English – Page 46

January 27, 2018January 27, 2018

Game of Skate Championship Semi Finals

We had Game of Skate chanmpionship finals yesterday at Prisma. The event turned out way better than we expected. Big up to everyone who showed up, we were stoked to see so many people! Shout out to our friends who supported us with prizes: Clockwise skateshop, G-tiim skatepark, Pussy wax and Straight Forward skateboards, Karlis Bogustovs and Temps Mort – high quality skate bags made by our friend and fellow skateboarder Jurģis Ozols. Temps Mort bags can be found at Tikari Skateshop.

All in all we had four games and we will post them all till tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Cover photo by our homie Artūrs Bogdanovičs

January 25, 2018October 4, 2018

Favorite tricks on Flat

Cover photo by Nauris Dollins

With Rajon Game of Skate championship finals coming tomorrow, we decided to make a list of our favorite tricks on flat performed by Latvian skateboarders. We love skating flat and deeply believe that a great skateboarder is defined by the ability on flatground. Although you probably will never turn pro for skating only flat, a well executed flat trick can tell a lot about you as a skateboarder. One kickflip can tell more that a thousand words. Note that these are our picks and it is fine if you disagree with us. You can leave a comment bellow, and remind us about some cool tricks we didn’t include, there are definitely a lot of things to mention and it will be hard to squeeze everything into one post. Nevertheless, enjoy!

Mikus Dombrovskis – switch bs flip – Latvians can skate 2 by Toms Bika

First time I saw it I was blown away. Now looking at it still pretty stoked it happened. Mikus is a guy that doesn’t film much but when he does it usually looks proper. Always going fast, always popping high and has a great style. If he filmed more we could easily fill this whole list with him alone. The trick is not easy as well, I mean how many of you can do a bs flip going fast? And this shit is switch!

Armands Baumanis – fakie heel – Latvians can skate 2 by Toms Bika

Same video, same spot and probably the same day. Armands does this fakie heel at his spot, which mainly consists of flat, so no wonder he can flip his board so good. Again similar to Mikus, Armands has a taste for going fast and executing proper flip tricks. Every part he filmed has tons of flip tricks, but this fakie heel stands out to us. Fakie heels are rare in videos and the way this one is done is pretty sick.

Eduards Nehajenko – fs flip/fakie varial heel – Clockwise skateshop’s – Get Shit Done by Toms Bika

We are talking mostly about the fs flip here and that fakie varial heel is a bonus. There are two lines at LNB in his part, both filmed in one day and both have flip tricks on flat. We particularly enjoy this fs flip because it is again kinda rare someone does a fs flip in a line on flat. It is such a G trick and Edzuk does it really well. Another thing that makes this line great is that it feels really random, like it was not planned at all and that fakie varial heel was just pure luck. It seems like he is just skating. Best!

Egons Avots – ollie north – Triecienspeks magazine.

Yes, there was a board sports magazine in Latvia called Triecienspeks. They had articles, interviews, photos and a tricktip sections. The mag was a ton of fun and everyone who read it back in the day remember this dope ollie north by Egons. Ask your older skate pals for a copy. And go do an ollie north.

Rudolfs Henchels – fs 360 – Mosquito’s Children of Concrete by Gvido Glazers

Rudolfs is the only person in Latvian who can do this trick on flat and make it look good. When we think of the OG Rudolfs Henchels we think of profound flatground skills: ss heels, nollie fs heels, ss varial heels in particular; but actually fs 360 is his trick. If you are playing skate with Rudolfs and he wants to finish you off he will do this trick. We have never seen him mess it up. Note that in this clip he is matching his shoes and shirt. What a G.

Madars Apse – nollie fs flip – DC’s Where Eu at? – by Jon Holland

This DC part is our favorite of Madars. Awesome song, VX, dope tricks and this nollie fs flip. Can a nollie fs flip be any better? Maybe 🙂. But I doubt it. Shit is proper as hell, the speed is insane, the flick is wild and it is in the middle of the line. Madars is in the finals of our game of skate and we will ask him to through one nollie fs flip for us and for you.

Mārcis Ziemiņš – SeaSideSk8 – Legalize skateboarding

Another history lesson for kids. There was a crew from Jurmala called SeaSideSk8 they made videos and skated really good for that time. So Marcis was one of the original members and he made the third seaside video called Legalize skateboarding (as far as we are concerned). He had a part in the video as well. He would skate tons of flat and do a lot of heelflips. We didn’t get it as kids, we though why he isn’t doing harder tricks? But this line somehow stayed in our minds. It is all flat but mainly the atmosphere is really enjoyable. The spot looks super smooth, the sun is shining, it is warm the guy is just enjoying himself on his board. What more can you ask for?

