The Forbidden Land of ABO

Skating Photos

Last week, a gaggle of dudes took a trip to the Biggest Apple in America, New York City. The “Canal Street Gamblers” were split into two sects, one in Manhattan and one in Queens. The Manhattan sect, headquartered in the LES, consisted of myself, Jon Rock, Pizzy, Max, Rickaby, Sleepy, and Vince. Meanwhile the Queens sect, stationed near Flushing, was a small trio consisting of Juke, Harry, and T-Lalk. The weather was perfect, the city was alive, and Pizzy was the unanimous MVP (despite an accumulation of 57 red cards). I purchased a little digital camera to document the happenings. Here’s my POV of the situation.

The Canal Street Gamblers’ HQ in Manhattan was prime. We were 2 Blocks away from Labor Skateshop, and had a plethora of skate spots and slice vendors within a stones throw. Also, a great place for data mining after the consumption of slices!


The LES skatepark was also a few blocks away, which was a good warm-up spot. Here Taylor (Tyler) Lalk does a BS Smith across the rainbow-ledge-dealio. The youngest member of the CSG, Tay really showed why he’s an important piece to the syndicate. Beyond the stunts he did on his skateboard, he was an integral part of the smaller things going on (scratch offs, beer, pizza, not getting red cards).


Did you know New York was the capital of the United States for a brief period?


Sleepy Mistele, the bulldog of the CSG only broke one board throughout the trip. Quite a feat for him. Here the Bulldog does a Pop Shove Nosegrind on a smurf styled picnic table.



Above we have two common operations of the CSG while skateboarding wasn’t happening. Grabbing bumpers and hanging in front of the headquarters. The owners of the corner store next door were very kind to us, cheerfully greeting us when we popped in every 15 minutes. I managed to win $50 on a scratch off, proving it was possible, and only fueling our fire to live up to our namesake.

Here the Canal Street Gamblers discuss future operations, and share advice on how to not avoid red cards. I.e. “The Johnson Side Eye”.


Everyone was burnt at the end of each day, but we still managed to hold down the HQ, making our capo proud.


That’s all from the POV cam. A ton of stunts went down beyond my measly few skateboarding pictures show, so stay tuned for more content. A huge thanks to 1st gen wiskate-poster, and Labor skateshop owner, James for holding us down and Smith grinding Sherman 10 probably 17 years ago.

“A quote is something you say.” Until next time!

Matt Nordness <3 Fritsche

Serious Art, Skating Videos

For five years Matt (BMAN) had an ongoing love affair with this over the rail into the bank. The run up is terrible. After you land, if you can’t ride it out to the right, you run into a fence. She’s a harsh mistress. But BMAN loved her anyway. She gave, she took, she treated him wrong. True poetry, true love. Fritsche.

Matt Nordness <3 Fritsche - 2010-2015.

Portraiture by Jeremy Pettis.

“I Already Used That Song 15 Years Ago, Guy”

Serious Art, Skating Photos

America’s birthday! Nothing says “USA!” like dogs, Odouls, and Zima.
Brothas from different mothas! Pizz and Chase twinned it up at this years BBQ. “No time for slippin’!” It’s unknown if they communicated the wardrobe situation before hand or not, but Pizzy did take up smoking for the rest of his life to pose for this picture.

Newcomer on the scene, Francois, was pretty leery of all the celebration, but he did manage to make a few appearances and meet a few dogs. Did you know the French were some of the greatest contributors to our winning the Revolutionary War against those tyrants, the English?? Viva La France!

Is NA beer patriotic? Who am I to say? Who are you to say? Patriotism lives in the heart and soul of man. On the way to work the other day I saw a sticker on a car that said “GOD, GUNS, BEARDS”. Is that patriotism? Would god like guns? I suppose he can be pretty vengeful. Though, I suppose it depends if you’re asking Old Testament or New Testament god. Beards, obviously, that goes without saying. But do these things actually have anything to do with America? Some might say yes. Some might say no.

