South Shore skate park in Houston, Texas gets ready to host the 15th annual Johnny Romano benefit Skate Jam. Over 50 of skateboarding's best including Chris Cole, Dennis Busentiz, Sean Malto, Tommy Sandoval, Ishod Wair, Steve Berra, Silas Baxter Neal, and more are all expected to be there to help generate funds for the children who are in need.

The event is held in memory of Johnny Romano, a young skater who grew up in Galveston, Texas. In 2005, at age seven, Johnny was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, he was able to attend the annual Texas Skate Jam (the previous name of this weekend's event) and meet and skate with the pros. Johnny passed away, at age 10, in September 2008.

Tickets are $40 each with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Gulf Coast & Louisiana.

In 14 years the JR Skate Jam has raised over $650,000 for Make-A-Wish thus directly effecting about 130 kids in making their wishes come true!

Johnny's parents set up foundation in his name to continue the spirit he brought to life. The mission of JohnnyKicksCancer is to cure childhood leukemia's through awareness, research and advocacy, as well as empower and encourage patients, families and doctor's in their fight against the number one childhood cancer.

Check out the touching story of young Johnny Ramano.

Chaz Ortiz recently shot a commercial spot with Gatorade titled "Go All Day." The concept behind the spot placed Chaz as a regular high-school student skipping out of class early to skate the hallways including tackling a massive rail at the end of the day.

At first glance the commercial seems pretty simple, but when you check out the behind the scenes footage from the Berrics you realize how much goes into the producing the spot.

It's a unique look into all of the moving parts behind the camera lens.

The song "Wor" by Django Django was featured in the mind blowing short film "Ride" featuring Steve Berra and produced by Burn energy drink. If you haven't had your brain completely rearranged by this epic short film you can check it out here:

The song sets the tone perfectly for all the cool, crazy effects in this flick and in doing research on these guys it says they are from DALSTONBURGH-DUNDERRY, United Kingdom which isn't a real place but Dunderry, Ireland is. So they are a bit of a mystery and something tells me they like it that way...for now. I found their video Which is to say the least Very trippy, A throwback to the early 80's when graphics and editing was still "a work in progress" and overly cheesy. But the song still rocks the hypnotic with a touch of electronic and does it well.
Check out their trippy video:



Django Django WOR from DJANGO TV on Vimeo.

This is so rad it hurts my puny little brain..

Its from a series of short films for coke's BURN energy drink. check the rest of them out here..

The whole thing was shot in Mexico City and was directed by Garth Davis who had Steve Berra coordinating the skaters. In an interview with the director, Davis says "One of the great mistakes you can make is to over-romanticize skateboarding. Skaters smell it a mile off and will hate you for it. So this was all about doing the stunts and fire for real and really respecting the skaters, yet keeping a surreal, cinematic feel so they felt original."
Well, Garth, you are a genius. This little film freaked me out in a way that only Fully Flared and maybe the DC movie have in the past. Watch it.

Two Battles at the Berrics went down this past weekend, Dennis Busenitz vs. Chico Brenes, and The BERR in the Berrics, Steve Berra vs. Heath Kirchart.

In the first battle, Chico tech-ed his way to victory over Busenitz, who's more known for his fast creative lines than he is his tech. Then in the second, which was held in private and with no ref. (they reffed themselves like gentleman) Kirchart took out the part-owner of the whole damn thing. Click here to check it out.