2009: Welcome, John Rattray / Skateboarding Starts With éS Timeline

2009 Year in Review:

John Rattray joins the éS pro team. John’s "take no prisoners" approach to attacking handrails, huge gaps and stairs along with super-fast technical lines has gained him notoriety as a destroyer.

The éS team embarks on the éSpañol Tour 2009 through Central and South America. The lowlight of the tour occurs when filmer Mike Manzoori gets his video camera stolen at gunpoint. Ironically, that unfortunate event's news post generates some of the highest traffic ever recorded on the éS site. éS teams up with a big crew of friends to visit Cuba and give away free skate equipment to the kids. (View parts one, two and Chris Nieratko's story.)

Mike Manzoori, just prior to getting robbed.

Great éScape Tour

The éS team then visits the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany and France on the Great éScape Tour.

Great éScape. Great éScape flyer.

Great éScape part one.

Great éScape part two.

Great éScape part three.

In the contest arena, the éS team suffers from Third Place Disease as Kelly Hart earns third spot at Manny Mania, Nyjah Huston does the same at Maloof Money Cup and Alexis Sablone follows suit at the Boston stop of the Dew Tour. éS Europe’s Ricardo Paterno one-ups them all by winning the AmsterDamn Am, then Nyjah and Alexis bounce back with silver medals at X Games 15!

Kelly Hart at Manny Mania.

éS Team Coverage

Bigger please!

John Rattray graces the cover of Sugar magazine, while Rick McCrank gets Chrome Balled not once, but twice, and honored by éS with a 14 Years video collection. The éS team scores a wide array of interviews in 2009, including Rick McCrank's éS Behind the Ad, and another in SBC Skateboard; Rodrigo Teixeira on CCS and Venture, as well as inside the July issue of Skateboarder and the October issue of Thrasher; Justin Eldridge on Crailtap and Crailtap again; Bobby Worrest on EXPN and A Visual Sound, as well as in the May issue of Skateboarder, and a Pro Spotlight in the September issue of TransWorld; Danny Garcia on éS and Thrasher; Mike Anderson on Deluxe, éS and The Berrics; and Kellen James on TransWorld Skateboarding.

Bigger please!

Rick McCrank.

Mike Anderson switch bigspin board.

Justin Eldridge.

Justin Eldridge, back noseblunt at the Skatepark of Tampa.

Danny Garcia switch smith.

Bobby Worrest and Kellen James debut sick parts in TransWorld’s Right Foot Forward video, while Rodrigo Teixeira shreds it up in Flip’s Extremely Sorry and John Rattray rules Zero’s Strange World. Pitcrew hosts the world premiere éS shoe release party for Bobby Worrest’s First Blood.

Right Foot Forward trailer.

Bigger please!

éS presents the Internship of a Lifetime Contest to find the best-qualified filmer, photographer and writer to cover the official éS Game of SKATE 2009 tour.

Internship of a Lifetime Contest.

Rodrigo Teixeira is honored with his very own pro model wheel on Gold.

Scuba Steve digs deep into the depths of his garage to reveal a fat collection of vintage éS shoes. Steve then starts Twittering, as does Justin Eldridge.

Scuba is a collector.

éS unleashes a slew of special collections in 2009, including the Contract Series, featuring the Accel TT all decked out with portraits of Rick McCrank, Justin Eldridge, Danny Garcia and Nyjah Huston on the tongues drawn by Rick’s friend Laurie D. Next up is the Woodland Collection, featuring the Square One, TXL and Young in a woodsy Brown Tan colorway. Third up are the Climate Control Collections, featuring the Accel TT, Accel TT Hi, Cessner Mid, FV-1, Screen and Square One Mid all decked out in a special water-resistant suede. Last but not least is the Royal Trucks Collection, featuring the Garcia 2 Mid, the Theory 1.5 and the Tarmack. Special colorways include the Accel Nyjah Huston, the Accel TT Javier Sarmiento and the Avers with a Lori D. Werewolves print and a special Rick McCrank Bio Diesel colorway.

2009 Product

2009 Headlines

Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th, and first African American, President of the United States.
The deadliest bushfires in Australian history begin; they kill 173, injure 500 more, and leave 7,500 homeless.
A Russian and an American satellite collide over Siberia, creating a large amount of space debris.
North Korea launches the Kwangmyongsong-2 rocket, prompting an emergency meeting of—but no official reaction from—the United Nations Security Council.
Air France Flight 447, en route from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris, crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 228 on board.
The outbreak of the H1N1 influenza strain, commonly referred to as swine flu, is deemed a global pandemic, becoming the first condition since the Hong Kong flu of 1967–1968 to receive this designation.
The death of American entertainer Michael Jackson triggers an outpouring of worldwide grief. Online, reactions push internet traffic to potentially unprecedented and historic levels.
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, imprisoned for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, is released by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds as he has terminal prostate cancer.
An 8.3-magnitude earthquake triggers a tsunami near the Samoan Islands. Many communities and harbors in Samoa and American Samoa are destroyed, and at least 189 are killed.
A 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes just off the coast of Sumatra, killing around 1,000 in Indonesia.
Astronomers discover GJ1214b, the first-known exoplanet on which water could exist.