"Boys of the Summer" Skate Jam | Photo Recap

This year at Momentum we had windy weather, an injured skater and troubles with our barbecue but our fourth annual skate event was a huge success. We started off with a games of skate won by Cole, Devon and Tyler. This was followed by a best trick contest. After difficult judging by Christian, Brennan, Jeff, Derek, Tyler and myself, we decided that Kamry's Boneless 360 deserved to win it all. We then finished the day off with a product toss from all of our sponsors.

Yours Truly

Momentum | "The Boys of the Summer" Skate Jam

To celebrate another great summer of skateboarding, Momentum Skateboarding is hosting their 4th Annual Skate Jam at Centennial Skatepark on Sunday September 29th at 2PM.

The afternoon will include: 

• Refreshing Refreshments served by Vitamin Water.
• A Game of S.K.A.T.E.
• A Best Trick Contest
• Hotdogs for the homies by Chef TRON provided by Momentum Skateboarding
• Prizes thrown off the bank into a crowd.

*Prizes will be awarded to the Game of S.K.A.T.E. & Best Trick winners, which were generously provided by our sponsors (HUF Footwear, Fourstar Clothing, Spitfire Wheels, 3D Skateboards, Chance Skateboards, Plains Hardware, and of course, Momentum Skateboarding).

Hope to see you all out there! This may be the last skate sesh of the summer that we can have all together!

-Brennan

Oh and don't worry, girls are welcome too! I hope to see you there.

Yours Truly

The Motivation | Exclusive Teaser

This documentary follows the lives of eight professional skateboarders. You take a glance into each riders life and how they got to the Street League competition today. Like most documentaries, you will become connected and learn the struggles of being in the sport as well as what entices them to compete. The video includes Paul Rodriguez, Nyjah Huston, Chris Cole, Bastien Salabanzi, Sean Malto, Ryan Sheckler, Luan Oliveira and Chaz Ortiz. I look forward to seeing this!

Yours Truly

Plains Hardware | Interview

To start things off, give us a little introduction of yourself.

Hi, I’m Derek, I just started a skateboard hardware company called Plains because I love skateboarding and want to contribute positively to its growth in Canada.

A lot of people have a “light bulb” moment when coming up with a business idea, did you have one?

It started when my brother and I were making t-shirts a few years ago and we were talking about possibly sponsoring some skateboarders. To me it’s weird for a clothing company to sponsor skateboarders so I started to think of products we could make that could actually be used by skaters. Nothing ever happened with that but I always had that thought in my brain of how rad it would be to sell some legit skate products. Then I made some more t-shirts on my own and found it somewhat unfulfilling. If I was going to have a “brand” and be involved in skateboarding it had to be through a proper company and for me, hardware was the perfect choice.

Is this a project that you have been working alone on? Do you have a partner or mentor, or are you going in solo?

On the business side it’s been just me. A photographer friend of mine basically set up the team for me as a favour and I still can’t thank him enough.

And the name? How was Plains chosen?

I had this name in my head for other things I had been working on but never used it. I wanted something simple that didn’t have any inherent meaning attached to it and also a name that could somewhat describe the company as well. Plains is perfect as a nod to the type of design aesthetic and skating I prefer as well as representing where the company comes from geographically.

Do you have a vision for Plains?

To support Canadian skateboarders and skateboarding any way we can.

The skate industry is filled with large corporations and well matured companies. What generally stops smaller companies like Plains find success and growth in the market? Could be a variety of things. Maybe someone got into it for the wrong rea$on$, maybe their products suck, maybe they don’t sponsor the right skaters? It also depends on how you choose to measure success. To someone success means getting rich, to someone else it means making a living, for me at this point success is getting the company launched and having such a good team backing it and the best stores that are willing to stock it.

Past experiences lead us to our present. What sort of projects have you done previously that have given you experience?

Well as I mentioned earlier I did a t-shirt company with my brother from ’08-’11 called Single Second. We had a lot of fun doing that and learned about everything involved in producing clothing and trying to sell it to strangers. Then when we stopped doing that I kept making clothing under the brand name Heathens which is still sort of going but is now on hold so I can focus on Plains. So I had experience in starting a couple companies as well as learning how to promote them, even though I’m pretty sure I was awful at that part.

With these previous endeavors, do you have any advice for entrepreneurs?

Over 6 years ago my brother and I had an idea to make some t-shirts and be a Canadian “streetwear” brand, we put out a few designs and sent a few emails, our stuff ended up on some of the biggest blogs and websites in that scene and we sold out a number of designs fairly quick. If you really want to do something then do it, it sounds dumb but it’s that simple. Your own thoughts and doubts are usually the biggest hurdle to get over when doing something creative. But the best form of advice I could give would be to always do your own thing and to learn when to do things by yourself and when to ask for help.

Where can someone find and buy your products?

Right now Plains is stocked at Ninetimes and Momentum in Saskatoon, Tiki Room in Regina and New Board Shop in Moose Jaw. Hopefully we’ll be adding a whole bunch more locally owned skateshops before the end of summer.

Saskatoon hidden gem skatespot?

