george crosland photo blog

As my boss would say - beyond Heavy Metal. Well Motorhead is as heavy metal as it gets. The most metal possible is Motorhead playing for 3.5 hours in the Basque Country of Spain, in the rain, with lead weights in his boots and the opening band (Butthole Surfers) getting in a wreck on the way there. That is as metal as it gets - period!! Motorhead formed in 1975 when Lemmy was kicked out of a band called Hawkwind, they have been going strong ever since. You say you have never heard of them? Fuck you Lemmy would say, he does not give a shit. He never sold out, stayed true to his self with some success along the way, some almost hit records a lot of hard times and a lot of drugs. Howard Stern once said “Lemmy would probably die if he quit doing drugs”. Why am I bothering to tell you this? Motorhead is touring the US a little this summer, check it. Louie Vito said he would go see em, so should you before Lemmy dies. Lemmy has probably been doing Heroin longer than you have been alive*

A quick story, in about 1985 my friend Rob and I were listening to Jailbait, a Motorhead classic, and we were rocking so hard I had the great idea that we could rock harder if I put gasoline on the record while it was playing. Well, you can guess the result, there were flames like 4 feet high in my bedroom. It was almost like a Great White concert in Rhode Island. Luckily enough we put it out but, barely. Sure it was retarded and to this day I am afraid to even keep gasoline in the garage for the lawnmower. That just goes to show you what kind of actions Motorhead inspires.
Judas Priest is with them and in the 90’s Judas Priest inspired a kid in Reno to commit suicide that lead to well documented court battle. This shit is not feel good music.

Lemmy - Stockholm Sweden, Sep 2007, photo by Robert Norgren

METAL MASTERS TOUR
METAL LEGENDS JUDAS PRIEST, HEAVEN & HELL, MOTORHEAD, AND TESTAMENT UNITE

Aug 6/08 Camden, NJ Susquehanna Bank Center
Aug 7/08 Bristow, VA Nissan Pavilion
Aug 9/08 Holmdel, NJ PNC Bank Arts Center
Aug 10/08 Wantagh, NY Nikon at Jones Beach
Aug 13/08 Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre
Aug 16/08 Pittsburgh, PA Post Gazette Pavilion
Aug 18/08 Detroit, MI DTE Energy Music Theatre
Aug 19/08 Chicago, IL First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Aug 22/08 Dallas, TX Superpages.com Amphitheatre
Aug 23/08 Houston, TX Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
Aug 24/08 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Aug 27/08 Albuquerque, NM Journal Pavilion
Aug 28/08 Phoenix, AZ Cricket Wireless Pavilion
Aug 30/08 San Bernardino, CA Glen Helen Pavilion
Aug 31/08 Mountain View, CA Shoreline Amphitheatre
Dark night nothing to see
Invisible hand in front of me
Scared to death there´s someone near
Scared to move but you can´t stay here

Lyrics to Iron Fist - 1984 - Insane Song
CHORUS:
You know me, evil eye
You know me, prepared to die
You know me, the snake-bite kiss
Devils grip, the iron fist

Flying horse don´t make a sound
Flying hooves don´t touch the ground
Walk in circle lose your track
Can´t go on but you can´t go back

CHORUS

Moon eclipse and you know why
Ghost rider in the sky
Beast of evil devil hound
Tooth and claw they pull you down

*Heroin can and does cause death, snowrev.com does not condone heroin use except under the supervision of a physician

The east coast is so green in the summer. This is my Dads backyard - deer live there

My Dad’s house is over 100 years old, he bought it in 1990 for an obscenely low price, even for then. It came with 8 acres even a stream with tiny trout

The stream in my Dads backyard

Pitcrew in Frederick Md is one of the premier shops in the region stop by if you pass through
the whole E’s wild ride crew stopped by a few weeks ago
http://www.skateboarding.com/article.jsp?ID=1000061822&type=stories&typeID=419

