Tuesdays With Miles has Gary Young this week

 This week on Tuesdays with With Miles - A Day with Gary Young stars a local BMX ripper.  Gary Young, an X Games athlete, shows us some moves in this footage. Gary is one of the many professional extreme/action sport athletes that call San Diego home.


Go to Tuesdays With Miles for more videos.

Don't know much about Gary Young, watch this clip about his joining and being a member of the Vans Team.

Vans Then and Now - Gary Young - More BMX Videos

Street League and ESPN, a great team!

Street League, the new invitation only street skating competition tour teams up with ESPN to televise the events! I cannot think of a better television partner, especially considering the real-time scoring that will happen in Street League. 

On June 24, 2010, Street League put on a demo in San Diego, and I was there to witness Paul Rodriguez and Chris Cole put on a clinic of top notch skating! The pictures you are seeing are from that event!  To see more of my photos from this demo, click here.

Below is the official ESPN press release:

STREET LEAGUE SKATEBOARDING™ ANNOUNCES MULTI-YEAR BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP WITH ESPN

Street League DC Pro Tour fueled by Monster Energy Secures Domestic and International Distribution

Street League Skateboarding™ announced today that they will be entering a multi-year partnership with ESPN for worldwide distribution in more than 198 countries.  The 2010 Street League DC Pro Tour fueled by Monster Energy is a prestigious, invite-only, three-event series featuring the top 24 pros in the world.  Founded by twenty-year professional skateboarder and entrepreneur, Rob Dyrdek, Street League™ raises the bar of competitive professional skateboarding with the most prize money in skateboarding history, skate plaza course design in world-class arenas and an instant-scoring format that makes every trick count. 

“What Dyrdek has done for skateboarding with the creation of Street League is right in line with the quality sports programming that is the cornerstone of ESPN,” said Chris Stiepock, ESPN vice president, sponsorship and content, X Games Franchise.  “We are excited to broadcast competitive street skating with the world’s best pros in a package that is both compelling and new for our audience.”

Dyrdek said: “ESPN is an absolute perfect fit for Street League, and it is undeniable that they have helped lay the groundwork for televised skateboarding 16 years ago with the launch of X Games and have stayed with it ever since. With this deal, competitive street skateboarding will finally move from afternoon programming on the weekends to consecutive primetime slots so the audience finally has a chance to tune in and watch the same time every week.”

Street League™ will air the first stop of the tour beginning Wednesday, September 15 at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and will continue its coverage of each stop every Wednesday at the same time slot through September 29^th.

Street League™ features the exclusive participation of 24 of the best street skateboarders in the world. To assist their transition into the league, each pro has been given the option to compete in two non-sanctioned wildcard events until the end of 2010.  Beginning in 2011, the pros will compete exclusively in the Street League™ series and other Street League™ sanctioned events worldwide.  Street League™ will work in conjunction with ESPN to allow Street League™ pros to participate in ESPN-owned events for the duration of the partnership.

Using real time scoring and an exciting proprietary competition format, Street League™ will tell a compelling story about each skateboarder’s performance and will have fans on the edge of their seats from the first trick to the very last.  The inaugural year of Street League™ features a three-stop arena tour beginning at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona on August 28^th; Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California on September 11^th; and the final stop in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center on September 25th.  The skaters will be competing at each event for a total purse of $1.2 million.   For more information please visit www.streetleague.com.

About ESPN

ESPN, Inc., The Worldwide Leader in Sports, is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company featuring the broadest portfolio of multimedia sports assets with over 50 business entities.  Based in Bristol, Conn., ESPN Plaza includes more than 700,000 square feet in more than a dozen buildings on 116 acres.  The company is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. 

About Street League Skateboarding ™

Street League Skateboarding™ is the first sports entertainment property that gives professional street skateboarding its very own league for individual competition.  Street League™ features the exclusive participation of the world’s best professionals, the most prize money in skateboarding history with a $1.2 MM purse, and real skate plaza course design inside world-class arenas.  Driven by the need to enhance the experience of live professional street skateboarding, Street League™ utilizes real-time scoring and a proprietary format that makes every trick count. Street League™ is created and hosted by twenty-year professional skateboarder and entrepreneur, Rob Dyrdek.  More information is available at www.streetleague.com.

Pay attention for details, and get tickets to what surely will be one of the can't miss events of the summer!

"Never Bored on a Board" by The Wiley One, Download Now!

An @ Mkbain exclusive!

As Sam Wiley ollied over a massive flight of 10 stairs, he thought he’d like to get sponsored and enter the world of professional skateboarding.

As Sammy slammed into the ground at the base of those same stairs and severely sprained his ankle, he thought he’d like to write and perform music for a living instead.

Lucky for us, his ankle never fully healed.

The Wiley One, Sammy’s modern reggae-inspired rock band, features down-to-earth messages focused on promoting spiritual and artistic expression, saving the environment, and finding joy in every day’s struggles, set to a rhythm of catchy, up-beat guitar riffs. With his skateboarding background, The Wiley One’s music is an ideal companion to any board rider’s session, whether skate, snow or surf.

“When you forget the past, the future, and live in the now, you will feel true bliss and freedom. Music and boarding does that for us,” Sammy believes.

