blade or die

Yup. That's real.

If you’re into things like the 9th Annual Windy City Riot, seeing skaters you might not know, and people touring from Massachusetts to Upstate New York to Ohio to Indiana to Chicago to Iowa and STILL not anywhere near the end of their tour (and some 40+-year-old killer shredding), you should check out the Vagabond Tour. Below is part of the tour so far with Gabe Holm and friends.

Monday Montage #1 from Gabe Holm on Vimeo.

And if that’s not enough, click here to see a POV shot of the infamous 244 rail in lovely Nebraska. You might want to take your motion sickness medication first. It’s both moving and sick (ba-da-bum!)

Speaking of Iowa….

QUAD CITY IOWA RIVER RUMBLE

When your friends aren’t out telling everyone they have AIDS or punching incoming footballs mid-air, there’s usually some blading. And that’s good. Sometimes, you should get together and have yourselves a nice friendly competition.

If you’ve never been to Davenport, Iowa to skate the gargantuan free, public skate park, you’re missing out on some good shit. Worse, if you’ve never been to the Iowa River Rumble, you’re really missing out on some good fun.

Sure, there’s the grueling heat with a nasty heat index and no shade. Sure, there’s the nasty 20-minute qualifying runs. Hell, we can’t have a year go by where someone doesn’t get leg cramps that render them useless. But that’s all part of the fun.

This last Saturday the Iowa kids brought friends from Illinois, Nebraska, and Wisconsin (including appearances from bladers from Arizona, California, and China) for the third installment of the now-yearly comp.

It was awesome.

In the end, Remz flow rider Logan Clark (you may remember him from the Duck Hunt saga a few weeks ago) took home the golden mallet (which might be a battle ax next year if we can manage it), a stash of cash, a ton of free goods and a pair of free Valos (which could make for interesting things in the sponsorship world).

Mike Froemling of Beer City (read: Milwaukee) not only took second place overall, but also won the BladeorDie.com best trick competition. Whether he won for the fakie 720 over a huge hip or the 450 KG to full cab out on the sub box is still under debate. The judges will get back to you on that.

What should also be mentioned is third-place finisher Dustin Dieter of Colorado/Nebraska. Not only did he skate extremely smoothly with a huge grin on his face, but he did so in a pair of USDs from 2001. That’s awesome times 10.

As with any comps, sponsorship was huge. A BIG thank you is due to the IRR sponsors: Valo, TheM Goods, Aggressive Mall, Trust Mfg., Sunshine Dist. (which includes Razors, Remz, Ground Control, Jug and others), eRolling Skate Shop, and every blader who coughed up money to compete.

While we’re waiting for all the footage to be chopped, watch the Remz commercial for their new HR skate. It’s got a quick clip of Logan doing that kind of weird stuff that helps wins competitions.

And since I’m back in San Francisco, this must be mentioned…

FREE APPLES!

Window at RIP SF premiere

For those of you who haven’t seen the latest installment in Sean Sea‘s Apple series, there’s relief, you cheap bastards.

The full thing is now available on Vimeo (and conviniently grouped together here thanks to Rollernews) for your viewing pleasure. And I highly recommend it, and not just because it’s based here in lovely San Francisco.

While confusing at times, the video follows a staggered plot of Sean Sea attempting to say his farewell to SF and move to LA. It’s a damn good thing thing he’s got some excellent company whilst he does it. Skaters like Hayden Ball, Danny Murder, and SF street shredding master Kevin Yee (and an honorable street skating mention for Mr. Tommy “Bistro” Boy) give awesome examples that rollerblading will always be defined by its street skating, not in parks.

So, watch that shit.

And to all my 9 faithful readers: sorry it’s so short again. My vacation ended only a few hours ago and I’m running late for work.

Blade or Die,

— Brian Krans