ISSUES

The act of skating and making jewelry are quite different, but then again quite similar when it comes to technical skill, precision and creativity. Santiago first started designing and creating jewelry when he was approximately 12 years old. He started at a school that taught different trades and quickly fell in love with playing and forming the metals into different shapes. As he got older, his focus started shifting more and more towards skating. He took a break from his jewelry for a number of years but has recently started creating again. 

Buenos Aires is culture. This city is a visual playground full of surprises, colors, shapes and people of all kinds. The center feels like an European capital and the outskirts feel like LA or any major modern city sprawled out into the abyss through a network of never ending highways. All of these elements combined create a unique atmosphere for skateboarding and for anyone who is obsessed with documenting the world around them and the things that are going on.

Luciano Cristobal is one of the true OGs of Argentina. He has been on the scene since before the scene existed and has been killing it all the way. His family is well known in Argentina for their culinary endeavors as well. His brother owns one of the most popular restaurants in the San Telmo neighborhood and had a cooking show on television until recently. This was an obvious choice for our Skaters Cookbook section and we are proud to have one of the masters from Argentina show us how to prepare a proper guiso de lentejas.

“Migue” comes from the center of Buenos Aires. His childhood home is only a few steps from the geographical and political heart of Argentina. He grew up skating all of the government buildings and plazas full of historical monuments. His neighborhood, San Telmo, is known for its rough, cobblestone streets, and lurkers waiting in the shadows for unsuspecting tourists once the sun starts to go down.

We got so lucky with our time in Seattle, only a handful of rainy days in a city notorious for its grey and wet weather. We had sun nearly every day and it was never really hotter than 30°C / 85°F. Security was harsh but we prevailed and came through with a good amount of footage. Check out some of Seattle’s heaviest hitters skate around downtown and its outlying neighborhoods. Here is montage number two from our two months of summer in Seattle.

City skateboarding is hard. It takes a special breed of skater to purposefully skate spots with shitty ground, cracks in the ground, huge security guards, or any of the other obstacles that might stand in the way. Joel and Ryan personify street skateboarding with an appetite for the weird, wild and photogenic. While some prefer perfect concrete, designated areas and obstacles that were meant to be skated, these two are prime examples of the guys that keep street skating where it started: IN THE STREETS!

Seattle is a freak show. Never before have we been to a city with more characters walking around than the Emerald City. Bohemians and bankers, nannies and trannies, feens with dreams and some of the most eccentric people you have ever seen. The heroin addicted teenagers of Westlake, the crackheads of Pioneer Square, the transvestites of Capitol Hill and the Suits of South Lake Union.

When you are traveling on a skateboarders budget, you have got to know how to cook for yourself and save money from eating out. For this Skaters Cookbook, our head filmmaker Matt Phipps cooks his breakfast that has kept him going on constant filming missions. Weather veggie or carnie, you can appreciate this simple dish ready to pack your body with protein to handle a day of skating through the city.

Street photography and skateboarding are much alike in many ways. You move around the streets and try and find arrangements of people and things that catch your eye, state your opinion, make you laugh, make you cringe, and make you think. Will Shields is a skater who has been experimenting with cameras ever since a family friend left a digital camera at his New Hampshire home nearly 15 years ago. He is quick on the shutter and has been developing his style and perspective over time.

We spent the last two months crawling the streets of Seattle, Washington (USA) and we are proud to bring you the trailer for ISSUE No. 9. The Emerald city is among the fastest growing ones in America, which also means there is an insane amount of new concrete and spots being poured. Seattle has a rich history both in skateboarding and subculture dating back more than 25 years from vert skaters to grunge rockers.

Mathias Torres is quite possibly the most motivated skater in Chile. We filmed this part over the course of two months in the streets here in Santiago. The day he did the huge switch ollie, he said “Man I don’t want to skate today, I want to go home and drink tea and sit at my house”.

One of the most interesting things about skating in Chile is the temperature drop. You might leave the house in the morning with shorts and a tee shirt on, but if you don’t have a proper hoodie or sweatshirt, you might be fucked come night fall. The reason for this is the unique desert/mountain climate that the valley of Santiago creates.

Christian “Maluco” Elizondo is one crazy cat. From juking and jiving with security guards to throwing down banger tricks down some hefty sized spots, Maluco gets down. We caught up with him and his friends and skated the streets of Santiago.

Stavros started skating at a very young age in the center of Buenos Aires, Argentina and has not stopped since. His two older brothers were skating by the time he was five or six and the love caught him quick. He moved back to Chile and has been shredding the streets and of South America and the rest of the world for more than 25 years.

Santiago is a really big, small city. It’s big enough that you feel like you’re in a metropolis, but small enough to get around fairly quickly. There is good public transportation (bus, metro) and taxis are cheap as well if you have a group of guys. The security, on the other hand, can be a big problem. Every day, at least once, we got hassled by security.