The last time I tasted Zima was probably 1994, Allison A’s party in the subdivision near the grade school. Probably threw back 1.5 of those babies and was feelin’ fine! It was great to relive those times gone by. Pre internet. Pre juuling. My keyboard still does not have a working “j” key, so I had to google “uuling” and use the copy and paste feature of my computer.

After all of that celebrating, I suppose it was time to skate.

Have I retired from filming? Is it possible? I think sometimes it would be nice. I retired from filming for this week at least. Here’s some photos instead!
Max was on a tear. He had already been doing scores of frontside crooked grinds before I arrived. He continued doing them for photos, like the one shown above. About two hours later he decided he’d film a line starting with a frontside crook. He couldn’t do it anymore. The moral of the story is, save your frontside crooks like you might save quarters your grandma sends you on your birthday. You might never know when you will need them.

Is this a reflection of the state of our society? Can a skate photo be ART? I think it’s probably only a picture of Max doing a backside noseblunt near some rubble. It’s pretty neat he was able to do this, as you might have noticed, you have to ollie onto that slab first, thus making the trick much more difficult.

Sleepy was recently featured on Instagram looking particularly GQ. Does he have a future as a male model?

Sleepy was taking this backside 180 nosegrind coast to coast, and then to everyones surprise, added a 180 out. I had to get super close for my attempt at a Slap style photo, and it made me very scared. But everything worked out in the end, and my safety remained intact.

Here’s a picture from a far away camera of the same trick. I’ve been using this really old 85mm manual focus Nikon lens, and its quite enjoyable. The contrast is really low, probably due to the crappy lens coating of the era, but it looks pretty nice.

If I had been in Slap position during this naughty flat line, I’d be writing this from my grave. My S/O would be rich from my life insurance pay out. My dog could afford college.

Hanley Juke arrived and wasted no time doing several of these nollie backside flips. He wasn’t impressed with himself though, “that’s my go-to”. I told him it’s a nice go-to. Then we hugged.

Rick Nasty did a little work on this backside flip. He wanted to give up a few times, but he persevered and in the end felt success. Now that is the American Dream. Literal boot strap pulling.

Finally, Brick was sitting off to the side, unsure of himself. I think maybe he had some low “T”. He must have visited New Male, because he busted a nice no comply and everyone was happy. The end.

“I don’t know…because it looks like a boob?”

Skating Videos

I asked Josh and Pizzy why boob bank is called boob bank. Both replied they didn’t know and said “maybe it looks like a boob?” My brain’s response would be “that ain’t no boob, guy.”

Boob Bank Mix circa 2010-2015 from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

Trivia/Goofs: This bank is actually tricky to skate because there’s a weak skate stopper in the middle, a little channel at the bottom, the lip and bank are rounded, there’s a pole on the right that can clothesline you, and it’s steep enough where if you popped a trick too high there’s a probability that you may land in the flat bottom or over the lip (adjust speed accordingly). *On a filmer/photographer standpoint, that yellow pole sucks balls.

Right now, the dudes (a bunch of Milwaukee trolls) are in NYC ripping. Last year around the same time I had the chance to document some of these trolls…

Delirium Tremens Raw Footage: EP 013 from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

Trivia/Goofs: Unfortunately, couldn’t skate all of Brooklyn banks but thankful to skate some of it regardless (of course media doesn’t do the banks justice…had the same feeling when I went to EMB in ’93…”whoa, a lot bigger than I thought” ((that’s what she said))). There were many highlights of the trip including hanging out with one of my all time favorites James and seeing his shop for the first time. A rad time with rad dudes.

“you’re only as old as you feel right?”

Skating Videos

Well, 4th of July 2018 just passed and it was wet, hot, humid, moist, and a blast. Met up with Rock and Max around 11:00 am to skate the post apocalyptic courthouse:

Filmed max getting heady with some of the obstacles, he probably lost a billion calories doing it.


Actually he almost lost his mind, half focused his board and kept trying…”I was delirium tremens for sure”- Max.

