Welcome to LocoSkates.com - We sell inline skates! In fact we are a very specialist store. Here is some info about some of the skates we retail:

Aggressive skates - Loco Skates was born out of our passion for aggressive skating so we try our hardest to make sure we are the best skate shop in the UK for aggressive skating. We stock all the top brands as follows:

Razors skates - Razors are the leading skate manufacturer in the world for aggressive rollerblading. Their range we sell is based upon three different boot moulds. The Razor Cult skate (which includes the Razor Cult 8 skate released in summer 2008 and followed by the Cult 9 and then followed by the Cult 10 etc). The Razor Genesys skate (the Genesys 8 which we started selling in September 2008 in the UK, followed by the Genesys 9 and then the Genesys 10 in 2009). Razors introduced their third boot mould the SL (superlight) in 2008 with the Razors Aragon SL skate and followed it up with the Razors Chaz Sands SL skate in late 2008.

Deshi skates - Deshi boots are one of the only true softboot skates still available on the aggressive market. They introduced their Carbon Hybrid CH1 skates in 2007 and are currently working on the Deshi Carbon skate. Their team includes Colin Kelso, Vinny Minton and Benny Harmanus.

Remedy skates - Remedy or Remz skates are probably our best selling aggressive rollerblades. They have two main designs, one with an open shell such as the Remz OS2 skate. One can only assume the Remz OS3 skate and the OS4 will follow. Their other design is the original and includes skates such as the 08two and the Remedy 08Three skate. The foot is enclosed in these models and not exposed like on the Remz OS.

Valo skates - Valo is the brainchild of international rollerblading legend Jon Julio. They have one of the best teams in the world with Alex Broskow, Jon Julio, Erik Bailey and Oli Short all riding for them. Valos usually consist of Team models like the TV.1 and the Valo TV.2 skate or Pro models such as the Valo AB.1 skate or the Valo EB.3 or Valo JJ.3 skate.

USD skates - Universal Skate Design or USD skates as they are more commonly known have three main boot moulds available. The USD classic Throne skate is the original and includes models like the Rachard Johnson Classic Throne or the Classic Allstar Throne skate and the Colin Kelso pro Throne. The second boot mould is the USD UFS Throne skate which includes models such as the Billy O'neil Throne skate and the Albert Hooi Throne. USD also have a budget mould called the USD Realm. In 2008 they released the pro USD Nick Lomax Realm skate.

Nimh skates - Brian Shima created Nimh. The first and original boot is based upon a Razors Cult with a different soul kit and a skin over the boot. The first two models featured Vicious liners and Ground Control frames and were Nimh Brian Shima skates. Could we expect Nimh Montre Livingston skates at some point in the future?

Xsjado skates - These skates are extremely unique in that they feature a footwrap style shoe encased in a skeleton they feature many original ideas such as the Mook frames. Xsjado skates were designed in part by legend Dustin Latimer with the help of the people at Salomon

Roces skates - Roces created the first highly popular aggressive skate with the invention of the Roces M12 skate in 1995. More recently, with the help of Oli Short they created the M12 UFS. Roces skates are strong, solid and light and are preferred by many of the purist skaters who don't believe in some of the gimmicks featured on modern skates.

Rollerblade skates - Rollerblade have had much success with the Rollerblade TRS skates. Things slowed down for a while but legend Tom Hyser (who designed the K2 Fatty skate and Fiziks frames) is working on the new Rollerblade aggressive skate for 2009 which promises to relaunch RB in the best possible way!

Anarchy skates - We don't stock Anarchy but we do stock Alchemy skates, which is their sister brand and aimed more at core aggressive skaters. The Alchemy FLK1 skate was the first Alchemy skate to be introduced in their range and is a budget skate at an entry level price.

We also specialize in Recreational, Fitness and Slalom skates:

Recreational and Fitness skates - We sell all the top brands including K2 skates and Rollerblade skates. Fitness skating is both aerobically and anaerobically beneficial whilst being low impact and good for core stability. We also sell junior kids size extendable skates that are adjustable to grow in size with your child.

Slalom and Freestyle skates - Many skaters enjoy the challenge of Slalom. We sell all the top brands including Rollerblade Twister skate the Seba Fr1 skate and the Powerslide S3 Skali skate all of which which have a shorter wheelbase which is perfect for freestyle slalom skating. These are all models which the worlds best slalom skaters use.

Although we are an inline skate specialist we also carry a large range of quad skates and retro rollerskates. You might remember the good old days at the roller disco with your Bauer Turbo skates! Bauer Turbos are only available in smaller sizes these days but the Supreme Turbo skates fills the gap nicely and is almost identical and in fact come with better wheels and bearings at no extra expense. You can also pick up Ventro quad skates which are arguably just as good but quite alot cheaper!

Just because we do loads of roller blades and quads doesn't mean we felt it necessary to limit ourselves. You can also find loads of other related items at Locoskates.com such as ice skates hockey skates longboards streetboards Heelys waveboards portable ramps scooters and so on!

We hope we have provided you with some useful information on what we hope is the best skate store in the UK!

Here is our rolling news archive...

Tuff Luck

New superhero of UK rollerblading Sam Tufnell collected the Rich Taylor best trick prize at Nassfest this weekend with a broken leg. Tuffnell found out later that he would need his leg in a full cast for 3 months after skatng away from a 20ft drop into a twelve foot flat-bank. In the pro competition the UK’s very own Fraser Watson took the title beating Chris Haffey (2nd) and Brian Aragon (3rd). It’s great that the British guys did so well in an international field with Farser 1st, Lomax 4th and Chaz 6th. Jenna Downing was the only girl to compete and so just competed with the big boys in the main pro event. She came an amazing 7th beating some of the worlds best pro male skaters. Thanks to Sports Vision and Kingdom magazine this years NASS was the best yet and definitely back on the map as one of the premier competitions in the UK for rollerblading.

Forn in your side / Chaz comp report

The Chaz Sands Invitational contest went down this weekend at Unit 23 skatepark in Dumbarton, Scotland. Pro’s from all over the world came to skate at the event. Our Scottish correspondent sent us this brief report: ‘Aragon won, Lomax should have come second, Albert is the best and Alforno is a c**t. Back to the studio.’ - Thanks. Yeah apparently the French corkscrew wielding crowd pleaser Stenfan Alforno attempted to start a fight with legendary UK photographer Adam Kola, who of course is a national treasure. Nevermind, here’s how the finals went down: Aragon Won, Chaz Second, Albert Hooi third and Nick Lomax fourth. A proud day for British skaters taking 3 of the top 4 places. The only footage up online at the time I posted this is HERE - it's just warm up stuff. I suspect there is plenty of footage to follow later today (Monday). In the wake of this major international event keep an eye out for pro's a plenty floating around the UK with the Remz tour (Haffey, Frankie, Nick Wood) visiting Creation skatepark in Birmingham later today at 6pm and then visiting Milton Keynes in the daytime tomorrow and then Crawley bowls down our way from 7pm tomorrow evening. We're pretty sure Chris Farmer will also be about for the Crawley stop. Crawley is outdoors so this tour stop is weather dependent.

Chaz invite edit up online

In the run up to the Chaz Sands invitational contest in Dumbarton on April 25th Chaz has released a promotional edit. Check that out right HERE.

Chaz comp set to bowl you over

The Chaz Sands invitational contest was entirely successfull last year drawing loads of pros from overseas and kicking off the Kingdom tour. It climaxed with a battle on the rail between Haffey and Chaz...Haffey taking the honours in the end. This year promises to be even bigger and even better than before. It will take place on the 25th April '08 at Unit 23 skatepark in Dumbarton, near Glasgow in Scotland. Check out the website HERE for more details and to see a pic of the new massive bowl that is under construction and will be ready in time for the comp. Pictured: Chaz 450 back farv on the rail from last year's event.

New Razors Mould is looking SLinky!

We've been looking at prototype images of the brand new Razors shell/mould for a few months now and a couple of weeks ago it was revealed that it would be named the 'Razors SL - Aragon 2'. We were also sent images that, in the interests of not wanting to piss off Razors, we can't print! However we can reveal it will be a slinky little black number with white detail. It is slimmer and lighter than the current Genesys skates and has the bottom of the shell innovatively cut out to reduce weight and keep the rider low to the ground. It also has replaceable soul 'inserts' with a separate base-plate instead of the current one peice base-plate/soul. Images of the skate will be released on March the 5th which is the date the skates will come out in the U.S. Naturally, the release in the uk will follow a couple of weeks later as usual. In the meantime you can get a REALLY good idea of what the skate will look like by watching the CAD (computer generated images) of the skate being designed right HERE. We think this is an extremely exciting new project by Razors and hope these skates are as good as they look!

A-dam close contest

Yep so Adam Brown won the expert street competition at Creation Skatepark in Birmingham yesterday beating big names like Chaz Sands and Nick Lomax. The competition was held on the new spine/rail/grindbox section of the park and proved really successfull with the limited space meaning skaters really had to push their skills to put together a smooth, flowing and consistent run. Adam busted out corkscrews over the spine and a fastslide down the box rail not falling at all in his winning run. Jamie Stenner came a close second with the smoothest, fastest line of the day. Here's the full bunch of results:

Under 13's: 1st Guy Bullied, 2nd Sheldon Meadis, 3rd Danny Payne Open Street: 1st Andy Gilbert, 2nd Joe Atkinson, 3rd Andy Gibson Expert Street: 1st Adam Brown, 2nd Jamie Stenner, 3rd Steven Swain

Rollerblading at NASS is back

It has been described as the best event in the UK ‘Extreme Sports’ calendar, but the last two years at the National Action Sports Show (known to you guys as ‘NASS’) has been somewhat an anti-climax for Rollerblading. 2006 saw the festival-style event take place at the un-festival-like venue of Birmingham NEC while the awesome LG contest they held there was cleverly scheduled on the Sunday morning at the same time Tony Hawk was doing a vert demo! (so no-one except rollerbladers saw the amazing skating). In 2007 there was no official body in place to run the inline programme (usually organized by Dangerous Dave Bell and Andy Critchlow) and therefore most rollerbladers boycotted / ignored the event making for a poor turnout. This year rollerblading is back?and the event promises to be better than ever. NASS ‘08 has been taken over by promoters and event organizers ‘Sports Vision’ who run the massive Board Masters surf event in Newquay each year. The rollerblading programme will also have a new organiser this year. We can't tell you who it is yet because it is unconfirmed but they look set to put on a great show with talk of some big American names visiting already. Stay tuned to locoskates.com for more news on that one! Rollerblading has been a strong force at NASS in previous years and this will surely be the strongest yet. Better start thinking about booking your tickets!

Best of British

Fri Feb 17th sees the first high profile dedicated Inline competition held at Creation skatepark in Birmingham since it's transformation from the old 'Epic' skatepark. There is 600 quids worth of prize money knocking about at the moment and Creation has a brand new spine and box-rail section that is looking sick. Rumour has it that the competition MIGHT take a classic '60 second runs' format which hasn't been done for ages in a British competition and could prove to be really exciting. This is looking like it's gonna have a pretty good turnout as it's one of the only events taking place at this time of year so we're sure everyone is gonna be juiced. Check out the larger flyer and pictures of the skatepark HERE.

Clip 4

Firstly check out the trailer for clip 4 HERE . It truely is the best trailer for a rolling video EVER!!! (in our humble opinion). We saw the full length dvd last week and can say that it is definately a very special production! Notice the unpresidented camerawork featured in the trailer. The UK premiere for this movie is going to take place on Saturday December the 8th in Manchester (flyer pictured - go HERE for a big version). This will take place in conjunction with the Kingdom magazine first print issue launch party. You should try and make it because it's likely to be a bit of a mash up! Also there will be some heavy sessions going down in the daytime on Sat the 8th at UKskatepark in Stockport in the daytime.

SkateMeet your mind up!

