Yatesy rocked up to the new Hopshop launch last week. You probably saw him lurking the building? He helped build boards all day for groms, and stoked out a few Landyachtz customers – who better to pimp out your Drop Speed than Yatesy??

In between all the festivities, Jacko and Yatedawg headed to some sweet local hills …

It is the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

Tomorrow, Saturday 28th January, a new Hopshop opens at 4 Northcote Street St Leonards. It is only one building away from the old Hopshop but it is 5 times the size.

This project has been 4 months in the making. 3 weeks of intensive building work and hours and hours of rad creative brainstorming.

Everyone at Hopkin believes we have truly created the best skateshop in Australia, if not the world. There will be four levels of skateboard and longboard hardware. The bottom two levels are skater hang out areas which includes a movie cinema and coffee shop. That’s right – there will be a place to park your parents in style while you hang in the shop!! Parents, we have employed Chris Sanders, one of Sydney’s best baristas to create coffee that will make you want to come back to the Hopshop more than your children.

To explain the opening day, we have created an event page on ASRA called Hopshop’s Gone Mondo.

Day starts at 8am for a special push race. First three skaters to the Hopshop get to be the first people in the new Hopshop. They get to jump the queue. Next 20 skaters get 20% off anything they want to buy in a one off purchase (full price only no 20% off already specialed items).

For everyone else, best in best dressed. There are a list of super discounted products that can only be bought instore on the day.

Doors open at 10am to everyone.

Here is a sneak peak, photos taken tonight before we closed up.

First level (of four!) at the Hopshop

New front door at the Hopshop at 4 Northcote Street... yes they are skateboards on the awning

The new Helmet wall - 30 heads individually handpainted

You can see some of the heads featured on Heelside facebook page

Instead of a Christmas card this year, we are sending STICKERS to all our wonderful customers!

If you were a Hopshop customer this year, thank you, you made 2011 the best year ever. We loved seeing you in the skateshop, at the events, talking online and generally being part of the Australian skateboard community.

OK SO HERE IS THE DEAL

We have collected over $100,000 worth of skate stickers from all your favourite brands. We are mailing out to our top 3000 customers over 20,000 stickers!! First 1000 envelopes were mailed out a couple of days ago, if you have received mail, you are one of the top Hopshop customers.

Not everyone is going to get stickers, we had to make a few rules. You had to have ordered something in 2011, and for logistic reasons, the cut off was the end of November. We sorted customers by their total orders, so if you only ordered bushings this year, you probably missed out. You had to have a Hopshop account or ordered online, it is only these customers that we know who you are and your address. That’s why it is so important to have a Hopshop account … you know it is free.

HUGE thank you to the brands that helped us share the stoke this Christmas. It sounds simple but it has been a huge effort getting organised. Stickers have been arriving months in advance, and they have been hidden in the Hopshop waiting for mail out time.

There is also a real cost to all the skate companies that participate. PLEASE give them a huge shout out. I have provided below all their social contacts. Like them, friend them, send them a thank you. We want this to be an annual event, if you share the stoke, they will see the value in doing it all again.

Big thank you to the elves in the Hopshop that stuffed envelopes: Caspian, Harrison, Josh. Also the family insider help from Veronique and Lisa.

Special mention to the distributors: John and Christine at JHS and Co, Peter at Goliath, Glenn at Black Box.

WHAT STICKERS HAVE BEEN SENT OUT

Caliber Trucks
Caliber on Facebook or Find them on the web
Give em lots of love, they were very generous.

3000 stickers released

Loaded Boards

Our friends at Loaded and Orangatang are always first to join an event to stoke skaters in a major way, they send a slab of stickers!!

Big moon hugs to Loaded – you can squeeze their face or grab their tweets or watch the vids

500 stickers released

500 stickers released

500 stickers released

500 stickers released

500 stickers released

500 stickers released

25 stickers released = RARE

25 stickers released = RARE

25 stickers released = RARE

25 stickers released = RARE

Rayne longboards

Always a favourite in the skateshop, and they love you very much with thousands of stickers. You can return that love on the face or tickling their twitter or watching their moves

1500 stickers released

1500 stickers released

1000 stickers released

Sector 9

Shout out to the Sector 9 Australia team, you rocked Australia with a suitcase of stickers. Show em that they are not too big for a hug, pinch em on the tweeter or stalk em on facebook or just be a voyeur. If it wasn’t for these blokes, Jackson would not be Number Two in the world !! (IGSA World Cup rankings)

1500 stickers released

1500 stickers released

Heelside Magazine

Your favorite Australian skateboard magazine. They are original, creative, bold and crazy. They deliver you something your mum does not understand and probably does not approve of, so let them know their hard work is appreciated. Get social on their arse. Or a quick little spray.  You must subscribe for them to survive.

