Silver & True Blue Battle San Diego Recap- Zane WCA takes it all!

On May 11, 2013 Inkstainz brought to you yet another great event for the Silver & True Blue Battle San Diego! and for this round-up Zane from WCA West Coast Artist takes First Place.  Honestly, I knew he was going to take the victory win; his piece was sick! It had all the elements that the judges were looking for as well. Nevertheless, let me take you down memory lane and relive this event and for those of you that couldn’t make it;  take a peak of how it all went down over the weekend in the big SD.

The line up for the San Diego Graff Writers were ZANE, AERO, SAKE, AMIGO, ARREST 150 & STYLE. The concept of the battle for San Diego was exactly the same as the previous one, only usage of silvers and blues as color foundations and the San Diego Graff Writers were only allowed to use letters as the main subject matter. The time frame for completion of the qualifying pieces was from 10:00am.- 4:00pm. which gave them plenty of time to elaborate their very own personal masterpiece. The judges were from the San Diego Area as well and had on panel the one and only Dyse, TCR,  Pose 2 FX and Chosen. This was the moment that we have all been waiting for and we were finally going to enjoy all of our hard work and effort and commitment to make this yet another successful battle.

But none of this would have happened without the help of Threatski from HEM, thanks for all your support and good vibes, if you didn’t get the chance to meet him; he is a cool vato!. He was in charge of booking the location, recruiting the San Diego Graffiti Writers as well as the qualified judges for this event.

So coming from Los Angeles this means road trip! So it was a nice ride down the 5 south freeway along with Pesky Oner, Who, Pryer, and SKA music. And although for being saturday morning and early; we hit traffic for a while but it was nice a scenery to view, cracking jokes, laughs and messing with Pryer as he attempted to sleep. Once we got to the location the sun was already burning, the participants for the battle were already getting down and busy on the first floor of the event space. Some familiar faces from San Diego such as Aero, man I love his art work and his crazy tiger tan; I have been following his work for years now.  Zane from WCA was already getting busy as well. The vibe was great as they all took breaks here and there and sat amongst each other, talking, eating drinking like a big family. Although it is a competition at the end; the respect for one another was mutual and it was great to be a part of that.  As we walked upstairs to the second level; it was good to see familiar faces doing what they do best. And there he was; the winner of the Silver and True Blue Battle Los Angeles; El Aloy SKA, MSK, FTL. Along with his wing man Rudy and his ice chest of cold ones for the team; I must say that I had never seen Rudy outside the family environment but damn, he is a crazy vato. haha! Among the Los Angeles Graff heads was Calvyrus DCV, Sky DTK, Zuco K4P, Ezra, LOD, UCA, Sky, DTK, Cold, Emer, Cin GMS, Drew, OTR. Who ended up getting down also, and many other Graffheads that at the last-minute were down to paint up the spot. I loved the concept and colors they were using; colorful and playful.

But just like everything, we all worked really hard to prepare for this event, planning and pre planning and getting our merchandise ready to vend at our booth once again; with the help of Pesky Oner who also brought some of her beautiful and colorful pieces which were a success for the lady costumers. In our booth we had tons of slappies from LA Writers, canvases of work from Aloy Winner of Silver & True Blue Battle Los Angeles, Pryer SKA, WCA, UTI, art supplies as well as the official Silver & True Blue Battle T-Shirts. I was accompanied by Threatski’s beautiful fiancée Roxanne; she designs silk roses with Dia de los Muertos Sugar Skulls and among other jewelry items. Smog city clothing were our next door neighbors which made it really fun to hang out, joke around and help one another. Thank you guys for all your help! and for future reference please do not bring along a mannequin that looks too real; as I found myself talking to her several times. ( nothing to do with me being a little tipsy). Among other vendors and familiar faces were Soulsiderz, Piece Magazine and many others. Once again Huskey Radio live streamed the event with my girl Uzi hosting it with her LOL jokes a great personality!. Jarritos sponsor the drinks for the public and the BBQ grills kept on fire all thru the night. A lot of Graff heads from the area were there as well such as SMEAR, BROKE, FACTOR, CHALE from GIK southeast SD, AHLAWN, RUE, ZION 700 Block, GLOK OCP, BEAN from writters Blok. Giving props to the HEM brothers and sisters that couldn’t make it, SHENTE, LIBRE, SPEL, KAFY, KUTA and PEIN.
The event went as scheduled, by the time the doors were opened to the public, vendors were set up, the music was bumping and the writers were at the peak of their pieces creativity. The had the entire day set up with amazing live music performances by Mighty Moses, Charm the Legend, First Dirt, and Frist Power Crew. While the public awaited announcements for free giveaways from the vendors as well as Raffles with awesome prices.

I must say that it was lots of fun, although it was freaking hot, we kept cool under our little canopy with cold icy strawberry hills and smoke. As the event progressed more LA faces were beginning to show, got to hang out with Fearo as he hit books for the public, Cloko came down with his lovely “tribe”. Thank you ladies for helping out at the booth and going around the event selling raffle tickets too. And FYI, I am really tempted on getting kidnapped to another state for stress relieve. haha! Dowt, Love RUH, SKA and other friends were finally making their way over to the battle. But I must say that the best experience was actually getting to know the San Diego crowd, met some cool Graff Writer Chicks like Ms. Unique, with whom I am looking forward working with pretty soon so look forward to that.

By 4:00pm the Graff writers time was up and now all they had to do was to join the fun with everybody else. On the second floor, Pryer had his own party going on, as he set up a living room layout for his fan to chill in to watch him get down as other writers hit the books; he painted the day away throwing a sick ass piece like always!. The fumes of spray paints were so strong upstairs that I had to take really quick rounds to document the event, i know these cats are used to it but it was pretty bad; imagine over 15 heads painting nonstop from 10:00am throughout the entire time frame of the event. I salute you all for what you put yourselves thru just to show us some good arte.

Right around 8:00pm. We all gathered around the main center stage where it all went down to witness who would be the winner of the Silver and True Blue Battle San Diego!. Must say that all the pieces came out really good but tonight there was only going to be one winner. As we all know the winner would not only take the title as First Place but also with a $1000 check on the side, not bad!.

The moment finally came, as Dyse One announces the winner: Mr. Zane WCA takes it all!. Which was earned with the mad skills he brought to the battle. The crowd was pleased to hear their winner and all his friends and crew members paid their respects to him. I was glad to have been able to document as this entire event progressed and as it came to an end; Zane took his huge check home with him and celebrated with all his peepz.

Congrats to Zane and big ups to the West Coast Artists Crew.

And once again, a big thanks to Besk One LOD UCA for letting me be a part of this and Threatski, San Diego and Tijuana Mexico Family for all the love and hospitality you gave to us all! As Pisto from HEM says it;” We are all a big family, Los Angeles, San Diego y Tijuana todos estamos conectados y nos ayudamos en lo que somos”

Much love and respects,

Monica Smiles Tobon.