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BW: Give me a quick rundown of who you are and what you do
NN: Well my name is Nick Niebuhr, and my partner’s name is Chris Siemens. We make and sell skimboards and we sell shirts! What makes us different from other skimboard companies is that we make and paint all of our boards by hand. It feels more personal that way.

BW: How long have you been making skimboards? Have you always used the brand name “Hanzane Skimboards“?
NN: I think i made my first skimboard like 4 years ago or something (and I still have it!!) and realized how great skimboarding is and that most of my friends didn’t have a board, so I decided to start making them for people. The whole business thing started off pretty ghetto but soon enough I got Chris on board with doing artwork, and things just fell in place! Since our roots we’ve been able to test a lot of things and come up with better technology all the time. It’s never been a big money-maker for us, but we’re ok with that because we love to just see kids skimming… Especially with our boards!! Oh and to answer part B, yeah it’s always been under Hanzane, it started out as sort of a joke with some friends and then we just stuck with it, and here we are…

BW: I love the graphics on your boards, do you do them all yourself or do you have other artists help you out?
NN: Haha yeah I’m hopeless at art… In the early days i tried doing the artwork for like 2 boards and it was just brutal. Thankfully Chris is an amazing artist and does the majority of the artwork. We’ve also been blessed to have friends who have been cool with putting some amazing art on our boards for really cheap! Seriously, you’d probably end up paying like hundreds of dollars for some of the art that goes on these boards, but like I said we’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to have this unique part of our company.

BW: I also see that you make clothing! It looks great, do you do all the art on the shirts as well?
NN: Again, that’s Chris’s department! He’s come up with all the designs, and then we both print the shirts.

BW: How long does it take you to make a skim, typically?
NN: Well, if we were to work on one board full-on, it would take maybe a week or two. There’s a lot of things you have to wait for to dry and whatnot so it’s a pretty lengthy procedure… We like to call it a “labour of love.” We’re not exactly in the business of mass-producing skimboards and selling as many as we can in a summer to make as much money as we can, we like the idea of putting honest hard work into something that looks and performs good and can be used by a range of people, from a beginner just riding for the first time to an expert riding rails and popping big gnarly tricks like nobodys’ business.

BW: Where does the inspiration for your boards come from?
NN: I’m inspired when I see a little kid having the time of his life out on his skimboard; or when I see some guys seshing a rail, pushing themselves to their limits and just loving being in the great outdoors. I’ve been given this gift of life, and the gift to make some pretty decent skimboards. Therefore it’s my responsibility to make these skimboards so that people can have as much fun as I have when I’m out at the beach.
And as far as artwork goes, I think there’s some musical inspiration from different bands, and then sometimes he just comes up with these amazing ideas in that little noggin of his! And of course since we do a lot of custom boards, our clients have a lot of input usually and Chris is great at putting their ideas onto the deck.

BW: Do you have any riders representing your brand, do you plan on having any?
NN: Nah we’re not really into sponsorships and all that jazz. I think it’s way too easy to get caught up in all that, like what company everyone’s riding for and how good they are compared to everyone else. There’s enough of that, we don’t need to contribute anymore of it! I don’t wanna bash other companies, I get so excited when I see people pushing the sport in videos or contests or whatever and I know the companies are what makes that all happen. But there’s enough of that out there and I don’t want to risk forgetting that the reason we skim is to have a good time!

BW: What should we expect in the future from Hanzane Skimboards?
NN: Hmm well I’d say we should expect more sweet skimboards being pumped out, more great times riding those skimboards, and we’ve always wanted to make some sort of video… Maybe that’ll come one day if we ever get some dece footage of some dece riders.

BW: Thanks for taking the time to chat, any last words?
NN: And thank you! To whoever might be reading this, get out to the beach as much as you can… You can never skimboard enough!!

Hanzane Skimboards can be bought on SkimBC.com!!! Check them out here!

1. Logan Davidson
2. Emile Panerio
3. Isaac Thomas

Women

1. Anna Penn
2. Kira Byers

U16

1. Peter Christensen
2. Ryan Mountain
3. Ryan Stewart

+16

1. Jason Rodjanapanyakul
2. Luke Byers
3. Luke Severinsen

Thanks to Jesse Gibson and Trevor Ball for submitting their photos! Additional photos by Brandon Wright of SkimBC.com.