The date for SkateMeet #4 has changed for the third time. It's now on the 15th of December. Done.

Revolution Evolution

Revolution skatepark in Broadstairs, Kent has completely rebuilt one half of it's streetcourse. Apart from the weird decision to place a small spine 6 feet further on from the landing to the jump-box it looks pretty sick! Check out the picture or go to revolutionskatepark.co.uk for more detailed pics. Whilst on the subject of Revolution, Contrasts Sim Warren and Hallsy will be holding another Contrast-Jam there on Sunday the 16th of December. Here is the press release about that: 'We have just finalised a date for the Christmas Inline Jam. The date will be Sunday 16th December between 12pm to 4pm. The Jam is being organised and run by Sim Warren and Andrew Halls in conjunction with Contrast clothing. Admission is £10.00 to enter and £3.00 to spectate.'. Check out revolutionskatepark.co.uk for the flyer and to read exactly what you've just read here!

Kingdom done!

The moment many have been waiting for is here. Kingdom magazine, the first UK rolling magazine to arise since the demise of Unity and the first GOOD UK rolling magazine since DNA, came back from the printers today! The mag is looking amazing, glossy and up market and reads brilliantly with intelligent articles and incredible photography. Check out co-editor Joe Coyne posing for us with the mag after guzzling a large slice of Smug pie (pictured...(not the pie)). The first print issue (which they are calling issue #4 as there has already been 3 online issues) includes Ben Schwabb and Albert Hooi profiles and an article on this summers' Kingdomination Tour. It also includes everything you would expect including news, reviews, posters, music and much more. The mag, which will come out 4 times a year at first comes in at the reassuringly expensive price of £4.99 delivered. Be part of UK rollerblading history and get your copy / collectors item HERE!

Fresh Meet

Australian-photographer-in-England Dale Travers has announced the fourth edition to his ‘SkateMeet’ series. SkateMeet is designed to bring skaters together from surrounding areas to meet up and just have a jolly good old fashioned session! SkateMeet number 4 will take place at East India docks at docklands in London on Sunday December the 9th. The skate spot is located really near to the East India railway station on London’s DLR railway and consists of some awesome ledges for your aggressive skating needs. Check the flyer here.

Skating For

If you've had your eye on any of the main MTV channels in the last couple of days you may have caught the Video for that new Red Hot Chilli Peppers remix 'Waiting For' by Peter Gelderblom. The video features LocoSkates rider Jenna Downing and LocoSkates owner Jake Eley along with Leo Oppenheim from Manchester. We shot the video on two separate days, the first day being a 17 1/2 hour shoot (7am - half midnight!), the second day I have to say they had me doing flatspins and corkscrews at seven in the morning which is like a whole new trick! (Before-breakfast-flatspin 540!) Of course, none of them they used, along with a load of other clips on street that we shot which was disappointing but inevitable to a certain degree. With all the stygma's attached to rollerblading we were well aware of the risks attached to appearing in a dance music video and having little creative input...we were very keen for them not to represent rollerblading in a bad light. I think the crew got a bit pissed off with us making them do take after take to get the shots right! Jenna and I were extremely happy with the final outcome...considering we thought we might come out looking like a bunch of doofus rollerblading idiots! I even talked them into letting me edit with them although they kinda stood me up on that one hence the rollerblading continuity errors the more attentive of you will notice (did someone say Royale to soul to royale?!). Check it out for yourselves HERE. We think it's one of the more successfull pieces of high-profile rollerblading exposure. Thanks to Ministry of sound for recognising our sport where so many have shrugged it off. Jake Eley

New Loco website!

The more attentve ones among you may have noticed that updates on LocoSkates.com have been a bit more sparce of late...the reason for this is that, like frantic mice gathering nuts for the winter period, we are hurridly working away on our brand new website which will be due to launch within the next couple of months! (hopefully in time for Xmas). The new site will be the best rollerblading online shop in the UK. We will be scrapping the messageboard but allowing users to review each product in the online shop and comment on news items. The new website will allow you to browse the online shop and find products with greater ease. It will also have a larger range of products available. Our control of the website will be enhanced, allowing us to get updates done quicker and as soon as they need to be done, so you can expect to see the latest product on Loco quicker! There will be more options on free gifts for items ordered above £75 along with many other improved features including the loading speed of the site. It has been desinged to give you the ultimate inline skating shopping experience...so everyone's a winner! The new LocoSkates.com will be launched in conjunction with a separate web project (which can't be named 'cos I aint bought the domain yet!) which WILL most likely have a messageboard. In this instance our current messageboard will just be transferred onto the new website project allowing everyone on Loco to keep there usernames and passwords and not have to register again. Keep one eye on Loco 'cos it's all gonna happen soon!

Frated Top Rated

Wanna see some heads you've never heard of before skate some shit you've never seen before doing tricks you never thought possible? Look no further. Frated is a high quality fully HD production from Germany featuring a bunch of dudes who happen to be really good at rollerblading (and video production for that matter). Don't take our word for it though, check out one of the trailers HERE . Watch out Jacob Juul getting tech, Alec Schandert bringing a little bit of rock 'n roll to a dvd with a mainly hip-hop vibe and most of all get yourself prepared for Mark Stamer who happens to be the new 'Best-Skater-You've-Never-Heard-Of'! His section is super clean with sick, super clean and stylish skating from beginning to end. Also, for what it's worth Frated happens to come in the coolest dvd packaging EVER! Check out this must have dvd exclusively imported by LocoSkates. Try and find this rarety anywhere else in the UK! Frated is located HERE.

Loco Custom Colours

It was only a matter of time and finally the first skate in Loco's CustomColour range is here! LocoSkates is the first shop in the UK (possibly Europe as far as we know) to offer a skate colouring service. We use a specific and unique secret technique in order to customise skates to a colour you cannot otherwise buy, meaning you get an extremely rare and individual looking pair of skates! Our first custom set-up to hit the online shop is the aptly named Razors Colonel Mustard skate (pictured). Next week will see the appearance of the Roces ThinkPink and subsequent weeks will see new skates and colourways being added. Did I hear someone say 'Remedy Reverend Green'? If we don't produce a Custom set-up to suit you then don't fear, at the online-shop stage you can simply change your colour in the colour option box...so you could have a Razors Colonel Mustard in BLUE! (or a variety of other colours). If your requirements are even more specific or you would like to have your current skates coloured without having to buy a new pair then you can call the shop at LOCAL RATE on 0845 64 32 596 for a quote. Generally colour-job's will cost around £30-£35 pounds. You can buy or first CustomColour skate HERE.

Sourcey Devil

Ever had the dilema of deciding whether you would take a rollerblading dvd OR a rollerblading magazine onto the desert island as one of your five allocated items? I mean, there definitely isn't room for both 'cos lets face it clothes and self-hygiene items have gotta be pretty high up the list and that's not forgetting sun cream which has got to be absolutely imperative in this day and age...especially if you are on a desert f**king island! Anyway, have sleepless nights no more as roots U.S. long time rollers and industry-heads Sean Engler and Charles Dunkle have busted out the item to rid you of all your hard decisions. Radius media (Aka Sean, Charles + contributors) have just brought out the second issue of 'The Rollerblading Source' which is a magazine and dvd all cellophaned into one ultimate rollerblading media-pack that will pass any protests made by the independent adjudicator who will be checking your five items as you enter onto the desert island! With Chris Farmer profiles in both the mag and on film among loadsa montages + video profiles and then your regular magazine set-up with posters, interviews, articles (Adam Kola has one this issue) and news there is just no going wrong. That is, unless, you forgot to take into account that you were not going to have a dvd player or TV on the island...IDIOT. Get this awesome combo HERE.

Dyeing on your feet

Are you fed up of all the generic black, white and grey skates that the top skate brands keep bringing out? Do you fancy standing out from the crowd with different colour skates? LocoSkates has the answer. You no longer have to worry about all the risks involved with ordering from the States to be able to DOLL up your Deshi's, ROCK out your Razors or SNAZ up your Salomons. LocoSkates is now selling Dye in multiple colours that is perfect for dyeing your skates. We are also offering clear instructions on how to do it along with a link to the Razors podcast that clearly shows you the process you need to use to dye your skates in video format. The brand of dye we are stocking is commonly used in the antiques industry to spruce up the vinyl material that old-school childrens dolls are made from, making it perfect for use in dying the vinyl-like material that skates are made from! Keep an eye out in the near future for the LocoSkates 'Dyeing On Your Feet' range of individually coloured skates. In the meantime click HERE for dye and dyeing instructions.

Jamm packed

It's that time of year again and the UK's longest running rolling event is showing no signs of stopping! Slamm Jamm has been running not 1, not 2, not 3, not.....f**k it it's in it's NINTH year now! Annually held at Rampworx skatepark in Liverpool Slamm Jamm 9 will take place this year on Friday the 19th and Sat the 20th October. Of course it goes without saying that Slamm Jamm daddy Dave 'Dangerous' Bell will once again take the metaphorical steering wheel in organizing the event. Dave always makes sure the event is well worth turning up for bringing over pro's and organizing amazing afterparties in previous years with Brian 'Prince' Aragon killing the park last year. This year promises to be no different. More news about this years' features will follow closer to the event time. In the meantime here is the flyer for the event featuring Nick 'Promax' Lomax dropping hammers last year and leaving us asking "Is there anyone left in the skate industry without a 'NICKNAME' in the middle of their first name and surname!?"

Cryptic clues

Just for those of you who didn't already work it out, our man Rupert Morgan from Kingston tells us that there is a book named 'The Rats of Nimh' and because of the links between Jon Elliot and Brian Shima's new boot company and their distribution company 'Rat-Tail distribution' this is the most likely reason for the name of the new skate. It's all about the rats see! There is still no date announced for release of the new project but we can't wait for Shima to get his rat out!

NIMH Shima skate

Is it a Valo? Is it a USD Grycon?...NO! IT'S NIMH! Yes thats right, here is a pic of the brand spanking new boot concept from Brian Shima and Jon Elliot tongue-twistingly named 'NIMH'. Being at the forefront of the latest Rollerblading news it seems HASN'T got us very far as we currently have no clue what NIMH stands for or spells(?)! Please let us know if you have the knowledge! We DO know that this extremely smart looking new boot has a not-yet-released Vicious liner in it, a cuff you can lace right to the top and some cool new soul-plate concept where you can choose the sort of backslide groove you want! The first model of the NIMH skate will naturally be a Brian Shima pro model. We will update you with any more information as and when it comes. In the meantime get guessing what the hell that name could stand for!

New Media

Sorry if you noticed that some of the newest products out weren't put on the website earlier last week! We had some computer trouble which rendered our website updating system somewhat impotent. The new products should mostly be up on the site by now includeing the brand new BE-MAG which is as sick as ever and has Rachard Johnson and Alex Broskow interviews. Also, it might be worth knowing about the new WINTERCLASH 07 DVD which documents the whole shebang from beginning to end and includes many-a sick clip! The best thing about this dvd is that not only is it a full length video of the worlds biggest and best rollerblading competition but it's only £7.50 DELIVERED! Check it out.

Shelliot

See what we've done there?! Anyway, here's the big news we've been sitting on for a couple of days but were too afraid to post cos we didn't wanna ruin anyones big entry onto the inline skate market! (the news now appears to be well and truely 'out' though): The reason Brian Shima is leaving Razors is because he and Jon Elliot are starting a new boot company. Yes that's right, the two legends who run Rat-tail distribution in the states (Ground Control, Vicious, 4x4) are making a whole skate. Looks like the guys will be funding it themselves too, of course with some pretty hefty loans and profits from their Rat-tail products. That is about as much info as has been leaked. There is no name as of yet. Any guesses? We're gonna go for 'Shelliot', 'Ellima' or maybe even 'Shiot'! If you have any suggestions for the guys just send us an email quoting 'LocoSkates pointless guessing game competition' in the subject box.