Last year around this time Eric Risser won the ‘Under the Gate’ Croquet championships…

Under The Gate. from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

This year I didn’t think a championship was going to happen (no documentation, sorry) due to lack of funding but let me tell you there were some thrilling moments in the first game…the newcomer Vince Stranc easily gained an early lead; Josh got into trouble and for the first time used a trowel as a juke to get out of a garden bed; Sleepy, Risser, and Chase did their job with their fair share of “aliveness”; the mayor, Jimmy Brick wasn’t ejected this year but did lose his cool under the forbidden tree zone…and also used Josh’s trowel juke method to get out of the dreaded garden bed. First game goes to Vince! It reminded me of this scene…
On the snap Vincent!
They started playing another match but I was out of there…sorry, I’m a horrible journalist. Consult Josh with the final standings.

I’m sort of on schedule with Delirium Tremens Raw Footage…

Delirium Tremens Raw Footage: EP 012 from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

Next week will be raw footage of a NYC trip we did last year around this time…

FIB attack…
I don’t have much Milwaukee footage this week but I have this…

Spazz Vintage Footage from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

This was the first time I saw/filmed spazz, he was probably around 14 years old.

And if you’re really bored…

Gabe Chan Vintage Footage circa '90-'94 from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

I grew up skating in Glendale Heights, IL. I think I started around ’90, here’s some random footage. I wasn’t old enough to drive so most of it was filmed around my neighborhood except a random slappy nose bonk thing at embarcadero, a random juke line somewhere in Santa Barbara, CA and a two trick line in Sierra Vista, AZ (At the time, my aunt and uncle lived there and my brother and I would go there during the summer. We took spanish lessons by the mother of the lead singer of ‘Malignus Youth’ a punk band. I don’t remember too much espanol but I remember watching them jam once and hooking us up with some Thrasher mags).
Guest skaters are: Scott M., Sess, and Neal V.

Trivia/Goofs: The school where I do some horrendous flip tricks off and into a yellow ledge/curb and the lil gap where my friend yells Gino Iannucci is where ‘Lucas’ was filmed starring Corey Haim, Kerri Green (the babe from Goonies), Charlie Sheen, Courtney Thorne-Smith (90210 and of course Summer School), and a hella young Winona Ryder. I had a choice between going to that school or Glenbard North. I eventually went to North and later found out that Billy Corgan attended North before me.

**Bonus trivia: The town Carol Stream, IL (where North is located) is where I believe, Josh and Kelly adopted their new buddy Francois the Greyhound…

Better late than never

Serious Art, Skating Videos

To keep me busy during a brutal winter, I took up the task of going through 50+ hours of mini DV tapes belonging to our man, Aaron Polansky. I entered a time warp going back 15 years to capture the efforts of John Bunch, Rob Owens, Pat Acuff, Jared Peterson among others for what might have been Sky High’s very first video. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the video came to an indefinite halt…until now.

Aaron Polansky and I are collaborating on these short edits to unearth the video for the modern audience.

Stay tuned for the local stuff. 🙂

“is that a juke?”

Serious Art

How about Josh’s last post? Pretty sicario! Reminds me of the good ‘ol wiskate posts before social media melted brains…

More of this:

Delirium Tremens Raw Footage: EP 011 from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

Trivia/Goofs:
The tape ended a few seconds after Mistele landed that shirtless nollie 360. Of course that would happen…skating and filming…

Always wondered how the term “juke” came about, so I contacted Hanley about it…

Here’s a random Juke montage…*I didn’t consult Hanley regarding bump to bars so I left those out (although technically it could be a juke to bar…also, I left out any sort of hips *90’s hip ((or what Mikey ‘Big Shits’ Al-Wathiqui called it yesterday “80’s bank”))), freedom is what you make of it bro. I’d love to see a normal civilian decipher this jargon without a key, if a girl knew 50% of this lingo I’d probably get a boner.

Juke Mix from Gabe Chan on Vimeo.

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