Mail order skateshops are nothing new. During the early 80’s it was the only way a lot of kids were able to get decent skateboards in remote skate outposts like the Midwest. California Cheap Skates has been around for a long time. At some point in the 90’s (I think) they revamped the “brand” into CCS. They are a pretty big player in the mail order skate business. A couple of days ago, Skate Daily reported that CCS is being bought by the straight sports apparel company Foot Locker for $102 million. Think global, buy local! The old California Cheap Skates advert in the background is courtesy of the print gallery at The Skateboard Archives. TSA has some of the 80’s era California Cheap Skates ads, and Rotten Apple Media has a gallery of complete catalogs from the 90’s. I like looking through those old ads and catalogs to see the old boards.

Pierre Andre Senizergues. I didn’t even know his last name wasn’t “Andre.” After playing third fiddle in the freestyle world in the 80’s he founded Etnies, among other things, and now he’s part of the great Freestyle Conspiracy Theory. The Los Angeles Times has a photo spread of his beach house in Newport Beach, California. Some parts of it are no different than any other rich guy’s nice house, but some aren’t. For instance, it looks like he’s working on acquiring every single bit of skate furniture out there, which was kind of a surprise. I figured maybe he’d be burnt out on that. There’s some interesting details lurking in these pictures. Check it out.

- Thanks to Paul Fujita for the tip.

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I’m not here to make Frank Lavallee the but of a joke, but I stumbled across this photo of him giving a freestyle demo at the Vans Warped Tour. According to his sponsor Khiro’s web site:

…he is doing about 60 demo’s every summer including Van’s Warped tour, Monster Truck Shows, Schools, Shops and where ever it’s happening!

The only thing they left out was professional wrestling match. The thought of a freestyle demo in front of a rock concert or monster truck show really amuses me. Nothing gets me more stoked at a punk rock show than (watching) a few caspers. Sorry Frank, nothing personal. Feel free to mock me at your leisure.

This video tour of the Dwindle wood shop narrated by Rodney Mullen is fascinating on several levels. I’ll start with the elephant in the room, the factory location. Sure, the wood comes from Canada, but the labor appears to mostly be comprised of girls just old enough to compete on the Chinese gymnastics team. Next, there’s the joyless, dry narration by Rodney himself. In the first few minutes of the video it’s hard to tell if this is going to be a parody of corporate industrial films or a bona fide video. Lastly, there’s the technological innovation in board manufacturing. These guys have figured out how to make boards seemingly identical to one another. A big part of that would be the fact that only one board gets pressed in one mold at a time, although the molds are stacked on top of each other. To hear Rodney talk, they have a bunch of prima donnas really picky pros who would reject up to 80% of decks from a run because they weren’t up to their critical standards. I know people who are hyper aware of the physical characteristics of the deck they are riding, but most of us can make due with a deck off the shelf as long as it’s a model we like. For those of you who can’t, Dwindle has the solution for you, as long as it’s a 7.5 inch popsicle stick. Just kidding. Whether you are pro or anti (take your pick: Dwindle-Mullen-China), or even ambivalent, the video is worth checking out, assuming you have at least a passing interest in how skateboards are made, or the skateboard industry, even if you’ve already seen a few.

- Thanks to sk8Norcal for the tip.

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Oh the drama. Remember the brouhaha over Jim Phillips and the cease and desist from NHS over his continuing use of the screaming hand logo? Well it looks like they must have worked it out because Santa Cruz is having a book signing with Phillips at their ASR celebration of 35 years of the Santa Cruz brand. It looks like there will be quite a few “celebs” in attendance.

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Sponsored action sports athletes Bucky Lasek, Ryan Guettler, Rob Lorfice, Alistair Whitton (okay, I’ve heard of Bucky) and more will make an appearance at the Vans store at Clackamas Town Center on Thursday, August 21 at 7:00PM. It would probably be cooler to meet these dudes at one of the local skateparks but they promise tons of Vans giveaways including limited edition t-shirts for the first 100 attendees. You might even win a chance to take home a free pair of Vans shoes! Sorry this is short notice fanboys but you’d drop everything to meet Bucky right? Oh wait, we hate those guys because they make their shoes using overseas labor. You could go and protest.

Vans Store Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd Avenue, Portland, OR 97086 503-659-1177

I guess this is old, but it was new to me, so here we are. It’s a pretty funny video spoof on corporate orientation videos done by Girl Skateboards. It gets a bit slow and sometimes they get off theme, but overall it’s pretty well done. The “orientation” takes you through a bunch of differnt aspects of the operation. Noticeably absent is the wood shop, so draw your own conclusions. The host is reminiscent of Chris Farley at times.

[Source: Dept of Skateboarding]

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Here’s what the ad in the March Transworld Business says:

From the undisputed leader… The X Games™ creators of the most high profile action sports competition on the planet, has teamed up with NSS™ to introduce a line of footwear truly worthy of a podium sweep.

If the quality of the X Games skateboards are anything to judge by, you can be sure these shoes will be top notch. You can get a closer look at the 14, X-F1 and Allyoop after the jump. Push for gold!

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Concrete Wave looks like it’s going to try and tackle 411, in a round about way. Evolutions Video On Line is going to be the, err… online companion to the annual DVD freebie Evolutions. Where Evolutions is essentially a series of adverts from different entities, the preview of On Line looks to be formatted the same way that 411 is, but with a different content type. As with the printed mag, the tagline is 100% Skateboarding (as long as it isn’t street and rails, actually.) Looks like a lot of downhill, slalom, “freeride cruising”, some bowl/park riding and yes, even a little freestyle, which apparently has been renamed “flatland.” Seriously, what’s with all the renaming? Downhill is now called Speedboarding, Freestyle is Flatland… what’s next? How about coping bumping? I wonder if Rodney Mullen pees his pants with hysterical laughter when he sees that 1- People are still practicing traditional freestyle (sorry, flatland), and 2- Traditional freestyle skating hasn’t progressed any since he dominated it (to death) in the 80’s. The first installment of Evolutions Video On Line is set to hit this summer. You can watch a preview after the jump.

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