I saw a post online from David Whitney looking to sell an 80’s era “Wizard Pro Model” from Action Sports which appears to be a graphic that they barely modified from their 1986 Brian Martin pro model, as seen in our Vintage Skatemag Ads gallery. Barely modified? It looks like they cut out Brian’s name on the black plate and hastily replaced it with the word “Wizard.” You can see where the “Martin” has been knocked out of the blue plate. Brian Martin himself chimed in on the original post in the gallery, and we’d ask him for the rest of the story, but sadly he passed away some time circa 2021. Sure, you can read your Disposable volumes and all to get the low down on your Powells and Sant Cruz variations, but Skate and Annoy is here for your c-grade company minutia!

As part of QuikSilver’s bankruptcy restructuring, DC shoes is dropping Rob Dyrdek as well as it’s entire BMX team. For the longest time Dyrdek’s name has almost been synonymous with DC. Is it like Nike declining to deal with Michael Jordan? Is it interesting? What does that mean for skateboarding? Absolutely nothing. [Source: Ride via Shop Eat Surf]

The Willamette Week has a piece on the acquisition and relocation of mail order giant CCS by local Portland business Daddies Board Shop. The title of the article and accompanying video, “Portland’s Skate Community Isn’t Stoked for CCS” is a little misleading, as if there is a broad outcry when there likely isn’t even a broad awareness. In fact, of the three businesses interviewed besides Daddies, one had nothing negative to say, and the other two were skateshop owners that were pretty reserved, more or less of the opinion that it will have no real effect on the the Portland skate scene, or even their businesses. This is a position I agree with, as I mentioned back in December. Bringing the physical location of CCS to Portland is likely to have zero impact on local businesses. The really big news here is that Daddies owner Darren Horowitz looks like a Seth Rogan impersonator! (More editorial and the video after the jump.)

A source has revealed that the Owner of Daddies in Portland Oregon has purchased California Cheap Skates, better known as the online retailer CCS, from Foot Locker. The web site is coy about it. If you visit the previous URL it says everything is “out of stock” and points to a new site with an explanation: CCS is in new hands. We’re a crew out of Portland, Oregon that has been working in the skateboard industry for years. When we heard the news that CCS was being shut down, we jumped. CCS is, after all, one of the most iconic brands in skateboarding.CCS was once accused of spreading mass amounts of stoke. We want to make sure this will be the case for all time. Our commitment to you will be to quickly deliver the best products, at stellar prices, with exceptional customer service.But our goal goes way beyond just selling gear. Skateboarding is our passion, and we will make sure that CCS continues to express an enthusiasm, love, and advocacy for skating. Through CCS, we will share our devotion to skate and give you opportunities to share it right on back.We are beyond stoked! It’s a bit misleading when…

On day 2 of 5 Days of Ohio (for no real reason) we have various, assorted histories of Alien Workshop, from Transworld Skatebaording, Realm 3, Quartersnacks via Will Staley, and Jenkem (Musical history). If you’ve got any good Alien Workshop links, leave them in the comments. Send your tips for 5 Days of Ohio.

Mike V is making the nostalgia rounds lately. First he ditched his own company to team up with Powell again, and now he’s going back to Airwalk. I had completely forgotten (more likely failed to register in the the first place) that he ever rode for Airwalk. They’re re-releasing the Enigma. as well as releasing some new versions of old classics reworked by Vallely. You can hear him wax poetic about returning to the Airwalk roster after the jump. I think Airwalk has changed ownership at least twice since he left. [Source: Artist Direct] – Thanks to Tito for the tip.

I saw via Grant Brittain on Facebook that ASR is calling it quits due to… I’ll give you one guess, a weak economy. You can read the whole rigmarole on the ASR Facebook page. So ASR was no longer fiscally attractive huh? Maybe you didn’t need to do it twice a year. You’d think that idea would have occurred to them, but instead they got the idea to increase action sports presence in the Outdoor Retailer trade shows in Salt Lake City with the rest of the, you know, kayaks, backpacks and uh, snow shoes or whatever. San Diego is bummed, as the ASR show had 22 million dollar impact, as reported in SIgn On San Diego. ASR has the best interests of the industry in mind, right? The parent company is Nielsen Expositions, and they have no real connections to your lifestyle in any way outside of trying to capitalize on any given demographic. It’s what they do. Silver lining? Fuck ’em. The industry should sponsor their own trade show. Seize the day. Thanks to OMA for the image, it’s from a 2007 ASR write up.

The Gatorade Free Flow Tour hits the Department this Saturday July 10th. Get some before it shuts down. The Department, not the contest series. The Alliance of Action Sports puts on this tour and the Dew Tour. I saw some of the Dew Tour on TV the other day under the program name of “Action Sports.” More interesting is the fact that they aired a commercial for their online store. I don’t know if they are carrying their own inventory and doing their own fulfillment or… hold on. I just called the 800 number, and once I got past the corporate phone tree messages, the person that answered said they were from StandardBoardShop.com.

First off, it’s better off that a skateboard competition circuit be owned and operated by skateboarders. However, this whole business of signing contracts to compete exclusively in one circuit and not another, although it may make sense from a business standpoint, reeks of, of something, well, something very stinky, like say, GVK’s knee pads. Which is appropriate because it is a “street league” to the exclusion of any sort of vert or bowl riding. (You know Grover never washes his pads. he says that would dilute the trick juice.) I’m not a big fan of the logo either. Aside from scrimping on the graphic designer’s fee, It looks vaguely like something NBA or MLB related. If skaters are going to claim skateboarding from the media for themselves, it would be smarter not to emulate the worst aspects of organized sports. Still, I wish Rob Dyrdek luck with Street League Skateboarding, despite the bad name choice. The million dollar purse would seemingly best the Maloof Money Cup (even worse name), but then again Maloof isn’t spread over three events. Why not wrestle all the skaters away from the X-Games and the like? Was it lack of interest in vert/bowl by Dyrdek,…

From the ashes of Concussion, former co-editor Jonathan Hay is embarking on a new project called Confusion magaZINE. Confusion Magazine is an international underground skate, music, art and surf magaZINE. Rising from the death of Concussion Magazine, Confusion continues where Concussion left off, or rather BEGAN 13 years ago. Taking it back to the roots, Confusion represents the underground, anti-corporate, DIY culture; the under represented, not the over promoted. While Confusion’s focus is on DIY skater built bowls, contraptions, found pools and ditches, Confusion isn’t only a skate zine but will also feature artists, bands and some surfing. A non-glossy print zine will be available in limited runs in select cities in USA, Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, Australia, UK, etc. but for those who cannot find a print zine, there is at least the online presence: www.confusionmagazine.com