made due. The photo is of a kickflip over a not so conventional hip. It was hard to skate, and a flash in the eyes never makes it any easier. [o]russ.

Industry is booming.

Brandan doing a backside smith grind. Highway industrial setting. Rigo G photo. Nice photo Rigo G. Nice trick Brandan.

Russ is neat.

Russ has a cool interview up on www.whipup.net ...check it out, or chickens will lay eggs in your stomach.

DC nationals confusion.

..there has been some changes for the DC regional finals in Vancouver on July 22nd. It is no longer at RDS skatepark, it is now at the Tsawassen park. Go to dcnationals.com for info and directions. Also I think there is some confusion as to who actually qualified. Since there were so many ties due to the weak judging guidelines, some people got bumped out of the top five. They can only have five people coming to Tsawassen. Call Price (spelling?) at Alternative Groove to clarify if you are not sure. The top five who qualified are posted on the dcnationals.com website. So make sure you figure out this mess, so that you don't show up at Tsawassen thinking you made it in.

Knee'd anything?

It's been one year since my beautiful knee incident. Let's have a moment of silence. Jay's redemption tour 2006...coming to a town near you. Soon.

Sunday slow day.

Slow day around the shop today. No news to report...except that Soros has a day off of work, and he is skating all day. So I dug a photo out of the vault for your viewing pleasure. It's from our winter sessions. Mr. Ben Degros doing a stylish switch kickflip. Photo by me, Jay. Flashes courtesy of Russ.

Overlooked.

Skateboarding is in a weird place right now. Skaters would rather dish out $150 buck for a pair of Nike "skate" shoes, than buy a functional kick ass shoe. Es footwear, and Sole Technologies ( es, etnies, emerica ) have been on the forefront of skate shoe technology for a long time now, and their shoes sometimes get overlooked. The PJ Ladd Es shoe is one of those shoes....well, it's getting overlooked in Nanaimo anyway. Maybe it doesn't match your triple XL tee's....who knows. It's an amazing shoe. Low profile, simple, yet solid. Very solid. No break in time necessary here kids. So next time someone comes in and complains that their feet hurt, and they can't do 3 flips anymore...I'm going to take off your basketball shoes and sole slap you in the face. Dunked. We're skateboarders...why not wear skateboarding shoes?

Style for myles.

This is my photo of the day. For those of you who check our site everyday, pretend you're in my photo of the day club, it'll be fun. This is a photo of new kid Jason, doing a stylish ollie. He joins us from the land of oil rigs, and pocketless wrangler jeans. The city that tries to pretend it's not a giant farm...Calgary. Jason has style way, way, way beyond his years. Style usually is the hardest part of skating to perfect, and this kid has it figured out. Take a lesson from Jason...it's all about the style.

Russ' imaginary friends.

If anybody is in Vancouver on Monday July 10th, go check out Russ' art show. It's at the NLA headquarters (our es, emerica, etnies, kr3w reps). It will be on display for 2 months...but go and schmooze with the big boys on Monday. Support your local artists, especially Russ Morland. He rules. Email Russ for details and directions.

Lakai royalty.

One of the nicest Lakai shoes I've ever seen is arriving tomorrow, Thursday July 6. It's the Telford "royal family". It's the most beautiful thing I've ever rested my feet in. It's like foot heaven. With the blueprint skateboards logo mixed into the shoe...it makes this shoe a must have for the shoe collector of rare shoes. They are not going to last very long...so pick yours up soon.

Why god? Why?

...why does Winnepeg have to be so far away? Why? Road trip anyone??

ATTENTION EVERYBODY!!!!

It's been brought to my attention that some of you are still using "internet explorer"....holy crap, get out of the cave people. It's 2006. Viewing this blog site with explorer will change the layout completely. If you are using explorer you probably find that the team profile links, and product links are at the very bottom. It's not suppose to look like that!!! So get "mozilla firefox", or safari...or whatever is the new fandangle browser...and view our new site the way it's suppose to be!!!!

Happy day that is Monday. Go skate.

Nothing new to post this holiday Monday. So I dug up a year old pic of myself. Kickflip over pallet. Water depot bump thingy. Rigo G photo. He takes nice photos.

Jay's pic of the day. Installment 5.

Avoiding the rain in Port Alberni. Soros doing a 360 kickflip. Daves truck making a rare appearance.

Remember that guy?

Believe it. A photo of the elusive Dan Kelly. Photo by Keighley. Nosegrind on a cool Victoria spot. Let's have a moment of silence for Dan Kelly....and remember him for the nice, really good skateboarder he was......oh what?...shit....this just in....Dan Kelly IS alive and doing well apparantly. My sources say he still owns a skateboard, and sometimes watches skateboarding dvd's. Let's rejoice.