Shima out

Here's some big news for you. Word on the grapevine is that the legendary Brian Shima is to leave the Razors team. Shima has had more pro-skates than any other skater EVER with a massive SEVEN pro-skates from Razors and then another with USD previously. Brian, from California who also skates for Jug Liners, 4x4 wheels and Ground Control frames is now 27 years old. We predict that he is not leaving Razors for another skate sponsor but no longer wants to skate as a pro with the pressures and commitments that come along with being a high profile pro-rollerblader. Brian is probably one of the best paid rollerbladers this millenium due to the commission from so many pro-skates from the most successful aggressive skate manufacturer worldwide, (this, however by no means suggests he is a millionaire!!!). We tried to squeeze some info out of Brians fellow Razors rider Chaz Sands about if and why he was leaving...but nothing gives!...so we guess it's only Brian who truely knows. We've contacted Razors team manager Andy Wagner to find out the real deal and are waiting on his reply. Keep checking back to find out officially first at LocoSkates.com!

King-done it!

Yes, that's right...the news you've all been waiting for is here. The UK once again has a print magazine for Aggressive skating. Kingdom mag has joined forces with '328 media' to get the magazine on the shelf of a shop near you! 328 are the publishers responsable for the hugely popular international publications KiteWorld mag (Kitesurfing magazine) and Cross Country (paragliding mag). The magazine Headquaters will be based in Brighton...just down the road from the LocoSkates shop. You can expect the first issue of Kingdom to be in the shops around November the 3rd with the first issue covering Albert Hooi, Ben Schwab, The Kingdomination tour amongst other things. To make sure you receive your copy of Kingdom as quickly as possible and to save money on the cover price you can subscribe by clicking HERE . There are some very exciting times ahead with the UK aggressive skate scene getting straight back on it's horse so quicky after the demise of Unity mag...and to top it all off this time around it looks even better! Roll on a new beginning!

Here Comes The Rain

Little darling, it’s been a long, cold, lonely...err, summer! Don’t fear though, Kingdom Magazine have come through to save your day with their new dvd ‘The Rain’. No need to sit inside staring out the window anymore on those rainy days! The Rain features sections on Oli Short, Ollie Gomm and Mike Welland along with a whole bunch of other skaters from all over the UK and some sick footage of your favourite American pro’s from the Kingdomination tour. Edited by Joe Spray, this truly is one of the best British rolling dvd’s to date. Oli’s SECOND section is arguably the best Oli Short section ever made, making the dvd worth buying just for that. Buy this HERE.

Sea-ing is believing

Residing between London and San Fransisco, Sean ‘Sea’ Cullen has paid his dues in the skate and graffiti industry. You may recognise the name from early VG movies, an interview in a recent issue of Kingdom mag or maybe you just know him from the massive reputation he has built in the UK for being the most eccentric, outspoken, controversial dude going! Sean has just released an epic skate dvd named ‘The Apple That Fell Far From The Tree’ in conjunction with friend and COMPLETE ROLLERBLADING LEGEND Pat Lennon. To cut and extremely long dvd short ‘The Apples...’ is based around a kind of day-in-the-life-of-Sean-Cullen concept except it actually timelines pretty much his whole life, skating and graffiti - sometimes in an exaggerated form! To give it to you straight this dvd is an absolute work of genius! DO NOT buy this if you want a video sectioning your favourite skaters skating rails. DO buy this video if you want to see Cullen dumping his dead girlfriend in the sea for losing his beloved dog amidst a dark voice-over and blurry flashbacks. You might however, be interested to know that ‘The Apple...’ features killer sections from Bailey and Stockwell amongst the randomness. The whole dvd is filmed and edited in a way that represents this kind-of dreamy haze and is the most innovative and inspirational piece of work we’ve seen for a long time including the best skate movie soundtrack since Under The Influence! It’s definitely VERY different from any other skate flick we’ve ever seen, half skating half weird-surreal-s**t, worthy of short film awards all over the world we’re sure! Check out the review in the latest One mag to find out why they loved it so much. Nonetheless, we were stoked with this release! Check Sean out representing his favourite skate shop (pictured). You can buy the dvd HERE. If you are up for something unusual, different, and COMPLETELY EPIC buy this.

Big Bro goes Loco

Last night saw five new contestants enter the Big Brother 8 house, one of which who happened to be LocoSkates model Amy Alexandra, pictured here modeling some Loco gear. Loco afilliate Amy did some modeling shots for us late last year at a stunt show that Loco owner Jake Eley was skating in. Now you can catch Jake shamelessly plugging the shop in Amy's top 8 friends on MySpace! Have a look at that HERE. We can only hope Amy stays in the house for as long as possible and makes a good impression while she is there. Meanwhile, still on Big Brother news; ex-housemate, Ordinary Boys Frontman and more importantly ex-rollerblader Preston showed up for the last stop of the International Valo tour last week in Brighton and was ironically star-struck to meet Jon Julio, explaining "I know who YOU are" when introduced to him. Julio, of course, had no clue who Preston was!

Looking forward to a g'day

Australian-photographer-in-London Dale Travers is the instigator and organizer of a new event to hit the UK. The concept which was born in Australia where Dale shoots for Rolla mag involves choosing regular, specific dates about once a month where loads of rollers can hook up and have a big session. The idea is called 'SkateMeet' and the first one will take place at Bay66 skatepark in London on August the 4th at 5:00pm. Dale then plans for the next one to take place at the new Camden skatepark in London and then take SkateMeet around the UK. We spoke to Dale about his motives behind the events, "G'day mate [this part of the conversation may have been fabricated], SkateMeets are being started in London to bring together a community that is spread everywhere.Once a month you can come for a skate with everyone. Shops and sponsors will be giving out product and all SkateMeets will be covered online by Kingdom Mag so everyone make the effort and come skate". Check out the flyer for SkateMeet number 1 HERE(+scroll down), I think we could be in for a Bonza time!

Re-creation

Two weeks ago the legendary Epic skatepark in Birmingham which has been host to so many amazing Rollerblading events in the past two years closed. Have little fear though, on the Saturday morning after the closure it was re-opened under the name 'Creation' skatepark.The park has been taken over by the guys that ran the climing wall part of the development. Brummy local and longtime roller Si Cox says that he hopes the new ownership will give the park a long overdue facelift. Si, who is involved in the new development of the park went on, "The place got run into the ground and was in massive need of some attention. With the old owners gone and the new owners in place, an entire re-stucture of the park is in the design stages with the one goal of making it one of the best places in the country to skate". We can only hope that the new owners are as pro-active with Rollerblading events as the old ones and look forward to seeing the park's development progress.

Ready, steady...NASS

The infamous NASS extreme sports festival started today and will take place over the course of the weekend. Although there is no actual rollerblading contest taking place at this year's event many-a-roller will be making the annual pilgrimage, this year back at the Bath and West showground in somerset. Last year dissappointed everyone when organizers moved the event to The NEC in Birmingham which of course ruined the classic festival atmosphere NASS is famous for! Although there is no Rollerblading contest, reports suggest rollerbladers will still be able to skate the streetcourse at the event. The reason that there will be no rolling contest at this year's event is simply due to the fact that there was nobody from the rollerblade contingency who got around to organizing it! Don't worry, plans for the rolling contest at next years NASS (2008) are already underway...so we'll see you there in the big zero eight!

Kingdom Summer Jam / Jumpers for goalposts

Taking into consideration that we thought the Kingdom Worthing summer Jam was going to be rained off this year it was a highly successful event! While the rest of the country was getting punished with torrential rain and even floods the gods took pity on us and not only kept Worthing dry but also SUNNY for the most part! Despite the absence of a fair few who were going to be travelling from further afield who predicted cancellation the turnout was awesome and some amazing sessions and giveaways took place with the likes of Oli Short and Nick Lomax on the course along with some old faces we haven't seen in time. Nice to see that the girls came out to play too ensuring it wasn't a COMPLETE sausage-fest. The LocoSkates Jumpers for Goalposts 4-a-side football tournament kicked off at around four o'clock. The strangely named 'Rimmers' team (Steve Brown, Jack Reeves, John Macleod, Sam Hogan) did more than just promote homo-erotic inuendo and took the prize (a trophy and the goalposts!) for the junior tournament whilst the Loco team (Leon Humphries, Joby Dick, Jason Davies, Jake Eley) took the tournament FAR too seriously came came away with the cup for the senior contest, thrashing all of our opponents! Rumours were circulating of a possible fix but it's just clear that all that training we've been doing over the past two months really paid off!!! Jumpers for goalposts will now be an annual event so get your teams ready for next year. The afterparty went off with two of Brightons finest bands The Laser Crabs and My Federation rocking the house. London skater Ollie Southall aka Oliver Sudden mixed things up with a short hip-hop set between the bands and we even had a rare celebrity turnout for a skate afterparty in the form of Hugh from the Kooks! Of course everyone got loose and partied out in celebration of another successful Kingdom event. See you guys at the next one.

JFG Rules

We've printed a set of rules for tomorrow's LocoSkates 'Jumpers For Goalposts' football tournament HERE for players involved or anyone else to check out.

Jumpers for goalposts

This Saturday sees the first competition of it’s kind within the skate industry taking place in conjunction with the Kingdom Worthing summer Jam in Worthing, West Sussex. The LocoSkates ‘Jumpers For Goalposts’ 4-a-side football tournament will take place alongside all the skating action on the day, creating an extra twist to the event. Rules are: players have to have some involvement in the skate industry. At the moment we have 8 teams from the likes of BHC, Skullfuck, KDM, Contrast, Loco, UKskate and Kru. Teams are subject to change on the day depending on turnout, weather etc. Games will be 12 minutes long. Teams will have 1 monkeyrush / spider goalie each (goalkeeper that will come out and can act as a defensive field player). This revolutionary event will definitely be an interesting experiment, if it rains then Jumpers for goalposts will STILL take place even if there isn’t any skating?it’s a funny old game y’know!

Eggcellent turnout

Along with giving me the chance to write the easiest pun I've ever had to think of, Jonny Lee and Simon Carlings new UK dvd production EGG has also caused a stir amongst UK rollers! The DVD was premiered at a bar in Liverpool Street, London last weekend and attracted a huge turnout. Rollerbladers from all around London and the south showed their faces for the first showing of what was to turn out as an amazing production. Of course, some people threw glasses out of the second floor window of the bar and onto the busy London street at the end of the night so everyone got chucked out and Jonny lost his deposit! EGG will exclusively be sold in the UK through LocoSkates and features sections on Blake Bird, Ian Hendrie, Will Wilson, Dan MacLaren and an awesome Dom West section. Buy it, if not for yourselves, for the sake of Jonny's depost! It should be out and in the online shop in the next week to two weeks.

2007 Events Itinerary

Here's some of the events still to come this year: Sat 16th June - The Kingdom Worthing Summer Jam and afterparty Sat 16th June - The LocoSkates 'Jumpers for Goalposts' 4-a-side football tournament (running in conjunction with the Worthing Summer Jam) - more info to follow Fri 29th/Sat 30th June - Rampworxs EVOL dvd premiere allnighter - from 10pm Fri 6th, Sat 7th + Sun 8th July - NASS 2007 (possibly no rollerblading contest!...To be confirmed) Sat 14th + Sun 15th July - Eastbourne Extreme 2007. Extreme and recreational sports event with a traditionally lagre rollerblading turnout on Loco stomping ground Sat 11th August - Pedro Sanchez's Tequilla Hammers contest - 3pm Big Lloyds, Bristol Sat 27th + Sun 28th October - Slamm Jam weekend, Rampworx Liverpool Gutted if you work on Saturdays!

