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We first met Julio about 13 years ago, when AzHiAzIaM was just a few years old. He was in the Metal Band Aurora and he had spent some time in Cali on the Central Coast with a friend from Brazil (Theo), that was helping us cut stickers and watch the shop.
Fast forward many years and back in Brazil Julio Lima has been training Gracie Jiu-Jitsu since 1996/97. He became obsessed at first, by watching Royce Gracie in UFC1. He has only Trained in Gracie Academies, a perfect “pedigree”.
His first Professor was Rilion Gracie, known by many of The family, as the best guard player of all. Then Renzo Gracie and for The last 5 years, Grand Master Relson Gracie, a living legend, and The only one called “Campeão or The Champion” by his father Hélio Gracie.
Julio is one of two Brazilians, ever been promoted To Black Belt by Relson Gracie himself.
Julio has been running The Relson Gracie Curitiba Academy, The only one in South Brazil for The last 5 years.
We are stoked to see Julio living his dreams at such a high level. AzHiAzIaM
]]>NICK and JOHN HALL of Hallstyle Racing at the 2019 King Of the Hammers event in Landers California. Above Photos by Evan Walsh
The 13th annual King of the Hammers event went down over this last couple weeks at Means Dry Lake in Johnson Valley, CA. Normally held throughout the first couple weeks of February each year, King of the Hammers (KOH) is a series of races that combine desert racing and rock crawling and is the largest off-road race event in North America. This year’s races included in the event: The Every Man Challenge, KOH UTV Race, the Shootout, and the all-new Toyo Tires Desert Invitational. There are more than 400 teams competing in the event, with vehicles ranging from dirt bikes, quads, UTVs, 4WD vehicles, and Ultra4.
Ultra 4, one class of vehicle used at King of the Hammers, are custom fabricated by each team and have specific mechanical requirements that qualify them for both racing and rock crawling. These creations must be capable of speeds over 100 miles per hour for racing, but still contain gear ratios of 100 to 1 or lower for the technical rock crawling.
Longtime Azhiaziam supporters Nick and John Hall of Hallstyle Racing participated in the Ultra4 (unlimited 4400 class), finishing 2 of the 3 laps, but suffering a broken front inner IFS (independent front suspension) axle. But parts failures happen sometimes when you’re doing stuff like this.
The brothers came out of the race with lots of support from sponsors and friends, and are looking forward to the next race March 22nd in Folsom, California.
Mike Jones
PHOTOS BY EVAN WALSH
]]>FOLLOW @ENGELSKATES and @AZHIAZIAM on Instagram
This is our first ever TEAM RIDER interview at the AZHIAZIAM Warehouse in Morro Bay California. Daniel has been a part of the AZHIAZIAM Family for about 10 years and currently sits at number three spot in the World. The volume was a little low, so you might want to turn it up on your computer and also hit the "CC" for closed captions if you want to read along. We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we did! Thanks for watching :) Videos
INTERVIEW: Live Interview with Daniel Engel 1/31/2019
Daniel Engel, Azhiaziam team rider and one of the world’s top professional downhill skateboard champions is at the Azhiaziam warehouse in Morro Bay, California to talk about his downhill skateboarding career and what he’s been up to lately.
Daniel grew up in Bakersfield, California and started street skating with his friends at a young age. He was largely influenced by the culture of competition between him and his friends, mainly his best friend Aaron who was always pressuring him to “go harder”. After a series of life-changing events, Daniel eventually decided to make skating his main focus. He quickly realized that he was most interested in going fast and staying ahead of other competitors - making downhill racing the main focus of his trajectory. In the Fall of 2016, he quit his job at the sheet mill and started racing professionally. Now at 27 years old, he completed five years of downhill racing and moved on to finish two full seasons of the World Cup Circuit.
There have been a slew of positive influences throughout Daniels skateboarding career so far. He attributes a lot of his success to his closest friends. But also mentions Daewon Song, Chris Haslam, Chris Cole, Pedro Barros, the Rogers Brothers, and also his close friends Max Capps and Tim Del. Also Key Dougherty, and Ryan Ricker, who he credits for getting him started on gravity skateboards and helping encourage him along the way.
