Extra Tricks (5/30-31/09)

I got back from Costa Rica on Friday the 29th. The Trip was amazing! seriously best vacation I have ever been on. I got to do tours through the rain Forrest and go out to bars with my friends cause the drinkin age is 18. I already miss it.

Another good skating weekend. Saturday we started out at wedge. It was Me, Joey Christoffers, Collin Bauder, Erik Mangal, Jimmy simpson and Ant. Then we tried to skate the green banks but some loser lifeguard kicked us out. The kid was like 16 and he came down freaking out telling us to get out of his park. He was saying how he has fix the fence every year cause we climb under it haha. Im sure hes the one who fixes the fence.

Then we went back to wedge and TZ came buy with some random rubble that didnt get used on the new Roslyn park. We set up the parking block on top of the bank and skated that for awhile. Collin, Jimmy and Erik got a couple tricks on it. I missed jimmys trick though. Sorry!

Then we went to the mini hubba in Harleysville. Tore Bevivino met us there. Collin got really close to this crazy trick but couldnt put it down. Tore did like 8 tricks on it within 20 minutes and Jimmy got a perfect front blunt down it.

Sunday we stayed at wedge all day. It was myself, Collin Bauder, Erik Mangal, Jimmy Simpson, Ant, Pat McCullion and a bunch of other people skating. I dont have any footage from Sunday cause all of the tricks were gonna save for the video. Everybody was killin it though. We set up this kicker into the big bank. Jimmy got huge kickflip into it, Dan got a heelflip and Collin did a couple of grabs and nice bs 180 into it. Collin got a sick manny trick and a pole jam trick that Ive never seen anyone do before. Erik and Pat got a few good tricks on the manny pad and I got a new trick on the bank. Overall a good weekend.


Jimmy front blunt. Photo by Erik Mangal


Jimmy front blunt. Photo by Erik Mangal


Tore Bevivino front board. Photo by Erik Mangal


Tore Bevivino fs nosegrind. Photo by Erik Mangal


Tore Bevivino fs noseslide. Photo by Erik Mangal


Tore fixin up the sign. We used griptape to hold it down.



Extra tricks from the weekend. Featuring Billy Simpson, Joey Christoffers, Collin Bauder, Tore Bevivino, Erik Mangal and Jimmy Simpson.

Friends Section "Creatures of Habit"

Im gonna be in Costa Rica for a week! So no new post this weekend.

Friends Section "Creatures of Habit" from focus17 on Vimeo.

Friends section from our video Creatures of Habit 2007. Featuring Nate Cordero, James Cowley, Hawaii, Joey Obrien, Anthony Forbes, Dan Ackerman, Dave Heyes, Mike Anderson, Travis Iffrig, Josh Lowery, Steve Tran, Collin Bauder and more....

A lot of this stuff was just spur of the moment who ever was around skating with us. Joey Obriens ollie over the 11 was perfect. He did a little line. He ollied it and then ollie northed the 5 right after. That kid gets better and better. Nate Cordero is a sick snowboarder and sometimes he skates. I swear he can do whatever he wants. All the stuff at the swenksville school was in one day. The run on the 3 sets was sick and his bs 180 melons are crazy. Steve Tran fs shuv over the worcester gap was sick and Collins back heel at the end was perfect. He had that on lock.

Rayskin Photoshoot

Tuesday May 19th Rayskin skateboards had a photoshoot at the new Roslyn park. The park is so sick! They really did a great job over there. I really gotta learn how to skate that stuff. Rayskin was started by Ric Allison and Charles Barrett. There really great guys and very generous. They have been hookin up Erik Mangal, Joey Christoffers and Collin Bauder with some complete skateboards. Rayskin makes awesome surfboards and skateboards. The shapes are sick the graphics are amazing. They are great pieces of art. The boards are limited edition and custom made.

check out the site http://www.rayskin.com/

Heres some footage from the Photoshoot. Everybody was killin it. Featuring Collin Bauder, Joey Christoffers and Zach Panebianco.

Extra Tricks (5/16/09 - 5/17/09)

Another fun weekend with a lot of skating. Saturday we started out at wedge warming up. It was me, Jimmy, Jeff Colombo, Collin Bauder and Erik Mangal. I did a line at wedge but I suck and I gotta redo it. Then we went to the temple ambler campus. Collin was doing this sick wallie line but he wasnt really happy with the way it turned out so I used it for the extras clip. Erik and Jeff got some good lines and Jimmy got a sick wallie to 5050 on one of the stairs. Tore Bevivino and Brian Panebianco met us there a little later. Tore got a sick line that Brian Filmed and Brian got a real nice switch ollie off the dugout.

