Chocolate is one of those brands in skateboarding that you just can’t help but love. Their team has always been stacked, their gear is always clean and rad, and simply put, they’ve always come correct—for three decades now! 

Their 30-year celebration continues, and in true Chocolate fashion, they’re giving back to the shops, communities and cities who have supported them all these years in a really cool way. Take a look: 

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„2024 marks #30ChocolateYears, and we’re flipping the script to celebrate!“ Chocolate announced on Instagram recently. „A huge shoutout to all the cities, shops, and communities that have been part of the ride – we couldn’t have made it this far without you.“ 

Related: Chico Brenes Drops Limited Signed Chico Stix x 30 Years of Chocolate ‚Nicaraguan Sunrise‘ Deck

These are the types of things that I can really get behind, you know? And really, where would any brand be without the support of local scenes, core skate shops and all the skateboarding enthusiasts across the globe? Probably not 30 years deep! That’s for sure. 

Adding to it all, they also mentioned, „Before Evan Hecox crafted the iconic Chunk logo, Andy Jenkins hand-drew Chocolate’s first Script. Now, for our 30th, we’ve flipped that Script for over 90 cities across the globe, showing love to the places that have supported us from the start.“

Related: Chocolate Teams Up With Artist Evan Hecox On New ‚City Series‘ Decks (Out Now)

I’ve always been a fan of Chocolate, and as someone who tirelessly preaches about supporting local skate shops, this whole concept simply has me fired up. And I have to imagine all the shops and communities involved feel the same way. 

If you haven’t yet, swipe through some of the IG posts that are peppered in here for a small taste of some of the shops and cities involved. 

All the gear is available exclusively at YOUR local skate shop now. How much easier can they make it to go support this holiday season!?

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Coast to coast, country to country, stuff like this is what skateboarding is all about, if you ask me. Shoutout to the entire Chocolate squad—from the team to the folks charging behind the scenes—and of course, all the shops, communities, scenes and skateboarders who keep the fire burning!

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The Fiends provide once again. Whether you know of Jhanka Gonzalez or not is hardly important. This dude is literally a beast on the board. No terrain is safe and nothing I can say will give justice to the NBDs and heavy hammers this maniac just dropped in his new Creature part. 

Cody Lockwood, Chris Russell, John Worthington, Willis Kimbel, Milton Martinez, Kevin Bækkel, David Gravette, Collin Provost and Peter Raffin give us a little taste here before Jhanka closes the curtains. Uhhhh….yeah! Settle in and prepare yourself for 10 minutes of heat. Press play:

„It’s no secret that Jhanka has been on an absolute warpath with any and all terrain that crosses him,“ Creature mentioned in the description. Nineteen words that say more than enough. 

Every once in a while, dudes like Jhanka sort of come out of nowhere. In fairness, he’s been around, but sometimes it takes a full part to remind us all just how gnarly someone truly is—this is a perfect example.

Related: Creature’s Jared Cleland Sets the Streets on Fire in New ‘Burn The Flames’ Part

The Creature team is stacked. You don’t need me to tell you that. They genuinely set the tone for this entire video, but damn, Jhanka came out swinging! From start to finish, we’re truly hit with nonstop bangers. 

And without spoiling too much, his last few tricks are pretty unbelievable. 

I usually like to blabber on, but I’m just gonna leave this one here. Press play and get stoked. Yeah, Jhanka! 

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Louie Barletta, a Taurus, has been in the game for a long time. He’s weathered the ups and downs, companies coming and going, sponsors changing—and he’s always done it with a smile on his face while making us laugh. Nowadays, he’s heading up Jacuzzi Unlimited and also PUSH. Check out this lengthy video checking in with Louie and all things mental health we shouldn’t be afraid to discuss. 

„Louie Barletta discusses mental health & Push Skateboarding For A Cause. As we get an inside look into his life. For more information about all of this please visit: pushcompletes.com.

From PUSH’s website: „Here at push skateboarding for a cause we believe mental health is priority number one. We are proud to say a portion of the proceeds of every push product goes into providing a mental health specialist on staff. Providing therapy for not only all our professional skateboarders, but also for sidewalk distribution employees and family, free of charge. The strain of professional skateboarding can be tough for teens and young adults, often times they have no avenue to talk about their problems when most of their friends look to them as having the “dream job” or the “dream life” having someone in house to talk to breaks down the wall and stigma related to therapy and normalizes it. As time progresses, we hope to share our resources and make mental health specialists an industry standard for all skateboard companies.“

Filmed & Edited by: Josh Roossin“

For more about PUSH, check out the article below:

Related: Push Skateboards Partners with ‚Make Life Skate Life‘ to Build Skateparks in Under-Served Communities

We made a little listicle of our own on how the simple act of skateboarding is great for your mental health. 

