California's Amy Caron is only 24 years, but she is among the pioneers in putting women's pro skateboarding on the map. Amy Caron remains as active as she can in women's pro skateboarding, even though the events remain few and far between. Caron was a star in the still-popular 2003 movie, "A.K.A.: Girl Skater," which documented a group of lady pros on an event and contest tour through the skateboarding hotbed of Australia. Other stars of A.K.A.: Girl Skater also included women's pro skateboarding stars Vanessa Torres, Monica Shaw and Jamie Reyes.

Last summer, Amy Caron participated in the Supergirl Jam in her new hometown of Huntington Beach. She grew up in the San Francisco area, in the town of Half Moon Bay, and began skateboarding when she was 11 years old. "When I was a kid, there was no event that girls could compete in, let alone an event dedicated just to girls," Caron says. "Last year, I saw tons of little girls in the crowd, and you could tell they were just in awe, which was really cool."

Amy Caron didn't let the lack of role models hold her back. She describes how her family used to let her go into "The City," which is what the kids in Half Moon Bay say when they are describing San Francisco. She hung out on Pier 7 at The Embarcadero. "There was a big skate scene there with the San Francisco kids (mostly boys), and they rubbed off on me," Caron recalls. Mostly the San Francisco kids would go to street spots to skate the rails, she says, "but every now and then we would bomb down something big, like California Street. You gotta love it. It's definitely an art."

Male pro skateboarders have events year-round. Women such as Amy Caron are pretty much relegated to an every-weekend summer schedule, but she says that in the fall she is able to travel overseas with her sponsors. All in all, pro skateboarding helps Amy Caron to earn a living.

Sources:
http://www.examiner.com/a-1504907~3_Minute_Interview__Amy_Caron.html

If you're pro skateboarder Jake Brown, you might want a snazzy nickname to go with your oh-so-tame birth name. But you probably don't want to fall 45 feet to achieve this.

Australian Jake Brown, 34, became Jake "Unbreakable" Brown after he walked away from a horrific crash during the 2007 X Games at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Brown was on the mega ramp. In his usual fearless style - fearless even among pro skateboarders - he completed a daring 720 turn over the ramp's 70-foot gap, but he missed the quarter pipe lips. Medics say Brown saved his life by landing on his side.

"It might have been funny if it had not been potentially deadly," wrote Andrew Dalton for the Associated Press. "Jake Brown's legs churned in midair like he was trying to run. His shoes shot off in different directions when he slammed to the ground. His body looked like a rag doll as he slid to the base of the ramp." Dalton concluded, "It looked like a fall Wile E. Coyote would take," referring to the Road Runner's cartoon predator.

Jake Brown was motionless for about 8 minutes. Then he got up, walked off, waved to the crowd and asked buddy Jason Ellis, "Do I get another run?" Well, even Jake "Unbreakable" Brown is not unbreakable. He cracked several vertebrae, and he still has a metal pin in a wrist that was broken. He even bruised his liver; have you ever heard of a football player with a bruised liver? Jake Brown needed several months of rehab before he could return to smaller ramps and six months before he again challenged a mega ramp.

Even before the Staples Center fall, Jake Brown had a reputation for adverse risk. ESPN once reported: "Jake Brown has some of the hardest vert skateboarding tricks dialed in, like 720s and his double kick flip mute. However, in competitions, Jake Brown tends to go for the biggest tricks, which often backfires if he doesn't land them. But skating conservatively is not Jake Brown's style."

Reporters now want to know if Unbreakable Brown feels fear on the mega ramp. Jake affirms that this is true, but he adds a qualifier. He says he always has felt fear, even before the 45-foot freefall, because this is a natural emotion for a cutting-edge skateboard stuntman. Online viewers will note that Jake Brown was carted off in a wheelchair, not a stretcher. "I knew what happened," Jake explains in his trademark unflappable style. "I just wanted to test my body and see how wrecked I was, you know?"

Sources:
www.dailyillini.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=6d7c665b-3f6e-412a-9c8d-1440173744ec
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/aug/05/sports/sp-xside5
http://skateboard.about.com/od/proskaterbios/p/ProJakeBrown.htm
www.lgactionsports.com/athlete.html?athlete_id=72&sport=skateboarding
www.grindtv.com/athlete/jake_brown/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jake_Brown

Brazilian skateboarder Bob Burnquist has come up with so many fantastic original tricks, even Bob can't name them all. For example, in his childhood hometown of Sao Paolo last December, he clinched the 2008 World Cup Skateboarding vert season championship by performing a backside 360 stale fish and an indie 540 over the gap.

