Familia Skateshop celebrated it's 13th birthday this past weekend. When we heard that they'd be throwing several events as part of the celebration and that the X-Games would be happening in Minneapolis that same weekend, we decided to head back to Minnesota to see our friends and family, skate with the boys, and get X-treme.

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To kick off the weekend on Thursday night, Vans threw a junk skating-focused contest at Familia HQ to promote the new TNT shoe. After the wall had taken a beating from numerous FS and BS wallrides, a makeshift kicker over a can was set up. It was at this point that kids started hucking. Too many tricks to name went down over the can, but Johnny Layton was there and he switch 360 flipped it (respect).

After the Vans contest, we headed to the Cracked Pavement. Twin Cities: Then & Now show, which had some serious gems from the last 20 years of the Minneapolis skate scene.

The show is up through August 3rd at the Gamut Gallery - definitely check it out if you're in Twin Cities. Major shout out to Jamie Owens for organizing everything.

David Fink laying down the hungover hammers

Friday morning was about 90% humidity, so we went out to the sickest terrible park ever to sweat it out and get GNARLY (seriously, whoever is turning the shitty Mendota prefab park into an amazing DIY, please keep doing your thing, you are a hero).

That night, Andre Nickatina played a show and it was Nesser's birthday. Steve tried to keep it a secret, but those things don't work in 2018, so masks of his face were handed out and a birthday cake was presented to him after he was forced on stage while Happy Birthday was sung. The cake obviously ended up on his face.

Saturday was a slow moving day. It was just as hot as the day before and everyone was twice as tired, but seeing the replica of the iconic Spoonbridge and Cherry sculpture Familia made for their contest got everyone re-hyped. It took some getting used to, but pretty quickly kids were hucking and getting the crowd excited. Everyone who did a trick on this thing is wild, but holy fuck, Henry Gartland you are a nut.

The cast of Fobia's Hate Breeders. OG respect. — The cast of Fobia's *Hate Breeders*. OG respect.

After the contest, everyone headed down to Familia HQ for a display of artwork by Todd Bratrud and photos by Andrew Hutchison titled Before. It was more Twin Cities skate nostalgia from the Fobia / Iota era, a very special time in the lives of this blog's creators.

Photo op seconds before the video played.

Dana "Pizza" Ross then premiered his new video Passion of the Slice to a huge crowd. Highlights of the premiere include, but are not limited to: Tabari Cook's curtains part, Billy Marks repeatedly telling Dana he was going to ruin the premiere, Shane O'Neil being in attendance at Dana's premiere, and Dana ordering FORTY pizzas to the premiere.

We want to wish an extremely happy birthday to both Steve Nesser and the entire Familia crew. It is a special feeling to come back and still feel so welcome and have that much fun. We already cant wait for Day of Familia 14 next summer!

Video by Peter Jones

Day of Familia 13