Also, Vans used a few of my photos of Bucky from the Dew Tour. Had a converstion yesterday with Chris Miller about whether Bucky or PLG should have won. PLG looked like he could have won but Chris said after seeing the tape that Bucky should have won. We talked about judging and stuff, all the boring stuff. Anyway Bucky won it was his gnarly spins and style versus PLG and his flips and 720. It was a well deserved victory

http://www.vans.com/vans/news.asp?id=1447714

It is a pattern as old as snowboarding itself or actually way older than that. You fall in love with the sport and then move to the mountains, now what? Chances are you will get some crappy job, live in questionable situations and do what you love. Usually you end up moving on, getting a real job and letting the “real” world dictate your life. Some people go on to become pro. Yet there is still the group of people that is probably the least talked about; the people that find a niche in the mountain towns, get a good job and stay forever. Tim Gallagher has been in Mammoth for a long time. Currently he is the general manager of Wave Rave. I don’t know what he makes but he lives in the sickest house in Lake Crowley, which about 15 minutes from Mammoth. Surely he is not making an obscene amount of money but persistence, planning, luck and hard work has got him a great place to live. He has a few roomates, no doubt to help make ends meet but when you see his house, it would all seem worth it. Tim does not even have to huvk 1080’s to live there. We took a tour and talked to Tim.

SR: How long have you lived in Lake Crowley?
T: Since the house was done, June or July

SR: What motivated you to build such a rad house and not just a normal place like everyone else?
T: My brother, Dan Gallagher with DCG Architecture, is an architect and I have a little knowledge of design and creativity. I wanted to do something different. I learned a lot in the process and now I have a lot more respect for modern design than I ever had. I like some modern design but you have to differentiate between what is clean and what is kind of a little too much. I kind of gave my brother a blank canvas and he came back to me with three different concepts. I took one of them and twisted it up a little bit. Initially the main structure was facing pretty due west and with a detached garage out front. In the summer time it gets kinda hot (especially with all the windows) I wanted to maximize the solar heating of the sun for the winter months and then get some kind of cooling for the summer. So we separated the three story building, instead of facing west and brought it out here, separated the garage and connected it with an entry hall; mudroom and breezeway. Of course when you walk in the front door, it’s a stunning view. You don’t get the standard sunrise effect with the mountains behind us but you get an alpenglow that is gorgeous.

SR: I am not up at sunrise very much myself (laughter)

SR: Is the garage cool in the summer
T: Yea it is actually, there are a few windows but it stay cool. You can enter the garage from the front and the back.

SR: Yea I actually almost drove in through the backyard
T: The guys that rent the downstairs actually park down there in the back yard. You get open access to the backyard from the garage. (we are now walking around outside) There are a couple of challenges. I want to maximize the southern exposure but try to block view of the neighbors house as well. The garage pretty blocks the view of the neighbors house

SR: Yea, I noticed that earlier actually.
T: When you are hear (in the backyard) you don’t really have a feel for the other houses, it is pretty wide open.

SR: You going to build a pool for skating?
T: (laughter) I am going to plant a bunch of trees. I leave that to my boss, he is just a hill over.

SR: Steve (Klassen)?
T: Yea

SR: Does Hammer (Matt) live down here?
T: I don’t know about that

SR: Wait, I am thinking about Tommy Czeschin
T: Tommy does, he owns the Laundromat here and he lives behind it. That’s his brothers place going in right there.

SR: The big one?
T: The 4-5,000 square foot castle. So the main challenges were opening up the views with a ton of glass and privacy. (We walk around talking about planting more trees) The lot is wedge shaped; it is super narrow at the cul de sac and fans out

SR: Crowley is awesome because it is so sunny. When I lived here it would be a sunny day and you drive to Mammoth to ride and they got 18″ of new and I would be like oh man, I dressed wrong
T: (laughter) I pack a bag every day. I learned the hard way, you don’t want to forget shit. You get a pretty good view from here (so you can see the weather in Mammoth) You can see up Mt Wood, Dana and the entrance to Yosemite. There is a little greenbelt back there, it’s called Whiskey Creek so they can’t really build right behind me, it’s a preserve. Tons of birds.

SR: You have been manager of Wave Rave for how long?
T: I have General Manager for three years

SR: It’s pretty rad I never thought you never could…
T: Well if it wasn’t for the exploding real estate market and my buying a condo in 1999 and the value tripled. I sold it at the peak so I was able to do this.

