Quick Draw McGraw

It's a seasonably warm Sunday in early December and the first session on my winter trip to Montreal- a sunny school yard very reminiscent of southern California, except that it's 5 degrees out. It's about 3 O'clock as our session wraps up, Rasta, Max and I have been skating and filming for hours. The spot is just a plastic picnic table bench, with a bank and some good flat. Just before we depart who casually rolls through for a warm up? Zoo York's only international pro Andrew McGraw. In a period of about 30 minutes Andrew puts our three hour session to shame, just warming up. You could tell in his skating that he's a really humble dude, and considering the condition ( it's fucking freezing out- and his only companion is a homie filming on an iphone) he's definitely got some passion. Here's a few photos I was fortunate enough to poach.


bs tailslide



nollie half cab switch crooks to reg


fs crooked
this trick took me like half an hour, he did it in three tries.

Sin City

Montreal has long been known as a city synonymous with heavy drinking and partying, even since prohibition times it has had the nickname of Sin City. The face is that booze and drugs for that matter and much cheaper and more readily available in montreal, so to me it comes as a surprise that the street skating scene seems much tighter there. It could be because they don't have a dunbat or ashbridges to get sucked into, although the new P45 D.I.Y park might start to come close. Perhaps the majority of skateboarders there are on some Dustin Dollin tip and the excess of mind altering substances fuels some of the skateboarding thats going on there. All I can know for sure is that when I visit is stay with some homies that can skate as hard as they party, so Im can be sure I will be returning. Across the street from the Montreal Strip Club resides Max Cote, The Rasta Man (Shawn L.), and Marina Harlow, three of the most hospitable montreal residents I am fortunate enough to know. These photos are from the 2 weeks I spent with them inwhich I had some of the best times of my life, on and off the board.


The homies can cook!


Max Cote- Wallride


Conor Neeson-Ollie up Pivot Fakie as seen in COLOR magazine 9.5
Stoked to get my second photo published! This was the first one he landed, and also the first one the rim light actually worked out properly. The trick is really an ollie up to pivot fakie because at the bottom of the bank there is a space you can't ride up.


Steph Bough- fakie thruster


Frédérique Luyet- blunt to rock


Jeff Coopman- lean back fs rock
Thanks a million for hooking up a ride back Jeff!!


Me- Fs Crook
Max Cote photo


Leon Chapdelaine- bs tailslide


Seb Carranza- overcrook


Max Cote


RATPACK- boneless


Jesse Ramirez- fs blunt

Tangent Skate

This fall a good friend that I've grown up skating with launched his a small clothing brand called Tangent. That friend is Pat Dysart- a 19 year old Ryerson student and Skate Loft local. It comforts me somewhat to know that there are still, and will likely always be small under ground movements, resistant to the overpowering weight of corporate rule in the skateboarding industry. It's all too easy to grow up around skateboarding, feel inspired by it, and and settle for a job at a west 49 or zumies or maybe if you're lucky a legit local shop or distributor. Real passion is shown in those who throw the status quo to the wind and take a chance. For Pat Dysart that chance is Tangent Skate. Like any legitimate skateboarding brand Tangent has a growing team which consists of Nick Fulton, Aidan Bryant, and owner Pat Dysart


Pat Dysart- kick flip fakie

Pat Dysart- fs 5-0

Aidan Bryant- switch flip

Nick Fulton-bs tailslide
Andrew Roberts Photo

Occupy Toronto

The five week long occupation of St. James park by Occupy Toronto was shut down by police today, following a decision from a judge to uphold a City of Toronto trespassing by-law order. Although often muddled by media, the movement's cause is to work towards "drastic changes to economic systems that are destroying our business, social liberties, and environment." In a city where I've been beaten up once and charged for trespassing multiple times by cops just for taking photos of my friends skateboarding, I can fully empathize with Occupy after being evicted on a trespassing by-law. There seems something quite wrong to me when the right for people to have their dogs shit in the park without having to see protestors could possibly equate or somehow supersede the people's right to civil disobedience. After a few campers were dragged off and arrested from St. James park most of the protestors peacefully packed up, allowing the police to gloat in the idea that they had actually done something somewhat peacefully for once. The cops were soulfully congratulated by mayor Rob Ford who told media outlets he wanted protestors " gone NOW"

Loft Livin- Halloween Jam

December is coming, bringing with it salty streets, snow banks, and frigid sessions. This year however December will be lacking the usual foreboding sense of doom as the street skating season comes to and end. Thank God for the Skate Loft, a solid place to skate thats close by and always full of good friends and good music. Owner Everett Mclean knows the importance of keeping the loft a place to skate first, and a place to do just about anything else second. Video premiere's, shows and parties, all go down in style at the skate loft, always with the ramp jammin and likely a loose street session waiting to pop off. I can't explain how fun it is to fly around the street course, beer in hand, snaking though homies and power sliding though clique's of chicks, posers, and randoms. The Skate Loft is now open to the public from Monday to Wednesday from 1-5 P.M for $10 a session. Check the facebook page for updates on events, you can be sure to find me there.


