Will Jivcoff Photo

Keeping it Local

2009-11-01T17:44:00.000-08:00

The past couple weekends it seems like I've been doing some more skating around Kitchener and inviting people to come skate the plentiful amount of spots that we have here...if you'd like to call them that. In the end it's not only productive but ends up being a lot more fun knowing that the spots around here still have some life and offering in them. Take a look below to see what I mean.

Drew with some fancy footwork. Frontside 5-0 backside

bigspin out.

Scott, kickflip.

A frontside Matt Smith grind.

Joel, polejam manny.

Colin, crook.

Colin went to war with this

hubba. Backside 5-0.

Let's put an egg in our shoes and...

2009-10-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

It appears that the temperatures this week are going to start making a steady climb into the double digits and today it started it's venture upward. Ben and I met up at the park to take care of some business at the dirty gap before meeting up with a few others. After that we took off to Laurier to check out what the new spots had to offer and had some fun there. Upon arriving Sir Matt Pancer also decided to show up after being out with an injury for pretty much the entire summer. As we were vacating the campus the agro security guard with a heavy Irish accent that all the skaters around here are befriending tried arresting us...better luck next time bud.

Back in action and saucier

than ever.

Security is doing their job well

these days.

Lucas, almost-noseblunt.

First day back and hoppin'

on hubbas? Not quite, no need

to risk another injury. Here's

to another five years!

Matt, noseslide.

Original Yolkster Ben Locke, bump to bump

tre flip.

Ben, backside biggy.

Until ne- will there even be a next time?

Potentially Dead

2009-10-12T12:12:00.000-07:00

Since the season is coming to an end very fast us skaters are scrambling to make plans to skate and scrounge every last day that the weather is in the double digits. Unfortunately the double digit-temperatures have come and gone and by the looks of it they aren't coming back for many months. Because of the long weekend I was able to cram some heavy skating and as I sit here typing this update I'm starting to realize it may very well have been the last weekend we'll have for skating at all. The frost and snow warnings at night kill any hope of skating for much longer than another two weeks at the most. The life story of a skateboarder on the east coast....

The next stop for Danny Way.

Relax, Lucas did not fall in while doing this

5-0.

Potential future room mate

Jordan Moss got down with

a front smith.

Mitch Donovan, another

potential roommate.

Tim, hard flip with ease.

I had never met Dillon before this night but

he showed up and started blazing these nollie

heel's down this new 3 flat 3. I felt obliged to

shoot a photo.

Another new homie. Cole, front

lip.

Until next time. This may be a very long time.

New Love Skateboards Promo

2009-10-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

The good homies over at Love Skateboards put a new promo up to build some hype for their new video which is due during winter 2010. Do yourself a favour and head over to their site to check it and their other goods out.

www.loveskateboards.ca

Ben Schwandt, heelflip.

Drew Williams, wallie frontside 180.

Isaac Watamaniuk, backside 180 switch

nosegrind revert.

Joel Watamaniuk, front

blunt to fakie.

Ben Locke, ollie out backside kickflip.

Absolute Neglect

2009-09-28T16:59:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since I've updated my blog which means I've been nagged for the past three weeks or so to update my blog. The regular weekend trips to London almost end with me wanting to kill Jordan because he doesn't stop telling me how lazy I am and how shitty my blog is without a new post. He might just be the only dude that checks this thing though. Regardless, check out the last month in photos!

Getting to skate this spot is rare. Isaac, front

wallride.

Surfs up bro! Colin, nose manny nollie 3 shove.

The only sequence that matters. Byron, crail grab.

Colin checkin' his stee.

Joel, front blunt to fakie.

"I always slam on manny's"

-Byron

Anthony McManus showed up

one day to break dance.

Colin, warm up 5050.

Isaac, crook.

Gavin rolled his ankle because of this so I'm

throwing it up. Back smith.

Until next time...whenever that may be.

Like a Glove

2009-09-01T23:33:00.000-07:00

I've been back down in Michigan since last Thursday and will be here for the next week or so. As usual plenty of good times and laughs have already been had and more on their way...we've been doing some skateboarding too. Totally unskate-related, I had a cashier throw a Canadian coin back at me while growling "No Canadian!" Is the dollar that bad? Check the photos below and good vibes will ensue...my word.

Went to Ann Arbor for a day.

Tony, frontside flip.

Adam didn't land this wallride

nollie out but it's pretty.

Primo.

Ben, heelflip. This spot is

brutal.

Alex always has an eye for

cool tricks, spots, photos or

all of the above in one. Here

he flexes his artistic mind with

a frontside 5-0.

And again, 5050 pop up.

Sheer patriotism.

More to come...duh.