It takes a special mindset to be able to race downhill and stay calm enough to mitigate dangerous situations. According to Daniel Engel, his average speeds on a normal day are around the 45-50 mph range. World Circuit tracks are generally 55 mph and up to around 75 mph. At the Top Speed Challenge in Canada, his friends Tim Del and Max Capps when just over 90 miles per hour. And according to Daniel, there hasn’t been a “speed cap” that’s been reached as of yet. He credits a zen, calm state of mind for his ability to deal with tight situations that arise as he’s racing. He shuts off part of his mind and just enjoys the ride. He says it’s “kind of like flying.”
He hasn’t always escaped the dangers of his sport. He was recently injured as part of a larger tragic accident at the Downhill Skate World Championship in Rio de Janeiro on 11/11/18. He suffered multiple broken bones, including two breaks near his right knee, his left PCL broken in half, a broken jaw, shattered teeth, a sprained wrist, relocated bones, and organ damage. Tragically, in the same accident, another competitor, Allysson Pastran, lost his life after colliding with an oncoming motorcycle. Daniel was able to return home with the victory of coming in third place in the world yet the win was overshadowed by the dark cloud of losing his friend.
Fortunate enough to have no head or brain injuries, Daniel is looking forward to taking it easy for the first part of 2019 in order to complete physical therapy and to let his body heal. He’s hoping to attend the Newtons 2019 IDF World Cup April 5th-7th in Bathurst, Australia at Mount Panorama and also possibly compete in the Barcelona World Roller Games, which is a side championship to the International Downhill Federation World Circuit.
Traveling has got to be one of the best parts of Daniel’s skateboarding career and it sounds like he does it the right way by fully immersing himself in the cultures that he visits. Without big paying sponsors for his particular sport, Daniel travels on a shoestring, but enjoys this way of traveling over the alternative. He’s able to keep loose plans and go with the flow, meeting really interesting people along the way. Some of his favorites of all the places he’s raced have been South Korea, with is beautiful countryside, friendly people and amazing food. Also Australia, where he has tons of good friends and likes seeing all the “critters” they have. But the overall best place in his opinion was Peru. Particularly a town in the Peruvian Andes called Chacas, where the roads, the people, the food and everything around you is amazing.
With his breadth of knowledge about the downhill skating scene, Daniel does have advice for his fans and kids who might want to give the sport a try; “Put all your weight on your front foot, and if you wobble, get lower and you won’t wobble. You’re welcome.”
]]>AZHIAZIAM has had friends down in Brazil since day one. That is almost 20 years of awesome team work and memories with a hand full of Aerial experts down there in South America. Rodrigo Sino has been on board the entire time. Traveling the Globe surfing the world's best waves and repping AZHIAZIAM along the way.
Sino is taking his passion for the brand a step further and will now be the only licensed AZHIAZIAM Retailer in Brazil. A step that we hope opens up the supply chain for all of our friends down in South America to get the AZHIAZIAM Brand easily.
Cássio Sanchez, host do LIL MONSTER, recebe Rodrigo Sino, seu amigo de infância e lenda do surf brasileiro. Eles falam sobre surf, Gabriel Medina, Felipe Toledo, video-game e surf trips.
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On a cold Tuesday morning in Los Osos California, surfer Nick Wapner was attacked by a great white shark. The shark coming from behind and getting Wapners board and even a leg in his mouth before letting go.
Wapner was extremely lucky with this shark attack as he only suffered a few lacerations requiring 50 stitches. It could have been a lot worse.
The shark attack comes just a couple of weeks after a customer showed me a video from a boat just off Montana De Oro, in which a man was baiting sharks into biting a decoy seal just off of the Diablo Nuclear plant. This guy had 7 great white sharks circling his boat and this is only a couple miles from where this attack happened. Since this attack I have talked with the harbor patrol and they confirmed that a guy had been down off Montana De Oro baiting sharks for some kind of tagging or research.
My problem with this happening is that if you are teaching sharks to bite decoys of seals and chumming to get more sharks into the area for your "research" you are in essence bringing sharks in closer than they may usually be and also teaching them to bite on things that "look" like a seal that may not actually have all the characteristics they innately go for. You are almost causing a frenzied state for these great whites.
I am not saying that this is the cause of this attack, but it does seem odd to coincide with the area that this research was going on and where the shark attack occurred.
