I don’t know what happened, but this was originally supposed to be a Grindline project. There are two appropriate area web presences that should have this info: one is mum, the other appears to be defunct. The city of San Francisco still has outdated information that they are dispensing to the Portero neighborhood community. If anyone knows what went down, please spill the beans. And remember, it’s gotta be true if you read it on the Interwebs™. Jeff “Ffej” Hedges sent in some pictures of Dreamland’s latest, the recently opened skatepark in San Francisco. He also pointed me to a link with some atmosphere (Notice I didn’t say lifestyle) shots from opening day posted by Greg Smith aka Schmitty from Thrasher. I wonder if Jeff has outgrown the “Ffej” references? I’m going to assume he hasn’t until I hear otherwise from him. Check his pics after the jump.

This week’s Shot Of The Week is Marek Litinski at Burnside as shot by his fellow countryman Martin Lucuk. You don’t see a lot of Burnside shots on Skate and Annoy (Yes, yes, it’s because we’re posers…) so why not. Marek’s friend came over from Czechoslovakia the Czech Republic for a Northwest skate session and so there you have it. Check out the Shot Of The Week or see some more Lucuk shots at Cold War Skateboards.

Dan Hughes and friends used Go Skateboarding Day as an excuse for self flagellation. From Bainbridge Island as far west as Port Angeles back across to Sumner up to Bellingham and back down to Crossroads hitting 16 skateparks in all. Check out his write-up at Northwest Skater.

Troy Sliter was part of the crew from the Northwest that went on the road trip this year. His faction split off to hit some Norcal spots. He made a video and slideshow that starts where everyone split up. It’s a mixed bag of tricks… You’ll see a backyard bowl, a major new skatepark with a Ffej sighting, ShawnF crapping his pants at an NHS production facility (kid in a candy store style), some 360’s capped off with spacewalking action and live freestyle that isn’t an interpretive trail reenactment. MC gave a good account of his experience, now you can get the rest of the story…

Grover hung up a roll in at Sleestock… He’s got a broken scapula and clavicle. He’s out six weeks while it heals, and will need some physical therapy. He went to the bone doctor today who told him he was the third “older” patient today with a skateboard injury. So he won’t be skating for a while, but he can still edit videos in the meantime. Anonymous cellphone photo courtesy of Stakbot.

Another installment of Saturday Starrs brings us a newsreel style skateboarding promotional film from 1965, featuring the the Hobie team. I’d like to know who commissioned this film. Newsreel stye films have certainly gone out of vogue. This has to be at the tail end of the genre. When did they start? Some time in the 20’s? I can’t imagine this kind of film today. In any case, The Hobie team is cruising through the tourist attraction in Florida called Cypress Gardens, which was literally at the time just a big garden. At some point in time they added water skiing shows as an attraction too. The visual quality of this film is beautiful. The colors are vibrant, right down to the goofy floppy. Why is the Hobie team all of 12 years old? They must have been hot off the set of Skater Dater. What a strange time in skateboarding.

A potential meeting of tribes, if you will. Longboarders converge on the Burnside (the skatepark) after bombing Burnside, the hill. It starts at the crack of dawn, which is why you probably won’t see any coverage here, even though it sounds like a lot of fun. My wife gets to sleep in on her birthday. Check out Eastside Longboards for more details. [Source: Enemy Combatant]

Are you the guy that ordered this? It should be in your hands already or very soon, becasue it shipped out on Tuesday. What about the sexist nature of this graphic? Exploitation? No! Well… yes, but that’s the point. When I conceived this graphic back in the 80’s skateboarding was in the middle of a boom and there was an influx of crappy equipment being sold by toy stores and sports chains trying to get a piece of the pie. Add to that the fact that some of the major skate companies were overcome with greed and began employing pimping out the image of skateboarding. So the point of this graphic was to convey how sleazy the industry was becoming. Also, we thought it was funny. And well, there were boobs too. I am conflicted about using it these days, but I think it still resonates. Click to enlarge, but don’t order any because we’re out of wood for a couple weeks.

When you think of skateboard companies based in Texas, one word comes to mind. Zorlac…. oh wait. Did you know Nash had it’s manufacturing plant in Fort Worth Texas? I would have guessed China, if anything. In 2006 there was a fire at Nash Manufacturing that destroyed the facility. The cause was said to be under investigation, but nothing ever surfaced, at least not on the Interwebs™. I’m going to make a case for industrial espionage and sabotage, because Nash is a true industry innovator. Proof after the jump.