Flip switch.

THOUGH MANY RIDERS (MOSTLY UNDER-PERFORMING American teens--oh yeah, and Bastien) have been dismissed from the fearsome Flip team over the years, no one has left of their own choosing until now. In a move that sent shockwaves through the skate world, it was announced that Finnish legend and 2001 Skater of the Year, Arto Saari, left Flip to join the sovereign sect of the Alien Workshop.

Speculation on whether this move was an all-or-nothing deal with Burton (the parent company of his new shoe sponsor, Gravis, his newish clothing sponsor, Analog, and who also recently acquired Alien Workshop) runs rampant, but regardless, Saari of Sorry fame is gone. Though skate fans may mourn the end of an era, they're more likely to be looking ahead to the videos of both companies involved: Alien's Mindfield and Flip's Extremely Sorry, both due this fall.

In what's becoming industry standard, hot shoe Vincent Alvarez was welcomed to the Chocolate team in a simulcast-on-the-Internet surprise party, complete with banners, group hugs, and complimentary refreshments. Nice one, Vince.

Though it failed to register in any sort of press release, it appears that Colt Cannon has been dropped from Circa--coincidentally, almost on the one-year anniversary from when he was kicked off Element for (supposedly) refusing to switch to their shoe team. Fuckin' a, Colt.