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.

Phil Tedder makes the raddest coping blocks around. Check out his website to see projects he’s worked on and order up some hard long-lasting blocks for that backyard bowl. Tedder tells me shipping is prohibitively expensive over 1200 miles these days (Thanks Bush administration) but if you’re local this is the block for you.

Lance Robson snapped some photos at a Tampa pro vert contest. Which one? I don’t know. That’s right, I don’t know. AST? Actually, this was the warm up day, not the actual contest. He’s also got some shots of the Bro Bowl from the same day thrown in the mix. He’s got a photo set and a short but interesting write up. Check it out on Flickr.

I don’t get “Go Skateboarding Day,” but this kid in the shot above certainly does. Carl Warren went to eight different skateparks on GSD and took a bunch of photographs. Update: Ugh. Follow this link then hit the link that says “go skateboarding day 2008”