Pro surfer Holly Beck agrees—she uses The Wiley One’s “Go Green” as the sole track in her sustainable living and surfing video, “Life After Competitive Surfing is a bit greener.” The Wiley One’s passion for the environment and working with nature melds perfectly into the world of surf, sand and sun.

“Surfing is my last boarding conquest,” Sammy admits. “I consider myself to be a spiritual person and surfing is spiritual in nature. I love the ocean and everything about surfing.”

The Wiley One has also caught the attention of the X Games, and for the past three years they have performed songs such as their hit “Go Green” to the games’ immense crowds of extreme sports enthusiasts. This summer, The Wiley One plans to kick off their summer tour surrounding the X Games with a string of bio-diesel solar powered shows along the Pacific Coast Highway from July 21-31. The band will be previewing their new single “Never Bored on A Board,” scheduled to launch later this year.

Fuel TV features The Wiley One’s “False Reality” on an episode of Firsthand featuring pro surfer Damien Hobgood, letting Sammy’s music illustrate the calming, playful vibes of surfing in Tahiti.

For Sammy, these vibes fit the description of The Wiley One perfectly—cunning, enticing and lighthearted. And for the boarding world, The Wiley One’s passion and impact through music fits its sports just as well.

A story by Jessica Conditt
Sundawg Media


The anticipation is over, download this track by clicking here!

Update: Congratulations to Chase O'Dell, who got the trivia questions right and won the SK8BOX deck with Paradox grip.

Gatorade Free Flow Tour lands in Encinitas!

Last Sunday, June 13th, The Gatorade Free Flow Tour made it's stop in Encinitas at the Ecke YMCA. GFFT tours our nation looking for the nest generation of skateboarders and BMXers. At this stop they had Vert and Street events. I was able to attend the vert contest and was stoked at the level of riding I witnessed.

The event was held on a giant vert ramp that was first used in the 2003 X Games and then donated to the Y.  Danny Mayer, Adam Taylor, Josh Strafford, and Paul-Luc Ronchetti were the judges and they are seriously qualified.  If you are not familiar with any of the names I just mentioned, do yourself a favor and look them up.

There were roughly 18 skaters under 21 broken into 2 heats.  Each and every skater shredded the immense ramp.  It was awesome to see kids less than 4 feet tall flying above the coping of a 13' deep ramp.  Some of the skaters were close to 6 feet above the deck.  540s, great lip tricks, flip tricks, and amplitude were all here as these riders threw down every thing they had for their chance at the finals.  Judging was difficult, I am sure, but five finalists were chosen. Tom Shaar, Joey Hamlisch, Jesse McDonald, Cory Juneao, and Jimmy Wilkins.

In the finals the riding only continued to impress.  Tom Shaar and Cory Juneao were the smaller skaters in the final, but that didn't stop them from flyin out of the ramp with style!  Jesse had airs, inverts, and boardslides that blew me away.  Joey had varials and kickflips mixed in with his airs and lip tricks.  Jimmy threw 3 different 540s in his run!  It was hard to imagine before going to this contest that the riding would be at this level.  Who said vert is dead?  These kids are proving that vert is alive, and I am excited for the future of vert riding knowing they are out there shreddin it up!  The final reults were 1)Jimmy Wilkins 2)Tom Shaar 3)Joey Hamlisch 4)Jesse McDonald 5)Cory Juneau.



For coverage of the street contest, which I unfortunately could not attend, click here

Espn's Next X is coming back!

Season two of the reality sports series, “Next X”, featuring star athletes Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg, Daniel Dhers and Gary Young, mentoring young amateur competitors in their chosen sport, will premiere Monday, June 21, (7:15 p.m., ET/PT) on Disney XD. Developed by Disney XD in association with ESPN, it marks the second iteration of "Next X".

Who: The series features professional skateboarders Bucky Lasek and Rune Glifberg and professional BMX riders Daniel Dhers and Gary Young, as they pair up with four talented amateurs to help sharpen their technical skills, perform new tricks and try to become the next generation's action sports superstars.

The young athletes include Jamie Cooper-Ellis, a 12-year-old BMX rider from Putney, Vt.; Heimana Reynolds, an 11-year-old skateboarder from Honolulu, Hawaii; Alana Smith, a nine-year-old skateboarder from Mesa, Ariz.; and Tucker Smith, an 11-year-old BMX rider from Laguna Hills, Calif.

What: An action-packed reality sports series featuring athletes mentoring young amateur competitors in their chosen sport. Sponsored by Hasbro, the six-episode, short-form series will premier on Disney XD and Disney XD.com, with new episodes airing every Monday night until July 26. "Next X," developed by Disney XD in association with ESPN, reached 24.7 million viewers, including 4.3 million boys 6-11 last summer on Disney XD.

“Next X" will culminate with one amateur athlete named the Next X, who will then have the opportunity to showcase his or her action sports skills on the course at X Games 16. A 30-minute "Next X" special will be shot at X Games 16, which will feature the amateur athlete's VIP experience and will air in August on Disney XD.

When: Monday, June 21 (7:15 p.m. ET/PT) .

Where: Disney XD and Disney XD.com