Ye of little faith

Just when the last issue of Be-Mag was fading into the depths of your memory and you had started to think rollerblading was all a bit wack again...boom, they bring out a new issue and all faith is reinstated and your memory of rollerblading being the coolist thing since the other side of the pillow is replemished. Thank god for Be-mag looking SO good! We can't quite get over how good the new issue looks...they just keep stepping it up and stepping it up. While we're on a print media tip we've also now started stocking ONE magazine, the new magazine out of the States that unanimously seems to be filling the void Daily Bread Magazine left. Check that too, it's got an Oli Short profile and a really interesting interview with rollerblading godfather Chris Edwards amongst a whole loada other stuff. It seems the scare that the worldwide rollerblading print media was dying a bit of a death is over and with VERY exciting news on it's way from the UK's Kingdom magazine later this week, it seems, the only way is up....(baby!) Check out mags available to buy in the shop HERE.

We Are...gonna sell alot of these!

Tonight sees the UK premiere of the brand new Valo team dvd 'We are Valo 2', the sequel to We Are Valo (funnily enough). We saw the dvd last week and can honestly say it's one of the best rollerblading dvd's we've EVER seen! Every section s tight, there is not a sloppy trick in the whole thing, the music is amazing plus you get a super surprise with Oli Short and Alex Broskow sections as their introduction to being the newest riders on the Valo international team. Seeing as the video is SOOO good we thought we'd put it up for pre-order in the online shop cos you guys are gonna wanna get hold of it as quick as you possibly can. It should be released in the next couple of weeks (early to mid June) click HERE to pre-order.

No need to Boost!

Bristolian inventor Brian Rawlings has come up with a completely revolutionary new skate design. It's revolutionary ridiculous! Brian's brainwave or 'moment of complete madness' as we're choosing to call it came when he decided he wanted to create a kind of cross between an inline skate and a bicycle. Check them out HERE on youtube to get a full idea of what they are. Now take into account that the following is a genuine direct quote from the booster blades website 'They are probably the most revolutionary type of cycle since the invention of the chain driven bike'. We think they may have set their sights a little high for this one! Nonetheless, here's the really funny bit; they have used Locoskates rider Oli Short's pro Roces shell and liner to form the boot part of the Booster Blades. Gutted for Oli? No. We reckon it's likely that Oli will take a cut of the profit from each one sold because it has his name on it. Give it about two years then and Oli might have made enough commission to buy me a new pair of pants from where I just p***ed myself laughing! Always an objective product review here at LocoSkates.

Causing a Stir

Stew Game from Bristol is the new guy in charge of the Razors team in the UK. One of the first things that Stew did on the job was to appoint fresh meat Dan Stirling aka Random Dan aka 'Schoolboy' and Quinny aka Scott Quinn to the flow team and take them on a mini-tour / filming trip of the UK. Dan hails from Brighton and we can say we've been 1st hand witnesses to some of the most pissed skating we've ever seen from him. Quinny comes from Glasgow, Scotland and from the footage we've seen he is definately some of the hottest new talent in the UK. Check out the footage that Stew Game got from their UK mini-tour by going to Kingdom Magazine updates page HERE.

Brain. Fear. Reduced

Bang! Just like that Mindgame is no more. You will however have known this already if you had read a bit futher down the page or had your ear anywhere within about 6 feet from the ground lately! Now that the legendary wheel and clothing company is...wait for it....Brain.Fear...Gone we're gonna do you all a favour and do it cheap. Check out all the Mindgame tees and beanie's that are half price in the online shop. Hurry though before it's all brain.fear......bought by other people!

Invitational trailer

Check out Stew Game's trailer made for the Chaz Sands invitational competition on YouTube here. Chaz shows us round the facilities at the skatepark and tells us about the event while Frankie Morales receives his invitation in the states! Chaz also throws down some sick skating just for good measure. Looks like it's gonna be a sick one.

Tequila Hammers

Take a group of rollerbladers, copious amounts of Tequila and some of the most iconic ledges in the country and what have you got? The recepie for one of the most revolutionary and innovative competitions to take place in the UK! Man of mystery Pedro Sanchez, clearly hailing from somewhere in the deepest grubbiest depths of Mexico, is the founder of the competition cleverly entitled 'Tequila Hammers' which will take place on Saturday 11th August at Big Lloyds ledges in Bristol from 4pm. It looks at the moment as if the event is likely to be invite only through fear of wiping out half of the core uk rollerblade scene with alcohol poisening / choking on own vomit. It's five pounds to enter and the winner will take away a pot of cash. Sanchez tells us that each skater will have to down 2 or 3 shots of Tequila before proceedings commence to 'give the comp an edge'. From then on rules are, you must down a shot of Tequila if: You miss a trick, put your hands down, dont roll away cleanly or don't grind at least two blocks of the ledge. There is instant disqualification if you hurl! Is this a skating competition or a drinking competition? It's beyond us, however my money is going on somebody from Scotland (this 'shot in the dark' was based purely on motabolism rather than skating skills), though it has to be said that although Irish contingent Albert Hooi is by no means famous for his drinking it's very likely that he won't have to drink much anyway! This is clearly the best competition ever, it could get very messy. Last orders please! Check out www.myspace.com/tequilahammers

Kingdom steps it up

Issue 3 of Kingdom is now out and even better than before. The mag has taken on a new format. The actual magazine is no longer in a website format. The website www.kingdom-mag.co.uk now acts not as a magazine itself but for latest news and updates. The actual magazine is now 'downloadable in PDF format'. If your like us and you don't really know how to work computers properly then let us translate. Basically if you go to the Kingdom website you can click on a tab that says 'magazine', here you will be able to download Kingdom in what is a virtual imitation of a print mag (a magazine on your computer screen that you can flick through from page to page as if it's a real-life metaphysical mag!) lost yet? no? Good. To do this you will need to right-click on their 'Download PDF' button and do something along the lines of 'Save Target as...', save this to your desktop, wait around ten minutes for it to download and there you go...you have Kingdom mag waiting for you on your desktop each day! (once it's saved you won't have to wait for it to download again). The great thing about this is it's one step closer to having an actual UK rolling print magazine again plus this issue looks just amazing, way better than Unity ever looked and it reads great too. Support Kingdom, it's very important to the future of UK rollerblading, go download it now.

EGG in your face (it's no yoke)

It's almost ready, roots London skaters Jonny Lee and Simon Carling's dvd 'EGG' is almost complete and has a premiere date. The highly anticipated UK dvd features profiles on Blake Bird, Ian Hendrie, Dan Mclaren and Dom West along with loadsa footage from all the UK's top rollerbladers. The premiere will take place at the Railway Tavern in Liverpool Street, London on June 9th. There will also be a session / BBQ at the new Camden skatepark in the day and club / drinking antics after the premiere where the venue will play classic skate vids all night. The dvd is also very special to us as Jonny and Simon will be retailing it EXCLUSIVELY through LocoSkates. Check out trailers and the premiere flyer by visiting the EGG MySpace HERE.

You'd be Dumb not to go!

We now have full info on the Chaz Sands invitational event at Unit 23 skatepark in Dumbarton, Scotland on the weekend of the 25th May. The event will be host to many top pros including Brian Aargon, Murda, Julian Bah, Chris Haffey, Stockwell, Frankie Morales, Vinny Minton and many more...infact it might just be the biggest line up of international pro's we've seen here in the UK at one single event since the Big Bash in '98! Here's the schedule: Friday 25th late night skate (£10), Friday night sleepover at park if you don't wanna get a hotel (£10), Saturday day contest (£12) and afterparty (£5), Saturday night sleepover at park (£10). Sunday all day skate 12pm-8pm (£12). You can buy a weekend pass that will cover all the costs of the weekend for £50. The event will mark the beginning of the Kingdom tour where many of the pros will tour the north for the following week. Try and get to this event it will be one of the biggest this year! You can find out more info at www.chazsands-invitational.com - check it.

Blasted bots

Recently our messageboard got invaded by evil advertising robots trying to hook you guys up with porn and pharmaceuticals. Some people probably noticed as it caused quite a disruption on the board. We have now however blasted the little blighters thanks to our caped, bot-destroying messageboard webmaster! Anyone newly registering to the board will now have to type in the secret codeword hidden in the 'Messageboard registration' forum (which incidently is 'locoskates'). Sorry about the trouble...the silver lining to this cloud being that you guys have now picked up loadsa great links for free porn and teeth whitening strips...happy days!

Tour blimey!!

The biggest pro skate tour to hit the UK EVER is to happen at the end of May. Loads of rollerblading's very top names will be over to take part in the Kingdomination tour organized by Kingdom magazine. Alot of pro's will be over for the Chaz Sands invitational event at Dumbarton in Scotland on the weekend of the 26th of March (more news to follow on this event) and many will then follow the weekend by visiting Birmingham, Stoke, Chester, Liverpool, Leeds and Middlesborough. Names include Stockwell, Minton, Julian Bah, Ski and Oli. Try and get to at least one stop on this tour cos it's a biggy. Check out the flyer HERE for all the info.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for...longer lasting wheels!

Anyone ever seen the MTV Cribs with pro-skateboarder Ryan Sheckler? Well when they come to do the 'what's in the fridge / freezer' bit he opens the door to reveal a load of frozen skate wheels! It's been an urban legend for time now in the inline skate industry that if you freeze your wheels before you use them they last twice as long. We think it could be something to do with it speeding up the 'curing' process of the urethane (urethane is constantly curing). Fact or fiction, Myth or not, we're not taking any chances! We not scientists, neither are we cynics which is why we are now the ONLY SHOP IN THE UK (possibly the world) to PRE-FREEZE all of our aggressive inline skate wheels, saving you the time and effort and giving you a longer lasting wheel than anyone else. All our wheels are pre-frozen from...now! Go get! (shot: Coyne)

Mindgone

Ok so we forgot to report this a couple of weeks ago when we found out but just incase some of you didn't already know Mindgame have seized trading. Our sources tell us that Shane Coburn, owner of the wheel and T-shirt company, could no longer afford to pay his riders and did not want to carry on if he could not support his notorious team. We've already heard that Chris Farmer has been snapped up by 4x4 wheels and it's rumoured Aragon will be riding for M1 but this also leaves the likes of Ben Schwabb, Dom Bambrick and Aaron Feinberg with no wheel sponsors. We get the feeling Feinberg really don't care that much though! Dustin Latimer, one of the original Mindgame riders announced his retirement from professional inline skating three months ago after the release of his video-section in the latest Mindgame dvd 'Accidental Machines'. No doubt Shane Coburn will have his creative fingers in another rollerblade industry pie by the end of the year though!

Y2-F8

Sad news. Looks like the days are numbered for Y2SK8 skatepark in Peterborough. The park is reportedly closing in around 12 weeks due to owner Trevor Laundy moving to Cyprus! We're not sure exactly how this works but we imagine that the park could still be saved if someone came through and bought it...anyone wanna buy a skatepark? It will be a shame to see it go, Y2SK8 has seen some Epic Rollerblading moments over the years from Loco rider Jenna Downing winning the British championships 8 years in a row to Frazer Watsons full cab true top porn down the death-rail while being showered with glass from the smashed light on the ceiling (remember anyone?) to the biggest, craziest, WOBBLIEST rail we've ever seen running pretty much the length of the park with a 15 foot drop either side in the MIDDLE of it so you had to make it to the end or drop! The park really has become an institution in UK rollerblading. As a consilation nearby Corby has just had a new indoor park built which is supposed to be amazing.

Get to the point!

Razors have released another Genesys skate, this time the 'Genesys 4.1' (four point one). Yes indeedy it's the re-birth of the Genesys 4 this time with '4.1' printed on the side!!! The great thing about the 4.1 is that it comes boot-only as standard saving you messing about having to change THOSE Razors stock frames for the frames you actually like. We are selling the skate at an amazing £109 delivered with a free BHC 3 'Rising resistance' dvd (best british video yet) and this incredible mahogony-oak antique picture frame (pictured). You can read more about them and get them in the online shop here. *(due to increased postage costs the 'free antique picture-frame with skates' offer has been discontinued until further notice).

