Skatepunk

Congratulations to Chris Cole, who has been named Thrasher's 2009 Skater of the Year. Only the second person to ever win it twice, Cole also won in 2005, and has been on an all-terrain reign of shredding ever since. Contests, magazines, demos, and most important, video parts -- Cole's done it all. Hell, he's mastered it all over the last five years. He's even opened a shop in his hometown to support the scene... And a great guy to boot. The stuff legends are made of, we're seeing one of the best ever, right now.

Here's Jake Phelps with the congratulatory phone call:

This is one of the best things I've seen this year:

The Zero video "Strange World" premiered last night in Encinitas. As expected, it's a great video, with some great surprises. I condensed my notes into a simple twitter screen grab last night, but here's the complete version:

To start, the owner of the La Paloma Theatre told Jamie Thomas that if the tape wasn't at the theatre at 630pm, he'd cancel the event, and Jamie made it with four minutes to spare. Some things never change. I'm glad he made it. Prior to the late start time, I was quite entertained listening to Jake Phelps (sitting behind me) talk about everything from who sucks and who rips to how bad he hated the music that was playing (Joy Division). Jake's got a great way of making pretty much everything he says entertaining.

Some random clips of when I happened to be in the arena and too bored to just sit there... point the camera, press the button. Put 'em in a timeline and hit "share" and "YouTube." Obviously, any idiot can do it!