Words by Migdol, Photos by Rodent

I was given a first class airline ticket to Raleigh North Carolina for the Grand Opening of CCS’ newest store in the Crabtree Valley Mall. The thing is, my upbringing makes me feel very guilty for indulging in these types of excesses so I traded my ticket with a poor old crippled woman and moved back to coach with the rest of the peasants. The crippled woman had never eaten sushi so she was extremely grateful. Flying coach is much better for a hessian like me. In coach, people were cooking freshly slaughtered chickens over fires they had started in the isles. A wrinkled old man was playing an even older and more wrinkled guitar. Women were dancing and drinking wine from animal skins. A large woman in a in a long linen tunic was reading palms in the back of the aircraft. They accepted me as one of their own. It was awesome. When I woke up I was in beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina.

The skaters of Raleigh are some of the nicest, most cordial people I’ve ever had the chance of meeting. We hook people up hard at our grand opening events and the heads in Raleigh were truly grateful and that made me very happy. When I am happy good things happen. It’s like magic. Magically the Toy Machine and Foundation Teams’ Leo Romero, Johnny Layton, Dan Murphy, and Daniel Lutheran appeared and walked through the store doors at around noon, sat down and started signing everything that was put in front of them. Babies, goats, farming tools, car fenders, skateboards, nothing was spared the wrath of their pens. I was psyched to see kids thinking ahead and printing out photos of their favorite dude for them to autograph. One future ripper had a photo of Leo doing a backside noseblunt that he had him sign. When Leo is old and grey that autographed photo could be worth a lot of money. (Kid if you are reading this: the palm reader who studied the lines in my palm told me this would happen.)

No one left empty handed thanks to all of the generosity from the brands. Foundation, Toy Machine, Volcom, and Rvca flowed a cargo ship’s worth of product to the skaters of Raleigh. Let me not forget to mention there was, of course, the big fifty giveaway: CCS was giving 50, fifty-dollar gift cards all day. Everybody who came into the store got a fortune cookie. 50 Raleighians, Raleighfaris, Raleighites, what do you call people from Raleigh? I’m really not sure but fifty people from Raleigh walked away with a fifty dollar gift card if their cookie had the message: Big Fifty: CCS Gift Card. Delaminated decks with razor sharp tails and rusty bearings magically transformed to fresh new setups for 50 lucky skaters who decided to spend their winnings on hard goods.

Fresh setups for the masses!
The Early Birds Get the worms!
Foundation’s Dan Murphy, Toy Machine’s Daniel Lutheran, Johnny Layton, and
Leo Romero. Psyching up of an autograph signing session is serious business. You’ve
got to be properaly prepared mentally or you could get broken off.  
The Skateboard Mag’s Lensman Rodent decided to roll in with is weapon of choice.
Raleigh’s DJ SPCLGST opened the valve on the beat keg. (There is some top notch
caption writing going on now.)
These two freinds showed up together and both won a fifty dollar gift card each!

Those whose sweat glands were fully functioning braved the 90-degree heat and 1000% humidity and made the trek to the Marsh Creek Skatepark for a jam session. For how hot it was I’m amazed that the boys went to work so hard.

Dan Murphy focused his attention to the euro gap and banged off this big flip up it.
He then got tech on the ledge with a backside 180 to switch 5050.
Leo slammed pretty hard on a blunt to fakie but not before getting a crooks on the
bump to ledge. Here he ollies the channel to 5-0.

Daniel Lutherian hit up the rail with backsmith and then got this tailslide on the bump
to ledge.
Romero and Layton.

I don’t know what it is about CCS grand openings and motorcycle rallies but two out
of three events include some sort of gathering of motorcyclists and their rides in the
vicinity. This time it was the Ruff Ryders of NC, at the Marsh Creek Skatepark. Strange.

After our session we made our way to the Mellow Mushroom for a Team dinner.
Murphy, Lutherian, and Layton.
2/3rds Lutherian, Leo Romero, and Tumyeto video filmer, producer, and director
Kevin Barnett. No he is not a Russian spy. To his right is the photogher Rodent and
1/2 Murphy melon.

 I’d like to finish this post with a introduction to the staff of Raliegh’s CCS Store.
This is Jim Law. If you are nice Jim might just let you skate the epic mini-ramp
in his garage.
Justin and Nick grip boards like Ninjas.
Jeff and Taisha hold it down and keep it real at the same time.
Dee will lace you up a new pair of Emericas real fast!
I would not have found the Marsh Creek Skatepark if it weren’t for Eric’s detailed
directions. The dude is like a walking mapquest.com!

Again huge thanks are in order for all brands that supported the skate community of Raleigh. Stay tuned to the CCS blog for info on a CCS store opening near you.