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An early morning text message from Andrew Nelson led to a short but sweet skimboard session at Vancouver’s Third Beach. Around 11am I hopped on my clunker bike, and pedaled along the Stanley Park seawall to Third Beach where Andrew was skimming. While cruising along I found a perfect location to grab some scenic shots.

After shooting for a bit with my trusty old school manual Nikkor lenses, I hopped back on my bike and headed down to the beach to meet up with Andrew. It had been a few months since I last saw Andrew, as we spent some time chilling at the Sub Zero Skim Jam in Port Renfrew back in March. After catching up, we had just under an hour to shoot. After rattling off a number of photos it was time to head off again.

I will hopefully be getting out to shoot with Andrew again in the coming weeks. Although Third Beach rarely delivers a skim-able environment (or so I have been told), tides around 2.0 feet provide ample playing room for skimboarders, as both tidal pools and streams form. Tides like this provide lots of potential and variation for Vancouver’s skimboard community, as I will definitely be coming back to Third Beach again in the near future. Hopefully next time for a little longer.

Thanks to Bryce Casselman of Flatland Skim Mag for whipping up a short video of some of the skimboarding and heavy chess action! Thanks also to an old friend Josh for coming out and shooting photos at the event as well!

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BW: Well well well, congratulations on being the runner up for the Victoria Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneur of the year award!! So stoked for ya buddy, how do you feel? I couldn’t believe that a ‘Young Entrepreneur’ went up to 35 year old… at 26 you’ve got lots of time to get the top spot! I was sure stoked to be there to experience the whole thing with ya, it’s amazing how your entrepreneurial pursuits started with Zed Skimboards. What sort of valuable business skills do you believe you learned through Zed?

JZ: Hey Bdizzle. Thanks for the kind words! Everything started with Zed way back in 1998 when I was 14. It came from a passion of building skimboards, which ultimately led to building other products through Cascadia and Swell Source. Zed taught me a lot through trial and error and every summer, it still does. Everything is always changing and it makes the people involved quick on their feet, including myself. It also taught me that there’s more to a business than passion; you can have a heap of passion but if you are sleeping on the streets it’s not really a viable option. I’ve also been lucky to have a solid support network of friends and family surrounding me. The Island Skim Session is a testament to that. Everyone helps out just to have a good time because they believe in what Zed stands for and what the skimboarding lifestyle is. To me Zed is a school, a dream, a girlfriend, an experiment, and a mentor… pretty deep stuff eh? Haha!

BW: So tell everyone what companies you now own and what they’re all about. How many people do you employ now?

JZ: The parent company is Swell Source, which is a contract manufacturing company. We build different products for different brands around the world. Some brands we can talk about… some brands we can’t. It’s pretty exciting and I get to make people’s creative dreams become a reality in a product (and my own). Zed Skimboards is a h-core flatland skim company and my true passion, Cascadia Board Co is Canada’s only and first full service water sports company. We build everything from Surfboards, to SUP’s, to wake product under the Cascadia Label.

We’ve also got Bagless BC (which is an environmental initiative). It was another passion that led into a nice little environmental initiative to reduce single use plastic bags. It was a fun project with some great partners, but it’s winding down now… I have another social movement project I’d like to work on when then time is right.

We’ve got a tight crew of super talented crew of guys who are passionate about board sports. They are all doing great things for the brand, they include myself (doing the product design (with riders) and admin) Alex Haro (branding extraordinaire) Aarron Lepin (Sales Manager- Action sport) and a whole host of great subcontractors, artists, techies, photographers, and of course the token engineers. Credit also has to go out to everyone that surrounds the brands. Their energy makes these brands what they are and they know how to keep us positive when we’re stressing out.

BW: Which company is your favourite?

JZ: Zed, straight up.

BW: What kind of plans do you have for your companies in the future? Do you plan to push hard with Cascadia Board Co. in the skimboard world? Do you expect to have a team for Cascadia?

