Thrasher Magazine

Vans rolled out the red carpet to celebrate Elijah Berle’s hotly-anticipated signature shoe – we’re talking skate jams, party busses, baller-ass spreads and the hip-hop stylings of Soulja Boy. Burnout could barely keep up. Congrats, Eli!

I arrived into the lap of new-LA luxury

Familiar faces from afar. I just finished the SOTY issue that day at noon, so this really felt like a vacation

Rumblings at Jacuzzi edge

Ah … the boys arrive

Dun-dun-dunnnn …

The man of hour! Look at those shoes!

Nice to be around for these special moments in our lives

Gathering out front, it would become a theme

Then over to Frank Musso’s for a little formal dining

Wear your best Lottie’s shorts, if you got ‘em

Got to meet some of Elijah’s friends and family. Good looking bunch!

Friendly LA types, everywhere

Plus - hey, hey!

The old ‘shoot-em-with-food-in-their-mouths’ approach! This popular photography style is also common among mothers of pissed-off teenagers. Here goes!

Grin and bear it

Table for two

These guys just embraced it

Solid pause. Not their first rodeo

Also, for this important night I decided to pull a brand new point-and-shoot camera out of the box and try to use it despite not reading any of the manuals. Thus, the only one in focus in this shot is Frank

That’s the spirit!

Deer in headlights

In unplanned serendipity, Diego’s hair matched the booths

Meanwhile over at the bar, industry heavyweights Shigeo and Bob call shots

Tyson and Cody, call me

Ok, don’t let anyone tell you that Curren and Jake don’t like fun

Trust me

I got sucked into their wake!

Hard not to smile around this guy

See!

Uhmm, guess I’ll be moving on …

And we’re back!

‘Hello Uber, can you call me a Lyft please?’

Rain softened the morning

Ready for more

Matt B, roll call

We had a bus for this one

Umbrella service for Fabi

Better believe we need Beatrice and Oona dry for this thing

Alltimer Ben on the bus

This is where Frank shines

Total gusher out there

Washed up at an urban warehouse. Crockett was already there skating flatground on the roughest part of the floor

Killer course, awaiting

Dustin Henry and Justin Henry, attack plan

Tyson fires first shots into the steep wall

Pancaked a few times

Undeterred!

Indy blunter, thumbs up

Good ol’ FSA

And the early hammer!

If there’s a bar, best believe …

Dustin with the color-coordinated switch crooks

While workhorse Leon takes it straight to the simulated streets

Boom!

Omar, feeble into nothingness

Smith plop

And the ill back tail into the steeps

Justin will crush any indoor course, especially when it’s wet outside. He’s from Ohio, after all

Diego works the long jump

While Bea gets all boneless and shit

Cedric popped in with the bionic frontside noseblunt, of course

Diego’s paddle flips harken to a gentler time. So sick

Not just here for the beer, shoe-man Berle plowed through with the showstopper. That’s how a pro does it

We were all tripping

Shit! Missed the free shoe surge! I mean, maybe I can fit into some 13s …

Free grub on the patio. Taco Dudes were there!

Elias sips some sort of party potion

Behold the technology required to make it just hang like that!

Grant’s no stranger to the look-book district

Roman made it

‘My brother did it.’ More shabby focus, but you get the idea

Stoop time, round three!

A flood of familiar faces

Are we getting on the bus again?

Yes! Canadians in the back!

Coping crushers only

Shot callers

Tyson’s 15th photo

Just holding it for a friend

Now do you see why we’re all so concerned?

Let’s do this

There’s that shiner

Crack ‘em!

Spectral lone wolves

All biz. Sorry, homies

Seven and Beatrice, front row

And we’re off

Mellow

Tyson was so hyped on Elijah’s pants

Looking like a million damn dollars

Even wildly out of focus you can still tell how tight the Lovell/Hinshaws are

Matt B and Geoff R, Vans heavyweights

Urban chill

There they are!

Smells like … money

Couldn’t keep his hand off ‘em

The future

Cosmic Glick, lost in the light

Our guys, Morgnar and Rye

Nice to meet y’all

Taco babes, everywhere

Canadia’s finest

Shit! Band started!

Easy!

Nuge on bass

Consider yourself rocked

Meanwhile, up in VIP …

‘We’ll always have the Berle shoe party, babe’

Everyone was there … the Kovacses

Hecka Worblers …

Waterfall survivors, SOTYs, Hosoi and son …

And then came the most challenging part of the evening

Found myself WAY offsides when Soulja Boy hit the stage

As a top skateboarding event photographer, it’s imperative that I be there to capture every magical moment, especially as it has to do with the raising of oversized novelty checks, the spiking of trophies and most of all, shoe-getting pros interacting with popular rappers!

Fortunately it was business as usual by the time I found myself within range

Although the Canadians played me a few numbers on the bus I didn’t even recognize the ’Superman that Hoe’ song, so I was coming to this with fresh ears

Gotta say, in the shabby world of live hip hop, SB sounded pretty alright to me

Not to mention he had a gigantic stack of loose bills as a stage prop

And his stage entourage all seemed generally enthused

Totally offsides for the Kader crowd surfing shot, but I happen to know Dakota Mullins nailed the crap out of it

You get the idea, but still

Surprised to see that not even the excitement and immediacy of performing live could keep Soulja off his phone

What hope does that leave for the rest of us and our mundane lives?

Let’s just call it multi-media, I guess

Berle joins the cast!

Looked so good up there in that white and leather

Honestly, if he’d been thrown the mic and laid down a verse I would not have been the least bit surprised

In the pit, the kids could no longer hold their horses

Really wish I knew how to focus this goddamn camera for this one

Cedric strikes an intimidating pit presence, but he’s a straight shooter. Don’t worry

Mostly fun

Albeit sweaty

A few take-aways from Soulja’s stage banter:

1. He’s the best rapper in the game

2. Tyga? No, it is Soulja who had the greatest comeback of 2018

And 3. It was Soulja Boy (not Al Gore) who invented the Internet

No one would fault him for confidence. And truly, a good time was had by all

Especially Tyson

When I looked over and saw Muller making this gesture, although I had no idea what it meant, I knew it was time for me to leave. Thanks for the wildly fun couple of days, Vans! And congrats on the shoe, Berle. Can’t wait to see this video!