Los Osos is now the new mecca for great White shark attacks in California, this is the same place where local surfer Kevin Swanson was attacked by a shark and also luckily survived, albeit with a huge chunk taken from his leg. Luckily there was a doctor that happend to be on the beach for Kevin's shark attack and the chunk of flesh from the shark bite was able to be sewn back onto his thigh.
Here is the video from December 28th 2014 of Kevin's friend who was surfing with him showing the damage to Kevin's board...
It is interesting to note that these attacks happened at very similar times of the year Dec 28th and Jan 8th respectively 2014 and 2019
All in all, I am glad that both of these guys are ok! Growing up surfing in the area (I did go for a surf after hearing about this recent attack) I definitely feel more vulnerable now that so many attacks are happening in our area. Maybe we need to look into the research practices of the man baiting the sharks closer to where we all love to surf and play in the ocean.
Link to our INSTAGRAM page post on the Shark attack.
Link to Nick Wapners Instagram
Links to more articles
]]>The tow session lasted about 3 hours before the paddle session started, as everyone knows Kai Lenny was the stand out all day. Getting into the biggest and best waves of the day. Then Aaron Gold and Twiggy also took top honors in the paddle session.
We made the 3 hour drive home, re grouped and ended up going out to our local slab the next morning.
Good times, hope you enjoy the pics!
]]>Update:
Dec 10th 2018
AZHIAZIAM AIR FESTIVAL: The competitors put on an awesome Air Show for the hundreds of people on the beach in Praia Brava, Brazil! Thanks to everyone who help put on this event! Check out our instagram page @AZHIAZIAM (LINK BELOW) for more info on the event, sponsors, links and riders!
Last Saturday (8), the AZHIAZIAM Air Festival, Praia Brava, Itajaí (SC). The AIR championship had a different format, in which a roulette determined the maneuver that should be performed by the athletes.
Among the maneuvers drawn were aerial 360, kerrupt, varial, superman, full rotation, slob grab, stale fish, free, alley oop and double grab.
Highlights for well-known names such as Yuri Castro, Alan Fendrich, Mickey Bernadoni, Gustavo Schlickmann, Yago Ramos, Petterson Thomaz and Matheus Navarro.
Check out the gallery registered by Ricardo Freitas, SurfMappers , with the best moments of the event.
Air Festival 2018
Result
1 Matheus Navarro
2 Yuri Castro
3 Mickey Bernardoni
4 Yago Ramos
Expression Session Yago Ramos (aerial 360)
Best Airplane Yuri Castro (alley oop)
Dec. 5th from a Brazilian surf news website.
The forecast is for an air show at Praia Brava in Itajaí this weekend. This is the expectation for the second Air Festival Brava Beach , which will bring together 24 of the country's best aerialists on the Brava waves on Saturday and Sunday, in front of the Hike.
To raise the bar and test the limits, each heat will be drawn which aerial should be carried out by the competitors. The draw will be done through a roulette wheel with the options of the aerial maneuvers. If no athlete can make the aerial draw, the athlete who gets closer to completing will be the winner.
Among the many talents that will be at the Air Festival, the highlights are Matheus Navarro , Petterson Thomaz, Alan Fendrich , Daniel Kuerten, Gustavo Schlikman, Guilherme Tranquili , Pamplona Aminantes, Michelangelo Bernardoni and Yuri Castro. To judge this galley were invited Augustin Mica, Victor Drews and Vinicius D'avila. The championship is supervised by the Surfing Association of Itajaí Beaches - ASPI, which will also assist in the trial.
Before the grand finale, the Expression Session will be held with the participation of 24 athletes. According to the organization, at this time there will be no interference. It will be the moment of fraternization of surfers.
The prizes will be distributed to the winners R $ 2,000, as well as kits and a Snapy board for the champion. The public can also win several gifts that will be drawn through the Instagram of the event @airfestivalpraiabrava.
The first call of the Air Festival will be at 8am with the first battery entering the sea at 9am. The event is expected to end at 6:00 pm and after the awards ceremony, a warm-up will be held at the Hike, preparing the athletes and the general public for the Cosmopolitan Hip Hop, an event held at At Home. The Cosmopolitan Hip Hop will have as attractions Bárbara Muller, Noleis and Kley. On Sunday, the party continues on the Hike and the waves of Praia Brava. from the website NEWS FROM THE SEA
]]>Another week in one of my favorite country's, Portugal! Coming from a Portuguese / Hawaiian mother I have always been enchanted with my Grandfathers homeland... I first visited Portugal as a sponsored surfer in 1998 with some of my best central coast homies, Dustin Ray and Gabe Gazzolla along with some New Yorkers from the UNSOUND Crew...We had a blast, scored epic waves, stayed in ancient castles and ate like kings! I have been hooked ever since, even making two family trips there last year to visit friends and enjoy the easy lifestyle.
