Competiton: Be Like Chris Haslam!

It's competition time, and this one's an absolute beauty. With over £600 worth of stuff to win and only one rather easy question to answer there's no reason not to get involved!
This time round it's your chance to be like the bearded boarding wonder Chris Haslam! Just check out the compo page here, to see some of the stuff you could get your hands on. We're talking an entire skate set-up, from decks, trucks, wheels and bearings, to shoes, clothes, a watch and the obligatory Haslam-style beard, plus tons more.
All you have to do is answer the simple question that you can find here by the 30th of June. That should give you time to open up a few different email addresses to increase your chances of winning a bit...

What Are You up to in April?

The 2nd Chaz Sands invitational comp is approaching fast, last year saw the biggest inline event in the UK, with a international pro turn-out that looked like a who's who of pro rollerblading - Chris Haffey, Murda, Dre Powell, Franky Morales, Jeff Stockwell, Billy O' Neil, Chris Cheshire, Julien Bah, Al Hooi, Eric Perkett, Stefan Horn, Nick Lomax and of course Chaz just to name a few.
This year is set to top it, with even more prize money, more pro's and brand new obstacles built in the host venue Unit 23 - the biggest indoor park in the country.
Check out the link for info, updates and edits of last year's comp. Basically, if you rollerblade and have anything other than a life saving operation booked for that weekend, cancel it and get to Unit 23...

Coming Soon: Razors Aragon 2 Skate

Just The Tip of The Iceberg...

Take a look at these beauties, they've only just arrived in our warehouse, so I thought I'd give you the heads up on just a small section of new hardware on the Route One Website.
Click on the image below for a larger view, in which you will see new pro and team decks from enjoi, Almost, Blind and Darkstar, as well as wheels and some rather special new Magnesium trucks from the guys at Tensor.
These are all available to order now on the site, some are in more limited numbers than other, so if there's any that interest you, don't hang about, they won't stay in stock forever!
Remember, you're in the right place to find out all the info on new stock, future stock, competitions (coming very soon) and other goodness. So keep your dial tuned in to the Route One Blog!

Something For The Weekend

Do you have trouble standing up on a skateboard? Not bothered about doing any tricks at all, or looking like a complete tool, and have some spare time on your hands? Then why not build your own Sit 'n' Skate!
All you need is a couple of bits of wood, a spare truck and wheels, a little leather clad seat/knee pads and some patience and the coolest way to roll in 2008 is all yours! Oh yeah, don't forget the sticky lettering to make your Sit 'n' Skate look all official and like it was made by a real company, not you or some creepy looking American dude in his garage.
As you can see by the picture, slightly feminine looking rollerskates are essential, as is the Morman style straw hat.
Just imagine the fun as you turn up at the local park on your Sit 'n' Skate and show your buds really how it's done. By that we mean rolling in a straight line, and not a lot else.
Awesome stuff, so click the image for the bigger picture and get building, skateboards are so passé...

Coming Soon: The Addict Tent

You're going to need a tent in 2008 more than any other year. If you're not going to Glasto to see Jay Z or one of the other top looking festivals this year, then the camping holiday is the in thing this year. It's in mainly because of this bad boy.
Due in very soon from the geezers at Addict is this Vango collaboration tent. Beautifully covered in the classic She-Camo print, with some crazy looking carbon fibre poles and the attention to detail that Addict is renowned for, this is going to be one seriously in demand item.
As always, keep your eye to the main site, or here to find out exactly when this is available to order, they won't be around for long...
Oh yeah, and don't forget the bucket!

It's (Not) a Man's World

Did you know that it is International Women's Day on the 8th of March? We didn't, but thanks to the unifying world of skateboarding we do now. And we've found what must be the best way to celebrate this wonderful occasion... A skate jam!
Hosted by Projekts Skatepark in Manchester, it's a girls only event, with £600 up for grabs and loads of free goodness, don't worry if you're just starting out, there's also going to be some coaching available and a DJ to keep the man-free party going.
Check out the flyer below for details.

DC Skateboarding.tv Just got Interesting

After what seems like an eternity of waiting and staring at the same video of PJ, dcskateboarding.tv has finally opened it's doors for our viewing pleasure. Stuffed to the gills with news, photos, videos, podcasts and loads more about your favourite pros, we reckon there's something here for everybody and hopefully is a sign of good and exciting things to come from DC in the near future.
So click here, sit back, watch, learn and enjoy!

What a Mum!

Congratulations to Alex Hampshire who won our "Be Like Koston" competition from our last catalogue. It was his mother, Angela, who entered the comp and correctly answered our question: Which hard to find funk tune was featured in Eric Koston's Seminal "Mouse" video part? The answer was After Shower Funk by Joe Baatan, and we all knew that, right? But how many of your mothers would have got it eh?