The Homeland

2009-08-27T12:35:00.001-07:00

As August comes to a close I realize(and am thankful) that I wasn' back home in Canada all that much. Below are some goods in between travels of California and a final Michigan trip. Enjoy.

Even getting the time to sweep away the rocks

at this spot is lucky. On this day we had the

skate gods' blessings. Isaac, frontside wallride.

Joel met Tony Hawk one day.

KBye coming soon. For now, a focus test at TD.

Colin, crookie.

Byron, back up back lip.

Byron got scared.

Lucas, crailslide.

Next up...Michigan!

In...and out.

2009-08-12T21:27:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I didn't update my blog once while I was in good ol' So. Cal I'll be doing so now. For the most part, Justin and I were a strict sleep/skate schedule and therefore not much time was spared for the blog world. Anyways, below are some flicks from the trip. A few things you can count on are: copious amounts of In N Out were eaten, Cherry On Top is delicious and the bro-scene there is absolutely bumpin'.

"Fuck it." Justin, front blunt
backside flip.

Moments later Justin ate total
shit trying this crook pop over so
he gets an honourable mention.

You better believe Mr. Shaun Hover made
an appearance! Front blunt.

Shaun, easy peasy back smith.

Late night beach session. Justin, back 180
fakie 5-0.

A new homie: Tyler Kindred, nollie shove
noseslide.

What are you doing up there?

Riley!

Hell.

Late night DVP session. Colin in the front,
Broah in the middle and Justin on the bench.

Left Coast

2009-07-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

Back on the West coast again! This time staying at Justin Cefai's place in California. Ah yeah, the weather out here is fucking beautiful(as are the girls) and the skating couldn't be better. I made about one, maybe two updates while I was in Michigan so below are some photos from when I was shredding it up in the Mitten...Cali photos come later. Double pits to chesty, bro!

Not too sure what makes a person
actually want to skate a spot like this.
Regardless, Adam got down with a
switch bigspin.

Justin, back 180 fakie manual revert.

Chris, gap to noseblunt with ease.

Alex, fakie flipper.

Ryan , front board 270 out to dust sweeper.

Fellow photographer
Justin Broadway got down with
this back tail.

Cali photos...soon!

A Change in Pace

2009-07-12T19:44:00.001-07:00

Well the day came last Thursday that I had to depart from hot and sunny Arizona. It was a fucking blast, no doubt about it! All those dudes put up with me for a good while even when their apartment was packed. Here I am now leaching off somebody's wi-fi single in good old Michigan where the pace is a bit slower but definitely welcome. I present to you some of the final photos of Arizona and the beginning ones of Michigan. Enjoy!

James, frontside 5-0 to fakie on the steep
Chase Bank banks.

Kevin, 5-0 180 into the front
bank.

Duke, warm up front tail to fakes.

EAST COAST BITCH! Joe,
blunt to fakie.

Chris, ollie in pitch black and blinding flashes.

Keep checking back for updates from good ol' MI.

Love Skateboards Secret Spot Throwdown

2009-07-06T14:00:00.000-07:00

Through out the summer, Love will be holding best trick throw downs at spots through out KW. They will take place on Friday evenings, twice a month or so. Classic "5spot" style set up. Spot will remain secret until the day of. Come skate, best trick wins a board. It all starts this Friday evening July 10th at 7pm. Check the Love site or the facebook event page for the spot listing the day of

and spread the word...or don't. The more people out the more fun it will be but the less people out, the more chance you have of winning.
Hope to see you there.

www.loveskateboards.ca
Facebook event page

Zed

2009-07-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

It was on July the 4th that Mr. Austerberry had to work until 2:30am so we decided to go skate beforehand, wait up afterwards and go skate with him when he got off work. We headed on out for our mission to the university(ASU) and cruised around. Keep in mind we began our cruise mission at 4:30am. We kept it pretty local in the spots we skated, only hitting up some things a few streets over from each other but it was fun nonetheless. With a dilirious Jim in tow, we all packed it in and were home in bed by 7am.

The evening prior to our morning. Kevin, a
big back 180.

Marty battled with tricks.

Mountains at 4:30 in the A.M.

Duke, ollie through.

Hanging out in an alleyway before most people
get up. No big.

Bill, nosegrind.

Gotta love skateboarding! Arizona
is a blast.

Arizonin'

2009-07-03T16:44:00.001-07:00

It's fucking hot down here! Temperatures breach the 40 degrees Celsius mark mid day and don't go down past 38 at night. It's fun nonetheless and I've gotten used to it pretty quick. It's a total skate house where I'm staying though which is rad. For the amount of dudes here we're actually pretty productive and get a lot of stuff done. Peep the flicks belowwwww!

Not a serious shot but one for the homies.
Mike and Jim getting down.

A ditch! Duke is going to win the X Games one
day.

Kevin, ollie to death ditch bomb.

