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Grant Kiessling
Team Captain From Fresno, California

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Last time you were Stoked? Everyday I work at Stoked Skateboards, you know!
First board you ever rode? Sector 9 Mini that I picked up at the beach in high school. I still have the scars from the road rash I got from taking it down my first hill.
Last time you were scared? Full moon midnight skating at GMR last week. Definitely made the ride that much better though. Rice rockets are wack while on the subject.
Favorite song on your ipod? Hard as hell to narrow it down to one. I'd have to say "Renegades of Funk" by Rage Against the Machine, "Lovelife" by Atmosphere, "Feeling Alright" by Rebelution or "Brass Monkey" by Beastie Boys.
Last injury? Took a huge spill on a backside standy this weekend. I flew backwards into a curb. Obvious discomfort followed.
Last movie you saw? Spun. I thought I was crazy but that movie was intense.
Last road trip? CANADA!!! It was rad as hell to say the least.
Favorite thing about DH? How much asphalt there is on Earth.
Favorite color? Purple like an original gangster!
Favorite meal? Some dank Mexican food or sushi. Mmmm. Now I'm hungry.
C R Boardworks board of choice? Currently prototyping one of my designs for the 2012 season called the Stormtrooper.

Blake Loughran
From Brighton, Michigan

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Last time you were Stoked? All the damn time on everything.
First board you ever rode? Sector 9 pintail.
Last time you were scared? Big ass spider crawled up my arm.
Favorite song on your ipod? Anything thats not mainstream.
Last injury? Winter+Black Ice.
Last movie you saw? Grind.
Last road trip? Grand rapids skate trip. Favorite thing about DH? Going so fast while in full control of your board, going around corners at high speeds.
Favorite color? Green.
Favorite meal? Lobster sonnn.

Katiana Torrebella Ferrer
From Palma De Mallorca, Spain

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First board you ever rode?
The first board i had, the one that changed my life was an Antihero, it was a cruiser but i learnd so much with this!
Last time you were scared?
Surfing in Galicia, north of Spain, there was many fog in the atmosphere,i couldnt see either the shore of the sea, the waves were bigger than i thought, it was horrible i din't know were to go, how to go out...
Favorite song on your Ipod?
Muerte en Hawai (Calle 13)
Last injury?
This summer, i had an accident going downhill, the ambulance took me to the hospital, my back hurt so much, i thought it could be some serius damage, but at the end was everything ok! 2 weeks in bed and on the road again!
Last movie you saw?
A movie filmed by my friend PERROPRO, in my summer village, amazing!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Wo3-uzbpU 
Last road trip?
Around Sierra Nevada, last spring, going downhill on great roads of that mountains, we were also in a freeride in Velefique!we met so good people there!
Favorite thing about DH?
Speed, full tuck!! Control the inertia
Favorite color?
All colours mean something to me, yellow is the sun, blue is the sea, green is the nature and black is the asphalt!! but i'll chose pink, for me, this represent the girly power!!
Favorite meal?
chicken curry and basmati rice
 
Specially thanks to: C R Boardworks, Roxy, Eko gloves, Switchpeople and LongboarGirlsCrew.

Graham Bewley
From Berkley, Michigan

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Last time you were Stoked? After having been notified of a pretty gnarly skate park in my new town of Saginaw, MI, I went searching for it, and found that it is a mere half mile away from my current residence. I'm stoked to have that resource so close to me, especially since Saginaw is the flattest county in Michigan.
  First board you ever rode?
My first "longboard" was a Sector 9 Joel Tudor. Rode it to and from my high school every day, rain or shine. I eventually moved on to more stable decks that could handle my n00b downhill skillz, and passed on the Joel Tudor to a peer of mine who was interested in getting his own longboard.
  Last time you were scared?
I drove across to the west side of the state with some pals to slay some pavement in Grand Rapids, MI after taking nearly a month off of skateboarding to pursue money-making and laying-around. While there I got highsided, tossed down a rocky cliff face, and generally really torn up. Haven't felt that uncomfortable on a skateboard since I started, but I suppose you're not going to progress unless you get knocked around a bit.
Favorite song on your ipod?
Can't nail down a song in particular, but I've been really into electronic music, as well as some mashups. I've also been a long-time fan of 80s-90s hip hop.
Last injury? General road rash from the above stated session in Grand Rapids. Before that, my most notable recent injury was after having been thrown off the road on Lykens Mountain in Pennsylvania. Bruised up my hip and ass. Couldn't walk right for a couple weeks. My shorts took some damage also. After losing my board from under my feet, the asphalt quickly tore through a large piece of my shorts, and through the first couple layers of my leather wallet in my back right pocket. I lost a pair of shorts that day, but my cheeks were left relatively unscathed.

