Native American Heritage Day was a couple days ago, and I remembered my post last year about indigenous action sports athletes. Since I focused on pros, I wasn’t able to share information about a cool pic floating around social media. Performer and artist Amber Ray shared the image below of an indigenous Bolivian skater.
Gaston Brito / Getty Images
I did some digging because I wanted to know who the skater was. Although I didn’t get a name, I found an Associated Press article about this group called ImillaSkate . “Imilla” is the Aymara word for “girl”, and the young women decided to skate in traditional cholita style of a blouse, multi-layered skirt, and bowler hat to represent both their gender and culture. The cholita fashion became popular among modern Aymara and Quechua women as a form of self-expression and defiance of the assimilation their grandparents endured.
My other Facebook finding is more frivolous but still contains some representation. My friend Laura shared the LEGO® City Skate Park set. There are 4 figures included: a skateboarder, a BMX rider, an extreme wheelchair athlete, and someone who appears to be the rep for an energy drink. I’m a little bummed that the most obviously feminine figure is the rep rather than an athlete (the skater’s gender seems ambiguous, as they have long hair and eyelashes but no lipstick, and anyone can wear pink these days). However, I do love the disability representation, as adaptive athletes are important in our scene but don’t always get the same recognition.
The LEGO site says it’s “temporarily out of stock”, but I found a couple of places selling them when I was looking for a photo to use. So this is something definitely to consider getting for the LEGO or action sports fan in your life for the holidays (or winter birthdays).
The Monday M.A.S.S. is one of my favorite podcasts of all time and fits very well with the spirit of this action sports-meets-nerd stuff spirit of this blog. Chris Coté and Todd Richards are experts so when they came up with the Monday M.A.S.S. Awards for the best snow/skate/surf athletes and videos of 2020, I definitely agree. However, women and nonbinary individuals remain underrepresented in action sports, and I decided that they needed their own category so that we don’t forget the progress being made by them. That’s how I came up with my unofficial female and nonbinary addition to the Monday M.A.S.S. Awards.
Jill Perkins has become the It Girl of urban snowboarding, and she’s got two Snowboarder Awards. She got to show off what it means to be the Women’s Most Valuable Video Player in her part in The SNOWBOARDER Movie: Tangle, and she helped increase the visibility of queer snowboarders as one of the five pros/industry members who came out together in Torment.
We really started seeing Leo Baker come into their own as their true authentic self in 2020. Through Nike, they got to speak up about being nonbinary, and they also garnered mainstream attention with their appearance in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. Alongside Cher Strauberry and Stephen Ostrowski, they found the queer-centric company Glue Skateboards and released the video “SMUT”.
Caroline Marks entered 2020 having recently qualified for the Tokyo Olympics. Although that was postponed and the WSL Championship Tour was cancelled, the buzz around the new adult continue as she made Sports Illustrated’s Fittest 50 list and posed for their Swimsuit Issue. She also scored a signature watch collab with Freestyle USA.
Continuing the momentum she has been generating in the past couple of years, Hannah Roberts focued on training during quarantine and making sure her spot in the Olympics was putting her on the path to the podium. She won the 2020 NORA Cup Women’s Rider of the Year and also got engaged!
Snowboard Film of the Year – The Uninvited II
Jess Kimura has done it again. TheUninvited II features female urban snowboarding veterans alongside new faces from around the world, busting their butts for some gnarly footage and also having fun in between. Like the opening quote by Milton Berle, they’ve made their own opportunities when there wasn’t any for them. Time for the rest of snowboarding to get with the program.
Skate Film of the Year – Credits
Vans’ first all-female skate video was a source of light at the start of the pandemic. It features street skating faves and BFFs Una Farrar, Breana Geering and Fabiana Delfino hitting spots around the world (and occasionally getting in trouble). It’s effortlessly cool with lots of 8mm footage and hand-drawn animation by Poppy Olson giving it a scrapbook-like feel for a year to remember.
BMX Video of the Year – Angie & Perris – Reno
(I swapped out surfing with BMX since I watch more of the latter and feel a bit better talking about that.) The ladies of CULT return with a fun video shot in the streets, parks, and trails of Reno. It was cool getting to see their sick flowy style on different terrain, and they always look like they are having fun following each other or putting their individual spin on an obstacle like the little bowl at the end.