Franz first picked up a sax because the sound reminded him of a woman’s voice. He has been playing ever since and has quickly become a house hold name for Saxophone in Chile. He plays in several different bands, teaches classes and continues to pursue his dream of taking him and his saxophone all over the world.

Everyone in Chile has a lot of different names, usually at least a first name, a middle name and a last name. Add in a couple of nicknames that you earn from your friends and a skater in Chile can have upwards of five or six names. Our featured artist happens to be named Carloco.

We took a three day road trip to the port city of Valparaiso to skate with the guys from Converse Chile. This historic city is full of culture, street art, music and downhill skate spots. The whole city is built on hills that lead down to the ocean.

Yerko shows us how to cook a traditional dish from Chile, Tomatican. It’s easy to make and fairly quick as well. It is perfect with meat or you can take it out if you prefer vegetarian. Take some time and experiment with this dish, it can be really tasty if done right.

Skating at night in Santiago is much different than the day. The center is virtually empty and all the business people have gone home for the night. There are still many guards, but it’s much easier to get stuff done once the sun has gone down.

We have spent the last two and a half months filming around the streets of Santiago, Chile; an amazing city with an interesting mix of people and neighborhoods. From El Centro to Las Condes, you have every kind of spot you could wish for. But with every big city, especially those with a strong economy, there are a lot of security guards and people to get in your way as well.

We just celebrated our one year anniversary. We’ve lived all over the globe to create seven unique issues that each portray a different city and the culture around its skateboard scene.
We want to thank everyone that supported us during these incredible journeys – this clip is for you!

Filmed and edited by Matt Phipps
Additional filming by Steven Ban, Chris Theissen, Ryan Lovell, Atsushi Sugimoto, Doug Gerhardt

Stuttgart is a pretty ideal setting for photos. Old buildings, confined spaces, lots of pedestrians walking around, the perfect mix for a street photographer. While you will find most people looking boring and the same, if you watch close enough, the odd balls stand out long enough for you to pull the trigger and trip the shutter.

Maxi Schaible first appeared in our ISSUE No. 3 BANGKOK back in March 2013 – and stayed in close contact with us ever since. It is thanks to him that we produced Issue No. 7 in Stuttgart, Germany and he has been with us for the entire ride.

Stuttgart seems to have an endless supply of good spots and even better skaters. Whether native or transplant, this city has seen a lot of skateboard talents come and go. The European headquarters for several major international skate brands are located in Stuttgart which means plenty of amateur and pro skaters hit the streets every day.

Stuttgart has a big history in the German skate scene. It sits right in the middle of a valley so the city is surrounded by hills on all sides that have beautiful spots scattered all over them. Combine that with a very compact center filled with spots every 100-200 meters and you have the makings of a classic skate city.

Stuttgart seems to have an endless supply of good spots and even better skaters. Whether native or transplant, this city has seen a lot of skateboard talents come and go. The European headquarters for several major international skate brands are located in Stuttgart which means plenty of amateur and pro skaters hit the streets every day.

Stuttgart seems to have an endless supply of good spots and even better skaters. Whether native or transplant, this city has seen a lot of skateboard talents come and go. The European headquarters for several major international skate brands are located in Stuttgart which means plenty of amateur and pro skaters hit the streets every day. Mix all that with the excellent urban landscape that makes this city so epic to explore and you have a perfect equation for great street skateboarding. Stuttgart gave us so much skate footage, we made three edits from it.

Daniel Wagner is one of Germany’s busiest and most published skate photographers. What started out as a nerdish desire to document the actions of his friends has evolved to consume Daniel’s whole life. With expert detail to composition and lighting, he is always ready for the next trick and will find the best angle to capture it.

The city of Stuttgart, Germany, is located right in the middle of a valley. It is therefore surrounded by many hills to bomb, equiped with unique and fun spots to skate.
The area has produced a lot of talented skaters throughout the years. Even more have moved or traveled there to skate the many spots or shoot photos and film with some of Germany’s best cameramen.

Germany is famous for its selection of traditional food. Each region has its own specialties and classical dishes that are passed down from generation to generation. Käsespätzle is no different, while some may argue on the origin, it’s no secret that this is (also) a Swabian specialty.

Denver has a very high quality of life. Rent is not nearly as high as in other multicultural cities in the US but there is still a lot to do and some really cool neighborhoods to make your nest in.

Chet Childress might very well be the most straight up, real person that we have ever come in contact with. He says it like it is and doesn’t bull shit if he doesn’t like who you are or what you’re doing.

Every season, 303 boards on Colfax puts out a new line of shop boards with many different artists featured. One of this summer’s guess boards was designed by California artist BB.

