Good to their word, Orangatang have released worldwide, their new freeride wheel called Balut. Which means we have Baluts in our shop, ready to buy at the same time as US skateshops. In fact, due to timezones, Australia is one of the first places in the world you can buy them!

These wheels have been in protype for a long long time. Orangatang never releases something early just to capture quick sales, they develop and proto until it is worthy for your hard earned cash.  We saw the new core in the Hopshop early last year, and Jackson was really enjoying skating those early protos. While the urethane was getting perfected, other companies have released centreset wheels, such as Tunnel, Seismic and ABEC11. Now Orangatang can show us why it was worth all the wait: a new urethane mix they are calling Euphorethane. It offers increased durability, less flatspotting, and a smooth and predictable drift.

The direction Orangatang have taken for this wheel is Freeride Slide. A wheel you can pull off big drifty slides but also bust out lots of rotation quickly.

The two key elements in the development was the core and the urethane. A big core lightens up the weight. It is also centreset so it will wear evenly and can be rotated or flipped to prevent coning. The other benefit is a rigid contact patch across the whole wheel. Combined with a rounded edge, these wheels will slide smooth with a predictable release and hookup.

And the urethane? You going to have to try them to find out. There are three duros:  80a orange, 83a purple and 86a yellow

Diameter: 72.5 mm
Contact Patch: 35 mm
Width: 44 mm
Durometers: 80a, 83a, 86a
Weight: 133 grams (per wheel)
Bearing seat: centerset

Making of the Sunny Side Up video

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

We did not put up a big announcement on the blog, that Jackson and Otang have decided to part ways.

Jackson completing his move to Sector 9 sponsorship by skating and racing on their wheels.

There was no big busted up, just a natural progression of Jackson the skater and Orangatang the wheel company.

Marcus Bandy has put up on Wheelbasemag a nice interview that outlines the move.

Jackson Shapiera mini interview – movin and groovin

Words by Jackson Shapiera

Friday afternoon Louis tags me in a post on facebook.

I get online and check it out and its details for some outlaw race in LA that was meant to be only 20 minutes away from the skate house and on the next morning.

He said it was meant to be some small low-key thing on a cool little street in the suburbs, we watch the video of the track and figure it should be fun and decide to hit it up.

Saturday morning we show up and say g’day to the 20 something stoked kids and locals that had gathered, and not before long it became apparent that word had spread about this little gathering. One by one some familiar faces started to show up, such as Mischo Erban, Zak Maytum (Aka Roger Beaumont), Max Capps, Danny Conner, Tim Del Rosario, and a whole bunch of other So-Cal shredders. It was a pretty solid turn-out for such a low-key gathering.

The hill was pretty fun for a road tucked away in the middle of LA. It wasn’t super fast but offered left-right sweeper combinations before hitting left hand hair-pins, and then repeat. There was a lot of flow on this track and the pavement was nice and smooth.

Frankie Obregon, the young fella who decided to throw the event together got things under control with spotters at the bottom with radios to help control traffic, and the area was nice and quiet with friendly locals so that helped a lot with being able to run a closed road.

The event was pretty laid back, which gave it a pretty sweet vibe. Everyone was chilling out, taking a few practice runs here and there and feeling the style of the hill, and once it was decided there were enough riders present to compete racing got underway. Heats were thrown together in no particular order, whoever decided to jump into a heat just jumped in and away we went.

It was a simple elimination system with no ‘tree’ or race-bracket, everyone kind of figured out if you didn’t come first or second you were out of the race, but still stoked to hang around shredding the hill and sinking some cold refreshments.

There were some pretty solid heats throughout the day, I had some fun riding with Louis and some other LA locals, but once there were only a few of us left it just got nice and rowdy.