Just because this is a blog that comes science and nerdy content with action sports, I have to add my own little category: Best Intersection of Action Sports and Nerdy Content – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 Is there any surprise? Skaters and gamers alike, along with anybody who grew up in the late 90s/early 00s, were hyped for this, and sales reflected that. It’s now the best selling game of the franchise and winner of Best Sports/Racing Game at The Game Awards.
A few days ago, Activision released an update for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. Although I haven’t had the chance to enjoy the game, I’ve been thinking about how the remaster has changed in ways that the skateboarding community—and the world—has changed. You can see it in the new skaters added to the roster: there are more women and POC, and we have the first non-binary skater, Leo Baker, who was able to work with the game developers to change their name. None of these additions are tokens either; they’re all some of the best.
Tony Hawk himself epitomized the more socially aware attitude in announcing that the mute grab will be renamed for its pioneer, who was deaf and not mute. As he indicated in his post, he listened to advocate/skater Darrin de la O and decided the game would be a great platform for change. Tony could have started using “Weddle grab” while announcing for a contest, but aside from X Games, they don’t have the reach that THPS does. Plus, the game allows for repetition on a level that can’t be replicated in real life skate commentary.
Change, however, doesn’t have to be followed by ceremony, and sometimes it can even be unconscious. Brian David Gilbert of Polygon noticed that THPS2‘s skate park creator had an element with a horrifying history: the “pungee pit” (also punji pit).
Although the developers might not have known how this type of trap was banned by the UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, nobody in the revision process or in the game reviews called out the problematic history. It took 20 years and a vlogger known for deep dives into video games to make the connection. Nevertheless, the remake doesn’t have the pungee pit so maybe somebody realized the implications. Or maybe developers decided that it was unnecessary and we just happen to benefit from no longer joking about war.
The success of the remaster has shown that changes to be more accepting and less harmful (even unintentionally) doesn’t make you less cool. It’s something that skateboarding is starting to realize, and while terminology and video games are small potatoes compared to economic inequality or the violence towards marginalized groups, every step towards progress counts. Hopefully we continue to see these little changes (maybe the next two terms to changed are the ones Skate Like a Girl’s Youth Advisory Board proposed below), and they’re build an even better community.
The CW series In the Dark recently kicked off its second season, and I remember trying to figure out where I had seen one of its actors, Casey Deidrick. The most likely answer would be on Days of Our Lives or Teen Wolf, but a quick search brought up the fact that he used to be an amateur skateboarder who competed in Vans contests and appeared in Transworld Skateboarding. In interviews, Casey mentioned switching from a skate career to acting because of the injuries. Although I could not find the Transworld spread, there’s this video of him on Youtube. He also has a clip on him tre flipping on Instagram, showing that he still has it.
Casey isn’t the only skater with past action sports aspirations. Austin Amelio was on the flow team for Osiris and appeared skating through the city he was named after in The Devil’s Toy. After gigs in short films, music videos, and commercials, he landed the role of a lifetime in The Walking Dead as Dwight. Nowadays he remains busy on the spin-off series Fear the Walking Dead, but he still finds time to skate and even made a film with Volcom spoofing his celebrity status (no skating in it though).
Austin was photographed by Drew Pickell for a feature in PUREFILTH Magazine about the skate scene in Austin, Texas.
Fans of another cult series, Strangers Things, might recall the punk girl with a fabulous afro named Mick in season 2. She’s played by Gabrielle Maiden, who was the first black female competitive snowboarder ten years ago. Snowboarding was a hobby that happened to give her new experiences and some success, but Gabby has said that her dream was always to become an actress. Her recent work include Showtime TV series SMILF and horror anthology Scare Package. When she’s not acting, modeling, or playing the ukulele, she does occasionally snowboard and skate.
Gabby Maiden placed 5th in the Snowboarding Rail Jam at the 4th Annual Supergirl Jam. Photo by Jason Lewis (L.A. Sentinel)
Of course, it would be remiss of me to not mention the original action sports athlete-turned-actor, Jason Lee. After a stint as a pro skateboarder in the late 80s and early 90s, he got his big break in the movie Mallrats. He’s a two-time Golden Globe nominee for My Name Is Earl and currently voices Charlie in the cartoon We Bear Bears. Jason has also put on several photography exhibitions. He still skates, having recently shared a video of a double line with his son on Instagram, and remains “co-captain” of Stereo Skateboards, which he founded with Chris “Dune” Pastras in 1992.
