This is Zach Kral.

Get to know him. He's the new Krux Kickflip Challenge record holder.
1200 kickflips in a row.
That's right.
1200.
Savage.
Zach rides for Phenom Skateboard and Kragon Board Racks.
Here's Zach with his 1st prize Krux package:

Looks like Zach's got a great lead to win the Krux sponsorship for a year.
That is, unless someone out there thinks they have what it takes to beat 1200. Good luck shredders!
Checkout kickflip.kruxtrucks.com for a kickflip challenge near you!
Thanks to Phenom Skateboards and Zach's dad, Mike, for the photos.
Congrats Zach!

A couple weeks ago (not the quickest blog in the west) NHS had about 20 of our top West Coast accounts over for a little open house. They got a tour to see where the magic happens and where these precise tools for our feet are created to satiate our dreams of ollies.
I'd guess the highlights of the tour would be R+D, where our resident mad scientist, Tim P., finds ways to measure destruction. The other highlight would have to be production (my favorite) where every single NHS board ever produced hangs on the wall. Memory lane if you will...
When folks weren't checking out the facilities they were hanging out front where we had fun stuff for everyone: A keg of Pabst, the Creature cee-lo/3's dice table, and an entire street course we whipped up about 2 hours prior to the gig! Here's young Cody hamming it up for the camera, check the course:

We made a Euro gap (are they even Euro anymore?) into the back of the truck and even put a lil' QP in dere. It was tight. Literally.

Jordan painted this slappy rainbow rail the same color as our new Rainbo (or tie dye if it makes you more comfortable) truck:

Spencer came up on the dice:

Lots of shredders showed up. The standard S.C. locs from the area as well as the folks from the shops that brought their boards and were killing it.
Fun times guys!!
The homies in shipping made their signature crip tacos. Now when I say crip I mean it in the Shawn Taylor sense. Not like blood and crips, but like the crippler, i.e.; epic. See "tasty". Yum.
A good time was had by all and the evening wound down with a raffle and a presentation to our top account of the year: Bills Wheels!
Bill was presented with this kickass Salba Bevel trophy signed by all the NHS employees. Thanks Bill!

Thanks to everyone at NHS and even more importantly to all the shops that made it up (down, to the left, etc...). We wouldn't be making skateboards without ya!

Krux shredster Billy Roper has a sick clip over on the Transworld site. Killin it homeboy.

Roper

while you're at it, here's some more footage of Mr. Roper to enjoy: Roper #2
diggin that 80's/ELO style jam.

NHS has many brands. We don't just make Krux over here. Hell, we don't make just skateboards. We make skateboards, surfboards, snowboards, clothes... whatchoo need?
Let just say if youre a master of all boardsports, like my homie Brad in sales who has been known to surf before work, skate the park at lunch and take off to the snow after work, then you're hyped on our products.

Well, I've been known to dabble in the extreme realm at times and one of the ways I like to keep my finger on the pulse of surf and snow is in the NHS bathroom. I've already read every skate magazine out there and it's nice to get whisked away to Indo or Whistler for a moment. 'Calgon, take me away from the skate industry whilst I poop!'

So I'm flippin though Transworld Surfing and I see that Volcom is offering $10,000 for the first footage a legit kickflip on a surfboard.

Well take this Volcom! Krux is offering $100,000 for the first person to beat the current skate kickflip challenge record (566 kickflips in a row) on a surfboard.Volcom Kickflip-Off
Good luck!!
My money's on Brad.

Yeah, I used to blog...
Only when I blogged it was on a 2X4 with rollerskate wheels...
Man you hit a rock and you went flyin' man, I tell you what...
You ever heard of Steve Caballero?
Yeah, I used to blog about him.
Then he got back on Indy. Punk.
Juskiddin. That man rules. Then, now, forever.
You know who else rules? The Krux team.
I think fools forget who we got on lock. So distracted by our polka dots and rainbos. Its like a smoke screen.
Let me just throw some names at you. Drop names if you will...
Cairo Foster. Yeah, that's right. You saw him nearly get blowed up in that Lakai joint. Tastiest film of the year aside from Feelin it.
Hmmm... comin in hot today...
Tommy Sandoval.
I know, right? The Zero legend. KOTR mvp.
You know Tommy rode Krux before we sponsored him? Just cause he liked 'em so much. I heard from my friend Myche that there was this Zero kid that was into Krux. Who knew he'd turn out to be so damn savage?
Who else is hot?
Silas Baxter Neal that's who.

