It is likely that the first thought that will cross your mind once you find yourself immersed within the fiery brilliance of Dranochugger IV is: “where the hell do they find these guys?”
I allowed that thought to leave my mind, and was quickly told: “Long Beach.”
Even so, we have a guy wielding nunchucks as he kickflip boardslides into the the lowest level of hell’s parking garage, while another guy is searing his name into the record books for the world’s longest boardslide as two eager P.A’s from satan’s production company wax the ledge ahead of him. Another will carry a shopping cart up two rooftops to drop in off it, while John Choi does a frontside flip down eight a few frames later. By the time your stay in our earth’s lowest depths is coming to a close, it can only be filmed out a car window from the side of the freeway by the exit to Huntington Beach.
Even if this sort of video isn’t typically your “thing,” it’s impossible to keep a straight face through it. It’s funny, it’s brilliant, and absolutely insane. It’s the ethos that propelled the early Dime IG videos into the skateboard canon, with an additional ten years of brainstorming, synthesized through a hot sauce brand. I know the answer was Long Beach, but you can’t help but continue to ask: “where did they find these guys?”
Our correspondent Adam Abada attended this year’s Dranofest. Upon asking him “how was it?” — he came back with this:
“I’m no marketing guru, but I imagine there’s a conundrum for those who have been doing it as long as I’ve been skating: how do you make your product stand out? Satan’s Drano overlords figure that lighting someone on fire in the parking lot of their video premiere should do the trick. This was after Diego Todd wallied off a sword. Otherwise, It’s hard to accurately describe the aura of chile-fueled post-apocalyptic mayhem that one could engage in at Dranofest 2024, so I tried my best to observe from the side. Is it as potent as the sauce itself? Only you can decide.
I didn’t catch the sauce chugging contestants refunding their payloads around a 30-gallon black plastic bag on camera, but I think you get the idea. Bob said only one person left in an ambulance, so I’d say overall the evening as a pretty solid success.”
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