Scharpp

Heres a link to a short skate video I made. Enjoy. The Language for the music is kinda vulgar, so cover your ears or something, if that kinda stuff bothers you.

Luis Tolentino

This is my good friend Luis Tolentino murdering it in Queens, his stomping grounds. I've always been a fan of the way Luis skates, fast and stylish. In this video he ollies a trash can then a set of stairs. It is pretty amazing.

I first met Luis ten years ago at the the old seaport spot downtown. Here is a video where the first trick Anthony Pappalardo does is at the spot, I couldn't find and image of the spot. I remember he always friendly to me which was uncommon for New York skaters in the late 90's when everyone thought they were so tough. Luis and I went to skate the benches at the World trade center one summer day. He tried to 5050 the ledge over the stairs and fell on his face. We went to Burger King after that and I bought him a slushy for his new shiner. Every time I see him he still doesn't forget that slushy. That is why Luis Tolentino will always be the man.

Shoe Review

When Converse announced two years ago that it would be doing another line of skate shoes, I was excited. For starters, Chuck Taylors are one of my favorite sneakers to wear when I'm not skating. Simple and clean, these are a shoe that will remain classics forever. I was also excited when I heard that Anthony Pappalardo would be on the team. He has been a favorite of mine ever since the Photosynthesis days, and no matter how little coverage he gets, I will always respect his accomplishments in skateboarding.

The shoes Converse make for skating tend to just be improvements upon shoes, like the Chuck Taylors, which became the CTS OX. Anthony Pappalardo's pro shoe, is just a padded version of the Converse One Stars, that Guy Mariano brought to fame in his part in Girl's classic video, Mouse. The Converse style can be described as simple and timeless. There is never anything unnecessary and the colors are always simple.

The shoes I am reviewing are the Converse CTS OX. I was lucky enough to get a free pair from a friend who gets packages from a Converse sales rep. I got these shoes three weeks ago on that first beautiful weekend, and have been using them every time I skate. I normally wear a size 11 but in the Converse skate shoe line I have to wear a size 10.5. The reason for this being, once they begin to wear in, they become extremely loose, and a size 11 starts to feel very uncomfortable. The padding in these shoes make it possible to skate off stairs and gaps, but at the same time allow you to feel your board. My only complaint with these shoes, would be that they take a few days of breaking in. In other skate shoes like the Nike Dunks, I find myself at ease as soon as I put them on. I would give the CTS OX an 8 out of 10 and would recommend them to anybody looking for a comfortable and stylish skate shoe.

Josh Kalis Epicly Later'd

I'm a week late on posting this but nonetheless, I need to post this. The Josh Kalis epicly laterd episodes on vbs.tv, vice magazine's television channel are some of the best pieces of media that I've had the pleasure of watching in 2011. Patrick Odell's cult skaeboard show called epicly laterd is as he calls it "a modest attempt at documenting all of skateboarding's history." He has covered high profile skateboarders like Dylan Reider, Guy Mariano, and Andrew Reynolds to name a few. The episodes follow skaters in their progression from children to adult professionals and everything that happened in their in life in between.

The Josh Kalis episodes are my favorite of the bunch so far. They start at his humble beginnings in Michigan and follow him from all the skate meccas he has lived in like; Barcelona, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego, and currently Los Angeles. These episodes are highly influential to me because they're about a skater who has been a complete workaholic his entire career. Rob Dyrdek put it best in one of the last episodes about Kalis when he says; "He's your favorite skater's favorite skater."