The new Deluxe Distribution Spring ‘08 catalog is online… click on the “REAL” logo and go through a few pages… the Big Mike deck is in full effect!

Also, we’re about to set up the biggest skate-product raffle you’ve ever seen. Companies from all over have donated more gear than you’d believe in order to help us raise money for the Big Mike fund. You seriously won’t believe the overwhelming flood of product that was sent for the sole purpose of helping out the family of a fallen brother.

We’ll be setting up raffles in the shop itself, as well as create some f’ing insane packages for Ebay. I’ll be sharing full details on those packages as soon as my homie Kerry sends me the photos he took… whoever wins the raffle or Ebay auctions will be coming out a winner in a couple of ways… for one, they’ll be walking away with a ton of loot, and for two, they’ll be chipping in to help out people that are part of our big skate family.

Skateboarders are family. If you know it, don’t forget it. If you didn’t know it, now you do. If we don’t have each other’s backs, no one will.

Because articles bump older content from the main page, I wanted to make sure we had one page that was permanent and set aside to honor our friend Big Mike.

Keep this page in your bookmarks, and share it with friends.

Peace.

Shane (Small Times: Como) somehow managed to pull off a colab shirt between Small Times’ and Consolidated Skateboards… needless to say, they look sick as hell!
The Front:

The Back:

…and the front and the back at the same time:

Anyway, I’m stoked on ‘em… they’re printed on Hane’s “Beefy T’s”, so they’re quality goods with a really good screen. Good luck on buying one, people started swarming on these the minute they came in (me included).

w00t!

First of all, all of us at the shop want to send out the biggest thank you we can to everyone that has donated to the fund that we’ve established for Big Mike. As of Friday, the current direct-donation tally is $1,245.65. Amazing!

We recently were informed that the bank made a mistake about how checks should be written out… now don’t worry, if you’ve already written a check, it is in the account!

For anyone else that wants to send a check directly to the account, make the check out to the “Big Mike Jeansonne Benefit Account.” As before, you can either bring those checks into the shop, or you can mail them:
108 North Oak Street
Hammond, LA
70401

The Big Mike deck from Real will be out in either the third or fourth week of January, and last, but far from least… we will be putting up a series of raffles that will blow your mind.

On the real: Steve Douglas from Dwindle Distribution (Enjoi, Almost, etc) heard of what we’re trying to do, so he contacted a bunch of his friends in the skateboard industry… in turn, the shop has been receiving a flood of products for us to use to raise money for Mike’s benefit. Kerry is in the middle of composing a list of everyone we have to thank, and he’s figuring out the best way to organize all the stuff to auction/raffle off… but words can’t express how much stuff has been sent… it’s almost like everyone in the industry has made an attempt to help with this fundraiser… it’s too amazing to explain. Stay tuned for more details!

…should be shipping in either the third or fourth week of January.

If you own or run a skateshop, make sure to ask about it whenever you place your next order to Deluxe. Again, proceeds will be going directly to Mike’s family, and you’ll have something in your hands that commemorates a guy that we all miss. Much love, much respect.

As many of you already know, we’re attempting to gather up donations for the family of Michael (Big Mike) Jeansonne. 100% of every penny donated will go directly to Mikey’s family, in an effort to give a small helping hand to his family in his unfortunate absence.

We have a donation account set up at Florida Parishes Bank (props to them, as they were the only bank that came correct and helped us out). You can donate money in a few different ways…
1. Come to the shop and do it in person.
2. Mail a check (payable to Small Time Skates), and make sure to note that it’s for Big Mike’s account. The shop address is 108 N. Oak St. Hammond, LA, 70401.
3. Donate safely and quickly with PayPal:

(Just click the button and you’ll be directed to a secure PayPal donations page).

We’re going to do a weekly update on the progress of the donations, on one hand to show what skaters (and anyone else down with the cause) are capable of, as well as to pressure you (in the kindest possible way) to help out a family that our community holds in high regard.

So far, we’ve had some donations walk right in the door:
Mike SanFillippo 40.00
Greg Tracy 5.00
Doug Lejeune 10.00
Kerry & Amanda 45.00

I’ll personally be putting up $20 of my own in the Pay Pal account by the time you read this. If you can send anything, please do. We’re new to fund raising, so we’re hoping you can help us make this successful.

Last thing: I want to give thanks to Dan Magee for sending over the pictures (above and below)… nearly every skater that came to the funeral brought their board, many of those (if not most) has stencils or paint pen etchings that gave Mike the props he deserved. Below are just a few of the friends and immediate family, all unified in the appreciation of a fallen soldier and icon of the Southeast Louisiana skateboard community:

If you have any non-technical questions, feel free to call the shop at 985.345.8504.
For any technical issues (PayPal, the website, etc), please email me directly at vectornerd (at) gmail.com.

We sincerely appreciate anything you can do to help. For those of us that live here in Louisiana, we lost a friend and a bro. For those of you that never met Mike… he would have been your friend too. He was that kind of guy.

Thanks from the Small Times’ family.

For further backstory, please read these articles:

1. Big Mike (the article we posted when we found out that Mike passed away)

2. Mike’s Classic Pics

3. An Open Letter from Mike’s brother Tony

Big Mike’s family is backing the idea of the shop collecting funds for the behalf of the family… we’re working in the background right now trying to come up with several ways in which the community can donate to the cause… by today, we should have a PayPal account, as well as a way for people to donate through other means. We’ll post a public tally of how much has been received, for one, so you’ll know how the campaign is doing, and two, to entice others to contribute to the memory of a fallen brother.

Special thanks to Deluxe Distribution (Anti Hero, Krooked, Real, etc) for an offering of help in which we still have to hammer out details, and more special thanks to my good friend Clarkie for adding our friend Mike to Team Valhalla, where Mike joins the ranks of other legends of the world of skateboarding that have taken the voyage on to eternity.

There’s been a lot of love shared by the skate community because of the events that we’re all reeling from, and we’re grateful for all of the brother and sister hood that truly is the core of the skate community. Much love, everybody. More details on how you can contribute later on!

Much love to Jordan, Thomas, Trey, Bankhead, Greg, Todd, Colin, Cody, Brandon, Chris and Matt for going to Mississippi and doing a parking-lot session demo in an effort to help our neighbor state in their park-building efforts. Basically, Kerry dropped some knowledge about how a good skate scene is built (especially with the aid of a bad ass park) and the rest of the fellas killed what they were provided with. Word has it that everyone was stoked.

After that, everyone went to a 7-stair rail and killed themselves… I heard a few sick tricks were landed as well. Were they documented? Only time will tell…

(Click the pic for a bigger version)

Click on the pic for a better view:

Yep… we got a new shipment of Colonial boards, as well as some new logo boards… make sure to click for the larger pic though. Instead of a full paint dip, we went with red and dark stains. The red has silver text, the dark stain has shiny gold. If you thought the new logo decks you were seeing at the park were a figment of your imagination, not to worry. You’re not going crazy.