Oh yeah, did I mention that Jason was inducted in the Skateboarding Hall of Fame of 2019?
Happy Star Wars Day everyone! Now although I’ve already covered how action sports has crossed into the fandom, I can’t help but add this little tidbit on. It seems that X Games Austin has decided to celebrate May 4 with photos of a Stormtrooper doing some BMX flatland tricks. By Sandy Carson (X Games)
Who’s the rider underneath the helmet? Why it’s Brian Tunney! Click here to see more fun photos of him in costume.
Moving onto another corner of geekdom, I happened to catch “Assemble”, a mini movie by Samsung and Marvel and guess who’s assumed Thor’s mantle? John John Florence! I can’t think of a better candidate with aerials so high he may as well look like he’s flying, a chill attitude, and yes, “godly hair”. It’s also quite fitting that the man who plays the Asgardian is an avid surfer himself.
While John John is the only action sports pro in the team, the movie also features mechanical engineer Sasha Blanc working on and riding a motorcycle and the adorable Bobby Martinez getting to the rendezvous point on a skateboard. I think it’s safe to say that action sports and Avengers go pretty well together… though if we were to assemble a super hero team made up of action sports pro, who would be in it?
The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is currently hosting a special exhibit called 2theXtreme: MathAlive! It combines math, science, and engineering with action sports, design, and pop culture. In other words, quoting the MathAlive! site, it “answer[s] the age-old question: ‘Will I ever use all this math they’re teaching us?'” Last month, I got to check it as part of the museum’s adult-only Social Science event, which also featured a BMX demo.
Even though MathAlive! is designed for a younger audience, it still contains some fun hands-on activities and educational tidbits for adults. Unfortunately we’re too big to enjoy the rock climbing wall and comfortably sit on the stationary bike (I have short legs and it was still awkward for me). Several of the games seemed easy, but they still required some thinking. This is a math exhibit after all!
My favorite part of the exhibit was the skateboard design challenge. You selected board length, truck placement, and wheel size in order to create the ideal board for an ollie. While it could have used a better explanation as to why a design failed, it was a cool way to look at a math problem. My second favorite module was the 360-degree camera if only because I got this little souvenir:
Scattered throughout the exhibit were videos of people who use math, which range from engineers to video game designers to skateboarders.
I appreciated the diversity, particularly with the female scientists and engineers shown. Women in math and science rarely get any face time, which negatively impacts girls thinking of getting into STEM fields. so I’m glad the exhibit is doing its part to promote equality.
The boardercross game should have been fun and easy, but the board was really rickety. I didn’t utilize the rails because I wanted to emulate the real snowboarding experience. Unfortunately I crashed too much in trying to get my balance. Although it’s been over a decade since I stepped foot on a board, I can’t imagine my balance being that bad (I dance and still occasionally skateboard). That was probably the most disappointing aspect of the exhibit for me. Nevertheless the exhibit contained more ups than downs; just remember that it’s for kids and during regular hours, you’ll probably have to fight them to give each section a try.
Because I had to buy separate tickets for MathAlive!, I spent a lot of time there and didn’t get to see other aspects of Social Science. I did catch the second freestyle BMX demo by BMX Pros Trick Team. The riders have my admiration because not only did some of them come from doing demos all day at the State Fair, but they had to deal with low light and a moderately energetic (and somewhat inebriated) crowd. Nevertheless, they still pulled out some of the big tricks.
I never imagined Star Wars and snowboarding would be mentioned in the same sentence, especially since I had sci-fi loving friends diss boarders and action sports loving friends shun all things geeky. There’s always exceptions though, and earlier this year, ESPN made a Star Wars reference in one of their snowboarding photos. Apparently these two things are not so much like the light and dark sides of the Force.
This post was inspired a video by Freakin’ Rad. It was actually of freestyle motocross riders in Storm Trooper costumes, which I just loved. Further investigation led to an earlier movie with snowboarders and freeskiers battling it out.