Total shredder. Real talk.
It's taking me forever to dig up these photos so stay tuned for the part 2 of this "Who rides for Krux?" blog...
There may be hoverboards by the time its ready but either way, Cab'll still be rippin.

Just when you thought Kickflip season was over the Netherlands comes in hot! Laurens Groeneveld blew minds by completing 566 kickflips.. the last 26 of which weren't even done on his own rig!

Here's Laurens with his grand total (peep the fancy counter they have!)...

killin' them with clean-ness Laurens always lands bolts!

Congrats Laurens, look forward to anonymous message board hate and tons of babes in your future!! For more information go here >> tackyworld.com

Silas is a total bad ass.

Savage Feebs.

Sandoval was there!

as was Louie..

Caswell too!

more dudes too.. check out Burnout brought to you by the good people @ Thrasher

Wow. So I watched the live webcast thing they had going on over at 411.com to watch some of the shredding for the Vans Showdown dilly. Tommy Sandoval is the best. I wanted to find a good link to the footage for you fellas and was suprised when the first link that popped up when I googled "Vans Showdown Tommy Sandoval" was from ESPN. Its the dawn of a new era fellas. Now I can check out some college football standings, a blog from Gilbert Arenas, AND see what's happening in the skate contest world, all right next to T.O.'s grinning mug! Right on!
But you know what? Its going to be a different perspective than that 411 webcast for sure. Its really nice to see a bunch of skaters running around with Teacates and hear Schaefer crooning some new lyricals to some Motorhead.
That right there is skateboarding, fellas and don't you forget it. Cheers to SPoTlight productions and all they do for skateboarding that is just about skateboarding. When keeping it real goes right.
OK, so I'm not sure if 411 still has the webcast. If its still up you should take the time to watch the whole contest there. For the rest of us who have jobs, Skateboarding.com has some tasty footage as well, but the link I'm putting down here is from vitalskate.com. They had the best footy of Tommy's tricks on the big skateboard.
For the record I plugged no less than 4 skate websites right there. OK, lets make it 3. I'm still having a hard time accepting an ESPN site as a valid place to get skate info...same with MTV.
Big ups to Krux and Black Label's Peter Raffin too!
Good job fellas!! Here's the link:
showdown
Oh yeah, for the record, that back smith is not from the showdown.

It all depends on how you look at it.
I could have easily titled this story "Krux loses am team!" but that would have been ultra negative and we didn't really lose anyone. I just thought I'd blow a little smoke at ya...
What's really going on you might ask?

Two of Krux's finest amateur skateboarders have just reached professional status!
Silas Baxter Neal and Dan Murphy.
Silas.

Dan (and Shaq).

Seeing as how Silas skates for Habitat and Dan skates for Mystery this is totally a big deal. Those companies don't just throw out pro models (or even flow sponsorships) lightly. Both of them have been working their asses off over the last 2-3 years and its really inspiring to see it all pay off for them.

So you see kids? All it takes is mind boggling talent, 210% determination, an attitude/image that fits the brand, a savage work ethic, and a whole lotta luck!
No prob right?

Seriously. These guys are good. I'm sure you've seen their coverage and hopefully you've seen Dan's ending part in the Mystery video. He's also got a full part coming out in the new Nike video!
Silas is on the last push for his Habitat part which I have a feeling is going to knock the stinkin' socks off your feet.
Take a look at this lil' part he's got on the Habitat site. I really don't think I can write the term 'throw away footage' about this clip. Its too good. Check it:
Silas Shreds!
I know right? Savage.
Keep that in mind when you're making your 'sponsor me' vids there guys.
And it case you haven't seen it...:
Run Around Sue
Excellent Shredding and excellent song.
Good job Dan and Silas. May your shoes have your names on them one day.