JZ: Cascadia Board Co. was developed as a full service water sports company while Zed is Skimboards, straight up. Within Cascadia, we offer 3 models of wood skimboards and 3 models of foam skimboards. Zed and Cascadia are targeting two completely different markets with the two brands. Zed boards are as good as skimboards can get, while Cascadia boards are toned down for the weekend warrior (no base, more flex, different glues etc.). That being said, the Cascadia boards are no dollar store cheepy China crap either, all the R and D that went into Zed was used in the Cascadia boards. In sum, Cascadia is for the beginner/novice rider while Zed is for the pro’s

BW: What new things do you see Zed doing in the future?

JZ: We’ve always pushed Zed to the limits of board production. This year we’re really excited about the Zed 3D 2.0 and we’re hoping to build on it’s success next year making a few more models of boards that are similar but playing with the contours etc. When we were the first company to add full traction to flatland skimboards back in 2002 we automatically started looking at ways we could play with that. Now, we know how to contour the top sheets creating a skateboard feel on a skimboard. It’s going to change the game. I’m always looking for new an innovative ways to get our riders a more high performance boards so keep an eye out in the future, a few of our team riders are ripping on experimental boards right now.

BW: What new things do you see Cascadia doing in the future?

JZ: What’s stoking me out pretty good right now is our new line of wake products. We really got into wake surf and wake skims this past season. People are stoked on it, we’re stoked on it, and it’s just generally a rad sport! The sport is still in its infancy, so we can take the board building skills learned from the other sports we manufacture and apply them to the wake line-up. We’ve had some awesome results and in turn, great sales! Watch for Cascadias cruising at your local lake this summer! Be warned!

BW: What should we expect to see out of ya over the next 5 years? More companies? Or are you going to be focusing on what you’ve got right now?

JZ: That’s a tough one. I really like to innovate and create, and wherever I see an opportunity I like to go after it. This past season, we manufactured some amazing snowboards for a brand as well as promotional snowboards for every major liquor company in Canada. Through this I’ve developed a relationship with some solid snowboard producers and suppliers. It’s something I’ve kicked around for a long time, but it takes a lot of energy. I’ve told myself, I’m not going to do it until I find the right person to head it up. However, after 15 years of riding and lots of close contacts within the industry, it would seem that it’s a natural evolution…we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

BW: Pretty unreal stuff you’ve got rolling dude, I’m very happy for you and your continued success! I’m looking forward to getting out on some of those Cascadia wake skates and sooner than later! Thanks a lot for chatting with me and I’ll probably see ya in a few hours for a beer! haha.

Check out Jeff’s websites: Zed Skimboards and Cascadia Board Co.

BW: Hey Marina AKA sis’! Can you tell me a bit about yourself and what you do?

MW: Hey Big Brosef! Well, my name is Marina Jenelle Wright and I am a recent graduate from the University of Victoria where I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Sociology.  Currently I have been living both on Vancouver Island and in Langley, BC – painting and trying to get my work out there to the people!

BW: Who originally inspired you to paint?

MW: Good question, our Dad (Ken Wright) is a fabulous artist – I remember when I was little seeing him paint a float plane, I was amazed at how he created that and will never forget it.  Grandma Wright was also an amazing artist – I guess it runs on the “Wright” side of the family.  They definitely had something to do with the inspiration as well as all the support from my family and friends.

BW: There has been so much hype about your paintings around Victoria, when did you start your paid painting career?

MW: I started while I was attending University.  It was partly a procrastination method from my homework and classes as well as not wanting empty walls in my apartment. I started posting my finished work on Facebook – friends and family were so supportive and many people were interested in purchasing my work so I decided to make a Facebook page (Marina Jenelle Paintings), as well as sell my work on Usedvictoria.com and Craigslist.

BW: I know you create a lot of paintings from your mind’s eye, but do you takecustom orders often? What styles of painting would you be able to punch out if aclient requested it? Abstract, modern, etc?

MW: Yes, I have taken many custom orders and still do!  I have been commissioned to paint float planes, photographs from peoples vacations, abstract art, landscapes, as well as ideas individuals have in their minds – I love putting those ideas onto canvas.  I will give any style a shot, abstract, modern, realism – bring it.

BW: It’s pretty remarkable how accurately you can replicate some pretty famouspaintings and add your own spin on them… What’s your favourite style of artwhether for replication or as a brand new design?

