A concerned citizen at the Ed Benedict meeting last night busted the chops of Kyle from NewLine Skateparks about the fact that none of the skaters in his presentation were wearing helmets or safety equipment. I wanted to pipe up that I just think of it as evolution in action. It was too much to go into the helmets are aesthetically unappealing in photos and footage and since many skaters are all about the coverage… discussion. Head injuries are no joke, I have been getting a lot of google alerts about skaters dying all over the country because they fell on their heads while skating. A skater died from head trauma wilsoning a transfer over a four foot spine at the Pt. Angeles skatepark. Your choice dude, we’ll miss you. Here’s a story about skateboarding injuries including head trauma from a Connecticut hospital’s website. More than 50,000 emergency department visits a year are related to skateboarding injuries. Most of the 1,500 people who are hospitalized have head injuries. Dr. William Horgan, a specialist board certified in both adult and pediatric emergency medicine, works in the Backus Hospital Emergency Department. “Skateboarding injuries are very common and typically include wrist fractures and…

I actually named my cat “Rerun” after the character in this show. At the time, 10 years ago, my girlfriend and I thought it was hilarious – the cat’s name, not the TV show. Now I’m married to that girl (Not That Girl) and our cat pees on my pads. The complete season two of What’s Happening is available on Amazon. Does anyone know if there is there any skateboarding these episodes? If you need audio to get in the What’s Happening!! mood, click here and scroll down. [Source: Bobcat via Sleestak.net]

Skateboarding messaged novelty undershirts at CafePress. They have these on dark shirts too but the white ones were easier to read. thanks to Dan Hughes for sharing this.

Americans don’t have the market cornered on wacky skateboard inspired technology. From Germany comes the DIY Struller scooter and skateboard combo and from the UK we have the Magic Wheel, which is like a skateboard if it had one bicycle wheel replacing the front truck. Err.. and a shopping cart wheel on the back truck I guess. I’m reaching here. Will somebody please post some actual skateboarding on this web site? [ Source: Magic Wheel – Gearfuse ]

Is inline skating back from the dead? Yes, according to the Press Enterprise story “Inline Skating Part of Action Sports Tour Lineup.” I’m not sure why that warrants the headline. it seems like only a few years ago that inline skating was dropped from the X-Games. So uh… kudos to the Dew AST for having it’s finger on the pulse of Extreme!™ youth trends so that the skateboarding community can heckle the booters instead of BMX guys or worse, each other. Exclusive video of the official promo video for inline skating after the jump. The crappy watermarked image that I couldn’t be bothered to fix in Photoshop is “courtesy” of All Posters, who claims that it has “pure color and exceptional detail that is suitable for museum or gallery display.”

OK, I’m going to cop to not putting a lot of effort into SnA since the baby was born. The obvious lameness of this post title ought to give you a hint about how sleep deprivation is affecting me. Hopefully it’ll settle down with time. Here’s the first in a long line of quick and dirty posts. At one point in time I was thinking about having a gallery of “No skateboarding” signs from around the world until I realized how boring it would likely be. Now it could contain at least two interesting signs. All those skateboarding bulldogs on YouTube are going to pissed off about this “No Skateboarding Dogs” sign spotted on Chuck Woodbury’s Roadside Journal. Yes, I know, the sign is meant to say “No Skateboarding, No Dogs,” but it’s amusing none the less. Second, we have this “Thou Shalt Not Skateboard” sign in front of the Claremont Presbyterian Church in the city of Ontario California, as reported by the Daily Bulletin. At least they have a sense of humor. Also attached, “No Skating or Grinding,” but Kickflipping is apparently allowed. And what is that middle symbol? No Moonwalking? And now for something completely unrelated, a spider…

When Oregon Scientific decided they needed some on location shots of their helmet mounted waterproof action cam, the ATC2K, they chose Portland’s Pier Park instead of some other less family friendly locations. Not surprising since the company is based in Tualitin Oregon. Actually, it is surprising since Newberg would have been a heck of a lot closer. California parks show up in tv commercials and print ads all the time, so it’s interesting when a local Portland park is featured. Or not. This poor, unfortunate youth appears be using his helmet cam to avoid seeing footage of himself looking very stiff or possibly posing himself on a skateboard. The waterproof ATC2K is being hawked on Costco, and shows video footage of from a trip down a waterslide which makes me think they are missing out on a potentially more lucrative niche market, adult watersports. (Cue track six from the Surf Punks’ album Local’s Only.) Now to hit up these guys for a review model. Thanks to Roger Harrell of Skateboarder Magazine for the tip.

Great thread on Concrete Disciples about a guy who took his kids to Burnside and got vibed by the locals. His threats to start a petition to try to get Burnside closed ruffled a few feathers. Abuse is heaped, the terrorists win. Pretty funny that he ends up getting vibed on the website too! I’m going to go out on a limb and call the TimK SnA’s Douchebag of the Week. I’m guessing his next petition will try to close down the Indy500 because they wouldn’t let his kids ride their pedal cars on the track.

A tutorial on removing your bearings can be found at About.com which is a New York Times venture. About’s treatment of Skateboarding is squeaky clean. Marketers to youth and school teachers should find the site useful, making it easier for them to rap with the young people. Amazing that this Steve Cave character gets paid to rewrite the book of skateboarding making sure everything is spelled correctly. I’m waiting for the Time Life how-to series. Are there skateboarders out there who haven’t figured out how to use an axle to remove a bearing? I wonder if About.com can help? Which brings to mind an amazing skate repair tip I watched at Pier Park one day. A kid was looking for spare bearings because his were totally seized. Mike Swim took one of the kid’s non-rolling bearings and applied a little PBR. No shit, it freed up the previously frozen bearing. You can’t learn nothin’ in school they don’t teach you on the streets.

At least when you’re playing a skateboarding themed pinball machine, you’re standing up. Enlarge the advert. This and a bunch of other old game images are here. Update: Looks like they have this thing over at Ground Kontrol in Portland. Update: Kilwag has more pictures of this thing coming soon.