September 23, 2016

Memory on screen

Proof that what was discussed in the last post actually happened. Thanks to Kyle Ross, who sent over the clip, which was filmed by Brian McGinnis. Features Rick McCrank, Pat Duffy, Jeremy Wray, Caine Gayle, Matt Hensley, Todd Bratrud, KSTP's Joe Schmit and John Muldoon.

September 17, 2016

'In the arms of an angel'

Hailed as the best demo in Minneapolis since Rick McCrank single-handedly did everything at a last gasp Plan B event in 1998 (the line-up also included Pat Duffy and Caine Gayle -- anybody else?), Primitive flew to town and then returned home days later having skated Familia HQ very, very well. It's fairly astounding those dudes flew up here just for a demo. What days we live in.

List of other memorable TC area demos

1. Birdhouse in 1996 or so at what might have been the Stearns County fairgrounds. Featured a young Andrew Reynolds and Tony Hawk doing McTwists on a 8 or 9-foot quarterpipe.
2. Flip in the middle-aughts at the 3rd Lair. There were fears the ramps would collapse because of the 700-800 people who showed up. The crush of humanity fogged up the park.
3. Girl and Chocolate in 1998 at the Lair. Mike York tried a handful of noseslides and then focused his board and left. Everything else about it was quite lit.
That's pretty much it beyond the Hot Chocolate Tour demo, which seemed redundant to list.

Here's other stuff. The DLX contingent rolled through town the past couple weeks.

I wrote a list about skaters going all Lochte at the Olympics that kids on Facebook hated.

There's another demo:

🔥DEATHWISH🔥 9.18.16 @familiahq #familiaskateshop #familiahq #minneapolis

A photo posted by Familia Skateboard Shop (@familiask8shop) on

BYRJ redux:

A quick look at the archives at right shows that August 2016 was the first month since July 2008 during which this website was not updated, meaning this two-month drought was the longest ever. Very significant. In order to close the circle on that last update: