Inside Fast Fingers 22 | Team USA Arrives in Germany | S4E172

Three USAFBL National Champions. One trip to Germany. One of the biggest fingerboarding events in the world.

Join Levine Cunningham, Gary Graves, Chris Daniels, Mitch Rush, and Tanner Hench as Team USAFBL arrives in Schwarzenbach, Germany for Fast Fingers 22.

In this special live episode, the crew discusses:

• Qualifying through USAFBL Regionals and Nationals
• Traveling internationally for the first time
• Visiting Berlin and Black River HQ
• Training on the brand-new G18 park
• Representing the United States on the world stage
• What Fast Fingers means to the global fingerboarding community

This episode was recorded live inside the Fast Fingers 22 venue before competition officially began.

⚑Follow Gary Graves and The National Champs⚑
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/garygraves22
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/mitch_rush.fb
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/cdplaya0
Instagram ➜ https://www.instagram.com/thfingerboarding

Transcript

speaker-0 (00:05)
Welcome to USAFBL Fingle Board Podcast. I'm host Devine Cunningham.

speaker-1 (00:08)
Levine, Levin, Levine. Willkommen zu einer weiteren Volge der Garin Levine Show. Hey

speaker-0 (00:15)
That's translation in English, The Gary and Levine Show. Exactly. We are here. Fast Fingers 22. We've got Mitch Rush, Chris Daniels, Taynor Hench. Of course you already know Gary Graves. Team USA. FBL.

speaker-1 (00:30)
What does the F B stand for?

speaker-2 (00:31)
Fingerboarding. ⁓

speaker-0 (00:33)
This all started last year. Regionals, West Coast, Top One, Chris Daniels.

speaker-3 (00:39)
Everybody, I'm Chris Daniels, aka C D Play. I'm from Seattle, Washington. And yeah, I'm now I'm in Schwarzenbach and Dzala in Germany. It's amazing. I've never been here for Fastfinger, so this is epic.

speaker-0 (00:51)
Man, all right, so Chris Daniels competed at the Portland stop, the West Coast stop. It's a regional event, placed first place, won him a spot at our national event in Indianapolis, killed it, ranked number one. What category?

speaker-3 (01:06)
Yeah, best trick. Best trick.

speaker-0 (01:08)
So when we're talking about making dreams come true, normal people, regionals, nationals flew everybody out, flew the whole gang out. Sixty parks, fast ringers twenty two, brand new G eighteen, which is right in front of us. We're actually the only people in the entire warehouse. Americans took over. Got here early, got to shred all the parks, gave you the exclusives, tons of new content. But next, Mitch Rush. You're from the north, but you competed in the south, but tell where you're from.

speaker-4 (01:37)
Hey, it's Mitchell Rushing here. I'm from Marion, Illinois. And like Chris says, we are in Germany now with these amazing parks. We got an amazing competition coming up. It's gonna be great.

speaker-0 (01:46)
You competed at the Atlanta event, swept, took first, went to nationals, ranked one, world national champion. What'd you compete in? What'd you win at?

Best of times, the best of times. Man, we took it all the way to the east. We did a stop in the east. Allentown. I say Philly. I'm not a I'm not a Tanner Hench ranked first. East regional event. What did you what did you compete in? What did you win at?

speaker-2 (02:11)
Allentown's an hour for

Sure.

All right, so my name is Tanner Hench, aka at TH Fingerboarding. I went to the Philly event and I was able to win first place in all three events. And then I went to Indianapolis and I got first place in Best Street Running. I got second place in Game Escape because he beat me in that, which I'm grateful for that because now he's here as well. I'm representing Carlisle, PA, Boiling Springs, Harrisburg, got my cities behind me, all the homies supporting me back home. But yeah, it's a blessing to be here. Very happy, very excited.

