Category Archives: Uncategorized

sunday funday.

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We got the band back together and headed to Squaw Valley.

Headed straight up Granite Peak for some goodies.

Jesse from Idaho. Tucked knee tail grab. Day one for him. Conditions haven’t been too kosher up in Idaho. Seems this weird little phenomenon called “El Nino” has been making haste toward California and leaving other places low tide. Get some brother, get some.

Jesse is stoked. You would have been too if you’d have seen these conditions.

Looking down from Granite Peak.

JLS scraping before he gets hucky.

The Z-Train was throwing power maneuvers.

Oates slashes for days.

We ran into these dudes in the parking lot. Glad to see friends from junior high and high hchool still laying down the gnar. Big ups, Keyon & Arvi.

The Z-Train in full R.E.M. Mode. Sleeping is fun.

The worst ski rack ever. Seriously, that shit is about to fall off.

All and all, another sunday funday.

Don’t let winter pass you by.

Buh-Bye.

Words: Oates

Photos: JLS

screaming can.

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The Screaming Can. A graffiti piece in Buenos Aires, Argentina, discovered by Brooke Calmes from Skateworks whilst on vacation. The Screaming Hand is one of the most influential and iconic pieces of skateboard art ever done. Drawn by Jim Phillips in the early 1970s, Phillips is quite possibly the single most important artist in the history of skateboarding. I still get stoked every time I see the Screaming Hand. Heck, I’ve got a friend who tattooed it on his hand.

As Jim stated in his book, “Surf Skate & Rock Art of Jim Phillips,” Jim said,  “Our Company wanted to stay away from skeletons. Powell, one of our biggest competitors, had everything with bones and skeletons. To me, the only fun thing left was fleshy monsters and mixed up body parts. That’s why you saw so much of that stuff on our boards. Nonetheless, Screaming Hand was one of those designs I had to talk them into. The hand is the most familiar thing you ever see, you’ve always got them in front of your face. That’s why it really clicks. Then you add the raw emotion that a hand can convey by clenching, like someone drowning, and add in what else, a screaming mouth? A hacked wrist? It’s about as aggro as you can get!”

pro ojs.

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New OJ’s out today, friends. 53mm 99a durometer Chet “Luda Crooks” Childress. Beautiful graphic done by Chet himself. Looks great, feels great, will ride smooth and flow like you g0t full suspension underneath ya. Next up, Jason “The Kid” Adams is a 55mm 99a durometer wheel also. A tad bigger than the Chet wheel – this wheel is a tranny killer;  proceed with caution. Epic hick graphic too. Is that Hank Williams, Sr.? Rad. The big boy, a 58mm Neil Blender Wheel (also in 99a durometer) is classic Blender stylings. Shred all three. And no, Al doesn’t ride for OJ. But he rides for Creature, so that’s practically the same thing. Anyhoot, shred on brothers and sisters.

Guess what else is getting screened?

Salba Tiger reissues available next week in white and blue colorways.

We live to get radical.

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“I’ve been to every city in Mexico. I came across an unclaimed piece of meat in Baja, turned out to be Rosie. I guessed he picked a knife fight with somebody better. Found one of your passports to Sumatra, I missed you by about a week at Fiji. But, I knew you wouldn’t miss the fifty year storm, Bodhi.” Johnny Utah, Point Break

We arrived around the time the storm was supposed to be moving through with the rumor of sunshine to follow. Instead, we rode two days while sticky little fluffy flakes steadily dropped.

Some old kooky ski dude tried getting lippy with us in a lift line about his ridiculous ski streamers hanging behind his two planks. Tuck those things into your pants next time will you, guy?

“No one asked for your opinion,” he barked as he shuffled off.

No, but you trip someone up with those things and you’ll get more than just an opinion, friend. His wife understood; she held hers in a show of embarrassed admission.

We rode balls-deep, sometimes chest-deep powder – blower powder. The type that lifts after a nice toe to heel, spraying you and hopefully the friend behind you. You hoot a lot. At times you get the “white room” treatment. Sometimes you get the snowman treatment. Sometimes you drop a cliff into soft stuff and forget to heel cut and give the trees a little trim.

We didn’t bring our snorkels. We rode plenty of first chairs. We hung out in a wooden tee-pee. We drank Gold medal winning blue ribbon beer. We philosophized on the topics of Genesis, Craig Kelly, Phil Collins, 747s, Bruce Dickinson, Splitboarding and weiner dogs. Inside jokes were made at our own expense.

