Tom was kicking it taking photos with the locals at the park over the summer.

According to Caedyn he says it was one of the best jams of his life, he landed a big kickflip up the double set that had just been converted into a euro-gap, kickflip boardslide on the flat rail in the middle, and a smith and frontside boardslide down the big 12 stair rail in the park, and finished off with a backside heel flip over a sideway rail set up as an object to go over.  That was good enough to beat out 95 skaters and get a spot in the finals on Sunday with the other 42 riders that were the best of the Hometown Heroes from across the country.

Come Sunday, It was "helmets off" and "get your skate on", and what a day it turned out to be. The coolest addition was a built in double rail sofa couch, set up at the top of the launch ramp.  The heats were broken down into 6 skaters for 5 minutes each, Caedyn landed just about everything he had during the qualifier, and given the competition, it got him in a 4 way tie for 18th out of 42 contestants.  It was his first "national amateur" contest, and one that he will never forget.

Check out the Home Town Heros Website

Caedyn is now practicing like one kid possessed for the upcoming Volcom Damn Am in Costa Mesa, California in October, where he will be riding for Factor 54 Clothing, Half Pint Skateboards, S1 Helmets, Circa Shoes and ET Surf & Skate in Hermosa Beach.

Tom Schaar nailed two flawless runs in the 10 & Under Sponsored Division pushing our youngest rider on the team to his first, FIRST PLACE WIN! Congratulations Tom! Chris Brunner won the BEST TRICK award for his Boards Slide to Fakie down the big rail but ended up in Sixth Place overall for the day. Pierce Brunner landed a few more tricks in his run and ended up in Third Place for the day.

Half Pint - Ten & Under Sponsored Results:
Tom Schaar – First Place (Age 7)
Pierce Brunner – Third Place (Age 9)
Chris Brunner – Fifth Place & Best Trick (Age 9)

TIM BRAUCH MEMORIAL SKATE CONTEST (DAY 1)

The Nor-Cal Half Pint Team showed up in force to this year TBM Contest in Scotts Valley. There were over 200 riders in this years event ranging from Grandmaster Pro's to the Groms and everything in between.

We started it all out with the Groms contest, which had 31 riders ranging in age from 3 - 12 years old. Drake Riddiough drew one of the early slots and went from the kombi bowl to the J-bowl hitting everything in his path including the Stello Gap and finished it off with a hand plant in the corner of the J-bowl. Josh Douglas came out charging in the street course with kick flips down the 5-stair, 50/50 grinds down the rails, varial flips and ended his run with a huge 360 big spin in the J-bowl. Cody Chapman ended up nailing every trick with style throughout his run with tricks like crooked grinds & varial flips. Saturday was blast and at the end of the day here is how the Half Pint Crew ended up placing.

Grom Division Results
Cody Chapman - Second Place
Drake Riddiough - Fourth Place
Josh Douglas - Fifth Place

Check out the TBM Contest Photos

TIM BRAUCH MEMORIAL SKATE CONTEST (DAY 2)

Chris Henderson and Nate Linford from the Half Pint Crew showed up on Sunday for the Bowl Contest to ride in the Am division. This was the most anticipated part of the contest with riders coming from all over the US and Canada to compete in the legendary bowl comp. Luckily for the AM's riders like Curren Caples went right into the Pro Division, which meant the top spots were now officially up for grabs! Tommy Werner, local rider brought it in the Street comp the day before and went even bigger in the bowl to take the top spot for the day and advance to the Pro Round. Nate Linfiord followed up in Second Place and too was advanced the Pro Rounds.

Local AM Bowl Contest Results
Tommy Wernere - First Place - Birdhouse
Nate Linford - Second Place - Half Pint
Chris Henderson - Third Place - Half Pint
Jerry Gurney - Fourth Place - DLX Flow

Check out the TBM Contest Photos

The Pro Rounds were packed with the who's who of professional bowl skaters from all over the world including the likes of Benji Galloway, Curren Caples, Taylor Bingaman and local favorite Josh Mattson. The Pro Bowl Jam consisted of 6-Qualifying Heats with 8 riders per heat. This meant the top two riders from each heat would advance to the final round. Curren Caples made the cut with tricks like kick flip over the twinkie and blasting higher than ANYONE out of the vert wall. In the end it came down to Josh Mattson and Benji Galloway both going huge with some of the sickest tricks ever seen. The judges casts their votes for Benji to take it all while the crowd felt Josh should have taken the first place win. The cool part was that Benji agreed with the crowd but the decision stood. Thanks again to Sessions, NHS and the City of Scotts Valley for making this our favorite comp of the year!

Pro Bowl Results
Benji Galloway - First Place - Bacon
Josh Mattson - Second Place - Live Oak
Jimmy The Greek - Third Place - Black Label
Taylor Bingaman - Fourth Place - Creature
Curren Caples - Twelth Place - Flip

 
Congratulations goes out to our Half Pint Team Rider Drake Riddiough for flying all the way out to Battle Ground Washington and sweeping the Concrete Rodeo 2007 8 & Under Championships! We talked to Drake right after winning his division and he said he had a blast and the parks were SICK! He also told us he made off with a HUGE bag of prize winnings and said he couldn't wait to Jamie and the crew for CCR next year! Drake Riddiough competed in three different Concrete Rodeo Series Events and took first place in all three comps!

7-Year Old Team Rider Tom Schaar Is Blowing Up All Over The News

Yahoo News - Aug. 20 - Haven Daley of the Associated Press visits with members of California's Half Pint Skateboarding Team, believed to be the youngest sponsored skateboarding team in the country.

Click image to watch video

Video Clip Featuring Drake Riddiough "Youth Gone Sponsored"

Jay here from Half Pint Skateboards!
We met up with the crew from the New York Times at last months Nor-Cal CASL Contest in Ben Lomond. They were onsite filming a piece on kids in skateboarding and how the sponsored riders are getting younger and younger in today's skate industry. Matt let us know over at Half Pint Skateboards that he had already met with the Nic and Tristan Puehse from Sacramento and was interested in covering Drake Riddiough for the article. They were also interested in having a skate companies perspective on the little kid sponsorship program to find out what types of issues we faced by focusing only on the kid space. The only problem was that we were at a competition with music, kids and skating, which meant there was little room for an interview as the park was packed!

We headed over the Scotts Valley Skate Park so they could get a few shots of Drake Riddiough in the bowls and follow up with a few video interviews. The time flew bye quick and it was now time for us to race back to the competition. Drake Riddiough needed to get back into comp-mode but the added the pressure of a film crew following us around for the day was a bit tough on our young 8-year old rider. He pulled through like a champ and ended the competition in 3rd place but as Drake Riddiough felt the pressure of not taking first place he quickly showed us how an 8-year old boy deals with the loss. Ice Cream Anyone? Right then Drake Riddiough spots the ice cream truck and hands his trophy off to his Dad and I and skates over to have a sit down with his favorite ice cream on a stick.
Troubles were over and Ice Cream prevails once again!
Special thanks to NYTIMES for contacting us and to Drake Riddiough and his family being part of the Half Pint Skateboard dream!
Video Clip Featuring Drake Riddiough "Youth Gone Sponsored"

What up groms... We have just uploaded photos from the Tazanite stop of the Concrete Rodeo event in Sacramento. We will be uploading tons of shots from the Folsom event later on this week along with a full write up of the event. Most of our riders have been enjoying the summer at Camp Woodward West so expect to see some sick footage of the park coming soon.

Winner of the July Contest to be drawn tonight and will be posted tomorrow.. Good luck to everyone that entered!