Earl Pote Interview



Today we’re kicking off a multi-part interview series, with none other than the two guys working behind the scenes here at AllPogo interviewing each other. First off, i’ll be interviewing a man who plays a lot of different roles in the world of pogoing. He’s a tech pogoing champion, a pogo modding mastermind, a general pogo historian, and one of the most innovative riders our sport has seen. Check out my interview with the legendary Earl Pote below!



Of course, we have to start with the basics.



Ryan: What year did you start pogoing, and how old were you?

     Earl: I started pogoing in 2002, I was 12 years old.

Ryan: How did you discover the sport?

    Earl: Bryan Pognant and I were childhood friends, we went to a carnival together when we very young with his mom. We saw an abandoned bottom spring pogo leaning up against the fence of a ferris wheel and devised a plan to steal it. Once we had it, we tried screwing around with tricks we thought we made up. -> (Read More) ->

A Love For Pogoing, In All Of It’s Forms – Ryan O’Malley


Ryan O’Malley stepping back on the stick after a few months away.

I went out pogoing for the first time in a few months today. My wife and I had our first child in November, and then shortly after, the Covid-19 pandemic started taking full effect, so I haven’t had much free time aside from work. Luckily, my day job as a Land Surveyor is considered an essential job, so I still have income, but I haven’t had any time for my passion: Pogoing. To get back out and jump today felt so nice, even without crazy tricks and flips. Just the feeling of bouncing brought back the original joy that glued me to this sport in the first place. For ten minutes, in between loads of laundry drying, I was able to bring back feelings I had missed for a long time. It got me thinking about my history and the many different opportunities pogoing has given me. 


Sync Backflip Dismounts at one of my first ever pogo performances.

My first ever pogo gig was a set of parades in New York, which had been organized by Nick Ryan, who would go on to lead Xpogo through its massive growth. -> (Read More) ->

Put Your Feet On


A pogo love story by Michael Brookhart

I’ve been pogoing for a long time. Not that long compared to most people in the extreme pogo community… but like the majority of us it has now overtaken more than half of my life and nearly all of my recent and distant memories. I’ve always considered pogoing to be my one and only. My one and only addiction. I would put pogoing in front of everything in my life. My schooling, my work, and my relationships all seemed to be afterthought because I would wake up every day wondering what would come next for me and the spring frame with pegs sitting in my trunk. It has taken me places I would never have imagined myself going and has truly made me the person I am today. Like any addiction though, it is imperative to know when to stop yourself.

Last June I had surgery. The surgery was thankfully not for any pogo related injury, but for the paraganglioma tumor sitting on my corroded artery. I was the most unprepared I have ever been walking into the James Hospital in Columbus. -> (Read More) ->

Winter Pogo Guide


Stillshot from “Winter Sucks 2” (2015)

Pogoing in the winter is a real pain. When I was filming “Winter Sucks” (2008) there were clips where I was out filming in -13 F. I never let the cold stop me from getting out there and filming, and here I’ll be giving you some tips that helped me power through tough Chicago winters.

Be Motivated.

This is by far the biggest and most important factor of sticking to pogoing during the cold season. You need to have the utmost determination to be able to go outside in sub zero temperatures to film or even just practice. My biggest motivation in the early/mid 2000’s was trying to stay relevant in the game. I knew guys in Florida (Team Hyper Pogo) were still jumping and getting better in the year round warmth, so I had no other choice but to jump in the cold, even if it was just to keep up with what everyone else was doing.

Wear Layers.

Typical thermal underwear, can be purchased at any retail store.
-> (Read More) ->

Trick Classification: Under The What!?


How many pogo tricks can you name? Today there are so many tricks and variations that it’s hard to keep up. AllPogo has created the largest and still growing trick database with videos and explanations, all to help share the knowledge, which has been no easy task.  It wasn’t always this difficult though, it used to only take 3 letters. DUZ.

VIA – Xpogo 2004

Before the explosion of YouTube, a handful pogoers were creating their own tricks and names and sharing on “The Forums”. Uploading a decent quality video to the Internet was quite the task back then. You had to have your own server or know someone that could host the video for you. Not to mention there were no high quality affordable digital cameras, everything that was recorded back then was on tape and had to be manually captured onto the computer.  This made sharing raw videos or practice sessions super rare. To be able to discuss trick progressions and ideas the first trick classification was created – “The DUZ system”. Throughout this article I have included some gifs from 2004, in their original quality, which was one way we were able to share short clips of tricks. -> (Read More) ->

Background Check: Dalton Smith


Dalton Smith is often looked at as one of the most creative and innovative pogoers in the world, and his 5 consecutive Pogopalooza Gold Medals prove it. Dalton is known mainly for his incredibly technical Big Air style and huge street riding, and is constantly learning and creating new tricks to propel the sport forward.

