Volcom Wild in the Parks, Tampa 2009

Update Re: 10 Questions

In case you didn't know, I don't randomly weed through interviews collected by that '10 Questions' button down there on the right - I run every one of them so long as it makes sense. Heck, I even ran one that didn't. But just as an FYI, I'm a little backlogged with submissions. A ton of rippers filling out this questionnaire. If you are wondering what happened to yours, just be patient. If you filled out two, I'll probably go with the newest version. Thanks.

10 Questions: Jesse Mays

What is your full name?

Jesse Turner Mays

Where are you from originally?

The big OK

Where is the last place you rode your skateboard?

In my room. Twerkin them switch heels

Describe your first memory of skateboarding where you currently live.

It was a beautiful day in Florida and I saw an old skateboard in my front yard. I stood on it and thought "this shits tight"

Who do you skate with most, of all the people you know?
Cameron Palmer, Brad Meister, Christian Allen, and Max Martin when I go to jax

Name one thing that could make skateboarding better in your area.

A better skatepark. We've got a gay-ass oval for a park.

Who do you look up to the most, and why-skating, or otherwise?

My dad, he works hard for dem stacks. Been with the same company for 30 years.

Do you think you will still be skateboarding 20 years from now?

I film more than I do skate, so I shouldn't be tore up too bad by then, so maybe.

What is the most common place you go to eat before/during/after a day of skateboarding?

Taco bell/Taco bell/Taco bell. The shits so good. I work there anyways.

What is the last trick you learned, and how many tries did it take to learn it?

Double frontside flip-like 3 or 4 tries

What are you going to do, now that you are done with this questionnaire?

Lurk the space, maybe eat, lurk some more, eat, and sleep.

Crown Contest @ OP Park, 6-27

I had a good time while I was there. Thanks to everyone who came out! OP Park raised a little bit of money, and everyone had a good time. For those still interested in supporting the cause, send an email over to the Orange Park town clerk and let her know how you feel about the OP Park, and how you don't want them to waste money on Pre-Fab! Remember to be polite, as she is the one who will forward the message to the town manager. You can email her here.

Click the above photo, or click here to go to the gallery.

Jason Schwartzman's Coconut Records: Any Fun

Any Fun - Coconut Records - Music Video

Watch the video and see if you can spot any familiar faces. For more from Coconut Records, you can view their Myspace page here. You can also view Jason Schwartzman's West Coast video featuring Mark Gonzales' 1998 art show in Germany where he rode around in a fencing suit through an art gallery on a long board.

Crown Contest Tomorrow, June 27 at OP Park - UPDATED!

So you probably already knew about the contest going on at the OP if you read my previous rant about prefab. But what you may not have known, is that in addition to competing for prizes, you'll also be competing for a spot at this year's Red Bull Manny Mania in Miami, which includes a stay at a nearby Miami hotel. If that isn't incentive enough, I don't know what is! I hope all of you reading this make an effort to come out and show support for the OP Park, and show the town of Orange Park that there is no way that we will accept pre-fab ramps!

Click on the flyer to enlarge.

Guy Mariano - Video Days

That video wouldn't have been the same with any other song. Stevie Caballero skated to ABC in his first 411 part too. Goodbye Michael Jackson, you changed the world.

Kona Fantasy Cup & Bangers for Bucks Video Coverage

Kona Fantasy Cup Montage, courtesy of 5Boro/Left Eye Productions

5boro at Kona's Fantasy Cup 09 from Left Eye Productions on Vimeo.

Bangers for Bucks at Kona - Sunday, June 21st Courtesy of BVP Productions

Go Skate Day 2009 - Bangers for Bucks @ Kona Skatepark

So if you have been tuning in, you probably know all about what went down on Go Skateboarding Day 2009, but If not, I'll summarize for you. At midnight on June 20th, Kona Skatepark held a pro/am contest known as the Fantasy Cup, complete with fireworks at midnight to ring in Go Skate Day. The next day, Kona opened up the park for free skateboarding all day, in addition to playing host to the last leg of Bangers for Bucks, a contest put together by a group of fine individuals who from what I hear are pretty cool guys.

The Bangers contest went down on the 4 Block, a massive 4 stair with two big hubba ledges on each side. Chaos descended onto the street course at 6 o'clock, motivating all kinds of people to huck themselves down the stairs in an effort to win a prize. Some of the falls were pretty nasty. A few individuals definitely peaced themselves out pretty quickly, and a notable few came in, got business done, and shut it down-most notably Joey Corey.

Here are the photos from the final leg of our skateboarding adventure on Go Skate Day 2009. I want to thank Ryan K. for making all of this possible, along with Martin Ramos for an amazing contest at Kona on both days and the free food and drinks for everyone, not to mention the ability to stay resilient with skateboarding all these years. Also want to say thanks to Ian Ranne for the music and the venue for the BusStop party, Clyde for lending his personality, and my kids for letting me postpone our Father's day bonding. Oh, and no thanks to the sun. I look like a damned lobster.