Team DVD

Its been talked about for a while now but filming has finally started for the Loco team dvd. The production is due for realease later this year allowing us the summer to film. The project is being taken on by videographer Ed Inglis who will be filming the lot in High Definition. Ed has recently been doing edits for Kingdom magazine events which you can see here , here , here and here (these are all different links, we're not trying to be funny!). The production which currently has the WORKING title of 'Every Other Sunday' will feature sections on team riders Oli Short, Leon Humphries, Joby Dick, Jenna Downing and Jake Eley with flow sections for Jason Davies (who is killing shit), bad-karma boy himself Billy Doyle and no doubt much friends footage too from around the uk. I've (Jake) personally been anhilating my body already to make sure I'm not outdone by that Oli Short kid and with Ed Inglis at the wheel it's bound to be a high end production. More to come on this as we proceed. Pictured: Out filming lines last weekend. Shot: Coyne.

Bad car-ma

The Loco team had a bit of a rubbish time at the Epic allnighter Jam and Teach Them Well UK premier last weekend. Our newest star pupil Leon Humphries aquired 9 stiches around his eyebrow face-planting flat bottom on a mini-ramp at three in the morning. Worse off however were flow riders Jason Davies and Billy Doyle who got themselves into an 80mph motorway accident 5-up with passengers Jake Martin, Harry Maynard and Lewis Smith. Billy, who has aquired bad Karma for being a right c**t to so many people (he is nice really though) has only just passed his driving test and it was his first time on a motorway. As lady bad-luck would have it about an hour after getting onto the motorway Billy's rear right tyre blew out sending him careering across lanes and into the back of a convertable BMW doing 90. Billy's car spun and stopped facing into oncoming traffic mid-M1 while the Beema hit a grass bank and rolled. Somehow nobody was seriously hurt. The woman driving the BMW went to hospital with minor injuries while Billy's car avoided being hit by any other car. It's still up for debate as to whether the crash was actually caused by Billy attempting 'Illusion lane changes' (indicate one way, go the other)...just kidding. But seriously, Billy has been rumoured as vowing never to be a c**t to anyone ever again! Check out Billy's blog on the events for his side of the story and more pictures here. Pictured: Top - rolled Beema. Bottom - The Billy-mobile.

Devious Trebble

Yes after a good year of 'will they / won't they' it looks like roots UK rollerbladers Paul Hardwick and Mark Trebble have secured exclusive distribution rights for Remedy skates and Jug liners in the UK. They will be distributing these two highly regarded products instead of Bristol based 'TKC' and will be trading under the name Devious Distribution. They will start this month with the release of the new Remz 07 two along with Trebble and Si Coburns clothing brand BHC. This is about as skater run as it gets with BHC and Remz being skater run...all you gotta do now is actually buy the products off Loco to complete the circuit! Check out the pic of the new Remz 07 two due for release later this month.

All night long (all nigh-it, all nigh-it

Not only was it a smash hit for Lionel Richie but it's also the amount of time you will be allowed to skate at the Teach Them Well Allnighter Jam at Epic skatepark in Birmingham on Saturday the 10th March! The event, which will take place from 7pm - 7am and costs £10 to get in, will mark the release of Conner O'Brien's 'Teach Them Well' dvd by showing it's UK premiere. Check out the amazing trailer here and prepare to be juiced. Kingdom magazine will also host a Midnight best trick comp and you can expect loadsa top UK skaters to show. To see a big version of the flyer go here. Epic always puts on great events with their awesome bar handy (could be messy) so come along cos we're gonna Party, Karama, Fiesta, Forever!

2nd Chaz edit

A month ago we showed you the edit of Chaz Sands testing out his new Kizer frames at his local skatepark in Glasgow. Now there is a sequel Kizer edit. Check out Scottish legend Chaz who has just come back from Germany taking second place at Winterclash killing street and park. Some of the footage here is taken from his unity profile a few months back. Check it out here.

Clash edit

The first good edit of Winterclash is up online now by Ed Inglis in conjunction with Kingdom magazine. Check out for yourself some of the sick skating that went down in Germany last week right here.

Tee time!

Loadsa people have been asking when the new LocoSkates T-shirts would be coming in and they are now here. This year they come in four different colours to match the four different seasons of the year, each individual colour carefully selected to capture the essence and magic of that particular time of year. We are predicting 'Spring' is gonna be especially popular! For the less pretentious of us they are actually just so you can represent your fav skateshop and have a choice of colour and style. Snap 'em up in the online shop now before some other on-the-ball schmuck does. Eleven quid for a stylish British skate brand tee. We've also once again improved the cut and print quality on this run. Get one here . ..we heard the black and gold 'winter-tee' is very 'now'(?) this year! blah blah blah.

Winterclash review

Muhlhausen in central Germany this weekend saw one of the biggest competitions this year. Apparently people from up to 28 countries turned up for the skate-fest including many of the worlds top professionals and we were there to see all the action. Haffey, Aragon, Murda, Chaz, Oli, Frankie, Dre and Bailey were there amongst many other big names for the main competition on the Saturday. The Amateur comp took place first with Michi Leibner claiming 1st place. The girls comp was won by Freida Reisch but not without the UK's Becci Wallace gobsmacking everyone after the round was over with next level skating never seen before in a girls competition (disaster 360 topsoul on the big 'sub-rail' and disaster TS porn on the square box!). The pro competition took place with it's usual share of controversy and saw Chaz Sands battling head to head with French Stefan Alfarno in the final. Chaz stepped up and laced his classic array of tecnical tricks on the sub-rail including full cab AO top acid 720 out! Stefan ended up winning the competition though with a controversial huge 720 corkscrew gap from spine to volcano that didn't appear to be landed very cleanly. This shortly after Stefan had to be allegedly stopped from throwing a SKATE into a group of spectators who were in his way on the street course! Failing to maim any heads with the skate-throwing tactic Alfarno intentionally ploughed into the bystanders at high speed before even asking them to move. Fortunately it was himself that came off worse for wear. The Winterclash organisers put on quite a bash for the event's afterparty aptly named 'Afterclash' with a massive german-rave-in-a-big-cattleshed style party. Much early to mid-nineties dance anthems were played including 2unlimited along with the house band who busted out some sick German hardcore / techno / death metal. Never seen so many people at a skating after party it was truely awesome. Winterclash have definately got their shit together as far as event organising goes and next year I think we can expect a bigger event with possible trade show included at a different (less-rural) location. Nice one Winterclash. Pictured: The street course. Shot: Huntley.

Muehlhausen calling

...ok so it doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but that doesn't stop the small town of Muelhlhausen in central Germany being the host for what appears to unanimously be considered as the best rollerblading event going! The WINTERCLASH competition will take place on the weekend of the 10th of February and loadsa roller-heads from the UK are making the pilgrimage. Loco rider Oli Short came back raving about the event last year branding it the best rollerblading event there is. This year we will be there to experience the action and will bring you all the news and results from the event. For more information about Winterclash check out www.winterclash.com

Ground Control to Major...reductions!

Thanks to you guys, who keep on buying boot-only skates, our stock of frames has got a bit on top of us! This is why there is a load of cheap frames and frame set-ups going in our FEBRUARY FRAMES SALE. Pick yourself up a new pair of frames (mostly Ground Control) for a fraction of the price by clicking HERE. You've only got yourselves to blame for these crazy prices dammit!

Media frenzy

So after we reported the new Hyphy dvd hitting the UK yesterday, today we received not only the new Be-mag but Lonnie Gallegos' brand new '2 Feet' dvd. Coincidently, Be-mag takes the form of 'The DVD Issue' with articles on the making of just about every new dvd we have seen in the last month or two along with ones we are yet to see. 2 Feet is a really sick release with sections on the ever-impressive Chris Haffey, Loco-favourite Robert Guerrero and creative new talent Ben Schwab who probably had the most critically acclaimed section of 2006 in the Mindgame DVD. You can buy both the new Be-mag and 2 Feet in the online shop now.

Short stuffs / Believe the Hyphy

So they have actually been available in the UK for about 2 weeks now without anyone knowing but here is their official release, the Oli Short 2 pro Roces skate is now available in the online shop for all to buy in sizes uk3-uk8 at the moment (bigger sizes soon). Oli, who also rides for LocoSkates said this, "The concept hasn't changed but visually it gives you a new option...reverse colours", thanks Oli! Check them out in the online shop here (+scroll). While we are on the subject of new product the highly anticipated new dvd release from Vinny Minton has just arrived....Hyphy 3 features all the skating and antics from the last year from Vinny Minton and his crew. Expect fighting, people circling car parks in modified sports cars, alot of glossy hip-hop and most of all some of the sickest skating footage you are likely to see for a while. Pick this bad-boy up right here (+scroll).

He's scot new frames!

Scottish rollerblading machine Chaz Sands has a new edit up on the Kizer website showing him testing his new Kizer Fluid pro frame. The edit shows Chaz testing the frame at his local park in Dumbarton and, as always completely annhilating the handrail and grind box. Click here to watch the edit. Chaz told us "I am loving them at the moment, cos they are very good for all types of skating. They can be used flat set up or anti rocker and they slide real good". Chaz also revealed to us that there are plans for a similar frame in the future that will be even better for flat set-up. Sounds like a dream, we'll look forward to hearing more about that soon.

Homoskateual

Anyone ever told you the joke 'What's the hardest thing about being a rollerblader?...telling your parents you're gay!'? Well, we're not trying to hate or anything but this is for all of you guys, for everytime 'that' skateboarder has called you gay cos you are a rollerblader, for all the disrespect you have gained over the years from rollerphobes and for every skateboard publication that has printed narrowminded anti-rollerblading propaganda within their pages. MTV in the states is currently showing a 'don't discriminate' style advert involving kissing homosexual skateboarders which you must watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJkwIE25zI8 . It makes you wonder what the hell the american government thought they were doing as they seem to have inadvertantly and single-handedly ridiculed a whole culture that has spent years building up a serious and credible image! This is definatley one to show your cocky rollerblade-hating skateboarder mate! S'all love!x

Loco gets the Humph

If you've read the new Kingdom mag, MySpace or the Loco messageboard then you will know that the brand new Locoskates.com team rider is none other than LEON HUMPHRIES. If you haven't...then you do now! Leon, from South London has been repping on the UK scene hard for over ten years and currently rides for Valo Skates and BHC wheels. We felt Leon was the perfect addition to our team (Oli Short, Jenna Downing, Joby Dick and Jake Eley) because we feel he adds some more variety in terms of skating style to the existing team bringing forth a more rugged hip-hop style! He's also been super cool since day one. Leon is juiced to be representing Loco and the feeling is most definately mutual. Check out Leon's new profile in Kingdom Mag here.

Kingdom Mag issue 2

The new Kingdom mag came out today at www.kingdom-mag.co.uk not only does it feature it's usual news, articles, music, product guides and other innovative features along with a Leon Humphries profile, Sean Cullen and Jon Elliot interviews and 'Radio' with Jochen Shmuda but the new Loco team rider is officially unveiled in the news section and our advert. Check it out to find out the news. It also features the controversial front cover (pictured). Are they saying 'fuck you' to rollerblading or 'the man' or the industry or what? Make what you will of it...maybe they are declaring peace Churchill style! Who knows. Check it guys, the whole issue is super sick.

