Morning Rants and catching up...

sup yall this is V. Vaughn checkin in. August...whew what a month i had man, it's been one hell of a month for skateboarding for real yo. Afropunk Festival was sick, for those that don't know, Afropunk Festival is a music and arts festival held in Commodore Barry park located in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn and it boasts performances from great artists such as Santigold, MIA, Cee-Lo Green, Mos Def and Common. The Festival also hosts the Nike SB Battle for the Streets skateboarding competition, which was the main reason i came to the fest. This year's comp to me was pretty tight as this was only the second year of me participating in the Afropunk festival, and this was the first year i chose to compete and represent for the new skateshop i work at called Grindhouse Sports. Another draw to the contest is the guest appearance of Nike SB pro skaters Ishod Wair and Shane O'neil judging the comp on day 1. I showed up early to the event and I was one of the first dudes to sign a waiver to skate the course and check it out before the comp began at 1, it was supposed to have started at 12 but fools were behind schedule. The comp had jams of different divisions: under 15, under 18, and 18 and up (sponsored and unsponsored. The DJ was playing some ill jams to hype up the crowd and the participating skateboarders. I guess I was hyped on the fact that all my homies from different boroughs came thru and skated with me but once the contest began it was a madhouse. Oh yeah i almost forgot-the course consisted of a 3 flat 4 doubleset with a round rail, straight seven stair, a mellow quarterpipe with a bench and a picnic table as well as a sick bank to ledge. Back to the contest-it started off with the groms trying to show us what's up. there was a kid that was pretty consistent with noseslides and he pulled of a halfcab noselide nollie fs shuv out which is impressive for a 12 year old kid. Sorry if i can't give full details of the comp and what tricks went down: its been a week and your author has a habit of lighting up haha but back to the comp. The main event which was the 18-up sponsored division started off on the picnic table where homies were getting tech. Piro Sierra pulled off a nice halfcab noseslide 270 out and Gavin Nolan followed that up with a stylish kickflip backcrook on the top part of the picnic table. Shane McGrane came thru with a flatground backside blunt and front bluntslide on the top of the table. Next came the quarterpipe and bank to ledge session where we see dudes like Cheeto and Leo Heinert flying around the course. Leo was one of the dudes flying around, pulling off sick bonelesses and indy grabs across the quarterpipe, but he was also getting tech too, going at the bank to ledge with nosestall nollie lateflip out. At the end of the day, it was Dennis Miron, Leo Heinert, Nate Rojas, Cheeto Olay, Gavin Nolan, Piro Sierra and Pat (forgot his last name sorry). Right after the event, Ninjasonik came thru and got BUCK!! The Moshpit was pure insanity, crowd was live as fuck they performed some new songs as well as their classics such as "Somebody Gonna Get Pregnant". Cerebral Ballzy came thru and turned shit up to the max bringing the vibe of old school punk, no more of that bullshit ass emo music that you kids call "punk". After that I checked out a band called The Memorials, a talented band out of the Bay area. First time i ever heard them and needless to say, they will be goin on my Ipod lol. Das Racist performed and had such an ill set and the night ended with Ms Erykah Badu performing and on "Love of My Life" Mos Def showed up and kicked a verse out of nowhere, that i didn't expect!! Day 2 of the festival, the day started with the finals of the Nike SB Battle of the Streets competition. I skated the course but I didn't qualify so when the comp began I just sat down and watched everyone kill it for, in Keith White's words..."that tuition money". Like the day 1, day 2 was a madhouse. One of the highlights was Brandon Johnson back 360 down the doubleset in two tries and Carlos Cerrezano with a bluntside first try down the hubba. Brandon and Carlos got 1st and 2nd respectively in the under 18 division. in the 18-up division, homies was goin HAM!! Piro Sierra was straight owning the course, hitting every obstacle with style. One of his many bangers was a nollie backlip down the doubleset rail which earned him the big win with Leo Heinert coming in 2nd and Cheeto came in 3rd. Right after the comp, Flatbush Zombies came thru and got every one turn'd up Brooklyn style!! Alot of beautiful women was in attendance, but they mainly came to see Travis McCoy and the Gym Class Heroes perform. Janelle Monae performed and killed it with such high energy, not to mention she is gorgeous as all hell haha. The funniest thing is that Gym Class Heroes didn't even perform because Travis was sick, but i did get to see Reggie Watts perform like a god live and TV on the Radio rounded out the night. I wanted to stay for the afterparty but by then my knees were sore from skating my ass off in the course all day and I just wanted to go home and sleep the weed n booze off. Thanks to my job Grindhouse Sports for giving me a board when I needed it to skate the contest and promote the brand and shout outs to all the East Coast brands that were holding it down for our city and shout outs to Keith for making the comp live as fuck on the mic with his commentary, shout outs to Afropunk for being the ONLY festival where not a single ratchet hoodnugget was spotted. Goodtimes and I will be back again next year. This is V. Vaughn and I'm signing off for now, Peace GOD