It dumped eight feet in Tahoe this weekend, friends. Days like this put it in perspective. They remind you that you’re just a small part of a much bigger picture.

This was the storm some kooky weatherman coined as “the western wallop.” It was no doozy, but it was exactly what we needed.

Go snowboarding, friends.

It’s the key to your success, your salvation or just a great excuse to call in sick.

Run for the hills.

Words: JLS & Oates

Photos: JLS

probably not (even close to a indy).

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These ads have started popping up the last couple of months over in the skateboard mag. Apparently someone in Australia probably thinks there trucks are as good as indys. They aren’t even close. Nice name, though – Theeve – pretty much trying to thieve indy with this shit. These guys are Australian golf club manufacturers. You should (probably) stick to making golf clubs. Get off the indy jock because these ads are ridiculous.

hurley rips off the screaming hand.

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Saw this Screaming Hand rip-off at the store today. Even Hurley is hopping on the screaming hand rip-off bandwagon, sesh? Shame on you, Hurley. Shame on you.

On to something original – original photos of Elvis Presley and family over in Harrah’s at South Lake Tahoe. Pretty rad. Whilst the friends were rolling dice, I drank Molson and tripped out on these.

Elvis was rad. Before I found myself at Harrah’s and riding Heavenly, which should be renamed, Hell. What’s with all the traversing on that mountain? I was attending the WWSRA Nor Cal Preview Show at Cal Expo in Sacramento.

Cal Expo is where they have the California State Fair. Our show was in the same place they have some crazy agricultural exhibit. We were all about the agriculture at the snow preview show.

Gus from Good Times came by to say what up and checkout the Independent-Nor Cal -Creature lines for fall/holiday 2010. Next time you happen to be in Grass Valley, definitely hit up his shop for some goodies, then go skate the Grass Valley Skatepark. He was telling me all about the new Blood Wizard beach compound, strategically located in the Mexican outback with some killer waves around. Run wild horses, run.

Before that Z-Train joined us for his first turns of the year.

Squaw has 16oz $2 dollar Pabst Blue Ribbons. That’s a good deal anywhere.

Quench your thirst, friends.

Ride till you die.

Then ride some more.

the shape of things to come.

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A new year, another great time to get the whole nhs sales crue together.

Colorado’s finest, Charles Masque was here to keep it real. He’s been growing that beard since October. Looking good, Charles. Alright, here is some of that next level shit we’ve got coming the shops way.

Sam Hitz designed the Nuclear Minions t-shirt.

Bob Merriam throwing a roast beef in the cell block t-shirt. Screaming Ham was a concept back in the day by the one, the only – Birdo.

Some of the proceeds from the Burnside box go directly to the park.

Sid Melvin’s current setup.

See you at the tradeshows?

Come on by the NHS Booth.

WWSRA, Cal Expo, Sacramento. January 12-14th.

ASR/Crossroads, San Diego. February 3rd-4th.

beware of the special cookies.

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Beware of the special cookies.

Stay out of the rain. Get plenty of sleep. If raining outside, find shelter in your nearest mini ramp like heavy metal chuck is doing here. Skate and repeat. Skate and destroy. Chuck would say eat some meat products after you do this and wash it down with a Coca-Cola or a Monster energy drink. Chuck doesn’t drink those fussy fucking diet monster energy drink either, I am just saying. But one is green, and one is blue, and it gets confusing at times.

Rain at the beach will ultimately turn to snow in the mountains. Run to the hills. When  you get sick of paying for lift tickets, just hike. Smoke a friend out and he might drop you off on the side of hwy 431 so you can snowboard down.

Nevada State Route 431. You can see Diamond Peak and Mt Rose from here.

The Chutes. Some of the best lift accessed steeps and deeps in all of Tahoe.

The Chutes from the top. Early season rock formations sometimes play games with your base but that’s why god invented, p-tex, right? If you’re not having to p-texing your board, then you’re not having fun.

Mt Rose was the first place I got to snowboard at when I was 14. Over 15 years later, Mt Rose is still one of my favorite places to ride. The new lodge is open over on Slide Mountain side, I meant to take a photo, but this blog could have been titled, “Blackberry Storms work shitty under cold, winter conditions.” Alas, I did not prevail. Not sure how conditions are in your neck of the woods, but here in Northern California you should get to the mountains pronto.

Nolan got the Del Mar tech deck pool for Christmas. He’s stoked and ready to rip.

Rip it up.

Till next time, over and out.