A little overstimulated. Both times I tried to order coffee I accidentally ordered a double espresso shot and now I'm drinking a monster. So we're locked in today and hopefully gonna be even more locked in tomorrow.

speaker-0 (03:01)
The language barrier is a little rough out here, but we're managing. We're managing. We had some hiccups. We had some great adventures. This is day three for us right now. It's Friday, the day before the big day. Everybody's a little anxious, but I think that now that we're here at the warehouse, sitting here in front of 60 parks in a brand new G18 park, hasn't even been unveiled yet. You're gonna see it here, USAFBL and Plies Mag. Don't forget about Plies. Gary Graves. The Rockstar. The Rockstar.

speaker-1 (03:26)
What's up? Hey,

I'm just gonna say, did you rehearse that? That was spot on. That was beautiful. It almost moved here up a little bit. Pressure's on. Y'all can't tell. They can't tell for sure.

speaker-2 (03:37)
He's just wearing sunglasses.

speaker-0 (03:40)
You can't tell if he's drunk or had ten beers or he's sober.

speaker-1 (03:44)
Wait

a minute, wait a minute.

speaker-3 (03:46)
I'm gonna say

speaker-0 (03:47)
We're

on vacate, you're on vacate. What happens in Germany state?

speaker-1 (03:49)
He's

in Germany. I mean all it took was going really fast on the Autobahn drunk and apparently Levine and Brian called me out on it, so here we are. Today or last time? ⁓ bro, we were pushing over two hundred K, whatever that is.

speaker-0 (03:56)
How fast did you get on the Autobahn?

Two hundred kilometers. Let me know in the chat what the conversion rate is for

speaker-2 (04:03)
At least you would know.

speaker-1 (04:07)
This episode's gonna make me sound like a drunk, which I'm not.

speaker-0 (04:11)
It's an episode of Bad Mobs. We got this. We got this. All right. I know Mitch, first time leaving the country. First time. Tell us about it.

speaker-2 (04:20)
Got

speaker-4 (04:21)
I

don't like flying. I don't like planes. I don't like traveling. And I'm so happy I'm here. otherwise though. So other than all the bad, I'm just say it it actually went overall pretty smooth. You know, everything ended up working as it should, and we're here and that's all that matters. And I'm beyond excited. So I hope I can come back again and again and again.

speaker-0 (04:45)
And again.

speaker-1 (04:45)
Definitely. Hey, can I just point something out here before we continue on? Chris is competing with the gnarliest fingerboard related injury I've ever seen. Chris, can you talk about this for a second?

speaker-3 (04:55)
Yeah, sure. So I had a fingerboard event at my homies lit at the lit barbecue. There was a nice beautiful rail by my friend Justin and I was trying to do a trick down the stair set and forgot there was a rail there for a second. Full speed into there and yeah, you can see probably not the bruising right here, but I have some internal bleeding going on in my fingerboard arm. It hurts a little bit, but I'm I'll be ready. I'll be ready for the

speaker-0 (05:19)
And shout out to the Lit team. They won King of the Plies. They are our 2026 King of the Plies champions. And apparently out here doing destruction, trying to set our people back. What are you guys doing? What are you doing? Come on. Tanner, first time out of the country.

speaker-3 (05:30)
Justin.

speaker-2 (05:34)
No, no. I so I've been out of the country a couple times. This is my first time in Germany though, and it's really dope, really cool. I've been enjoying it so far. I feel more at home here than I have been in other countries before because it feels it looks a little more like Pennsylvania, but different. Same, same, but different. As a reference to the movie The Interview with James Franco and Seth Rogan. Shout out James Franco. Shout out James Franco and Seth Rogan. But yeah, no, this is crazy. I love Germany so far. We've been having a blast, and I'm just excited to see to

Try out all these parks. I haven't even filmed anything yet, which is crazy because I've been talking about filming nonstop, and then I get here and I'm just like mind blown.

speaker-0 (06:11)
It's overwhelming. It is overwhelming express how many parks are here, how much stuff's going on. I feel like I kinda wanna sesh on everything and then come back and make my rounds. Like I like that's the that's the the vibe, at least for me. For sure. Chris Daniels. You're no you're no stranger to this place.

speaker-2 (06:23)
Sure, for sure.

speaker-3 (06:29)
I am not, but I am a virgin to fast fingers, actually. What? Yeah, I've never been here for the contest. I I competed in Battle at the Herricks in twenty eleven. Okay. And it was such a blast. They do such a good job. Clearly you can tell by all the effort Black River does here. ⁓ it's crazy. but yeah, I've been here multiple times, even for a long period of time actually, and

