You ever wonder what it’s like drinkin’ a beer and shooting the shit with Dennis Busenitz?

Well, we had a chance to do exactly that, gathering at Paulaner, a German brewery and brand to celebrate Dennis’s 10 year anniversary on Adidas. Just based on our super brief conversation, here’s my 10 minute assessment of the guy: Family man, doesn’t like to have his personal life affect his skate career, funnier than we may think, leads by actions instead of words and doesn’t half ass anything in life. Just based on his carpentry skills alone, he seems like a man who would never stop at 50%, and instead makes sure shit is proper.

So there it is, my Freudian sketch of the enigmatic man that may or may not be super accurate. We’ll have to wait for one of Dennis’s friends or Adidas head honchos to fill us in and let us know if we hit the mark. But until then, enjoy my other ramblings and insight into the party below.

For big events like these, skate brands usually love to bring in a “celeb rapper” or have some overpriced guest appearance by someone who A) doesn’t give two shits about skating and B) does three songs and then leaves to collect their check. Thankfully, Adidas didn’t blow their load and instead had a funny German cover band, covering everything from Green Day to The Ramones in their kinda weird, honky tonk, German way. I can’t say it was the best thing I’ve ever seen, but it was pretty entertaining and kept the mood fun and lighthearted. I would have loved to see a cover or live version of Rock Me Amadeus, though…

As skateboarders, we all know who Mark is and see him as the legend that he is, but sometimes I wonder what it must be like to see him on the streets of Soho, knowing nothing about skateboarding. Imagine a 48-year-old man wearing a Supreme hat and a sweatshirt with graffiti on it yelling, “I do the tricks, not you!” If you were a tourist that bumped into Mark riding around, you must think he’s some crazed street urchin from the sewers of New York. To me, this lack of understanding and the excitement he brings to his skating is one of the many reasons he’s so inspiring – and the fact that he’s older now makes it even more thrilling.

It’s crazy how you see Thrasher clothing on everyone now. Do you remember a year or two ago when every hipster girl was wearing that stupid orange Carhartt Beanie? It’s kind of like that with Thrasher now, but cranked up a notch. I went to a skate shop recently when Vogue had that embarrassing skateboard week and asked them if they noticed a surge of fashion clientele. The shop owner said the Vogue effect was real – many more girls were coming in as a result of it, and many were also buying Palace boards. I even noticed the difference skating around the city. Walking around with a skateboard was like you suddenly became a Swedish model and grew a pair of double Ds.

Cairo Foster is here on the left and to the right we have Mr. Jim Thiebaud, co-founder of REAL and pretty much the face behind Deluxe Distribution. I gotta give a shout out to Jim; he was one of Jenkem’s earliest supporters, and Deluxe was the 2nd advertiser we ever had on the site several years ago. I was still working at this shitty wine bar in Westchester, New York at the time, and during my shift he called and I basically just walked out on the job to pick up and see if they were actually gonna work with us. My boss fired me for a week because I left my shift during peak hours, but I was too excited to care. When Jim calls, you pick up.

Out of the blue, Tim O’Connor’s wife Jody came up to me, and was like, “We have to get Tim to get to do more pod!” To be honest, I had expected her to be #antipod because they have kids and a house and all this other real life shit to take care of, but she was pushing The Pod hard! We talked about all the comments you guys have been leaving, and how he has to get off his ass and record some more episodes! So, everyone who has been commenting “MOAR POD” on Tim’s Instagram – keep it going! You guys are doing a great job! Tim’s wife approved!

God, it was nice drinking a real German beer, and not the American watery piss that’s usually served at events. See how happy these people are? Yay!! Real beer! We have the best jobs! I swear this photo was not staged. This is some genuine shit! Our photographer Ray is good (please don’t steal him).

Skate events and premieres are interesting because everyone really does know each other. It’s a small family, and you definitely have to not do anything too weird / crazy / stupid because you’ll be seeing the same exact people at the next skate event. I learned that the hard way at a Tampa Pro several years ago. I got super wasted at some board collaboration release party in Ybor, and there were dozens of copies of a board hanging around. Of course, in my stupor I ripped one off the wall and just kind of stood there. Koston mentioned it to a security guard and I literally got carried out of the bar by three security guys. Not a good look! Thankfully, it was Tampa and everyone pretty much goes blackout for 48 hours, so it’s almost like it never happened!

Ich werde versuchen, diesen Untertitel auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Warum nicht? Adidas und Dennis… Beide kommen aus Deutschland, oder? OK… fuck… here we go.. Hier ist Tyshawn Jones mit viele Leute. Vielleicht sind sie seine Freunde, vielleicht nicht. Ich hab keine ahnung. Vielleicht sind sie posers? Tyshawn schaut sehr cool aus.. wie normal. Hmm… That’s all I got. How’d I do?

Dennis was actually one of our first interviewees we did back in 2012, and to be honest, I’m still proud of that one. Considering we were a shit stain of a publication back then, I think we captured a bit about him that maybe wasn’t there before. So yeah, if you are now in a Busenitz’y mood, go check that one out, or if you don’t feel like reading, listen to some tunes he picked out for us or his guest appearance on The Tim O’Connor Show. Bis später Leute!