Related: 5 Ways Skateboarding Boosts Your Mental Health

And of course, the Ben Raemers Foundation is always doing a fantastic job at checking in on each and every one of us. 

Related: The Ben Raemers Foundation: Checking In with Louie Lopez

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By now, I’m sure you’ve all heard the news—Hayley Wilson is Real Skateboards‘ newest pro! It was a special moment for Hayley and everyone involved, as the whole Melbourne skate community came together for an epic surprise. 

Real recently put together a video highlighting Hayley’s journey to the pro ranks, and it made my admiration for this Aussie ripper grow a million times more. Take a look below and hear from Ishod, Mason, Nicole, and the rest of the Real team on how Hayley first showed up on their radar.:

While it’s always cool to hear from fellow teammates and close friends, it was extra rad hearing Hayley’s folks tell the story of when Hayley first said she wanted to go pro. It’s a tale as old as time and one that will never get old, as far as I’m concerned. And it’s always a treat to see classic footage of our favorite pros—pint-sized and padded up—getting buck and having fun when they were just little groms. 

Related: Real Surprises Hayley Wilson With New Pro Model Board

Hayley has had quite a year in 2024, but she’s had her foot on the gas the last few years all the same. It was really only a matter of time before she made the leap into the pro ranks and there’s no denying she absolutely deserves it. 

She’s been out there proving herself for years and years (the story about how she entered that local contest as the only girl and took the win says it all) and I have no doubt in my mind that she’ll continue to inspire skateboarders from all over the globe as her pro career begins to take off.   

Related: John Rattray Sits Down With Nike SB Rider, Hayley Wilson for a Powerful Talk on Skateboarding and Mental Health

Off the board, Hayley is just as inspiring and is a really big advocate for things like mental health, for example. Click the video above for a really rad talk with her and John Rattray from earlier this year. Hayley is the real deal. 

Congrats again, Hayley! We’re so stoked and can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon. Do yourself a favor and pick up her debut pro model board from your local the shop—the first one is always a little extra special, you know? Yeah, Hayley!

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There’s no shortage of Instagram accounts out there to keep skateboarders doom-scrolling for days. From our favorite pros to our favorite brands and everything in between, we really are unbelievably connected. Social media is an unavoidable monster, and we’re all following along to some degree. And hey … sometimes it’s fun!

That said, there is a smaller percentage of „skate nerd“ accounts out there that I concocted this list out of—and I’m still barely scratching the surface here—that I think skateboarders from every era will appreciate. The ones who really dig deep and put some effort into what they’re posting; the ones who have turned a fun idea into something we can all nerd out on. 

Related: 7 Lesser-Known Facts About Tony Hawk and His Iconic Career

These are in no particular order, either. Just FYI. They’re all rad and hopefully the list of who you follow on Instagram grows a bit after this. 

@SameSpotSameAngle

This account is so rad. The name is pretty self-explanatory, but whoever runs @samespotsameangle really does an insanely impressive job finding clips that have two different skaters doing the same trick, at the same spot, filmed from the same angle. Honestly, the first time I really dug into this account, I was blown away by how many situations like this actually exist. Often times from major pros in major full-lengths! 

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There’s obviously an unwritten rule in skateboarding that says you can’t—well, shouldn’t—do the same trick at a spot that someone else has knowingly already done. Fair enough. But when they’re literally filmed from the same exact angle? Pretty wild. In fairness, back when social media wasn’t such a thing, and we depended strictly on word-of-mouth, it was a different story. But these days? Hmmm … I don’t know. 

Regardless, some are coincidental, some might not be, but spend some time on their page and trip out. There are seriously a ton.  

@DeadHippie

Former TWS alumni, incredible writer, ripping skateboarder and die-hard skate nerd, Mackenzie Eisenhour rules, and his Instagram account @deadhippie should be a mandatory follow. 

While Mac offers a variety of investigative skate journalism and deep dives into a number of topics, the majority of his posts are photo and video submissions from other skate nerds across the globe showing the current conditions of iconic skate spots. Like, here’s what this classic spot from The Search for Animal Chin looks like now; here’s this classic schoolyard spot completely reconstructed from the 90s; here’s this famous handrail spot from the 00s, knobbed and painted…etc., etc.

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He’ll post a slideshow of photos and videos showing them then and now, and it’s always super fascinating. Sometimes, the spots are completely destroyed, changed and almost hard to reimagine. Other times, you see hints and remains of the sacred ground that once was—those ones are super rad. And often, the spot is still there, looking as perfect as ever, only it’s unskateable for one reason or another. 

At any rate, everyone from Gonz to Tony Hawk to tons of your favorite pros follow along, and for good reason. Watching Mackenzie post clips of him ripping and progressing in the midst of it all is simply just the cherry on top! If you aren’t following, well, get there. 

