Features

Getting near the end of the London 2006 Raw Tapes Episodes with this newest installment, episode 6, featuring a double decker bus full of street shredders. This week has a heavy focus on Landscape pro Daniel "Snowy" Kinloch as well as Isle Skateboards founders Paul Shier and Nick Jensen. Click ahead and dive in.

More London, more Olly Todd, more Nate Broussard floating over shit, more raw footage from Static 3, more Puleo being a sweetheart and a bonus of an outdoor barroom brawl at the now deceased best spot in London, the Holborn Viaduct benches. Click ahead to take a right turn down memory lane

I barely know anything about the "SOURCE" crew but the video pieces are shot and edited by Ben Chadourne and feature a rad collection of skaters that have their own unique approach to shredding the streets of France. We just found this new edit that went live today and figured you'd enjoy having a gander.

The Raw Tapes series continues with Episode 4 featuring an 8 day trip to Israel with Kenny Hughes and Nate Broussard from 2006. This week the summer of Nate continues to entertain with another 8 minutes of ripping amazing spots from the cities of Tel Aviv, Haifa and even Jerusalem and several never-before-seen clips that hit the cutting room floor from Nate's Static III part. 

It wouldn't really be right if we allowed September 11th to pass by without doing some sort of story revisiting the events of 9/11. Obviously, the subject is very delicate and polarizing, so it's not without trepidation that I approach the task of writing about this heavy topic. But it would be disrespectful of the truth if I didn't use this opportunity to revisit the event that changed all of our lives in such a dramatic manner.

After putting up with a very temperamental mini DV deck, we finally managed to dig through the 29 tapes we had to capture from to complete the full Summer 2006 Raw Tapes series.  This week's episode features our 1 week long trip to Paris with Soy Panday and Nate Broussard. It's pretty insane to consider that this was all filmed in a matter of 7 days and it includes some footage that's never seen the light of day. Click ahead and enjoy.

In an effort to keep you kitted out in conspiracy gear during back to school season, Theories has just released their Fall '15 line. Choc full of new graphics and fresh pieces including a brand new cut & sew collaboration with Domestics clothing and the rad "Unsolved" collection, Theories is bound to make you the most fresh-to-death kid at the bus stop. And, have you heard about the new Theories board?

Episode 2 from the RAW TAPES London feature is now live. Featuring footage from the summer of 2006 while filming for the Static III video in London. Featuring raw and unseen footage of Pat Stiener, Steve Brandi, Will Harmon, Nate Broussard, Tony Manfre, Nick Jensen, Alex Klein, Charlie Young, Vaughan Baker and Olly Todd.

Caste Quality and Traffic Skateboards present a new collab and video featuring Nate Pezzillo. Filmed over the course of the past year in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and focusing on Philadelphia. Especially the iconic "City Hall." Fitting crossroads for both Caste and Traffic, a place which houses the politicians and decision making that has fought against the integration of skateboarding in the modern day city.

In an effort to open the prison doors on the countless external hard drives on my office desk and let the decades of raw footage loose, we're starting a new feature on the TOA site called "Raw Tapes" through which we'll feature one specific era, project or moment and release all of the raw footage in one simple edit. The first episode focuses on the summer of 2006 while filming in London for Static III.

Theories of Atlantis keeps getting rad things just handed over to us without us having to lift a finger. Last week it was Yonnie & Brendan's dope part from the "Local Express" video. And this week we were given the opportunity to host Mark Del Negro's part from the Kinetic Skate Shop video "Silk" by Jake Todd. Now if someone would just hand-deliver our lunches and dinners we'd never have to leave our chairs. Now click ahead to watch Mark's ripping part.

The all new independent video "Local Express" released this past weekend and it's been the most popular item in the TOA web store. So we were pretty stoked when the man behind the project, John Valenti, offered to let us host a part. Although, this presented a difficult choice since the video is filled with good friends of TOA. But we finally decided and picked the ripping part by Traffic Skateboards heavyweights Yonnie Cruz and Brendan Carroll. We think you'll agree that it was a wise choice. 

Rich Adler is easily one of our favorite skaters over here in the TOA offices. So we were super psyched when we were sent the scans from Rich's interview from Transworld Japan. Master shredder and master brewster Rich never disappoints. Unfortunately, none of us can read Japanese so the photos will have to suffice.

It seems that the most recent attempts by mainstream brands to entertain us with bedazzled skate videos has fallen rather flat. The most hyped video projects come and go like the tide and although they may leave an impression on younger audiences, those with more refined tastes seem to feel like there's something missing, like heart and emotion. But fortunately something has been filling the void quite nicely and bringing some soul back to the silver screen. Long live the scene video! 

Shortly after the release of the Static II video, Josh Stewart, Kenny Reed and Paul Shier wanted to launch a new trip without the burden of a full length video on their shoulders. So where do a group of skaters go to relax and take it easy? Transylvania of course! Having recently traveled through Cairo, Egypt together less than a year earlier, trudging around the great pyramids and chilling with the Sphinx, they figured they needed to match the level of adventure and go on a mission to track down Dracula's castle.

Although it seems the term "collab" gets spoken more than the word "skateboarding" these days, there are still some collabs that aren't annoying. Especially when it involves a skater who's new skate footage is always a welcome sight to our laptop-weary eyes. A skater like Isle Skateboards art director and pro, Nick Jensen. And a nice little video release to boot....

 

It's been waaaaaaay too long since we posted a new review for the TOA Book Club and I can't believe that we never did one for this amazing book, "Alien Agenda" by Jim Marrs. One of the best investigative journalists on topics outside of the mainstream realm, Marrs was the author of the book "Crossfire" which the Oliver Stone film "JFK" was based upon. And his overview of the UFO/Extraterrestrial phenomenon in this book is nothing short of amazing.

Transworld just let loose a beastly video part from the beast of Copenhagen, and Polar Skate Co pro Hjalte Halberg. We're huge fans of Hjalte at TOA and we urge you to head over and check out the video part immediately.

The Deep Dish video series has helped shed some much needed light on a very underground and little known skate scene. The midwest. And more specific, the amazing city of Chicago. We caught up with video maker Mark Dunning and little ripper Brett Weinstein to get the skinny of going deep.

We try our  best to see every independent video that comes out here at TOA and we'd have to argue that the new "Headcleaner" project is our favorite video of 2015 so far. With a rad and unique concept and an amazing line-up of underground talent, it's got just enough to leave you wanting more.