I missed this on Skate Daily, but it looks like John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin is a fervent skateboard harasser. She supported penalties for using skateboards on public or private property as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

“ — after the expected opening of the $233,000 Wasilla Skate Park — skaters will be breaking the law if they use their skateboards, in-line skates, bicycles, scooters (or any other recreational, non-motorized wheeled device) on public or private property where signs are posted forbidding their use.”

OK, fines for skating on public property where a sign is posted seems like something that falls within the realm of the law, whether you agree with the inherent justness of the law or not. Penalties start with a written warning and escalate to fines and eventual permanent confiscation. However, skateboard specific fines and the permanent forfeiture of your property for skateboarding on private property where a sign forbids it seems like an entirely different matter. I wonder if she’d support forfeiture of personal firearms in cases of trespassing that didn’t involve assault or some other violent crime. It’s doubtful.

In any case, it’s a great excuse to post the SNL video with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hilary Clinton. It’s pretty funny, no matter what side of the political spectrum you are on.

– Thanks to FUEL.TV for the tip. [Source: Politico]

I haven’t made any invert attempts since Saturday, but this video trick tip from Bacon’s Tim Johnson makes me think that eggplants shouldn’t be too hard. Yeah, right. Everyone except Conahan can check it out after the jump.

Actiga is a company with it’s finger on the pulse of… No. let’s see… Carpal Tunnel syndrome was never this Extreme!™ Oh never mind. These guys have a couple of products aimed at enhancing your sports gaming experience. First up is Big Vert, a skateboard that you stand on an use as a controller to play skateboarding video games, kind of like the Wii Balance Board, huh? They also appear to have a series of games with little controllers that look like the sport you are supposed to be playing.

[Source: Gizmodo. – Thanks to Dave Arpin for the tip.]

The Illuminati were a secret society of “enlightened” individuals whose cryptic ongoings were often assumed to aim at world domination through government and corporate manipulation.  The conspiracy theories behind this group often suggest a creepy group that worked outside the realms of common people with the goal of a New World Order.  Their meetings were held in utmost secrecy for fear of religious and legal persecution.

Skateboarders, also, are an “enlightened” class of people through their vision and practice.  Essentially, a commoner may see a place to walk up or down a set of stairs while grasping a handrail to arrive at a destination of higher or lower altitude, while a skateboarder sees a unique challenge representative of his/her specific styles and abilities.

Cannon Beach is a sleepy little beach town that is just about 10 minutes south of Seaside, Oregon. Cannon Beach’s new park opened in May of 2008. Placed to Ride built a new concrete park on the site of the old one which was essentially just a steep “E” shaped asphalt banks on a flat spot. It was the kind of spot that would be fun if it occurred “naturally,” but was pretty disappointing as something purpose built for skateboarding. (Sam, don’t take down those old pictures!) The new park is very small in both square footage and height, but it’s packed full of skateable terrain including pool coping, ledges and bank variations. I don’t know if money was the object or what, but it there sure is a lot of adjacent space that looks like it could have been used. In any case, it’s has the potential for a lot of fun. If I had to say something critical it would be that I thought I noticed a spot or two where the transition was a little wonky, which is highly unusual for PTR. I really didn’t ride it much. My body was wrecked from the day before and tired from trudging around on the beach. You can see some park overview shots after the jump.

