Tag: Girl Skateboards

It is still and always will be Keenan forever and as soon as you hear Royal Flush you know you are in for something good.

Truth be told we could use a bit of legend spice in there but we must also be honest and say that this generation of Girl Skateboards is shaping up nicely.

Congrats to Griffin and Niels Bennett!

Even in the sunny land of LA it occasionally happends that it is raining. So for the latest Crailtap Weakdays episode the crew had to take shelter at the Crail Park.

Featuring Jerry Hsu, Vincent Alvarez, Justin Eldridge, James Capps, Jon Sciano, Andrew Brophy, Braydon Szafranski, Rick Howard, Brandon Biebel and Chris Roberts.

With its ups and downs I’d say 2016 was all in all a solid year for Girl and Chocolate Skateboards. Some of the good moments of the past year are composed in this review edit.

Featuring Vincent Alvarez, Tyler Pacheco, Brandon Biebel, Simon Bannerot, James Capps, Jerry Hsu, Mike Carroll, Rick Howard, Rick McCrank, Justin Eldridge, Kenny Anderson, Andrew Brophy, Elijah Berle, Cory Kennedy, Chris Roberts, Jeron Wilson, Zach Saraceno, Griffin Gass and Johnny Jones.

Fly outs, lines, back-to-backs and good times. That’s what Girl and Chocolate Skateboards made of their day at Rosemead, California. To see Andrew Brophy in there as well is maybe not enough to claim that with Girl he might have found a new board sponsor after Cliché went out of business, but still interesting enough to start a rumor.

Featuring Tyler Pacheco, Vincent Alvarez, Simon Bannerot, James Capps, Andrew Brophy, Justin Eldridge, Rick Howart and Jerry Hsu.

Right when I saw Simon Bannerot’s part from the Watercolours video earlier this year, I had already prophesied him to become someone with a bright future. Only a couple months later he is touring together with the other new face Tyler Pacheco with the first squad of the Girl Skateboards team through Washington State.

Featuring Cory Kennedy, Rick McCrank, Mike Carrol, Simon Bannerot, Tyler Pacheco, Rick Howard and more.

One day before the Street League event in Munich, I had the chance to meet Sean Malto for a quick interview in the relaxed atmosphere of the SHRN store’s backyard. Among other things we especially talked about his recovery, his friendship to Mike Mo, and also the rumors that he is off Girl. Sean is a really nice guy and it is good to see him being back with such a confidence!

Interview by Paul Röhrs
Photos: Daniel Wagner

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I read about that you traveled a lot during the time you were injured. How was it like to experience other countries without being able to skate?

Yeah, well, when I did get hurt and get surgery and was forced to not skate I did not want to stop traveling. You know, I love traveling. Obviously, I love traveling for skating but if I couldn’t skate like of course I want to go hang with my friends. I don’t want to be like cooped up in a house. I’d loose my mind. So yeah, I did ended up going to went on a Europe trip through a few different cities in Germany and then I went to Australia, too, for like two weeks. Then I ended up going to Spain for only a few days but all those trips just like made the time go by a little faster. You know, in my head I was like “come I just wanna go hang with my friends, this gonna be sick to go travel” and when I got there I just got frustrated that I can’t skate. You know, because for us the quality of a city is based on how good the skate spots are. But yeah, it is still cool to see other sides of a city besides the best handrail it can offer or ledge spots and stuff. It was cool like to visit restaurants and see shops and being just like an average tourist.

So you mostly followed your friends on their tours or did you also travel alone?

Basically just followed them on tours, yeah, whatever they did. I did not go on a lot personal trips because I just tried to surround my self with people.

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As you said you visited a couple cities in Germany, is there something you particularly enjoy to look back upon?

Oh yeah, I had a lot of really great experiences in Germany! I drove a Porsche on the “Autobahn”! That was amazing! I think that maybe was in Stuttgart years ago on a Girl trip when we were filming for Pretty Sweet. The distributor hooked up three Porsches and we took them to the “Autobahn” and could go as fast as we wanted. That was insane! That is really one that sticks out in my mind just from any trip.

You know Denny Pham right? Do you know he is sometimes called the German Sean Malto? What do you think about this?

Oh, I did not know this! Hey, I am honored because I love his skating and I think he is an awesome dude, very talented. That’s really funny because I went to Thailand with him and been on countless Nike trips with him… Yeah cool, I am totally fine with that comparison!

Ah, yeah! He just told me the story how you met in Thailand!

Yeah, this was probably three or four years ago. I was in India for two weeks with Mark Suciu, Partik Wallner and Sebo Walker. The trip was coming to an end but we all were kind of like “let’s go to Thailand” because it is just close and we could hang out and skate there a little more. So we went out there and met up with Denny and just had a good time.

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Talking about friends of yours. I know you and Mike Mo have been close friends since you both got on Girl and now you both went through very bad injuries. He probably was hit even harder than you were. So are you both still in contact with each other? I am asking because Mike Mo is not able to really go skate I think but you are?

Well, obviously, you know, our friendship goes beyond skateboarding. I talk to him once a week at least and I still see him as often as possible. He is my best friend and so I check upon him and always talk to him but it does suck because he was my road dawg like we traveled a lot together and me and him roomed together every trip. So not having my roommate there and not having my skate buddy is sad. But, you know, his health is getting better. He is progressing and hopefully he’ll be back to is original self very soon, which I am excited about. There are just a couple little things but once they are healed up he gonna be 100 percent. It’s gonna be awesome because he definitely is one of my favorite skaters as well.

Good to hear that! How about you? How is your recovery going?

