CrossRoads Trade Show at Black Box Distribution

Check footage from Black Box of the ripping skating that went down.

When we first got there in the morning, it already looked like plenty of business was getting done. The crowd got way bigger as the day went on and there was none of this crap

Inside, some ripping skating was going on. The photography, however, is not ripping. As usual, black and white makes a hurting photo look artsy. That's Ernie Torres frontside nosegrinding over the quarter pipe door gap

Porpe joined me at the airport at a little before 5am this morning for our flight to San Diego. He had full blown bar face and his breath alone could get you wasted

Right outside the Black Box TF is where all the skate bid'niss was going down. I stay away from that stuff

DMFP also showed up bar face status early morning at the airport. What did I miss last night? That's a lipslide on the rainbow rail

Sean Sheffey was skating? Wow, I was a little nervous shooting photos of him. Don't count on a comeback

Who dat? This Creature dude was tearing up the tranny. That's a correct, non-kiddie frontside air. Plenty of kiddie frontside airs are coming up later at the ASR mini-ramp

Lately I've been kind of into taking the crappy newspaper style photo with no perspective of the obstacle. That's Remy Stratton and I believe that's an eggplant. I always get my inverts confused

Cody McEntire - switch flip down the double set. I can't stop thinking of Lutzka throwing the sideways peace sign whenever I see a hat like that

While I was skating, I saw Gilbert Crockett rolling around. I had to stop and watch the whole time. He's one of my new favorite ams. This is a switch flip wallride

Ernie Torres - back lip. I spy Darrell Stanton and Sean Sheffey

Bar Face fell asleep in the skate park. Ternell, welcome to the west

If someone gave you those cookies, you'd be just as psyched as Abdias is right now

Meanwhile, out in the parking lot, all your favorite pros and of course some that aren't your favorite, are hanging out and playing games of SKATE. Tony Tave 3 flips while Windsor James waits his turn in the ironed jeans

Are you a fan of these crazy cars? I think of them kind of as the longboards of motor vehicles

Ward to your mutha! That's our best Aussie pal, Trevor Ward. He's got so many gay jokes and references it makes me kind of suspect of him

That's Ryan Dewitt, Element Team Manager. Imagine was it must be like working with the personalities of everyone from Tosh Townend to Mike V to the Huston family, and more. Most of you only know the public skateboard marketing image, but what goes on behind the scenes is enough drama for a tv series. Dewitt has stories for days, but I know he's holding out on us

Antwuan Dixon was up to regular wastoid antics and entertaining us all. Smashing chairs, picking fights, arms in the air, head cocked sideways saying, "What?" and all that. Sean Sheffey should have stepped in like, "Antwuan, let me tell you..."

If you ever wanted to do the Leap of Faith, it's way easier at the Skateboarder Mag booth

There was a Cliche video premiere along with no $8 beers and $10 pizza. Yep, food and drink was free here, not theme park prices. Speaking of $8 beers, come to ASR Thursday night at 6pm where SPoTlight, Nike SB, and The Skateboard Mag are buying all the $8 beers you can drink at the Damn Am Awards

By the time the DVS Best Trick Contest started, we were out of there. Jake Phelps should be on the mic at every skate event. Some dude back 360'd over the door gap and Jake's announcement on the mic was, "You didn't even go all the way up, faggot." Wow, I hope Trevor Ward wasn't offended

A damn good airplane head rest. Made by enjoi, of course

After the Crossroads Trade Show, we had a quick meal at Matt Hensley's pub where the place was packed. I spy John Lucero and Ronnie Bertino. After that point it was getting to where I was up for nearly 24 hours. Time to crash

Our friend Colin Clark put together the footage clips that will play as each award is given out at the Damn Am Awards Thursday night. We're having rehersals for it a few hours prior like it's a wedding ceremony or something. It's more important than a wedding, though. It's the Damn Am Awards, dammit. See you there. It starts at 6pm and will be over pretty fast at about 8pm. $8 beers on me

For those that don’t know, Black Box Distribution is responsible for getting Zero, Mystery, Slave, and Fallen into your hands. It’s the parent-company of the aforementioned brands and the mother-ship owned wholly by Mr. Jamie Thomas himself. The more I find out about Jamie, the more I am amazed at what he has accomplished in only 34 years on this earth. Enough ass-kissing for now…

The Show started at 8am, but since I had no “official” business to attend to, I rolled in at a casual 3pm. “Wow” was all I could think. The cars were literally parked a ¼ mile away, skateboarders were everywhere, and I could tell that this was going to be a fun time.

The Show was set up set up in the back parking lot of Black Box and there were approximately 30 or so booths of your favorite skateboarding brands. I can only recall one buster-ass company with a mascot dressed as Uncle Sam, but can’t seem to remember the name of the brand.

My estimate is that there were about 2,000 – 4,000 people in attendance. And when I say “people,” I mean skateboarders. Here is a list of the rules:

     * There were no rules

Anyone could attend. No badges were necessary. Alcohol was permitted to those of age. Skateboards and dogs were encouraged. Skating the 30,000 sq. ft. TF was also encouraged. Finally, there were free hot dogs, hamburgers, and drinks.

I ran into many old friends and literally hundreds of familiar faces. One old pal was Australian Trevor Ward, who I threw a plastic water bottle at in jest and missed. The bottle blew passed him and landed at the feet of The Chief. I said, “Hey, can you pick that up for me. Thanks.” The Chief threw it back at me.

Another highlight was Antwuan Dixon being in the standard state of complete intoxication. He was focusing boards and then trying to focus boards with plastic, fold-up chairs. Of course I had to yell, “Break it, Pussy!” But Antwuan was too inebriated to realize that the egging on was coming from me. It’s not like he needed me to influence him anyway because he had several hanger-ons trying to befriend and encourage him. I was just stoked that we weren’t at Skatepark of Tampa, so the situation wasn’t my responsibility this time around.

As the sun set a couple of Best Trick Contests went down inside on the Street Course. The first one was over the gap on the quarter-pipe. It was hosted by none other than Thrasher’s Jake Phelps, but my crew wanted to bolt. We took off in the middle of it, but hopefully Rob got some pics of that prior to departure because there was some serious skateboarding going down.

Thanks to everyone in attendance and all of the good folks at Black Box for the fun afternoon.

Ryan