Under Fire: A Special Report On The State Of Skate Hardgoods is brought to you by the International Association Of Skateboard Companies and is produced in conjunction With TransWorld Business and TransWorld SKATEboarding The IASC (International Association of Skateboard Companies) and Transworld Business have included an insert in the latest issue of the industry rag Transworld Business. It’s a marketing piece designed to promote the purchase of branded boards over blanks and shop boards. It didn’t stop Transworld from accepting quite a few ads for companies advertising OEM services to make those evil boards in the same issue. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.

A World Without CEOs is a response to A World Without Pros. It’s a good piss-take on the Blitz’ site, although it would have been better if it had stuck to rational argument instead of the occasional name calling and profanity. Not that I have anything against profanity in general, but in this case I think it’s counterproductive. I just think it would be more effective without calling the IASC a bunch of morons. The “Don’t sue me. I’m just a poor skateboarder” page is kind of weak too. If you are going to make a statement, stand by it and don’t include a “just kidding” as an afterthought.

Coca-Cola Road Trip: I think this aired in the summer of 2006. In the story line, some kids get bored building their miniramp so they go on a road trip to find some full pipes in the desert. They skate for five minutes and get kicked out. Someone did some cultural research, throwing in terms like “desert water project” and having full pipes in the first place, except the pipes are small and metal. The punch line is “At least someone got to skate.” Gee, maybe if you hadn’t brought seven guys to the session in the middle of the day it wouldn’t have been a problem. These kids need to learn about stealth. All in all though, a fairly innocuous effort. Catch the video after the jump.

Remember that Sony patent we reported on for a vehicle steerable by movement of center of gravity? Well, Sony may have an artist’s conception of a stick figure snowman riding one, but some college kids at UBC (where?) have video footage of pretty much the same device that they made and actually rode back in February of 2005. Patent law in the U.S. is one big mess. I’m sure these kids will get screwed. No matter, it’s not like the devices are going to become popular. Catch the video after the jump.

A lot of commercials featuring skateboarders have been popping up lately. Yesterday I posted the CarMax advert, so starting today I’m going to see how long I can keep it going. Nissan has a fetish for skateboards. Here’s a commercial featuring Danny Way for another Nissan vehicle.

V-Day for veterans? That’s Valentine’s day for the Veterans Division of Santa Cruz Skateboards, not V-Day or VE-Day or VJ-Day. Someone at NHS needs a little help with timing press releases. After 5:00 pm Pacific time on the day of the event does not cut it. Jason Jesse signed 250 special edition skateboards with a Valentines Day graphic that have been distributed among skate shops. There’s no more when they are gone. Check out Jason’s special message after the jump. I’m predicting one will show up on eBay within a month.

I kind of forgot that it was Valentine’s Day. Check out this small collection of Extreme™ Valentine’s Day stuff from 2002. Surely there is something new to add. Let us know if you got some.

I’m not sure if this commercial is even airing or not, but thanks to the Interwebs, here it is. There’s nothing funnier than an age-inappropriate person on a skateboard, with the possible exception of a football to the groin. Catch the video after the jump

For more photos of the Sit-N-Skate, head on over to Skateboarding Sucks. It looks like Destructo is the truck of choice for homebrew kooky skateboard manufacturers. I’m drawing a blank on why you would need a skateboard truck (or any wheels for matter) on this sitting device for roller skates. Maybe I just lack vision. To dream, the impossible dream.

Once again proving that a government publication is more fun with a picture of a skateboard, the headline on this Russian poster loosely translates to They did everything for us. Are we doing anything for them? “They” meaning Russian World War 2 veterans, and “Us” meaning the current young generations in Russia. Basically, the poster wants Russians to take care of their war veterans. There are no other details available, my guess is this was made during the 80’s. You can view the whole poster after the jump. [Source: Flickr]