1100 stickers released

ASRA – Australian Skateboard Racing Association

They are the only REAL skateboard association in Australia. Real members, elected board, community inspired and skateboarders looking after skateboarding. So who is fake? SbA or Skateboard Australia are a $2 event company. The sham is our tax money is funding a private skateboard company. No elected officials. No accountability. Hundreds of thousands of dollars siphoned off with our Government’s approval. They know the facts, and continue to waste your money. WE NEED TO GET MAD. Join ASRA. Even better become a financial member, it makes ASRA stronger and SbA look stupider. Time magazine has made the Protester the person of the year. You can make a difference. You can change the world. You can create the world you want to live in. No generation in history has more power at their fingertips than you. Protest. Talk. Yell. Scream. Skate. Create. Dream. Then take small steps to make it happen. Contact your elected politician or senator. Tell them to stop wasting our money and take skateboarding seriously. Then get your mum, dad and all the family to do the same thing. If you use twitter, so do they.

1500 stickers released

Fallen Shoes

Some of the raddest skate stickers you’ll find on the planet. I did not scan every sticker that went out. If you got something different, post a pic.

On the Fbook or on the inter webbie thing, they probably dont want to know you like them, they’re too cool for school. And are core = only little boards here (they’re easier to carry).

100 stickers released - RARE

200 stickers released - RARE

50 stickers released - RARE

25 stickers released - RARE

125 stickers released - RARE

125 stickers released - RARE

50 stickers released - RARE

Early Skateboards

The OG crew on the Goldie, designing boards for Australia. Twitter or FB or web

40 stickers released - RARE

20 stickers released - RARE

Fibretec: Swiss made dream machines. They are fine like a piece of … art. 50 stickers were add into the mix.

Vicious Griptape: Sent 50 special decals to stoke, if you got one, your lucky. If you have their tape on your deck your even luckier…and probably dont have any fingerprints.

Bombsquad, Ladera, Dekline and Slippery Dip all contributed some special stickers.

Thank you to everyone who is apart of the Australian skateboard/longboard scene. Lets do it all again next year. We promise the Hopshop will be bigger and better in 2012. We hope you will be a part it.

Live life … skate every day.

PS: We send out stuckers to our bro’s in New Zealand. We  love our cousins across the ditch too!

TWITTER USERS
We are using #hopkinstickers

I dont know if we’ll carry these in the shop but you gotta love a big company and what they do.

Looks like everyone had a good time making this video.

There is a new reviewer for Heelside Magazine and he is out of this world.

All I know is IT is called The Gits

In issue 05, that is released in 3 weeks, there will be a wheel review like no other. Some of the best longboard freeriding wheels in the world will be tested to see how they rate. So it is fair to all brands, the reviewer is a non human life form called The Gits.  You can click on the link above to read all about what is The Gits…let’s just say the The Gits is a freak and leave it at that.

Watch The Gits preview video

You DO NOT want to miss Issue 05. Subscribe now and be one of the first to get a copy. Subscribers get the magazine before the skateshops!! If you are smiling about The Gits, that is not even the best thing about the next issue. It will truely blow your mind and entertain your soul. BUY NOW. You would buy it just for our ad on the backcover … and yes we will top Hopkin’s Angels ad (scroll to see).

One of my favourite Australian websites at ATM is Pozible. Why? It is all about people getting together and helping non commercial projects get off the ground.

Pozible is based around the social phenomenon of crowd sourcing. Basically a whole lot of people contributing small amounts of money to achieve an overall goal. You dont even have to pledge money, just promoting an idea amongst your network of friends might raise them that extra dollar that gets their project funded.

One of the projects I have supported today is a Melbourne skateboard competition called Just Another Female Skateboarding Competition. No guesses what it is all about.

At the Hopshop, part of our mojo is encouraging more women to skateboard and longboard. So we are supporting and promoting this Pozible project, maybe you should too? If you dont have a dollar to spare, then promote to to your facebook friends or …

Hopshop grom Kelly Carter has put together a video review on the Venom Tweakers.

Words by Rob McWhinnie

The road trip has begun!

After working for 3 months,  out injured for 7, Maga and I have hit the road from Byron and we’re off to Sydney. From there it is back to Peru and South America at the end of October.

