The Transworld Skateboarding’s 9th Annual Awards ceremony June 7th at the historic Avalon Theatre in Hollywood brought out top skaters from around the world as well as legends, rookies, new teams, and a fresh look at what’s going on in skate-inspired fashion for guys, particularly the skater’s version of looking good. The awards are notorious for many things, which is one reason why the actual ceremony itself, it always short maybe lasting an hour total. This year, the awards also included a special anniversary celebration for Transworld Skateboarding’s 25th Year, and were hosted by Jason Lee, co-founder of sponsor Stereo Sound Agency Skateboards and the star of My Name is Earl, and legendary skater Chris Pastras.

In many ways, the real stories, and of course most coherent stories, are told on the bite-sized red carpet before the ceremony even starts which is when skaters are arriving and fans lined-up on the other side waiting to get in start yelling for their favorite skater. It’s also rather entertaining to witness the assortment of stretch limos and RV’s arriving in style dropping off team riders (along with marketing and p.r. directors and team managers) such as the psychedelic Volcom RV, black and silver Vestal, and even the Icelandic-like Humvie from Red Bull. It not only gets the skaters caught in red carpet interviews stoked, but the crowd as well, especially when you add the Hollywood vibe with the Capital Records building in the background and a mix of hip-hop from one team blasting from Pimp My Ride-type speakers from one vehicle and something like Red Bull’s tribute to Van Halen’s “Jump!” coming from their behemoth gas-guzzler.

Label Networks caught up with Christian Hosoi, the legend who’s been through hell and back and now rides the wings of evangelism and captured his inspiring thoughts on skateboarding, giving back, and the future, plus Tony Hawk talking about old times with our host AJ Jackson and his move to do the Boom Boom Huck Jam at Six Flags. Chad Muska laid down why he was pumped to present Best Rookie award, then flashed his new signature sneakers which, as he put it, is such a unique style that no one else in skateboarding is currently rocking yet (see related fashion story). Rookie of the Year nominee Tommy Sandoval was humbled by the potential honor, and many talked about the Legend Award going toLance Mountain.

New energy was clearly on hand when the Board Bangers music duo showed up and talked about how skater Pharrell Williams got them jump-started on his record label. The Zenetti team (see also last week’s “Zenetti Wheel Designer Launches First-Ever Pro Skate Team by the Wheel Industry Indicating Another First in Crossover Trends”) came with a posse of skaters who were completely amped on being a part of the awards ceremony, including Terry Kennedy who talked about what he thinks is going on with the Ice Cream Skate Team, then flashed a smile to reveal a fresh grill not unlike his fresh new wheels. Host Jason Lee said he was actually sort of nervous about his upcoming duties on stage, but then grinned and changed the subject to his team and how they work from the philosophy that they want skaters who are really into the sport and want to have fun. As Jason reminded us, “Sometimes skateboarding can get just so serious. There’s also a lot of fun.”

The unfortunate part of the TWS Skateboarding Awards is that there’s no women’s categories, and really not that many women skaters attending in general. It’s more of a guy-fest with wives and girlfriends. Not to say that can’t be fun, but since the women’s market is among the fastest growing demographic of new skaters, according to our data in the North American Youth Culture Study, you’d think there’d be representation on stage or at least a Legend Award for someone like Jen O’Brien who consistently won awards and stepped up the level of skateboarding among women around the world. As luck would have it, her husband Bob Burnquist won Best Vert Skater award that night.

Other winners included Mark Appleyard for Best Street Skater, Lance Mountain for Legend of the Year, Braydon Szfranski for Best Rookie, Jerry Hsu for both the Best Video Part and Readers’ Choice Awards.

Also previewed was the Transworld movie “Let’s Do This” and a rockin’ after party upstairs at the Spider Club hosted by Sk8Mafia that ended up with some serious pole-dancing and an unforgettable digression into celebration which is typical of the fun of the awards every year.