by Jeff Zimmerman
The Clash 3 is an annual event, and this is (obviously) the third one. Generally when you go to a skate event, and they’re charging $10 a person to get in, you turn around and go skate the school next door with your buddies. But it’s good to know that in this case your $10 goes towards cancer research.
Grind For Life is an organization raising money to fight cancer. Their founder is Mike Rogers, who still skates, even though he is missing an eye from cancer. They sell decks, clothes etc to raise money.
Anyways, this was your typical YMCA-esk event. Lots of media, and lots of companies have booths touting their products. For example, Osirus had a game where you throw a ball onto this thingie…well I can’t explain it, but you can win a shirt or something cool. Most people don’t make it in though, so the booth just gets a lot of attention.
The street skating was a bunch of no name skaters skating the rail and hubba. It was pretty entertaining, but the main event was vert.
Lots of big names showed up to support Grind for Life, and they put on a good show. PLG, Andy Mac, Buster Halterman, Bucky Lasek, etc. Mainly skaters, but there were a few BMX guys flying around the course. I had to be on my toes the whole time at the bottom of the ramp with my camera, boards flew at me non stop going mach5.
There were also a lot of food, to buy! Luckily for me, I got VIP treatment which included free Tacos and drinks.
Anyways, in the end there was some good skating, good food, and all the proceeds went towards cancer research. They said they earned something like $40,000 from the previous 2 Clashes…hopefully there’l be a Clash 4!
