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"

We had to send the dogs out to track down Isaiah Johnson last week to see what all of the rumors were about and here is what we found out. Isaiah Johnson team rider for Half Pint Skateboards has accepted a generous offer from Powell and will now be decked out in Powell gear! Powell decided to approach one of our riders and make him an offer he couldn’t turn down and once we heard the terms of the deal we told Isaiah we wouldn’t turn it down either! Everyone here at Half Pint Skateboards is going to miss having Isaiah Johnson on the team but as we explained to him and his family we are always going to consider him part of the Half Pint Crew forever!

A huge congratulation goes out to Isaiah Johnson for winning the AST Dew Free Flow Tour Event at Vans Orange, CA last week! Hey Isaiah have fun at Camp Woodward!

Our own little ripper Josh Douglas (age 8) has taken first place in both the Black Fly's Skate Contest in Truckee and the "Next Big Kid" contest series that stopped off in San Francisco earlier last week. According to Josh he liked the Black Fly's contest at Truckee Skate Park the best because of the big street course at the park. Unfortunately the "Next Big Kid" contest only had a single fun box set up in a parking lot with nothing else to skate, good thing Josh made the best of it. Anyway CONGRATS goes out to Josh Douglas for keeping the first place awards coming in for the Half Pint Team!  

Alliance Skatepark in Lake Elsinore could not have asked for a better day to host its Free Flow skate contest. The sun was out and the weather was perfect, setting the stage for a great day of skating.

The Junior Jammers kicked the day off with a great show. It was good to see ripping grom twins Pierce and Chris Brunner at another Free Flow contest. These guys were at a few stops last year and I'm sure we will see them at few more CA stops this summer. Advancing out of the first round of action into the finals were Josh Douglas, Pierce Brunner, Noah Willett, and Chris Brunner. Chris looked solid in the final heat throwing down transfer Indy's, blunt to fakies, and switch 180's. Noah placed third with transfer 180's, kickflip indy's, and big ollies to flat. Pierce and Josh were both throwing down some hammers, Josh's run included a 50/50 on the ledge, big airs on the fly box, frontside 360's, and blunt to fakies to name just a few. In the end it was Pierce who edged out Josh to take the Junior Jam win with crooks on the ledge, ollie lay backs, backside flips, and pressure flips.
Article Pulled From The Dew Tour Website

Special congrats goes out to Josh Douglas for killing it at the Free Flow Tour!
Check Out The Free Flow Tour

 

This is the place where little rippers get coverage! Keep checking for more updates as we interview the future pro's of tomorrow.

Thanks

Jay

Half Pint Skateboards