Rick McCrank
Rick McCrank is a hard-charging skateboarder of the highest caliber. He's a lightning fast projectile on wheels, a total demo and contest master, an attacker of all terrain and an all-around seeker of fun, laughs and good times. Rick started skating in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at age 11 back in 1987.
After the usual formative driveway and sidewalk sessions, Rick began flicking high ollies off of little jump ramps, which were all the rage at the time. Noticing Rick's extremely worn down boards and budding abilities, a local shop called SK8 City gave him his first free equipment. Occasional forays into Montreal provided a bigger wealth of street terrain.
Rarely viewing any videos or magazines, for the next several years, Rick was blissfully ignorant of all skateboarding history, trends, ams, pros and even trick names. The poverty stricken McCrank skated for fun in a pure unsponsored state, with his decks frequently resembling nose and tail-less logs of severe abuse. The giant clothes era of the early '90s allowed Rick to finally fit in (at least somewhat, fashion-wise) with his dirt-cheap thrift-store duds, as it was easy enough for him to buy anything eight sizes too large.
The adult world first reared its responsible head in Rick's life back in those days, when Colin McKay added him to the Plan B roster. A short tenure at Birdhouse followed in the mid '90s, then a final settling at Girl Skateboards in 1998 and éS Footwear in 1999, where he's been ever since. In fact, Rick has designed five shoes for éS--the McCrank, the McCrank 2, the Anti-Social, the Norton and the Avers.
For some recent video proof, check out Rick’s part in éSpecial or his steady concrete destruction in Beauty and the Beast, the Girl and Anti-Hero tour video. Or if you’re on a nostalgic kick, check out his epic part in Birdhouse's The End, in which he somehow manages to bail a handrail 50-50 attempt and twirl down the stairs elegantly to avoid injury. And he’s sure to have another groundbreaking part in the Girl section of the upcoming Chocolate video.
Rick is a very busy guy these days, juggling time for numerous activities. He owns Momentum Wheels, co-owns a skate shop / art gallery called Anti-Social in Vancouver, and, most importantly, loves raising his young daughter, Kalea. During leisure hours, Rick enjoys eating vegetarian food, as well as occasional surfing, snowboarding and golfing.
Sponsors: éS footwear Girl, Matix, Thunder, Momentum, Nixon.
Rick McCrank timeline!
Rick McCrank has been on a non-stop, all-terrain murdering mission throughout his whole entire as a pro. Need evidence? Chromeball Incident has it covered.
Beauty and the Beast 2!
Looks like Rick is having a grand time on the Beauty and the Beast 2 tour...
More éS for your money...
... Well actually, it's free! But who couldn't spend a whole day lurking around the web, looking for unseen video gems? Now we're givin' you more to feast your eyes on in the form of our new YouTube and ShredorDie pages. Let the lurking commence!
éS timeline via Scuba Steve's garage...
There's a lot of éS aficionados out there, but Scuba Steve is without a doubt one of the biggest... and here's a small glimpse into the collection he's got stashed in his garage.
Atiba's ramp jam!
Here's a little glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes at Atiba's ramp when Manderson and Rick McCrank show up...
Cuba: Part 2
So the next few days were filled with taking taxiing around the city and skating. Not a bad deal. Everywhere we went to skate, we were distracted by our surroundings. “Take a picture of this, Scuba”, Manderson would say. Everywhere we looked was intriguing to us. One day we were wandering off on our own and found the sketchiest handrail. Manderson and Ron Deily skated it for a while. Behind the rail were old broken down beach homes—which time had forgotten. We’re talking ocean front property that was uninhabitable. Pools that had decayed and nearly fallen into the ocean. I wondered what this place must have been like in the 1950’s. Probably one of the nicest places ever. Cuba used to be a popular tourist spot and a gamblers paradise. All that was cut off after the Revolution in 1959.
As with any skate trip, we always get to explore a city in a different ways than most tourists do. We ended up in some neighborhoods that tourists never visit; they were not dangerous by any means, just unaccustomed to visitors such as ourselves. It was good to see how the Cubans lived. Really eye opening for myself especially, as sometimes you forget how good we have it here in the States. The Cuban people, for the most part, are not starving, but they are really poor. The government takes care of their people in the vital aspects of life; food, housing, medical care, jobs. Cubans do not have a lot of extra money to buy things that are not necessities. As you can imagine, skateboards fall into that category.
As we continued skating around Habana, I really started feeling like we were in a time capsule there. I’ve already touched on the old cars in the last update, but people also didn’t have mobile phones, no computers or credit cards taken out on the street. It was pretty awesome to have that feeling. We were disconnected from the world, and it felt good.
The Cuban cigars you ask? Well Manderson and myself were on the mission for them. We were standing in front of a cigar factory when a man approached us and told us he had cigars for sale. So Mike, Rob Meronek and myself followed him through some alleyways and into his living room. He brought out every kind of Cuban cigar you could imagine. Too good to be true we though, at half prices, we decided to buy a box each. Of course we asked for a sample and the man carefully selected a cigar for us to try. They are real, “one box each please”…we were hyped. We got them at 45 pesos. So we arrive at the hotel later, excited, and pull out a few cigars. We light them up… turns out they’re fake. The man who sold us the cigar had given us one real one to test out. So we got taken.
Look out for part three next week.
-Scuba
14 Years of Rick McCrank!
Plan B: Revolution
Sheep Shoes: Life of Leisure (4:23)
Birdhouse: The End
éS: Menikmati
Girl: Yeah Right!
McCrank & Friends
éS: Contemplative Clip
Momentum: Un Momentum Pro Favor
éS Where's That Spot?: Poland
éS: éSpecial