SR: That is motivating, when I grew up there was no way you could buy something like this not even if you were Craig Kelly but now, if you play your cards right. I know what Wave Rave can sell, I have seen a tractor trailer truck of Da Kine stuff get unloaded, A whole truck of whatever, freakin backpacks and gloves
T: We move a lot of product, a lot of it in 5 months of the year. Yea Steve’s been really good to me

Here is the view of the yet to be landscaped backyard. You can see some prominent features here. The garage on the right has a garage door to the backyard. You can see the main three story living structure on the left and the hallway the connects the main house to the garage. Also, the house is designed as kind of a wedge, from the inside you can not see the next door neighbors houses. Also you can see the cool building materials

The view from the living room is insane. The furniture is Ikea and the views are of (r-l), McGee Mountain, McGee Creek and I believe Mt Morgan. In the foreground is the town and even closer to the house you can see the green belt which ensures no more direct neighbors - ever

The stairway from floor 1 to floor 2

The kitchen

A closer look at some of the cabinet details

On the back deck looking at the back of the garage

looking towards the mountains from the second floor. That looks like rust on the 3rd floor because it is. It is metal designed to get rusty, then that is like the paint; protects the house and adds the color. Crowley is so dry that rust is taking a while to form

The front entrance. The yard is very narrow at the street then gets very wide

The other day we cruised to Univ in Encinitas, CA to check it out. It is kind of a cool little skate/snow/surf alternative boutique. The place to go to get some uniques stuff, not the stuff everyone else bought at Zumiez (nothing against Zumiez). Plus, it is across the parking lot from Hansens, near Swamis juice bar, the zen gardens, Swamis surf break and even Omatic (not sure if Omatic is a place you can stop in but f-it I am mentioning it anyway). If you want $16 Dickies go to Generation X if you want something that stands out, check out Univ.

see more here
http://shopping.snowboard-revolution.com/snowboard-shop/proper-places-univ/

Lets go back, way back to 1987. We are on the shore of the Chesapeake Bay it is October, Halloween to be exact, it is cold and this is not a resort town. This is kind of burnt out old town in area somewhat depressed after the closure of the steel mills and other heavy industry that used to financially anchor this area. We are east of Baltimore at the Hell Ramp. A formidable ramp that was about 24 feet wide and had 9 foot transitions and 3 feet of vert. The surface was metal which felt much harder in the cold air. The event was a Halloween contest and we would a 15 year old or so Bucky Lasek competing against all sorts of hardened veteran vert skateboarders from the mid Atlantic region in a fierce competition for the measly prize purse of a few hundred bucks. Such was the life of a vert skater in the late 80’s. Vert was king but about meet a quick demise with the turn of the decade. Not too mention pretty much all of skateboarding died in 1990. You still get a lot of old dudes saying “I used to skate in the 80’s” Well, Bucky did not quit, he kept skating; street, ramps whatever. In the mid 90’s he would drive to Spunk skates in PA, Cheap Skates in PA, wherever. The X Games came around, skating came back and it was game on again. Bucky never quit, you don’t quit when you are a skater. You quit when you are following the trends or “grow up”.

Fast forward 21 years to June 21, 2008 and Bucky is on the deck of the vert ramp at the Dew Tour in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. His family was there, Bucky told he has “hundreds” of relatives in Baltimore and of course friends and pretty much the rest of the packed crowd were rooting for him to win. It was kind of weird actually to think a vert skater can still go strong after twenty years and actually be one of the top 5 vert skaters still. Ant way, the crowd was pumped to see the hometown hero win. Even though Bucky lives in So Cal he is fiercely proud of his MD roots. Give him a Yuengling in So Cal and you got a friend. He is always sporting Orioles Garb, he is not a dude that moved away and forgot his hometown.

The only real thing standing in his way of a victory at the Panasonic Open stop of the Dew Tour was PLG. Sure, Bob, Andy Mac or Sandro could have won but PLG has been on fire. Bucky fell on his first run and PLG stuck his so PLG was on top. All the other skaters either fell or did not have totally on performances. PLG had a score of 93.5, a good score, hard to beat. In run #2 PLG fell on a 720 I think. Bucky stuck his run
and bested PLG by 0.25 points. He barely beat him out. The crowd went wild. PLG failed to best him in run #3 and there you go, Bucky won the Dew Tour in Baltimore, 20 years from his humble beginnings. I asked him “did you ever imagine this while you were skating the Hell ramp 20 years ago” He said “no way”

