This week, Thrasher Magazine’s editor in chief, Jake Phelps, is clearing the air on his famous list of five skaters that he permanently banned from the magazine. This week-long feature entitled “Five Days of Hate” details why Benji Galloway, Tony Farmer, Frank Hirata, Choppy Omega, and Billy Pepper were excluded from coverage. Love him or hate him, Phelps is maintaining his reputation as an outspoken and brutally honest figure in the skateboarding community.  Will his words expose injustices in skateboarding?  Or will he simply go on a  slanderous rampage?  This week will showcase Phelps in his true form. Above picture taken from thrashermagazine.com

The album may be from 1997, but that board is pure 1988. I’ve never heard the Dwarves, but they have quite a reputation. You can see the album cover for The Dwarves are Young & Good Looking wherever the CD is sold, or visit the official Dwarves web site. Nash pasties added to keep us work/school safe.

If they are going to build skateparks in Iran, have outreaches in Afghanistan, what’s next, Guantanamo Bay? YES! I don’t know if the presidential shaka is responsible or not, but Sphon Ranch is going to build a bowl and a wedge bank (like the one seen above) in Guantanamo Bay. The “Morale Office” is bringing in some pro skaters for a demo, and they want them to have concrete to skate on. Spohn has been given exactly one week to get the whole thing finished, so there’s really no other way to do it. Pre-fab concrete can’t be beat in a situation like this. No word on who the pro team is, but let’s hope they bring some extra boards for the Subvert Cuba project. While we’re talking about Spohn Ranch, let’s revisit the LA Street Plaza and check out a new Brownsville, Tx skatepark that just opened. I have to warn you, there’s a video after the jump that may start playing automatically. I’m warning you because it’s NSFA, or “Not safe for agnostics,” as in it’s from an organization called SkateBible and as such features some bad Christian folk music and a little gratuitous use of the G-word.…

I swear there are less than five pictures of the

I don’t know what you call this kind of riding, half-ditch? Who cares, it’s rad. This is a closeup of a shot of John John Aguilar skating a ditch type situation in Mexico City, circa 1989. See that concrete halfpipe in the background? John said this was an old closed up skatepark called Dogtown. They had to hop a fence and barge it. The caretaker kept a small amount a sheep on the lot and occasionally skaters would have to dodge the males with horns who were intent on ramming intruders. John lives in Bellingham, Washington now, so the only thing he has to dodge is little kids. See the whole thing after the jump.

Bryce kind of looks like a thug in this still from Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground. I snagged this image from Bordistan. This is just a reminder about his show at DOS on Friday the 30th, from 7-10pm. See you there!

On Tuesday we got a nice covering of fat, white snow here in Portland. It came down pretty good for a couple hours in the middle of the day. It even stayed solid on the streets, which usually doesn’t happen here. But, by the end of the daylight it had pretty much been replaced by rain, and it melted away. I looked outside at about 5:00 and it all seemed like a pleasant dream. Over the weekend I went to a kids birthday party (with my kids, not to abduct toddlers…) that was at an ice rink. It was the firsttime I’d had on ice skates since grade school. I go to thinking about those old ice board kits that were for sale in the back of Thrasher.

This week’s Shot of the Week is Adam Hopkins skating in Burnaby, British Columbia. This is the teaser shot designed to disorient the viewr, the full frame shot will give you a totally different perspective. Dylan Davies took this shot in the fall of 2008. After you check outhte full frame Shot of the Week, (No peeking!) come back here to finish the conversation.

There’s no relation whatsoever. I got a press release from DC Jams records letting me know that JFA is going to release a live album called “To All Our Friends” in April. It’s been 10 years since a full length release from JFA. I’ve never been a super huge JFA fan, I always like the concept better than most of the actual music, but I did wear out the groove replaying the Peanuts theme on my copy of the Mad Garden EP. Need some JFA to tide you over? Heres the official band site, and an interview from Maximum Rock and Roll, circa 1983. I hate to keep bringing up Juice Magazine, but the last issue (#65) also has a really good interview with Tim Kerr of the legendary Big Boys conducted by Steve Olson. Kerr talks about the infamous open letter in Thrasher from JFA challenging all so-called skate rock bands to put up or shut up. Basically a skate challenge. Kerr recalls JFA coming to Texas and bringing them to the Pflugerville ditch for what he thought was just a friendly session, but in retrospect turned out to be JFA assessing whether or not the Big Boys qualified…

Mike V has a supporting role as one of the bad guys in the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and he’s pimping it hard on his web site. He’s go the trailer, a couple previews, three TV appearances and and some production stills on his web site. Mike did more than just stunts, he’s a real character in the movie. One TV commercial for Mall Cop shows a split second of skateboarding. I figured it was not a big part of the movie. But apparently, the “bad guys” are all terrorists who happen to be good at extreme sports… Good thing is a comedy and not xXx. Sounds corny? According to Vallely in an Buzzine interview: More importantly, Vallely said James and the entire production crew went out of their way to understand the perspective of skateboarders and BMX riders. “The most important thing for us is that everyone wanted to this right,” the skateboarding veteran said. “Usually people don’t get skateboarding. The stunt team and production team learned a lot from me, but I also learned a lot from them in terms of how to work on a Hollywood movie.” Who esle is in it? Jason Ellis, Rick Thorne,…