East coast reader John Egerston sent in a few pictures from a semi-recent spot tour in northern Virgina. Roots = Two ditches and a full pipe. Photos by Mike Alexander.

Mail order skateshops are nothing new. During the early 80’s it was the only way a lot of kids were able to get decent skateboards in remote skate outposts like the Midwest. California Cheap Skates has been around for a long time. At some point in the 90’s (I think) they revamped the “brand” into CCS. They are a pretty big player in the mail order skate business. A couple of days ago, Skate Daily reported that CCS is being bought by the straight sports apparel company Foot Locker for $102 million. Think global, buy local! The old California Cheap Skates advert in the background is courtesy of the print gallery at The Skateboard Archives. TSA has some of the 80’s era California Cheap Skates ads, and Rotten Apple Media has a gallery of complete catalogs from the 90’s. I like looking through those old ads and catalogs to see the old boards.

Rick Charnoski and Coan “Buddy” Nichols’ newest film is titled Deathbowl to Downtown, and it’s on tour right now. Tomorrow night (October 1st) for example, it’s being shown in Portland at Cinema 21. As we mentioned before, a certain skate blog may (or may not, I ‘haven’t seen it yet) show in the credits. I’d still go watch it even if that weren’t the case. I love their films, and so do you. What time? I don’t know, it’s not listed. As soon as I find out, I’ll post it. – Thanks BK.

Cinema 21 Theater
– 616 NW 21st Ave
– Portland, OR 97209

Plan B Bar
– 1305 SE 8th Ave
– Portland, OR 97214

Alvie might be the original skateboarding dog. It predates Lance’s nemesis in the Powell vid and Tyson by a long shot. This photo of Alvie is from 1980, and I found it on the photo page of the 30 year reunion of Olympic Skatepark in Olympia, Washington, over at Northwest Skater. Olympic is long gone, so the reunion was held at Lower Woodland in Seattle.

I get sent a lot of contest results and tour coverage articles from various companies and I usually don’t bother to post about them, but I liked the photography in the examples from this write up of Volcom’s Wild in the Park Sweden stop. Maybe you will too. Maybe I just have a thing for Sweden, but I’ve never been there. John Romo BS Smith, Photo: Fyledal. Check it out.

Another milestone has been reached. The Wasatch County Skatepark in Heber City, Utah is 300th skatepark to open that has received a donation form the Tony Hawk Foundation. You can read the press release after the jump, or head on over to Skate Utah to see pics of the actual park. It sure looks inviting from the shot above.

This week’s Shot of the Week is a Kevin Porterfield shot of Gabe Stoltz taken at the Dallas, Oregon skatepark last week. I didn’t know Dallas had a skatepark, but SkateOregon did. Yes, he landed it. Although yesteryear’s toy skateboards were cheap plastic toys, they still rolled better on those loose bearings than the equivalent wooden toy boards you find at Target or WalMart today. There’s a bonus shot after the jump, or skip to the full frame version of the Shot of the Week.

Head on over to Antigravity Press and congratulate Mark Conahan on reaching the 500 mark with his H.O.M.O.S. comics. Like fine wine, (not that I’d know) they are getting better with age. He’s had a run of some good ones lately. Congratulations!

Sessions presents the 10th annual Tim Brauch Memorial Contest is being held this weekend at Lake Cunningham Regional Skate park in San Jose. We might even have some photos coming to us. I wonder how the documentary is coming.

…He just loved to live that way. And he loved to steal your money. Can you blow out a spot across the street from the Police station? Battle Ground, Washington has more interesting terrain than just a skatepark going for it.