But when it comes to commercials bringing on the heat with celebrity after celebrity after celebrity in relatively small cameo roles, this new Playstation 3 advertisement for SKATE 2 takes the cake.  Sure the general public most likely won’t be able to identify more than half the skaters featured for the new video game, but for those who do know, there are some heavy dudes in this spot.  I don’t even care for video games and I still want to get myself a copy of SKATE 2. 

Anyway, the commercial plays more like a movie or at least an HBO series that takes place in a prison.  And correct me if I’m wrong, but is that DJ Q-Bert at 2:12 carrying a mentally disabled Jason Dill? 
 

When you watch other sports, you don’t get to see what goes on behind the scenes that lead to the greatness in athletes.  Those guys work hard man.  Do you think that Ronaldinho can do THIS without practice?  Or do you just assume that Tyler Rothchild can do THIS without practice?  Hell no.

This episode of Epicly Later’d should really humble you.  To see what Koston goes through in order to have a full video part is pretty good to see.  It shows that he’s just as human as the rest of us.  For him, his deamon is a fakie 360 tre lip slide, for the rest of us, it’s maybe a inward heel, or possibly a C WALK.  Check this out.  I’m so psyched on this.

It seems like pro skaters are at skate shops (particularly Active) almost every other day.  I have a theory that these guys who are under contract might be like slaves.  You can’t beat corporate America.  I have noticed thought that there aren’t as many team signings though.  I think the skaters’ hands were close to coming off. 

Anyway two of the sickest dudes in the world are scheduled for a meet and greet at the Active in Chino Hills on Wednesday, December 3rd at 7 PM.  Generally, skating doesn’t get any better than these guys. 

Also, check out the Day in the Life of Billy Marks over at TRANSWORLD.  I didn’t know that Billy lives in Corona.  That’s dope.  Corona is the Diamond of the Inland Empire.  And the AROMA is nice there too. 

Do you remember all those years in high school when all the cool guys, bros, jocks, meatheads, and dudes that drove lowered or lifted Chevy S-10’s would talk about a tournament that took place every March called March Madness?  Those science class discussions quickly got monopolized by the dudes mentioned above into which college basketball team would take the National Championship that year explained by their broken down homemade tournament brackets, thereby leaving everyone else uninterested like me out of the discussion.  I don’t know about you but I would pass the time by reading listening to Slayer on my Walkman or playing with my Pogs. 

So a decade later, we’ve come to a time where skateboarding has come to the forefront of everything cool, for the most part at least.  We’ve got skateboarding in everything like Avril Levigne Songs on in the case of Proactive commercials (thank you Ryan Sheckler).  Well, The Berrics has created something special for all us outsiders to partake in and have our own group discussions leaving multiple possibilities wide open for debate.  A 32 man (or boy) battle of S.K.A.T.E Tournament will take place at the Berrics and will continue every week until there is one man (or boy) standing.  This should be fun!   

Here’s where you can partake.  The Berrics has created a bracket for you to fill for the possibility of winning some great prizes. If your bracket makes it to the top four results, you get the gear.  Now is your opportunity to talk brackets with people at school and make sure you leave those bros out of the conversation.  Now get over to The Berrics and fill out your bracket.

For you tech geeks and filmmaker posers, this series of Epicly Later’d should capture your attention.  With Lakai’s “Final Flared” just over the horizon, with extra features for days, you will enjoy just a tease of what you can expect from the Deluxe Edition of “Final Flared”.  Here are a few words from Patrick O’Dell.  

Lakai’s Fully Flared was probably the most anticipated skate video of all time. From Mike Mo and Alex Olson to Mike Carroll and Guy Mariano—from Lucas Puig to Anthony Pappalardo, Fully Flared has something to offer everybody. Not to mention that the hype was out of this world. So for the first few parts we’re going to dip into the history of the Lakai video, and as we go we’re going to release some history episodes on Mike Carroll, Guy Mariano, and others… I promise it will be sweet.

These two heavy weights will be doing a signing at Active in Valencia California.  The signing takes place on Sunday October 12th from 2PM – 4PM.  This should be a fun one.  While there, maybe pick up a new Girl deck or possibly some Lakai’s because they are on sale.  So stock up!

It’s been a really busy week for the guys over at he Berrics because on top of publicly announcing their social network, MyBerrics, they are also introducing a new hot line of tees with sweet Berrics graphics on them.  I’m especially digging the Shepard Fairey inspired graphic, Koston Obama T shirts with the saying “DOPE”.  But to be completely fair and balanced, I think they should release another politically inspired tee with a picture of Marc Johnson morphed into John McCain.  Maybe they can write “LIAR” underneath.  Nothing against Marc Johnson and I’m sure he’s really honest, but my point is that John McCain really sucks.  Go to The Berrics to check out all the tees. 

Myspace was something I definitely caught on to and for quite some time ruled my life.  Although it wasn’t so much for me, but rather for my alter ego, and don’t deny that you had one yourself.  Mine was for a Jamaican body builder called Blaine.  I just stole a few pics of a competitive body builder online and used him as my alternative persona as seen here.  My Blaine account was cool though because I would go around and find friends and give them body building advice out of the blue.  Most of the time they would get creeped or bugged out, which provided me with hours of entertainment.

Then after that a whole bunch of other social networks came out although a little bit different from each other, just took too much time to adjust to, especially when you spent two years already building up your network of a thousand or so friends.  I don’t have all the time in the world giving muscle-building tips to more than one network of friends.

Now that the filtering of most social networks is complete, the Berrics presents its newly cleverly named social network to the public, MyBerrics.  I already enjoyed theBerrics for what it was so I don’t know if I will be using their social network function, that is unless skaters need some muscle building advice.  Who knows, maybe I can start a network and Sheckler and TK can be my spokespeople.  Awesome!!

Some of Lakai’s best, Eric Koston, Guy Mariano, Mike Mo Capaldi, Mike Carroll, Rick Howard, and Marc Johnson will be at Active (drumroll please…) Temecula!  Congratulations to you all in the Temecula area.  The all star event takes place on Saturday, September 27th at 1PM.

And guess what, there will be a second team signing at guess where, another Active Ride Shop!  The second team signing will take place at Active… Riverside!  That signing will take place on Saturday, October 4th at 1PM.  Be there or be square.  You can check out all the details on the flyer.