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CCS Customs X First Thursdays Interviews: Jay Howell
November 05, 2021 - CCS launches the Customs X First Thursdays program with one of our favorite artists: Jay Howell.
What LA Spots Will You Hit Up During The Best Weekend Ever?
On July 2nd, CCS will be announcing a lucky winner from the pool of CCS+ Member entrants to win the ultimate skate trip to Los Angeles. If we pick you, it'll be 3 days worth of skateboarding VIP treatments including free airfare, a hotel room, and insider's access to the LA skate scene. You'll be skating with CCS Pro Jamie Foy (don't worry, you won't have to skate giant handrails if you don't want to), taking a private tour of Baker Boys Distribution headquarters, and scouting legendary spots with storied photographer and CCS Brand Director Matt Price. You'll have your skate photo taken to be printed in the new CCS Holiday Catalog, plus tons of free product and other surprises. It will be the best weekend EVER!
Check the CCS Instagram for posts and story highlights with details about each fabulous aspect of this dream weekend. But first, to help you plan your weekend and decide what renowned skate spots you want to check out (and maybe even skate) in person, let us give you an overview of some of the choicest skatenerd starmap locations.
LA Courthouse
Perhaps one of the most universally skateable plazas in America, the West LA Courthouse (sometimes called the Santa Monica Courthouse), with it's buttery ledges, formidably high stage, and water-free fountains was a staple of mid-90s street skating videos. It was turned into a bust-free skate area with a little help from Nike back in 2014. Unless you're strictly a pool skater, this spot has something for everyone.
How many consecutive ledge tricks can you land here? Can you one-up Crob's stage manual showcase? Just how frickin' insane was Shawn Hale's rooftop ollie? How about Reynolds going up the stairs in Baker 4?! There are honestly just so many famed tricks to go down here we are getting overwhelmed just thinking about it.
Rumors are that this spot may not be long for this world, so don't miss it.
The Sunset Carwash
Maybe stop by here to pay your respects to the eyebrows Gonz lost trying to acid drop into this thing. You have to see this in person to appreciate just how insanely steep it is. Go ahead and try to just give it a carve and watch your respect for Milton and Midler skyrocket.
Los Angeles Mall
If you like grimy street transitions, this is your spot. Jim Greco filmed his latest opus on the brick quarterpipes here. There's also a gnarly curved handrail right down the street that you're gonna want to gawk at too.
Hollywood High
What can we say about Hollywood High? This has been the proving grounds for big rail and gap skater for decades. So many legendary tricks and sessions have gone down here it boggles the mind. A list of just what has been accomplished by the Baker Boys alone could run pages. Lizard's frontside noseslide. Reynolds' frontside flip. Ellington's impossible. Figgy's nollie 50-50. Dollin's blunt fakie. Jaws breaking his jaw... We can keep going.
LA High
Even with constant skate-stopping constructions happening, it always seems like there are some skateable banks and banked ledges happening in and around Los Angeles High School. Just retracing the line from Guy Mariano in Girl's Mouse video while walking around is worth the trip.
Staples Center
Step to the Hubba. Just kidding. This thing is scary to even stand next to. What was Geoff thinking? What was Clive thinking?!?
The Library Gap
The tales of destruction that the Baker Boys alone have written on this gap is worth a visit. Maybe when you tour the Baker Boys headquarters they can share some of their war stories from here.
Downtown is just littered with famous spots nearby, both of the huge and insane as well as the actually skateable-by-regular-humans variety.
J KWON
Sit back and take in all the ledge magic that goes down every weekend from the illmatic technicians who frequent this famous spot. It feels really good to know your grind in now part of the spot's history. Then maybe scope the gap to ledge out front and see if that board can stick to your foot right there. Now that's the phenomenon part.
Griffith Park Ditch
Perhaps you want to get some tricks in the natural beauty of the Griffith Park ditches. Maybe pack a picnic and some cold ones.
And if you really, really love the ditches, maybe we can hit the 605.
Stoner Park
In addition to being littered with pro-level street spots, Los Angeles has skateparks a-plenty for a hassle free skateboarding session. Few are more fun than Stoner, but go ahead and sample the goods. Odds are there will be a couple of pros at any park on any given day. And now that you've got CCS to introduce you, go ahead and say wazzup.
This amazing contest and the Los Angeles spots that lie within is open to members of the CCS+ program who enter by July 1st, 2021. CCS+ costs only $20 per year, and includes free express shipping on shoes and apparel, no minimum free regular shipping on everything else, priority access and triple entries to hype shoe drops, plus lots of other cool contests we're scheming for the future.
If you ain't on the CCS+ team already, now it the time. The City of Angels awaits.