DJ’s been filming non-stop recently, with 4 clips filmed and released since the beginning of the year.
Starting off, we have “Lifecycle” – a Shanghai skateboarding video featuring a laundry list of homies.
(Vlad Derkach, Zhenya Buzukin, Saizhi, Pasha Pin, Sasha Tingachuk, Xu Zhao, Eduard Shmel, Johnny Tang, Anisimov Dmitrii, Per Asplund, John Saw, Brian Kleiber, Florida Orange Christian, DJ, Dick Specht and Winston Wang).
Next up are a couple skatepark edits at the newly-discovered winter-refuge, MX Skatepark; Brian Kleiber & Dima
Lastly, we’ve got a quickie from LP. This past Sunday we had a rare 25C day and nearly everyone was out skating. DJ had his VX and caught a few lines with Malik, Pikai, and Brian.
For archival intents and purposes, it’s still early fall here in Shanghai. While the weather might tell you differently, the unfortunate reality is that I’ve missed an entire season-and-a-half of updates here. A secret internet time capsule is no good if you can’t even bury things during the same season they happened. So, here we go.
Johnny went to Toronto for two months this summer and put together a recap video as seen above, featuring some bass fishing and skating at Ashbridge Skatepark as well as the newly opened Skate Loft 2.0.
Vans came through Shanghai in September for the Vans Park Series. They built an absolutely incredible bowl, only to tear it down the day the contest ended. I get that building something permanent is a whole different beast, especially when dealing with the local government, but some transition like this would have done wonders for the local skaters here. Maybe next time they can put that VF guanxi to work…No hate though, we still haveSMP 😉
EZ is a good homie of mine whom I met out here in Shanghai. He just made the move back to the United States, but not before spending a year in Seoul and collecting a few minutes of footage. Here’s what he came up with.
As always, for optimal viewing we recommend full-screening this one. Also, be sure to grab your favorite beverage, smoke ’em if you got ’em and sit back and enjoy.
suggested listening after getting through the “bad” news
The Bad
What’s the preferred order of delivery for sharing equal parts good and bad news? Good question. I almost resisted the urge to Google that one, but since my will is weak, here you go. Since 78% of people on the receiving end of the news prefer to hear the bad first, I’ll start with that.
You can’t skate Homies Plaza, aka The Center anymore. Not even on weekends. As a matter of fact, you can’t even bring your dog or pets there anymore. The place is officially a no-fun-of-any-kind-whatsoever zone. This shit sucks. First it was LP being 66% physically destroyed and now we’ve lost our only other plaza/meet up spot. Rumor has it that LP’s remains are now a bust as well.
As bad as this news is, try not to let it overshadow the following good news. I’m personally heartbroken in regards to the state of skateboarding and spots in Shanghai right now, but I’ll get to that some other time and in longer form.
Xiao Hu, where you been man? One of the finer clips from 2016…filmed a year ago this month.
The title is explanatory. Bless me homies for I have snapped, it’s been exactly two weeks since the last “update“. With that said, maybe I’ll actually put some real time into this site soon. Right now it’s been somewhat of a digital time capsule for my personal use.
This time around (not unlike every other post on this site), we’re starting off with nearly no direction, theme or even loosely-tied/related outbound links; and like 90% of the time, zero original content.
The first item populating within my recent memory’s feed would have to be the new Victoria HK clip. If you’re reading this somewhere in Asia, you probably already know…but for my international players, follow this link and enjoy some Hong Kong skateboarding. While you’re at it, pick up a shirt or something. That last clip of Chris sent me through a big-wave supertube of SERPS, finally spitting me out here.
Everyone’s already seen it, but for posterity’s sake, here’s one of Vermont’s finest: Dave Mull. You should also give Steve and Cookie‘s parts from The Worble’s “New Driveway” while you’re at it.
This came out a while ago in China, but Vice recently posted a nice 25-minute video profiling Dan Leung. I know all about taking hiatuses, so if you’ve ever endured a breakup and makeup with your skateboard, I recommend giving this a watch.
It’s been quiet around here, and no, I can’t blame lack of time for the lack of updates…I’ve been straight-up lazy. Despite achieving what we often refer to as “millionaire status” in regards to days off and lack of obligations (read: unemployed) over the last few months, I’ve slipped. I’m one of those people who gets more done with less time; it’s a blessing and a curse. So hit me with a few months off and you can almost guarantee that it’ll result in countless days spent at The Center® with hardly an iPhone clip to show for it.
Anyway, for all two of you that know about this site here’s what’s been going on. First and foremost, I’ll direct you to the embedded video above titled “bvt raw” from my dude Avery. Fullscreen, grab your favorite beverage, skin-up or whatever…you know what to do. Nearly 20 minutes of raw footage from Burlington, VT and Montreal. Dais. Honorable mention: Ray’s iPhone Dump.
Jay Meador & Justen Snyder in “Dueling Spothunters” from a few months back. If you couldn’t tell, timeliness is not of the essence around here. I think skatehere.com posted this they day it was uploaded or something…4 months ago.
In honor of the cherry blossoms blossoming here in Shanghai, I’d like to plug “Sakura Zine“, a video and photo collaborative effort from Cole Giordano, Mike Sikora and Takahiro Morita that combines “the aesthetics of skateboarding with the sakura (cherry blossoms), striving to capture the spirit of Japan through the movement and fluidity of skateboarding.” Shout out to SikySik on this one – we’ll see you in a few months my dude!
That’s it, that’s all, happy Lawson’s Season y’all – enjoy the warm weather, be safe and don’t forget to bring a light jacket because it’s still a bit chilly at night.
Even though the temperatures reported by Weather.com would have you thinking otherwise, it’s been cold as ice here in Shanghai…and we haven’t even hit 0 degrees yet. Thankfully I’ll be heading south a week from today to thaw out for about 10 days. What’s good, 厦门市?
Kenji Haruta followed some of the FLY homies around for The Skateboard Mag’s One Day In Skateboarding series. Shoutout to Chang for that suicidal drop-in…I’m still here SMH-ing about that one.
Johnny’s been posting up a bunch of raw footage from CDs, as well as clips our buddy Nanking Joe has filmed. Go give him a follow in IG if you don’t mind the spot envy every time your feed refreshes.
Korea’s Daily Grind & Brian Mollot recently interviewed Anthony Shultz. Man, I really miss Slave Skateboards…used to run those heavy.
This was never meant to be a blog (or even a regularly updated thing for that matter). If our memories were better, there wouldn’t be a need to document the fun times and happenings, ’cause they’d all be safely stored, organized and chronicled within our life’s highlight reel. But with the advent of technology combined with our dwindling time and attention spans, recalling last weekend becomes a mentally-intensive endeavor; so why not just keep a journal, right? That’s what people used to do…
<politics>First things first, Bernie can’t stop / won’t stop. He addressed the Senate floor with the facts-equivalent of a draco, citing Tweets and referencing charts. Nothing to do with skateboarding or Shanghai (obviously), but you should watch this. </politics>
