Just back from 4 days of amateur maddness in Costa Mesa at the Damn Am. Independent team riders Grant Taylor, Lizard King, Chris Troy and David Gravette were killing it in pratice but didn't place in the finals. David Gravette is seriously gnarly. This 17 year old kid who also rides for Creature, even hit up El Toro before the contest on Saturday and landed a b/s salad down it 2nd try (holy crap!). Check out DamnAm.com or Volcom.com for full results and photos.

Independent Truck Company was a sponsor of the event and we made the trophies as well. Check back here at StrangeNotes.com for more photos when they're available.

Independent Trucks is proud to welcome Braydon Szafranski to the team. Braydon currently rides for Baker Skateboards, Emerica, and Active Ride Shop. Check out his part in Baker's new vid Baker3, out now at your local skate shop (can't find a damn trailer for it anywhere!!!)

I have this mission of converting dudes that should ride Indys but don't. 1 skater at a time... I've been known to spot kids that have "whack" trucks at contests or trade shows or whatever and replace thier pink Bam trucks or those trucks with mean skulls and faces on them with a fresh set of Indys.

I've known Eman for quite some time now and although he didn't ride "whack" trucks before, he's still someone that should be on Indy. So after giving him s#!% for years, I finally talked him into making the switch to the trucks that all others are judged by.

It just works... Emmanuel Guzman rides Independent Trucks. The way it should be.

Eman also rides for Santa Cruz Skateboards, Spitfire, & Vox Footwear. Check him out in Santa Cruz's new vid "Out There" coming soon.

Independent received a letter today from a loyal Indy rider and here's another example that Independent stands by their products and doesn't let their customers down!

To all the Indy Crew,

Thanks for making my day. Last Thursday, I receieved my truck back on warranty. To my surprise you guys replaced the set with brand new trucks. Thanks for standing on your product as the best. I will always be an Indy customer and will spread the story of your exellent customer service to any that will listen. It's all too often nowadays that we get screwed by companies who don't guarantee thier stuff. Thank you thank you thank you.

-Brett.

Thank you Brett for riding Indy's and being a loyal customer! It's ALSO all to often that people will go buy what's cheaper or cooler at that time instead of sticking with a truck that has always been around, has always worked best and is guaranteed.. FOR LIFE!

Brett also sent us this pic... check it

Independent Trucks team riders Chet Childress, Matt Mumford, Adam Alfaro, and amateur Chris Troy are featured in the new Black Label Skateboards video Back In Black which is about to hit your face soon.



*UPDATE*

Check the official site for all 4 trailers... holy crap Chet Childress is sick!

BACK IN BLACK

Independent Trucks is proud to welcome up-and-coming amateur Chris Troy to the team. Chris is from Carlsbad California and rides for Black Label, Independent, Krew, FKD, and Adio.

360 flip @ battle of the shops

cover of Automatic Mag issue #41

Phil Shao was really gnarly. Thinking about how good he'd be now makes me sad.

If you haven't heard about this kid yet you will ... Don't Mess With Texas!



I stole this photo from JUICE MAG. Thanks dudes.

CREATURE and INDEPENDENT are proud to support the Bordertown Skatepark project. This DIY effort in Oakland recently ran into some trouble with CalTrans but were approved to keep the park as long as they cover insurance.

DONATE HERE

Peep the new offerings from Independent's Limited Colors series.

Stage 9 Limited Colors Gloss Black / Silver / Red Cushions

Stage 9 Limited Colors Gloss Grey / Black / Black Cushions

Check these out too>
Stage 9 Gloss Black / Black Cushions
mmmm black...

Sign up and register to win a pair of Limited Colors Grey/Black and a Independent Tokyo backpack at independenttrucks.com

Independent just updated their cushions. They've shortened the top cushion offering IMPROVED GRIND CLEARANCE & ADJUSTABILITY.

Old on left, new on right





Built to Feeble Grind!

Independent is also offering some new colored cushions as part of the Limited Colors series. They come in classic Red, Black, and of course the Supercush Orange still come in all silver trucks>

OK, so I just figured this out... Every single one of the big 5 mags this month features an Independent Trucks team rider on the cover. I mean, Indy gets a lot of coverage and stuff and a lot of it's riders get covers too... but this could be considered a phenomenon!



Big props to Tony Trujillo / Transworld, Rick Howard / Thrasher, Andrew Reynolds / The Skateboard Mag, Peter Hewitt / Slap, & Dustin Dollin / Skateboarder. Other recent covers inlcude Chet Childress / Thrasher13, Alex Chalmers / Skateboarder, Omar Salazar / Transworld, & Paul Machnau / SBC

Looks like Independent Trucks Pro Omar Hassan won the first part of the Trifecta on Friday at Lincoln City.

Click the video to download highlights from Thrasher>
Omar Hassan

Got to bump that last story down by posting something so here's the first installment of DC Films' coverage of Danny Way's World Record Jump over the Great Wall of China. This behind the scenes look at skateboarding's Shaolin Warrior gives you an inside look into how gnarly this shit really is.

Click the video to download from DC Films>

Dudes were getting mighty Xtreme over the weekend in LA at the 2005 ESPN XGames. As usual, some of the top spots were Independent Team Pros. Here's how the Indy dudes fared:

STREET
2nd Place Greg Lutzka
5th Andrew Reynolds
10th Geoff Rowley

VERT
2nd Shaun White
6th Jake Brown
7th Tas Pappas
10th Bucky Lasek

VERT BEST TRICK
2nd Colin McKay - switch b/s 540 big flip
6th Shaun White
7th Bucky Lasek
8th Jake Brown

BIG AIR (MEGARAMP)
1st Danny Way - f/s 360 to Christ Air
4th Bucky Lasek

Greg Lutzka

Danny Way

For full coverage including photos and video log onto EXPN.com