Although 32-year-old Bob Burnquist has many career claims to fame, most of his skateboard fans look first to the vert contest at the 2001 X-Games. Burnquist knocked off two-time defending champ Bucky Lasek with a final run that included "multiple tricks that had never been seen before." He received 98 points, still an X-Games record. Part of the memory is that Tony Hawk, as TV commentator, was screaming so loudly in disbelief that he nearly lost his voice. This is part of the reason why Bob Burnquist is featured in so many of Tony Hawk's video games.

If Bob Burnquist is from Brazil, why does he have two names instead of one, such as Pele? His mother is Brazilian, while his father is Swedish. His full birth name is Robert Dean Silva Burnquist. Bob Burnquist took up skateboarding at age 11, turned pro at 14 and has never looked back. He was 18 when he showed up at Seattle's 1995 Slam City Jam as a virtual unknown, dazzled the judges (and fellow skaters) and won first-place.

Burnquist now lives in Vista, California, as a dual citizen of Brazil and the United States. His significant other is pro skateboarder Jen O'Brien, and their daughter's name is Lotus. They have a world-class vert ramp in their backyard.

To make the most of his fame, Bob Burnquist spreads his personal social messages as an environmental activist and a vegetarian. The Bob Burnquist Foundation reaches out to schools with information about organic farming and gardening. These activities may seem down to earth for a high-flying skateboard trickster, but Bob Burnquist's motto sums it up: "Live your life, and be in control, by learning to let go."

Sources:
http://www.bobburnquist.com/
http://www.bobburnquist.org/
http://oakley.com/sports/skate/athletes/2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Burnquist

Gailea Momolu says he is a skateboarder first and a rapper second, and one fan says he is "more of a dancer than a rapper." Indeed, Gailea Momolu has a great pair of feet.

Gailea Momolu's parents are from Liberia, although he was born in Boston and he grew up near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Now 28, he makes his home in Vancouver, British Columbia. He lived for some time in Los Angeles, the informal capitol of skateboarding, in order to make connections and find sponsors, but he says he likes Vancouver better. "It's a good skate scene out here," Momolu says. "There is a lot of focus on the talent, but the scene could be a lot better when it comes to kids getting hooked up and getting their names out there." Besides, Momolu has a girlfriend in Vancouver. That might explain why he doesn't like L.A. as much as other skateboarders.

As for favorite places to skateboard, Gailea Momolu picks Shenzhen, China. Yes, China. "People in China really don't know what to do when they see me skate," Momolu says. "They just crowd around and watch. It's a new sport to them." He explains that his love for Shenzhen "is because it's all unique marble, the 10-out-of-10 top marble."

Gailea Momolu describes his skate style as "raw and relaxed." These two words may not seem to go together, but Momolu insists that he can remain relaxed and still get raw. "I'm a handrail skater, I guess, but pretty much I try to skate anything and everything," Momolu says. "The reason I say 'raw' is because of my pop. I don't like to flaunt myself too much, but I've heard so many people say that about me."

Gailea Momolu has a comparatively late start in skateboarding. He was more interested in basketball as a youngster, and he didn't get his first used skateboard until he was 13 years old. But he fell in love with that board and remembers taking train rides to Toronto and Montreal in order to get in on the action during the winter months. "I'll stay in skateboarding for as long as I can," Gailea Momolu says. "I just want to be a household name. I just want to keep doing what I'm doing."

Sources:
http://www.skaterrap.com/features.php
http://www.colormagazine.ca/print/feature/view/gailea-momolu
http://goskateboarding.ca/gailea_momolu?news_id=359&uniqid=
http://www.inqmnd.ca/site/#tableOfContents-more_39

In 1999, skateboarding legend Andy MacDonald delivered a speech in then-President Bill Clinton's White House. Then Andy MacDonald skated across the marble floor. True enough, Bill Clinton as we know was a permissive sort of president, but still? You might have thought that by doing this, Andy MacDonald was on drugs. Actually, Andy MacDonald had just delivered an anti-drug speech.

Andy MacDonald, 35, is the Big Mac of skateboarding, an eight-time World Cup champion. Do you want to talk about a fan-friendly guy? Skateboarders are not exactly known for having highly literate web sites. Most often a skateboarder web site viewer is steered to videos of the skater doing all kinds of tricks, while learning little about the skateboarder as a person. But if you go to andymacdonald.com, you are greeted with this: "Welcome to Andy MacDonald's web site. If you have a slow Internet connection, click the slow button. If you have a fast connection, click the fast button." Well, of course we clicked the "slow" button, and sure enough, we received fast access to many of Andy MacDonald's writings and musings. Dang, thanks, Andy!

