If you’ve been in the shop in the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen the photo below… I hadn’t seen it as I was getting married, honeymooning, and subsequentially being attacked by a case of bronchitis. Anyway, Kerry had told me about this pic, and yesterday I went to the shop and saw it for myself… all I can say is that I was overwhelmed with how BAD ASS this is!
A crew of fellas that are down for the shop took it upon themselves to stencil out “Small Times Army” and put it on their boards and shirts… making it a part of their kit. I was so stoked on it that I got Kerry to let me bring the pic home, scan it, and put it here for everyone:

(Click the pic for a larger version)

For me, this picture encapsulates part of what Small Time Skates is all about… support. The crew in this photo support us, and we in turn support them. If you’re reading this, and you have an insatiable appetite for skateboarding, we got your back too. That’s really what it is… skaters being down with skaters. If you want to be part of the STS Army, you already are. Just skate hard and remember that all of us on board are family. Get out there, watch each other’s backs, and have FUN.

Some of you may already be aware of this, but I want to make sure that those of you that don’t know… know.

The Hammond Harley Davidson Shop here in town has gone out if its way to show its alliance with Small Time Skates. They recently put out a newsletter, and in it, three of our friends are shown rocking a couple of mean bikes as well as a stash of Small Times’ boards… at the bottom of the newsletter, they even state that “Hammond H-D proudly supports Small Time Skates,” and I personally think that’s the sickest thing ever. The cats over at the Harley shop are seriously cool, and they’ve been down with us since we all got introduced to each other.

Here’s the newsletter in question.

Personally, I think core bikers and skaters have a number of commonalities… the main one being that neither of us are quite understood by the general public, but at the same time, we really don’t care to be. For the most part, we’re all good people that choose to live our lives based around an activity that saturates every cell in our bodies. Core skaters and core bikers are lifers… it’s in our blood, and I’m glad to say that we have a mutual respect for each other because to some degree, bot groups know where the others are coming from. If you’re in the market for a Hog, Buell, some leather, or just need to get your old bike back up to showroom standards, check out Hammond’s very own Harley Davidson shop. They’re cool as hell, and they’re 100% down with the cause.

We don’t normally do plugs for businesses… but it’s Harley Davidson, son! How bad ass is that?

While I’m at it… be sure to add Hammond Harley Davidson to your MySpace list… they’re right here!

…till they’re gone!

…just like last time. Come to the shop, buy some raffle tickets for $5 a pop, put ‘em in the box and keep your fingers crossed. This one is HUGE. Enter now, we’ll be announcing the winner after the shop closes on the evening of March the first! Alright, check these:

I know this just looks like a bunch of decks, but check it:

…most of the boards in the stack are signed (keep reading).
There’s all this stuff, too:

Here’s a list of everything the winner gets:
1 signed Jamie Thomas Zero deck
1 signed James Brockman Zero deck
1 signed Cairo Foster Enjoi deck
1 Heath Kirchart Alien Workshop deck
1 Tosh  Element deck
1 Jayme Fortune True Love deck
2 Flip decks

1 set reflex trucks
1 set speed demon trucks
1 set mystery wheels
1 set true love wheels
1 set alien workshop wheels

1 Indy built to grind book
1 signed by Mark Mckee Rocco docu. ( The Man Who Souled The World)
1 Element DVD
1 Listen DVD
1 Berry Atmosphere DVD

1 Alien Workshop pillow
6 DC New Era hats
3 DC beanies
1 habitat hat
1 Alien Workshop hoodie
2 Blind hoodies
1 True Love hoodie
6 DC t’s
2 Zero t’s
2 World t’s
2 Globe t’s

…whew. Anyway, get your entry in by March 1st before the shop closes at 7pm! Enter as many times as you want, and remember that the proceeds from this are going directly to the Big Mike Memorial Trust.

Thanks everybody!

While I was out honeymooning in Vegas, Kerry put together yet another large-scale Big Mike raffle… I’ll put up the details soon!

In the meantime, you can see what’s up for winning in the shop… good luck! Proceeds from this will again be added to the Big Mike trust fund… the last raffle we had went so well we decided to do another one in the shop… don’t rule out a future eBay auction (or twelve), but come in and give it a shot (5 bucks a pop) if you can! You’ll trip when you see what the prizes are!

OK, you cats already know about all of the loot that was at stake in the Big Mike raffle… for a reminder, click here.

Well tonight, we got a winner… and it was the freakiest thing ever. In attendance to witness the drawing of the winning ticket were me, Josh, Gregory (who was there to take photos as was I), and the man who organized it… Kerry (the only shop owner in Hammond that skates, ya heard me?).

Here’s how it went… first Kerry shook the raffle box up and down:

…then he shook it from side to side:

…then he catapulted the raffle box about four times off of a skateboard:

…then Kerry dug into the box without peeking:

…pulling up the winning ticket:

Yep… the very guy who was there to help us take photos, our very own Gregory Tracy (who entered four times) became…

The big winner!

What in the hell are the odds of that? Oh wait, the odds were actually 4 in 79… thanks to everyone that entered, we were able to add $395 directly to the Big Mike Trust!

But wait, it ain’t over yet… first of all, we want to thank all of you who entered:

…and we want you to know that this was only ROUND 1!

In a few days, we’ll be holding yet another raffle, but this time it’s going to be even bigger… you think that was a lot of stuff to win? You haven’t seen anything yet! We’ll announce the new contest in a few days, and we’re going to have a list of products that will make your jaw drop.