Will Bartlett- homies band killed it


Straight Jammin



Dillon Fleming- Fs Ollie


Zach Gani- Nose Grab


"CHICKS MAKIN OUT!!!!"- good eye Butters!


Pep and Fulton- Pac and Sorcerer

First published photo

The 2012 SBC photo annual hits the shelves this week and in the Photo Feature I got my first photo run. I found it really fitting that my first photo was of Will Baigent (otherwise known as Gothika), who I grew up skating with and is probably the skate homie I've known the longest that still skates. Even though Will is older than me I think I can remember when he skated skating. A few years later I recall what was probably about my first skate mission to Cummer skatepark. I was about 12 years old and pretty much as soon as I got into the subway I somehow lost my board on the tracks. Of course I was too scared to go down and get it but the Goth felt his young inner gutter instinct kick in and he hopped down on the tracks in a second to retrieve it for a likley tearing little kid.

The Spot is also one that I've been skating for years and SBC is the mag that I grew up on, so I couldn't be more stoked. Huge thanks to Andrew Norton for hooking it up!

Will Baigent- Fs Smith

Footage is in this montage Tomas Morrison made at around 5:13

ROB FORD BLOWING IT

Reasons to HATE Rob Ford

-He's Opposed funding to build bike lanes
-He Axed "Transit City" and light rail transit after 137 million had already been spent
-During his election campaign he promised "no service cuts, guaranteed” which then changed to “no major service cuts,” and then “no service cuts in 2011,” Sadly now the line is that “these are not service cuts but efficiencies.”
-Rob supports penalizing small businesses regarding graffiti
-Not only has Mayor Rob Ford’s handpicked Toronto Library Board cut 100 librarians and other staff, they also propose to close 38 neighbourhood branches, increase children’s overdue book fines by 150%, allow corporate sponsors and shut down the North York Central Library which circulates more than one million items every year. (It's got so bad that last time I skated a library spot, I was apparently kicked out because "this building is under threat by Rob Ford" according to the boot that came if the form of a nice librarian.)

-When confronted with a television comedy skit at his home our mayor actually called the police, and in the 10 minutes that it took for the police to arrive two more calls were made, one in which rob allegedly said "You … bitches! Don't you f--king know? I'm Rob f--king Ford, the mayor of this city!"
-Although the tapes were never released the chief of police did release a statement calming that rob did not call 911 operators bitches in spite of the several anonymous reports believed to come from inside the toronto police service that claim otherwise.
-The release from the Police Chief came a week after a 50 percent reduction in the budget cuts that were planned to axe jobs in the police force.

CBC has the full story here, peep
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/10/27/rob-ford-911-call.html?cmp=rss



Hey now Rob, I knows it's probably a physical impossibility for you to have ever ridden a bike in your life but maybe, just maybe, sometimes bikers get hurt because there is a LACK of bike lanes. People are going to bike wether you like it or not, you really might as well make it safe for them.

ALL NIGHTER

Over the summer the vibe seemed to be shoot photos during the day and film at night. This summer was so hot I think it was just too humid during the day to go hard filming, so that routine seemed to become the daily schedule over the past few months. I think I started filming this around the time I broke my view finder cable and was unable to fix it, so most of the night setting are complete shit cause I can't see what I'm filming. Since then I got a new light and learned some better night settings which I used it on andre's back tail line.

In order of appearance: Jonathan Rakhsha, Nick Young, Jessie Tessier, Herber Davy, Philip Saunders, Tyjae Farrugia-Armstrong, Malcolm Yarde, Weapon (Thaddeus Lenover), Andre Besner, ANTZ ONE, Zack Ferguson, Justin Ellion


Jonathan Rakhsha-Bs Tail


Mathieu Thibeault-Fs Feeble


Roone McLaughlin- Pop shove


Zack Ferguson-Fs smith to disaster.


Kevin Tio- Fakie flip


Herbert Davy- Fs smith


Joel Scullard-Ollie

Kush Diet Commercial

A very quick commercial I made for Kush Diet

Malcom Yarde 21 questions coming soon, going to be the first live video interview.

In Between Sessions

Stuff that I think is cool outside of skateboarding



I have been really enjoying the random musical performances that seem to spawn around town like flash mobs- Pharcyde at Dundas Square


The Roots- Roy Thompson Hall


This was a really lame launch party for sport check. They had models like mannequins in winter coats and snow pants in full makeup just chillin on pedestals. It was like 30 degrees and a few of em were sweating so much their make up was running, sometimes I really don't understand this industry. There was also a dude walking with shaved off eyebrows serving shrimp cocktails as if it were completely normal. These two chicks are DJ Mia Moretti and Violinist Caitlin Moe were the best part of the party, that and free booze.


A bored walk


leaf-lit


Thaddeus in his natural habitat


Nuclear winter anyone?