Features

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.

Work In Skateboarding recently sat down with Josh Stewart to find out more about TOA Distribution. They talk about how Theories of Atlantis evolved from a blog into a distribution company, the pros and cons of the skate industry, and what separates TOA from the other skate distro companies out there.

Waylon Bone takes us behind the scenes of Pontus Alv's, "Manhattan Days" a video featuring the Polar/CONS crew skating through NYC. It's been said enough about how hard it is to skate NYC, now just try to imagine what it would be like while lugging around a shopping cart with two diamond-plate metal grates and a pole jam.

Something Europeans love to do is to clown Americans on their cities and states that are named after European cities with the addition of the title "New" before it. The state of New Jersey is actually stolen from a little known island off the coast of England, but actually closer to France called "Jersey". And this is the home of the young artist/skateboarder dynamo known as Glen Fox....

Possibly the hardest trick to not look horrible while doing it, the "hard flip." We racked our brains at the TOA office to come up with a comprehensive list of the most incredible nollie and switch hard flips ever captured on video. So, now sit back and peruse our very official top 10 list below and then watch the piece of shit video we edited to demonstrate these great moments in hard-history.

There's something very unique about Jahmal's skateboarding and his offerings with Hopps that add a certain level of class to whatever venue showcases them. The guys at Bobshirt have a knack for picking deserving subjects to interview on their site and they have just added a very welcome new feature on their site this afternoon. A Jahmal Williams video interview. Let's all check it out.

That's right my friends, Static videos have finally moved to the new millennium and are all finally available as a digital download. After releasing Static IV last July we received a barrage of email an Instagram complaints from skaters around the world saying that they don't even own dvd players and had no way to watch the dvd if they bought it. So it left us scratching our heads on a good solution.

7 years ago we launched an experimental contest on the TOA site allowing readers to download all of the original VX and 16mm footage from Pat Stiener's Static III part and do their own re-edit. So when Transworld Skateboarding asked us about doing a similar contest with Aaron Herrington's Static IV part, of course we were down.

When I realized Joel Meinholz's birthday was coming up on Feb 2nd, I decided to start looking through my old hard drives to create a little birthday edit for the site. It seemed like the best way to honor 17 years of filming together would be to put together a little mash-up of raw footage that could help capture the true spirit of the chaotic viking that is Joel Meinholz.

We got the crew together and headed down south to dodge the harsh New York winter, and for many of us, to get back in touch with our roots in Florida.  This video is the result of 10 days of street skating, several demos, and some deep sea diving.  Featuring riders from all of our brands, we're very proud to present Escape From New York.