Maryland in the summer is a beautiful spot and full of history. Here is the train station in Point Of Rocks, MD. On set of tracks goes to DC, the other to Baltimore, where the Dew Tour is

The Potomac river forms the border between Maryland and Virginia. If you think about it you can almost here the shots of the civil war

Andy Mac and the view from the media/friends and family pit

Andy Mac signing autographs. When asked if the ramps change at all on the Dew Tour he replied “it is pretty the same as last year and the year before” he said the change…I answered “little things like extensions and stuff” he said “you got it” and went to practice

At first I was all stoked to get a photo of Bucky with Camden Yards (home of the Orioles) but then I realized the stadium in the background is where the Raven play not the Orioles. Ah well it is still a Baltimore sports team so f-it

Neal Hendrix, along with Bucky where there oldest guys competing at 35 years old each. When I was 18 I could not even imagine skating well at thirty, let alone being pro at 35

Bucky with a heelflip to fakie, right before I got kicked off the vert ramp so Pat Parnell could tape some tv stuff. I can curse tv for the fact that I was kicked off the ramp during practice, when I usually get to shoot practice but no doubt I will watch it on tv my self in the next week or two

Adam Taylor was the youngest kid in the event at 18. Lets see when Adam was born in 1990 Bucky was 18 or so, skating was dead and he was probably wondering what the hell to do with his life. Adam got 5th so good for him

Sandro Dias can always win these events, a few falls said otherwise today. You can’t fall and win the Dew Tour you have to make your run and do lot’s of crazy flips and spins

Alley oop frontside air. I heard that June 21, 2008 was Bucky Lasek Day in Baltimore. That is not confirmed though

PLG came really close to beating Bucky, a mere 1/4 of a point separated them

PLG flips out well above ground level

Andy Mac does a 720 in his first run. In his second run he fell hard doing a 720 and asked Dave Duncan to “not call out his tricks before he does them”

Bob Burnquist is always exciting to watch, here is an invert to 540. Bot got 3rd place

Rob Loriface, or Kid Rock, performs frontside 540 right before he was knocked out, literally and figuratively knocked out

Bob Burnquist - back lip

Bucky Lasek - fakie to fakie, off axis 540

Bucky again - boneless one to 540 rodeo.

Moments later here is Bucky right after his winning run, of which the boneless 540 was part of. He was acknowledging the crowds approval. with that moment of victory, we will end the coverage of skateboarding events at the 1st stop of the 2008 Dew Tour

Results
1 Bucky Lasek
2 PLG
3 Bob Burnquist
4 Andy Mac
5 Adam Taylor

P-rod getting tech in Baltimore

Yea, it is not the Sheckler tour it is the Panasonic Open or stop #1 of the Dew Tour. It’s just that Ryan Sheckler pretty much dominated, just like he did last year and the year before, uh and the year before. Yea Ryan has that TV show that is so weak even my girlfriend thinks he is a sissy but love him or hate him, he pretty much rules on a skateboard. Not too mention he can put so many tricks together that a 60 second run is no problem. Besides, his interview in The Skateboard Mag was pretty good, makes up for the TV show, We are not talking 30 tries for one trick, try like a dozen or whatever – all stuck. So I can not be included in the Sheckler hater group, sorry the 18 year rips and has for a long time.

Enough about Ryan, he won, you got it. First it should be said that the Dew Tour actually sold out in Baltimore, in fact people with tickets could not get in for a while. So that sucks for the fans that could not get in but the crowds were totally stoked to be there so that was good energy. It was also hot and humid but as P-rod said “we have been doing the Dew Tour for awhile and there are always stops with hot weather so no big deal”. The street course was mixed together with the bike street course and that meant there were some big features not normally seen. That was interesting but most skaters stuck to the skateboarding side. The format was two one minute runs and a little jam session at the end for 6 finalists. They mixed the two scores together somehow.

Finally, it is cool that some wildcard skaters can get into the Dew Tour through the prelims. One such wildcard was fourteen year old Chaz Ortiz from Chicago. Chaz got into the Dew Tour last year but this was his actual pro contest and he is one to watch for in the future. Now he just has to walk that line in skateboarding and not get stuck as the contest kid but then again how else does a 14 year kid get started in skateboarding when you are from Chicago?