Joey Corey


Jayson Colon


Richard Whipkey



Will Watkins at the DJ table. Back in the 90s, will was one of the 2 people I knew that would actually skate the vert ramp at Kona. He was good at it, too. Come back to skateboarding, Will! Is that a naked lady behind you?!


I think Pat is about to accept some kind of Bribe here.




Zach Torres. This kid is a ripper, too. I hope that kid in front of me got some good footy, he kept jumping in front of me at the last second. I have lots of photos of his back.




Forever Wavering






Broc was running the barbecue. Good stuff.

Go Skate Day: Crashin' and Bangin' at Ed Austin

The second stop of the Bangers contest was at Ed Austin Park off Monument Road in Arlington. Two separate obstacles were featured here, the first being the brick quarter pipe modeled after the Maitland banks near Orlando, and the second being the Jersey barrier on top of a bank. By this time, the clouds were coming in overhead, which was a welcome sign, but people were still suffering from the intense heat.

It seemed like all hell had broken loose when the contest started on the brick quarter. There were collisions left and right, a couple of camera lenses got bonked by flailing boards, and a couple of people may have gotten their feelings hurt just a little. Darkness brought his own props, which included a Power Wheels Jeep to be used as an extention. I don't think it worked out too well though.

After this everyone moved to the Jersey barrier. Unfortunately, I got sick from the heat, and had to miss most of this, but I heard that George Evans and Max were holding it down. After all was said and done, everyone headed to the next spot for the last contest on Go Skate Day: Bangers for Bucks at Kona Skatepark. More coverage coming tomorrow, including video!

Here are the photos from Ed Austin:




Bong Gause


Crashin'



Triclops





Mike Barnes weaving through traffic









Bong




Guess what's about to happen here?



I wonder if Craig ever ended up doing that Bangers for Blunts contest he proposed.

Contest in OP Park this Saturday

You know what sucks? When a group of skateboarders get together to do something positive, put a bunch of hard work in, only to get shut down and persecuted for it. Sound familiar? Well it should. It's happened more in the past few months than imaginable. On that note, word on the streets is that the Orange Park city council, or whomever, decided that the ramps that Tim Johnson put hours upon hours into building at the OP Park might just have to be replaced due to not 'meeting regulations'. But replaced by what? Prefab. I've already established MY opinions on prefab on more than one or two occasions, but I'll go ahead and reiterate. Prefab is CRAP. Taking safe, skateable structures that kids want to skate on away, and putting some plastic ramps by some cheap ass company like Skatewave that will likely lead to broken arms and an empty skatepark is NOT the answer. If you want to keep kids off the streets and in the park where it's safe to skate, why not make them feel welcome? Orange Park has plenty of good skatespots that aren't exactly legal, and it would be a shame to push the OP Park back to the state it was in before Ms Anjie took over.

What can you do? For one thing, you can head out to the Crown contest out at OP Park this Saturday. You can show up and show your support, and let everyone know that skateboarders should be in charge of deciding what goes into a skatepark, and not some old lady with a calculator and a grudge. All proceeds will go toward saving the park.

Here's to One Year

Thanks to everyone that comes here to read about skateboarding in Jacksonville. I love you guys.

If you missed out on the party, check out Tom's pictures over at Jaxscene. Special thanks to Ryan King, Ian Ranne, and Clyde Singleton.

Go Skate Day 2009 - Bangers at Atlantic Beach

I would consider Go Skate Day in Jacksonville this year to be an overwhelming success. We started at Kona at midnight on Saturday night, and ended at Shantytown in Springfield on Sunday night, and every moment in between was worth remembering.

On Sunday afternoon, we headed down to the Atlantic Beach park for the first leg of Bangers. (The park goes by many names, so I'll just stick with 'Atlantic Beach Park'.) As soon as I opened my car door, I was blasted by the hot Atlantic Beach air. I thought I was ready for it, but holy crap was it hot! 100 degrees outside. I guess I should have made note of the weather.

The vibe here was the most mellow. People from around the area casually came in and out, I even saw a girl there just hanging out in a bikini. (Kind of made me feel awkward, they don't have those in Riverside.) The best trick contest went down over the door, which for obvious reasons didn't bring a ton of competitors, though the ones who did participate brought it in a big way. P-Nut even ollied the channel on his sword board. Holy crap. Not only that, but Darkness was there on a board that was at least 20 years old. I even saw that long board guy there! What is this guy's name? He ripped it up. Last time I saw him, it was when he was skating the miniramp at TSI. The ramp was barely wide enough for him to do an Axle Stall.

Clyde was there to help Ryan King give out prizes, and when those were gone, we took our sunburnt selves to the next stop-Ed Austin park off Monument Road.

