Jul 15, 2014 Agenda Long Beach (Dudes)
Made an off-the-cuff decision to attend the Agenda show in Long Beach last week and I’m glad I went. While most friends I know in the action sports industry dread planning their booths, making the same presentation over and over again, and trying to remember people’s names, I love it because I get to see a gathering of old pals from all over the place in the same gross, air-conditioned space under the same industrial metal roof. The guys just happen to rip at skateboarding and make awesome gear.
I was stoked to see real buddies and co-founders of Heel Bruise Thomas Yu, Rich Mulder, and Robbie Jeffers–not pictured, but he blessed my camera by taking our photo (above, bottom right). Last time around, they didn’t have a booth and simply wandered around the show as a gang. I’m pretty sure they took meetings in the bathroom, kind of like Fonzie. How cool was that? And how cool is it that they needed to have a proper presence this time around–not to mention a VW Bus? I was a fan of their hanging out like bros but am a bigger fan of them getting the word out about their soft goods line with serious lineage in Stüssy, Nike SB, Chocolate, etc. And the new T-shirt design that uses Thomas’s Save Music in Chinatown flyer art is sick! I totally want to buy a bunch of them and GOCCO the date and bands onto them… Love their equal emphasis on the presence of fun as well as sense of design.
Moments after seeing Thomas, Rich, and Robbie, I saw another Heel Bruise crew member Isaac Ramos (above, top right). He was there with Emerica but I actually know him best through his affiliation with Keep Company. Anyone that has a Keep shoe named after him is obviously a rad human being. I think the last time I saw him was in the front rows of the Rocket From The Crypt show at The Echoplex, so it was nice to bump into him someplace where we didn’t have to shout at each other in the dark while being crushed by a sweaty mob.
Imprint followers should be familiar with Justin Reynolds (below, top left), who held down the skateboard panel at last year’s Long Beach: Work in Progress event. Justin was there with Resource Distro. As if organizing gnarly skate events in Pedro and Catalina weren’t enough, he has some brand-new rad decks with amazing artwork by Tim Clark coming out. Ripping!
Alyasha Owerka-Moore (above, top left) is another longtime associate of Imprint–speaking in a conference way back in 2007, as well appearing in an Imprint video or two. But he was a friend of mine even ten years before that. I was helping to shape Giant Robot mag and he was with Alphanumeric and American Dream back in the day. Now he’s with PF Flyers (now that is real O.G.) and is about to unveil a new brand called North Manual Vocational. Always love talking about family and new projects with Aly. He’s unstoppable.
I met two longtime acquaintances for the first time, too. Simon Pellaux of Preduce walked up to me and said, “Hey, are you Martin?” I’ve corresponded with the head guy at Thailand’s raddest skate shop and brand for years now, and even included one of his videos in a skate program that I put together for film festivals, but this was the first time to meet him in person. He said that he flew in, totally partied, and was hung over, admitting it was a “rookie move.” Great to meet him under any circumstance, though.
The other friend I met for the first time was Gary Parkin from Destructo. I’ve been skating his trucks for years, and have traded emails and even talked on the phone with him a few times. His story is amazing. He was the only kid in his neighborhood in England who wore Vans and skateboarded back in the day, became an artist and came out to L.A., and then matched his art with a truck project. Meant to be and as kind as can be, too.
Not sure what I can say about Jeremy Klein… The founder of Hook-Ups skateboards and longtime foil to Tony Hawk at Blitz Distro supported the magazine I used to help make from the beginning. Even though GR’s coverage of skateboarding and anime was never hardcore, he advertised on the back cover of every one of our issues. I’ll always appreciate that, and I love that he seems to be promoting the brand more than ever–posting on Instagram all the time and releasing old and new decks, too. Often he sells the goods at a Korean BBQ behind the Orange Curtain. Serious character and a serious master of having fun on a skateboard.
There were a lot of guys I was hoping to see but didn’t. Never spotted Don Nguyen over at Listen to Volume 4, which graduated from being part of the Baker Booth to having its own spot. Congrats to The Nuge. Filmmaker Dave Hoang and designer Paul Kwon were crushed with deadlines, while photographer pal Ben Clark was on assignment. Meanwhile Jeff Ng was no doubt in lockdown in the Staple compound… But I didn’t want to stay too late and get stuck in traffic anyway.
Thanks to the dudes for making time to hang out when they should have been selling their goods to retailers. Thanks to skateboarding for sharing heavy music, driving functional fashion, forcing every other action sport to be cooler, and being so much fun. And to the random skateboarder out on the street who asked about my wristband: Hope you had a rad day!
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