I haven’t been reading my Google alerts, but a little birdy (Thanks Matt Beasley) told me that Etnies GvR and the Soul Bowl contents have been cancelled this year thanks to the lame economy. That’s OK, because the 5th annual Vans Protec Pool Party will be shown live on Fuel TV. The Combi Bowl contest purse is $90,000! Fuel TV has some promotional interviews with some of the pros getting ready for the contest, such as Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg and the often entertaining Steve Olson on How to Judge a Clusterfuck.

Live HD Webcast. May 16th, 1-9 PM, Pacific Standard time. Whet your whistle with this trailer.

Kevin Porterfield from Dokument Skate Shop sent in some shot from a session at the Harrisburg, Oregon skatepark. Check them out after the jump.

Enjoy my stream of consciousness, started by watching a Black Ox skateboard animation.

Black OX on a skateboard.
Black Dicks (oops!)
Black OX action figure
His nemisis, Gigantor
Gigantor by the Dickies.
Dickies skateboard.

– Thanks to Janis for the tip.

This shot came from the Royal Hawaiian Pool Service web site. The official title is Wallos – pre “Animal Chin” hype. This shot of Stacey Gibo dates back to 1985. Stacey was a local “skate punk legend, he later went on to work at Thrasher and Dogtown… …Probably the most fearless and feared skater from Hawaii. He was our Duane Peters. This pic was from one the first Wallos contests – Stacey won first place hands down. The Bones Brigade got nothin’ on him.”

Check out the Shot of the Week, and while you are at it, .The R.H.P.S. store has been relaunched, they’ve got some cool stuff in there like stickers that will fit your (Indy) truck hangers and the Aaron “Fingers” Murray – Guest Model, complete with the sidecuts his name has become synonymous with.

So we’re involved with this thing called Skate Life Northwest. In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a lot of hype on the Northwest. It’s the first annual (we hope) event that is essentially a trade-show-ish meet/hang out thingy to check out Northwest based skateboard companies and assorted scensters. Probably really close to to what Thrasher was donig for a while, only regional. It is my hope that along with some of the strict skateboard companies we can also get some zines and other skateboard related entities there. Let’s own this thing before someone else does.

We got on it very last minute, so it can only get better next year! At the very least, it will be a good excuse to hang out and throw some food on the grill. It’s going ot be behind the Department of Skateboarding who is strictly actin in the landlord capacity for this event. There will be a short bank to wall contest with a cash prize as well. More details at SkateLifeNW.com. Hope to see you all there if you are in the neighborhood.

My top rejected name for the event: “Northwest Kookfest – A trade show”

We reported on the rumor a couple months ago, but the possibility has become a reality. Concussion Magazine is back on the newsstands. Regular photo contributors Brendan Kline and Brooks Fritz have in effect taken over the publication of Concussion. Davoud and Jonathan are still there in an advisory capacity, or as “training wheels” as they say, for a couple issues. I didn’t know what to expect when I opened the envelope. I half expected it to have a new masthead. Issue #41 looks the same and different from Concussion (Classic). The first thing you might notice are few seemingly out of context color ad spreads, which appear to be one time only deals and are dutifully explained in Davoud’s editorial. I thought I detected an extra dash of artsy-fartsy in the new layout/content as well, but it may have been my subconscious talking. All in all, it’s great to see it still going, and I imagine quite a surreal experience for Davoud and Jonathan. Davoud succinctly summed it up: “…but I am no Kevin Thatcher and Brendan and Brooks are no Jake Phelps. Thanks God.” Good luck guys!

See kids, I’m hip, I swear. Issue #12 of Levil Uniform is out, featuring the art of Chris Edmondson and Travis Thompson from Jackalope Tattoo, musical guests Dr. Mastermind and Red Fang, and a skateboarding feature interview with genuine NW ripper Kevin Kowalski, with whom they would like you to believe you can win a date. He’s so dreamy…

I had never seen, nor heard of this TV show called Sledge Hammer! that ran for two seasons from 1986-88. I watched a clip of it online and it was pretty good, certainly calling to mind the short lived TV show Police Squad from 1982 that ended up turning into the Naked Gun series of movies that ironically came out in the last year of Sledge Hammer. What I really want to talk about is the very excellent Star Trek spoof series from 1979 called Quark. At least I remember it being excellent, but on the other hand I recently tried to go back and re-watch some episodes of another show I recalled as being brilliant, The Young Ones, and found it hard to sit through. Enough about Quark. An episode of Sledge Hammer! features the time-tested comedy archetype of someone jumping on a skateboard without having complete technical mastery, in this case, an nice looking Alva Street Fire.

– Thanks to Mike D for the tip.

Mosaik Board Shop is having a best trick contest and video premier of King of the Road on Saturday, May 9th at the Richland Skatepark in Richland Washington, one of the Tri-Cities… What are the other two? I don’t know. Flyer after the jump.

OK people, I’m going to keep finding excuses to link to this David Lee Roth game until someone acknowledges it’s awesomeness. It’s already appeared twice without mention, so I’m through with subtlety. And so is California Girls Skateboards, an idea that is only missig Diamond Dave as a spokesman. Bikini Girls with skateboards, on skateboards. One of the models is April, 2001 Playmate of the Month Katie Lohman, who “loves skateboarding” and will prove it to you in a wobbly video after the jump – She’s no Keeani Lei. You have to check out the video with the owner of the company too, it’s priceless.

– Thanks to Michael Brooke for the tip.