blade or die

It’s comp season. Well, there’s still a long way to go before the WRS finals, but  that only means there are comps going off everywhere.

Last Man Standing looked like it was yet another HUGE event in NYC, even if it is “only” a four-star event for the World Rolling Series.

I mean, shit, it looks like there was barely enough room to land a trick:

Mark Wojda (pronounced Vo-dah) beat out Brian Aragon — a feat few mortal men can do — for first place. The Prince, however, did take the second seat.

Check out more of the photos at Be-Mag and a collection of even more media on Rolling Updates. (Read more thoughts on this below.)

And then on the other side of the country, some of our lady friends were back for the Super Girl Jam in SoCal. A HUGE congrats goes out to San Francisco’s Fallon Heffernan for finishing first, despite getting hung up on a basketball hoop:

Check out some footage of the comp from A Chosen Few.

SHRED 2:

For those of you who enjoyed Shred ‘Til You’re Dead, be very, very happy. The crew — with some new guests — are off on tour again, skating, camping, and most likely enjoying the fuck out of themselves.

While there’s no promo edit like last year, there are wee little hints of what’s going on, if you’re paying enough attention like I do:

Well, maybe it’s because Shred grand-daddy himself, Ivan Narez, may or may not be my roommate, I’m pretty fucking sure this video is going to kick as much ass as the last one. If not more.

Stay tuned for that one.

WHAT MEMORY REALLY MEANS:

Saturday was a big day when it came to “memorials.” There was a session in honor of the late James Short as well as people skating in memory of Brian Scott of NYC. People got together, shared memories of their friends, skated their fucking hearts out, and possibly shed some blood. They kept memories alive by honoring them.

The same day, in the same country, tens of thousands of people chose to do something: they chose to wipe their asses with the memories of a monumental day in the civil rights movement and man who fought tirelessly to united people.

Awesome. Fucking awesome.

If you’re not scared by all this, you haven’t been paying attention.

Rollerblading is awesome.We know how to honor great friends.

America, well, some of us are really fucked up.

Oh yeah, check out the James Short Memorial Skate Session from Hawke Trackler.

ROLLERBLADING CAN TEACH YOU STUFF:

Hopefully, you’ve heard of Vinny Minton. The only real excuses if you haven’t is that a.) you’re 10 or b.) you started skating last week. Either way, Vinny has been the star of numerous massive sections, as well as having like eight or nine pro skates or something like that.  And he’s shot some videos, too.

And I’d like to go ahead and say more, but someone else wants to say something.

It’d be just a normal day if someone mentioned Vinny’s shooting skills, but this guy has a bit more street credit than most. Check out the right side of this next one:

Yup, the executive producer of the TV show House. Not a bad person to put as a letter of reference. Oh, and what’s that thing he “discovered” that he linked to on his Twitter account?

Yeah, you might have seen that before.

See, so if Vinny can be a self-taught master of shooting mainly from blading flicks and get paychecks like the ones they hand out onset at House, then all that time you’re spending shooting videos of your friends could actually mean a career someday. Or maybe not, but it’s a good excuse if your parents/girlfriend are always on your back for skating so much.

You may never be as good as Vinny, but it’s at least worth trying.

Blade or Die,

— Brian Krans