SLUG Contributor Limelight
August 21, 2008
Contributor Limelight: Sam Millanta
Sam Millanta is SLUG's shy and soft-spoken skate photographer. He is also one of the masterminds behind this season's Summer of Death skate comps. Sam- a skate veteran of 15 years comes to us from Cedar City, UT. Known by his first grade students as Mr. Millanta, this newlywed holds many titles such as teacher, photographer and cancer survivor. With published photos in SLAP Magazine, Lowcard, PinkCrack and Vice, SLUG is proud to be another notch on the belt for Sam.
Articles by contributor
Skate Photo Feature: Cameron Starke
Thanks to Cameron Starke for seeing the possibilities rather than difficulties and Ricky Cheney himself for discovering this place many years ago. … read more
The Men Behind the Lens: @Flatspotter
There’s no question that Utah’s is a strong and growing skate scene and that companies like @Flatspotter give this scene a platform. … read more
Skate Photo Feature: Gabe Spotts
If you ride a skateboard in 2017, you’ve no doubt noticed the amount of media presence on any given skate session. … read more
Skate Photo Feature: Jake Flood
Growing up in small town Utah, we had a lot of “almost spots”—skateboard spots that had one thing wrong with it that made it impossible to skate, or spots that none of us were good enough to skate. This spot in the Avenues is one of those spots. Several skaters tried this boardslide this day, but Jake Flood was the first to roll away from the snake. … read more
Skate Photo Feature: Cameron Starke
Sometimes an old spot gets new life just because it’s under construction. Check out what skater Cameron Starke uses in his photo feature for April. … read more
Cruise Control: SPRING BREAK!
Do you remember the episode of the Simpson’s where Bart gets a fake I.D.? Bart, Millhouse, Nelson and Martin then proceed to rent a car and drive to the World’s Fair in Louisville, Kentucky. Several times during the episode Millhouse can be heard yelling, “SPRING BREAK!!!” Basically, that episode was the theme of my weekend. … read more
No Sleep Til’ Brooklyn
New York was the first destination in a recent trip I took. I was there for a short time but it was the first time I actually really got to skate there. Every other time, it was with family or just to drink myself silly. This time, I remained strangely sober and did a ton of skating in the course of a few days. Here are a few random observations if you plan to take a skate trip to New York. … read more
Skate Terminator: Matt Fisher
I think Matt Fisher is a terminator. He seems to be sent from the future to destroy Utah County’s spots. It can’t be a coincidence that he is on the same shoe team (DC, who gave Matt a “Golden Ticket” to their King of Chicago contest) as Danny Way (who I heard is actually from Mars, not the future).
… read more
HartBreaker: A Jon Hart Story
I’ve known Jon Hart for a little over ten years, since he was about fifteen. I recently met his mom for the first time and she wondered why we’d never met. He told her it was because he didn’t want her to know he was out skating with grown ass men when he was a teenager. Back in the day, Jon was this kid we all used to see at the St. George Skatepark. He had a mean kickflip even back then. Him and his buddies would go and skate all the old spots, like the Pine View High rail and the Dixie High big four/ledges. … read more
Jimmy Plants Corn and I Don’t Care
Everything you think you know about professional skateboarding is wrong. That is, unless you know James Atkin. James has been quietly ripping for a long time now. James has style and consistency that have never gotten the justice they deserve from footage and photos. But if you see James skate in person, it’s a whole other story. He has every trick you can think of on lock, can land all his bangers in lines and even Utah’s most famous pro told me he was envious of James’ flip tricks. … read more
Photo Feature: Millionaire Michael
I took this photo of my friend, Millionaire Michael (real name withheld to protect his stock market status), last October at this strange spot on the outskirts of Oakland, Calif. This spot is in a city park in a really mellow neighborhood. It actually used to be a skatepark in the 1970s. When the 1980s hit and skateboarding kind of died, the skatepark was torn out and the city turned it into a playground. … read more
Photo Feature: Garrison Conklin
It seems that every time I go out skating with Garrison Conklin, I end up with at least three great photos of him. He’s the kind of guy who skates all those “almost a spot” spots and makes it seem effortless. He’s got massive ollies and quick, little ninja feet. … read more
Photo Feature: Cameron Starke
Skate spots, like everything else in this world, come and go. Some are around for years and some are around for a day. A lot of times, the most unique and amazing spots are the ones that are temporary: the spots made by someone’s foolish mistake of backing their car into a pole, or randomly putting a piece of wood against a wall. … read more
Photo Feature: Sam Giles
I’d like to say that I’m an artist and my photos are timeless, but that would be a joke. This photo will be dated by this time next year, when some kid from Nowheresville, Utah hardflips into this same trick at this same spot. Unfortunately for Cody Hardflip, Sam Giles got a pretty damn stylish backside 50-50 on this spot without the hardflip. … read more
Articles by contributor
Skate Photo Feature: Levi Faust
Levi Faust – Frontside Boardslide – West Valley City, Utah. … read more
Skate Photo Feature: Cameron Starke
Thanks to Cameron Starke for seeing the possibilities rather than difficulties and Ricky Cheney himself for discovering this place many years ago. … read more
The Men Behind the Lens: @Flatspotter
There’s no question that Utah’s is a strong and growing skate scene and that companies like @Flatspotter give this scene a platform. … read more
Skate Photo Feature: Cameron Starke
Sometimes an old spot gets new life just because it’s under construction. Check out what skater Cameron Starke uses in his photo feature for April. … read more
Roughside VI
Part of SLUG’s 16th Annual Summer of Death skate series, the sixth annual Roughside Presented By Monster took place on Saturday, Sept. 12. … read more
Kilby Records: What it Really Comes Down to Is the...