Semi finals saw Max Capps, Roger Beaumont (Zak), Louis and myself, there may have been a 5th rider, I cant remember. We all pushed off pretty solid and went into the first corner section as a tight grid. Whoever was on the inside dived in and elbows were out, shoulders bumping super rowdy style. The lead was swapped a few times and eventually Zak and Max crashed themselves out and Louis and I made it onto the finals, which also consisted of Tim Del Rosario and Daniel who was shredding all day in his first ever race!

Once again it was a tight start with us bunched up into the first corner, but Louis and I got a bit further ahead and played tag down the rest of the hill. I snaked the lead at one point but then lost speed in a corner and Louis managed to sneak by, and held it all the way to the finish with me tight on the trail.

Really stoked on such a fun day and a rad little event. Major props to all the supporting companies who threw down some schwag to be given out to all the groms and newbies, there was more schwag at this one little outlaw race given away than I’ve seen at a big race back home in OZ!

Frankie did a great job getting everyone together and putting on the show, there were smiles all around and the locals seemed to really be into it. Keep up the good work Frankie!

do epic shit. do epic shit. do epic shit. do epic shit...but after you watch the video.

The news has dropped from the Orangatang tree that a new colour is available in their freeride wheels. That colour is orange.

It is not unexpected news, the competition have had 80a freeride wheels for a while. We knew these were on the horizon.

However, Loaded/Orangatang never release without extensive testing. We know these wheels have been put through real world prototyping to make sure they arrive at your home ready to shred.

I hear you, do I really need 80a freeride wheels? There is a place for these gems in your quiver. Read what we have to say:

Orangatang Durian 80a

Orangatang Simulus 80a

Orangatang Fat free 80a

When will they be in the Hopshop?
Worldwide release is Monday April 4. Loaded are always good with spreading the love. They will be in the Hopshop around this date. Maybe not on the 4th, but it will be close. Remember you can know the exact date when they arrive by clicking on our “Out of stock notification” button. Add your email address, and you’ll know at least 24 hours before anyone else. The email address only gets used once, it is automatically deleted after use and we do not store it or sign you up for any other skate spam (except for Otang Pablo’s birthday party invitation). Click on the links above, and keep up to date on what is fresh in the Hopshop.

Adam has been talking about a new Orangatang video all year and in the last few days, they released it on Youtube.

Jackson makes an appearance, and also gets a filming credit.

Filming for this video took place before Newtons. If you remember, Jackson was injured and on his trip to California, hence he was a spectator not a skater. The result was Jackson helped with the photography.

Adam has written a detailed description on the making of the video on Youtube, but Jackson below gives his take on what it is like to make a longboard video with Adam Colton.

Jackson Shapiera:

Its always a pleasure making videos with Adam Colton. The guy is mega creative and is always such a laugh, he is really energetic with everything he does and sets the good vibes for all around him. I was really disappointed I was unable to part take in the skating of the new video Beware Of Men due to a leg injury, but I think I had just as much fun as James and Pat by being behind the lens, helping Adam capture their amazing skateboarding talents.

The whole idea behind the video was made up on the spot. We had planned for a few of us to be in town to shoot a video but as the date got closer and people’s plans changed and injuries occured we had to think of something to film. The location was already picked so we drove out on the first day to shoot some long shots and figure out what sort of vibe the video would be. On the way Adam thought it would be hilarious to dress James and Pat up in completley random costumes and just let the video make itself, so that’s what happened.

The funny thing about this video is the hill that was actually featured was not the original location that the video was going to be shot on. There was a narrow path that lead off the hill down the valley, and since the gate was open we decided to check it out. Turns out it was some gnarly windy driveway that went on for ages with steep drops, switchback corners and strange pavement. James and Pat just destroyed that hill with steeze factor way beyond 100. When we got to the bottom we had a chat to the guys who lived there and turns out they were super stoked with us riding their hill. One of them owned a dervish, so he understood why we wanted to ride it, he was just so amazed that people were actually able to ride it, as he thought it was too steep and windy. It was really cool that those guys let us skate and film on their hill so we hooked them up with some wheels and skate gear.

