Recent News

Emerica pro Heath Kirchart just returned from a busy week meeting Kids across the U.S. (at an Alien Workshop demo in Florence, Kentucky and a Fast Forward skate shop appearance in Austin, Texas). Unfortunately, Heath couldn’t skate at the Alien demo due to an ankle sprain, but he should be back on his board this week to put the finishing touches on his upcoming Skateboard Mag interview. In the meantime, peep Heath on the cover of the new TWS with a gnarly bluntslide to gap out. The sequence is in the mag, as well.

Fellow Emerica ripper Leo Romero also made his way home after being on the road last week. Leo was up in Sacto and S.F. for a TWS video filming mission, where he bagged three tricks for his upcoming TWS part, due out next May. Oh, and scope the other covey Leo recently bagged!

Emericans Andrew Reynolds, Erik Ellington, Bryan Herman, Spanky, and Braydon Szafranski are still waist deep into filming for the next Baker video. No release date is set, but it should be out sometime next year.

Speaking of Baker, Emerica will be helping out with their second annual Baker Holiday Demo and Charity Product Giveaway on Saturday, December 4 at Hollenbeck Park in East L.A.

Also, there’s some new emericaskate.com features to keep you all occupied over the Thanksgiving weekend:

1. Zine Reviews by the O.G. skate ’zine innovator, GSD (of Skate Fate ’zine fame), himself. Skate Fate (1981–’91) is credited with being the first homemade skate ’zine, and is arguably responsible for establishing the genre. Check out the first two reviews of ’zines made by kids just like you, and then get creative and send us your own submissions!

2. Also, check out Emerica’s Wild in the Streets Manifesto. Any of you who made it out to the two Emerica Wild in the Streets events we did this year in NYC and Athens, Greece surely know that this event marks a paradigm shift in the way skateboard events should be run and organized. Check the Manifesto to get a better understanding of the event and see just how we skateboarders can DEFY convention and make a difference! Emerica will be sure to keep you guys posted of more Wild in the Streets events happening in cities around the globe in the coming months.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, and don’t forget to take advantage of schools and businesses being closed Thursday and Friday!

The Emerica team were keeping themselves busy over the weekend. Andrew Reynolds, Erik Ellington, Kevin Long, Leo Romero, Matt Allen and Emerica flow riders like Wes Lott and Angel Ramirez were on hand in Long Beach at the Active Ride Shop Best Trick contest held at the Long Beach Convention Center on Sunday. Some riders were unable to participate due to injuries (Andrew and Erik) and others were unable to participate due to thieving snowboard kooks (Matt Allen’s skate got stolen), but all were on hand to meet some fellow skateboarders and watch the action go down. Speaking of action going down, Leo killed it! He kickflipped into just about every trick imaginable down the makeshift park rail (kickflip into: 50/50, frontside 5-O, frontside feeble, front blunt fakie and a heelflip frontboard fakie) and hucked a nice frontside flip off the side of the pyramid and over the hubba-ledge to flat. Jon Allie and Bastien were destroying the rail, as well. The judges split the $5000 cash prize money: Bastien took the $4000 bulk of the prize with a very advanced maneuver, a Cab-flip to frontside boardslide (coming out forward) down the rail. Second place went to Jon Allie for a host of tricks including kickflip backside noseblunt, kickflip front tailslide and kickflip back tailslide. I think it was a toss-up between Leo and Jon, with my money on Leo, of course.

Meanwhile, over in Iowa on Saturday, Emerica riders Heath Kirchart and Bryan Herman were participating in a demo for Subsect skate shop in Des Moines. Despite a sore knee (Heath) and a board confiscated by airport security (Bryan), the duo, joined by guest skaters Lance Mountain and Dan Rogers, were able to pull off quite an impressive demo for the kids on hand, and some lucky kids were even treated to some free Emerica product just for showing-up.

411 recently had a poll on their web site (411vm.com) asking viewers to vote for the company that they felt consistently makes the best 411 commercials. Over 13,000 people voted and second place wasn’t even close. Can you guess who won? Here’s a hint: noted filmer Jon Miner works for the company that consistently makes the best 411 commercials, as voted by their viewers. That’s right, thanks to everybody who voted. You helped make Emerica number one in 411! We’ll do our best to keep it up.

Here’s a nifty trick that actually works to make your suede toe shoes last longer. I don’t know where it came from, but I learned it from Andrew Reynolds. I think he may have got it from Herman or Spanky, but whatever, here it is: Take a small amount of superglue and rub it lightly across the stitch lines in the toe area. Rub it right where it gets worn out from kickflips, but be careful not to use too much and only do the stitches. A tiny bit will go a long way. Any more will ruin the stylish good looks of your Emerica kicks. You should barely notice it’s there when you’re finished. If you spazz out and go overboard, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Collectors, beware! Remember the Design Erik Ellington’s Insole contest we held a while back that Brent from Pennsylvania won? Well, the winning design has been inserted into 150 random pairs of Erik’s Emerica pro-model, the Double E. Rare and limited-edition gear have been off-the-hook lately and, rest assured, skate nerds everywhere will be saving these special limited-edition pairs of shoes for one very financially rewarding day on e-Bay! Keep an eye out.