WE x 48 Blocks - Pandemic Review

While visiting FTC Skateshop in SF, there was a video chock full of SF spots playing on the TV. I was told that it was a video called Pandemic – a Western Edition and 48 Blocks collaboration. I think it only cost $5 or something, so I picked it up.

I hadn’t gotten a chance to watch the video until last night, but it definitely made up for the time I wasted watching that movie Hard Candy right before it. First off, the soundtrack was pretty great. There was maybe one song in the bonus stuff that I didn’t like, but other than that it was prime hip-hop, instrumentals, and classics. From Masta Ace to InI (you can never go wrong with InI). The filming was fairly constant throughout, which is not the case with most videos (which are a mashup of many filmers and missions). However, the editing was probably what tied the whole video together very well. It wasn’t overly done, but the transitions and scenic shots were done very tastefully.

Nikil Thayer had the opening part and came through with his smooth, clean effortless style. It was a solid part with no filler. The next part belongs to Joey Johnson. I think Joey is a victim of circumstance, because his part was good…it just wasn’t up to par with what the others were doing. Lavar McBride is one of those ‘90s classic skaters who somehow managed to put out timeless parts as a little kid. Well, Lavar is all growns up, and it shows. He still skates like the old Lavar in respect to doing almost everything switch (and slightly sketchy), but his style is a bit more mature and he isn’t hoping down things as much. While I am not a fan of his pushing (and definitely not of his switch-mongo pushing) his part came together in a way that maintains his credibility. The last part went to Nate Keegan, whom I have not seen much of to date. His last part positioning was truly well deserved. I am definitely a fan of this Nate now. The way Nate skates is original in that he approaches things differently. He may not do the most creative tricks on the most creative spots, but his approach and trick sequencing is what sets him apart and makes him memorable…plus his two songs were pretty great to top it off.

There were two montages thrown in at various points, one for 48 Blocks and the other for Western Edition. They both had great footage from friends and teammates that added to the very SF vibe of the video. AND it didn’t seem like most of this was throwaway that the friends just gave them because they didn’t care about it.

I’m backing Pandemic. I mean, what else are you going to spend the $5 on? A gallon of gas? That won’t get you down the block. Pop this in and get psyched to skate across the city!



Oh yeah, Brad Comer is on Krooked. Click here to watch his introduction footage. (Click the Quicktime symbol on the bottom of the page)

I have never heard of this kid before, but he rips!

Skate Recap

So I am slacking in getting all my photos from my trip to the northwest half of the country organized, so I will just follow suit with what I did for my last trip. Since this was not a skate trip and skating was very minimal, here is a short recap.

I didn't really get any pictures of skate spots in Portland. I did get a chance to skate Burnside for a little bit, as well as this nice bank close by it. Some photographer b-boy that was walking by with his camera and stopped to shoot some photos of me skating the bank. If he post them up then I will share them here. Either way, here are the two photos I did get in Portland.


This spot was super hard to skate, but now it has been skate stopped. While it was hard, it was a pretty fun spot. RIP. Oh yeah, Alan Siegler got a trick on here that you probably wouldn't even think to try...just saying.


This is one of my favorite spots in portland. There are all these rock formations that make for some fun wallrides, nose bonks, and wallies. Last time I was skating here with Leonard, Chet Childress rode by on his bike. This time Camille and I were there and an AIDS walk went by us in route. No correlation between the two...just saying.

We decided last minute to make a quick trip up to Seattle to check it out since we squeezed a lot into the Portland trip in a short amount of time. Since we weren't in Seattle for long, we only went by one skate spot. I have been wanted to skate that bank to wall spot with the pebble handrails for a long time and took advantage of this opportunity. I didn't skate the handrails because I was too tired from skating the wallride, but the wallride was really fun. It is much taller and steeper than I had imagined, however. I was pushing as fast as I could to get less than halfway up the wall. How Gravette wallrode over the corner is a mystery to me.






I slide one out down the bank on my ribs. Ouch.





These are some funny shots Camille took of me coming down. The first one looks like an abstract painting of me zooming past her and the second one looks like a cartoon. I ran that one out and my legs just looks crazed.

While there were a couple other destinations, they were not skate type of destinations. Let's move on the San Francisco.



While we weren't looking for Pier 7, we stumbled on it while walking by the water.



It was skate stopped, however.




No skating here.



Someone tried to liberate it, but I don't think anything is going down here.



The main spot that I wanted to see in SF was Third and Army. This is definitely my favorite spot now. I wish that I got more pictures of the rest of the spot, but, unfortunately, I did not. This section is the highlight of the spot anyway.



Doing ollies on this was so fun, but it is not easy to get up to that railing. Props to Drehobl on that.



After a bit of searching, we finally found the China Banks.



Too bad they were closed off...



My one attempt at bombing a (sub-par) SF hill.



Went to The Embarcadero. It was knobbed like crazy.




Found two semi skateable things in the area to skate for a minute.

Overall, all three of those cities have some amazing things to skate. Portland is one of my favorite cities to skate in general, though I hardly did on this trip. I wasn't in Seattle for nearly long enough to get a grasp on the scene at all, though I did see quite a bit of potential spots in passing. San Francisco definately has many possibilities and spots that would make for some epic skating (no wonder so many companies are based out of there). I also forgot to mention that I got to skate the new Potrero Del Sol Skatepark they built there in July. That is, by far, one of the best concrete parks I have skated. Just watch this clip to get a grasp!

Unrelated to this trip, you should check out the new Jake Johnson interview on the Alien Workshop site.