Here is Camden yard, were Cal Ripken played and what my Grandma called the saltshaker. My Grandma actually went to college in Baltimore

Oh man, a soft pretzel with some crab stuff, cheese and old bay seasoning and a Yuengling – so good

Here is the course with the skate stuff on the right and the bike stuff on the left and the stadium were the Baltimore Ravens play

Ryan with a kickflip to back lip

Chaz Ortiz does a nollie to back lip which helped launch him into 3rd place in his first pro contest

P-rod up close and personal, Paul Rodriguez got second place

Ryan Sheckler was one of the few to utilize the bike features – big ollie transfer

Chad Bartie at 31 was the oldest guy there

The crowd had me pinned in

Austen Seaholm qualified first from the prelims – front 270

Jereme Rogers was not in the finals but he still rules

Ryan Sheckler – fakie to switch over crooks

The Sheckler family, while Ryan waits for his score

Chris Mendes was another new comer in the finals, kickflip to noseblunt for the 19 year old from Moreno Valley California

Chaz Ortiz – nollie big spin to back lip. Chaz said “My 1st run was better than my second but the jam is coming up and I like the jam format better”

Another lip slide but switch back lip form P-rod this time

Rodolfo “Goo Goo” Ramos hardflip. Goo Goo was one of the 5 Brazilians in the finals

Greg Lutzka performs a front cab 270 over the hip that according to Dave Duncan “Is a standard hip you could see at any skatepark”

Jereme Rogers – kickflip to crooks

Chaz Ortiz – stoked to be on a podium at 14 years old

The winners, Chaz Ortiz, Ryan Sheckler and Paul Rodriguez right after the results were announced

1 Ryan Sheckler 94.65
2 Paul Rodriguez 89.8
3 Chaz Ortiz 89.55
4 Greg Lutzka 81.75
5 Chad Bartie 78.55
6 Austen Seaholm 78.50

I am headed to Baltimore this weekend. I made me think of back in the days of Cedar Crest so a few photos were dug up. Cedar Crest reigned from like 1986-1990 I think. Back in those days vert was king, street was sure coming on strong but vert was it. Since to skate vert you needed a lot of money for wood there were not too many vert ramps. There were pretty much no skateparks. Del Mar closed in 85is, Upland in 87ish, you had the Turf, VA Beach and a few more but nothing like today. Cedar Crest was a 24 foot wide perfect metal ramp. For the tim it was possiblt the best in the world. What made it really unique wa the fact that it was located on a private country with really no rules. It was the precursur to todays Skateopia. People came from all over the world to skate, there were crazy parties, gnarly locals and so on. It was always open and you could skate with a few local or a heated session. The gnarly sessions would see like Blaze Blouin, Fred Smith and Josh Marlowe all drop in at the same time, whoever was last on, got to take a run. Bands like Gwar, Bad Brains, Governement Issue and more played, cops showed up and there were mellow sessions too. On of the sickest locals was Brian Boyd. He skated ahead of his time, floating ollies to fakie 5 feet out and covering 10 feet of deck. He was so good and never got the recognition he deserved. Have no idea were he is now. There could seriously be a book about Cedar Crest

Here is Brian floating a Madonna in front of non other than J-Grant Brittain.

Brian Boyd - backside air

Another photo from the same era - John Sonner at Vista California, photo by Jeff Partain. John was pro for H-street, damn look at those shoes, they were like Airwalk moon boots or something

Pro snowboarder Stephen Duke cruised by my house a week or two ago while in So Cal doing the business end of snowboarding. I am not even sure why he came by, my boss said “can you take some photos of Stephen Duke” I said sure. Mr. Duke cruised by, he was super nice and as soon as I finished, he left. I am sure we see what my boss had in mind for the photos in the near future. Of course a news release on the site too today.

Skateboarding is an activity that can require power grace and technical ability, often all at the same time. One thing that can be forgotten is style. Many people have good style but very few have a shit ton of style. A recent photo of Brian “Slash” Hansen reminded that he has style. Here is an old photo of Steve Olson reminding us that style can sometimes be a trick in itself.

You think this kids with no bearings in one wheel gives a fuck about the latest brands?

Here he is grinding at the now defunct Vagabond in Fresno