Salt Lake City Utah essentially bans skateboard ramps on private property, except for the rich. Hey, it’s just like 1984 again! Here’s the link to all the new regulations, #21 – Community Noise Pollution Control Regulation is the one you want. 4.5.21. Sporting Ramps. No person shall build or use nor shall any person cause, allow, or permit anyone to build or allow anyone to use any skateboard, roller blade, bicycle, or snowboard ramp or half-pipe or similar configuration within 800 feet of a dwelling, except within facilities that have been designated for such use by a government entity. Actually, it’s the Salt Lake Valley Health Department that is the regulating body. Local Nick Hale was one of the first to get a visit from the Mormon Machine. He started a website where he’s collecting signatures for a petition to overturn the ban over at SLCminiramp, although he might attract a wider audience demographic without the giant “Bogus! Weeeeak!” graphic. This is… so lame. I’m not going to bother preaching to the converted, but we’ll keep our ears open for future developments, help rally the troops, etc. Image above is from the SnA feature on the demo halfpipe in the…

There’s still time to bid on some art boards over at the Ism SK8OLOGY charity auction. Most boards are still at pre-ridiculous eBay levels, so if you want to class up your apartment for a hot date, or you know, buy some art and help a good cause, get on over there.

Alright everybody, get your plates of shrimp ready. Two days after I found out my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, I got this tip. Kimberly, Lexi and Haylea donated their time and assets to pose for Randal Trucks Buy a set, save a set campaign in where if you buy a set of their (limited edition?) pink trucks, proceeds will benefit the American Breast Cancer Foundation. The percentage of the proceeds to be donated is unclear. In fact, there is not a lot of information available other than about 30 pictures of the girls holding their assets and some pink trucks. The web page seems to have been screwed up since I last checked. If ever there was a case for switching over to a Mac, this might be it. Windows users might find most of these images to be hidden in the shadows. Praise Steve Jobs and a lighter gamma setting, or get ready to hit the shadow/highlight adjustment in Photoshop. Before you buy a set or save a set, check out the sets. UPDATE: Where did the pictures go? Well it turns out some of them were deemed inappropriate by the American Breast Cancer Foundation, and they…

The ISM gallery hosted an opening for a skateboard-as-canvas art show called SK8OLOGY. The show featured the work of over 150 (!) artists, and now the boards are being auctioned off to benefit “Now That You Know, a non-profit organization that helps to provide ambitious girls from developing countries a secure environment for learning and growth. Proceeds will also contribute to benefiting the youth of our society through the artistic enrichment of our community.” There are 156 different boards up for auction in a variety of styles and mediums sure to appeal to different tastes. Prices start at $100, so check out the ISM SK8OLOGY auction.

Grind for Life is an organization that exists to provide financial and educational aid to cancer patients and their families. It was started by skateboarder and two time cancer survivor Mike Rogers, and it’s avery active organization. DC Shoes is sponsoring a high ollie contest on September 5th at ASR in the name of Grind for Life. There’s a $1500 winner take all purse, so you have to imagine that the event will somehow raise more than that for the organization. If you aren’t attending the event, you can always donate directly. If straight up cash donations aren’t your thing, you still have to skate, right? Why not pick up a t-shirt, skateboard deck, or even a set of Bones Wheels with the GFL logo. I believe Bones donates a couple bucks per set. It’s all at Grind for Life. Contest flyer after the jump.

I’d bet that practically the same day the name “sweeper” was coined, someone cracked the joke while cleaning off a ramp somewhere. You know, the one where you are sweeping out the flat or something and someone says “Hey, nice sweeper you just pulled!” I swear I thought I made that joke in with a picture post, but I can’t find it. Greg Baller of Freezine fame sent in some pictures of a board he made for a fundraiser. This is one of the all time great artsy fartsy concept boards.

In Calgary there’s an Aryan Guard member who lives within eyesight of a skatepark and makes regular visits there trying to recruit kids for white supremacist causes. He allegedly uses cigarettes to bribe underage skaters! It’s kind of like a (more) bizarre skate church. You’d think he’d want the white kids to live longer and not die from lung cancer, but then again, there’s not a lot of logic to white supremacy in the first place. Well, old Willis (That’s lil’ Hitler’s name) went down to physically confront a multiracial group of youth from Anti-Racist Action Calgary at the skatepark and got beat down. The graphic above comes from an article on the web site called the 325 Collective. There’s no definition of the collective anywhere and the site is pretty amateurish and mixed in message. Somehow they’ve got anti-fascism and anti-racism mixed in with a pro-graffiti message. Oh those little anarchist rascals. It looks like they modified a graphic from a Czech organization called Good Night White Pride that seems to be about ridding hardcore (punk) music from the influence of neo-nazism. Everyone knows the best way to combat violent ideologies is by threatening violence. It worked for Ghandi,…

In case you hadn’t noticed, there are some public service adverts in rotation on the far right side of the site. These banners are for non-profit groups dedicated to advancing skateboarding in some way or another. if you have a group that you’d like to have include in the rotation free of charge, see the guidelines. If you are asking yourself why we are doing this, it’s because we’ve taken a lot of pot shots at the industry and we’re heavy on the sarcasm here. Just by virtue of our name we attract a lot of negativity an some boneheaded comments (to put it nicely). This is an easy way to inject some positivity. Not to worry, we’re not converting the site to a skate church. The Good Sam Club graphic with the halo is just illustrating the point, and I couldn’t find a decent picture online of the Sam Cunningham “Good Sam” model anywhere.

There are a lot of charity board auctions these days, and they tend to get lost in the shuffle. I checked out some of the offerings for Good Wood and found several that I liked, not all limited to the one I chose for this post. Winner for the “Duh! Why didn’t I think of that?” category is Jeff Mullin’s Back to the Future deck. Hello McFly! Check out the Good Wood. It’s called Good Wood 2008 – “Give Back”, an auction-cum-party presented by Aww Sweet & Alldaybuffet at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. 50 artists will be auctioning off one-of-a-kind custom skate decks to support Stoked, an organization that mentors kids through action sports. On Saturday, July 26th from 7 to 12 pm, bid on a custom deck (all priced below $500), dance to beats by Brion ISAACS (33Hz and ShindigNYC) and help prove that “one teen at a time, counterculture WILL change the world.” Full flyer and info after the jump.

No, this is not just an excuse to see how many classic post punk album covers I can (in this case, poorly) Photoshop that yellow skateboard into. There’s a community meeting for Miami Beach residents about renovating and enhancing some public facilities. One thing on the agenda is a “new cultural multi-purpose skate plaza.” No thanks, I prefer my skate plazas to be culture-free. Based on the wording, it’s not evident that they know what they are talking about. Miami skaters should go to the meeting on Tuesday, July 22nd at 6pm in the Miami Beach Botanical Garden “Butterfly Room” on 2000 Convention Center drive. Flyer after the jump. – Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip.