Ricky Oyola

"CLOSURE"

When Dan Wolfe himself uploads "CLOSURE", the legendary full-length video recap of his filmmaking career - between 1993 and 2003, precisely - with the best clips he ever filmed for classic releases such as "EASTERN EXPOSURE" and "REAL TO REEL" paired up with a lot of never-before-seen footage, with a healthy dose of S.F. in the mix as well, in the original quality and even clickable chapters, every man's quarantine is bound to suddenly get a lot smoother!

We'll also take the opportunity to link to the man's interview by Eric Swisher of Chrome Ball Incident, from the yesteryear. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and doses of culture can only be beneficial to one's immune system!

Stay Static

Today, it's Josh Stewart and his fellow Theories of Atlantis Illuminati's turn to help fix the world's craving for street action via the high-quality (on all terms) upload of the New Jersey section from the indie cult classic "STATIC III", featuring two legends as the state's ambassadors: Mark Wetzel (also interviewed on LIVE a few eons back regarding his segment in the Traffic video "LOOK LEFT", here) and Steve Durante.

On a side note, now's probably the best time to (re-)discover "LOOK LEFT" in full (the recommended portion for your health), here!

Full Traffic

We've already done our best to warn you about the gem that is the latest Traffic video (if one somehow doesn't count their recent Japan trip as canon), "Look Left"; a while back, we even went as far as interviewing Mark Wetzel and Joe Yates for your reading pleasure - and also to try and provide a window into the culture surrounding an authentic company that is deeply anchored in the history of street skateboarding. Well now, the whole piece is finally online, thanks to the homies at Theories, the distro and collective led by Josh Stewart - who's also the filmmaker here. Don't slip and forget to catch a glimpse of the recap of Josh's recent exhibition at Vladimir, retracing the twenty past years the man has spent working on his own series of independent skate videos, the classic "Static", before you go!

Tokyo Transfer II

Traffic Skateboards, the longtime running brand of East Coast street skating style pioneer Ricky Oyola (whose urban interpretation some are unknowingly biting to this day, still), is the fruit of a conscious effort to try and do things proper - an apparent motto they've been adhering to since the start. Most remarkably, they were some of the first to cultivate an active connection with the Japanese skate scene, by sponsoring Deshi (his incredible section in "Night Prowler", by Katsumi Minami who now runs Evisen, here) and producing quite the legendary trip video there: "Tokyo Transfer", back in 2009.

A decade later, and some months following the release of the Traffic full-length video "Look Left" (an occasion LIVE celebrated with you by interviewing Joe Yates and Mark Wetzel), well, they did just that again and returned to the Mecca of spots that are perfect for the first twenty seconds (and then rigorously forbidden, unless you enjoy getting clubbed by flashing red neon sticks). The line-up might have changed over the years, but the approach never did.

Japan is one of those places where the uninitiated tourist should watch both sides of the road before thinking of attempting to cross, due to the Japanese driving on what is, to most Westerners, the unusual lane... Hence the title "Look Right" (or one of its aspects, that is), as covered in the full article (with photos) on the TransWorld Skateboarding website.

And if you're still eager for some more, very fine Hiroki Muraoka, feel free to revisit one of the best video parts of last year, here...

Viva Via!

Avid LIVE Skateboard Media readers should remember the noise around the latest Traffic Skateboards (East coast pioneer Ricky Oyola's board company) full-length video release: "Look Left", as it wasn't without causing quite some waves amid the underground scene last year and we also jumped on the opportunity to interview team riders Mark Wetzel and Joe Yates. For the past few years now, Theories of Atlantis' Josh Stewart (of "Static" independent series fame) and Pat Stiener have had a hand in the image and distribution of the company, something in the name of which they just put up its first ever full-length offering from 2006: "Via", on their YouTube channel, in its entirety. Along with Josh's "Static II", that film is a true pearl of culture in that it helped shine some more light towards an East coast scene that really had never slowed down since Dan Wolfe's "Eastern Exposure" saga ten years back, or the Zoo York "Mixtape" video from a few years prior. Of course, Ricky's direction for Traffic had to be pure street only, straight from some of its best East coast representatives with a visionary eye for trick and spot aesthetics - something that's become a standard since, but those guys were part of setting that whole imagery! Namely Mark Wetzel, Ricky Oyola, Pat Stiener, the incredible Rich Adler, Henry Panza, Andy Bautista, Brannon John, Shaun Williams and some guests of choice along the likes of Bobby Puleo all make appearances. The twenty-minute format makes "Via" a perfect pre-skate watch, oh and the soundtrack is as incredible as the skating. Homework of a pleasurable kind!

The Year Zero

Perfect time of a times (the mid-nineties) long gone, Eastern Exposure Zero ends up also being the best way to get convinced of an evidence: the skateboarding of the likes of Matt Reason, Ricky Oyola, Fred Gall, Donny Barley and a few others remains the one that aged the best, to the point of certainly being the most appreciable for the young people of today. Come on, kids, do your homeworks, and we promise, it will NOT be a bore!

Soup time!

We had relayed the Boston skateshop, Orchad, video, and now that the parts are coming out one by one, it would be a shame to miss on three minutes of Kevin Coakley, especially when everything is good like that!

The return of Traffic

This time, it's official, Traffic is back, under the benevolent wing of Theories of Atlantis, Josh Stewart's mega corporation! And the underground at its best will give you a Rich Adler who still got the sharpest eye, fine lines on rough spots by Pat Steiner, and a batch of new faces fitting the esthetics of a brand that always championed the meanest streets, like that Yonnie Cruz kid. Only good news, right!?

Caste Quality / The Philadelphia Experiment Off-Cuts

As promised yesterday, here is, premiering on Live, a new Chris Mulhern production for Caste Quality, mixing archival footage from Ryan Gee and Andrew Foote, and the newest guard from modern days in Philly.

The experiment did work

Recommending this video by speaking of history, or nostalgia, would be the best way to put some of you off; and just plain wrong, as The Philadelphia Experiment is at the opposite of the train of thought stating that “things were better before”.

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