Populess and Novo Watch Skate Teams Destroy Castlegar BC

     On August 8th, Populess Clothing and Nova Watches came through Castlegar Rotary Skatepark, as stop two of their BC tour.

    When I first heard this was going down, I was super stoked, cause I knew that I'd be shooting with some really talented boarders at a demo which was sponsored by Nelson's own Ripping Giraffe Boardshop. I quickly contacted the Populess Co-Owner, Brad Gadd, who was tagging along on the tour. He gave me the details on when they were scheduled to be in Castelgar, and what was all going on with the tour. When the day came of the event, I was super excited. The demo was scheduled to take place around 7PM, but due to missing the ferry, the crew got to the park around 7:40.
 

Brendan Macarther – Frontside grab

    I went over to meet the crew, not knowing exactly what to expect, and I was quickly greeted by smiles and handshakes. Chad Baker, Ryan Spate, and Steve Rohl all warmed up with a game of skate. They were casually rolling away from tricks that would leave many sweating over.  There I realized I'd be shooting with some guys that knew what they were doing on a skateboard, not just along for the trip. 

    I shot various photos with the guys for the next couple hours, as well as got to know each dude. I met Brad and Steve (the owner of Novo Watches) and they both seemed as stoked on the session as I was. A little later on, I was going to shoot Populess' B Mac doing a frontside air out of the bowl. Either I was too close, or he didn't see me, whatever the cause, his board flew out and hit my flash, and pretty much totalled it. It only worked if I held the broken piece together with one hand, and shot with the other, but it was super sketchy. B Mac was really apologetic, for it was a complete accident. The park had lights, but still wasn't bright enough for night photos, so I went over to some other dude with a bunch of equipment. This guy turned out to be Liam Glass who was on the tour as a photographer. I explained what happened, and he let me use one of his flashes, along with a Radio Slave. I couldn't believe this guy lent some equipment to me, somebody he didn't even know, out of pure sympathy and just being a bro.
 

Chad Baker – Front bluntslide to bigspin out

    At this time, a small competition went down in the park, with a 15 and under group, and a 16 and older group. In the younger group, Reid Vieira won first place with a varial kickflip to fakie on a bank. In the older group, Ripping Giraffe's own Danan Lake won first place with a kickflip to backside tailslide on a ledge. Soon afterwards, Chad baker stomped a frontside bluntslide to bigspin out on a rail raised almost to max height. Other notable tricks were Roger Bruinsma's 4-6 foot backside tailslide along the coping of the bowl, Ryan Spates backside noseblunt on a ledge, Beau Larson's 360 flip over the tabletop, and Steve Rohl's hardflip to late kickflip over a small hip. 
 

Danan Lake – Kickflip to backside tailslide

    As the night got darker, and time went on, the guys started to just chill for they were super tired from traveling all day, then skating for hours. Chad Baker got an awesome idea to put a ticker on the surveillance camera, which required wrapping his body around the light pole, and climbing up about 15 feet, and nutting himself on the way up. Garth Philpott filmed the guys doing some tech lines on some benches, and Chad found a massive hissing bug for which he quotes "He isn't down for our skating at all." I really wanted to get a shot over this chain which led to a drop by the nearby McDonalds, so I asked around, and everyone was too tired, at this time, except Steve Rohl. I was so stoked on this guy, he just went all day, and killed it. He came with me and Garth, and ollied the chain a couple times, just so I was satisfied with a good photo.
 

Steve Rohl – Ollie

    The guys packed up their tents and put everything in their tour vans and met us at the McDonalds parking lot. All the dudes high-fived me about 5 times each, and told me how stoked they were to have me shooting them all night, and I just couldn't get over how awesome, friendly, and hyped this whole crew was on the whole situation, and being blessed to meet everyone of them. Brad mentioned thought of making the tour annual, and that if it was, they'd be back next year for sure. 

    When I got home that night, and was looking through my photos I realized I hadn't only had a successful photo session, but met a group of guys that I would try to stay in contact as long as I was still into taking photos. This was the best night of my summer.
 

Roger Bruinsma – Backside tailslide