MW: Ohhh why thank you.  I have really enjoyed doing messy, abstract backgrounds and placing realistic silhouettes of trees to make a crazy landscape piece (as you all can probably tell).  It allows me to play with colour and layout, along with keeping small details of tree silhouettes, etc.  I am wanting to work with more animal silhouettes like in “Call Me Up In Dreamland”.

BW: What types of paint do you usually work with? I don’t really know thedifference, so you may need to enlighten me and our readers!

MW: I usually work with acrylic paints.  They are easy to blend, dry quite quickly and are amazing to work with on large canvases.  Oil paints on the other hand take a lot longer to dry – possibly even weeks or months and are easy to work with for several sessions.  For my tree silhouette paintings, it’s beneficial use acrylics as I want a pure black silhouette to show without other colours blending into it.

BW: I’ve seen lots of variation lately in your canvases, especially between clothand wood… What is your favourite type of canvas to use and why?

MW: I personally like 100% cotton on 1.5″ stretcher bars.  The thickness of the canvas looks amazing hanging on a wall, especially with the painting continued on the sides.  However I do really enjoy working with wood panels.  The stains I use bring out the grain amazingly and I can really bring out that west coast, natural vibe through my work.

BW: Can we expect any other types of canvases in the future?

MW: Possibly, perhaps Skimboards or Surfboards?  That would be wicked.

BW: What sort of difficulties or changes in your style do you run into when youstart switching canvas types?

MW: I find that the wood panels are a lot more difficult to paint on especially with paintings involving detail.  If you make a mistake there is no erasing it!  You just gotta roll with it.  Other than that, it’s all good.

BW: What has been the most unique painting you’ve done so far?

MW: The most unique painting would have to be… Well they are all pretty unique from what I see in the art world.  But I guess, for me, “Call Me Up in Dreamland” is pretty unique.  Mixing neon pink with a painting of a Buck doesn’t happen everyday.

BW: I remember hearing you had a pretty substantially sized canvas given to you,possibly from your boyfriend Ryan… How big is it? What do you plan on painting on it?

MW: Yes, it has been taunting me lately – its pretty big, 48X96″.  Iím thinking I might have to stick with my trade mark spruce trees and crazy bright backgrounds on this one.  I have been waiting until I come up with the perfect idea/sketch.  It’s a beast alright.

BW: What other types of art have you gotten into? Any potential in selling that artas well?

MW: I have always been into art since I was younger.  I designed and sold jewellery in some of the stores on the Island.  I also took a ceramics class at UVic which was pretty wicked.  It was a fun experience but I think I will stick with my paintings!

BW: Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions! You’re great! I’m stokedto have your work scattered throughout my apartment, it’s so sick!!

MW: No, you’re great.  Haha thanks Brosef!  I’m happy you can be reminded of your sis through my work every day. xo

Check out more of Marina’s work on her Facebook Page!

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Looking for some help funding your education? The crew at SkimBC.com have all completed undergraduate degrees/diplomas and know how tough it can be to survive on virtually no funds! What does it take to snag $150 from SkimBC.com, you ask?

What we’re looking for is an article submission for SkimBC.com! All of the article submissions will be place on SkimBC for the public to read and ‘like’ on Facebook. All of the submissions will also be listed in the SkimBC Bursary directory !

The articles will be read by the SkimBC.com crew and the recipient of the bursary will be selected based on the creativity of the article and also influenced by the number of ‘likes’ on the article’s page.

Entry Requirements

• Entering or continuing your education at a University or College in British Columbia.
• Has a good skimboarding story to tell!

Submission Requirements

• A narrative article in Word (.doc/.docx) or PDF format that contains a maximum of 400 words related to skimboarding adventures or skimboarding culture. Submit your article in the form below.
• Provide a 940px wide by 300px tall image as a ‘title image’.
• Fill out the entry submission form below.

Article Suggestions

• Your best skimboarding adventure (in BC or abroad)
• Writeup about something skimboarders would be interested in
• Skimboarding culture

Bursary Submission Form

We will contact you after your entry submission for additional details if required!

I’m sure this isn’t the last we’ll see of Porter the skimboarding dog, especially being that he is Kayotics Skimboards official mascot!

