Hi-Fi New York

Remember former Syracuse great and NBA player Billy Owens? If you’re a hoops fan, you probably do; and if you’re a Bay Area balla, then you definitely do. Anyway, according to a news story in the Dallas Morning News (scroll about halfway down), Owens’ coaching career with the Mavericks was put on hold due to a skateboarding mishap. From the Morning News:

There’s a reason nobody over the age of 19 rides a skateboard.

Billy Owens knows that now.

Owens is just starting his coaching career. He was in the Mavericks’ training camp as part of a trial run, and Johnson called at the end of camp and told Owens he would be added to the player-development staff.

One problem. Owens had been playing with his kids and made the mistake of trying to jump a ramp on his son’s skateboard.

A cracked pelvis, abdominal tear and groin injury later, Owens had to tell Johnson he wouldn’t be able to travel until after Thanksgiving.

“Thankfully, Avery told me just to get better and rejoin the team when I could,” Owens said.

Owens got back with the team to start his duties this week.

I leave it to you to take exception to the first sentence of that entry.

Otherwise, I’ve always felt that skateboarding is the most difficult sport in existence. I played high-school basketball and college soccer, yet nothing required as much coordination as skating. Nothing even came close, to be honest.

Now, I have more proof than ever. In the form of a former NBA player’s busted pelvis. Thanks for taking one for the team, Billy.

I know this isn’t new or anything, but I love this interview that Slap did with Jason Adams. In it, Adams talks about switching sponsors, feeding his kids, and what it’s like to still be in the game at the age of 34. Here, Adams talks about where his signature “just go faster” style came from:

From the start, I knew I didn’t really have the talent to do what was going on at the time. I’m coming up and there’s guys like Guy Mariano and Jason Lee doing their thing, and I knew I couldn’t really tré flip like that so I decided to try to do this other thing—and do it faster.

Interesting guy. Also, I know I’ve pushed this “Best of” before, but if you ain’t seen it, please click this ish. Then leave a 20 in the tip jar. Danke.

The Lakai guys stopped off in Tokyo to show off their new joint and Rick McCrank checked in with Crailtap from the Far East with a gallery of candid goodness, featuring Eric Koston, Alex Olson and others. (Random, but young Olson bears a striking resemblance to Josh Hartnett, no? Not that I stay up at night thinking about these things, mind you.)

I feel like this is worth documenting, if only for posterity’s sake. On Crailtap today, Lakai’s Kelly Bird tells the story behind the name of the shoe company that just might change its name to “Yeah, that’s right, we’re the guys that put out ‘Fully Flared’.” In Bird’s words:

There was this dude that used to frequent Frisco raves back in the day. He was always sipping Hawaiian Punch/ OE straight out the bottle and stealing the hats and/or sunglasses of all the girls around him, being all cute with them and shit. Somehow– as puzzling as it was– it always worked for him. The dude’s name was Malakai, and Lakai is a tribute to him.

• FOOTY: Runaway full-pipe? Leave it to the Germans. You gotta see this ish. (Tailtap: Skate Daily)
• FOOTY: Allow a three-flipping Jason Lee to welcome you to the new Stereo site. (TT: Skate Daily)
• FOOTY: A preview of the next Epicly Later’d featuring John Cardiel. Even more of a must-see than das Deutsche Krazy-Pipe ding. (TT: Thrasher)
• NEWS: Cancer Dan will now be draping his bones in Elwood threads. Drehobl joins Kenny Anderson and Anthony Pappalardo.
• FOOTY: Zoo York gets after it in China. I watched the podcast, but I’m pushing the YouTube. Featured riders include Zered Bassett, Brandon Westgate, Anthony Shetler, Matt Miller and Donny Barley.
• SOUNDS: Rick McCrank has an audio podcast interview thingy at Mumble Magazine. (TT: Slap)
• Q&A: Brandon Biebel talks to Kingpin about the making of Fully Flared. (TT: Slap)
• FOOTY: The latest installment of éS’s “Where’s That Spot?” takes Rick McCrank, Justin Eldridge, Danny Garcia, Bobby Worrest and Silas Baxter-Neal to some public art in Poland. Goes down like a fine wine. Take a sip. Oh yeah, this is also downloadable via podcast. (TT: Slap)

Thanks to my good friend Yuck at Velocity Skateshop (Md.) for forwarding this vid link, which is nothing less than Krooked Skateboards’ “Gnar Gnar” in its entirety. Watch it here.

Last round of “Fully Flared” links, I swear. Anyway, the following people posted photos from the Lakai premiere: Skateboarder, Vital Skate, and Crailtap. I gave Crailtap the closing part because, well, it’s obviously just the right thing to do.

Rob Brink (of robbrink.com fame) has posted a ton of great footage from the 2006 X Games. According to Brink, Transworld dubbed the ‘06 (not ‘07) X-Games “the best street contest you’ll never see” because ESPN never aired the contest. Brink himself says ‘06 was “waaaay better” than ‘07. Luckily for all of us, Brink has edited and uploaded his footy from the contest. Clips he’s posted include: Leo Romero, Dennis Busenitz, Billy Marks and Johnny Layton, and an overall montage (featuring guys like Nilton Nieves, Adolfo Ramos, Tommy Sandoval, Ryan Sheckler and Paul Rodriguez).