Jazeps Podnieks – nollie heel – papo_Tiger

Another Jurmala skater and also a member of the Sea Side clan, at least in the beginning. Jazeps is an eccentric character, with a good flat ground bag of tricks and an awesome style. If you see him skate in person, which will never happen most probably, you will see that the man still got it. Maybe this nollie heel doesn’t seem so good to you, well it is for us. It is sketchy but that what makes it so good you know? Okay, I have some personal shit with this nollie heel I just like it for some reason.

Richi Dunkul – pop shove-it – Boards.lv Fresh Fruits video by Maksim Kalanep

Back in the day Boards.lv made videos, made contests and had a team of dope skaters. Richi Dunkul, gangsta rapper from the hood, was riding for them for some time and had a full part in their video called – Fresh Fruits. He had a lot of video appearances and definitely did a lot of technical and hard shit on flat, but this is the trick we at Rajon remember and love him for. Not so much the trick though, but what he does after it. Fucking brilliant! This must be a new trend!

Dimon Deda – fakie fs bigspin

Nothing much to say here. Our man, the one and only Deda, with his signature maneuver fakie fs bigpin. Really underrated trick which becoming more and more popular among Latvian skateboarders. Thanks to Deda.

This is it! There are more people to mention for sure like Miks Grantinsh, Toms Gabliks and his 360 flips, Niks Kolosovskis etc. We will make another post like this in the future, you can help us prepare better and suggest some tricks if you want. In the meantime don’t forget that tomorrow at 20:00 at Prisma you can witness the finals of Rajon Game of Skate championship. See you there!

January 21, 2018

Game of Skate Championship Round Three/Game Four

National hero Madars Apse takes on Tikari Skateshop heavy hitter Linards Viksins. Who is going to get it? Their flat game is almost equal! They both have style and finese! And you know this is going to be a good one.

The championship is almost over! We plan to have the finlas day next week on Friday at the Parking lot of Prisma. Here is the addres. If you want to come and see the final game feel free to do so. We plan to start around 20:00 and then maybe hit the bar to celebrate!

January 18, 2018January 19, 2018

STREET RIX

The National Skategrapher, Gatis Valters, blessed us with another intense and innovative video. If you remember the previous work – BARIX then you know what to expect from this. Street RIX filled with tricks in the streets, poetic treats and a lot of cool imagery that sticks in your mind. And here are some words from the man behind it all, Gatis Valters:

Having traveled across the lands, I have developed an idea and understanding of the various skateboarding cultures and approaches within, but this is something special.
Riga is a unique space of place in a first place, and it is a real pleasure to be able to capture the true culture of the street life and its essence. Skateboarding scene in Riga is something special and pure, the ambience of the streets when you hear wheel sound from far, creates this Jazzy feel, rush that covers your body and you are keen! Skateboarding has taken such a place in everyday life from the terms of the culture in Riga, It is truly fascinating how the architectural shapes and forms can blend in with the skateboarding so well, it almost feels like you are trapped in these shapes and forms of opportunities to explore and create, with in your on perspective. It is really mesmerizing that you can be a part of something. Something a little bit more special. And with the skateboard wheels beneath there is a lot more to come. The streets of Riga delivers a lot, its whether you see it or not.

This was STREET RIX. Big Up to all the BoYz and GiRls Lets make this 2018, the best 2018 ever!

Gatis

January 14, 2018January 14, 2018

Game of Skate championship: Round Three/Game Three

It was a bit cold that day but it didn’t stop Fricis and Sandis from showing up at Prisma. Some more people came to support but not many, minus 8 is no joke. We don’t know why we are still outside for this but somehow it makes scene and we are thinking about having the final game also at the same spot. By the way finals are really close, there is only one game left for the third round, so stay tuned for some info on the date and time of the final game of skate.

January 9, 2018January 9, 2018

Game of Skate Championship: Round Three/Game Two

Armands wanted to start the game as fast as possible to get it over with; and nobody could blame him. There was a lot of tension in the air and plenty of moments of awkward silence. This game will be remembered not only because it happened at all, but also of the way how it happened. Feel free to talk shit and express yourselves in the comments below.