Oh, my recovery is good! You know, I think healthwise I am 100 percent but mentally I am still like… You know, there are things that scare me that probably wouldn’t scare me before. I am a little like worried when it come to dangerous situations in skating but my health feels good, my ankle feels good… So it is just skating, you know, pushing myself to get rid off this mentally. I ate a lot of shit. I fall a lot. Knock my teeth out, broke my collarbone a couple times, had knee surgery… But whatever, that is skateboarding.

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You know that there are rumors about you being off Girl?

Yeah, I just found that out! I think it is really funny because I went on a trip with just some of my friends that are just on other companies but I just want to hang out with them and that kind of led to these rumors. All I can say is, that I am still very much in love with Girl and I am very satisfied with where I am. So I don’t have any complains. See me at the park tomorrow and I’ll show off my Girl board as always!

Well, last but not least, as you are next to Karsten Kleppan and Stefan Janoski himself the face of the recent Nike SB Janoski Hyperfell campaign, how much have you been involved in the developing process of the shoe?

Well, obviously Nike always tries to listen to the voice of the athlete. They do this in every category and so with skateboarding it is the same thing. You know, we have a good dialog with the designers and we are always talking about how to keep progressing and making awesome shoes that look cool and perform well. So the Hyperfeel is just one of those things that kind of came together perfectly. It’s cool that it feels like a slip-on but it has the protection of a normal shoe. That is what I like about it the most!

So thanks for the interview, I wish you all the best for the Street League event tomorrow and have a good time in Munich!

I have to say thank you! And, yeah, see you tomorrow!

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I first became aware of a Robbin’s skating when he was little, on a Dutch skateboard forum. Here was this young kid with the user name “Robbin Reynolds” posting clips of himself trying frontside flips like “The Boss” at his local spots in Haastrecht.

Everybody knows a kid who likes a company or pro skater so much that he wants to dress and skate like them. But the first time I met Robbin, he clearly had his own style and bag of tricks and on top of that, he was a super nice guy – but it’s been a while since we last talked to each other. And it’s safe to say that Robbin’s skating has made a lot of progress since we last met. Some of you might have seen him skating in the Bombaklats video, or the Rotterdam scene article.

At this point, Robbin has some great skate companies backing him, names like Girl, Lakai, Thunder and Bones to name just a few. With a new Bombaklats video on the way, I thought it would be nice to catch up have a little Small Talk with Robbin de Wit.

Robbindewitt

Words: Roland Hoogwater; Photos: Hendrik Herzmann (BS Bluntslide in Den Haag)

Hey Robbin, how are you doing?

I’m doing fine, how are you?

I’m doing great, I was thinking we could do an interview for Place Magazine.

Yeah, man that would be sick! Do you think they’ll be down to do an interview with a Dutch guy? Isn’t it a German magazine?

Well I’m also Dutch and the magazine is in English now.

Haha, that’s true. I’m always down to do something so let’s do it!

Are you still working at [Dutch distribution company] Hardcore Supplies?

Yes, I’m still working there about three-to-four days a week and I’m skating in my free time.

Have you been going on a lot of trips?

I just came back from a Bombaklats filming trip. We had this idea to skate all these cities in the Netherlands we normally wouldn’t skate.

Sounds like a great idea. How are things going with Lakai?

Great! I love skating for them, I like the shoes, and they have been supporting me for a long time now. It’s a bit of shame that Sylvain and Karsten aren’t skating for them anymore. No bad feelings though, they got there own thing going on now.

For people who might not know, can you explain what Bombaklats is ‘cause it’s not just a skate video right?

No, it’s a group of friends that skate and live in and around Rotterdam. Actually it came from my friend Ali. When he would land a good trick, he would always say “Bombaklats!”

Bombaklats video part:

I also started to see some Bombaklats hoodies and shirts popping up in footage. What’s going on with that?

Yeah, we made some of that stuff to get people hyped on our projects. It’s just some stuff for the crew to wear.

It seems like Bombaklats has been growing and people outside of the Netherlands are starting to take more notice.

Yeah, since the video came out people are really starting to take notice of what we are doing.

I recently saw you skating the Berrics as well. How did that happen?

After Bombaklats was all done, I went to visit Sewa [Kroetkov] in LA, and he took us out skating. One of the visits was to the Berrics and that’s how I ended up in one of their clips.

I heard you met the Sabotage crew when you were over there?

I was skating a spot in LA, and they saw my Bombaklats shirt. The guys recognized me and they were hyped – so I gave them a copy of the video.

Did you ever considering moving away from the Netherlands like Sewa?

I have thought about it. Budgets can be a lot bigger in other countries and that can help you as a skater. At the same time look at people like Daan van der Linden and Nassim, they are really making it work!

So you just came back from a filming trip – does this mean that you are working on a new project?

Yes, we also finished this Rotterdam scene article for Kingpin. And now we are working on a new Bombaklats video. It’s going to be between twenty and thirty minutes long, and I’m filming a full part for that right now.

Nice! Do you know when the new Bombaklats video is coming out?

I don’t know the exact date, but soon, this year for sure.

Thanks for the Small Talk, Robbin.

Find more “Smalltalk” here.

Wer in der letzten Woche mal bei The Berrics vorbeigesurft ist, hat es mit Sicherheit mitbekommen: In insgesamt fünf sehenswerten Folgen spricht Guy Mariano über sein Leben und seine bisher veröffentlichen Parts, was ziemlich interessant ist. Jetzt aber setzt der Ausnahmeskater mit diesem Part noch einen oben drauf – sollte man unbedingt gesehen haben:

Guy Mariano

https://place.tv/tag/girl-skateboards