On the 8th, I held a Cannonball race down the iconic road from Byron Bay lighthouse. Bombin the Lighthouse was the first time for a lot of the crew to skate the hill, scattered with atomic size pot holes and rough craters it was gnarly and unpredictable. Eleven riders made the accent and we all made it down reasonably safely, the finish line was off in the distance at the main skateboard hangout: The Wreck.

Stoked on another rad event and stoked I took the win at my first race in ages, it was a battle the whole way but fresh wheels and bearings took me to the line with time to skol a beer. Young Ash coffin’d down the steep section and Austin, Matias bomb’d hard, Jon stayed in the game but got swamped at the end. We kicked off a party and all the local skater kids turned up for sunset dancing and a grom bomb.

So after half a year, 5 events, a shit load of movies, and a whole lot of fun in Byron Bay; Maga and I are heading back to Sydney to hit the streets and terrorize the Hopshop for a while. Gonna ride bomb squad (you have been warned) and get down to Kiera for some mellow riding with boys before flying out.

photos credits: Common ground, flavio bhiel, matias, natalia spain

Bombin the Lighthouse 2011

Women’s longboarding has been given a big push in Australia this year.  There’s been the formation of the Byron Chicki Babes Bomb Squad and their downhill skate event First Kiss, the addition of three ladies to the previously all-male Hopkin Racing Team, as well as more and more ladies setting up groups and social ride days on the ASRA website.

Continuing this trend, Sydney’s own ladies skate group Maidens of Steeze is holding an all-ages girls skate day.  The idea is to bring more ladies into the scene in a friendly unintimidating environment, as well as have a bunch of fun, and share the stoke of longboarding.

We’ll be meeting at Hopkin Skate at 1pm on Sunday the 31^st of July.  Then we’ll walk to the secret car park location.  If you have a board and helmet bring it along, but if not we’ll have a bunch for you to try out.  Don’t worry if you’ve never skated before, this event is a chance to learn the basics from Sydney’s best female longboarders!  It’s also a chance to socialise and link in with the Australian ladies longboarding scene.  And a friendly scene it is!

Feel free to call me at Hopkin Skate if you have any questions:  (02) 8060 1588

Or for further details check out our event page on the Australian Skateboard Racing Association (ASRA)website.

Also, why not link in with the Maidens of Steeze on Facebook

We had a young skater come into the Hopshop last week with a broken longboard. Tail had snapped off when a car ran over his Sector 9 Joel Tutor longboard. The driver of the car didn’t stop, they knew they were in an accident and sped off which is wrong on so many levels. A moral obligation to check if a child is ok and two it is just illegal not to stop if your car has been in a collision.

So this kid has had some bad luck, we thought we would pimp out his broken board to restore some karma in the world…and it is fun modifying boards!

Please note this is not a standard Hopshop service. It should give you some ideas of what to do with an old deck or one that has broken.

Here is the completed longboard. Note the hand cut griptape job with kick arse huge Sector 9 sticker.

With all custom jobs, it is important to draw out the new shape first. In this case we inked out a new tail shape. Only using good wood left from the break. This deck is going to be a small 28 inch long. There is a bit of wheel cutout action going but the feature is the fat arse. Tail is nice and wide, plenty of room for your foot back there, and just looks bountiful and a pleasure to handle. A bullet to use on a shop run.

Next we used a jigsaw to cut the board. And sanded the new round tail smooth. If you are a grom, make sure you ask permission before using anyone’s tools (just plain good manners), and make sure your elders know what you are up to, so they can check the situation is safe. Skating is no fun without fingers, makes your slide gloves floppy and hard to use.

Next job is drilling out bolt holes and creating new wheel wells. See the photo above, we have sanded out some new wheel wells to help stop wheelbite.
Another good reason to get your parents help, is to make sure you are using the right equipment. You can use sand paper to create wheel wells but it is a lot more fun and easier using your dad’s power tools such as a belt sander. Remember to ask nicely. Wear safety gear. Plan it out. And don’t make your mum do it.

To drill new bolt holes, best to use a baseplate to get the holes lined up right. You want to make sure the wheelbase is the right for the new deck size. Wheelbase is measured from inner hole to inner hole. Have a look at deck dimensions to get an idea of the type of wheelbase you want. The smaller the wheelbase the sharper the turn and the more squirrelly it will be. Our new S9 deck size is 28 inch. However we have given it a wheelbase of 20.5 inches. This is like a Super Giant Slalom wheelbase. It will feel like a bigger deck but cut and turn like an agile ninja.

There is a kid in Sydney with a huge smile on his face this week! Skating his new custom mini longboard.