Next week final games in the third round:
Fricis Štrauss vs Sandis Silavs
Madars Apse vs Linards Viksniņš

January 8, 2018January 8, 2018

Online premiere: Onko se…?

Words by Ed Gaba

We at RajonTV know what it takes to make a full length skate video (video that has individual parts and is at least 20 something minuets long) and we want to celebrate skate videos, especially local ones, because we truly love and appreciate them. Just think about it for a second, you can scrool through your feed all day long and see tons of dope skateboarding, but how often do you go back and re-watch something that you liked on social media? You can follow Andrew Reynolds, he posts a lot of awesome skating, but we bet you don’t remember his posts as well as you remember his Baker 3 part, right? At least we know we do! If you will have an urge for some fs flips you will go and re-watch his parts. Okay, okay we are in the Baltics not in California, but fuck it same ideas can be applied here as well. Full videos are essential to the growth and development of the scene, they unite people, and are tons of fun to work on. And don’t forget premieres; that’s the best part!

To celebrate full length videos we bring you this new section called – Online premiere, where we will try to present you the best Baltic skateboarding videos. Tonight we have Onko se…? an independent skate video by Siim Sild from Tallinn, Estonia. We asked Siim couple of questions about the vid.

Wassup Siim! Tell us a bit about yourself? Where are you from, how long have you been skating?
Yo, I’m from Tallinn, 26 y/o and I started skating in the spring of 2004, so soon it’s going to be 14 years.

You are a skateboarder and a filmer ?
I would say I’m 100% a skateboarder, the filming part just kind of happened. We didn’t have a specific filmer for the video, we were pretty much just taking turns.

Kristian, Siim, Egbert. Photo by Liidia Maier

Is this you first video?
Yeah, I think you could say this is my first video. I have made some smaller clips before and also in 2016 I gathered all of the clips from my Iphone and added some footage from my homies phones and did an edit. But that’s like half skateboarding and half party footage.

What does Onko se…? mean?
Well, it means “Is it…?” in Finnish. It was a rough morning in Pärnu, we had spent the night in a kindergarten, that was turned into an Airbnb apartment for the summer period. It still had extra small beds and a ball pool in it. Don’t remember exactly why, but we went to see some sheep in a farm outside from the city. When we got there a small dog came running towards our car to greet us and like, it was clearly 100% a dog, but then randomly Miku (Mihkel Vahermaa) asked if that’s a dog or a cat in Finnish (Onko se koira tai onko se kissa?). The whole situation was so random, that it became somewhat of an inside joke from then. It probably sounds a lot more funnier for Estonians, because Finnish language is quite close to ours, but it just sounds way more funky. Anyways, from this incident onwards we spent the whole summer making up random questions in Finnish with similar structure – Is it this or that?

Tell about the video how long have you been filming for it?
We actually filmed the video in a really short time, me and Kusti (Kristo Õismets) bought the camera (VX2100) in the middle of June and the last clips we filmed were in Barcelona at the end of October. So, I guess that makes it 4 and a half months. But it helped a lot that I wasn’t working during summer, every day when the weather was decent enough to skate, we went filming. Of course, the trip to Barcelona was a great boost for the project as well.

It is not really common these days for skaters to make full lenght videos with parts and stuff, why did you decide to make something like that?
In a way this was the plan for this project all along, but to be honest, I was really surprised that we were able to stack up this many clips in such a short timeframe. I was just being nostalgic about the good old times when skatevideos had this certain structure and vibe. I personally enjoy these kind of skatevideos the most.

Yes, I agree it is the best! Did you make a premiere? How was that?
We premiered the video in Surfhouse just before Christmas, everything went great. It was cool that a lot of the younger guys showed up and also some older dudes who I hadn’t seen for a while. In addition to my video, we watched Antti’s clip, which was top-notch. Miku had also prepared a quiz with funny questions about Estonian skateboarding and we held a challenge where guys had to hold a stack of boards in front of them, whoever held it the longest won. Turned out to be an even better challenge than we first thought, very entertaining. Anyways, the premiere was a success and now I’m really motivated, can’t wait for spring to start filming again.

The board holding challenge. Photo by: Artur Sadowski

January 8, 2018

Game of Skate Championship: Round Three/Game One

Doesn’t matter how many beers you can drink Nauris Dollins can top that any day of the week. And Tomass can do whatever teenagers at schools are doing these day and add some style to it while he is donig it. These two talented fellas open the third round of our lovely game of skate championship. Enjoy!