The United States is a melting pot of all different cultures and people so it is hard to find food that is traditional to certain regions or areas since everyone is an immigrant at some point. We decided to hop on the green rush and take advantage of Colorado’s newly signed legislation that legalizes the recreational use of Marijuana.

Chet Childress might very well be the most straight up, real person that we have ever come in contact with. He says it like it is and doesn’t bull shit if he doesn’t like who you are or what you’re doing.

When we met Spencer we filmed a kickflip manual tre flip out three different times because he was unsatisfied with the way he was landing it.

Denver is a small city with a lot to see and skate. The old neighborhoods and the convenient way of life make the capital of Colorado one of the most walking, biking and skating friendly cities in the USA. We beat a lot of the summer heat by skating around downtown at night and keeping the day sessions to a minimal.

Bill Reeves started leather working to satisfy his desire to create and his passion for old world trades. He can create anything from custom designed bags, flask holders, tap handles for home brewers or bars and just about anything you can think of that could possibly use leather.

Coburn Huff spent six of the last seven years shooting on his old Nikon F5 analog film camera. This training helped him be selective with his pictures and not walk around, blasting shotgun rounds of photos hoping one comes out good.

Bryan Gutiérrez and Mario Wirnsberger share this full length section. Our old friend Mario from Austria came over to Costa Rica for a month to join us while we were filming in San José. We met up with Bryan and made it happen.

Costa Rica is a very diverse place. It is a small country with seven major volcanos that have formed the land mass that we know it as today. There are eight different climate zones that make up Costa Rica’s weather pattern and you don’t have to travel too far if you don’t like the weather.

Jorge Mata started screen printing with his friends in high school making band t-shirts for their friends. Business went up and down in the years. Today he is focussing his passion for screen printing on his brand Revival and is dedicated to fine quality fabrics and limited quantity releases.

On one of our first weekends in Costa Rica we were invited to a day trip down to the pacific coast with a big group of some of Costa Rica’s OG rippers. We started in Chepe and made our way to Orotina before spending most of the day in Puntarenas.

When it comes to filming in San José, the actual trick is usually the easiest part. First you have to dodge all the holes and cracks in the run up. If you make it past those, you than hope that the ground where you pop has not been eaten away from the torrential downpours that can happen almost instantaneously in the afternoons during certain parts of the year.

Starting at a young age, Negus was exposed to art because his mom was a painter and would always ask for his opinion on her paintings. His love for creating and showing art has grown ever since and his daily mission is to spread his art all over the streets.

We were lucky to arrive in San José, Costa Rica, early enough to get our footage captured before the real rain season started. But even without the sky opening up and letting everything down it isn’t the easiest place to skate.

Street life in Bangkok can be one of the most interesting and entertaining things to watch. As the sun goes down, the small sois (alleys) are hustling and bustling with traffic both human and automotive.

Bangkok is a city of rapid growth. The skyline and city have shot up over the last 20 years. The skate scene in Thailand has had a similar path. Some say Thailand is the most developed skate scene in all of Asia besides Japan.

Zud Rangma Records has been running the scene on funky Thai music and other forms of roots music for the past five years. They specialize in finding and remastering old school Thai funk, luk thung, molam, isan as well as other funky tunes from other countries all over the world.

TRK has been doing art since he was a kid but has taken it way more seriously in the last five years. He has shows and exhibitions periodically as well as some pieces in the Bangkok Culture Museum.

Florian “Burny” Hopfensperger is a German photographer that came out to BKK a couple of years ago to shoot an interview with Denny Pham. He immediately fell in love with the city and the convenience and way of life that Bangkok has to offer.

Food is one of the things that makes Thailand such an amazing place. Hundreds of different tastes, from spicy to sweet just around the corner. And it’s amazingly cheap, especially compared to western countries.

Shawn Ward is a transplant from the white winters of Canada and has been in Bangkok for the past seven years. He loves the way of life here and hasn’t been back to North America in the past couple of years. We sat down and talked a little bit about his time in Thailand, his recent injury and his life he has made for himself here in Bangkok.

If you are in or around Vienna (Austria) end of May, you should check out the VOLT European Skateboard Exposition. Its first edition is going to take place in Vienna at WUK (Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus) on 30.05. & 31.05.2013, and it will represent most of the European Skateboard Industry.

We’ve been deep in the urban jungle of Bangkok gathering clips and stories for this issue. Bangkok is a melting pot for skateboarders from all over the world – producing some top notch talent of its own as well.

Digga Mindz, an Austrian MC and producer, is the man behind some sweet beats you hear on some of our videos. We recently had a conversation about him and making music to get to the bottom of this master-mind’s head.