I remember when Dalton first started pogoing, he learned tricks so fast and was extremely committed to the sport. I specifically remember thinking “this kid is going to go far in this sport” and I couldn’t have been more right. We had the pleasure of interviewing Dalton, and heres what he had to say!


Dalton Smith during the filming of “Rise.”

AllPogo: How did you begin pogoing? Tell us a little bit about life before pogoing and how you found the sport, and what it was that drew you into it.

Dalton: Before I started pogoing I was just another spastic little boy running around and getting into trouble because of my large imagination and insatiable curiosity. Fifth grade, I was part of a school club ~Destination Imagination~ which was this strange after school team of ADHD kids who had assembled to take part in challenges of the imagination. -> (Read More) ->

A Trip Down Memory Lane


Revisiting spots and reminiscing on one of the most iconic pogo videos of the 2000’s.

Instagram story of our motorcycle ride visiting all the spots.

Looking at it now, it doesn’t look like much. It’s poorly edited, the tricks are way outdated, as are the sticks. But, in 2006, Pogo Cult 3 was one of the most progressive videos to ever be released at that time.

The very first handrail grind, the very first around the body air trick, one of the (if not THE) biggest gaps and bomb drops at that time, and also cant forget the first of many Technical Air tricks and Tech tricks that had never been seen or even heard of before. From beginning to end, almost every clip in Pogo Cult 3 featured something new that had never been done before (and the few that weren’t brand new, were very difficult and sought after tricks at that time).

I took a motorcycle ride with my buddy, who was often the filmer of my old Chicago solo videos, to the 3 most known spots from Pogo Cult 3. -> (Read More) ->

Pogopalooza 2019 Results


Flynn Nyman warming up at Pogopalooza 2019. Flynn took home first in Best Trick.

Here we are, a few days after Pogopalooza 2019. It was definitely another successful and crazy Pogopalooza, all put on by our friends at Xpogo. If you didn’t catch the action in person, there’s plenty of videos on our Instagram channel and on Xpogo’s Instagram and YouTube channels. Make sure you go check them out, because a lot of insanity went down. With that said, here are your official Pogopalooza 2019 results!

Freestyle Finals

PlaceAthleteScore
1Dalton Smith92.50
2Henry Cabelus89.83
3Biff Hutchison88.67
4Michael Mena86.33
5Steven Bennett82.33
6Flynn Nyman76.83
7Fred Grzybowski74.67
8Harry White73.00
9Russ Kaus73.00
10Tone Staubs63.50

Tech

PlaceAthleteScore
1Tone Staubs87.79
2Biff Hutchison79.38
3Michael Brookhart71.67
4Michael Mena69.13
5Ryan O’Malley59.38
6Aidan Gabriel55.58
7Ben Smith48.67
8Haley Greer48.17
9Dominique Davis 36.79

High Jump

PlaceAthleteHeight
1Michael Mena
(1 attempt)
10’6″
2Henry Cabelus
(2 attempts)
10’6″
3Dalton Smith
(3 attempts)
10″6′

Best Trick

PlaceAthleteTrick
1Flynn NymanDouble Wrap-Around
2Tyler PhillipsPinwheel Flip
3Dalton SmithNo Foot Cannonball Grab Late ULBS

Best Trick also had notables, such as Tone Staubs’ Grind Body Wrap Reverse, and very close attempts by Michael Mena of a Reverse Squeege and Steven Bennett of 360 Flip Of Faith (!!!). -> (Read More) ->

Nic Patino, Billings MT, 2015

Photo Sequences

While digging through some pogo photo archives recently, I started noticing a lot of photos sequences I (or someone else) shot but had only ever used one of the frames. Some of these I had shot with the intent of stitching together into sequences, some were just happy accidents with the camera in burst mode. I’ve always liked this method for showing the entirety of a trick in a single image – each motion is broken down, and the parabolic curve of each jump is revealed.

I couldn’t leave these shots in a dark corner or some hard drive, so I gathered a bunch of photos and edited together this collection from over the years. Enjoy ?

The Creation of AllPogo


Dedicated to the growth and development of Pogo Sticking – That’s our motto. Earl Pote came up with it a few months ago, & it immediately reminded me of the exact reason I started AllPogo in the first place. I wanted to build a place for all pogoers to go to learn and progress, while being entertained and enthralled. Regardless of skill level or what style they ride, I wanted everyone to fit in and feel at home. I wanted to give back to the community and the sport that has given me so much, the sport that I am so passionate about. I feel like we have finally done that here, with AllPogo.com. 

I started AllPogo as an instagram account simply known as “@extremepogo”. It built a small following over time, but it lacked any enthusiasm. After a while, I got fed up with it and abandoned the page, but I had a vision brewing for something so much better. I typed out a few ideas I had and decided I wanted to make them happen. -> (Read More) ->