And tomorrow come back to RajonTV to watch another epic game!

Armands Baumanis vs Edijs Aizstrauts

January 3, 2018

Game of Skate Championship: Round two/Game nine

Happy New Year everybody and welcome back to RajonTV game of skate championship! This week we have the last game in the second round, pacantre Rudolfs Henchels vs Sandis Silavs! Third round is going to begin soon!

Make sure to check out the photo recap as well! Some amazing shots from an upcoming star in skateboarding photography, who decided to stay anonymous.

Sandis executing some sophisticated flatland maneuvers in this perfect shot!

Rudolfs pulling a hardflip here! Wow! Shout out to our sponsors!

Fricis closed the session with this ender! Beautiful simply beautiful!

December 30, 2017February 4, 2021

Memorable Events in Latvian skateboarding 2017

This year was tight! For example I got married this year, so I will probably remember 2017 for the rest of my life! I am sure everyone has something similar, I mean something that will help remember this year. Maybe you have grown your first mustache, won your first contest ever or found your inner blader (???). Despite your personal notable events there are some things that must be notable for all of us, right? And we are speaking about things in skateboarding! So we bring you a list of events in Latvian Skateboarding 2017 that must remain in our memories.

Events in the list are not placed in chronological order or in any other order.

Straight Forward skateboards

This year we celebrated the birth of Straight Forward Skateboards, the brain child of Mr. Armandos aka Mr.Blaze aka Mr. Mapundai. The brand was born and so was its team – Mark Voroņenko, Linards Viksniņš and Emils Metlans. For some time Latvian skate scene didn’t have any local board brands (shop decks don’t count), so this makes it a memorable event for sure. We hope to see Straight Forward skateboards next year and maybe some PRO models?

Pillo x Rajon Slot machine Wheel

It might be considered lame to mention yourself as memorable event, but what can we do? Our scene is so small that anything that happens can be considered as a notable event. Heck, the whole scene is on the above picture (minus 10-15 people) So what happened was Pillo Wheel Gang and Rajon made a wheel together. Collaboration like that (as far as we are concerned) is an NBD. Our man Roberts Krums made the graphics and printed the wheels at Pillo HQ in Jersey. We organized a street contest to celebrate the release. It was tight. Wheels are still in stock at Clockwise btw.

LNB: First Legal Spot

While in neighboring counties skate spots get banned (in Tallinn they are banning the black ledge spot) here in Riga spots officially get legal skateboarding status. This year Lavian National Library was renovated with the intent to be skateable. The previous version of LNB was also skateable, although the material of ledges was poor and easy to break. The new incarnation is unbreakable, but requires much more wax, also some ledges have stoppers now. However, the spot was officially proclaimed legal to skate! Much respect goes to Madars Apse for making it happen.

GG Fest: Tikari skateshop contest

The best contest this year. We don’t know anything about the jockish Ghetto Games and we don’t want to know, but two years in a row Tikari Skateshop controlled Ghetto Games’ skateboarding contest, and that was pretty good. This year people from all over came to skate there. We had 10+ people from Finland, some dudes from Belorussia, bunch of Estonian homies and two Brazilian pros (???). Great atmosphere and an awesome party. Coming back next year for sure.

This year Tikari Skateshop also released two videos – Tikari summer boys where they announced their new rider Miks Grantinsh (who ditched his previous sponsor boards.lv ) and Tikari Helsinki video. Keep it up boys!

Barona skatepark

Ten years ago we couldn’t have dreamt of a park like that. Ten years ago you couldn’t even imagine that ten years later there will be a park like that. I mean how is that real? If we had a park like that ten years ago we would camp there or work as guards just to be closer to it. Now being older you can appreciate it and enjoy a session there, but c’mon the scooter epidemic is on the rise so it is better to stay on the streets. Anyway props to Mind Work Ramps.

Worth mentioning.

This year we also had a premiere of Brivibas Vestneši video and nice photo gallery at LNB.

Clockwise skateshop team won Vans Shop Riot event. Later they went to Amsterdam to represent Latvia.

Shred Jam 2 as well as Clockwise five years of existence celebration. Congrats.

Also don’t forget that Rudolfs Rorbahs did this.

There was a simpel session contest at Milda.

Monster park closed its doors to move to another place.

BARIX video!

Gtiims is still alive!

Our website!

RajonTV: Game of Skate championship (which is not over yet)