In a bold yet sad statement issued recently, El Vortex has announced his retirement from skateboarding. For those unacquainted, El Vortex is a mysterious shape-shifting skateboarder/poet/luchador from Colorado who rose to international attention by way of SLAP's One In A Million contest. The first three years the contest ran, Vortex surprised the SLAP staff with increasingly intricate entires, each better than before, and he grew a massive fan base through the contest. Despite not winning any of the years, we decided he was more than worthy of an interview and so one went down, and epic it was. V never entered OIAM again after that, but went on to receive numerous pieces of recognition from skate companies and luminaries, evidence of which can be seen in this retirement video. SLAP would like to wish El Vortex all the best in his retirement, and thank him whole-heartedly for the joy he brought to skaters around the world, especially those in the SLAP office. Big ups, big love.