I’ve reached the halfway mark here. It’s day 15 and the last day I worked on them was day 13. That’s bit of a gap from the previous day, which was five. I’m only getting about one session in a week and I need to step it up. The most common advice I got after day 5 was essentially get off the mini ramp as soon as possible. I had planned on politely ignoring that advice, but I just wasn’t able to get a mini ramp session to work out. I ended up at Newberg on Saturday, and what do you know, there’s some vert there. That didn’t stop me from knocking the wind out of myself during warmups on the smaller stuff. I moved it to vert with some encouragement heckling from MC. Joining in the fun were Rich, Mac, and Conahan, who decided to work on eggplants while we were tackling garden variety inverts. Grover put a sticker on the tranny to provide a spot to focus on. We shut down that section of the park, which I’m sure was annoying to the rest of the people there, but hey, it’s all about ME anyway, right? I made a few (below coping of course), surprising myself and maybe even the onlookers. When you land them they feel really nice and effortless. When you don’t… Well, I experienced the dreaded over-rotation, which definitely has more impact associated with it the higher up you are. I also landed on my ass hard enough to need a colon transplant. Good times! Inverts are a different animal once you approach vert. We had a discussion about “inverts” vs. “handplants” and determined there is no real distinction. The shot above is probably the highest I ever got. Looks like my board is still maxing out about one boards’ width below the coping. My goal is to have my hand on or near the coping by 30 days. I’ve made pretty good progress considering I’ve really only had four sessions, and one of them was on the curb in front of my house. However, I think I’m gong to need to step up the frequency of sessions to make it.

Some skaters may look down their noses at snowboarders, but what about skiers? I couldn’t think of a joke to make that somehow referenced the old “Stop the Violence” hip hop campaigns. What we have here (besides a considerable expense) is video footage of some European skateboarders launching of a modified summertime practice ski jump facility. I believe they cover the slopes with a series of green mats made out of a synthetic material that when hosed down with water provides enough lack of friction to practice skiing on. I hear the mats are abrasive as hell on human skin. For the purposes of skateboarding, they’ve added a launch ramp with a bit of wood to take off and land on before bailing to a mandatory knee slide on every attempt. It hurts just to think about. Who would dream up such a spectacle? If not Mountain Dew, then Red Bull:

I (Roman Astleitner) had the idea to skate a ski jump some months ago. Red Bull decided to invite some riders for an “Access all Areas” event to make this reality. Check out the first video clip of the session at the ski jump in Wörgl / Tyrol (Austria). It was definitely a new experience and lots of fun for everyone involved! That’s for sure.

I don’t think I know Roman, but he composed the email as if I did. It’s a hefty 19.6 MB Quicktime download, but go ahead, it’s not my bandwidth.

This is Gou Miyagi’s part in something called “Overground Broadcasting,” a film by The Far East Skate Network. FESN apears to be based out of Japan, but the video has a lot of European and US footage as well. I was hooked on this video in the first 50 seconds. Watching Gou Miyagi immediately brought to mind Natas as well Patrick Melcher and Richie Jackson. Call me shallow, but that’s who I thought of. Although that may be because that list exhausts every street skater that I can claim any knowledge of having a particular style. I especially dug the shove it Natas spin. I suppose if I don’t say “Mark Gonzales,” someone will rant at me in the comments. There’s a lot of show stoppers in the vid, but I don’t want to spoil them. Just watch it, you won’t be disappointed. Great skating, good editing and presentation as well. I need to track down this video.

– Thanks to Casey Morrow for the tip.

Rumor has it that the vert ramp at the Hood River skatepark is for sale. 5K is the asking price for this highly modified ramp that rests on the chassis of one of those old Firestone touring ramps consisting of a metal frame with a plexiglass surface. I think you can still actually see the plexiglass underneath. Those old Firestone ramps didn’t have any flat bottom either. These things have turned up at skateparks before, always resurfaced. I guess the plexiglass goes bad, although you would think it wouldn’t. I think this ramp was resurfaced last year? Supposedly it’s being offered for sale to public entities only, but if there are no takers after a set time period they will offer it up for all interested parties. Why is the ramp for sale? They’ve got plans for concrete in that spot. There’s no information on the offcial parks web site, but one thing is for sure, if it ever becomes available for private purchase, interested buyers will have to wrestle Steve Grover (right) for the rights to make the first offer. [Photo left: Hood River Valley Parks and Recreation]

Team Pain is about halfway done in Colorado Springs. Catch three pictures of the bowls after the jump. What’s next? The street area, of course. Thanks to Tito for the pics. How are those inverts coming?