Illegal skate contest in the L.A. River bed

This event happened on the DL about a month ago, somewhere in the L.A. riverbed.  This informal contest video just has a lot of damn good skating in it, and apparently was sponsored by Gorilla Energy Drink (never heard of it) and Keen Ramps.  It's just a cool, solid video if you're into street skating.  

I stumbled upon this video, while checking out a BMX video.  This came up on the side, as things do on YouTube.  As some of you may know, I worked at Vision Skateboard's video company, Unreel Productions, way back in the olden days.  We did a street skating video shoot back when street skating was a really new thing.  It happened in an empty parking lot, right on the corner of 17th and Placentia in Costa Mesa, caddy corner to the bar that had once been the legendary Cuckoo's Nest.  

In this Vision Street Wear commercial, one of the obstacles was a 4 foot high quarterpipe up against the wall of a building.  You can see 3 or 4 quick shots of that shoot in this commercial.  Kele Rosecrans was doing loud, wheel squealing, six foot high, front side power slides above that tiny ramp that day.  It was amazing.  So the quarterpipe against the wall, under the bridge, reminded me of that Vision shoot, way back in the day.  

These skaters go off, and it's great vibe for the jam/contest.  Check out the video.

For most people of Generation X, this location looks familiar because the L.A. River bed was where they filmed the iconic race scene for the movie Grease.  

The most exciting skateboard video I've seen in a long time...

Launch ramp jam in 2018?  This popped up on my YouTube feed a little while ago, and I decided to watch it before writing the blog post I had planned.  I watch a fair amount of skate clips these days.  For some reason, I've always liked watching skating and snowboarding more than BMX.  But then, I rode with skaters, and did skate tricks on my bike, for much of the time I was riding seriously.  Nollies, backside bonelesses, no comply's, and half Cab's were standard bike tricks for me.

This clip just keeps blowing your mind.  Why?  It's not just a launch ramp.  The ramp is at the top of a gnarly hill.  Launch ramp to hill bomb.  Wanna watch it now?

When I moved in the San Francisco Bay area in 1985, I knew about it's crazy hills.  But I didn't know what that meant for skateboarding.  Those hills bred skateboarders who saw the whole city as one big skatepark.  When I made it up to Golden Gate Park on a weekend, along with the BMX guys like Vander, Drob, and all, there was the other side of the Curb Dogs.  Curb Dog and Powell Peralta Bones Brigade member Tommy Guerrero, and the other S.F. locals were sessioning launch ramps near where we used to have our BMX freestyle jam circle.  I'd always go watch and shoot photos of them on my Kodak 110 camera.  They were amazing.  A couple years later, in SoCal, I'd roll by Pay-n-Play in Huntington Beach and watch the launch ramp sessions, and ride with them.  This is old school street skating taken to a new level, and these guys fucking rock it.  Mostly.

Meet Leticia Bufoni... THIS WOMAN CAN SKATE

NSFW (Not Safe For WIFE)  OK old school BMXers, are you ready to feel old, lame, AND creepy?
Meet new school skater Leticia Bufoni, a 24-year-old pro skater from Brazil.  She manages to combine the looks of a model, the body of an aerobics instructor, and the street skating skills of a hardcore pro skater.  In this clip above you can see Leticia playing the model role.  If you only watch this clip, it's safe to assume that I'm just some creepy old HAS BEEN guy.



This clip shows Leticia proving that she could beat you in a game of SKATE, unless you routinely take out guys like Nyjah Huston Chris Cole or Ryan Sheckler.  Seriously, watch this clip, it's nuts.  So what does this have to do with BMX?  In this clip, she learns how to backflip a BMX bike into a foam pit... in four tries.  Really.  OK, Daniel Dhers is coaching her, but still.  Look out world.