Here are some photos from the event. Click the photo to go to the Flickr gallery, where you can see the full-sized images.


Ryan King, the Emcee


P-Nut and his Sword Board


This is the face you make when your skin is melting.


DJ Triclops, the Man behind Hip Hop Hell provided music for the event. I want a copy of that 'Jacksonville' Track.


Mike 'Darkness' Barnes, Crailslide over the door.

How he can skate on that board, I have no clue.


King


Darkness was really feeling the 80s on Sunday.




Joe M., too much sickness to capture in a photo.


If you are smart, you move to the shade to announce a contest when the weather is over 100 degrees.


Joe Marrara going over the Door


Skating better than you, on a long board.


Neil Blender.

Go Skateboarding Day on Jacksonville.com

Click here to head over to Jacksonville.com for an outside perspective on skateboarding on Go Skate Day, Courtesy of Jon M. Fletcher. Jon was also the photographer who shot Clyde Singleton's photo on the front page of the T-U (left) that went along with Matt Soergel's story. You can see that story online here. Additional photos by T-U contributor Jim Messer can be found here. Expect to see the BusStop coverage sometime tomorrow.

(edit: I got the names mixed up due to the credit on the gallery. Sorry Jon!)

Don't forget to log in to the T-U site to leave comments for these guys. It isn't often that mainstream news outlets give positive coverage to skateboarders (see news4jax.com), but the T-U has always been down with the realness of skateboarding without all the hate.

Kona Fantasy Cup 2009

In all honesty, nothing really could prepare me for what went down this weekend. Although I was well aware of the teams that were scheduled to show up, I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of riders that showed up, including the 5boro team. Not only were many of the best local rippers on location, there were also dudes from all over the East Coast.

The premise behind the Fantasy Cup is simple - Each team of 5 guys throws down on 3 different obstacles: The step up gap, AKA the Super Booter, the bank to wall, and the 4 block, which consists of 4 large steps with hubba ledges on each side. Similar to Bangers for Bucks, each noteworthy trick was rewarded with a yellow slip of paper with a dollar amount on it, to be cashed in later. Whoever had the most money at the end of the 3 events went on to the finals, which was another round on the 4 block and Hubba ledges.

In the end, it was team Element who came in first, earning a handful of cash, a ton of Asahi beer, and probably some good times at the club later on - they were payed out in 1 dollar bills.

On the presentation side, Martin Ramos was joined by the infamous Clyde Singleton to announce the event, and Hooters girls were on location to pass out free beer. Both Matt Fink and Sparky gave their own mustache demos, to everyone's enjoyment. It was a great time, and I was glad to say that Kona has really brought it back to Jacksonville with this pro-level event. There hasn't been a street contest like this in Jacksonville in a long time, and I'm glad to say that in these troubled times, I think skateboarding is going to do okay.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support this event, and most importantly Martin Ramos, Ryan King from Red Bull, and Clyde Singleton. Clyde, you made my face hurt from laughing so much. It was good to see so many of my skateboarding homies in one place.

Here are just a few photos I took on Saturday night.


Clyde Singleton on the mic.


Timmy Knuth brought his own style of tre flips, where he catches them with his front foot way in front of him...


...sometimes they are re imagined in a slightly different way.


Richard Whipkey was doing sick spit like this tailslide to fakie all weekend.


Justin's seal of approval. I dunno what he was approving though. Maybe the fact that I'm going to make t-shirts out of this picture.


Matt Fink


Dalton Dern promoting international unity by way of a Japan over a Euro in Florida.


Ian Rosenburg - Front blunt on the hubba.


CJ Dixon, Gap to fronstide lipslide up the step-up gap.


George Evans, frontside flip.



Another unknown ripper


Jake Sykes had to work all weekend. Glad he could find some time to skate.


Fireworks rang in Go Skateboarding Day just after midnight. Amazing.


George Evans, kickflip noseslide down the hubba. Every try on Saturday night.


Chris Blake. The 5Boro guys skated like they ran the place.


Martin Ramos, Clyde Singleton


Ryan King, Rachel Bess


I need someone to caption this for me.


People getting paid.


I don't see a single frowny face in this picture, that makes me happy.


Sparky, AKA 'Fox'. (I dunno, don't watch that show, either.)


A whole mess o' people


One of these guys drank 13 Red Bulls. Guess who?


Some familiar faces


Black Nate


White Nate, White Nate's White Girlfriend


Element Skateboards, first place.


Team Kona, Graffiti Skate Zone came together like Voltron. None of them can enjoy the beer prize.


I wish Aaron Mullin skated in this thing.


ohmygodit'scraig


5boro, some money, and-hey, it's Clyde drinking.


Kyle has a mohawk. So does his friend.


More later. Thanks again to everyone who came out to Kona's Fantasy Cup.