2006 Compendium

Dunno if anyone noticed but there doesn't seem to have been much news to report in the world of UK rolling over the xmas period! Nonetheless we've been metal-busy too thanks to you guys busting out and supporting an ACTUAL skater-run shop so we didn't get much time to do much reporting either. Here we are in the big Zero Seven and what an eventful year it's been for uk rolling. We've seen Salomon pull out of rollerblading altogether, dumping cheap stock in the process, harming our already fragile industry, Xsjado still managed to stay on the shelf through this though. It was a good year for the UK on the competition circuit with Mancherster's Nick Lomax pulling out all the stops and placing joint first at the IMYTA international competition in Amsterdam. We also saw a sick LG competition at NASS in Birmingham which displayed just how good rollerblading can be. We also saw more pros than ever before come and visit the UK with most of them stopping off at our HQ on the south coast. Julio, Bailey, Rachard, Sagona, Billy O'neil, Carlos, Haffey, Stockwell, Jochen Smuda among others all came and hung out and grabbed a slice of the UK rolling scene while they were at it. It was also a sad year for UK rollerblading as we watched Unity magazine slip into oblivion after more than ten years in print. Kingdom-mag.co.uk however mysteriously rose from Unity's grave weeks later like a pheonix from the flames proving to be somewhat of a saving grace for our lost hope and the void in rollerblading media in the uk...who knows we may even see it in print in 2007! Not only that but they organised some really successfull events throughout the year along with other events organizers such as Dave Bell (Slamm Jamm) and Epic skatepark (various Jams). '06 saw loads of great dvd productions too with the year ending on a bang with the release of Barely Dead, the first rollerblading dvd in High Definition which features a somewhat revolutionary documentary on the history of rollerblading. 2007 looks promising with sales in rollerblading rising...for us at least, the possibility of a new Loco store opening and many events, tours and skating oppourtunities. Keep checking Locoskates.com in '07 for all your UK rolling news and thanks to everyone that has supported us and bought shit from the shop and through the website, of course we couldn't exist if you didn't. Jake Eley, Loco.x

Come Fourth! (to the Winter Wonder-Jam)

Fourth dimension skatepark in Worcester will hold their Winter Skate Jam tomorrow (Sat 16th). Jams, bands and fancy dress are all promised so don't miss out. Worcester is roughly based in the Midlands area somewhere Birminghamish! There will be loadsa prizes on the day including a year's free membership to the park and a bottle of champange which we're sure some super-tech 15 year old with all the switch-ups in the book will be having a whale of a time with on the Sat night! If you've not been to the park its genuinly sick so this would be a good time to check it out. You can find pics of it and a map of how to get there here.

Loco secret rider

Locoskates has a new rider this christmas! ..but like the awkward bastards we are we're not gonna tell you who it is. Our main man (or woman) impresses us everytime we see him (or her) skate and was so down for supporting skater-run that we just had to have him / her on the team. This dude / dudette oozes steeze and there's no other rider in the uk we'd rather have representing our name. The new team rider will be exclusively revealed in the next Kingdom online magazine (www.kingdom-mag.co.uk ) which is due out before christmas. Keep your eyes peeled.

Knock 'em all Downing

Y2SK8 skatepark in Peterborough held their annual competition on Saturday. The competition which had been unofficially dubbed as the British Championships was won for the second year running by local Steven Swain with Adam Brown taking second. Loco Skates' very own Jenna Downing won the girls comp for the 8th year running and apparently would have placed third with the guys if they were in the same category proving that she is still the number one female skater in the UK! The comp which took place as a 'one-day' event this year as opposed to the usual two-day event took a lower profile than normal with less publicity on the run up to the event, we only found out about it the week before and Kingdom mag didn't find out in time for their most recent issue! Hopefully next year we can get prepared for it and it can expand to a two day event again.

Valook great!

The new design Valo skates are here in time for Christmas. Valo have gone all out and released four skates all at once! Two Erik Bailey pro-models and two Jon Julio models. The Bailey models (The EB 1) comes in either white or black so it's up to you to decide whether you think light is right or wanna join the dark side. The Jon Julio skates (JJ1.3 + JJ1.4) come in either grey+black or black+orange with a stylish chequered liner. Check 'em out and buy them in the online shop here(+scroll).

Dead good

Saturday night saw the UK premiere of the most anticipated DVD in rollerblade history, Barely Dead at the Audio club in Brighton. For those who didn't make it, the first half of the DVD features a 'Dog town'-style 60 minute documantary film on the history of rolling followed by the skating section of the DVD which is probably 30-45 minutes. There was always a danger that this DVD was going to be hyped too much and turn out to be an anti-climax, it DID NOT however dissapoint! This project really is a massive step forward for rollerblading and it's hard to believe just how amazing the production, editing and skating is...it truely is an instant cult-classic. BD will be available sometime in early December. Also thanks to everyone who supported the Mindgame DVD premiere at the shop on Sunday. Mindgame will now be available in the online shop on Mon Dec 4th (next Mon) as the delivery into the UK has been delayed.

London bus syndrome

You know what it's like, you wait months for a new skate to come out then bosh!...four come out at once! Must be all this looming Christmas malarky...damn those skate manufacturers and their seasonal sales tactics! Enough moaning, the Razors Shima 7, Elliot 3, Rollerblade A7 and Rollerblade Downtown 3 are now all of a sudden available to buy in the online shop, feel free to browse. We have also made all of these models available in boot-only format too for your customisational needs.

Get your badges out!

To celebrate the fifth day before St Andrews day LocoSkates have released limited edition Loco pin-badges. We knew you guys would want to represent Locoskates when partying at old Andy's celebrations so here you are. Not only have Loco gone 'badges-out' with this promo item but Kingdom Magazine also happen to have released pin-badges too! (actually we blatently, completely bit their idea). Both styles are available in the online shop now at £1 each (this includes delivery) with up to 10p from each one sold being donated to the 'Help Oli Short get sober' fund which is in no way a registered charity. The badges are located in the 'belts/wallets' section of the website which will no doubt make them damn near impossible to find in the future (c'mon who the hell has a 'badge' section on their website!) for this reason you're probably best clicking here (+scrolling) to find them.

BE-Current

The new Be-Mag came out last week. Fresh as ever issue 21 features a Ricardo Lino Interview, Erik Bailey and Dominik Wagner profile's, Paris Sessions, Be-Mag Rosklide Tour and an article reporting the recent IMYTA+ event in Amsterdam. Get it now in the online shop here.

The ONE and only for '07

Ok, Remedy released the official images for the new Remz '07 ONE skates today. They're gonna come in at around £208 with free next-day delivery and free DVD and will be available around the 4th December in the online shop. Here's what the guys at Remedy said, "Remz is proud to release its first skate for 2007. Based on the classic Freedom-of-feet concept the 07 ONE comes in a whole new colour scheme and loaded with details and features. Anyway you turn it you will discover a new design, graphic or detail.The 07 One comes with the robust Bullet 8 frame from Ground Control, super strong 8 mm axle bolts and 42 mm anti-rocker wheels. The unique Remz lacing system provides for a glove like fit and the ultimate combination of flex and support."

We got Game

Locoskates will be showing the premiere of the new Mindgame DVD at our high street store in Eastbourne on Sunday the 26th of November at 2:30pm. There's a load of highly anticipated DVD's coming out for this Christmas one of them being the fourth flick from Mindgame entitled 'Accidental Machines'. The film is set to be a sure-fire hit as it includes sections on each member of arguably the world's best team - Aaragon, Feinberg, Farmer, Bambrick and of course Latimer. We've planned the DVD premier to coinscide with the Barely Dead DVD premiere which will take place in Brighton the evening before (see news item down the page for details) so you guys can get down to the Brighton / Eastbourne area and catch two top premiere's in one weekend! Unlike the Barely Dead premiere this event will not be 18's and over only so come down whoever you are! No doubt if it's dry there will be a bit of a session / street skate going off after the premiere on the Sunday. Loco is situated about 30 seconds walk north of Eastbourne central train station and is on Station Parade. Hope to see you there.

On yer bike!

Simon Coburn and Jake Eley just took part in a two week stunt show as part of the International Mortorcycle show at the NEC in Birmingham. Si skated in the Mad-Max themed stage-show extravaganza for the first week and Locoskates owner Jake took over for the second as the character 'Blades'. The show finished last Sunday (5th Nov) . We searched long and hard to find Jake to ask him the deal: "Well basically they needed someone to do some backflips , flatspins and corscrews over a jump box in this show. Little did I know that it was all motorbikes doing crazy crazy stunts and I was gonna be the only rollerblader...no BMX, no skateboard, nothing! Anyway, long story short its a half hour show and there is a couple of points in the show where they shine a big spotlight on me and I have to hype the crowd and do these crowd-pleasing tricks, catch is there is up to 1300 people watching JUST ME at that point EVERY SHOW and there is 3 or 4 shows a day! S'all good, we worked out that they paid me like £33 a backflip or summin ridiculous" -Thanks Jake! The show may well be going to Thorpe Park this summer so check it out if you are there in 2007. Click here to see some of the motorbike stuntery from the show.

Heat Premiere reminder

Remember guys, it's the UK premiere of the new Heat Wheels DVD at Epic Skatepark in Mosely, Birmingham this coming Sat night at 7pm along with just a general evening jam. Check out our news item further down the page (dated 17th Oct) for more details.

Shima 7 image release

The official images for the new Razors Shima 7's (S7) were today released. The skate comes out in the UK around December the 4th and will be available to pre-order in the online shop soon. Here's what the guys at Razors had to say about the new release: 'Trying to catch up with Michael Jordan, Brian Shima is releasing his 7th pro skate from Razors this Holiday season. Sporting an all black look with silver color soul frame, color coordinated chrome bolts and the infamous Reign Neoprene liner the skate is providing a glove like fit and comfort as never experienced before.The Shima 7 comes with the new Dual Injection frame from GC with an UHMW grind plate for super fast grinding speeds. It also offers multiple rockering options from flat to anti-rocker and high-lo.' - There you go. You've been told.

Trophy-boy Taylor

Rob Taylor is one of Wales' top rollerbladers, but did you know that he is a top Freestyle Skier too!? That's right, Rob recently won the award for 'Best Unsponsored Freeskier' at the first UK Freeski Awards. The award was voted for by the general public and skiing community. The night also hosted the Rich Taylor Memorial award which each year will serve as a tribute to Rob's late brother and will honour 'services to Freestyle skiing' to one skiier for that year. Congratulations Rob we hope there is many more awards to come. To read more about these awards go here.

Dead Good!

The Premier for the highly anticipated Barely Dead skate movie and documentary DVD will take place in Brightons notorious Audio bar and club on Saturday November the 25th. The venue will open at 6:30pm and stay open until 3am! with the premiere starting at 7:30pm. Audio is located almost directly opposite Brighton's Palace pier (the main pier), should be a great night thanks to the guys at both Be-Mag and Kingdom Magazine. The party won't stop there though as the next day (Sun 26th) we will be showing the premiere of the new Mindgame DVD at the Locoskates HQ in Eastbourne at 2:30pm - more on that next week, keep watching!

Seventh time lucky

The new Razors Shima 7 is due for release on the 4th of December in the UK. The S7 is black with white souls, is the regular Genesys boot mould and hjas a reign neoprene liner and Ground Control DI frames. Coincidentally on the same day the new Remz treams come out. They are the same as the old style Remz (not with the external cuff like the Frankie's) and is various shades of grey...a little bit like the haffey 1's. Unfortunately we aren't allowed to print the pictures of either of these skates yet but you may have seen the Remedy's on Haffey if yiou were at or have seen footage of IMYTA Amsterdam. Both skates will be available to pre-order in the online shop as soon as the images become available.

Razors sponsorship McLarified

Dan McLaren from Wellingborough, Northants is the latest UK skater to pick up a skate sponsor. Dan got picked up last week and will now be enjoying Complimentary Razors skates. Dan, who is single, straight and a gemini smokes AND drinks and would someday like children has appeared onto the scene in the last year with his Unity profile. When Dan isn't out skating you may find him chilling out watching his favourite movies 'Man on Fire' or 'True Romance' ahhh we knew he was a big softie really! [*we didn't in anyway go anywhere near Dan's Myspace page to get the material for this article] *A lie

LOCOSPACE

Check out our new button on the left. The 'LocoSpace' button will take you straight to to our MySpace page which will be updated with new photos and videos when we can be arsed. Add us as a 'friend' and you can ask us questions, leave us comments or generally MyStalk us without us knowing like you are our curious, angry ex-girlfriend! The LocoSpace button directly replaces the 'Links' button which, lets face it, no-one has ever used on any website ever since about 1998! Happy stalking all you Space Cadets.