Last movie you saw?
Just watched Ferris Bueler's Day Off on my laptop the other day  Last road trip?If you can call it that, I drove to Ann Arbor to skate a couple slide hills and garages with some new friends just the other day.
  Favorite thing about DH?My favorite part about downhill skateboarding is that people don't understand it. I'd prefer to be that one guy that skates downhill than one of the guys that plays basketball/football/bowling etc. Also, I love the feeling you get when you're going faster than you ever have before. Speed feels good, and there's no better way to experience it than on a brake-less, gravity-driven piece of wood.
Favorite color? Turquoise? Orange? I don't know.
Favorite meal?
Bratwurst, Mild or Sweet, charcoal barbecue cooked, on a lightly toasted bun. Side of Meijer brand Mac and Cheese. Strawberry Kool-Aid (or a cold bottle of Beck's, either's fine)

Andrew Pletan
From Stillwater Ok.

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Last time you were Stoked? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NNtV0Hhelk
First board you ever rode? a piece of 9 ply birch bought from a lumber yard and cut up by a buddy.
Last time you were scared? I fell on my face the other day. don't think I had time to be scared, but I'll go with that anyway.                    Favorite song on your ipod? I'm Losing You, by Rare Earth
Last injury? pretty rough dislocation of my left shoulder. pops out when I flail around now.
Last movie you saw? The Man with Two Brains.
Last road trip? driving home from a summer spent in Maine. it's nice up there. 
Favorite thing about DH? going fast. riding sketchy close with a bunch of friends.
Favorite color? yeller
Favorite meal? Chicken vindaloo or tikka masala. or meatloaf. it's whatever.

Alex Silva

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Jason Milan
From Auburn Hills, Michigan

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Last time you were Stoked? I  am constantly stoked for life. Life gives me the opportunity to skate, play music, love my family, and enjoy all the positive and negative experiences that
keep the balance necessary to push on.
First board you ever rode? The first board I ever rode was back when I was 3. My teenage neighbor at the time was a skater and drove a bad ass Trans Am.
He used to give me his plastic banana board for the day so i could coffin it down the driveway. At about 6 my parents bought me this ugly Nash twin tip freestyle deck. It was White with barely any griptape on it. This called for dad to help me strip all the paint off of it and regrip it with a crazy diagonal striped pattern. This was the first
board I learned to ollie. The first "real" board I skated was a Mark Rogowski Vision Gator with Tracker Trucks and Bullet 66 Wheels at the age of 8.
Last time you were scared? I have had a lot of frightening experiences, but the the last time I was truly scared was in the spring of 2011.
I was sitting on the couch in my home playing some Halo before bed when something took over my body. It started off as a chill and progressively my body starting feeling colder and colder. I made it to my bed where I got under the blankets to try and get warm. The chills got so bad I lost control and couldn't move. I thought, hell, this is it. As soon as I accepted my demise the chills passed and things returned to normal except I still had a temperature of 94 degrees F. My temperature returned to normal after a couple minutes and everything returned to as it was. Call it what you will, but it still freaks me out to this day.
Favorite song on your ipod? My favorite song on my iPod? Well, that changes constantly. Lately I have been listening to Hellmouth, White Stripes, Dillinger, Against Me, and Cursive to get hype.
To chill it has been Andrew Bird, Slightly Stoopid, Cotton Jones, and Ratatat.
Last injury? I have been fortunate not to have any serious injuries lately, but still had some close calls. Besides random road rash, I gave myself a concussion on a local cart path.
Came out of a standing switch 180 speed check into a 180 degree right hand drifting standie on my toeside. Had too much speed and just caught the grass with my left rear wheel in mid drift. Flew backwards about 10 ft. off a 3 foot grass drop off head first. Helmet hit first, then the force bent my knees into my forehead. Ended up backflipping onto my feet. Man I was seeing "stars." What a humbling experience.
Last movie you saw? The last movie I watched was "Law Abiding Citizen" on Netflix. Pretty far-fetched, but still good intense suspenseful entertainment.
Sweet revenge on the broken machine that we are all a part of.
Favorite color? I like all colors. No real favorite. Depends on the occasion and mood I am in at the time.
Favorite meal? When it comes to food, I enjoy eating a nice home cooked meal. My wife, Angie, makes veggies taste better than meat.
Favorite thing about freeriding? Ah, freeriding. Freeriding is expression, style, attitude, and choosing a creative line.
It is rare to see two people skate the same way in this discipline. Different set-ups, foot positions,
choice of tricks...you name it. You can tell a lot about someone by how they shred down a hill.
For me it is usually loose carvy trucks with speed, big stand up slides, and linking slides.
But on the flip side, high speed carving, slide shuvs, and hands down stuff can be just as liberating.
Skating fast and aggressive puts me into a zone that I can only experience on a longboard.
There are no rules while ripping a hill. That's why they call it Freeride.



Dave Swantek
From Warren Michigan

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