This year I went for a different reason, I went to document one of the largest forcasted swells ever seen to hit the region. Unfortunately a slight Westerly angle to the swell decimated any chance of the swell becoming historic.
Fortunately, I did decide to shoot the WSL event that took place a couple of days before the big swell was supposed to hit. And I am so glad I did. The waves were good size and PERFECT! I stood there all day in awe of what was going down with all of the surfers and rescue ski's going 100% all Day. These are just a few shots from the day...
Contest results:
1st Grant "Twiggy" Baker
2nd Lucas Chianca
3rd Naxto Gonzalez
4th Alex Botelho
5th Joao De Macedo
6th Russel Bierke
All Photos by Mike Lopaka Jones info@azhiaziam.com
]]>We will now also be taking in used boards and giving trade in value to get you on a new stick just in time for our best swell season! We also have great discounts on all boards that we are not able to advertise, so come in to get the best pricing available!
Want a custom!? We do a ton of custom orders from various shapers to work with you to get the best board possible for your size, and abilities!
]]>Not yet open to the public for recreational surfing, the Surf Ranch has been available to only mega stars, ultra wealthy, top pros and whoever Kelly deems worthy of a truly WiIly Wonka's Chocolate factory experience for surfers. Rumors have been circulating of a couple of new wave pools next to the current one opening up the future inevitable KS Waveco for us Average Joes. The price may still be steep, probably in the $100+ per hour range. But with the hype and allure of this mystical beast made by our leader, we will pay to play.
All of this dramatic fanfare has created a surf hype in Lemoore like no other city in the Central Valley. And one of our friends and long time AzHiAzIaM supporters from Lemoore has jumped on the surf train, opening the first surf shop in Lemoore. Tactical Tattoo of Lemoore owner Tim "Toofs" Welch, a well respected and humble businessman has unofficially opened the doors. Check it out:
321 E Street
Lemoore CA 93245
559-997-1616
Tim's new shop has been getting a ton of press lately from all over the world, here is an article from Stab Magazine:
We are super stoked to be expanding our AZHIAZIAM wholesale program with FLOWLINE being the latest shop carrying the brand. Flowline has started getting some products in the store and will be ramping up it's inventory for an "official" opening in November 2018.
Check out Flowline on Instagram here: FLOWLINE SPORTS INSTAGRAM
]]>PRESS CONTACTS:
Adam Wagner
503-449-6558
a.wagner@actionsportsnw.com
10 Barrel Brewing Presents the 2017 Nelscott Reef Pro/Am
Holding Period Opens October 15th
LINCOLN CITY, Oregon, September 25th, 2017, The premier big wave event at Nelscott Reef returns for the 2017/2018 big wave season as a Pro/Am event, presented by 10 Barrel Brewing. The Nelscott Pro/Am will bring some of the best big wave surfers from around the world, along with local big names in the field to compete in a single day’s competition.
Organizers are excited about this year, as the event has once again opened the invite list to include amateurs as well as professionals. After an overwhelming response to an initial call for interest, organizers, Adam Wagner and Gabe Smith decided to open the field to both. “I was a little surprised how many people wanted to be included this year. I knew it was going to be a good event this year, but we doubled the amount of interest from last year in just the first 24 hours of making the announcement. We are super excited with the diversity of the invite list”, said Gabe Smith.
Nelscott Reef was also the first big wave event to include women, which helped pave the way for other big wave events to open their doors as well, including the World Surf League’s Big Wave Tour. The women will be invited back for the third time to compete at Nelscott Reef for 2017.
“We are announcing the main invite list now for both the men and women. Due to the unprecedented interest in the event, we have decided to try something different with the alternates for this year. We will be holding a random drawing for the 10 alternates during our opening ceremony, which we will announce in the next coming days. We feel this is the best way to accommodate the additional 35+ qualified surfers who expressed interest in a fair, unbiased, and competitive manner”, said Wagner.