Mike, front smith.

Shaaaaaade.

Recently Mike has had a thing for rails
against walls.

E.M.

2009-06-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

Took a trip for the weekend to Michigan with the likes of Isaac and Joel. We perched up at Sir Ben Schwandt's place and had a grand ol' weekend of shredding. We also met up with Justin Bohl and Joe Ferry. It was a little exhausting doing two days of hard skating in a row but the pay off was great. Everyone got tricks, had fun and even learned a valuable lesson about dealing dope and how to not get set up. This blog is for the dope man of Eastern Market that once was up but now is down!

The gays came to invade America.

Stretching, or something.

Ben "One More Try" Schwandt,
biggie boardslide pop in.

Back ups. Isaac lipslide 5-0 down.

Joe, front smith.

Dudes hanging out in Eastern Market.

Isaac, front nose fakie.

Discussing tricks at Cass.

Ben, gap out crooks at Cass.

Beaters + asphalt

Tuesday.

Don't mind me, only here to pillage the scene.

2009-06-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

*I lied a little. This post is not from Arizona but in fact from a day trip to Hamilton consisting of Byron, Zach and Hamilton locals Sam Fidlin, Garret Gardiner and Brandon Sheppard. They were kind enough to risk their lives in the hot hot heat and show us around for the day. We checked a few spots here and there, got a few flicks and clips and then decided to pack it in due to the heat. 35 degrees celsius due to humidity really isn't that fun so either stay inside or do some real skating and skate the park all day. Check the photos below.

Yeah, really.

Malfunctions. Dopest setup.

It was hot.

It was hot.

Byron, switch o.

Sam, nosebonk.

Sam's van is a limited edition collab between
his mom, AWS, Satan and Deathwish. So hot
for summer '09.

*All pictured above is not real skateboarding.

Filthy.

2009-06-15T18:30:00.001-07:00

Well, I think it's safe to say that summer is finally here. The days where you're constantly stick and uncomfortable are unavoidable and it's in your best interest if you don't get the middle of the back seat while riding from spot to spot. This past weekend I had the pleasure of skating three different cities. Each day was productive and fun and with that it reminded me of the good times to come during the summer. Exams are over, school is out and it's time to fucking shred!

Victory dog.

The sombrero sold us on who we should have
bought 'dogs from.

Isaac, nose manny 5-0 on a steep bank.

REALLY?

Just filthy.

100 blog posts deep AND 12 days until I'm in the hottest
place in North America...yayuh!

London Falling

2009-06-11T18:08:00.001-07:00

Byron and I headed to London to meet up with the usual suspects for the day last Sunday. On this particular day everyone's skateboards decided it'd be cool if nobody rolled away from their tricks. Road rash(on the ass, I might add), wooden planters, shitty boards and skate coach dads were some of the numeral factors involved. Contrary to the negativity of this post, we did get some photos! Feast your eyes below.

If I had paid attention this sequence would
be shot and laid out properly. Byron, nollie
biggie.

Tim did not land his tricks.

Colin, switch ollie over mother duck.

Diiiiiirrrtyyy D!

2009-06-02T11:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I took a trip down to Michigan to hang out and skate with some homies that I met up with last summer. Friday night Justin and I just took a cruise around downtown Detroit for spot ideas and to get a look at all the freakin' weirdos down there. It all came back to me how much I really loved the place!

Saturday was a bit of a change from just cruising around. Out at noon and in by 2am, it was a shred mission! For the most part, we stuck to downtown Detroit with Dave, Adam, Tony, Daryl and Ben. The day went pretty smooth seeing as there wasn't one security guard interaction the entire day, it was a nice change.

On Sunday we kept it a bit more mellow with pretty much the same crew. This time we stuck to the 'burbs and actually had more problems with superhero-citizens and police than we did downtown. Bummer. Regardless, we kept on with our day heading from spot to spot. Soon enough the day came to an end and I had to head back to good 'ol Canada. It seems like there's never enough time to stay, skate and hangout with all the Michigan dudes.

Adam, tre flip to the skinny.

Ben, ollie up backside flipper.

Adam with a pretty-lookin' front shove.

Dave, nose manny around.

HOT OFF THE PRESS! Justin with a casual
back tail.

"Look Ma, no hands!" Justin again with a switch
crook pop out.

Adam, backside flip at turbo speedz.

Chris came through with this gnarly back
50 and popped back into the bank.

Seems like the minute I get back from Michigan
I'm making more plans to get there again.

MI+CA do KW

2009-05-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend good friends Justin Bohl from Michigan and Paul Kwon from California came up to Kitchener to hang out and skate. I was pretty stoked to host and show them around so we skated here for a day and then hit up Toronto. Lucky for them they got to see the type of interesting characters that the downtown core has to offer. We did the meet-and-greet deal with a bunch of dudes here and they even had the chance to skate the super-park known as the Kitchener Auditorium. Toronto was more of a day for spot checking and cruising around so we didn't get any flicks for Sunday but check out the goods below.