Do me a favor, click this youtube link.
Easy Listening
Its a little section of one of our previous videos, Blown Out.
Although the beginning is enjoyable and there's some great shredding, I really need you to stick it out until the 3:35 mark of this clip.
This is my favorite part of Blown Out and soooo Eric Noren
From the kid on the swing I just get hyped. How does Krux spell filler? A-R-T.
I'm really down for that b+w kickflip back lip by Ventura shredder, Mr. Tyler Hansen, who I haven't heard from in quite a while.
There's some Angel Ramirez when he was just a little guy as well as my main man, Steffan Attardo shredding in S.F. with J. Babb. Good times.
All amazing looking film, I love it.
But you know what I love the most?

That we used Hall and Oates.

I had the privilege, nay, the honor to see them this weekend.
It was a very personal venue so we felt like we were just hanging out while they jammed.
From the first line of lyrics that came out of homie's mouth (Hall of course, Oates just does that "You've lost that lovin' feeling" cover and that's when i went for more drinks) I knew it was going to be a good show. Dude sounded as good as ever and was obviously into it.

Let me give you a little visual update on H+O.
-Oates shaved off the mustache. :(
-Hall's blond flowing mane looked Pro-v formula approved and dumb healthy.
There was a small fan placed about 3 feet in front of him so his kit was lookin' breezy the whole show despite the still night air. There was even a couple moments where they'd dim the light everywhere but directly behind his head so his locks would glow and flow proper.
They kicked out the jams. It was amazing.

The crowd was interesting for sure. A few mullets. No biggie.
Now please forgive my stereotyping when I comment how the black man next to me was singing every lyric and fully grooving but when they did a cover of "Mercy, mercy me." he turned and asked me "Is this Marvin Gaye?"
Just an observation...

So if you're digging the style of that clip I'm going to go ahead and have you run out and pick up a copy of our latest gem, Feelin' it.
Unless you're out of your mind and not into Depeche Mode.

uh, i'm sure you've already seen this about a thousand times but it was gnarly. i was at the bar with some homies and was already freaked out by what these guys were doing over the gap. 720 huh? savage.
then mr. brown just pops out over flat and is running in the air. i just stared in disbelief. i'm sure the millions of skaters who were watching that last night had their jaws dropped in a similar fashion.
boom! that fool hit the flat and we all thought he gonna explode, get broken in half or just die.
gnar f#cking gnar.
drama

for a second it kinda pissed me off that these people are putting themselves in the position to possibly get killed but then i thought about it further.

these are passionate athletes who want to push the envelope and in this case "extreme" really summarizes what these guys are doing. its their life and i honestly believe that people have the right to put themselves in dangerous positions as long as no one else is at risk. i guess one could say that it has an effect on others if it gives them the idea to try it themselves. lets call it the "danny way effect".
he was the first but now these things are an x games staple and all sorts of other skaters are jumping them. trickle down to kids are making mini replicas in their backyards.

then i thought about how people have been doing pretty much exactly the same thing on skis for decades. although they would just go for their biggest regular jump and stop at the bottom. there was no 25 foot tall QP waiting at the bottom for them.
and when you think about it, hasn't that been the more dangerous part so far? that's how duffy got broke.

hell, it was entertaining for sure. the Asti's kind of a skater bar but everyone in the whole joint, skater or not, was like "oooohh!"

skating is dangerous. boardsliding a 7 stair rail is life threatening. statistically, driving a car is probably more dangerous than a mega jump but i always thought comparisons like that were stupid. since no one's died yet skating one of these things i guess "statistically" jake may have had a better chance getting hit by lightning while simultaneously dealing with a shark attack but once he popped out on that air everything was, literally, up in the air and the statistics could have changed forever.

i've had the pleasure of meeting jake before and he was super nice. i'm going to go ahead and say the entire skate community was relieved when he got up and walked it off.

let's be careful fellas...and ladies.
remember this bad ass 12 year old girl?
lyn-z