Ryan Smith Makes His "Pro" Mark On The Cover of Transworld

In 2003 Ryan Smith was well-known on the Zero skate team and now he is well-known yet again with a rad lipslide on the front of Transworld Skateboarding magazine.

It all began at Black Box when he was shown that he made the cover. "Oh, I'm on the cover, sweet", were his words. With such humbleness he made it onto more covers of other skating magazines and then doors opened up when he got his own show.

He went to resign his DC contract when they told him that people were asking for a shoe in honor of Smith. DC then told him they were starting a new company, Mystery, and he would be pro.

As he was filming for the The DC Video one of his last tricks he performed was the lipslide. Although he was not expecting to make the cover, he did with great poise. "You're just thinking 'Do this trick because I'm out in California to skate'. Both Smith as well as the rest of the DC skate team and Mystery team can be seen on The DC Video.


Skate Vocabulary:
Lipslide - the "lip" or end of the board is sliding across the rail
Rad - another word for awesome
Black Box - skatepark
DC Shoes - skate shoe/clothing company
Mystery - skate deck/shoe/clothing company

APT North Shore Tow-In Surfing

With a $25,000 purse, surfers did not pass up the oppurtunity to surf the 3rd Annual Bank of Hawaii North Shore Tow-In Surfing Championship. APT, the Association of Professional Tow-Surfers, started the tour with waves in the range of 12-18 feet, the perfect size to kick off the tour.

Teams were out and about at 6 in the morning getting their jet-ski's ready and waxing their boards for the perfect heat. Team Dustin Barca and Sion Milosky pulled off a 720 to advance from that heat, but did not make it to the semi-finals. Every time was doing their best with each having very high scores.

Later in the afternoon the wind began to pick up and a swell had picked up. The average wave came to about 15 feet with faces in 20-30 foot range.

It was the native Hawaiian's competition all day although Team Carlos Burle and Eraldo Gueiros put up a fight to enjoy second place. Team Makua Kai Rothman and Ikaika Kalama were the surfers of the day pulling out an even 27 in the final heat against Team Carlos Burle and Eraldo Gueiros who had a 20.9. "This is for the Hawaiians", said Makua Kai Rothman, a native Hawaiian. Team Makua Kai Rothman and Ikaika Kalama pulled off the win taking in $9,300 each.




Surfing vocabulary:
Heat - preleminary round before the labeled semi-finals and finals

Tow-Surfing - extreme surfing in a nutshell; the strongest surfer cannot catch a 25 foot wave by paddling himself so a jet-ski is used to help him/her catch the wave like it is "towing" the surfer, but the surfer eventually lets go of the rope to the jet-ski

Face of a wave - how tall the wave gets before crashing; the wave gets to a peak height but then gradually lessens in height.

Swell - a period of time where a lot of very good waves are coming in

Waxing - the board is waxed so the surfer does not slip on the board with all the water coming to the board. It's like griptape on a skateboard, just for a surfboard.

Any questions on anything else in the blog just comment and I'll be sure to tell you.
Oh, how's the font and background?

Bachelor Grand Prix - Snowboard

After the Winter X-Games ended just over a week ago, the Mt. Bachelor Grand Prix began yesterday, Feb. 3 and some familiar faces of the X-Games are joining this year's Grand Prix. In the men's halfpipe, Steve Fisher returns after winning first place at the halfpipe competition at the X-Games. Fisher scored a 44.50 to win the competition. Fisher compiled his tricks in the perfect set to win and was able to stay in first place all the way through finals. Louie Vito came in a close second behind Fisher with a 39.60. Vito put together a frontside 10 to a cab 7 to a frontside 9 and backside 9 all in one combo and landed it. Although very difficult to land and pull off, it just wasn't enough to get a first place spot. In the women's halfpipe, Kelly Clark took first place and owned the mountain throughout the whole day. She recieved a score of 46.00 beating out the winner of the men's competition, a first at the Grand Prix. Elena Hight held on to a tight second place race against Gretchen Bleiler with a 41.80 to 41.10. Today, the Grand Prix continues with the slopestyle competition.