Just for a sampling, Andy MacDonald writes about his adolescent years in "All 80's All Day." He speaks of attending a recent retro 1980s skateboard event: "In the 1980's, the more accessories you were rocking, the more styling your kit: I had my boom box from high school, a neon FreeStyle watch as well as a Pop-Swatch on my shirt, suspenders on my Don Johnson pants with neon green Maui and Sons short-shorts to skate in, OG Airwalk Disaster's with the mud flap and paint splatter as well as a set of Airwalk prototypes to skate in complete with Smith lace savers, a custom made red Flyaway helmet, blue Rector elbows and Pain Cheater knee pads, oh and a radical 'flop' hairdo I did it myself with a set of buzzers the night before ... All this gear made it almost impossible to skate, but it didn't matter."

Andy MacDonald's next web site section explains how he joins Tony Hawk in raising funds for public skate parks. This guy is such a real deal. Respect Andy MacDonald! And to the younger skaters: Learn how to put something on your web sites besides videos.

Sources:
http://www.andymacdonald.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Macdonald

Skateboarder Ryan Decenzo of the Greater Vancouver area in Canada's British Columbia province is one of the stars of "Shoot to Thrill," a unique production organized through the Red Bull energy drink.
Ryan Decenzo is among Shoot to Thrill skateboarders who formed 10 teams, with three skaters each, in 10 Canadian cities. Each Shoot to Thrill team was given a limited 10 rolls of film and 72 hours to record their best productions. Ryan Decenzo's team captured top prize money, and the compiled Shoot to Thrill footage made its debut shortly before Christmas in Vancouver.

Film for Shoot to Thrill was precious for Ryan Decenzo and other participants, because it would go to waste with a botched routine. "Sometimes it was hard to try and land a trick with the pressure of the 16mm film," recalls Decenzo, 23, who is among a rising tide of Canadian skateboarders who are cracking the world scene. "Or it was hard because sometimes tricks take an hour and you have to think like, 'OK, how long is this trick gonna take and when should I ask for these guys to use the 16mm?' There was pressure for sure. I think it only sprinkled for a minute during the mini-ramp session, so we got lucky weather wise."

For Shoot to Thrill, Ryan Decenzo came up with a skateboarding storyline based on a race. "The acting was minimal and funny, plus the story is sort of comical so it doesn't matter if we sucked at acting," Decenzo says in his usual modest and lighthearted way.

Greater Vancouver's winters are mild, compared to most of the rest of Canada, and so Ryan Decenzo says that as a youngster, he was a skateboarder for all seasons. "If I'm somewhere where I have some free space and my board, I'm definitely gonna be rolling around jumping on and off stuff or kick flippin' all over the place," Decenzo says.

See him in Shoot to Thrill, and in an array of other videos on YouTube.

Sources:
http://www.redbullskateboarding.com/articles/ryan-decenzo/2008/12/
http://www.push.ca/blogs/franksk/archive/2008/09/26/on-the-horn-with-ryan-decenzo.aspx
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=ryan+decenzo+skateboarder&ygmasrchbtn=web+search&fr=ush1-mail

Go ahead and make Mike Vallely's day. The pro skateboarding legend is helping "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" successfully go head-to-head at movie box offices with Clint Eastwood's more hyped "Gran Torino."

Mike Vallely is one of the bad guys who gives Paul Blart bad days, but audiences love him. Vallely is among a group of extreme sports athletes who double as terrorists at the West Orange County Shopping Mall. The terrorists are named after Santa's reindeer. Mike Vallely is Rudolph.

"This is the first real movie I've worked on. I did some stunts and cameos before, but this one, I really feel that I was part of the production," says the 38-year-old Vallely. "We were part of the story," he says, referring to the X-gamer ensemble. "Our characters were integral to the plot." What exactly does Mike Vallely do in "Paul Blart: Mall Cop?" We won't spoil it for you, although you can get some clues on the web if you are nosy enough.

Movie producers were looking for a skateboarder who could act as well as shred. Mike Vallely perfectly fit the bill, not just because he sports shoulder length locks with a full beard, and not just because he hangs out with Tony Hawk sometimes. Mike Vallely is a hard rock vocalist who is touring with his latest band, the 4-year-old Revolution Mother, so he is no stranger to the stage or the camera.

Skateboarder? Terrorist (in movie life)? Rock singer? There's more. Mike Vallely is a Long Beach transplant from Edison, New Jersey, who also is into ice hockey; in fact, the National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks have asked him to maintain a blog on their web site. He's a television personality with DRIVE on Fuel TV. He's done Hollywood stunts now and then. He even thought about going into pro wrestling.

But skateboarder Mike Vallely also has a softer side. He writes poetry. He has done charity work for the NHL via the Anaheim Ducks. He's a board member with the Tony Hawk Foundation, which gives grants to build skate parks in low income areas, and with the Patrick Kerr Skateboard Scholarship Fund, which supports college aid for young skateboarders.

Mike Vallely also is a family man, married for 16 years with two children. Talk about somebody having it all!

Sources:
http://mikevallely.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Vallely
http://www.shredordie.com/mikevallely