20 Years of Etnies

My skateboard takes me places that school never could. -Swimmer’s Ear Magazine 2 Swimmer’s Ear Swimmer’s Ear 3 Regulars Variance Change in Sound Unfortunate Cookies Special Guests Russ Pope Shad Lambert On Location Kentucky Score The Grey Love of Everything Feature Presentation 20 Years of Etnies Cover photo: Corey Duffel - Shad Lambert 4 Swimmer’s Ear Directors Adam Sever Chris Pernula Contributors Zach Windahl, Carl Wedoff, Adam Bubolz, Greg Schall, Ben Gilsrud, Michael Anderson, Nate Bozquez, Andreas Dunlap, John Kessel, Alex Cairncross, Chris Strong Studio P.O. Box 2076 Maple Grove, MN 55311 www.myspace.com/swimmersear [email protected] Memo: 1 sign that skateboarding will always be in my blood: At the grocery store yesterday, I stopped to tighten my loose shoes. As I pulled the laces up one by one, I got the same familiar feel- ing in my feet as when I tighten my shoes before skateboarding. -A.S. Memo: My favorite memories are not always on film: Top Left/Middle: Fakie 360 Flip/Fakie FS Flip on a beautiful MN Summer day. Top Right: Varial Kickflip in an empty shallow pool on Chris’s cruising board. Bottom Left: Skating with my daughter. Bottom Right: Gap ollie from ramp over fence to parking lot. -A.S. 6 Swimmer’s Ear Virginia is for LOVERS Drama I Went on a Job Interview and The Drama is a contemporary art magazine from All I Got Was This Richmond, Virginia. It has a cute 9 x 9 page size and features a wide variety of fields, including Lousy Tony Hawk illustration, design, comics, photography, and Book! more. Issue Six features an interview with designer Brian Roettinger, How to Silkscreen While pursuing a career in the with Seri Pop, plus an inside look at studios and publishing field, I took an inter- galleries. One part I found to be quite nice is the view at a children’s and educa- last section of the zine called “This It”, which fea- tional book publisher. After the tures 2 color comics on an ivory paper. This is the only time I have seen a Vice-President of the company magazine use two types of paper in one magazine. Issues #7 and #8 found out that I skateboarded, should be out by the time you read this. Check out thedrama.org for more he offered me this Tony Hawk information. book, as a way to show that he was down. He even told me that they often had skate- boarders skating the walkway Paying In Pain? ramp in front of the office. I Do You Take Change? never got the job, but he let me keep the book. I don’t typically care for the well The book itself is basically about Tony Hawk landing a 900 for the first time known skate magazines. They’re all in competition during the 2003 XGames. The rest is just a watered down the same with their high gloss cov- history of the most recognizable ers and miles of pages of tricks that talent in skateboarding. The author I saw last month. I mean how many beat the X-Games angle to death, times can I see a backside tailslide and made one of the biggest mis- in one month. That’s why I like takes I’ve seen in a book about Paying in Pain. It’s gritty and honest. skateboarding. I’m sure you’ve It contains no bullshit skateboarding and it’s always seen the Grant Brittian photo of the an interesting read. Issue 16 features articles about 4 Bones Brigade members doing Chicago, the Sacrifice Video, Strawberry Bowl Jam, plus simultaneous inverts. In the caption more. Issue 17 features an interview with skateboarder Josh Falk and musi- for that picture, the author names cian Travis Graves, plus a ton of ams. Issue 18 is something special. It looks one of the skaters as Andy MacDonald. Andy MacDonald wasn’t even on like they have stepped up the paper quality with a gloss cover and a nicer the same side of the country when that photo was taken. If you're going to newsprint inside. 18 features interviews with Alex Villasenor, Josh Baker, do a book about skateboarding, then do a little research, don’t half ass and Drew Porter. It also has articles on New Zealand and Australia. Check your way through it. out payinginpain.com for more information. Swimmer’s Ear 7 Known Truths Randy Laybourne has been doing design in the skateboarding industry for many years. He was the man behind some of Emerica’s most innovative advertising, and is currently the Art Director at Transworld Skateboarding. About every six months or so, Randy releases a zine of drawings and photos. His most recent zine, “Known Truths”, is a small 36 page masterpiece of creative drawings mixed with photographic backdrops and little