etnies Goofy vs. Regular 2007: Old Mans & Bowl Jams

Words by Ryan Clements
Photos and Captions by Rob Meronek

Rob Brink works at etnies. Until now, he's had nothing but man rape and party photos on the site. He can do every flat ground trick but only has one trick on tranny not counting dropping in and a fakie rock. This is it right here

We got to skate the mini-ramp in the Sole Tech STI lab where they test new skate shoes. If was a full on old industry guy session. Sean Malto was there not wearing DC's. This is Justin Gold who works at Thrasher with a cliffhanger off the deck

This is Ivo Janssen on a front rock. He does nerd stuff like I do at Sole Tech and questions my technology of choice for running the Skatepark site

The STI Lab has some tech equipment for measuring impact and other stuff that makes for great skate shoes

This contraption simulates ollies by spinning around and dragging a shoe across a deck

Shoes get cut in half and dissected like a frog

This is on the wall in the lobby at Sole Tech. I guess it's their conference room schedule. Looks like they named it after Natas. Check that meeting on Friday afternoon, "Goofy Prank Brainstorming." I'd like to sit in on that one

People seem to have this impression of the Skatepark like all we do is party all day. We actually work. When I rolled into the Sole Tech offices today, there were people with beers everywhere. They're the ones that party all day. Does the trash can outside your office look like this?

After the mini-ramp session, the full grown men had an 80's style jam on the parking block in front of the Sole Tech offices. Sole Tech makes eS, etnies, and Emerica shoes. Barak Wiser is here taking care of some buyer business. He is backside flipping in some eS shoes you've never seen before

Quick foot fetish with Barak and his mystery eS shoes

Lance Conklin used to be pro for Powell. Now we works at Innes. Here he's taking the 215's to the curb

The old guy curb session was getting pretty heated. Clem's coping dancing got way crazier than this

Brink is throwing out the California knuckle pound on this no comply flip

Seriously, I'm trying to get things done at this high profile photo shoot, and the talent keeps having to stop and text with chicks. How annoying. Check out Rob Brink's site

Okay, back to serious business. Brink's got the snaps on the regular no comply's

Now we're at the Bowl Contest that didn't start until way past beer-thirty. This is Pat Ngoho and he's still killing it in the pools

These guys are in their 40's and ripping the bowl like, well, like they're in their 40's, but it's still damn good skating. This is Lester Kasai

Steve Caballero has been doing these elguerials since disco was cool

Glen Charnoski ended up winning the Masters Division. Is there a name for an invert grabbing mute?

It would not be a bowl jam without a Madonna. That's Glen Charnoski

I was pretty surprised to see how gnar Duane Peters is in person. He was ripping, slamming, and then continuing to rip

Since I've been skating since the wheel was invented, I've ridden a couple of Eddie Reategui's Alva boards. Good seeing him still rip

Duane Peters was coming in backside revert out of these in the deep end. Wow

Tyler Mumma took this lien nosegrab in to frontside revert

While all this bowl stuff was going on, JFA played and got a pit started in the crowd outside the fence

Omar Hassan was ripping the whole time. I thought he was going to win for sure

This kid, Ken Kowalski, had me asking myself, "Who the hell is this?" He's 15 and pretty amazing in the bowl. This lien one foot is to disaster with the quickness

Benji Galloway ended up winning it. For some reason, I can't remember any tricks he did

Ken Kowalski is taking this stale fish to quickness disaster also

Chris Senn was there going 100mph

Wow, these chicks look just like each other

Lacey Baker's here for the Girl's event tomorrow. She's got more VIP wristbands than me. I'm jealous

Manny Santiago likes Michael Jackson

The first weekend of four that we’re spending on the west coast started out bright and early at 4:45am EST in Tampa. By 2pm PST we were hanging out at the etnies Skate Park in Lake Forest, CA. Air travel is amazing when you think about it.

After hanging out, talking to friends, and trying to take a few runs in the crowded park, we made our way back up to the Sole Technology building that houses their top-secret skateboarding “research and development” studio for a private session. What we thought was going to be a couple of the bros ended up being a pretty epic session…the ones that you live for when you’re an old man.

