Holy cow. Bill Danforth doing his best Popeye impression at Kristian Svitak’s ramp. I had no idea BIll Was so… old. All those gratuitous pro models must be wearing him down. In all seriousness, I have nothing but respect for Bill, and I bought myself a handful of his Alva decks with the tri-tail. Loved that board. BIll Danforth. Grover knows him from his days in Michigan. Both those guys are hilarious. Hey Kristian and Regulator, you keep making these videos, I’ll keep posting every (other) of of them. Danforth’s got a model on 1031. Midwest uber alles.
UPDATE: Added Bill’s video part from the 1989 video “Young Gunz.”
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The Kings Highway DIY project in St Louis is scheduled to be torn down within a year as the 76 year old bridge overhead is being demolished. KHVT (Kingshighway Vigilante Transitions 501c3) organizers are working with the city to fundraise and sanction the first public free skatepark in the city.
To ensure that the skateboarders of St. Louis will still have a place to skate, KHVT must act quickly. We are working closely with St. Louis City’s Land Re-utilization Authority (LRA) to find small, unused city owned properties to be transformed into free, public “skate gardens.”
As of now, KHVT is $33,000 short of the $50k they need to build this first spot. And that’s where the Kickstarter campaign comes in.
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Shove it is a crazy huge art show crossover with skateboards, artists and paper toy designers. It would seem like an odd thing, but MC made a paper toy version of GVK a few years ago. This is a Kickstarter project, and they need the money to produce limited releases of the skateboards I guess. It’s also supposed to be a public relations effort for a new skatepark in Des Moines, but they are super, super vague about that in the video, which is, in any case, pretty interesting for the Kickstarter genre.
Another frankenramp creation, Barnside (unofficial name) is somewhere in the Kansas City area. Four videos after the jump. Chin Ramp indeed.
- Thanks to Dave Campbell for the tip.
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Milwaukee, Wisconsin locals who aren’t content to wait for the Turf to be dug up again or settle for facilities like the one you see above (no joke!) have taken things into their own hands. RideMKE is a non-profit organization committed to establishing sustainable concrete parks in Milwaukee. (MKE is the airport code for Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.) The first item on the agenda is to clean up and improve the abortion that is Estabrook park, but the ultimate goal is to spread concrete to new locations. The county is on board because it isn’t costing them anything. Check the story out on OnMilwaukee.com, or stop by RideMKE blog or Facebook page.
Iowa isn’t really on the map yet, as far as skateparks go, but Spohn Ranch aims to change that. Photos from the new Oskaloosa, Iowa skatepark after the jump.
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It’s being reported that Rob Dyrdek is negotiating the purchase of Alien Workshop off of Burton.
“While Rob’s message was definitely premature, we did want to confirm that we are in an open dialog with him about a possible purchase. At this point, please note that nothing is confirmed, and we will absolutely do a formal announcement when and/or if that transition happens.”
That kid loves Ohio. I imagine that’s got to be a good feeling, buying the brand that gave you a start in your own neck of the woods.
[Source: Shop Eat Surf via Skateboarder Image exceprt: Gentlemanly Conduct]
P.S. Yes, I realize this is not exactly hot off the presses.
A while back I was periodically updating the archive of periodicals, aka the 80′s Skate Zine Gallery. I’ve been lagging and sorely sagging. meanwhile, there’s Local Chaos out of Ann Arbor, Michigan whose print issues span 1984 to the present day, with a short period of abstinence. LC has more zines scanned in their archives (from all over) than I probably have in my whole collection. Time to get back on the horse.
Lifeblood Skateboards premier for the video We Must Bleed is this Saturday, November 5th at Commonwealth in Portland, at 8:PM (Demo / free skate for an hour before. No word on couples skating.) In the mean time check out three video episodes of the recent Lifeblood tour of the Midwest after the jump.
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Red Bull is sponsoring… well, it’s a skatepark built on a barge, floating down the Mississippi river. There are events planned – for days already passed, sorry guys, but there’s still one to go October 8th and 9th. Sunday’s contest has top place finishers from earlier events in Saint Paul, the Quad Cities and St Louis. Meanwhile they have a crew on board and on board while in transit. I’m glad I live in a world where someone thinks something like this is worth paying for. Floating street course by Spohn Ranch, web site for the Mississippi Grind by Red Bull. Video on how it went down after the jump.
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