How bad do you want to be in this picture right now? This pool has been lauded as the “pool of the millennium” by Wes Lundry. Such high praise is enough to make me want to book a trip to Arizona and beg for an invite to skate this thing. This really sick photo of Phil Jackson doing a backside smith over the deathbox will just have to do, I suppose. • photo by Jersey Drew
If you’re in the New York area at the end of September, check out some new art from Jason Oliva, the driving force behind thehouseofsteam.com. (THOS) is a virtual scrap book chronicling the history of New Jersey skateboarding. At the site you’ll find photos, videos and stories from sessions at Tom Groholski’s ramp, the 78 ditch and, of course, the infamous barn ramp among others. Names like Jim Murphy, Steve Herring, Tom Groholski, Mike Vallely and Chris Pastras are on constant rotation as are the stories and memories of growing up and skateboarding in the great Garden State. Be sure to check out the site and Jason’s show.- Derek Rinaldi
Here’s a couple great photos of two of our good buddies getting gnarly at FDR.
Photos by Zoli
Brad Hoffman with a RAD frontside floater at magic hour in the square bowl.
Crispy looks like he’s pointing his finger as if to say “you don’t like this? Well then you hit the feckin road.”
Chris Picco frontside grinding with authority.
Josh Kiiffner just sent over some photos he took on Saturday.
Everything about this shot is awesome… Scott’s shades, his general steez, the broken finger pointing….the little girl in the background.
Scott Kmiec frontside tailslide over the gap
Kurty Krooks
James Pitons
Backside smith grind and kickflip back lipslide
The McCreesh kickoff fundraiser skate jam was a success, with lots of kids in attendance, and over $1,000 raised for the skatepark. Jesse Clayton and crew worked hard on building some temporary ramps for the local kids to skate until the new park is built. We skated with everyone on Saturday to help break those ramps in properly.
Special thanks to Jesse Clayton, Norso, Treece, McRad, Scott Kmiec (the man behind the whole project), all of the sponsors, including Steve Rodriguez and Tombo at 5boro, and Zoli!
Here are some pics, all shot by Zoli except for the bottom two raffle shots, which I took with my phone.
The double-ramp-to-hockey-wall setup was quite the favorite amongst everyone, including myself.
Frontside ollie courtesy of yours truly.
Scott Kmiec
Broken-fingered frontside wayfarer
Madonna
Jesse Clayton 5-0 fakie
And, Kerry McCullough hits one going the other way
Nick Orso in mid backside ollie with wings fully spread. Must be the shirt. If this were Steve Miller, it would’ve been a perfect opportunity to quote that song by another famous Steve Miller.
Scott Kmiec cut through a bunch of tricks on this setup with his eazy breezy style.
Lipslide
James & Kurt probably didn’t need the ramp to hit this bar. It looked too easy for them. Still sick.
General Guidotti has busted his radio’s antenna and cannot broadcast transmissions. So I have been ordered to do so. The orders, as explained to me, are as follows. You are all to assemble at the McCreesh Playground this Saturday, August 14th, for the kickoff fundraiser and block party. All proceeds and donations will go towards building a FREE public skatepark at said playground. Damn good cause, worthy of a few battle scars. See you in the trenches!!! – Derek Rinaldi
I didn’t even realize it until after I made the last post that we are now 50 posts old. As a celebration, I’ve decided that I will finally get around to categorizing all of the posts so far, and continue to do so going forward. Even better than that, I’ve also invited my good friend Anthony to join in posting on the site from time to time under his own category. Here is his first post in the “Tone Zone.” Enjoy. – Patrick
Anthony-
Pat asked me if I wanted to write the caption for this week’s installment of the Totally blog/news reel/web musings, and I jumped at the opportunity… especially considering the fact that this week’s installment features everyone’s favorite dude, “Philthy” Phil Jackson, and my good buddy, Scott Kmiec. The photos that make up this installment were taken at FDR; a spot infamous for both gnarly concrete waves, and an ever-changing cast of local rippers and spun out lurkers. I’ve been spending a lot of time down there lately almost exclusively skating the recently refurbished steel vert ramp. I’m always harassing both Phil and Scott to pad up and skate it with me, but they usually just call me a kook and decline. Occasionally, either one will take a padless run or two, but that’s it. Both of them call me a pussy for barely ever skating the ‘crete anymore. I guess they’re probably right. I’m way too much of a pussy these days to deal with the rough surface, fucked transitions, broken glass and rocks, knife-wielding Kenzo meth freaks on bikes, and random 40+ dudes talking weird conspiracy theory bullshit. But Phil and Scott charge it in spite of all its inherent adversity, and keep surprising me with rad shots like these. I guess kids don’t give a shit about vert photos anyway. (And pads just look so tsoooo uncool, tisk!)
Scott “Carmichael” Kmiec pushes a frontside smith grind in the deep end of the peanut bowl.
Photo by Bryan Karl Lathrop
Philthy performs a lien to tail over a recently improved hip.
James was ripping all day, consistently hitting all of his tricks and doing it in heat wave temperatures. Not to mention, broken board in pre-qualifiers, cracked deck in the qualifiers, and skated the cracked deck in the final jam to take 3rd place. It was sick.
And after all that shredding and sweating, this is what you get from Zumiez for third place honors-