OPERATION
STACKOLA
SHRED FOR LIFE 3
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ROMOURE TO
Above left: Quim Cardona crushes cans with
switch ollies, tams and outstretched hands.
Above right: Chris Aspitate didn't need
anyone to punch him in the head to land a
frontside 360° over the hip.
In years past, Shred For Life was a charity
event, a ten hour skate-a-thon raising money
to fight various diseases. Although I'm not
exactly sure what the skaters who attended SFL
3 were shredding for (or against, depending on how you
look at it), Saturday, May 23rd was a good day to come
out and watch your favorite pro or am film their lines for
the next 411 and get their photo incentive sequences for
the various magazines.
Being a part of the skateboard media, I can only imag-
ine what it's like to be a little skate rat attending one of
those things: "Hey, there goes Chany Jeanguenin; isn't he
Swedish?" "Oh, shit! Did you see Josh Kalis' nollie
frontside crooks on the bar? His shoes looked dope!"
Unfortunately, I am too jaded by the world of the pro-
fessional skateboarder/celebrity, so seeing the pros in
person just doesn't do anything for me. The only thing
that got me hyped was when I saw Mic-E Reyes punch
Ryan Wilburn in the head so he would land a backside
360° over the pyramid, which he did.
But seriously, this year's SFL was a good time for every-
one. All the young kids got to skate with and get in the
Sequence: Pete
Eldridge casually
catches a kickflip
backside grab
for cancer.
way of pros like Kris Markovich, Quim
Cardona, and Kevin Taylor. And in between
heated sessions on the pyramid and makeshift
hip, the contest organizers tossed out enough
free shit to keep your average-sized skateshop
well stocked for about six months.
Like all the great skate events before it, a
grand finale was in order. It needed to be
something to make the kids cheer, some bit of
skateboarding magic to bring the crowd to a
fever pitch-something to ensure the event a
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