It's amazing to be here with everybody. I get to see Martin Ehrenberger, Ollie already, ⁓ and a bunch of other people have already showed up and said hi, but just like being back home in a way. And this would not have been possible if it wasn't for the fantastic prize from USAFBL. And yeah, it's just crazy that it's even that we're even here and possible because I don't think there's been a a prize like that in fingerboarding it.

speaker-0 (07:15)
Definitely a first. Definitely a first. I was looking at last year and I was like, should we give out cash? And I'm like, cash is cool, but you know what's cooler than cash? Lifetime memories. The fact that like this trip, these guys, they're this is a dream come true. We talking about where we went to what ASI Berlin, we went to Dog Shit Park, we literally got lost in Berlin, had a ton of fun. We're in Fast Fingers twenty two and it's only halfway through the trip. We're not even halfway through. Even halfway through. Crazy memories. ⁓

speaker-3 (07:41)
Not even halfway through.

speaker-4 (07:44)
Okay,

as you guys can tell it's really hot in here. ⁓ and there's only like five people. So if you guys are coming out later.

speaker-2 (07:51)
Sorry, I'll leave.

speaker-0 (07:52)
It's Gary. I think it's Gary that's just heating us all up.

speaker-2 (07:55)
he does have a snake?

speaker-4 (07:56)
Gotta

go pose.

speaker-0 (07:58)
That's the hottest thing I've seen all day.

speaker-4 (08:00)
Gloves

if if you don't want your fingertips sweaty. Okay. ⁓

speaker-0 (08:06)
But stands over here to our right, stands over here to our left. Tons of pressure. Our boys are ready. They're competition ready. We've got the park right here, the G18, fresh, new, barely shredded. That will change this weekend. I know you boys got some sponsors. I know we gotta get them out there into the wild. Can I start off? Yeah, start us off. Let your people let them know. Let them know.

speaker-4 (08:28)
Start it off.

Famous

decks. Thank you, Nate. Fingerboard connoisseur Casey, you're awesome. We've got tape for him, black velvet. We got ill pills for the wheels. Thanks a bunch, Bike, and of course, thanks for love I'm here. So

speaker-0 (08:44)
With C FBL.

speaker-3 (08:45)
I

have to say obviously shout out to Black River, Berlin Wood, Flatface Fingerboards, Blistered Wheels, and then shout out to Creek Doctor and the homies out there, PBS, you know what's up.

speaker-2 (08:57)
Well, first off, yeah, I'm gonna shout out Black River for this whole warehouse because this is crazy. But I'm sponsored by Bull God FB and Teak Tuning, Bull God for the decks and Teak for the trucks and the wheels. ⁓ but yeah, I love the way the colors go together for all these. I think they match super well. I got a bunch of setups I'm gonna get clips on while we're out here. Hype to hype to get some crazy stuff on camera.

speaker-0 (09:19)
Definitely, definitely. I know Gary's got sponsors.

speaker-2 (09:23)
Gary was the only one who had somebody recognize him out here too.

speaker-0 (09:26)
He's a celeb.

speaker-1 (09:27)
Shout

out Kim's FB out of Edwardsville, Illinois. This guy kills it. Skate six one eight. And then ⁓ also got some board rails on it right here. Apex FBS out of North Carolina, I think. Okay, okay. So other than that, I'm free game if y'all want to hit me up later in the DM.

speaker-0 (09:42)
USFEL sponsors me, Plies Mag sponsors me, Fingerskate sponsors me. Check everybody out. I'm gonna plug everybody in the descriptions. Any final words before we ⁓ shred our asses off? Tanner has no boot

speaker-2 (09:54)
Ready to have no butt.

speaker-3 (09:56)
Los geht's.

Geile Scheiße.

speaker-4 (09:59)
I don't know how it's gonna work, but I'm pretty sure we're all gonna win. ⁓ I've been saying it the whole trip. That's me, that's you, that's you. Yeah, I don't I don't even think you're competing, but I think you may win too. So and the number one winner here is the fellow that took us out here, of course. So we all won't.

speaker-0 (10:12)
Right on USFBL and all platforms. Till next time.