Lately I’ve been reading the new issue of Poweredge magazine during my breaks at work instead of geeking out on my iPhone. It’s been a pretty good read, actually. The art direction, although definitely reminiscent of the old magazine at times, feels a bit unfocused. I am enjoying the content, with the exception of the CAPS LOCK USED IN SOME OF THE ARTICLES. IT MAKES IT HARD TO READ. Poweredge will be coming out four times a year. This issue, the first since 1992 or so is 120 pages (in color) and features Mike Vallely, Mike Smith, Sean Sheffey, Jake Brown, Dayne Brummet, Alec Beck and more. There is a generous helping of old photos in with the new. There are supposed to be multiple covers, but this is what mine looks like. Strange choice for a first cover, but I’m stoked that Poweredge is back. I was a subscriber the first time around. I found it a good mix of Thrasher and Transworld. Nowadays I’m not sure where it would fall in the spectrum of skateboard magazines, but I’m rooting for it for sure. Where can you get yours? At select skate shops and newsstands. You might have to do some hunting until they get the distribution channels sorted out. Barring that, you can subscribe too. Poweredge is supposed to be launching a new web site any day now.

Let me start off by thanking all those who sent in links to auctions that finished in August. Like I said last month, I missed 2 weeks of auctions because I was out of the country, and consequently I didn’t have very many decks to highlight. Well you all came though and sent in tons of links, so thanks for that. Thanks to you, this month features about the same amount of decks as usual! And to think, I was looking forward to doing a shorter one this month! Now, unfortunately I lost all of the links to the featured auctions this month. I normally keep the auction link in the Spotlight Comments field of the file, but I ran some maintenance utilities on my MacBook Pro a few days ago, and it appears to have cleaned out all of the metadata in the files. So I have no original auction info to check back on for things like trucks and wheels on completes etc. If some details seem scarce this month, that’s why.

Check out eBay Watch: August 2009

EDITOR’S NOTE: We seem to get a constant trickle of emails from people asking Neil to appraise a skateboards that people found in their basements, attics, or yard sales. I always respond with a form mail explaining we don’t do that because because some of the collector community thinks we might affect the outcome of future auctions, and Neil is happy to abstain because it would take up a fair amount of his time. In any case, we point them to Art of Skateboarding and wish them luck. Recently a couple of douchebags have actually gotten upset that we don’t want to help them make money. So I’m going to break our rules and offer some advice: Piss off and get over it!

I went to my hometown in Michigan on July10th and hooked up with my old friend, David Scot Campbell. He is by far the biggest skate influence in my life. In Michigan in 1986 he was doing stuff you would see in California skate magazines with little or no live example. He has weathered all of skateboarding’s highs and lows riding through the whole mess, and I mean from the beginning. Dave enjoyed a little notoriety at the end of the vert era when he was picked up by Santa Cruz skateboards. His talents are showcased in the video “Troops of Tomorrow”. Even though vert skating died, Dave kept skating underground because there was no upper ground. He continues to ride to this day and will ride until it’s physically impossible. I’m proud to have him as a life-long team member of Cold War Skateboards.

OK, first of all let me apologize for this being so late. I went to a family wedding in England and was gone for 2 weeks mid-August, and that’s thrown everything completely off for July and August. I was thinking about combining them, but I have so many decks that I didn’t think that would be fair and it wouldn’t make sense. So here’s July, and August should follow in a couple of weeks, but be aware that I missed 2 weeks of auctions, so I don’t have as many auctions as usual for August. SO if you won anything for big dollars, or if you got a huge bargain in August, let me know and send me the eBay link and I’ll include it in August.

There will be no music review this month because I’m so behind. Sorry about that. I was going to review Disposable 2, but I may not do that at all because I found it fundamentally flawed on many levels, but I’m sure it was a ton of work, so I’m going to leave it be.

Momentum Wheels has released a wheel benefiting the Don Hartley memorial fund. Don was a legendary fixture in the Vancouver BC scene, and he died n July after sustaining a head injury at the also legendary Seylynn snake run in Vancouver. BC Skateboarding has a nice eulogy, including video footage of the Mad Carver, as he was known. Style for miles. He was 52 when he died, and usually wore a helmet when he skated, but didn’t on that particular day.

Well this is it. The last installment of Skateboarding Action, courtesy of Carl Warren. We laughed, we cried, we bailed. Here’s Bill Tocco and some information on buying a skateboard. Today’s skateboards are stronger, bigger, more colorful, and have more protective plastic than ever before. Enlarge-o-rama.

Previous installments:
Eight – Seven – Six – Five – Four – Three – Two – One

Season four of Home Improvement. There’s a Gator board conspicuously placed on the set, looking spotless and unused. ESPN magazine has some sort of feature planned on Vision and Vision Street Wear. They are hitting up the old school bloggers for photos. Paying even. I was going to dig through my archives, but I decided to pass on the basis that I don’t want to contribute to anything that glorifies a company still trying to make money off of a notorious murderer, and one that wishes they would give the royalties away at that. Check out Home Improvement on YouTube until it get’s pulled. It’s from season four, an episode titled “The eyes don’t have it,” circa 1995. The skateboard makes an appearance around the 3:42 mark, but it just sits there, so…. Hold on, that episode is mid 90’s, bso that means that board was sitting around in props for a good 5 years or so before they used it. – Thanks to Jimmy Pills for the tip.

Coming down to the wire here. Here is the latest installment of the Skateboard Action book, courtesy of Carl Warren. Last week they were ice skaters, this week it’s ballerinas. It’s O.P. Moore. Hey Roving Editor, Enlarge-o-rama works fine on my iPhone.

Previous installments:
Seven – Six – Five – Four – Three – Two – One

Member of the original Zoo York art/skate crew, activist, skatepark designer, and all around skate scene motivator Andy Kessler died from an allergic reaction to a wasp sting on Monday. As reported in Forbes, Skateboarder</a, ESPN, the Associated Press, UPI, New York magazine, and everywhere else but here, until now. Thanks to everyone who sent in the tips, I’m obviously not reading my google alerts this week. Here’s a 2007 video interview with Andy and another lengthy 2005 profile.

[Photo: Kingbee]

People who skateboard on ramps are called “vertical skaters.” People who skateboard on anything they can find are called “street skaters.” And people who ride on flat ground only are called “freestyle skaters.”

Freestyle skaters are usually the most graceful. They do handstands, jumps, spins, and twirls, often performing planned routines set to music. They are the “ice skaters” of skateboarding.

More Skateboard Action from Carl Warren. Thanks human! Enlarge-o-rama! Who is that dude?

Previous installments:
Six – Five – Four – Three – Two – One