Then we headed over to the new Roslyn park. That place is real nice. One of the sickest parks I have ever seen. Most of us really dont skate that kind of stuff but its a lot of fun anyways. Collin and Tore were killin it. Tore did like 10 tricks over the hip first try and Collin was flying around skating everything. Jeff was doing some good stuff on the brick bank they have.

Sunday we had a really big crew. We probably had a 12 people with us at one point. We skated wedge for awhile first. Erik Mangal, Matt Powell and Pat McCullion got some good tricks on the high manny pad. Then we went over to the bump to grass gap again. Matt Powell got really close to varial heel but couldnt put it down. Joey Christoffers was killin it. He did 4 tricks on it in the span of like 20 minutes.

Then Matt Powell took us to this sick little ledge down a three stair. It kind of reminds me of the one at Franklin Mills. We skated there for a while. Everybody was doing good. Matt Powell, Collin Welch, Dan and Joey Christoffers got some good stuff on it. Collin got real close to this crazy noseslide trick but he didnt get it. Were gonna go back soon. Then we headed over to the barrier spot in Souderton. Nobody was really into it but Joey did a sick trick down the 6 stair right near there. Overall a good weekend

Watch in High Quality

Joey Christoffers Ollie Bump to Grass. Photo By Erik Mangal

Brian Panebianco Switch Ollie. Photo By Billy Simpson.

Collin Bauder Heelflip. photo By Erik Mangal

Matt Powell Varial Heelflip attempt. Photo By Erik Mangal

Matt Powell and Collin Welch

Joey Christoffers Crook. Photo By Erik Mangal

Dan Trauger Nosegrind. Photo by Erik Mangal

Matt Powell bs Tailslide. Photo by Erik Mangal

Joey Christoffers bs Bluntslide. Photo By Erik Mangal

Skatepark Clips

I have been working at the boys and girls club for a couple of years now. Usually me or Jim get to work out in the skatepark. Its pretty cool to see all of the younger kids progress and we have had some good competitions there too. Most of the stuff in the park is small but its still fun.

Heres some short clips we made at the park

This clip is from 06 around the time the park first opened. We put this clip in the extras part of our "Focus" DVD. I dont think I was even working there yet. Theres a lot of basic tricks in this clip but Jims stuff is still good. All the tricks on the ledges were either 2nd or 3rd try. The backtail and front blunt are perfect.

featuring Billy Simpson, Vinni prosseda, Mike Yandoli, Mike McCrorie, and Jimmy Simpson. Filmed by Billy and Jimmy Simpson. edited by Jimmy Simpson



This clip is from almost a year ago now. We were able to film some stuff while we were working haha. I definitely like my job. featuring John Provencher, Billy Simpson, Jimmy Simpson, Alex Robinson, Aj Skrzak, Mike McCrorie, Pat McCullion and Pat Hennigan. Filmed By Billy and Jimmy Simpson. Edited by Billy Simpson

Boys and Girls Club Skatepark from focus17 on Vimeo.

Heres a clip Cory Quigley made from the fall of 08 before the park closed for the winter. Featuring Alex Robinson, Pat McCullion and Cory Quigley. Alexs back tail shuv on the ledge was perfect. Pat kills the park. The manny tre out is easy for him. I filmed Cory do the back lip and front feeble down the rail. He made it look so easy.

Skating at Kyles House

Heres a little clip we made in 06 skating at Kyles house. When I was younger and I didnt know kyle, me and my friends would skate his driveway when nobody was home haha.

Watch in High Quality

Extra Tricks (5/9/09)

This weekend got cut kind of short for skating since most of us have to do stuff for mothers day. Im going to the phillies game tomorrow but Saturday we got to skate. It was Me, Joey Christoffers, Joey Paone, Erik Mangal, Collin Welch, Collin Bauder and Jeff Colombo.

We started the day off at wedge warming up. Then Erik took us to this flat gap close by. Collin got real close to bs bigspin down it. Were gonna go back soon. Then we tried to hit up the green street rail again with a sign this time but there was a van parked there. Then we went to this Euro gap type thing. We skated that for a little until collin and joey Christoffers started skating this cellar door thing. Joey C, Joey P and Collin got some good stuff on it that were gonna save. Jeff got real close to a run but we got kicked out before he could land it. Then we skated the Kids of America manny pad for awhile. I landed a trick but I wanna redo it better. Erik got real close to a good trick on it but we got kicked out before he could get it.

