Legion of Sorts!

To everyone who has been visiting this blog over the past five years, THANK YOU. Since I've been in China for the past year and a half, Blogger has been blocked and it makes it more and more difficult for me to update. I finally took the time to move over to Wordpress which is still available in China and so I've created a new blog with the same contributors plus many new ones. It will focus a bit on our daily skateboarding adventures in Shanghai but also include more about our many friends around the world; Brian in Canada, Danny in New Zealand, Tyler and the Haines St. Crew in Delaware and much more!

So please update your bookmarks to point to http://legionofsorts.wordpress.com. And to anyone who'd like a link on our site, just shoot us an email at legionofsorts@gmail.com!

Thanks!
-Tommy

"Go Take Your Gym Shorts Elsewhere, You Jock"

Daniel Lucas is back at it again! Here's his latest trick tip: "How to Lose Your Board at Margherita's." Watch closely as he takes you through a typical day of a lurker at Switch... damn, I could really use a slice of pizza from Margherita's!



And if that video doesn't show up well, the direct link is: CLICK HERE.

Random Recent Photos

Nigel Nedd.


Blue's clues.


Smoked a leg of pig for 8 hours. What a beauty.


Danny getting his destruction on.


Feasting.


Coker in town.


Daniel Lucas was so hyped on this flatbar and talked it up, claiming all kinds of tricks. He drives us out there and of course, it's a downhill ollie to a preeeetty high rail. Boardslide is the name of the game. Footage coming as soon as I get back to my firewire, in Shanghai.


York Skatepark. Suvie x Sckibicki collab.


"Wrenching" is the new skating.

Danielle Lucas

Ladyboys are everywhere in China.

Daniel x Diamond Clothes

Intense modeling session went down at Switch. Get them while they're hot!

Danny Destruction: China to China

Danny's probably sitting on the airplane on his way back home to Auckland at the moment. He'll be flying to Los Angeles on Tuesday so look out for him in the States! Here's some footy I got of him while he was in town, so peep it and learn pivot fakies!

Daniel Lucas in China from Tommy Zhao on Vimeo.

Direct Video Link: CLICK HERE

From Beijing to Shanghai

I'm not quite sure how to explain such a horrid experience. Maybe I can just name adjectives that might give you a glimpse of what Daniel, Alex, Wang Min Jun and I just went through: newspapers, the scent of piss, shit, standing, suitcases, boogers, sunflower seeds, loud bitches, snacks, instant noodles, chomping, coughing, cigarette smoke, slurping, pins and needles, sweat, cramps, the thought of SARS...

I wish we had taken a photo of us, but I was scared of taking the camera out b/c I didn't want people to know we had a camera in case they wanted to steal it while we were passed out under the seats. Image more of a ... human cattle truck with people packed in every seat, crammed in the aisles, no A/C, second hand smoke... for 14 hours: 10:30pm - 12:30 pm the next day. You kind of get the picture. That was our train ride home from Beijing to Shanghai, due to the lack of tickets available because of some Chinese holiday coming up on May 1st. Tyler, I hope you appreciate what I did just so I could make it back to pick you up from the airport on Saturday... I don't want to hear any of you guys complaining about the long flight from the States... at least you guys have seats. Johnny, Boss and the others are still stuck in Beijing w/ no idea how to get back. There seem to be no tickets for the next week, at least by train.

Anyway, here are some photos from Beijing, which for the most part was pretty enjoyable minus the massive amount of cash that I spent in the past week with nothing to show for it.


Atop Jing Shan Hill. These hats were 5RMB each... so we started our own tour group.


We were all complaining about the cost of the ticket to enter the Forbidden City. Jeremy argued that 1000 years ago we could pay 6000RMB and still wouldn't be allowed in, 60RMB is a steal! We still didn't go, haha.


Ladyboy.


Taste the rainbow.


Holla


The Great Wall


Is long like my dick.


Bird's Nest

Look who got into town...

That's right.... Daniel Lucas is in Shanghai.


lollies

Okay, Okay.... Who did it?

Which one of you guys searched "ass fuck flicks"?


I've never met anyone who loves America as much as this dude. This is what Daniel is going through so he can live in the US for 6 months beginning May. You guys won't even be able to recognize him, he'll be a lot darker.... have a puffed out stomach.... and look like Ghandi on crack.

Whabos Video Archive

I've added a column on the right so I can start reposting all the old WHABOS videos I've made. If you watch them, you'll notice changes from the quality of the videos, the different skaters, filmers, etc. It's really crazy to think that this site was first started back in 1999/2000 hosted under Angelfire. A really big shout out has to go to Mike Grant and Aaron Zimkouski, as they were the first to get this shit off it's feet in Hockessin to what it is now... which I hope is a website/blog dedicated to showcasing skateboarding throughout Northern Delaware and the surrounding areas.... which now includes me in China as well as Daniel in New Zealand.

The first video I reposted was the 99 Cent Special promo. This was a video project I had in mind the first year in college... 2004, trying to put out parts with Adam Benson, Greg Coker, Jesse Bradley, Chipper DelSteezy, Mike Grant, and myself. The name of the title came because I remember before than I had been skating at Lantana Square a shitload, and there were always all these 99 Cent Special bread stickers all over the place. Anyway, at that time, it was really difficult to get a lot, if any, footage of these people. I also think I was filming with a Digital8 at the time, haha. So a lot of the filming was done by Tom Harmon. Tom got a job touring with bands and that's when I got a hold of Dreadlock Joey's camera and starting putting together as much footage as possible. So the promo came out in 2004/2005... I remember it was cold as fuck at that time and was chillin w/ Benson a lot. The video was barely started and never finished. After that, I started skating a lot with Brian Peacock and Ed the Shredder and got enough to put out a 5 minute untitled video towards the end of 2006 or maybe it was 2007. I never got around to burning a bunch of it and showing people besides on my computer, but I know there's a copy somewhere at Switch... b/c I don't even know if I have a copy myself anymore. If I can, I'll find it and see if I can upload it on here.

So here's the promo: 99 Cent Special
Artist: Belle and Sebastien

Daniel Lucas x Todd Henry Throwback Footy

Tommy Zhao 7:31
haha you look like one of those dudes in Trainspotting
are you goign to post this on the blog or what?

Daniel Lucas 7:31
fuck no nigga
hahaha

Tommy Zhao 7:31
looks likei'm gonna hav eto.

Daniel Lucas 7:31
fuck off. hahah

Parks, Pies, and Powerade

Auckland, or New Zealand in general, is covered in skateparks. I would even say that we have the most skateparks per capita in the world. It seems every local council wants to put these things in so kids can do something instead of smoking weed and doing graffiti and engaging in deliquent behaviour or whatever the fuck it is that 14 year olds do these days. Ironically, since we're saturated with skateparks, they rarely get used, and often provide the perfect place to participate in such unsavourary activities.
We had this bright idea that we would try to skate as many as possible in one day. Which sounds easy but it's really not. Car legs, travel time, having the po's fuck with you and whatever else seems to take up most of the day. I think we got in 9 parks by the end of the day, but really, we only scratched the surface. We filmed at like... 7 of them, I think. Quality is very average but don't blame me, I didn't fuck with it.
Starring Charlie Roux, Daniel Lucas, Sam "Luggage" Rynbeck, Self Conscious Chris, and Oxford's own Todd Henry.