The Rundown - CSC x Vague Christmas Party Extravaganza

Saturday night saw hordes of skaters from across the country descend on Cardiff for a night filled with shandies, shenanigans, and siestas for the launch of the new CSC x Fountain video alongside the new issue of Vague Skate Mag. This was one for the history books.

Newport's tuffest rock-n-rollers, Tuff Pintz, kicked things off with a boozy and chaotic set - helping to set the tone for the rest of the night. Pulley, Bailey, and the rest of the lads belted out banger after banger from everyone's favourite bands, including Fugazi and Black Sabbath, before making it rain with a Carve Wicked giveaway from their latest series of decks (which we'll be getting in store soon, don't worry). Pretty sure Kev was on someone's shoulders sloshing beer everywhere at one point so apologies if you got caught in the splash-zone.

Alongside Tuff Pintz, we also had the legends Al Power, Don Leisure, and Ed Carter jockeying the disks over the course of the night for your listening pleasure, because it wouldn't be a CSC event without Al Power DJing. Not gonna lie I don't really remember much about the music because I was too busy chatting absolute rubbish, but I have fuzzy recollections of stumbling around trying to cossack dance so I guess it must've been good.

The night saw the conclusion of the most anticipated event of the year (or at least the last week): the CSC Skater of the Year. We had our very own Thrasher-inspired showdown with footage machine, Don Irfan, facing off against Olympic hopeful and all-round people's champ, Hemmy Baldock, in a showdown for the ages. At the end of the day there can only be one winner though, and we all knew it was gonna be The Donald, otherwise he probably would've kicked off and said it was all fake news. Hemmy gave him a good run for his money but Don's had an 'elluva year and I don't think anyone could've seen the crown go to anyone else. SOTY AF.

The legends from Vague magazine came down for the launch of their latest issue, Issue 24, which saw Dale Starkie gracing the cover with a hectic ollie into a steep rooftop bank, alongside artwork by Kyle Platts. The issue's packed with goodies including interviews with PJ Chapuis, the Tightbooth crew, Kyle Platts, Kizzy Yuill, and cover boy Dale, alongside some of the usual features everyone looks forward to, like the new CSC x Fountain ad. We're big fans of Dale here at CSC so seeing the wholesome video of him being surprised with the cover brought a hungover tear to our eyes on Sunday. Very well deserved.

Next up, CHPO premiered their new video documenting their time in Beirut working with Make Life Skate Life on the Snoubar skatepark, and the impact it's had on the emerging skate scene there. The video had some really interesting insight into the benefits skateboarding can have for communities around the world, and of course there's some bangin' skating in there from the local rippers, alongside Helena Long and various other legends who went there to help out.

Of course, the main event of the night was the premiere of the new CSC x Fountain video which saw some serious hammers courtesy of Don Irfan, Jimmy Silver, Conor Charleson, Ben Rouse, Oscar Evans, PJ, Kev Barry, Hemmy Baldock, and more. All the boys absolutely smashed it with this video from the bangin' song selection to the sick idents by the homie, Tariq Kinani - this was some seriously professional shit, even if it was only finished 10 minutes before the party was meant to start. Don't worry if you missed it though, the video will be coming out on Vague soon enough so keep your eyes peeled, and make sure you keep an eye out for the new CSC x Fountain clothing collection that'll be releasing soon.

Would've loved to go into more detail about what went down on the night but, as you can imagine, none of us really remember that much other than that it was a good time, so apologies if you missed it and wanted to find out all the goss; guess you should've been there.

We wanna say a massive thank you to everyone who came down and made it a sick night, and of course a big thank you to Kong's for hosting us. Big up all the legends from Vague, CHPO, Skate Nepal, Baglady, Make Life Skate Life, as well as Ed Carter, Don Leisure, Al Power, and everyone else who helped out or travelled a long way to get here, it wouldn't have been the same without you.

Shoutout to Luther and Riley for falling asleep in their chairs as well. Seems like falling asleep in inappropriate places was the theme of the night with The Gaffa spending a night on the shop sofa after not being able to make it home. Respect.