OH yeah, I forgot to title this “Vert is dead, not dead, dead, not dead, dead….” I’m losing track of where we’re at here. Dave Swift over at the Skateboard Mag has some pictures of the new setup for the Super Park event at the X Games. If you recall, Super Park was supposed to be the replacement for the vertical event until the talent mutinied and said they would prefer to compete on the halfpipe. So now we have Vert and Super Park. Without getting into the politics, the Super Park course certainly looks more interesting than a vert ramp, and is more in step with what people who aren’t training for the X Games are riding, if not in the street. Now, to get into the politics, or at least social responsibility, carting that thing around to different venues seems like it would be a gargantuan task. We all know what happens to these ramps when they got through a season or two, they get donated. It’s one thing to fix up up a vert ramp or some pyramids that have seen some abuse, it’s relatively straight forward. What’s going to happen when they discard these massively complex…

I think England built a lot of public parks in the 70’s and instead of bulldozing the outdoor ones after the bust, they just left them to rot in the elements. House of Neil, can I get a confirmation? The Hackney Bumps is a 70’s era skatespot in London that is still going. There’s an event called the Hackney Olympics that takes place with some regularity. It seems like it might be a localized and smaller version of Skatopia. This year’s Olympics are on August 9th. My favorite quote from the web site: Some people still claim that they can’t find HACKNEY BUMPS. I find this remarkable. Some people also claim that you will get killed when you go to HACKNEY BUMPS. That is not really true, though the kids that burnt the vespa and the (motor)bikes on the photos above DID have REAL guns, though they could not care less about the skateboarders… Video and flyer after the jump. – Thanks to Tony Gunnarsson for the tip.

Friend of the site Brad the Handstandman was on The Late Show with David Letterman on July 18th. Can we call him a friend of the site? Sure, why not, after all the heckling, veiled threats and assorted rigmarole. The original Handstandman post is almost in the top five of the most commented posts. Such lively discussion is usually reserved for Airspeed, Benji Galloway and Wormhoudt in San Jose. I can’t help but feel that a true friend of the site would have given us the heads up before he was on national television. You can still watch it on Late Show highlights. Just head on over to Dave’s site and click on the video link for “”Late Show” Rewind: Week of July 14-18, 2008.” Handstandman is about halfway into the clip – after Ricky Gervais and before Rosie Perez. The video player is a little buggy, and you have to sit through a short commercial. SnA comment army, please remember, we’ve been through all the name calling already.

I practically got crucified by a usually upbeat and positive entity for checking out this spot under the pretense of potential fun. Sure, the asphalt is a little rough, but… Who am I kidding? I’ll never hop that fence unless… Click to enlarge

Lewis Brundige aka Iowask8er sent in this video that is half music vid, half skate vid, and err… another half home movie. The band is Paragon Salad, and the song is called Skate to the Top. I’m not into metal, so in that respect I’m a little out of step with most of the musical tastes of the Northwest rippers out here, but I think you’ll be surprised by the music. I’m humming it right now. I couldn’t find any info anywhere on the band, beside the fact that a guy named Dave Miller is/was in it. [Update: Dave Miller was the guitarist, that was his old band. This is his new band.] The whole thing looks like it was shot and edited underwater, but it’s worth it if you make sure to stick around for “the end.” There’s something for almost everyone here. – Thanks to Lewis for the tip.

Motion Theory is a motion graphics studio that has done a lot of work you’ve probably seen, like the HP ad for Pharrell (hi res here) that also features skateboarding. They did a short ID piece for ESPN on Evolution, specifically the evolution of skateboarding. Apparently, it aired during the Superbowl, but which one? You can watch it and download it from the Motion Theory site. I wonder if they will notice a bandwith spike? As far as the animation goes, it’s fun to watch. As far as the evolution of skateboarding goes, it stops with what mainstream skaters consider the dodo birds of skateboarding, AKA the vert ramp riders – but I’m sure that’s what the client wanted. – Thanks (again) to Livmo for the tip. yeah, it’s going to be that kind of day.

Here’s a pretty cool animation by a cat named Kevin Elam who must have been at the Vancouver Film School when he made this. – Thanks to Livmo for the tip.

This week’s Shot of the Week is Burnside under renovation circa 2003. Not much else to say. Check it out.

I hate it when I get my skate culture tips from the mainstream media. This is the second one today. Remember the guy who was so into Back to the Future that he fabricated his own movie prop skateboards? Well now he can bid on the real fake hoverboard that was used in Back to the Future II, that is if he’s got at least $30,000! That’s no typo, it’s the actual starting bid. If you don’t have an extra 30k laying around, you can always bid on the more recent and reasonably priced replica from the Good Wood auction. Pics after the jump.

In case you hadn’t noticed, there are some public service adverts in rotation on the far right side of the site. These banners are for non-profit groups dedicated to advancing skateboarding in some way or another. if you have a group that you’d like to have include in the rotation free of charge, see the guidelines. If you are asking yourself why we are doing this, it’s because we’ve taken a lot of pot shots at the industry and we’re heavy on the sarcasm here. Just by virtue of our name we attract a lot of negativity an some boneheaded comments (to put it nicely). This is an easy way to inject some positivity. Not to worry, we’re not converting the site to a skate church. The Good Sam Club graphic with the halo is just illustrating the point, and I couldn’t find a decent picture online of the Sam Cunningham “Good Sam” model anywhere.