Photo Courtesy of Andrew Durso
As we settle back into another work week here at Stoked HQ, we and those who were at the Agenda Show and Dew Tour can at least do so with fond of memories from a rad weekend of industry talk, meeting new people and above all, skateboarding.
As is typical, the weekend where much of the skate world descends on Long Beach yields more events than one shop could possibly attend. Though we missed a few, we did our best to circulate around. For those who couldn’t be there here’s a look back at some of what went down:
Thursday: The Flipside
For many, the first night of the weekend was a grand rekindling between out-of-town friends, teammates and allies. For the #LadiesofShred, it was a chance to take over The Good Bar for a night centered around encouraging those who hold leadership positions in skateboarding to create spaces dedicated to inclusivity. 
Photo Courtesy of MAHFIA.TV / Nico Ricoy
With the women behind Meow Skateboards, Gnarhunters and The Skate Witches holding down the merch tables, the event kicked off with a documentary premier centered around Baker Skateboards’ newest pro, Elissa Steamer. Later, the night moved on with panel discussions featuring the most prominent female voices in the industry, including Steamer herself, Vanessa Torres, Alexis Sablone, Mimi Knoop, Alex White, Lisa Whitaker, Kristen Ebeling, YuLin Olliver, Beth O’Rourke and Kim Woozy.
Photo Courtesy of MAHFIA.TV / Nico Ricoy
As conversations swayed from stories about fighting for gender equality in the professional contest circuit to fighting for gender equality in the realm of professional sponsorships, a common theme had emerged. The only ones who can hope to make skateboarding more inclusive are the ones who are willing to advocate for marginalized groups themselves. If a room full of the most influential female skateboarders and industry figures doesn’t spark the inspiration for advocacy, we’re not sure what will.
Friday: Agenda Show
Photo Courtesy of Shop Eat Surf
As Friday rolled around, we took a break from work at Stoked HQ to scope out the trade show. Needless to say, the show had a considerably different feel than years past with the amount of skateboarding brands being far overshadowed by streetwear and lifestyle brands on the floor. This combined with the fact that nearly all of the large corporate shoe companies were absent from this year’s show, left buyers in the skate community with questions. Is direct to consumer killing off shops for good? Is the role of the trade show obsolete at this point? What on earth makes Rip n Dip so popular?!
Photo Courtesy of Shop Eat Surf
Asking these questions made the show feel like it was missing something in the skateboarding department. However, we were able to fill this void with a tight session on the replica build of the iconic LES Coleman skatepark. With the exception of the famous bump over the apple, the park mimicked NYC’s finest skate spot perfectly with a proper bank to wall ride, pyramid section and pairs of matching ledges and flatbars. Add this to the fact that there was a perfect mini ramp just a few feet away where we got to see the people’s champ, Mark Appleyard ripping and we left the show satisfied.
Saturday: Dew Tour / Agenda Festival
Photo Courtesy of Andrew Durso
To officially kick off the weekend, we checked back in with the female skateboarding collective as eight of the most talented battled it out for the Street Finals. With respected professionals like Plan B’s Leticia Bufoni and Enjoi’s Samarria Brevard entering as favorites, the rest of the field had their work cut out for them. By all means, they rose to the occasion and took advantage of it. In the end, the tri-state area did a stellar job decorating the podium with New York’s own Alexis Sablone taking third place and New Jersey’s finest, Jenn Soto grabbing second. However, it was the Brazilian, Pamela Rosa, taking the win. Pulling out all the stops from boardslides to back lips, Rosa was able to capture first place, much to the delight of her mother looking on from the sidelines.
Photo Courtesy of Long Beach Press Telegram
Afterwards, we decided to ditch the Dew Tour and head back to the convention center the music festival portion of Agenda. Under the ominous allure of an indoor setting, we skipped out on some of the earlier performers but made it in time to see the boys from FIDAR put on a wild half hour set. Adorned in his signature hospital scrub, frontman Zac Carper and the boys foreshadowed songs for an upcoming album while still giving the crowd a taste of some older favorites. Judging by the intensity of the mosh, they put on one of the raddest shows of the afternoon for sure.
Sunday: Dew Tour
As planned, the best was saved for the last day of the Dew Tour for the Women’s and Men’s Park and Men’s Street Finals. In between fellow skaters and casual spectators, we made sure we got some good seats to watch all the madness unfold.
Photo Courtesy of Andrew Durso
For the first Park Finals of the day, the crowd got an awesome chance to see what the women of the transition skateboarding world could do to a perfectly built bowl. Granted, anyone whose seen Nora Vasconcellos or Lizzie Armanto skate before already knows that they shred harder anyone out there. It was the overall winner, Nicole Hause, who got her time to shine on Sunday though. In her runs, Hause was able to flow with ease, airing over nearly every hip in the bowl and mixing in technical gems like cab nosegrabs en route to victory.
Photo Courtesy of Andrew Durso
From there, we made it over to the Mens Street contest where the course took an absolute thrashing as the top qualifiers started picking it apart from all angles. Some of the smaller rails on the course fell victim to a perfect Chaz Ortiz 360 flip lipslide while the larger kinked rails became the grounds for long 50-50 front boardslides from Chase Webb. However, no skater attacked the course better than Yuto Horigome. The Japanese talent shook off a gnarly sack in his first run and put on such flawless second run that his victory was already confirmed before he went out for his third run (which he still executed perfectly by the way).
Photo Courtesy of Dew Tour
To close things out, we migrated back to the park to watch the best male transition skaters out there close out the weekend in style. One of the crowd favorites all weekend long, Florida-native Cory Juneau came out on top just like he did last year, to maintain his crown. Up against the stiff competition of Oskar Rosenberg with his signature creativity and Tristan Rennie with his new pro status from Blood Wizard, Juneau seemed generally unfazed. With an effortless style that could make any bystander jealous, he flew over the coping with frontside airs and flips while still making good use of it with some back noseblunts and long frontside boardslides. This proved to be a recipe for success as he ceremoniously snapped his board as the event and the weekend came to a conclusion that left us wanting more but equally stoked that we got a chance to witness a part of action for the past four days.