In order to run the event, organizers are looking for 30’ or higher surf, with little to no wind and good visibility. Conditions like this are rare in the Pacific Northwest and only happen on a few days of the year, sometimes for just a few hours. The event operates on a traffic light system, waiting for the right combination of weather and swell.
Event Director, Adam Wagner, explains the system. “Red light means there is no potential swell in the near future. We will move to yellow if we see a developing system in the Pacific that looks like it will produce the right conditions. We will go to green with 72 hours notice to athletes and sponsors. We have a great team of forecasters, including our sponsor, Surfline, that have been running the event at Nelscott for the past 12 years and know the fickle characteristics of Oregon’s fall weather.” said Wagner.
The organizers take safety of the athletes very seriously, and have brought in Eric Akiskalian from Towsurfer.com to help lead the team. Eric brings 15 years of experience at Nelscott Reef and knows allof the unique and logistical challenges to this spot better than anyone.
“One of the biggest challenges we have is simply getting everyone out to the reef in a timely and safe manner. On big days, you just can’t paddle out thru the pounding beach break. You need a PWC assist, and even then, it takes a lot of jockeying around on a ski to punch through 20’ beach break.” said Akiskalian. “Once out there, we operate on a man on man basis, one ski for each surfer in the water. We have some of the best watermen in the world operating the skis, while constantly focusing on risk management and keeping everyone safe throughout the event.”
Nelscott Reef is the best big wave break in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s unique location 1/2 mile off the coast, makes it one of the most accessible. Athletes launch right from the beach and spectators can watch from the beach or on top of the cliffs in Lincoln City. For those that can’t make it to Lincoln City on the day of the event, the team will be providing a live webcast.
For the latest information on the event, where to stay, etc., visit the event page at nelscottsurf.com.
We are thankful to each of our sponsors, as they make this event possible. This years sponsors include;
Title Sponsor
10 Barrel Brewing
Supporting Sponsors
Surfline
Chinook Winds Casino
Roby’s Furniture
Drone Age Media
Stay Covered
Quatic Apparel
Big Sur Bar
Oregrown
Zuhg
Inn at Lincoln City
Cleanline
Xtreme Amateur Games
Towsurfer
2017/18 Invite list includes Oregon crew, past years winners, and International competitors
Men’s Event:
Jeremy Rasmussen - OR
Tony Perez - OR
Tyler Cunningham - OR
Greg Long - CA
Kohl Christenson - HI
Alex Gray - CA
Jamie Sterling - HI
Grant ‘Twiggy’ Baker - SA
Andres Flores - CA
Jamie Mitchell - AUS
Will Skudin - NY
Cliff Skudin - NY
Kealii Mamala - HI
Nick Lamb - CA
Travis Payne - CA
Collin Dwyer - CA
Trevor Sven-Carlson - HI
Rafael Tapia - CHI
Kai Lenny - HI
Christopher Mumford - CA
Andrew Cotton - UK
Hugo Vau - PORT
Lucas Chumbo - BRA
Landon McNamara - HI
Women’s Event:
Savannah Shaughnessy - CA
Emily Erickson - HI
Jamilah Star - CA
Bianca Valenti - CA
Paige Alms - HI
Sarah Gerdhart - CA
Andrea Moller - BRA
Silvia Nabuco - BRA
Justine Dupont - FRA
Nicole Pacelli - BRA
Keala Kennelly - HI
Easkey Britton - IRE
]]>*Dane is a power surfer from Hawaii, who was once ranked #2 in the World. He continues to surf all the time and tow surfs massive waves all over the Islands including the infamous big wave break JAWS on Maui.
]]>Our Down Hill SKate Team Captain Daniel Engle also rocketed to #3 spot in the World after his race in South Korea last month! Daniel is on a mission to do everything he can to nab that first place spot on the IDF Tour
All the way over in Hawaii, Christian Enns takes a 2nd and a 4th Place at the Ala Moana Classic, one of the best comps on the Island's!
And Corbin Buckley won 2 First Place trophies for the team over in Florida!
Make sure to follow our Instagram account to always be up to date with whats happening with AZHIAZIAM!
]]>Keep Checking the link below as we will continue to add pics and videos to this galleries!
]]>Chapter 11 from Marine Layer on Vimeo.
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