Watching Patrick and James ride the way they do is just amazing. They are great friends and it shows when they skate together, they know each other’s moves so that allows them to ride really close, and at those speeds on a narrow road busting out really fast and controlled slides in such close proximity of each other was just epic to watch and film at the same time. The two days we spent shooting were just beautiful, the sun was shining bright and the boys were just slaying the hill beyond belief. Getting to be a part of this video was rad. Enjoy.

Hopkin Racing has asked the top  downhill skateboarders who are competing at Newtons to do a fan day meet and greet. Not all the international competitors are in Sydney at the same time, but we have rounded up the  majority for Wednesday and Thursday.

Where: Hopkin Racing (Hopshop) Shop 3, 8 Northcote Street St Leonards NSW 2065

We have the riders dropping in to the Hopshop all week, but there are two days most of them will be hanging around.

Wednesday 24th November from 2pm to 5pm

Mischo Erban (2009 World Cup Champion, Current  holder of the World speed record  130kmph)

Douglas “dalua” Silva (Brazil, one of the fastest men on the planet)

UPDATED
Brianne and Dominique are both in the Hopshop on Wednesday.

Thursday 25th November from 10am to 12pm (could be as late as 2pm)

Hopshop is a gathering point for a lot of the international racers who are  traveling together to Newtons. There are a few team buses leaving from the Hopshop to Bathurst. How long they are in the shop depends on late arrivals. There are a lot of competitors flying into Sydney on Thursday morning. The buses are not leaving until all the skaters have arrived. Here is the list of skaters who will be there:

Sector 9 Team
Jeff Budro (USA)
Louis Pilloni (California)
Evran Ozan (2009 Junior World Champion)
George MacKenzie (G Mac)
Jackson Shapiera (Aussie Aussie Aussie)

Fastest women in the world
Brianne Davies (current World Champion)
Dominique Vukorep (World speed record holder)
Katie Neilson (Skatie Katie – raddest chick on earth)

Team Orangatang
James Kelly  (California)
Kevin Reimer (2009 and 2010 World Champion and 2010 World Cup Champion and Newtons Nation defending champion)
Patrick Switzer (Canada)

Landyachtz Eh Team
Scott “scoot” Smith (Team Green, 2008 World Champion)
Andrew Chapman
Adam Yates (The only Aussie on the Eh Team)

Other Internationals
Christoph Batt (current ranked 3^rd in the world, highest rank Swiss rider, winner of 2010 Kozakov)
Stefan Rufli  (Switzerland )
Robin Sandberg (Team Sweden)

If there was ever a day to cut, sneak out of work, call in a  sickie it is THIS WEEK. There is only one time every year we get this many international riders in one spot in Sydney…and at the Hopshop!!!

Please try and make time, dont miss this opportunity.

In what will surely go down as one the most epic longboard videos ever…the Orangatang crew hoist a time bomb at us.

There is a lot to like about this video, and it shows longboarding is following the same trajectory as mainstream skateboarding. Producing quality videos, and the brands competing with each other to create bigger and better videos. Unlike mainstream skateboarding, longboarding is still portrayed as fun and humour play a big part in the videos. Mainstream brands are taking themselves too seriously.

Like all Orangatang and Loaded videos watch it a few times to find and laugh at the extra content, or read the cheat notes on the Loaded blog.

Loaded blog post on the making of

by Gabe Gywnne

Well, home at last!

What a trip it was, a big shout out to everyone in Vancouver and Cali for being incredibly rad, no matter where you are from or how bad your hair is [cough...leigh and bowditch..cough] there was always a warm bed, couch or floor to be slept on and plenty of shredders more than happy to show you around and take you to rad hills and parties.

Thanks to Jacko, Yates, Leigh and Bowditch for being awesome team members and helping me out with food, drink, money and love when I lost my bank card. And a big thanks to Hop for helping me out with gear, entry fees and spending money. I couldn’t have done it without the support!