We were going to do an eBay auction after this raffle, but because it was so successful, we decided to do another one in-house, but this time it’s going to be even better… tons more stuff, and all you have to do is spend a little cash on a ticket that could wind up giving you more skate product than you’ve ever received at one time! On top of all that, you’ll be donating directly to the Big Mike Memorial Fund, so even if you don’t win… you still win.

Stay tuned for our upcoming announcement, where we’ll list the biggest pile of skate products you’ve ever seen offered in one raffle!

Again, thanks to everyone who entered Round 1, and congrats to Gregory for such an epic win!

As should be expected, Big Mike’s family got a proper stack of the limited edition Big Mike Memorial boards… the aim was to make sure that everyone in the family got a deck or two, because the loss of Mike hit them harder than anyone.

Just to show you how f’ing awesome the whole BM crew is, they dropped off a completely customized version of the limited edition board, as a complete, and damn did they go off!

Custom painted riser pads (painted white) and two-tone custom painted trucks… the front hangar has a blue finish, but what you can’t see is that they painted the underside of the hangar red:

Then they did the opposite with the back truck (inverting the colors… note the blue trim inside the truck):

They didn’t stop there, either… they added red and blue seals to some stock Bones bearings, and wrapped them inside some Bulldog wheels, red and Blue respectively:

As if that weren’t enough, they did the most amazing griptape job I’ve ever seen in my life, not only cutting around the top graphic, but topping it and trimming it in both red and blue to match the deck:

Here’s Josh holding it to give you a sense of scale:

And last, here’s a ginormous pic of the underbelly of what may very be the most amazing effort I’ve ever seen:

Mike’s twin brother Tony wanted to give this to Kerry for skating, but there’s no way! Everyone in the crew (including Mike’s son Erik) lent a hand in putting this together, and you really need to see it to believe it. It’ll be on display at the shop for some time to come… I still can’t get over it.

The Jeansonne family is seriously what it’s all about. We love you guys and gals, and all of us that witnessed this board were awestruck with how amazing it is.

All of you kick serious ass, all the way down to the marrow in your bones. It really is beautiful.

Next week (or sometime thereabout) we’ll be getting a full shipment of regular popsicle-shaped boards in, but right now we have the limited edition BIG Big Mike tribute decks… half were gone the minute they came into the shop, and a ton of them are reserved for folks that requested them, but there are still a few left… the shape is based on the 9″ Real Aces’ deck, and there are only 40 in the entire world… if you want one, you better get it NOW.

Click on the pic above for a really big photo of one of the decks close up…

Again, there were only 40 of these made… created by Real especially for the locals to purchase, but we’re going to run out almost immediately. If you have your name already attached to one, COME AND GET IT. If you miss out on this version, don’t worry… you’ll be able to get a smaller version of this board (with a contemporary shape) in a week or so. The photo above represents the ones that haven’t been claimed yet, so if you have to camp out in front of the shop before it opens, do it. Be a part of this!

Here’s Kerry putting name tags on the ones that have been claimed:

AND DON’T FORGET THE RAFFLE!!!
Next Saturday, we will announce the winner of the biggest raffle I’ve ever seen in skateboarding… for $5, you can get a raffle ticket, drop it into this box:

…and you can win all of the loot I wrote about previously right here.You can enter as many times as you want to… even if you don’t win, you’re still adding to the Big Mike Trust Account, the same goes for the boards… Big Mike gave to us, the least we can do is give back something… anything… for a fallen brother who we all miss so much.

Props to everyone that’s been supportive of this effort… thanks to everyone that has donated, and thanks to everyone who understands the spirit behind this. Skaters are family, and we have to be down for each other because that’s what skaters do.

We miss you Mike… we do this to honor you, your family, and as an obligation from the skate community that you had such an effect on.

I mentioned this before, but now it’s time to unleash the news… a bunch of major companies that are truly down recently sent in a more gear than you can imagine, all in an effort to raise money for the Big Mike fund. We’ll eventually do some auctions on eBay, but first, we’re keeping it local (local to everyone in driving distance at least, hehe).

This may be the biggest bunch of loot I’ll have ever heard of anyone getting… this really is a lot of stuff.

I’m going to show you some photos, then I’m going to give you a list of everything you stand a chance of winning.

First thing though, here’s the details:
One raffle ticket is $5. Yes, that five bucks burning a hole in your pocket can win you all of the stuff below. The raffle officially starts tomorrow night (Friday, January 25th). You have exactly two weeks from then to take a shot at getting every single thing. Two weeks from tomorrow (as I write this), we’ll announce the winner to the world. Raffle tickets are at the Hammond shop… walk in, buy one, and wait. If you don’t win, you’ll still have contributed the memory of a friend of all skateboarders. Ok, like I said… here are the photos, and below that is a list of everything you can win (for five stupid bucks):

There’s more…

Wait… not done yet…

Allrighty then, here’s what you’re looking at:

Three Flip decks.
One autographed Jamie Thomas deck.
One True Love deck.
One Habitat deck.
One autographed Almost Cooper Wilt deck.
A Listen DVD, a Habitat DVD, an Element DVD, and Berry “Atmosphere,” also on DVD.
One set of 51mm and a set of 53mm Zero wheels.
Three DC beanies, plus two DC New Era hats.
One Habitat hat.
One Zero T…
Two Enjoi T’s…
and Three DC T’s.

All of this for five bucks… possibly.

Thanks to all of the companies that you see above, though we have more thanks coming up.

Anyway, just remember… five microscopic dollars. Either way, you’re showing love to Big Mike, and you have a chance at getting something for yourself.

You have two weeks. Enter as many times as you’d like.