The 11 skimboarders that participated in the event this year included (in no particular order):  Brennan Wolfe, Byron Shultz, Steve Pronovost, Chris Strebly, Andrew Nelson, Rex Escasinas, Neil Escasinas, Bryce Rudland, Rory Miller, Scott Copeland, and myself… It was such an awesome group of guys skimming this year, as usual you couldn’t feel even an ounce of animosity when another dude crushed a wave rather you’d hear everyone cheering and egging their comrade on! That support and friendship is exactly the reason why I’ve hosted the event 5 years in a row!

The placings for this year’s event were as follows:

1st: Steve Pronovost
2nd: Bryce Rudland
3rd: Rex Escasinas

Every single person that rode this year outperformed themselves, I was so pumped to watch everyone charging super hard for about 4 hours straight! Some of the boys, including Rex and his bro Neil skimmed for a few hours before and a few hours after the event… Then skimmed immediately the next morning!!! You could tell those guys were stoked to be in Renfrew.

This year the event had two bands perform, Mindil Beach Markets and Brett Wildeman & Half Broke Horse. Brett Wildeman and the brothers David and Jeremy Williams set the mood of the evening right off the bat with some amazing celtic/folk style music featuring an acoustic guitar, harmonica, violin, and drums. Mindil Beach Markets finished off the night just right with some fast paced rock/surfer tunes, they were a perfect choice for this year’s event! I have their songs “No Time” and “Drink it up” on a loop in my jeep right now, I can’t get enough! If you want to get a sense of Brett, David, and Jeremy’s performance how ’bout you listen to their LIVE recordings from the event! Scroll down to the bottom of this page and listen to some Brett Wildeman & The Half Broke Horse and some Mindil Beach Markets tunes while you read the rest of the article!

As usual our sponsors outdid themselves again this year, Zed Skimboards generously donated a Tantrum foam skimboard for first place and a whack of hats, hoodies, and womens clothing. Brayn Child (Andrew Nelson’s company) donated tons and tons of amazing hand made knitted scarves, bags, toques, and headbands, his products are so sick and everyone was excited to receive a prize from Brayn Child! Sitka Surfboards stepped up again this year and provided $500 worth of prizing, which included hoodies, shirts, mugs and stickers… It’s amazing how generous companies can be when they’re supporting a skimboarding event, it makes me extremely happy to know that everyone is as stoked to participate as I am to host it!

Once again this year I not only was a judge for the event but I skimmed with everyone as well during the entire competition. That’s where skimboarding is great, it’s such an amazing spectators sport where you can be interacting with the riders and be able to see everyone riding within a short distance of you! My reasoning behind skimming and judging at the same time was “why the heck would I get a bunch of friends together to skim some great waves and not get right in there as well?!”, it just makes sense!

I would like to make a special thanks to everyone that helped out with the event, a special thanks goes out to Lauren Peterson whipped up the poster and shot photos at the event, Brennan Wolfe who dished the posters out all over Victoria, Bryce Casselman and Jesse Gibson who took some unreal photos, and Jeff Zamluk for ripping people around on the jet ski and ultimately saved 3 people’s lives who had their boat flip in the waves!

Looking forward to organizing next year’s event!!!

Mindil Beach Markets – No Time Download audio file (04-No-Time.mp3)

Mindil Beach Markets – Drink It Up
Download audio file (drinkup.mp3)

Brett Wildeman & Half Broke Horse – Venice
Download audio file (track?enc=mp3-320&id=2506482054&ts=1301887109.4179525050&tsig=5435bd125a0811945613e4d52cc7d45c)

Brett Wildeman & Half Broke Horse – Coastal
Download audio file (track?enc=mp3-320&id=3404789319&ts=1301887333.1418583129&tsig=1e0be176167bc5ee6e84c99906c26a66)

Brett Wildeman & Half Broke Horse – Prospectives
Download audio file (track?enc=mp3-320&id=3133769423&ts=1301887410.1368087343&tsig=e8678755271cd64135133f0b673332ef)

Download all of Brett’s live songs here: Brett Wildeman & The Half Broke Horse live at Sub Zero Skim Jam

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