We hate to say it, but most interviews with pro skateboarders tend to produce some pretty stale content these days, and who can blame them? With big sponsors to keep happy, multiple video deadlines to juggle and various modeling gigs to book, routines and opinions have gone bland. In pursuit of finding compelling stories we decided to take a page out of OG Jenkem’s playbook: turning the camera back on you. Our series “Locals” focuses on the often overlooked characters that surround skateboarding – the eccentrics, weirdos and local legends who are staples in the community for reasons outside o ..read more

Jagger Eaton. Alex Midler. Every Japanese skater, probably. What do they have in common? They were all indoor skatepark kids. They grew up in a helmet, unbothered by rain, snow or the temptation of smoking weed behind a metal ramp. This usually took place at a local warehouse privately owned by some long time skateshop owner or retired legend. Where this once was the path to getting contest ready, the abundance of public skateparks and corporately funded TFs means the once integral local indoor skateparks are dropping like flies. We wanted to know what it takes to run a successful indoor ska ..read more

There’s a plethora of reasons to take a step back from professional skateboarding. Injury, family and all that comes with not being 24 years old anymore are amongst the most popular, but we rarely hear of someone distancing themselves to pursue a selfless goal. John Gardner did just that, taking a step away from skateboarding and leaving behind a pro board and sponsors to pursue his true calling, mental health awareness. He is back in school and went on to launch Nothing But Today, a mental health consulting firm working to spread awareness and teach techniques for dealing with mental health ..read more

Hardcore and skateboarding have a lot in common. Both look stupid as hell to outside viewers, piss off old people and leave you sore in the morning. Following this logic you can assume that the average skateboarding enjoyer also dabbles in hardcore, so it didn’t take Einstein level IQ to know an event including both would be entertaining. That’s exactly what Rapid Skateshop orchestrated with the support of Cons. They brought together 24 hardcore bands, multiple skate shops in the area like Black Hole, and a slew of sketchy ramps for their second annual Rapid Fest. The entire Anderson family w ..read more

Our favorite Canadian duo take over the Jenkem mix this week, fresh off their feature on the Nine Club and return to the airwaves for Season 19 of their show. If you listen blind you might think the menu screen of NBA2K is on TV, which is fitting for our sports loving homies. Full of UK drill, East Atlanta trap and what they would probably call “stadium barn burners,” this mix just might be bunt-less. Suggested activities for max listening pleasure on this one would be late night drive thru shenanigans, throwing your back out deadlifting at the gym, or seshing with TJ Rogers. Download link is ..read more

Let’s cut to the chase. Kyonosuke Yamashita, or Kyo for short, is having a great year so far. Recently dropping a seven-minute part in Primitive’s AM video and getting comfortable in LA, he’s already one of the best of 2024. Before he grows up, joins the Olympics and leaves us in the dust we thought it would be a good time to spend the day with the young, upbeat, Dr. Pepper obsessed Japanese skater. Check it out, and if you’ve been bragging about your flatground game to your friends be prepared to be humbled. Filmed & Edited by: Ian Ostrowski Intro by: Ben Komins Share this with a D ..read more

Fingerboards have come a long way since I was begging my mom in a now bankrupt Toys R Us for a Tech Deck. To start, they aren’t plastic anymore. Instead, they’ve evolved into pressed veneer, legit wooden replicas. The pursuit of a scaled down skateboard, down to the minute details, leads us to Clark Checketts of DudeGuy Fingerboards and his world of recycled fingerboarding wheels. He figured out how to take old Spitfires, Orbs, etc. and turn them into insanely accurate mini fingerboard wheels. Since I couldn’t get the image of burnt, swiss-cheesed Formula Four’s or resulting pea sized wheels ..read more

If it isn’t obvious, we’ve been on a tip lately exploring other hobbies that parallel skating. We rode bikes with Terry Barentsen and got smoked playing soccer with CSC, two activities that reminded us just how out of shape we are. This time we took a trip to the top of Manhattan in Washington Heights, AKA the Little Dominican Republic, to meet up with Joel Popoteur, employee at Supreme and long-time skater, and his Dominican-inspired movement he calls “Dominguez Corporation,” a community that hikes, skates and rock climbs together. With the support of Arc’teryx Joel’s been on a mission to c ..read more

The Baker crew has a talent of picking skateboardings future favorite’s at a young age. It happened with T-Funk, Kader and Rowan just to name a few, and after watching Baker Has A Deathwish 2, we have a feeling it’s going to happen again. Vince Palmer, aka Chicken Little, an 18-year-old skater living in Milan, is already a promising character. Vince had clips in Nike filmer Will Miles Mamma Mia, Bro and Bill Strobeck’s Stallion, and through this has planted himself in the good graces of the big three: Baker, Nike, and Supreme. Couple this with the prolific Rat Ratz, a crew of Milan homies th ..read more

No matter who you ask, every skater has a strong opinion on Dylan Rieder, and for good reason. He’s responsible for influencing a whole generation of skaters and birthed his fair share of emulators: complete with cuffed pants, vintage black T-shirts, and painted black nails. The world has sadly been without Dylan for [over] eight years now, but his presence is arguably felt just as strongly today. No matter how you want to spin it, Dylan was far ahead of his time. He was modeling in big campaigns far before the fashion world became obsessed with skateboarding, and he was one of the main force ..read more