BHC Perkett up their ideas

Skater-run UK based company BHC have realeased 2 new pro-wheels to add to the previously released Al Hooi wheels and their range of clothes and DVD's. The guys in charge at BHC, Mark Trebble and Si Coburn now have an Eric Perkett pro-wheel weighing in at 55mm 88A and a Frazer Watson wheel at 56mm 90A. The difference between BHC wheels and most other wheels is not only do they represent something real in rollerblading with the companies core roots but they are also a high quality wheel with a price nearer to that of a budget wheel. They are definately one of, if not, the best value wheels available. To get hold of some of these fine specimens click here (+scroll).

Elliot of excitment over the new Razors

Razors have just officially released the picture of the new Razors Elliot 3's which will hit the shops in the UK on November the 6th. Giving credit where credit is due: Jon Elliott is not only one of the founding members of modern rollerblading but he is the one who has to be credited with bringing rock n’ roll to our sport. He had a material impact on the design of the classic Cult skates which recently rose to new popularity among fans of slim and sleek skate designs. In celebration of being involved with the company for 10 years, Razors is releasing a limited edition Elliott 3 Pro skate. It comes with the super fast Double Injection frame from Ground Control, the legendary Elliott 2 liner and Jon Elliott’s own 4x4 wheel. The Elliot 3's will be available to pre-order in the shop sometime this week.

Bone-us win for Promax

Nick Lomax has recently won the IMYTA qualifiers at the Kingdom Jam in Newquay, the IMYTA World Finals in Amsterdam and this weekend completed the hatrick by storming the Boneyard Jam in Chester. Suspisions of USD pro Lomax's faked birth (when in actuality he was manufactured by a team of crack scientists purely for the purpose of being an aggressive inline skating machine) grew as he laced a disaster 540 truespin top acid amongst an array of other tricks to beat Frazer Watson in second (who apparently did cab 720 disaster true spin top soyale!) and Andy Spary in third. Lomax won £60...who says the rollerblading industry is dead!? Pictured: Lomax backslides the rail out the back of the LocoSkates shopfront.

King-done!

Ok the time is here, 26 hours and 35 minutes late, the moment you were all waiting for has come. The next chaper in UK rollerblading and the filler to the gapeing uk rolling media void that Unity left, Kingdom magazine is now online! Kingdom went up at 2:35 this afternoon. We asked editor Joe Coyne how it felt. "It's extremely satisfying to see this dream fulfilled after months of hard work." mumbled Coyne from behind tired eyes , "Oli [Short], The Oracle [Adam Kola] and myself are happy to present this first issue. We are here to support the UK scene and are here to stay". Please go and check out how sick this first issue is by clicking here.

TRS Bien!

The new Rollerblade TRS skates are due for release on Monday 6th of November. Rollerblade will release the TRS Downtown and the TRS A7 in time for Christmas and they look pretty stylish! (see pics). The A7 in white will retail around £150 and the new black Downtown at around £125. These skates are available to pre-order now. Click here (+scroll) for a closer look or to pre-order.

Label Me!

The extraordinary new German DVD 'Label me!' arrived with us this week and what a pleasant surprise it was! You may have seen the sick trailer on Be-mag.com (click here and follow instructions to see). We can't rate this DVD highly enough. Good music, totally awesome production and really interesting skating. Chris Koll's creation has a bit of an indie-rock feel to it for most parts and features profiles on Thomas Thellmann and Michi Hieber, a really interesting section that shows what the UK's Joey Egan and Ads Naz have been up to on the set of the massively successful German Starlight Express show. Also check out the arguable masterpiece that is the 'Discoblading' section and other various montages including a section all filmed at night. Looks like we are the only shop in the UK to be stocking this at the moment!!!This DVD comes highly recommended, buy it here (+scroll).

Heat it up

The highly anticipated Heat Team video will premiere in the UK at Epic Skatepark in Birmingham courtesy of Kingdom Magazine. The Event will take place on the evening of the 11th November from 7pm to 11:30pm with the Heat video premiere taking place around 8:30. Alot of people have been awaiting this release with baited breath after seeing the awesome video advert, check that out here. The night will cost £10 to get in and will consist of the premiere and entry to session the park for the whole evening. There will be a DJ spinning tunes and Heat prize givaways. Should be a sick evening especially as Epic skatepark has the most awesome bar going. We will see you there! Check out a big version of the flyer here.

Dear oh Dearden

Slamm Jamm at Rampworx skatepark in Liverpool this weekend was another belter. The weekend's events kicked off with Battle Royale on the Friday night. It was a close call between Sean Escott, Steven Swain, Mike Salt, Scott Hallows and Dan Collins. After a heated battle the victor was none other than Steven Swain who walked away with the expenses paid trip to the Winterclash in Germany with the Empire guys. The Saturday saw some sick skating including the likes of Americans Brent Hicks, Brian Aragon and Eric 'Ski' Perkett' killing the park. Aragon was trying cab disaster 540 hurricane topsouls on the long, long grind box while Chaz Sands laced 540 truespin Mizou on the same obstacle. The big event and main competition of the weekend was the 'King of the Slamm' which was won by Newcomer 15 year old Pete Dearden. Congratulations Pete, one to watch out for in the future we're sure. Queen of the Slamm went to Becci Wallace who is making quite a name for herself of the female front with technical grinds that we have not seen before from any girls in the UK. Also this year organizers had arranged for a 'people's choice' award which was voted for by skaters on the day. Mike Salt came through to win this by beating such heads as Aragon and Chaz by a fair few votes, he ripped the park all weekend! Most people were left talking about the afterparty in the aftermath of the whole weekend. Of course it was another classic rollerblade event mash up and everyone got down and cut some mad shapes in the Krazy House! Thanks to Dave Bell for putting on another great event.

'Till Kingdom done...

You heard! The UK's newest rolling magazine Kingdom will be released this Saturday, the 21st of October. This highly anticipated release will suitably fill the gaping void that Unity left. Kingdom is an online mag that you can find at www.kingdom-mag.co.uk - just go check it on Saturday!

Adam to your collection!

One of the most successful skate photographers from the UK, Adam Kola is releasing a range of collectable A3 laminates of some of his shots. Ads or 'The Oracle' currently has 3 different images made up on the poster size laminates including 'the one that got away' of Leon Humphries that was going to be used as the front cover of the next Unity mag that will now not come out. The Oracle will be selling the prints this weekend at the Slamm Jam Event for around a fiver. To see all three shots check out the pictures on his Myspace page by clicking here. Pictured: Leon Humphries - Frontside nugan.

LOCO-EXCLUSIVE: Rising from the Xsjado's

After Salomon announced they were to stop producing inline skates a couple of months back there was much concern about the future of Xsjado skates which were produced and distributed by Salomon. Well after a short while of there being a bit of a shortage of their skates, Xsjado are back! German based distributor and skate manufacturer Powerslide have bought Xsjado and will continue to manufacteur and distribute them in Europe where Salomon left off. The full Xsjado range should be available once again in about a month. This will mean Xsjado will now join the other products on the Powerslide 'Conference', Deshi, USD, Sifika, Kizer and Stygma. We can also now exclusively reveal that this will mean Powerslide will shortly be announcing TWO NEW RIDERS for the Xsjado UK team in the coming weeks. We can't tell you the contenders for the team yet but will let you know as soon as it's confirmed.

Doyle her rotten

Loco flow rider Billy Doyle is currently in the process of filming a Mini-section for a new DVD production expected around sometime this Xmas, Rock and Rollerblading. The DVD by James Sharp and 'Gaeton' will also feature profiles on Southsea's amazing Sam Tuffnall and Marc Fisk from Milton Keynes. While on the subject, Billy, who has just turned 17 is rumoured to have momentously gained a new love in his life last week. Billy is rumoured to have taken his new lady out on there first date wearing a Loco T-shirt. Now thats rider commitment for you, we don't see many other shop sponsored riders displaying that level of loyalty! Congratulations to Billy...and the lucky lady, although Billy assures us he gave her all the compliments in the world on our behalf!

Razor sharp line-up for Slamm Jamm

If you didn't already know it's Slamm Jamm in Liverpool next weekend (13th + 14th), one of Europe's premiere rolling events. Thanks to our friends at Kingdom magazine we can exclusively reveal that members of the international Razors pro team will be in attendance including Brent Hicks, Eric 'Ski' Perkett and Brian Aragon. Probably worth taking the trip up to Liverpool then on the off-chance that you might get the pleasure of seeing Aragon skate in the flesh for even a second!

...and the winner is...!!

So when we started our new forum we set the challenge of 'whoever the first person is to post 1000 messages on the board wins a T-shirt!'. After a six month posting bonanza the race has come to an abrupt end with Jake Evans aka 'jake1990' storming ahead to take the honours. Congrats to Jake who managed to acheive the feat without really any spamming or rubbish posts! Look out for the next message-board challenge coming soon. In the meantime we are still running the 'most ridiculous comp ever' competition where you must guess which animal I'm thinking of (???) to win a loco tee - the name of the animal is also hidden in the online shop somewhere. Post answers on the message board or email us or send on the back of a stamped addressed postcard to: 'Most ridiculous comp ever' competition, you'll never guess Street, Justsaveyourselfthepain Andbuyoneinsteadsville, East Dontwasteyourlife, U1 MUG.

No need to Fila chav anymore!

Remember the skates that the sports brand Fila brought out in '97? Well if you remember it was an awesome mould, the problem was that it had a great big chavy 'FILA' plastered across it! Soon after no-one bought it Razors bought the moulds off of Fila with a plan to re-brand it and make the Razors 'Tribe' (or summin like that). It even got as far as a prototype before it never actually got a release and there were rumours of Roces then re-developing it shortly before they made the Fith Element skate instead. Now, 8 years on in 2006 USD have done the honours and finally released the skate as the USD 'Realm' (contrary to earlier reports that 'Realm' was to be treated as a whole separate brand to USD) . The most incredible thing about this release is the price. Apart from the frames and wheels the Realm 'Reloaded' doesn't look or feel like a budget-price skate however you will not believe that you can get a pair of USD's, INCLUDING DELIVERY for £86. We absolutely love them too. As far as we can see we are the first shop to have them on sale online in the UK and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that they are one of the best buys this year! Go here to get some.

Lomax Your Trick Association

The IMYTA+ event, Amsterdam went off in style this weekend with three days of partying, rolling and generally getting up to mischief in the Dutch capital. Hundreds of skaters from all around Europe made the trip to visit the Dam and experienced what was definately one of this years highlights on the rolling calender. The main IMYTA final event took place on the Sunday and attracted such skaters as Haffey, Shima, Murda, Fish, Chaz Sands, Nick Lomax, Albert Hooi, Eric Bailey and many more. It seemed however that on the day there was going to be no-match for Lomax as the UK pro killed all the spots with a whole host of tech grinds and switch-ups including cab 450 to Backside Backslide on the super-steep death-rail with a drop that was to serve as the final spot (The one on the front of Be-Mag a few issues ago with Michael Braud doing a fastslide). That was however until Benny Harmonous stepped up and did some mental makio stall on a wall ten feet away from the same rail and transferred to topsoul. This gave Benny and Nick joint first place meaning they shared the 2500 Euro prize money. Congrats to the UK's very own Nick Lomax for holding it down for us!

Dam right!

Yes yes, tomorrow see's the kick off of the celebration of skating that is the IMYTA+ weekend in Amsterdam! This festival of fruitbooting will start tomorrow (fri 22nd) and go through to the early hours on Monday morning when you get kicked out of the club! There are still oppourtunities to qualify for Sundays finals on the Saturday. The final will only have 30 of the worlds best skaters in it though! It's gonna be a DAM good competition the likes of which we have NETHER seen before. You can't Dutch this! (too far?). Anyway, if you couldn't be there we will bring you the details of what happened when we get back on Monday! Daanker vorr!(?) www.IMYTA.com

Slamm your body down and wind it all around!

