Skateboarder Jun-Jul-12

Have you ever skated something and wondered how exactly someone decided that it was a skate spot? It might have a few things to dork around on, but overall it’s just somewhere you might hit once then probably never return to. A curb cut, a chain to do tricks over, a manual pad in the middle of nowhere. It’s all fun stuff, but after you’ve been back for a third or fourth time, you start to say, “This place again?” We had a place like that where I grew up in Pittsburgh. It is the Love Park of not-spots, a lit parking lot with a small ledge and a manual pad into the street. The first time I went there, I’m pretty sure I resolved to never go back, but…

Jake Johnson and Gilbert Crockett are the new pros at Alien Workshop and Windsor James went pro for Mystery where they also added David Reyes to the am squad. Tom Karangelov got the official welcome to Zero whose new video Cold War is coming soon…Felipe Gustavo is Plan B’s newest pro…Riley Hawk left the roost at Birdhouse and found a home at Baker…Element’s Future Nature video featuring their am squad premiered, and it is bangin’ check it out on iTunes. Speaking of the brand, Darrell Stanton and Element severed ties amicably...LE Skateboards picked up Eric Fletcher for their first official am… Flip and Andrew Langi parted ways this month but picked up Greyson Fletcher for the team. That kid rips. Check out his Contents spread in this issue if you…

STATESIDE I rented a house here in the States a year ago but have been traveling to India, China and Europe for skating fun times and skate rock. I paid rent for a year but probably stayed at my house only two months total. Braydon used to live here but he moved out. Now I live with Chima and Choi. Tyler Szafranski and Scotty Copalman have their couches. DOWN UNDER In Australia you can drink in the streets. You have access to prettier beaches than anywhere I’ve seen in the States that are not hundreds of miles away. It’s got a more casual bar life than clubs. Also, everyone in Sydney is within skating distance. A lot of my best mates live there. In LA it’s rad too. Everyone who…

Follow Mikey on Instagram @mikey_tay1or 1. I really tried to be artsy here. Ha ha. 2. Sometimes I forget that Ruby’s a dog. I think she’s my child! 3. My high school ID. Let’s just say I was a late bloomer. 4. This thing came up to Taylor’s shoulder. He’s really good. 5. I wish there was an app to add doves into your photos. They would go nice here. 6. I’m jealous that David Loy has more pop than me now. 7. What’s better, Sebo’s switch flip or the crazy sunset? 8. Wes Kremer overlooking surfer’s paradise, OZ 2012. 9. Mo at the Sydney Aquarium. He loved the sharks.…

LEFT SIDE DOUBLE WRISTER Broke my left wrist in Utah on a Zero trip. It was in the menu video on the Strange World DVD. As soon as I got that cast off, I went to Tampa Am with Emerica. While skating the park after the contest, having a good time, I tried to 50-50 the vert wall and pussed-out last second. I wooshed out at the bottom and broke the shit out of my other wrist. We were supposed to go to Miami and film for a week, but I sat in the hotel all pilled up for three days then flew home. It sucked. HARSH INTRODUCTIONS I went on this trip to Kelowna, B.C., when I was pretty young, probably around 14. I tried to front feeble this…

A heavy-hitting member of the Hellride Crew, Karma Tsocheff pioneered the kind of all-terrain skating that today’s Grant Taylors put back on the map. A year after his move to Ohio with wife, Julie, he still skates tough, runs Karma skateboards, still plays guitar. He also doesn’t have to have his arm twisted to share a good loogie-flicking Andy Roy story… Was anybody in your family into skateboarding? Actually, my dad used to skate. I have his Super Surfer board from 1962. He etched his name onto the bottom: Leroy Tsocheff. It means a lot to me ’cause when I found the board he had passed away just two years before. I never even knew he skated. When you guys moved to Visalia, did you skate with Tom Knox a…