Will Sartain and Lance Saunders lead busy lives … read more
Good Times with Alex Hinton
Ten years ago, Colby Burleson and Clint Marvin left Susie M’s to open Good Times Tattoo. SLUG recently had the chance to speak with Hinton about his experiences in the world of tattooing, as well as the tenth anniversary of Good Times Tattoo. … read more
Pablo Gonzales: On Point
Pablo Gonzales is from St. George, the opening portal from Arizona and Nevada into the land known as Utah. … read more
Localized: Negative Charge, Dubbed – August 2009
August’s Localized features three punk bands that seem to hold their high-energy performances together with a healthy (and sometimes excessive) amount of booze. Negative Charge and Dubbed each had plenty of booze-fueled stories to share with us. Check out the show with openers Desolate on Friday, August 14 at Urban Lounge. … read more
No Sleep Til’ Brooklyn
New York was the first destination in a recent trip I took. I was there for a short time but it was the first time I actually really got to skate there. Every other time, it was with family or just to drink myself silly. This time, I remained strangely sober and did a ton of skating in the course of a few days. Here are a few random observations if you plan to take a skate trip to New York. … read more
Devin York: A Cinderella Story
Devin York is a bit of an anomaly. He was a child prodigy who could salad grind handrails at the age of 13. He grinded a double-kink that most pros wouldn’t touch during his sophomore year of high school. Yet in this day and age of Shecklers and Hustons, York never quite received the “extreme” sponsorship he deserved. … read more
Herc
For a moment, walking into Herc’s home is like walking into anyone’s home, until you empty out into Herc’s Living Room, and the scene changes from cozy to state-of-the-art. Although Herc’s high-end set up spans four rooms of his abode, the comfy furniture, carpeted spaces and secluded backyard garden keep the house that doubles as a recording studio feeling like a home. … read more
If Jesus Can Walk on Water, I Can Walk on...
Just like Christopher Columbus when he discovered the world wasn’t flat (I know you history buffs are cringing at this reference), I’ve decided to see the world. And by the world, I mean the area beyond North Temple and 2100 South. The world isn’t divided into corners—it’s limitless. So, I went to Ogden. … read more
Geek Show Us All
Kerry Jackson of X96’s Radio From Hell and his cohorts have gathered in his basement and constructed a podcast that not only covers news of the sci-fi world and beyond, but has been entertaining enough to garner 20,000 plus downloads per episode. I had to see for myself what these geeks had been up to, so I ventured alone into the basement of a seemingly normal home and entered the world of the geek. … read more
Localized: The Fucktards, Heathen Ass Worship – December 2009
SLUG Localized presents The Fucktards and Heathen Ass Worship at the Urban Lounge. Five bucks gets you in, but nothing will ever get you out. … read more
Grudge City Activities
The Summer of 2008 was difficult on the hardcore community in Utah. There wasn’t much left of a scene that was once packed with fans, musicians, and genuine veterans of the movement. Trevor Hale (Cherem, Tamerlane), Dan Fletcher (Skeiff d’ Bargg, City to City, First Blood), and Sias Parsons all agreed on that point. The
Skirting the Mainstream is Just More Fun: An Introduction to...
On the second floor of the Salt Lake City Library near the fiction reference desk and the periodical section, a handful of shelves hold approximately 2,500 zines––one of the largest public alternative press collections in the country. Unfortunately, if you weren’t looking for it … it’s unlikely that you’d ever know it was there. … read more
Summer of Death: Roughside of the Trax II
On September 24, the Roughneck crew came out to Salt Lake City from their San Franciscan homeland once again for SLUG’s 2nd annual Summer of Death: Roughside of the Trax skate contest. Roughside of the Trax, the Salt Lake version of Roughneck Hardware’s BART Tour, takes skaters along our city’s Trax line to street spots in a contest format. … read more
SLC Tattoo Convention
SLUG asked local tattoo artists Andrew King (Heart of Gold), Catfish and Eric Sager (Ironclad), Nick Phillips (Loyalty) and Dean Bodily (Lost Art) who they’re stoked for, the work they want to do, and what they anticipate for the ninth annual Salt Lake City International Tattoo Convention, happening March 9-11 at the Salt Palace. … read more
Summer of Death: Roughside of the Trax V
SLUG’s Summer of Death skate contests have been a skateway drug for countless Utah skaters for 15 years. This summer’s second and final installment of Summer of Death, Roughside of the TRAX, took place on Sept. 13, and made use of some sweet spots along Salt Lake’s TRAX lines. … read more