Later I watched Episode 27 of AWSM on Alli, which had pro boarder Todd Richards spilling the beans on the geeks in the action sports world and browsing around Comic-Con. It was cool to see things from his point of view even if the commentary on cosplayers got to be distasteful in my opinion (those Leia cosplayers were more than just 1s, Mr. Richards).
One of the featured videos in the episode was an old Star Wars-themed snowboard piece that I had never seen before (but is apparently well-known): Gnar Wars.
I was impressed and decided to see if there were other collisions of snowboarding and Star Wars. Guess what? Burton Snowboards and Lucasfilm teamed up last winter, and not only created equipment inspired by Star Wars (for kids only, unfortunately) but a themed park with wood carvings of different characters and Jedi-style instruction. If you’ve got a kid who would like to be a powder padawan, check out the Burton Star Wars Experience at Sierra at Tahoe.
One sure-fire way to get me to tune into a movie is to open with some sick BMX action, like this:
The clip is from the 2006 teen dramedy Stick It. Although I was curious about the film, being a former aspiring gymnast, my interest wasn’t piqued until I saw the intro (Plano, Texas does not look like that by the way). Even if that was all the action sports action, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and its rebellious BMX-riding gymnast lead.
The main character, Haley, had to stunt doubles: Mike “Rooftop” Escamilla and Scotty Cranmer, who also rode for the character named Poot. Ben Snowden did stunts for the third BMXer, Frank.
Rooftop is no stranger to the silver screen. He and Rick Throne played thieves named Blitzen and Cupid in Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009). Both riders also starred, along with Mat Hoffman and other action sports athletes, in xXx (2002) although they didn’t do any riding there.
Probably the biggest movie with a bit of BMX is E.T. (1982). Bob Haro, the “godfather of BMX”, was one of the stunt riders. He jumped out of the second floor and wore a black ski mask in the chase scene. Photo from Bob Haro’sfacebook page.
BMX appeared to be a trend in the 80s with movies like BMX Bandits and Rad! The latter actually contains another link to gymnastics as Olympian Bart Conner had a cameo in the BMX film.
For more info on BMX in movies and television, check out this page from 23MAG.
It’s back to school for a lot of you, and since we can’t always take our boards and bikes with us, we have to find other ways to express ourselves. When I was in school, I had difficulties finding skate/bike/moto-themed supplies. However, times have changed. Sci-fi Hun recently showed me a link for a Birdhouse SkateDrive, a USB flash drive in the shape of a skateboard deck.
You can get them at Walmart, Office Max, or Amazon, and if you prefer snow or surf, Action Sports Drives has some for you too. They’re the perfect accessory if you’re an action sports nerd like me.
My other Facebook Finding comes from Lady Gaga herself. Who knew the pop diva could hang ten? She posted the picture with the caption, “yeah thats me. no heels baby.”
I used to get so irritated when a stereotype of a skater or any other extreme sports athlete appears on TV and in movies and starts spouting an unnecessary amount of slang. It’s horribly misleading, and I had an embarrassing n00b phase because my introduction to the subculture came from the caricatures on TV and that’s how I thought action sports enthusiasts speak. However, now I just laugh (and to be fair, I’ve seen the stereotype work in some depictions, like Crush in Finding Nemo… though he’s a turtle). Do people really think our slang is like a foreign language?
This whole post was inspired by my revisiting the old vampire TV series (old meaning from a time before vamps were cool and cliché… like extreme sports, I was into vampires before the mainstream embraced them) called Blood Ties. In “Blood Price, Part 2”, a skateboarder is being questioned by the cops. The over-the-top usage slang here is clearly for comedic effects as the cops ask him to repeat what he said in layman’s terms. I find it funny because he’s raving about “sweet backside airs” (maybe they were) and using “thrashed” twice for no good reason. The amount of slang they cram in 10 seconds is hilarious. You can check out the clip here: starting at 3:28.
I was curious about whether the skater was an actor or a pro. He’s an actor named Levi James, and he’s starred in another extreme sports-related role. In the soap opera Falcon Beach, he played a pro wakeboarder named Travis Rudnicki. I’ve never seen the series, but it looks like there was quite of a bit of wakeboarding, as one of the main characters did it competitively.
Jen
To the Power of X 