Kicking-off 2004 with non-stop skateboarding destruction, the Emerica crew is headed to the southland for one of the best tours of the year—The Dirty South Kids In Emerica Tour.
Emerica Team:
Andrew Reynolds
Heath Kirchart
Erik Ellington
Tosh Townend
Bryan Herman
Leo Romero
Matt Allen
Dates & Locations:
Friday, Jan 9
SPoT
Tampa,...
Firstly, let me apologize for taking so long to update your Emericaskate.com news. Wintertime, the holidays and vacation time (in Mexico!) have conspired to slow the rate of output from your humble narrator’s desk. That’s not to say, however, that nothing’s been happening. Oh, quite the contrary! Some secret missions from Emerica pro Heath Kirchart have been regular as of late. Seems Heath is fully recovered from the recent chronic knee pain that’s been holding him back the past month or so. Not so fortunate, however, is new Emerica pro Kevin Long. Spanky, who was similarly suffering from some acute knee discomfort, finally got a professional diagnosis and underwent minor knee surgery last week to fix the problem. No worries, though. This was no ACL-type surgery, and Spanky is already off the crutches and should be back on his new Baker pro model deck before the New Year!
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You asked for it! You got it! In the More section, you will find the first in our series of Emericaskate.com "Member’s Only" interviews. After pouring over the nearly three-hundred questions you guys asked him, Emerica pro Heath Kirchart spent his Thanksgiving weekend coming up with answers to his Top 20 favorite questions. Thanks to everyone who participated. Stay...
Alive! Emerica team riders Andrew Reynolds, Bryan Herman and Kevin Long made it home alive from Puerto Rico today. The boys were on a Baker tour with Thrasher magazine and report that, despite the daily rains, the kids at the demos were amped to see them and they even managed to bring home some footage for our Kids in Emerica tour video, scheduled for release in Spring 2004.
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Emerica team riders invade Puerto Rico! Emerica riders Andrew Reynolds, Kevin Long and Bryan Herman landed in Puerto Rico last Friday, November 7 to embark on a ten-day Baker tour of the tropical island paradise. While intermittent showers have played havoc on the crew’s plans for street skating, their demo-filled itinerary has been keeping them more than busy enough....
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.
Calling all Kids in Emericas living in the greater De Moines, Iowa region! Emerica riders Heath Kirchart and Bryan Herman will be appearing at a skateboard demo for Subsect skate shop THIS SATURDAY, November 1. Don’t miss your chance to hang-out with Heath and Bryan and watch them skate in person. Both of these guys kill demos, so it’s well worth your time to make...
Anybody go to the Damn Am contest held at the Volcom warehouse in Costa Mesa, California last weekend? Well, if you did, you got to see some pretty impressive skating from Emerica ams like Leo Romero, Matt Allen and Bryan Herman. I missed qualifying day on Saturday, but judging from the results posted on the Damn Am site, Bryan must’ve been having a hard time out there during his runs. When, a day later, Bryan was asked to comment from Joey Poiriez’s house in San Diego on his disappointing contest showing in Costa Mesa, Bryan seemed shocked and amused by the news that he finished in 99th place. "I got 99th?" he asked, forcing back what sounded like a laugh (but very well could’ve been a cry), "That sucks!"
Matt and Leo seemed to fare a bit better, and both of them made the cut into Sunday’s semi-finals. Matt ended up taking 28th place when all was said and done, but Leo advanced to the finals with some entertaining mid-run antics and some incredible skateboarding. Midway through one run, Leo took a break on the platform of the flatbank to get a quick back and neck rub from a pretty redhead, who sent him back onto the course to complete his run with a swift pat on the ass. Not one to do the same line twice, during another run, Leo stopped in front of 411 filmer Vern Laird and exchanged his board for a video camera. Leo proceeded to film Vern attempt a kickflip, then they exchanged again and Leo finished-up his run. On another run, Leo passed his board off to Emerica flow rider Angel Ramirez, who landed a nice kickflip to fakie on a quarterpipe before handing Leo his board back in time for Leo to take up his run again. Leo came up with something to look forward to in each run and ultimately walked away from the entire spectacle in 7th place overall. Not to be forgotten, Emerica flow riders Rick Eusey (9th place) and Johnny Layton (23rd place) also skated nicely all weekend. Mystery skateboards’ Ryan Bobier took home the victory this year.
Although he wasn’t skating in the contest, Spanky showed-up both days to support his fellow Emerica teammates. At least that’s what he told us he was doing there, but for some reason, I don’t get the impression his attention was focused strictly on skateboarding the whole time.
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Be sure to check out our new Emerica T-Shirt Design Contest, in which you can print out a T-shirt template, draw an Emerica graphic and win great prizes. Winners will be chosen by the Emerica team. Don’t lag—the contest ends January 15, 2004.
You wanted it, you asked for it in your Blabs’ now you’ve got it. Check out the new Emerica Ad Archive in the More section with all of your favorite Emerica team riders wrecking shit in the most memorable Emerica ads—and maybe a few you missed.