The west side. I drive by cool spots all the time but they all need to be broken in (waxed,fixed,swept etc.) and most of them would need to be skated at night. 

All time favourite professional skateboarder?

Keenan Milton

Favourite place to grab a quick bite?

EE Burritos on 22^nd

Any final words?

Keep skateboarding fun!

Thanks Derek for your time and your story. You can see what Derek has been up to via social media, hit the link to view the Plains' Facebook and Instagram.

Yours Truly

Nike SB | Skate Safari

Tour guide Trick (Blake Anderson of Workaholics) takes the tourists of Los Angeles on the Nike Skate Safari. He shows the good folks famous spots, professional ballers and unintentionally the SB riders too. The P. Rod VII will be for sale on July 5. Very tight butt hole.

Yours Truly

Momentum Marketplace | Red Cup Party & Primitive's "Pain is Beauty" Premier

Join Brennan and myself at Momentum Marketplace for the premiere of Primitive's first full skate video and Red Cup Party. There will be prizes, beverages, music and all proceeds will go to Saskatoon's indoor skate park. I hope to see you there!

Yours Truly

adidas Skateboarding | Silas in Tokyo

Cool skating, cool scenery, cool obstacles and a potentially broken jaw (2:25).



Yours Truly

SIGN THE PETITION | Help Skateboarding in Canada

I recently read this article about how Nova Scotia laws are putting skateboarders on the back burner. With this law in place, Skateboarders aren't allowed to skateboard on sidewalks anywhere (not even on their own street) and you aren't allowed to skateboard without a helmet anywhere in the city. With a total of three fines, Skateboarders are being turned away from car insurance (to remind you - for skateboarding on a sidewalk or without a helmet).

We are very fortunate with what we have for skateboarding in Saskatoon, let's prevent this law from going in a trickle effect from east to west. Let's help Canadian Skateboarding.

Please take time to read the article on CBC, and sign the petition to help our friends out east. 

SKATEBOARDING IS NOT A CRIME.

SIGN THE PETITION - HERE.

*To clear any mislead ideas, I fully support wearing a helmet. Everyone should wear a helmet, you only have one brain. The idea of singling out Skateboarding, and Skateboarders as a whole bothers me. SKATE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

the Method to my Madness,

Ninetimes Presents Pretty Sweet

ICECREAM

Pharrell has re-launched the ICECREAM skate team. When I heard this, I was really excited. The video introduces the team and shows some big and technical tricks. I have a feeling that they are about to become one of my favourite skate teams.



Yours Truly

Nike SB: Skate Every Damn Day

Momentum Marketplace Clip

Here's a video Brennan made for the Momentum blog. It features me fooling around and manualing a pad behind the shop. And just to make it clear, I got the trick the first three times. Brennan just decided to put in some additional trials to make it look like I struggled.



Featured on Fromthefeetup.

Love the North

Zoo York Presents Chaz Ortiz

ZOO YORK PRESENTS: THE CHAZ ORTIZ VIDEO from ZOO YORK on Vimeo.

This video is ridiculous, Brennan showed it to me yesterday. I personally don't think it's as good as Nyjah Huston's last Element part but it was definitely crazy. There are long 50's, feeble kickflips and 360 varial heelflips. I know we hear this a lot but Chaz will be part of the future of skateboarding

Love the North

Cliche x adidas - Lucas Puig Pro Model

After seeing Lucas Puig's new pro model on Hypebeast, I found out that we would be receiving these at Momentum Marketplace too. The graphic is very simple but I love it. There is a black model with a size 8 width and this blue one which is 8.1. I don't collect boards but only skate them, otherwise I would have definitely copped both of them. I gripped it tonight and got to skate it for about an hour. So far, so good! The concave isn't as deep as my last board but I am able to land many of the basic flip tricks still. If you want one too, you can get them at both Momentum's here in the city or possibly online!

Love the North

Summer: Skateboarding 2012

I recently started skateboarding again after over a year. I have decided that I won't spend time re-learning all of my flip tricks but to just have fun with gapping things, cruising and manualing. I have been recently been picking up new pieces and skate gear (that I may show you in the future), but I would like to share with you some of my favourite skate parts. Although "Yeah Right" by Girl is my favourite film to date, I will select parts from different videos too! Technical and clean parts with good music can really do it for me.











Love the North

DC Teak

I recently won a pair of these from Momentum in a Battle of the Berrics contest. We all made predictions of who would advance from each round and received points for doing so. Because my picks managed to get me in second place, I got a pair of these DC Teak's.

I skated in them one for one night, and was very impressed with the comfort and style. Most shoes don't fit me fresh out of the box but these sure did. I like the camel coloured suede because it goes well with the moccasin style toe box and leather laces. For me that vulcanized sole or vulc-like sole is a must too. I haven't bought a pair of DC's for almost seven years too but I notice that they still use their classic tread pattern for grip. I can still pop decent ollies, land kick flips and be comfortable at the same time so I am quite happy with this model.

Love the North

Photo Friday: Skatepark

After a few days of rain, I figured the skateboarders would be as antsy as me to get outside.  Here's a few of the guys I saw enjoying the sun at the Lions Skatepark on Ave H.

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