Here's to Mrs Hampshire and her lucky son Alex who gets this pile of good stuff:

Thanks to Lakai, Indy, Spitfire, Diamond Supply and Girl for helping us out with the prizes.

Watch this space for our next "Be Like…." comp which I can tell you is bigger and better than ever, featuring a certain hairy Canadian tech master…..

Mikey & Malto Elope to Etnies

In the ever changing world that is professional skate teams and riders there is always likely to be casualties and this time it's DVS and DC losing out.
After some heavy rumouring, Etnies have announced 2 additions to skate team in ex-DVS rider Mikey Taylor and ex-DC rider Sean Malto. Obviously this is just standard industry manoeuvring, but it upsets me in particular as the DVS Taylor is my favourite skate shoe. Ever.
Undoubtedly we'll be seeing some new signature shoes from these guys very soon, so keep your ears to the ground for the updates, and don't forget to snap up some of the old classic Taylors before it's too late!

Free Inline DVD

Just a quick note to say that if you purchase ANY Aggressive Inline Skate, (including boot only's and Jnr. aggressive skates) you will receive a free copy of Be-Mag Realease 4: Featuring The World*.
A 90 minute international skate spectacular featuring the likes of Jeff Stockwell, Alex Broskow, Sean Kelso, Murda and Brian Aragon. This DVD also comes with a free poster of everybody's favourite Brian Aragon to adorn your wall with.
What a bargain no? So click here to have a look at our inline department.

*While stocks last.

Dave Walker: Working Class Hero

Although he's not an official Route One team member (as yet). We've been sorting Dave Walker out with some free stuff for a while, so it's great to see him get some much deserved recognition. You can find him Kickflip-Meloning and driving his delivery van in the pages of this months Sidewalk Mag.

Here's his part from the recent "Yorkshire Puddings" scene vid for your viewing pleasure.

Burton to Enter Skateboard World

In shock news today, Burton, the company that practically invented snowboarding, has acquired DNA Distribution. For those of you who don't know, DNA is the home of Alien Workshop, Habitat and Reflex, some of the industry's biggest names.
Obviously after conquering the snowboard world with the likes of Shaun White on their team, and watching the likes of DC and etnies enjoying huge success with their cross-sport teams, Burton fancied getting in on the act, and by getting the likes of Alien Workshop and Habitat under their belt, they've taken a huge leap towards that end.
Have a look at the official press release here and keep your eyes on the blog for any updates on this developing and exciting story.

Coming Soon: '08 Fracture/New Era Caps

Check out these bad-boys, fresh in for us to photograph in preparation for the launch, this New Era/Fracture collaboration is gonna be massive.

After the previous collections sold quicker than New Era could make them, top UK skateboard brand Fracture has commissoned what we think is their best yet! The top two are the Star caps, the gold one featuring a foil print, while the black & white one standard New Era fabric.
The bottom cap, The Zebra, is the one we're most excited about, featuring an all over print, with a small neon pink New Era logo on the side. Apparently New Era were so impressed with the design, they asked if they could use it their future promotions! Good work Fracture!

As ever, keep your eyes glued (not literally) to the blog or the main site to find out when these are available to buy. They won't last long, so if you're desperate, sign up to the RSS feed above to keep one step ahead of the competition!

It's Official, Official Is The Way Forward!

Not content with their current all-inclusive sites, there seems to be an upsurge in company's creating their own skate specific web pages. Obviously running scared after reading this blog, the main players in the market are frantically trying to keep up and they think making their own pages will help them out!
We mentioned in an earlier post that DC has just launched it's own skate site, although it's not really up and running fully yet. Next in the queue is etnies with their own skate blog. Run by etnies young buck, Eric Fletcher, the site aims to bring you anything etnies/skate related, all brought together in one helpful place. It's already full of new products, videos, and features not found anywhere else. This will be a good 'un...
Lastly, and most strangely, C1rca appear to have a new site in the pipeline. This one for the presumably soon to be resurrected C1rca Combat Division. They're not giving too much away at the moment, but keep your eyes peeled for the inevitable official launch.

Coming Soon: WeSC Headphones

It's not just the latest and greatest in clothing and skating products that we sell here at Route One, we like to keep you hooked up with some of the best accessories that we find on our worldwide scouting expeditions.
New to our in-stock brands is WeSC, (WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy) and first up from these pioneers of all things fashionable are these stunning headphones. Available in 3 styles, (one to suit everyone's wallet size), they really are about as good as cans get and with the styling who could argue?
So keep an eye on here and the main site for updates on when these (and some great WeSC clothing) will be available to buy!
Update: Click here for our all new WeSC department!