Here’s the story:
Starting Saturday at 2pm at Underworld shop in Vancouver, the Emerica Team came to do their signing.  In attendance was: The Boss, Heath Kirchart, Jerry Hsu, Spanky, Brian Herman, Jamie Tancowney and Brandon Westgate. Leo Romero missed signing but met up at Leeside for the session.

They signed 'WITS' posters for close to 2 hours, while a steady stream of fans kept flowing through.  I was told that it was the best team turnout that UW had hosted to this point. As it should have been...  Huge thanks to Alex and
the rad crew at UW for allowing this happen and working hard to pull it off.  I attached an image of one dude, who was so psyched, he had his arm signed and then tattooed within 2 hours.  Down For Life huh?  Damn. 

The crew then barged Leeside and that was something very, very special.  It was cool to see the team's eyes pop out of their sockets when they first arrived.  They couldn't believe Leeside's rawness for sure.  You could see each of them watching some of the local talent rip to figure out a line.  It
took them 15-20 minutes to get comfortable and then it was on man. Westgate, Reynolds, Spanky really held it down here.  Spanky was able to get up 15+ feet up the wall above a 4' quarter and indy revert back down.  He got it after at least a dozen attempts.

Drew ollied the 4' nipple in the middle of the park.  Third try I think on that one.  Huge crowd pleaser.  I would say the highlight was when Drew found a particular line/trick combo he was feeling.  Starting out on the main entrance to Leeside, he got as much speed as he could and hit his last
wall, backside wallriding up a good 20' to fakie back down.  20 plus tries.  If there was one dude that really knew what we were all there to do, it was Reynolds, as he just didn't sit out on anything.  Sort of the first to start and the last to stop.  True grit and professionalism. 

We all then met up at The Biltmore for The Goat/No Age show.  That was fun. The Goat came on stage at 10:40pm and played for 40 minutes.  Their blend of rock/punk/crunk/yelling was a treat.  It was hard for me at least not to get a huge kick out of their act.  Kind of tongue in cheek. 

No Age came on shortly after and played for about the same time.  For those familiar with their music, they played many singles from their latest album Nouns.  I totally enjoyed it.  A nice blend of Lo-Fi indie with a noisy punk tinge.  I chatted with them after the show for a bit and Randy and Dean are
two super nice dudes.  They were hyped to be part of all this. 

Yesterday was the pushing.  1pm rolled around maybe a little early for some, but I'm sure once they felt the buzz of the hundreds of skaters that packed the Plaza, they were ready.  Shirts were being sold for $10 with all sales
being donated to Leeside.  Lots of peeps will be repping these, after a brisk day selling.  Thanks to all who picked one or two up. At 2:15pm we all left in a huge throng to the following locations:
1)HOT SPOT
2)VICTORY SQUARE
3)NEW SPOT
4)CIBC
5)GEORGIA VIADUCT BRIDGE BARGE
6)STRATHCONA PARK

~Casey Jones

SkatersINC would like to thank the EMERICA team for coming out, Alex Bastide @ Underworld Shop for the photos and helping out with everything, Jarvis Nigelsky for the video, Casey Jones for his kind words and finally everyone who participated making 'go skateboarding day' a monumental annual event!