After skating in there for an hour or so, we took the session outside onto the parking blocks. The fun never ends…

Here I am talking about old industry guys skating mini-ramps and parking blocks and the first coverage of the weekend is actually a Bowl Contest. Now these dudes that rip the pool at the etnies Skate Park truly don’t care about silly little mini-ramp sessions…they’re just too gnarly for that.

Let me explain something before we go on. This pool is gnarly. It’s got a pretty tight shallow end and the coping sticks out a little too much. If the highest airs are only about 4’, then you know something’s up. These living legends got 15 minutes to show the judges what they had:

• 7th – Steve Steadham - okay, I’ll be honest…I didn’t see Steadham skate because I missed his heat, but I did last year and was impressed!
• 6th – Eddie Reategui – it doesn’t get anymore authentic than Alva’s OG finest. How he and Duncan rip so hard with those beer bellies is beyond me. They’re still living it, so hats off to them
• 5th – Duane Peters – look, if Rob was like, “Holy $h!t. Duane Peters is fxcxing rad!” then you know that he was killing it. At 46 he’s still got inverts reverts and roll-out to handplant-in reverts…gnar
• 4th – Lester Kasai – he was having more fun out there than anyone…and I found out something else about Lester: He still lives at home. But I think that once you pass your 30’s and are still at mom’s pad it’s okay
• 3rd – Pat Ngoho – Pat had some of the longest runs and skated the pool very comfortably. His boardslide around the hip sticks out as memorable
• 2nd – Cab – need I even say his whole name? After a hard slam while warming up, Cabbie came back to dominate with miller flips, elguerials, and long-ass boardslides. Love that dude…
• 1st – Glen Charnoski – I don’t know if Glen exactly fits into the “living legend” category, but the guy is really good and has a huge bag of tricks. In fact, he’s so good that I think he should be probably skating in the Pro and not the Masters

The Pros immediately followed the Masters. There were enough in the Finals to have them skate in two separate 15-minute Jams in order to try and avoid head-on collisions. Here’s where they ended up:

• 11th – Will Powers – jumping off the fence into the deep end of the pool didn’t quite work out for Will this time around
• 10th – Jimmy The Greek – he was taking it easy due to a swollen knee, but still managed to throw in a couple of signature disasters
• 9th – Chris Senn – some things get better with age and Senn-dog is just that guy. I’m so feeling the way he handles his business and skates anything like he owns it
• 8th – Ken Kowalski – I don’t know if this was the sketchy-looking burn-out kid from Oregon or the clean-cut little kid that did the bean plants to fakie. Oh well
• 7th – Rion Linderman – this kid is getting better every time I see him. He did bs lipslides in both the shallow and the deep ends and a blunt fakie in the deep end
• 5th – Tyler Mumma – Tyler must live near this thing because he skates around it so fast and under control that it’s ridiculous. His bs smiths are the killer
• 4th – Brian Patch – holding strong after all of these years, Patch skates solid and can do body jars on anything and everything. Let’s not forget the fs grind over the hip
• 3rd – Josh Mattson – who? Yeah, I know, but this kid from Nor-cal absolutely kills it. I think that he actually did more tricks than the winner, but he’s got a few years before he’s skating like a seasoned vet. You can’t top his fs 540 handplant (unit) though
• 2nd – Omar Hassan – one of my all-time favorite pool rippers destroyed with a Christ air to fakie, heelflip fs air, Madonna to smith, and every line imaginable
• 1st – Benji Galloway – $3000 – maybe it’s just me, but I had Benji in 2nd and Omar in 1st this time around. I guess it could have gone either way because the switch blunt in the deep end and the bs 360 melon over the hip were no joke

As you can see, a few of the placings are missing, along with the majority of the money. That’s because there were a couple of kids (yes, kids) in there that I didn’t know and since JFA (yes, JFA) was playing during the Jams, there was less announcing than usual. After the results were announced we were cold, tired, and had been up for too many hours…and there was no one handing out results sheets, so I went off the notes that I took. Time to get the hell out of there. Hello Staybridge Suites!

Ryan