Download this wallpaper of Mario Wirnsberger poppin’ an ollie over a Vespa, shot in Vienna in September 2012.

From first glance, Albuquerque might appear as a small, mountainside town in the center of New Mexico. But spend a week with the skate scene and you will soon realize that this place is anything but small when it comes to spots and the tricks that go down on them.

Kenny G is an Albuquerque legend that can party just as hard as he skates. He’s been known for some wild shit over the years and always keeps the crew laughing hard all day long.

These four guys are some of the most motivated dudes you’ll find on the streets of Albuquerque. Monaco is a social worker and about to be the dad of an adopted child from Uganda. Anthony is a long-time friend from California that came out to get down on the trip and ended up killing it in two weeks.

John Thomson has been making glass art since he was 18. He uses it in the same way as he does use skating. In that he focuses his mind and energy on perfection – using cetrain tricks and his experience to make the glass flow in his hands and freeze into amazing sculptures and pipes.

Derek is a beast. He may have an Instagram for one of his dogs but he goes hard in the street. We filmed this whole part besides one or two clips in the six weeks that we were skating in ABQ.

Check out the trailer to “Ganz Wien”, an independant skateboarding movie by Johannes Wahl, coming out this summer.

Mario Wirnsberger is an Austrian legend. Originally from Kärnten, he has lived in Vienna for the last three years. He’s lived in Barcelona and a couple of other places in Austria but he feels the most home in Vienna.

Christian Tanzer aka “ChrisiTee” has been deep in the skate scene in Vienna since the early 90′s. One part of Stil Laden, ChrisiTee has a unique style inspired by some of the great skate artist legends as well as famous Austrian painters like Klimt and Schiele.

Vienna is a big city in a small country with a lot of spots and a hefty crew that knows them all. There are dozens of guys over the age of 25 or 30 that still shred on a regular basis. These dudes hold it down and get out there just as hard as the young ones.

Sebastian Binder, getting flow from Cliché and Nike and representing Stil Laden, teaches us how to make potato goulash.

This simple, cheap and tasty meal, optionally vegetarian or vegan, is just another example on how to eat well and healthy while saving money. It’s also a very good recipe to feed a whole crew on a tight budget and with basic equipment.

Cities like Vienna make people think of really old, cheesy stuff: Sound of music stereotypes and old monarchic nostalgia are probably the first pictures that come to a lot of people’s minds. More generally, Austria does remind people of snow and mountains, both of which are particularly not to be found in the Austrian capital.

Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It was the capital of a culturally and politically leading empire in Europe until World War One. Now it is the capital of Austria, one of the smallest countries in Europe. Its abundance of ressources makes Austrians enjoy one of the highest quality of life in the world.

Vienna is a true diamond, diverse and unique, full of history and with one of the highest quality of life in the world. It offers a great variety of things and with its super smooth sidewalks and a pretty compact structure it is a pleasure to skate around, wheither it is from spot to spot or just to suck up its unique athmosphere.

Mexico City is an exciting place full of life and new experiences every time you leave your house. With just over 30 million people in the area, Mexico City is one of the biggest cities in the world. Even one of its suburbs is in the top ten cities in the world population wise.

Last month we spent an entire day with Mario Saenz, one of Mexico’s biggest skateboarders. 24-year-old Mario has been going to the States to skate ever since he was 17 and he runs two skate shops in Mexico City – no wonder he is popular in the scene! Recently he also started his own shoe company, RID Shoes.

Skating the streets of Mexico City is not always the easiest task. Sketchy neighborhoods, insane traffic, jam-packed metro cars and people walking everywhere all the time can make it a bit tricky sometimes, especially if you want to get clips. But it is also one of the biggest cities in the world and there are countless buildings and endless streets and spots.

Alonso Leal goes by the name of Chango, which is spanish for Monkey. His mom gave him that nick name and you can actually call her and ask for “the monkey”. He was born in Mexicos capital, grew up in Menterrey and then came back to the big city.

Fernan “Tortuga” Origel grew up skating in the south-side Mexico City neighborhood of Churubusco. He got the travel bug around the time he turned 19 and has been splitting his time living between Mexico City, Southern California and Barcelona for different parts of the last 7 years.

Mexico City, one of the biggest and one of the most colorful cities on this planet! Extreme everything – traffic, pollution, spots, women, Mexico City is always pushed to notch 10.

This Issue about Mexico City is also the World Premiere for SKATERS ATLAS. If you wonder what this is, this video explains it in only 50 seconds! We put together a fine selection of analog settings to give you a detailed yet quick idea of what this is all about!

Our very first video from some time ago – the PROMO! Launching our magazine’s first issue is a very exciting moment for us. And of course it makes us think back how we got here. Some shots taken on that way, all over the globe, are put together in this clip. Cheers!