ETNIES ‘ALBUM’ – THE SINGLES COLLECTION, VOL. 2
Etnies’ Album is full of heavy hitters and heavy hits. In The Singles Collection we are highlighting three* Album* bangers, in photos, with recollections by the skaters and photographers behind each slapper. In this edition, we feature Nick Garcia, Ryan Lay, and Jamie Tancowny.
Ryan Lay, wallie the gap. Madison, Wisconsin. Jun 9, 2016.
WORDS: Ryan Lay, as told to Joey Shigeo
Our tour guide, Josh Oakes, showed us the spot on one of the last days of our trip in Madison, Wisconsin. I just remember thinking “Ah, dude that’d be such an amazing photo.” A lot of times I’ll see spots and it’s just way more about the architecture than even about what trick you can do. And I remember thinking that it would be cool footage. But definitely it’s more of a photo spot; you can ride on the side of that perch on the building.
We went there really late at night, like the last day. I just remember we were all just so burnt out. We probably got there at like one in the morning, and there’s nothing worse than when you’re like the guy who’s lighting up the spot to try a trick at one in the morning and everyone’s in the van and they just want to go back to the hotel… and it’s like 40 or 50 degrees outside.
Wallies are really hard to shoot, too. There’s like a handful of those kind of tricks, like back threes and wallies, that can be tough to get the right one. I knew Sam would crush it, though. And he’s like a master of lighting and that spot needs really good lighting to highlight the spot.
I tried a few and realized I could do it. I think I ended up breaking like two or three boards, though. It took me a really long time to roll away from one that I was kinda happy with. Kinda one of those tricks where you hit the ground really hard—it’s kinda hard to roll away with speed. I finally got the trick and probably made all those guys in the van hate me in the process, but we left the spot at 3:30 in the morning, and went back to the hotel.
Nick Garcia, early grab bomb drop. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jun 7, 2016.
WORDS: Mike Manzoori, as told to Stu Gomez
We were on a Midwest tour, just leaving Chicago, Illinois (we’d been there a few days). There was this pretty big gap in Chicago that we were trying to get Chris to do; he ended up landing it last minute. We left the city quite late and got to Milwaukee before dark. I don’t know who suggested this spot—maybe it was Sam McGuire—but we were kind of rushing to get there before it got dark.
This was like a convention center, or one of these buildings that has a lot of security, so once you once start climbing around up there you start attracting a lot of attention. You don’t really have too long to feel it out. And it’s not really the sort of spot you feel out; you just sort of go for it. You either do it or you don’t! It’s insanely hard to get up to: there are some little ledges you can climb. Once you get up there you’re on a skinny pillar that’s maybe two feet wide with a bit of a hard, beveled edge. The drop down into the bank is way over head-high, and then from the side of the bank it’s another huge drop.
With security and everything, you just can’t mess around. We rushed to set up a couple of cameras, and within six minutes (five minutes and twenty-two seconds, according to the length of the raw clip) Nick was rolling away. A total of four or five tries. You can see in the footage when he actually lands it, there are two security guards standing in the way, but they look totally confused. I’m not sure what they were planning on doing to stop it. They just stood to the side and watched it go down! Before we knew it we were driving away. It was one of those things.
It was a rad day. We didn’t get to do too much skating but the two tricks that went down were really gnarly! Everything happened so fast we didn’t even have time to set up any lights.
Jamie Tancowny, crooked grind. Dallas, Texas. Mar 27, 2017.
WORDS: Jamie Tancowny, as told to Joey Shigeo
Jameson set up a filming trip to Dallas, Texas, with one of the flow dudes who’s from there, Carson Blair. He showed us around and we were kinda on it all day, every day, going ’til like two or three in the morning. Not quite like Zero trips used to be, but it kinda felt that way. We were out all day and maybe got to the spot at one in the morning.
It was windy as shit. Pretty cold, actually, but it was a perfect hubba. Only a few things had been done—just like the basics or whatever. Kinda short runway; it was all bricks. It was a bit of a mindfuck to actually get in the zone to jump on it, especially with the whole cold & windy weather situation. I ended up hopping on there and after a couple of tries a security guard showed up, but he ended up being super cool. He was actually stoked on the skating he started filming us and stuff. A few tries later I ended up getting it. He was all amped and ended up getting our Instagrams and stuff. He was stoked; we were stoked. It ended up working out for the best!
Download the Etnies full-length Album here.
