Dangerous Freeway Skateboarding Trend Is Picking Up Steam in California

The latest trend among thrill-seekingCalifornia teenagers involves riding a skateboard on the freeway during rush hour and performing all sorts of stunts. The ‘Freeway Challenge’ made its online debut last week, with skater Nakel Smith posting footage of himself skating down the 110 freeway in LA. Since then, several skateboarders have tried copying the idea, giving rise to the trending social media hashtag #FreewayChallenge.

While most of the copycats are trying Smith’s original stunts, some are pulling off their own, like dropping down a shoulder ramp and riding directly out into oncoming traffic, or hanging on to the back of large trucks. California Highway Patrol officials are obviously concerned, and have tried warning these skaters about the dangers involved with the challenge. “This isn’t a joke to us,” said officer Edgar Fugeroa, speaking to KTLA 5 News. “A person puts themselves out there (on a freeway) – that is a deadly trick.”

“You don’t know what the other cars are going to do or if a motorcycle is going to come into one of your lanes. They could strike you and kill you, and that’s not what we want.”

freeway-skateboarding Read More »

Paris Museum Displays Skateboarders’ Dream House

The PAS House, a skateboarding living environment concept thought up by French pro skater Pierre Andre Senizergues and designer Gil Le Bon Delapointe, has finally been brought to life at the La Gaite Museum, in Paris.

Pierre Andre Senizergues has been in love with his skateboard ever since he first discovered it, as a teenager, and has pretty much built his life around the board. He’s ridden it to five world skateboarding championships and built a successful skateboarding shoe line called etnies, so you can see why he felt a little reluctant to part with it every time he went inside his house. But then one day, he had this crazy idea: “I began imagining a city of the future where skateboards are used as the primary form of transportation and recreation — in and out of your home.” the skater told the Toronto Star. “A utopia city for skateboarders would mean that a skateable path, like a ribbon connecting everything together, links each building in an unending ability to keep in motion on your board.”

So, in the early 2000’s, Senizergues partnered with etnies designer and fellow skateboarding fanatic Gil Le Bon Delapointe to create a perfectly skateable house on Senizergues’ Malibu property. They came up with a few great ideas, and even managed to build a miniature model of this skateboarder’s dream house, but after 10 years and some run-ins with the Coastal Commission, it was still in the project phase. But, La Gaite Museum, in Paris, somehow learned about their original housing idea and presented them with the opportunity of building a prototype for their skate-culture exhibition, running this summer.

Read More »

Asher Bradshaw – The 7-Year-Old Skateboarding Sensation

While most kids his age spend their day playing with action figures or mashing the buttons on their Xbox, Asher Bradshaw likes to show off his skateboarding talent, at the Venice Skatepark, in Los Angeles.

I’m sure Asher isn’t the only seven-year-old skateboarder out there, you may even see younger ones, but his talent and fearless attitude are really unique. The young prodigy only took up skateboarding in May 2009, but in just a year and a half his become a master with the board. Looking at him in his oversized clothes, with a big helmet on his little head, people first think something along the line of “he’s so cute!” but as soon as he slides down the half-pipe, that attitude quickly changes into something like “damn, he’s rad!”

Most skateboarders train for years to master some of the most difficult moves, but little Asher has done it in just a few months time. He throws himself inside the giant bowls, jumps over up to ten steps, slides over stuff, and does it all fearlessly. And since he’s such a rad skateboarder, on the rare occasions that he does fall, he does it so hard that he spends a few minutes crying in his dad’s arms and quickly gets back to skating.

At just seven years of age, Asher Bradshaw is already a local celebrity and those that have seen him perform on a skateboard say he has a bright future ahead of him. Check out the video below and see for yourself:

Read More »