Or just go to robbrink.com for more. All in all, great coverage of a lost contest.

A Dominion gent was lucky enough to attend the “Fully Flared” premiere. We’re lucky because he breaks it down part by part. Bottom line? The video is mesmerizing, and Guy Mariano is tha mang.

Well, according to this and this, Lakai’s “Fully Flared” was nothing short of brilliant. So, based on these reviews, I’m going to give it a 6.5 out of 6.5. I’ll give it a 10 out of 10 after I see it. On YouTube. Eight months from now. (I don’t spend money on skate DVD’s. I spend das scrilla solely on tacos, bus tickets and the occasional Richard Ford book. Pro skaters is rich enough as it is! Pro authors, meanwhile, don’t get no soda commercials, kids. Think about it … Actually, don’t. If you’re anything like me, you’ll just get depressed and spend the next six days eating Funyuns.)

(Photo by jenerally speaking)

Well, I know everyone’s all up ons Lakai’s “Fully Flared” right about now, seeing how it dropped last night and all, but I wasn’t lucky enough to get a ticket to the premiere (not am I lucky enough to live on the left coast … nor am I fortunate enough to actually know anyone remotely affiliated with Lakai, Four Star, etc.), so this Krooked “Naughty” trailer is all I’ve got for now.

Which is actually plenty. If this trailer’s any indication, Gonz is really putting his mark on the Krooked vids: quirky and impressionistic, with some 80’s-ish pop-type-stuff. But the best part is seeing some of his animations come to life. I’d purchase the DVD just for those alone.

Anyway, seeing Gonz in a bandeezie (I think it’s him, at least; the pixelated video makes it hard to tell) left me hoping he films his next part in a pair of zebra-striped weightlifting pants. That’d be enough to lift anyone’s spirits on a rainy, cold Saturday afternoon.

• PHOTO: Why is Crailtap the greatest site ever? Because they get access to photos like this one of the Gonz in the snow in Tokyo … which sound like lyrics to a great 80’s song if you think about it.
• PHOTO: Speaking of the Gonz and songs from the 80’s, NAUGHTY!
• Q&A: Wanted to write more about this, but sometimes life gets in the way of blogging, you know? Either way, Thrasher has a Burnout interview with he of short-shorts, dreads, bare feet and gobs of personality, Daniel Haney.
• FOOTY: Flip demo in Sun Diego! Mark Appleyard, Geoff Rowley, Rune Glifberg, Curran Caples, Louie Lopez, David Gonzalas, and Luan De Oliveira join forces to save the planet.
• Q&A: Slap talks to “the only NorCal dude on Zoo York,” Matt Miller.
• NEWS: If you’re in New York, there’s an Autumn Bowl benefit on Friday. Ayep.
• NEWS: And if you’re in Oregon, Osiris will be premiering their video “Feed the Need” on Saturday.
• SHOP: Deluxe put their holiday catalog online. Sweet.
• FOOTY: Via Marina trailer. Watch.
• FOOTY: Pretty Skateboards’ Girl Talk trailer. Great stuff. And I’m probably only making an ass of myself by mentioning it, but I’m sure they know about this guy, who, I’m sorry, but shreds harder than any one of you. In his own way, of course.

• FOOTY: Thrasher has an old vid of Danny Way and Colin McKay killin’ the old Plan B ramp back in 1997. Definitely worth checking out.
• FOOTY: Red Bull has a podcast of Zered Bassett, Danny Supa and Ron Deily hanging out at company headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif. Highlights include the gents hitting a huge indoor transition, and multiple cases of Red Bull being skate-lifted out of the facility. You can download it here. But you’re gonna need iTunes, stupid.
• FOTO: The guest front-page poster over at Da ‘Tap this week is Slap editor Mark Whitely. Today he ran a touching photo of Marc Johnson, Jerry Hsu and Louie Barletta chillin’ back in San Jose in 2000. Good eats.
• FOOTY: Element’s latest Audio-Visual offering is Collin Provost and buds hitting up the Santa Ana park (Tailtap: The Skateboard Mag)
• NEWS: Gonna be in Dubai in December? Yeah? Then you should still skip this.

Transworld has a solid interview with filmer Ty Evans about Lakai’s soon-to-be-released video, “Fully Flared.” Ty explains everything from why the flick took so long to finish to whether YouTube is killing the skate video. He also responds to claims that his music choices suck:

“I think people are right. A lot of the music I use does suck. But I think it’s cool to use different music. If everyone likes what you’re doing, maybe you’re doing something wrong. I think criticism is fine.”

Definitely read the whole interview for all the juicy details.

Fully Flared drops this Friday, Nov. 16. And planet earth might splinter into millions of tiny pieces on Nov. 17. Just sayin’.

(Photo: Share the Air)

FOOTY: Strange Notes shoots Lizard King (Tailtap: The Skateboard Mag)
FOOTY: DVS catches up with Keith Hufnagel Also up as a PodCast
NEWS: Bob Burnquist heads down new IPATH
NEWS: Young GVR ruler Luan De Oliveira jumps on with Flip
NEWS: Corey Duffel and Roky Erickson collabo-deck
RNDM: Enjoi wants you to eat cottage cheese