Snap The Gap

Dashawn Jordan

Snap The Gap presented by Supra went down outside the Agenda Trade Show on Wednesday. It was a tricks-for-cash contest, with $2500 in cash being given out. Tricks were done over a a replica street gap that CA Skateparks built outside the Long Beach Convention Center.

With the distance of the gap set at 8-feet, the contest got under way. Skaters started charging the gap, every trick landed by someone earned some cash.

Dane Vaughn







After a good twenty or so minutes, a lot of cash was given out and it was time to start the longest ollie part of the contest started. The was widen to 12-feet, then 14-feet, then 15-feet. When it got to 16-feet, only two skaters were able to clear it, Quel Haddox and Dashawn Jordan.

Transworlds Top 5
These skaters score an extra $100 each ontop of of the cash they already grab for the tricks they landed.
1. Dane Vaughn: Frontside flip, kickflip nose manual, switch backside heelflip, switch inward heelflip, nollie 360 flip, kickflip manual 180 out, 14-foot kickflip.
2. TJ Rogers: Switch bigspin, switch frontside 360, nollie backside heelflip, nollie heelflip.
3. Nick Merlino: Switch kickflip, nollie kickflip.
4. Blake Carpenter: Switch 360 flip first try.
5. Mason Silva: Backside 360 ollie.


More photos in The Agenda Photo Gallery

Vintage Skate Stuff: 1987 Hosoi Autograph

Part 4 of a look into a collection of various skateboarding memorabilia from the late 1980s and early 1990s.


Click here for a full size scan

This is a photocopied picture of Christian Hosoi that was given out at a Jimmy'Z demo at Val Surf in North Hollywood, CA back in the summer of 1987. It's from a Jimmy'z ad that was in one of the skate magazines, Val surf put their business card on it and made photocopies of it to give out. These were given out for Hosoi to autograph. Hosoi did sign this one, and as with most of his autographs back then, he added the year. After being proudly displayed for awhile, this photo ended up stashed in a Thrasher Magazine that was tossed in a box with other old skate mags and stored away for two decades.

Ended up finding this when pulling out the old collection of skate magazines a few weeks ago. Brought it to the Agenda Trade Show to show to Christian. Caught him outside and he immediately recognized the shot.



"Backside 360 Judo Air!", he said, "My signature sure has changed a bit since then." as he updated the old photo with a new autograph and the current date.

Hopefully, I'll have him sign this photo again in another 20 years.

Click here for a full size scan

Previous entries:
Part 1: Vintage Skate Magazines, Catalogs, & Newsletters Overview
Part 2: California Cheap Skates Catalog
Part 3: H-Street Newsletters

Video: Go Skateboarding Day Ladies Demo

Video of the Go Skateboarding Day Ladies Demo at The Venice Beach Skatepark. Check out the previous blog post for the photos.

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Video: Skate Your Ass Off Contest

Here's a video recap of The Go Skate Your Ass Off Contest at The Venice Beach Skatepark. Check out the previous blog post on the contest for a photos and complete recap.

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Skateboarding Scenes From Old Movies: Hard Ticket To Hawaii

Between 1985 and 1998, filmmaker Andy Sidaris produced series of B-movies known as the Bullets, Bombs, and Babes series. All 12 movies focused on the adventures of a team of secret agents and were mostly filmed in Hawaii. The action scenes were silly and way over-the-top and the agents were always played by Playboy Playmates (who would always get naked).

Hard Ticket To Hawaii was released in 1987 and is the second film in the series. It features a skateboarding scene. The skater was played by professional skateboarder Russ Howell. Russ, who had started skating all the way back in 1958, was actually the first professional skateboarder. He had set some Guinness World Records, one for longest handstand on a skateboard (2 minutes) and another for the most 360s (163). In Hard Ticket to Hawaii, he gets to show off both of those moves.

All 12 of these films are in a DVD collection called Girls, Guns and G-Strings: The Andy Sidaris Collection (12 Film Set) And it's on Amazon for under $6. That's less than fifty cents a movie.



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Skate Your Ass Off Contest

UPDATE: Video of the contest is now online, click here.

The Go skate your Ass Off Contest took place at the Venice Skate Park on Go Skateboarding Day. It was a best trick and a "first-one-to-land-a-trick" type of contest, similar to last month's Jay Boy Classic Invitational Cash Grab , where a tricks are called out and the first to land each trick it wins the prize for that specific trick. Unlike the Jay Boy contest, this one wasn't held in the pool, it was held in different parts of the park's street section.

Once the contest officially began, all the skaters lined up ready to hit the first section. Eric Tuma Britton got on the microphone and started mc'ing the event, calling out a specific trick and the prize that the first person to land it will get. Hats, t-shirts, & skateboard parts were the prizes. But once Tuma announced the name of the first trick and its prize...

everyone started charging the steps to be the first to land the trick, which led to..

a lot of slams, near-misses, and a couple direct hits.

This crazy free-for-all was pretty fun to watch. And once someone nailed the trick, Tuma called out a new trick and everyone would start charging the steps again in order to be the first to land that one.

One of the girls from the Girls Demo joined in, Courtney Akita, from Silly Girl Skateboards, held her own in the contest, landing several flip tricks and...

missing some.

This went on for awhile, lots of tricks landed and prizes given out.

Then it was time to relocate to the next area,...
which was the handrail, where it became the best tricks win stuff part.

Grinds down the rail...

Kickflips over the rail...

and more.

There was also the occasional board that accidentally got shot into the crowd...

Luckily, thanks to the quick ninja-like reflexes of several of the spectators, no one got hit with a flyaway board.

Then over to the smaller rail and steps for the last part of the contest.





And this is Lance (on the right), from Venice Originals, who organized this contest.
Don't recall who won what, as way too many skaters winning stuff. Lance has it on his list though...

There's a good 100 photos in the Skate Your Ass Off Photo Gallery, couldn't put them all in this blog post. Check them out in the link below:


Video of the Skate Your Ass Off Contest has been uploaded. .


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