The date for Slamm Jamm's 8th year has been set. The notorious gathering organized by Dangerous Dave Bell will take place over the weekend of the 13th of October at Rampworx skatepark, Liverpool. Friday the 13th will be an evening session from 6pm to midnight and will host 'Battle Royal - The road to winterclash' - the winning amateur of this competition will qualify to go to Winterclash in Germany and the competition will take the form of some sort of 'knockout Jam' (?). On the friday night there will also be a load of new edits shown from BHC, Hyphy 3, the new Heat and Valo videos. Saturday will be the classic Slamm Jamm comp with prize givaways and general sessions along with a 'Locoskates best trick' comp. Saturday night will be the notorious afterparty and will take place at a secret city centre venue revealed on the Day of the Slamm Jamm. Friday night skate will cost £8 for the session, Sat will be £12 for the day or you can get a weekend pass for £25 (this includes admission to the park on Sunday too). Don't be tempted to take your 25 bucks and go Alton Towers instead, remember, Rampworks is one of the best skateparks in Europe. Zig-a-zig-ahh!

Especially for(um) you

We have added a new forum to our messageboard for you guys to post your skate edits and photos. Thanks to Mac_Sk8 on the general chat forum for this suggestion. You can now post anything you have documented up there. Hopefully we can build a sick little gallery within the forum. Post your videos / shots however you know how ie a link to youtube or host it yourself or whatever you feel the best way to do it is. Get posting. The actual Loco 'photo and video gallery' may take a little longer than expected as it requires a little shuffling of the website. We may just have it as a link to Kingdom mag as most of our potential material will now be going towards that. We'll keep you informed.

Exclusive: Unity goes under

We've just been one of the first to receive news that Unity magazine has had it's final issue. Unity has seen 11 years, 3 volumes and more than 75 issues before it was axed earlier today by dictator / boss of the arcwind publishing company, Mark Kaspowitchz. Mark who is in charge of Arcwind's five other magazines which includes Windsurf and Kitesurf magazines was obviously not reaping the rewards from Unity. It's a truly sad day as Unity has been a massive part of shaping the aggressive inline scene we see today in the UK. First started by roots skaters Lee Mart, Marcus Alegria and Slack, the editors job was then taken over by Steve Glidewell later on when Lee, Marcus and Slack went on to start DNA mag. Steve and Unity outlasted DNA mag and had been progressing with each issue up until today. We can expect some shifting around in the UK industry, hopefully this news won't be too damaging. With Kingdom online magazine just about to release its first issue there is definatly silver lining and lots of prospects for the future as far as the UK rolling media goes. Watch this space for their progression into the rollerblading scene.

Jochen be on Clip 4!

...if you happen to be skating in the right place in Brighton this week! Jochen 'Ucon' Smuda and Lucus who make the Clip movies are over staying with us filming for Clip 4 this week trying to get some footage of Oli and some of the other guys while they are down. The guys came over for the Richard Taylor Jam last week in Newport, Wales and are making the most of their stay in the UK til they go back next week. Look out for more UK footage in Clip 4 when it comes out. You can still buy the AWESOME clip 3 in the shop here(+scroll).

You'd better shape-up for the new BE-MAG

The new Be-mag is out and has taken a new shape more like a regular off the shelf magazine (but slightly more compact) as opposed to its previous square shape. Issue number twenty is the second 'photoissue' and is ram packed with sick skating shots and posters looking fresher than ever. It has profile on different photographers including the Uk's very own 'The Oracle' (aka Adam Kola). Also Loco's very own Oli Short represents hard again and most importantly turns up on the front of an England T-shirt that Uber-legend Arlo Eisenberg happens to be wearing in one particular shot! Did someone say 'highlight of Oli's career!'. Go here (+scroll) to buy it.

Jammy Dodgers / drinks are on Epic

Happy Birthday to you, happy Birthday to you happy Birthday to...EPIC Skatepark! Yes there is gonna be ANOTHER Jam at Epic skatepark, Birmingham. This time to celebrate four years of being open. Ahh it semms like only yeasterday that epic was a bouncing, bubbling, gurgling...err, indoor streetcourse. It's grown up so quick! They sent out this press release: 'Epic skatepark 4th birthday party jam ­ All riders past and present are cordially invited to Epic skatepark Birmingham for our 4th birthday party jam, on Friday 6th October, 7pm till late.We will be revamping the parks layout for the celebrations. £5 entry, with free membership on the night, plus free pint or JD at our beautiful bar (softdrink for the under 18s) and a bit of birthday cake. There will also be a barbeque and some fun party comps thrown in for good measure. A big thank you to Valo, Roces, Cozmo and Heat for supporting this event. For more info click on: /www.epicskateparks.com or call: 0121 442 2425.'

Bowl Comp gets Riddick-ulous

Kingdom Magazine's 'Last man standing' bowl competition at The Richard Taylor memorial Jam in Newport, South Wales took place on Saturday. It was the first comp the UK (maybe even the world) has seen of this kind. Basically the idea is - try and get as many people as possible to circle the bowl all at the same time and the last man standing...wins. Rules were, no spitting, poking or gouging but pretty much anything else went. The victor on the day was none other than south Wales super-hero and man-whore Steve Riddick who was one of the favourites from the outset. Riddick won the comp Switch and Natural beating everyone in both the clockwise and anti-clockwise rounds! Meanwhile in the ACTUAL proper competition Danny Ives took the honours in the Elite Category with Sean Escott second and Si coburn third while Sean Escott won the 'Josh Jones Best Trick comp' wholly appropriately (Sean was Josh's best friend) with a ludicrous cab 720 disaster alley-oop soul. The afterparty went down a treat in Rich Taylor's home town of Barry with bands and out of hand moshing and no doubt raised even more money for the Richard Taylor fund. The whole weekend was a huge success with the bonus that not one person who entered the bowl comp got taken to hospital! www.richardtaylorfund.com - Pictured: Riddick and Rob Taylor party it up!

Twice as nice

What could be better than a new model of skate coming out at Locoskates? TWO NEW MODELS OF SKATES COMING OUT AT LOCOSKATES! - on the same day! Yes the Razors Chaz Sands is here along with the new Remedy, the Frankie Morales pro-skate. Both are available in the online shop as a complete set-up or as a boot-only and you will find them to be very reasonably priced considering they come with free delivery and a free copy of the Contast DVD 'The Same difference'! What with the new soul-less Deshi Kelso 2's arriving last week there is plenty of new product to choose from on the skate side of things.Check them all out then get them to the check-out in the online shop!

Kingdom coming

Its so very near, the most exciting thing in British rollerblading since DNA mag. Coming this Autumn we will see the first issue of Kingdom mag. Kingdom, at first, will not come in the form of a glossy hand held magazine but as an online magazine although it will still take the format of a regular magazine in that one issue will be released and left online as it is, then when the next issue is ready that will be put up in its place. This appears to be the first time anyone has done this in rollerblading and it's all British! The mag will be specifically concentrating on the rolling scene in the UK as this area remains relatively uncovered at present. The brainchild behind Kingdom is none other than long-time rollerhead Joe Coyne and Oli 'needs no introduction' Short. Also on bored are top photographers Adam Kola and Dan Bond and Videographer Joe Spray. The guys are hoping to release an issue every couple of months. We've seen the mag under construction already and can vouch it is extremely sick, having it online opens up a whole new world of oppourtunity in 'magazine-media' as you can use moving GIF files for sequences, sound bites for music reviews and video clips etc. Go to www.kindom-mag.co.uk to sign up for more info (you just need to enter your email address). Locoskates will let you know as soon as it goes live. If you want to support go add them to you friends list on Myspace at www.myspace.com/kingdommagazine

Oh yeah!...

... the new Unity (number 76, sept / oct) came out last week. Get it here (+scroll) and check out the Loco Skates / Locoskates.com shop review. Bish Bash Bosh.

How do you get two Whales in a mini?

...Get one of your mates to take you to the 3rd annual Richard Taylor memorial Jam at Skate Extreme in Newport! The Jam, which was originally the brainchild of Richard Taylor and has been carried on by his family traditionally uses a name parodying a recent film, last year it being 'War of the Wheels' and this time 'The Da Richie Code'...brilliance! The Jam will take place on Saturday the 9th of September. All profits for this event will go to the Richard Taylor skatepark fund www.richardtaylorfund.com - incidently you can now buy Richard taylor T-shirts for £10 that will be available at the event. There will also be a best trick comp this year dedicated to the late Josh Jones who won the 2004 open comp and was easily the best skater on the course. In the evening there will be an afterparty in nearby Barry with local bands. See ya there.

Its hard being Rich!

Remember Richard Hardisty? Top UK rollerblading legend from Harrogate in Yorkshire who featured heavily in DNA magazine and the Eye-D video? We saw Rich at a party last year where he kept the whole room amused for literally hours about his recent modeling career and how its led him to doing rounds on London's celebrity circuit. Well, a year on rumour has it that Rich, who can still be seen out skating in his spare time, has made the 'last two' in auditions for the next T4 television presenter! Some sources are even saying that he has got it! This is unconfirmed so we will keep you informed. If so, congrats to Rich who will now be enjoying even more promiscuous sex with A-list celebrities! This news comes on the same weekend that Ex-worthing rollerblader Sam Preston got married to Chantelle Houghton who he met on Channel 4's Celebrity Big Brother last year. Congrats to Preston.

Could be Epic

Epic Skatepark in Birmingham will be holding an inline only Jam on the evening of the 2nd September. The Jam starts at seven and goes on til 'late' and boasts a new resurfaced mini-ramp, new street obstacles plus a free annual membership to anyone non-members turning up on the night. One of the best things about Epic is its awesome bar area which also serves the best skatepark food in the uk by far. I think it could be a messy one.

Big Brother's Big (Wey)mouth

The summer's events just keep on happening week after week with another top Jam/comp on the calender for this weekend. Sunday the 27th of august will see the 'Big Brother Jam' - The Front Skatepark's annual Jam at their awesome partially roofed park in Weymouth, Dorset. Organizer Henri Johnson has arranged for loads of prizes from various sponsors including a load of loco tees. US legend Eric Perkett is said to be on the bill along with live DJ's and band performances. There will be beginner, amateur and pro comps all taking place in a relaxed Jam format along with an EAFOS clothing best trick comp. If it's not too much of a long WEY to go it would definately be worth making the trip! To see the full sized flyer click here.

LGvision

Check out channel 4 on September the 9th from 8am - 9am for the coverage of this year's NASS / LG event in Birmingham. Lets face it - its quite likely they will show very little rollerblading if any, but worth checking out incase.

Kingdom Jam

Loads of people went to the Kingdom Jam and IMYTA qualifyer at Mount Hawk skatepark this weekend. Mount Hawk is in Cornwall, very near to Newquay - the home of beautiful beaches, 25 men to every girl, a whole loada non-hospitable people and a REALLY long queue for everything! Nonetheless, everyone had a wicked time and stayed at a big campsite and partied hard for a weekend between there and the town centre. The IMYTA qualifier was the best comp we've seen this year with Al Hooi, Nick Lomax, Sim Warren, Elliot Stephens and Dave Sunderland battling it out for the all expences paid trip to Amsterdam IMYTA plus prize money. Lomax came through again with a soul to 360 soul on the shotgun handrail where he jumped about 3 feet in the air mid switch-up, it had to be seen to be believed. The Jam took place as the public launch of Joe Coyne and Oli short's new UK online inline magazine 'Kingdom mag'. Check out the splash page and submit your email at www.kingdom-mag.co.uk - the first issue will be online soon and we will bring you more on the development of the freshest thing to come out of UK rollerblading this year as it arises.