They offered to send me some pictures from the vert event in China, and I said Sure, I’d check them out, and see how they went over on the site. They were kind of stingy. Pierre-Luc Gagnon won the vert event (2nd – Andy Macdonald, 3rd- Adam Taylor) and Sandro Dias’ 900 won the best trick. I don’t know if there was a street event, all they sent was vert info. You can read the canned press and see the pics after the jump. Who knows, maybe you are curious about what Zhou Qiang, President of Xingyi New Media Investment Company has to say.

These are from the Oregon Trifecta’s Battleground stop last year. Sometimes it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there in the ranks of the Portland non-professional skateboard media. Looks like that might be Rich from EPM, or possibly Mike from The Skateboard Archives, or even Dan from Northwest Skater. Don’t feel sorry for me, cause I’ve poached them all too.

This week’s Shot of the Week is from Damienhialation, and it’s called the challenge. Dan told the kids that whoever grinded off his dollar could have it. He’s a giver. Yeah great, but did they get the beer too? I mean, by kids I assume he means freshly turned 21 year olds. Check out the Shot of the Week

Colin Bane over at Fuel TV has an argument against putting professional vert skating on life support. In his post titled Vert. Alive and thriving? Colin compiles some upcoming professional events and media exposure highlighting vert skating. I wouldn’t mention this, except I don’t want want to let anyone down, seeing as how we can’t shake the image that Skate and Annoy is for old men who like vert. Also, Colin has a shout out to Conahan and his H.O.M.O.S. comics. Hey, does MC know those guys over at Antigravity Press are ripping off his content and passing it off as their own? Image on top is from DC’s backside smith how-to video with Colin McKay.

Remember the pasty faced Dutch kid with the vaguely effeminate first name that set a new consecutive kickflip record? Yeah, me either. There’s a new kickflip champion in town. He’s 13 year old Zach Kral, and he hails from Waterford, Wisconsin. Like James Brown, he hit it and quit it at 1200. On Saturday, 4-5-08, Zach Kral, 13 of Waterford, Wi, did 1200 consecutive kickflips to win the Fuze Kickflip Challenge at 4Seasons Skatepark in Milwaukee, WI. It took 1 hr and 42 minutes to complete. He said he started to get tired at around 1160, so he decided to stop when he got to 1200. He started from the first one on his first try attempt and went straight through to 1200, while staying in constant motion. Mike Gonzalez of Kragon Action Sports sent in the tip, I think because Zach must be on his team. There’s a Fuze Kickflip Challenge event page and a Flickr stream if you are interested. Somewhere in Holland, Laurens Groenveld is crying over his puny 566 consecutive kickflips. I hope I don’t get targeted by hackers in Amsterdam again. Did I mention I like Heineken?

Apparently the anguished cries of old men everywhere resonated in the halls of ESPN. EXPN.com reports: ESPN has decided to continue its 13-year tradition of vert competitions at this year’s X Games. Over the past month ESPN has engaged in many conversations with the X Games BMX and Skateboard vert athletes in an attempt to transition the Vert discipline into one featuring a skatepark course design. While many athletes were initially receptive to the idea, the majority of them have indicated to ESPN that they would prefer to compete on a halfpipe. So vert skating is back from the dead. Who could have predicted it? I think it’s funny that the athletes were the ones the brought it back. More telling is the fact that they plan to go forward with the Superpark concept in addition. I have a feeling that the vert riders who don’t decide to enter Superpark are going to lose ultimately. I see this as a temporary appeasement of the talent so they don’t have a mass boycott of riders. Sure, they’ll bring back vert for one or two more seasons while they quietly build up Superpark until ratings prove they don’t need vert anymore, because…

More on one of those other communities I heard rumors of. This video is an event called the PDX Death Race 2008. PDX is the ID for Portland’s airport, for those of you outside the area. No, the race wasn’t a the airport, that would be kind of flat, you know? This was a downhill race that involved some slalom cones that seem pretty far apart, so technically that would be Giant, Giant slalom I guess. Just because they are spaced far apart doesn’t mean it was an easy course by any means. You can see in the footage that the alternating cones were extremely close to the shoulder of asphalt. Looks very burly. After the race footage there is some bonus Coleman slide session footage.

Well, not really. Lance Robson sent in a link to more coverage of the 2008 Florida Bowl Riders Cup at Cocoa Beach via his photo set on Flickr. Top down that’s Benji Galloway (Yeah Benji coverage!) Donovan Rice, and Jesse Martinez. And yes, Hooters was an official sponsor, something I learned on Tim Ebaugh’s slide show. How about some Hooters girl-on-girl-on-longboard action? Wait a minute, two girls riding the same, uh, err… longboard. But doesn’t that make them kooks? I’m conflicted. To recap: A slideshow from Photographer Tim Ebaugh. Some photos from Santa Ana Dave: The Pros – The Masters Rickloose Florida Bowl Riders cup set on Flickr

According to Addikt Skateboards, the Florida Bowl Riders Cup went down like this: 1) Benji Galloway 2) Morgan Burgess 3) Jimmy The Greek 4) Donovan Rice We don’t have those photos, but we do have two from the Masters division, sent in by Tito.

Hell, I think this is Art Steve Art. I can tell them apart now but back then… This was from an NSA sanctioned vert and street contest held outdoors in Indianapolis Indiana. It was either 1988 0r 1989, I can’t remember. The Godoys had a reputation for being trouble makers, so I thought it would be funny to pose a shot of Art getting choked by a security guard, who was only too happy to oblige. The effect is kind of ruined by the huge grin on the security guy’s face. Art didn’t seem to be into it, but agreed to play along, I think mostly to thank us for printing a long Godoy interview in a print issue. We were one of the few zines that wanted anything to do with them. Now I’m thinking this might have been Steve actually. Only one of the brothers was there. You know who was there though? Rich from EPM, although I didn’t find this out until last year some time. Anyway, any comedic/editorial brilliance on my part was wasted as I never used this shot for anything until now. Check it out.