quotes. You can check out lookforwardtothepast.com for updates on other zines and almost daily drawings. To view some of Randy’s design work, go to randylaybourne.com The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs Powell Peralta Re-Issues I used to have a Powell “Half Cab” board. It had the Skull and This is Brian Costello’s first novel, and it’s quite Sword design like the Ray “Bones” Rodriguez model up there on good. It’s the story of Shaquille Callahan, the the left. It was as big as a Cadillac and it had clear griptape. I used new drummer for The Enchanters, a band that to cruise around on the thing, it was impossible to do tricks on. It eventually influences the majority of the town’s was 10 or more inches wide and had 7.75 inch trucks and size 42 punk kid’s future bands, directly or indirectly. wheels. One day, I left it outside and it was stolen. Most anyone The way Costello writes it, almost makes it who skateboarded in the 80’s will remember these shapes. They seem real, like he’s lived the story in a previous have a nice feel to them. They feel nice to just stand on. You don’t life. Definitely worth checking out. Check out even have to be rolling to appreciate these boards. For more info www.featherproof.com for information on The on these boards and other Powell Peralta re-issues, Check out Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs. www.skateone.com 8 Swimmer’s Ear Powell Pro Tough Ply These three boards from Powell are pretty nice. All of them have just the right amount of concave. They range in sizes from 7.625-7.875. Plus the graphics are pretty cool as well. These boards have a nice bit of pop. They don’t feel too bendy and they don’t feel too stiff either. If your looking for a board that is still made in the USA, then you can look to Powell. They have been manufacturing their boards in California for many years. Accel Wheels In the past year or so, Accel has moved over to Giant Distribution, distributors of Stereo and Popwar, which will help them get their wheels into more shops. With help from Giant’s sales force, more of these wheels will surely be rolling down the street with a skateboard attached to them. On the left, we have the 51mm Dual Durometers. They are a nice hard, fast wheel, perfect for street skating. In the middle, we have the Kristan Svitak 56mm Clean Cuts. These wheels feel a little softer than the Dual Durometers. There also wider and have a nice shape to them. On the right we have the 52mm Skatepark wheel. They feel a little grippier for the wood surfaces a lot of skateparks have. Swimmer’s Ear 9 Bones Swiss Labyrinth Bearings How do you make one of the best bearings better? Add a Labyrinth. No, not that Austin Stephens 52mm sweet David Bowie movie, but a “U” shaped groove in the inner race of the bearing. The removable Toy Machine Wheels shields fit snugly into the groove, thus These wheels have a nice making it harder for water and dirt to get shape and a simple design. inside the bearing. Which results into They are your basic standard longer skating times between cleanings. white wheel. They provide a These bearings are smooth, quiet and smooth ride. fast. The only downside to these bearings, is that they cost close to what you pay for a deck. Josh Harmony 53mm Toy Machine Wheels Josh Harmony sprinkled his head sweat on each set of these wheels. His magical Bones Reds Bearings head sweat will make you Bones Reds were developed as a low cost alternative to the Bones Swiss skate rails like him. No seri- Bearings. The Bones Reds are made with the same materials and specifica- ously, you’ll be nose grinding tions as the Bones Swiss, but are manufactured in China instead of 30 stair rails in no time. Switzerland. They are roughly half the price of the Bones Swiss. They feature a single, removable shield for cleaning and are pre-lubricated with Speed Toy Machine Cored Cream racing lubricant. These bearings are pretty fast and they work well with Monster Wheel 53mm street skating or mini ramps. These wheels have a plastic core with holes that make the wheels feel 2-3 millimeters lighter. A good idea, but I’d like to see how they hold up during high impact skating. 10 Swimmer’s Ear A Day in Black and White Askeleton The Blackout Pact “Notes” “(Happy) Album” “Hello Sailor” Forget everything you knew about A Day in This is Askeleton’s last album named after feel- The Blackout Pact play a sort of punk mixed Black and White and their past music.

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