Life for today's skaters isn't nearly what it was a decade ago. With the growth of huge sponsors, contest prize purses, a never-ending stream of media coverage, and high-tech training facilities the possibilities are endless for those with ambition. The possibility of fame and fortune is very real.

But 16-year-old Louie Lopez could care less about all that. His outlook resembles that of skating's golden age, when it was simply about the fun.

To that point, it doesn't take long to realize how uncomfortable he is with the attention his own skating attracts. But like it or not, Lopez is well on his way to a bright career in skateboarding that - should he play his hand well - will allow him to never get a real job.

Lopez's sponsors like Flip and Volcom, along with powerhouses like vitaminwater, give him all the freedom and support he needs to progress his skateboarding, so it was no surprise that we caught up with him in between skate sessions at Camp Woodward East.



Like many of the other 16-year-olds lurking around parks, his goal is to turn pro someday. But unlike most, he has the skills and attitude to make his dreams a reality.

Whether his future is in high profile contests, or highly viewed videos, is still uncertain, but this much we do know: we'll be seeing a whole lot of this pure street skater in the years to come.






(skate session with Louie at Camp Woodward with vitaminwater. p. Nate Hoppes)

The Volcom Amsterdamn Dam Am wrapped up this weekend in that ever so "Stoney" city in a country in mourning, The Netherlands. In case you live under a rock the Dutch lost to Spain in the World Cup. In some more cheerful news for the country, their adition of the Dam Am went off of was a success as usual.

Here's what Volcom had to say of the event:

The fifth annual Volcom Amsterdamn am just finished up here in sunny Amsterdam!

The finals went off without a hitch. It must have been extremely hard to judge as everyone was ripping. Tiago Lemos Soares from Brazil, who took the golden ticket yesterday, had some of the most insane tricks to be put in a contest run. Alec Majerus had a flawless first run where he was kickflipping into everything. Louie Lopez was very consistent and switched up every run with different tricks. After the dust had settled, Alec Majerus deservedly came out on top.

The best trick contest went down while Nihilist pumped everyone up at the top of the course. Bodies were flying and everyone was going for broke, trying to win some Euros. After Nihilist was done playing, the judges gave the Best Trick to Kieran Reilly for a Frontside Flip over the bump to bar to Front Lip on the bank.

Thanks to Skatepark Amsterdam, tackyworld for the live webcast and everyone at Volcom for making the contest happen, as well as Skatepark of Tampa for keeping us entertained on the mic.

Sequence: Louie Lopez gap to 5-0. Photo: Volcom.

For more pictures click here.

Results:

1. Alec Majerus, USA, €5.000,00
2. Louie Lopez, USA, €2.500,00
3. Tiago Lemos Soares, BRA, €1.500,00
4. Tim Zom, NL, €1.250,00
5. John Koetzier, NL, €1.000,00
6. Spencer Lau, USA, €500,00
7. Douwe Macare, NL, €400,00
8. Axel Cruysberghs, BE, €300,00
9. Julien Merour, FRA, €200,00
10. Billy Hoogendijk, NL, €100,00
11. Hermann Stene, NOR, €100,00
12. Woody Hoogendijk, NL, €100,00

Creator extraordinaire, Michael Sieben, is at again, this time with his new webisode series on the Information Superhighway, Camp Ramp. Long story short, he was on his way home one day, and stopped to "make some yellow" at a graveyard. A voice from beyond the grave told him to build a skate camp there. Kind of like the voice in that baseball movie. You know with, "If you build it they will come."

Anyway, at the expense of his job and cat, he completed the camp. There have been some rippers like Louie Lopez and Remy Stratton rolling by, and now the camp has it's own clothing collection on Volcom, click here to check it out. Here's a little trailer of what to expect in the first season of Camp Ramp:

The much anticipated premier of the new Flip video, Extremely Sorry, will be September 16th in Orange County, CA with an international premier tour to follow. DVDs will be available shortly after. More info will soon be announced.

The arrival of the third installment of the Flip skateboards Sorry series is getting closer and closer every day. Flip's a funny company because they were around for awhile before they released a video. It just took them a little bit to get their act together, which is expected. This is skateboarding, as much as some other companies want it to be more like baseball or something, or even snowboarding for that matter. We're not in the fucking Olympics, and let's hope we never are.

Alright, well back to my point. It took this British skateboard company some time to release a video, so when they did in 2002, they called it Sorry. Then a year later they released some leftovers under the name Really Sorry. That was six years ago, and now it's time for Extremely Sorry. This much anticipated video is going to have some new guys, and is expected to be one of the videos of the year.

Here's a MORINformed Top 10 list of reasons and questions as to why you should be prepared to cruise by your local shop, cough up the money, and pick a copy up for yourself.

1. Mark Appleyard's part. May just be the best section of 2009.

2. Geoff Rowley as usual has a lot of say in what makes the cut, so you know it's going to gnargit.

3. The young-new guys who haven't been in a Flip video yet. Names like: David Gonzales, Rodrigo TX, Luan Oliveira Louie Lopez and Curren Caples are going to show you what the future holds.

4. The old-new guys who haven't been in a Flip video yet. Lance Mountain and Bob Burnquist have been in the game for longer than most, are still on a pro team, and still kill it.

5. Tom Penny? You never know what you're going to get with this guy.

6. Shane Cross tribute? I wonder if they've been sitting on some unused footage of the one we lost way too soon.

7. Will Johnny Rotten, excuse me, I mean John Lydon make another appearance.

8. The sound track. They hired this guy Baron from England to make an original soundtrack for the movie.

9. Will General Rowley take us on a Mountain Lion hunt, or show us some footage from the secret skate facility in the desert.

10. If Rune has an absolutley killer section of pool and park destruction, and since Rowley, Appleyard and Burnquist already have one, could Phelps make it a foursome and declare Rune the Thrasher "Skater of the Year," aka S.O.T.Y. He has been killing transition everywhere, and winning contest after contest along the way. Plus, you know Jake Phelps is all about the pool/park guys. Fuck, Tony Trujillo has a S.O.T.Y.