Joey Ollie the flat gap. Photo By Erik Mangal

Collin Welch Crotch grab! photo by Erik Mangal

Collin Bauder Axel Stall. This was crazy! Photo by Erik Mangal

Kyle Schmidt

Ive known kyle for about 7 or 8 years. Kyle is a couple years older then me. He was one of those kids in Harleysville that everybody looked up to if they skated. I remember being nervous to talk to him when I was younger. He was definitely one of the best skaters in Harleysville when we were growing up. Kyle used to drive us around to so many random places just looking for spots. We had a lot of good times. We dont get to skate as much anymore but when we do its always a good time. Thanks for everything Kyle!

I always liked kyles style. Everything he lands is perfect. Everything is really precise. Especially on ledges. He has a foot setup for every trick and its the same everytime. This is his part from our video "Focus" from 2006. Kyle never really cared to much about filming. He did a lot of good tricks off camera and Ive seen him do some crazy stuff at parks.



Some tricks that really stood out to me were the line at the highschool with the quick grass gaps. The 5050 on the loading dock at landis. You cant really tell on video but that thing is so high. The heelflip and the kickflip over the barrier. All the tricks he did over the stairs onto the grass and ollieing his Mini Cooper haha.

Billy and Jimmy "First Try"

These are mine and my brothers parts from our first video "First Try" from 2004. I was around 15 and Jimmy was 13. There pretty funny to watch now. Jimmy got a cheap home editing program and just put it all together. I still think its pretty good for a 13 year old. This was back when we would just skate around souderton every weekend cause none of us could drive and then hang out at my friend Franks house every night. These were some of the funnest times I can remember skating and hanging out with friends.



This is back when we used to skate a lot of gaps. I was so hyped on ollieing the genesis gap. Im sure other people did it before me but I had never seen anyone skate it. I was really happy with the nollie over the porch gap. We skated that thing so much. We used to skate a Branch church all the time when they had those white plastic benches. I was really siked on the 180 nosegrind.



Jimmy was the little good kid. A lot of things in this part I still think are good. The kickflip over the trashcan at the highschool was sick. The ollie run on those skinny ledges in souderton was awesome. Ollieing the 11 at the souderton highschool and 5050 that ledge at the highschool all the way out is pretty crazy. Its so hard to make it all the way across. I dont think I saw anyone else ever do that again. There tearing the courtyard down soon.

Skate Competition 5/2/09

We had a skate competition saturday at the Boys and Girls Club. It was a lot of fun and everybody killed it. I cant believe how good the 12-15 group is getting. Joey O'brien is crazy. He was doing noseblunt slides on the down rail second try. Everybody in the 16-18 group was killin it.

It ended up being Joey Christoffers in first, Jeff Colombo in second and Collin Bauder and Pat McCullion tied for third. Some stand out stuff was Joey Airing on the quaterpipes and just skating everything in the park, Jeffs nollie 360 heelflip over the hip and his tailslide and 5-0 180 out on the down rail, Pats manual 360 flip out on the manny pad and Collin skating the quaterpipes and just putting together lines during the whole comp. Jeff Colombo ended up winning the best trick contest over the hip with a nollie big heel and a nollie heel 360. Thanks to everybody that came out and thanks to Erik for bringin for donating mangalwood stuff for prizes.

Joey Christoffers Melon Grab

Collin Bauder and Pat McCullion getting their third place prizes

Jeff Colombo got Second Place and got a set of Ricta Wheels and a deck for best trick

Joey Christoffers getting his first place mangalwood deck and skating his new Rayskin board.

We didnt really get to skate much this weekend because we had the contest Saturday and Sunday it rained. Heres some old clips from when we were filmin for "Collective" featuring Joey O'Brien, Kerry Getz at a Habitat Demo, Pat McCullion, Erik Mangal and Brian Panebianco.



Joey is a crazy little kid. We were at that tombstone park and he was just launchin tricks off the hip. He did like 3 or 4 tricks off of it. We went to a Habiat Demo in philly a little over a year ago. Getz was killin it the whole time. That was a really fun trip. The clip of Pat is from before he cut his hair haha. He asked me the other day why I let him look like that for so long haha. sorry pat. Before Erik went into the hospital we were trying to get as many tricks as we could for "Collective". We were trying to get this line at wedge before it got dark and of course the one he lands warren just got right in between us haha. He saw us coming but he was like a dear in headlights. He said after "I tried to make myself as skinny as possible" haha. thanks warren. The last couple clips of Brian are pretty sick. The fakie heel lipslides were just warm ups for his ender trick in the friends section of "Collective" and the last clip of Brian is from a month or so ago. He was trying tailslide 540s haha. He said hes done them before but I had to go to work before he could land a good one. Pretty crazy stuff.