Elementatlity Vol. 1 has been released and is on shelves now. We had a premiere at the Lido Theater in Newport Beach and it went off without a glitch. It was more of a family affair, geared towards the kids. After 6 long years without an Element video we are obviously very proud of it and I’d like to personally thank Ricki Bedenbaugh, the team, the filmers, and everyone else who made the video possible.

The perpetually busy Mike Vallely is going to be canvassing the midsection of the country in May on his Man Vs. Skatepark tour. With a schedule that anybody would complain about, Mike is set off from May 11 – 22 with only 2 days off. Dates are:

May 11: Tulsa, OK (The Board Shop) In-store appearance only, no skating.
May 12: Joplin, MO (The Bridge)
May 13: Jackson, Miss (Doc 36)
May 14: Nashville TN (6th Avenue)
May 15: Memphis TN (SPOM)
May 17: Kansas City, KS (KC Skatepark)
May 18: Omaha, NE (Grinds)
May 20: Minneapolis, MN (3rd Lair)
May 21: Woodstock, IL (WARP)
May 22: Florence, KY (Ollies)

Colt, Rupp, Tosh, Brent, Tony, and Nyjah just got back from Japan, where they had a video premiere and did a signing at the Element store in Tokyo. Speaking of Element stores….

We are proud to announce that we will be opening the first ever domestic Element retail location at Times Square in New York City. The ridiculously unbelievable location sits right beneath where they film TRL. We are having a Grand Opening on June 16, 2005 with the team in attendance. Speaking of TRL, Bam will be appearing on TRL the week of the 20th to promote Viva La Bam. He has most recently been in Brazil with Burnquist and the rest of the crew starting the new season.

Colt has talked his frat-boy-like buddies into building a mini ramp in the back yard of his fraternity-esque house set right smack dab in the middle of San Diego State University. Colt is basically living out the movie Old School. He rents his house out to like 4 dudes, all enrolled in college, while he supplies all the novelties such as ping-pong and foos ball tables, a hot tub, and now a mini ramp. There are frequent tales of keg stands, games of asshole, and they play in a dodge ball league at the local bar once a week. He is the most popular kid at school that’s not even enrolled.

Tosh’s video project, “The Weenabego Projekt, “ premiered on Tuesday May 3rd at Huntington Beach High School at 7 pm. The documentary style video is about Tosh, Rupp, Brent, and a few of Tosh’s friends as they travel up to Canada and back in a 1977 Winnebago. Check out little Eric Pries in the video, the little guy can hang with the big guys and has some good footage to. The Canadian border seems to be a recurring problem for the crew, along with the Winnebago actually working, but you’ll just have to see the video to find out what happened.

Senn just finished up working on an episode of “First Hand” with Mike Manzori that will air on the Fuel channel. The show starts out with Senn’s daily life at his house in Hawaii with Tosh and Joel Patterson. Then he heads back to the mainland to his home stomping grounds of Grass Valley, CA where he hooks up with his old friend Toad. The show airs on May 24th at 8 pm.

Our hardgoods research and development guy, Jeff Dickson, has finished the R&D on some Swiss bearing prototypes and they are available in shops right now.

Brent Atchley just turned 21 so watch your sisters and wives.

We are doing 6 stops on this summers Zumiez Couch Tour during the month of June and hitting Philly for Emericas “Wild in the Streets.” The dates are:
June 11 – Mesa, AZ
June 15 – Littleton, CO
June 18 – Minneaplois, MN
June 20 – Aurora, IL
June 21 – Philly, PA (Wild in the Streets)
June 25 – Albany, NY
June 29 – Seattle, WA

And finally, we are proud to announce that Bucky Lasek now rides for Element Skateboards. Element has been without a vert skater for some time and we are happy to give some support to that realm of skateboarding. So, Bucky, welcome to the team!