Hopefully next year there will be even more Aussies making the trip over with us, I’ll be going back to skate those hills again for sure, hopefully I’ll even be able to make it to the Euro tour too!

With so many riders all over the world pushing the limits of what can be done on a skateboard the sport is only going uphill (or should I say downhill) from here. Start saving your dollars and booking your airfares Aussies, next year is going to be RAD!!!

While travelling around I saw some pretty crazy new advancements in gear, here’s a few things you might be seeing on the market in the near future!

Longboard Trucks

Mischo Erban and Fred from Knucklenuts are working on a new truck that looked pretty awesome, they are called Ronin Trucks.

They are just like a regular CNC truck but with one little addition. The design is similar to that of the Fyre trucks, but not as overworked. There is a thick metal pin on a ball pivot running from the middle of the hangar (above the bushing seat on the board side) down to the baseplate which takes all the weight off the bushings. This eliminates any chance of ‘slop’ from the turn of the truck.
I had a little ride around on Mischo’s setup. He was running 96a bushings and still had all the stability that a harder bushing gives, but at the same time they had the lean that you would get from a 78a bushing. Cool stuff eh?

While at the skatehouse in California I got to know one of the guys who works with Munkae Trucks in Arizona. Zeid was an awesome guy and lent me his setup to thrash on the whole time I was there. I got talking to him one night about what’s happening behind the scenes at Munkae. They are working on some 174mm hangars at the moment (Hopshop will have them in stock in the next 10 days), apparently one of the team riders has been testing them out on some fast hairpin corners and the amount of grip from having your weight right on top of your wheels is incredible. He has been gripping through corners on that everyone else has to slide for, these sound tasty! Also look forward to two new baseplate angles, 49′s and 35′s should be out soon!

I also managed to check out a set of CNC cut Randall 180′s that James Kelly had been given to test out, these looked like sexy trucks. Not sure if they are going to be on the market for a while but keep your ears and eyes open!

Longboard Decks

While I was staying in Laguna Beach with Evren i had a chance to ride the new Sector 9 Race board that Evren designed. A sleek little topmount with a nice, simple concave (no W-cave), a wheelbase of about 27′-28′ and a sick graphic to boot. He was stoked that I liked it and said he would try and send one out to me when they made a few more. These should be in production soon, YEW!

Along with his new trucks, Mischo is also starting a board company called GMR.
I only saw a couple of their designs while I was there, one of them Mischo’s own board and the other a sick looking top mount cruiser.
Mischo’s board is a drop through design with a very short wheelbase (it looked around 27′) he had built up a multitude of foam gas pedals on the front and back of the board which made for a pretty snug foot-lock. I didn’t get a very good look at the cruiser but it looked like a fun cruising/carving/commuting board.

Longboard Wheels

Evren also showed me some sick prototype Sector9 square-lipped wheels. They were 74mm, 78a and at first glance looked like any other wheel, little did I know that they were a set from the first batch of wheels with a core made from urethane! Evren said they were grippy as hell and perfect for railing corners. He’s going to be testing them out at Maryhill this week, I should have an update on how they went soon!

Jacko came back from the crazy wonderland also known as the Loaded/Orangatang workshop with a set of 75mm Purple O’tangs which looked and felt like an ordinary O’tang. After looking at them for a good 10 minutes trying to figure out what was different I noticed that the core was made from METAL! He shredded them down Tuna Canyon the next day and said they felt goooood!

Hopefully all of these new innovative designs will be out on the market soon, the technology behind longboarding is getting more and more advanced every day!

Its great to be back in Aus, super keen for some Bomb Squad action this week!
Look forward to a write-up and some pictures of my first bombsquad back with the crew!
Thursday Night, 6.30PM, Railway Square near Central station, Sydney. COME AND SHRED SOME GNAR!!!

Peace
Gabe

P.s.
Sector 9 is also starting a Grom team in California, look out everyone, there’s some more crazy grommets about to come into the scene!