Troy Sliter sent this link to an old clip about a Ffej demo in Canada. Some pretty great skating but the standouts are the banal commentary about boards with wheels and the general cluelessness of the news guys. Oh and Kurt Stoodley -although he’s certainly no Gary Lumpkin.

Mark Conahan made a comic with featuring the skateboarders on the Tootsie Roll Pop wrapper. Today I saw on the Krux web site that they have some shirts called “sucker” featuring the appropriated art. Nice job Krux, but a bummer for me because I was working on something similar for a different project. I guess that is why Krux (AKA N.H.S.) is a real company, and my operation runs out of a basement. Oh well, you snooze, you lose. If by some chance you’ve never noticed the skateboarders on the Tootsie Pop Roll wrappers, keep reading.

Actually those guys aren’t actually trying to spread any musical gospel, I’ve just been dying for an excuse to use the STFU acronym in a post title. Pierre Luc Gagnon Says “Skate Culture Isn’t Just About Punk Rock Anymore” in an article in Chart Attack (Your Canadian Music Source, eh?) and Tony Hawk is narrating a feature documentary on the 90’s punk scene.

The setting: The Riverwalk in Naperville Illinois. The time: About 1984. How many times can you say “I was the first person to ever skate this?” Now everyone skates, that’s getting harder and harder to say. I go back to Naperville to visit family every other year or so. Now they’ve got a crappy prefab skatepark, but back then there was not much of a scene. I have to assume Naperville’s current park is crappy because I’ve only looked at it from the car. That town has money to burn but somehow they got suckered into a bunch of wooden ramps on a concrete slab. Larger versions and a little more about the new skate park after the jump.

The first skateboard I ever rode came from Sears. My dad bought it for my mom at a Sears catalog outlet store. At the time, Midland Michigan wasn’t big enough for an actual Sears store. Instead, we had a small shop with a few displays of smaller objects you could buy on spot, and a counter that you would go to to look at the Sears catalog, pay for what you wanted, and pick it up when it arrived. One saturday the family made a trip there and my mom became infatuated with a stand of Roller Derby brand banana boards. They looked just like board “B” above, only yellow. My father, being infatuated with my mother, decided to buy it for her. I think it was $14.99.

The Santa Cruz Skateboards Veterans Division video titled V-Day is making the premier rounds at skate shops cross country. Next up is Portland’s Shrunken Head sponsored event on Thursday April 5th at the Mission Theater. Also on the bill is a 10 year anniversary screening of the Portland classic Using It. You can watch the V-Day trailer after the jump.

Variflex used to be a honest to goodness real skateboard company with a real team. BroadbandSports.com has a SocalSkateparks.com video of a Variflex reunion of sorts at Ione skatepark. Featured riders are Lance Mountain, Tim Metz, Curtis Franklin, Dan Colburn, Freddie Desota, Mike Hirsch and Steve Hirsch. What, no Eddie Elguera, Eric Grisham, or Allen Losi? That’s like seeing Van Halen without David Lee Roth. The footage is nothing amazing but has some solid skating for all you bowl trolls (myself included) out there. If you need more Variflex action, check out this Juice interview with Lance Mountain where he talks a little about his Variflex days.

Yes. You have probably seen this video of Martin Sweeney one before, but in my eyes it doesn’t really exist unless it shows up on Skate and Annoy. This video segment is from the BBC show Record Breakers. The video was shot in 1991, and the host is Roy Castle who died in 1994. The source of the video comes from UKSSA, the United Kingdon Slalom Skateboard Association. The UKSSA site has a history of the UK slalom scene, a how-to, and other information pertinent to UK slalomers including a higher quality video than what you can see after the jump. It must have been fun to skate on that road racing course. Nice Shoes Martin!

Here’s a couple pictures of Dave Campbell skating Modern Skate Park in Grand Rapids Michigan. If that name rings a bell, it’s because Dave had a brief but memorable spot in the Santa Cruz video Troops of Tomorrow. Since Chompy hasn’t posted that one yet, you can watch some Swedish guys on Flask TV, possibly making fun of it., I don’t know. I don’t speak Swedish, but they seem to be impressed with the pogo-to-drop-in on the vert ramp. Enlarged pics and more after the jump.

Anyone who read Thrasher in the 80’s should remember references to the Capitola Classic downhill race series. They covered it when it was going, and pined for it when it wasn’t. It seemed there was always a Capitola rumor in On Board Trash. Of course, seeing as how my own front yard ramp got mentioned there once, they pretty much printed anything. Rumors be damned! Former competitor and second place women’s finisher Judi Oyama is doing her best to resurrect the Capitola Classic. She’s in talks with the city to try and bring it back. Not bad for someone who got uninvited to the race for being a chick. Judi has two recent appearances in local news concerning the Capitola Classic and getting the new generation, and especially women involved with their own scene. The poster is Jim Phillips design from the 1980 race and the picture is by Judi’s father. More Capitola links after the jump.