SLUG Contributor Limelight
September 4, 2013
Contributor Limelight: Billy Ditzig
Billy Ditzig is an aspiring entrepreneur. Moving to Salt Lake in 2007 from Chicago after Googling “Closest big city to the mountains,” he started at SLUG soon after and has been on the rise ever since. At SLUG, Billy has written mostly snowboard and skate content, and plays a big part in the SLUG Games and Summer of Death series, from helping garner sponsorships and designing the course to picking up trash. Billy graduates with his Associates in General Studies from SLCC this upcoming spring, and plans to continue his education at the University of Utah in Communications and Marketing. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, he’s also the owner and operator of Salt City Vinyl, where he prints custom stickers. Catch Billy riding the snowy waves of Brighton in the winter, flying over concrete on a skateboard in the summer, fly fishing, thrift store treasure hunting and … Well––just follow him on Instagram @billbored to keep track of this righteous dude.
Articles by contributor
Dew Tour Day 1
Thursday Sept. 16 marked the first day of the Dew Tour—a four-day contest series for some of the big dogs of skateboarding (park and vert), BMX (dirt, vert and park) and freestyle motocross. Salt Lake City is the final stop before the athletes head to the championships in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Dew Tour Day 2
Friday, Sept. 17 was day two at the Dew Tour here in Salt Lake City. If you still haven’t checked it out, you’re running out of time. So hurry up! When I got to Dew Tour today, the first event I scoped out was the skateboard vert prelims where Bob Burnquist was able to work his way past last month’s winner Shaun White. … read more
Dew Tour Day 3
Saturday, Sept. 18 was day three at the Dew Tour and by far the busiest of the four-day event. I checked out the Gatorade Free Flow skatepark finals where Salt Lake City local Tyson Bowerbank held it down and pulled off third place overall. … read more
Dew Tour Day 4
Sunday, Sept. 19 marked the last day of Dew Tour here in Salt Lake City for 2010. It was also the day I was waiting for to see the skate vert finals. The Arena was packed almost every seat filled fans watched in awe as the pros warmed up. As an intro Gatorade put on the grom demo where some super little kids shredded the ramp, there was even a seven year old who did cork 540s! I’d give him his props and shout out his name but due to regulations names of the kids weren’t released. … read more
Bayside @ In The Venue 10.19
As far back as I can remember Bayside has been one of my favorite bands. Back in the good ol’ days in Illinois, a friend of mine, Tim, introduced me to Bayside and I was instantly stoked, thinking they sounded a lot like Alkaline Trio. … read more
Low Card, Heavy Wheels, Blood Wizard 06.09
If you didn’t make it out for the Heavy Wizard Trip, also referred to as the #canwestayonyourcouchtour, you missed one hell of a daytime extravaganza. … read more
Milo Skate Comp @ South Jordan Skate Park 06.16
Little groms like Josh Roland were killing it, doing little front side airs, but when the big guys stepped up to the plate, the bowl got destroyed. … read more
Swagatha Christie: The Swagged-Out Mystery Interview
Swagatha Christie rolled through Salt Lake City for Mike Brown Fest at Urban Lounge on Thursday, Aug. 30. This Portland local legend made time out of her busy schedule to come rock some super progressive, dirty South swag. SLUG was able to sit down with her and ask her a little about herself, her music and her crew. … read more
Too Snowboard Film Premiere @ Brewvies 09.17
“Too” has a good mixture of both powder riding as well as street shredding, and the cast included some household names, as well as a few you may not have heard of before. … read more
Sk801’s Die High Hell Ride Film Review
Die High Hell Ride is an action-packed hour that will knock your socks off. … read more
GoldCoast Global HQ Grand Opening 08.01
GoldCoast celebrated the opening of their new global headquarters, right here in Salt Lake City, on Aug. 1 with an epic party. The event was held at their new office, located at 150 Commonwealth Ave. #2 (across from Pat’s BBQ) in conjunction with Nixon watches, Poler Stuff, Loser Skateboard Company and Nike Snowboarding. … read more
Natturday Neff Beach Bash @ Brighton Resort 04.19
As the snow starts to melt and the season winds down, Brighton Resort always ends up getting extra wild for its closing weekend. DJ Velvet was on the ones and twos, spinning a mix of todays hits along with a sick collection of ‘80s classics. The weather, despite ominous speculation by weathermen, ended up being perfect, with temperatures in the mid fifties and low sixties, and the snow stayed consistently slushy with maximum spray-ability. … read more
A Not So Rough Life at Roughside III
2012 marks the third annual Summer of Death skate contest in collaboration with Roughneck Trading Co. Johnny Roughneck and his crew traveled from San Francisco to Salt Lake City to rip up the streets and bring a small piece of the BART Tour to us. This year’s Roughside Contest, presented by Scion, was held on Saturday, Sept. 8. It started at Fairmont Skate Park and traveled to multiple secret, scouted spots around the city. … read more
Building Boards After Dark
After Dark Skateboards is a new, thriving project in the Salt Lake City community. Owner, creator and visionary Mark Judd brings his fine-tuned woodworking expertise from the cabinetry industry to his passion for skateboarding, making some of the highest-quality handmade skateboards in America. On an almost daily basis, you will find Judd slaving away at his craft, making sure every After Dark skateboard is pressed, shaped, printed and packaged to meet his personal standard. … read more
Millworks Skateboard MFG.: Out of the Trash, Into the Streets
There is something magical about taking what some people consider garbage and recycling it to give it new life. This is especially magical when that garbage needing to be recycled is your old skateboard. Millworks Skateboard Manufacturing, or in more appropriate terms, re-manufacturing, is a small venture started about a year ago out of the Millcreek garage of Aaron Schwendiman. “It started from just a stack of old decks,” Schwendiman says. “Every skateboarder has a pile of old decks—I just wanted to make them skate-able again.” … read more
The Concrete Waves of the Great Salt Lake
Hill bombing is the foundation of skateboarding. Sometime in the early 1950s, California surfers started unscrewing the trucks from their roller skates and began attaching them to carved planks of wood in an effort to figure out how to surf the streets. Skateboards were skinnier then and had clay wheels, but they still got the job done. Searching for the perfect concrete wave when the ocean lay flat became a daily occurrence among the California natives, until pool skating got big in the ’70s. You see, cruising hills wasn’t like the skate park back then—it was the skate park. Since that time, the concrete wave has only grown. … read more
Rippin’ Lips: the Story of the Brighton Anglers
Over the last couple years, while snowboarding at Brighton, I have been hearing more and more about fly fishing. Originally, I wasn’t that intrigued … But the more fish stories I heard—and the bigger those trout got—the more I wanted to experience angling on the fly. … read more