This is kind of an old item already, but for some reason the New York Times has picked up on the release of Jay Adams from prison. I had wondered whether he was officially done with his time or whether he was on some sort of probation. The Times says he’s at a halfway house serving out the remaining months of his four year sentence. I’ve often wondered how that whole prison release thing works, fortunately I don’t know the details. Looks like he’s working for Hurley maintaining their private skate facility. Check out the pic above right. Apparently Hurley is exploring a marketing image that wants to intimidate the hell out of prospective clothes buyers. You can get the full effect at the NYT article by enlarging it. I wonder if Jay knew that the prison he was serving time in was only about 15 minutes away from the world class Aumsville, Oregon skatepark? I thought I read that he took a cab to a bus station in Portland. With Hurley’s parent company Nike so close in Beaverton, Oregon you’d think someone could have picked him up. I can’t find that bit of info anymore, so I might have imagined the cab ride. I know at least one soul who would have jumped at the chance to provide the hour long lift. No, it’s not me, but I mean, if I was already on my way back from Aumsville, sure I’d stop for him. Jay’s caught a couple of breaks lately, here’s to hoping he can stay free. Although, you’ve got to bet that Hosoi wishes he had Adam’s lawyer, considering he seemingly had a harder time getting released for lessor offense and comparatively nominal criminal history. Insert derisive Steve Olson comment on skate bloggers here. – Thanks to TK, Mac and about a 20 other people for the tip.

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 bowl constructions? Sure, it’s not as wasteful as something as ludicrous as building a concrete skatepark for one time use. (Don’t get me started on that, it’s something I had planned for a rant already…) I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again, ESPN needs to give back to the sport (besides paying the salaries of the top pros) by advocating for and financially facilitating concrete skateboard facilities across the nation, if not world, in ways similar to other high profile entities that make bank from skateboarding. Right. Don’t forget to check out the Super Park. It looks fun as hell. – Thanks to JF for the tip.

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.