Paul, easy-peasy frontboard 270 out at
Southworks.

Justin, 180 nosegrinds for days.

Paul, switch crook.

More of these two to come in the future! In the meantime
check out Paul's blog(at the right) for another account of the trip.

When Henry's doesn't fuck up....

2009-05-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

I get pretty stoked.

Here's a fine example of Henry's getting my film back to me in three days without destroying the negs or damaging them other ways. They even cut them like I asked too! Anyways, peep the shots below for some film goodness.

Sampson hates my camera and I but I still
love the dude. Look at that facial expression....
so stoked.

One of those days where the flash rain storms
roll through and swallow the sun.

Beans in Toronto.

Lucas rolling through.

Scott, front tail to fakie. Check a few posts back
and you'll see why film rules over digital.

Another prime example of why film kicks
digital's ass. Scott, frontboard pop in to regs.

Joel, a high switch crook and a nice haircut!

And now for a lesson in skateboarding.

Mad Dash

2009-05-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

The weather lately has been in the same pattern as a crack-head's mood. One moment, the sun is the shining, the sky is blue, there might be a few clouds in the sky and an hour later the clouds have rolled in for a flash rain storm. Give it 15 minutes or so and everything dries up, humid as all hell. On this particular day I had met up with Kody, Damien and Luc while we ran back and forth between Kitchener and Waterloo dodging the dark storm clouds until they finally got the best of us and shut us up inside market square. Peep the snap on Damien's trick...zaaaammmm!

Lucas, kickflip in. The light was right.

Damien, nollie backside 270 heelflip.
(click for larger)

Nutty

2009-05-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Damien has been back in town for a couple weeks now but this was the first day we actually got out to go skateboarding. It was a treat for both of us since we went to check out/skate the new barrier spot in town. We dinked around for a bit and saw some interesting people before we got down to business. All in all, I guess King street does have a lot to offer when it comes to types of people...this is not always a good thing. Scott and Grant pretty much appeared out of no where so we zipped around the corner to try and get a trick at the mini hydrant. Between large busses, other traffic, different schedules and drunk natives getting angry at us, we had to cut the session short and weren't able to come through with a landed photo, but it's all good. Take a look for the flicks and an interesting story below.

Damien, front tail up.

Ah yes, this dude was not stoked
on us. He came over to me and
gave a good kick at my camera,
saying we were all pussies(with
some awfully funny gestures) and
that we needed to get real jobs.

Damien, the mediator and Scott in the back
being my camera bag protector. Thanks buddy.

Yeah, Scott didn't land this
but it's purrrddyyy looking.
Heelflip.

Gotta love the downtown Kitchener bus terminal.

A sight for sore eyes

2009-05-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Checked my email the other day and got a lovely message from a good buddy Matt Pancer. He's posted up in China right now after about two years of living in Australia. Needless to say, the dude didn't forget his gnar boots after leaving Canada almost three years ago. See you soon homie!

Matt gettin' buck in Shanghai
with a one-foot 14 stair
cracker.

If you're bored on this rainy night....

2009-05-01T17:16:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple things to check out:

The guys over at Push.ca just threw up a Love Skateboards interview along with their full length video "Sextape". Check it out here.

Jim Tumey just got his new website going and loaded up his video "Shred Til Yer Dead" that they've been filming for over the past couple years. Most of them are based out of Michigan but have relocated themselves to AZ. Definitely worth checking out here.

Meds

2009-05-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up to wet streets and a sky full of dark clouds, I wasn't too impressed. As the day went on, the weather started to shape up. I eagerly watched the sun come out from behind the clouds through my classroom window with one intention in mind: skateboarding. I called up Scott and made the plans, we had a skate date. I met him and Greg downtown after class at the hot new barrier spot. Apparently the city can't do shit about building a good skatepark but they can provide great street spots. Anyways, a Friday afternoon in the middle of King street was a lot busier than I had anticipated. We met and saw a few usual characters you'll find on the downtown streets, got our photos and got out. Next, we headed on out to Waterloo to check out some ledges. The spot was great, two different ledges in one. Just like the previous spot, we got there, got the goods and took off. By this time the gray clouds had made their way back into our sky and a rain ensued. We packed it in and decided today was a good day for productivity. Amen!

This lady was just going off about random
stuff. People across the street were gossiping,
telling everyone she had forgotten to take
her meds that morning.

Scott, a busy frontboard pop in.

Greg, boardslide pop out to fakie.

Scott, tailslide fakie.

Scott, warm-up gap back 5050.

Until next time...