I got back from vacation and found a free monthly neighborhood paper sitting in the pile of neglected mail. The cover story of the Sentinel is Skateboarders Without Borders. It’s about local D.I.Y. project that is not so much of a secret, but still, the article pretty much gives the exact location and shows a landmark photo that all but draws a map for you. On top of that, the author interviewed the current land owners. I heard there was a “bust” of sorts during construction but that there were no real consequences. If they weren’t already numbered, my guess is this spot is about to become extinct. I hope the guy in the interview used a fake name.

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Q spotted this and Dave Tobin told me about it. It was a newspaper insert advertising Qwest high speed internet.

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From Dennis the Menace, August 7th. I guess I should have tipped off MC. Although I’m not sure this is the type of skate comic he’s interested in. Dennis’s unnamed friend must be sporting clear grip tape.

Here’s another edition of Skateboard Gossip from My Wife, who incidentally, gets all her info from gay men who write celebrity blogs on the Interwebs™, so you know it’s relevant to this site too. First up, It’s Ryan Sheckler on the cover of ESPN Magazine, although it looks like he’s been replaced already. No, the word “Hot” is not editorial commentary from SnA, rather it’s from Perez Hilton, who seems to have a bit of a non-heterosexual man-crush. He’s reported on Sheckler before. Guess what? He’s officially a celebrity once non-skating gay males start fixating on him. This one is for the haters. From the cover, Sheckler appears to be quoted as saying “I want to give them more reasons not to like me.” It’s official again! Ryan Sheckler is Punk Rock! I’d love to get the rest of the context, but ESPN has some sort of convoluted “Digital Edition” of the magazine designed to annoy people enough to not want to read the content online for free. Part two of our feature is Linda Hogan, wife of Hulk Hogan, visiting their son Nick Hogan who is in jail for pulling an attempted Vince Neil. What did she bring him for his birthday visit? A skateboard of course.

The LA Times reports that skaters and BMX riders alike are not too happy with ESPN’s Superpark course built by a BMX crew. The main complaints are “too small” and “tight transitions,” although you’d be hard pressed to tell by some of the photos. The Flying Tomato reminds us that this is the first year for the event, and next years will likely be better. Shaun White may be right, or he may just be more interested in making bad miniseries for HP computers. I seem to recall hearing that some of the early vert ramps in the X Games were kind of crappy too, but they eventually go that right. With more money on the line now, they’ll probably get right on that. Although the general public seems to only be interested in the Mega Ramp. [Photo: Los Angeles Times] - Thanks to Mac for the tip.

There are shin injuries, and then there are shin injuries. That shot in the top right is Danny Way hanging his shins out to dry on the coping of the quarterpipe part of the Megaramp after catching about 20 feet of air. Catch some incredulous highlights after the jump, including Jake Brown’s return to the event. Looking at that huge contraption… I can’t believe it’s actually used in a competition. An exhibition would be crazy enough. I hope those guys are getting paid. How the hell do you practice for this? It’s not like they have them set up everywhere. So yeah, those guys are skateboarding, and it’s amazing to watch, but one of these days someone is going to die or end up crippled. Best case scenario: They’ll be like Hank Hill’s shinless father Cotton Hill.

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This is kind of an old item already, but for some reason the New York Times has picked up on the release of Jay Adams from prison. I had wondered whether he was officially done with his time or whether he was on some sort of probation. The Times says he’s at a halfway house serving out the remaining months of his four year sentence. I’ve often wondered how that whole prison release thing works, fortunately I don’t know the details. Looks like he’s working for Hurley maintaining their private skate facility. Check out the pic above right. Apparently Hurley is exploring a marketing image that wants to intimidate the hell out of prospective clothes buyers. You can get the full effect at the NYT article by enlarging it. I wonder if Jay knew that the prison he was serving time in was only about 15 minutes away from the world class Aumsville, Oregon skatepark? I thought I read that he took a cab to a bus station in Portland. With Hurley’s parent company Nike so close in Beaverton, Oregon you’d think someone could have picked him up. I can’t find that bit of info anymore, so I might have imagined the cab ride. I know at least one soul who would have jumped at the chance to provide the hour long lift. No, it’s not me, but I mean, if I was already on my way back from Aumsville, sure I’d stop for him. Jay’s caught a couple of breaks lately, here’s to hoping he can stay free. Although, you’ve got to bet that Hosoi wishes he had Adam’s lawyer, considering he seemingly had a harder time getting released for lessor offense and comparatively nominal criminal history. Insert derisive Steve Olson comment on skate bloggers here. - Thanks to TK, Mac and about a 20 other people for the tip.

OH yeah, I forgot to title this “Vert is dead, not dead, dead, not dead, dead….” I’m losing track of where we’re at here. Dave Swift over at the Skateboard Mag has some pictures of the new setup for the Super Park event at the X Games. If you recall, Super Park was supposed to be the replacement for the vertical event until the talent mutinied and said they would prefer to compete on the halfpipe. So now we have Vert and Super Park. Without getting into the politics, the Super Park course certainly looks more interesting than a vert ramp, and is more in step with what people who aren’t training for the X Games are riding, if not in the street. Now, to get into the politics, or at least social responsibility, carting that thing around to different venues seems like it would be a gargantuan task. We all know what happens to these ramps when they got through a season or two, they get donated. It’s one thing to fix up up a vert ramp or some pyramids that have seen some abuse, it’s relatively straight forward. What’s going to happen when they discard these massively complex bowl constructions? Sure, it’s not as wasteful as something as ludicrous as building a concrete skatepark for one time use. (Don’t get me started on that, it’s something I had planned for a rant already…) I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again, ESPN needs to give back to the sport (besides paying the salaries of the top pros) by advocating for and financially facilitating concrete skateboard facilities across the nation, if not world, in ways similar to other high profile entities that make bank from skateboarding. Right. Don’t forget to check out the Super Park. It looks fun as hell. - Thanks to JF for the tip.

Friend of the site Brad the Handstandman was on The Late Show with David Letterman on July 18th. Can we call him a friend of the site? Sure, why not, after all the heckling, veiled threats and assorted rigmarole. The original Handstandman post is almost in the top five of the most commented posts. Such lively discussion is usually reserved for Airspeed, Benji Galloway and Wormhoudt in San Jose. I can’t help but feel that a true friend of the site would have given us the heads up before he was on national television. You can still watch it on Late Show highlights. Just head on over to Dave’s site and click on the video link for “”Late Show” Rewind: Week of July 14-18, 2008.” Handstandman is about halfway into the clip - after Ricky Gervais and before Rosie Perez. The video player is a little buggy, and you have to sit through a short commercial. SnA comment army, please remember, we’ve been through all the name calling already.

Motion Theory is a motion graphics studio that has done a lot of work you’ve probably seen, like the HP ad for Pharrell (hi res here) that also features skateboarding. They did a short ID piece for ESPN on Evolution, specifically the evolution of skateboarding. Apparently, it aired during the Superbowl, but which one? You can watch it and download it from the Motion Theory site. I wonder if they will notice a bandwith spike? As far as the animation goes, it’s fun to watch. As far as the evolution of skateboarding goes, it stops with what mainstream skaters consider the dodo birds of skateboarding, AKA the vert ramp riders - but I’m sure that’s what the client wanted. - Thanks (again) to Livmo for the tip. yeah, it’s going to be that kind of day.