Related: The 10 Best Skate Parks and Skate Spots in the U.S.

@NoPushLines

I feel like the idea of doing „no push lines“ isn’t something we fully grasp—or let alone strive for—as skaters until we’re at a certain point in our journey. There’s so many little unwritten rules and subtleties in skateboarding, just like there’s (arguably) cooler ways to do things … like piecing together a line without pushing. 

The account @nopushlines is basically just a huge catalog of clips featuring skaters piecing together lines in one fluid motion. Their only rules? „NO PUSHING/NO PARK.“ Deal! 

It’s hard to deny that lines look way smoother when you can pull one off without pushing, but what’s funny is that we often don’t even realize it’s happening. That’s why I’m glad this account exists. We need these little reminders every once in a while. 

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You can really get sucked down the rabbit hole on this one in the best way. And again, it’s just a prime example of skateboarders pulling out the magnifying glass and really dissecting not just what our favorite skaters are doing but how they’re doing it. Just peep those Ishod Wair lines above. Not everyone can pull off a line like that, but those who can, well… we’re thankful for ‚em. 

@OverthinkingSkateVideos

If there’s one account on this list that deserves the award for „Most Attention to Detail,“ it’s definitely @overthinkingskatevideos. Honestly, just look at this post below, for example, about how many slo-mo tricks there were in Lakai’s groundbreaking video, Fully Flared. I mean, this is serious stuff! Take a look:

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„Barring statistical anomalies, Guy Mariano’s part has the most slow-mo at 54.3% slow-mo (or 44 of his 81 clips), followed by Brandon Biebel’s part with 53.5% slow-mo (or 23 of his 43 clips) and Mike Mo Capaldi’s part with 47.6% slow-mo (or 30 of his 63 clips). Swipe to the end to nerd out on more raw data.“ 

That’s just a snippet of the caption (also, swipe and look at that graph on the fourth slide), but these dudes truly do overthink tricks, spots, the way people push, the way things are filmed … and that list goes on and on and on. 

There are some serious deep-dives (and more often than not, moments that you can’t help but agree with) about the most minuscule things in videos, it’s almost funny at times! Like, damn, you really dug into that one! But at the same time, that’s exactly what makes it so rad. 

All I can say is give them a follow. You won’t be disappointed. 

Related: 8 Tips for Picking Out the Perfect Complete Skateboard Set-Up

@BlatantNostalgia

Depending on your age or the era you grew up skating, @blatantnostalgia can certainly be a nostalgic skateboarding account. It’s a place someone like myself, for example, can go to revisit some of the skaters, clips, skate videos, soundtracks and everything in between from when I was first becoming consumed with skateboarding. 

For younger skaters, it can be a great place to get some solid visual skate history, and learn about the skaters, videos, parts and whatever else that helped get us to where we are today. Regardless, the majority of their posts tend to make me think, „What happened to that guy?“ Or, „They just don’t make videos like this anymore…“ Or, of course, „This was the best era of skateboarding.“ 

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Hey, it’s all subjective, but the nostalgia is real on this account! He gets really into detail in the descriptions most of the time, too. Great posts to DM your homies and spark up a conversation. Follow along and let the nostalgia pour in. 

@SwiftBlazer

Another account that provides some much-needed nostalgia, @swiftblazer is rad because he posts a ton of stuff from the mid-’90s to early 2000s, which was right around the time I was getting into skating, and was certainly an era I studied a lot in my late-teens, early-twenties. There are a ton of classic TWS video clips peppered in from the golden era of TransWorld videos, too, which is simply a bonus. 

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Aside from posting classic parts, he brings new life to old, classic ads. Sequences from old mags. Clips from the cuttiest old videos. Timeless covers. 

Honestly, there’s a huge variety and it’s this variety that really keeps things interesting over there. You never know what’s coming, but it’s always something that makes you pause and reflect for a bit. So tight. Hey, if you’re sitting around scrolling all day, you might as well take a little trip down memory lane every once in a while! Give him a follow.  

@TransWorldSKATE

Oh, you thought I’d leave this one out? No way. And I’m not even being biased here! 

From local indie videos from across the globe to contest coverage, nostalgic clips, featured videos, documentaries, podcasts, product talk and everything in between, @transworldskate should be on every skateboarder’s follow list. 

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Hey, follow all the mags, all the media companies, this, that and the other—we aren’t here to hate! But I’m just saying the TransWorld SKATEboarding Instagram account should be a mandatory part of your scrolling. We have some fun stuff in the works for next year, too. So why wait? Get ahead of it all and join the conversation! But don’t forget to smash that follow button on all the rest of these accounts first. 

Okay, now put your phone down and go skate! 

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