In a surprising move, Concrete Wave has made a version of it’s photography retrospective book, “The Legacy of Warren Bolster” available as a free download on Silverfish Longboarding. Warren Bolster was a pioneering skate and surf photographer. The Concrete Wave Edition book had some production and layout issues that mostly disappear as a PDF. Of course, viewing them onscreen is not close to the tactile experience you get when flipping through a heavy book in your hands, but it’s free, and you can’t beat that. I’m not sure what the contractual ramifications were for releasing the book electronically for free. You may want to get it while you can. It’s a curious move to be sure, but one I can appreciate, and you should too. Check out this Steve Cathey photo from 1975. Look at his foot placement and body language. No matter what your age/discipline, you have to be able to respect that. Still available online is an interesting video interview with Warren shot shortly before the publication of his book.

Also available are the last two issues of Concrete Wave Magazine, which is nice, but they really should take a page out of Thrasher’s book and release the very first issues as a PDF. While I’m telling people what to do, Thrasher really should keep releasing more old issues as PDF’s. Someone start that petition to get the first 10 years of Thrasher online. I might even be tempted to pay a reasonable fee for that if they were done right.

Update: There are some great photos and words in this book. Definitely worth the download. They are hoping it will spark interest in print version.

I was in the skate park video taping my friend Tito (the small kid wearing black) when pell, my friends sister, and aweosme make-out artist, Pell gets on her skate bored and steals Titos spotlight

Yes this is a weak post, but this short video totally made me laugh, all things considered. I guess I need to create a Friday T&A category. I got the idea from EPM.

A first glance at the web site for Penn State Industries makes it look like the company exists solely to supply a burgeoning cottage industry of making wooden pens. No, I’m not kidding! Hidden among the woodworking projects are two skateboard kits.

Skateboard Project Kit. Here’s a chance for you to make “awesome” custom skateboards. Cut our formed, quality, 7 ply hardwood deck to shape, decorate and install a pair of trucks with wheels and they’re ready to skate. The deck comes with the truck holes pre-drilled, a laminated sandpaper top and a pattern to cut the form. Truck assemblies are made out of lightweight aluminum and include quality bearings and durable quality polyurethane wheels.

Unlike some people, they have the decency to call griptape as it is. The “woodworking” aspects of this project seem pretty meager. Cut out the supplied outline and sand the edges. Must be a beginner project. Oh well, at least it’s not the Alan Parson’s Project. $50 for a complete (quality parts!) or $15 for just the deck at Penn State Industries. Why are we featuring this? This would have been highly unlikely ten years ago, and it’s pen-making supplies from a company based in Pennsylvania. Get it? Get it?

– Thanks to Steve Forcucci for the tip.

Paranoid Park opens in Portland tonight. Gus Van Sant will introduce Friday’s 7PM show at Cinema 21. Gabe Nevins, who plays the lead part, will be hanging out for Q&A after the Saturday 7PM show. If you don’t get in to see the show, you can always watch the GVK of the casting session down at Burnside. (I don’t care what Grover says, I liked Elephant.) Oddly enough, the film is also showing on pay-per-view on the DirecTV in Portland and other markets as well.

Burnside Paranoid Park
Directed by Gus Van Sant
Showing: One Week: March 21 – 27
Showtimes: Nightly 7:00, 8:55/late Fri-Sat 10:30 plus Sat-Sun (1:00), 3:00, 5:00

If I had a nickel for every time I saw a kid skating in the rain with an umbrella… I heard that Gus’ production was going to/did donate money to Burnside. Can anyone confirm this?

– Thanks to Page for the tip.

Oregon just got one in Lincoln City, and we’re getting one in Portland later this year. Hell, they might be breaking ground as you read this. In Florida, they don’t have the hills that we do, so they have to make due. The Edge skatepark in Naples was finished a couple years ago. Team Pain is working on another one in St. Lucie, Florida right now. It’s actually mostly street terrain, but it does have a little snake in it. They have some construction pics of the work in progress on their news page.

– Thanks to Tito for the pic.

A lot of kids are scared of bowls. Judi Oyama shared a quick note on some lessons she helped organize for local kids at the Santa Cruz Skate Park. (Judi goes with the official two word spelling of skate park, making me break with every other time “skatepark” has appeared on this site. How do we get that change adopted?)

Skate class with my buds. We had 11 kids signed up 10 showed and we had 15 on the waiting list. This photo is classic. Gary was showing the kids how to kick turn. We had many of them dropping into the small pool and learning the basics. Thanks Gary Holl, Eric and Patty for the help.

Cool photo. I offer help to kids if they ask or I think they might be receptive, but taking time out to organize a formal event for the benefit of kids is more than I’m willing to do. Fortunately for Judi (and park locals who don’t need lessons), they are only doing it once every couple of months.

Because it’s relevant, and in case you missed the Jesus skateboarding figure. Like all holidays, Easter stuff goes on sale the day after the event. I picked up this Extreme™! Scooby Doo Easter basket last year for about $12, which was down from $30, I believe. Scooby can’t decide if he wants to hit the slalom course or barge a pool.

CBSC does not embroil itself in the China vs. USA or Europe manufacturing debate. Simply we are American Skaters living in China, for almost a decade, that have pain-stakingly established quality manufacturing supply channels that allow us to 100% always control quality on-site.

From the regular stream of business opportunities that come to our inbox. Cali Board Sports sure sounds and looks like an American operation, down to the soundtrack on the website. Draw your own conclusions. Skateboard quality? Who knows, but they make great babies. Congrats to occasional SnA contributor Egbert on his extremely recent adoption from the mainland, Mercy.

So I finally figured out who uses the A4 paper size. Lot’s of people in the UK, I’m sure, but hey, I never actually realized that until I went to scan in this issue of Sad Mag. The scans were all cut off, so I went back and noticed the pages fit nicely inside the “A4” markings on the scanner. Sad Mag is a zine from Shepshed, Leicestershire England. At least that’s where I think it is from. The mailing address is hard to read and I still don’t understand how the english system of addresses breaks down. This zine is actually a skateboarding and BMX zine! Who knew? I guess the scene over there was not segregated as much as it was/is here. They had Read and Destroy, which was a glossy skate/BMX mag that was actually respectable, especially as the BMX coverage dwindled. I guess we had Homeboy magazine here in the states too.

What’s with the guy on the cover? “Is he havin’ a laugh?“

More on one of those other communities I heard rumors of. This video is an event called the PDX Death Race 2008. PDX is the ID for Portland’s airport, for those of you outside the area. No, the race wasn’t a the airport, that would be kind of flat, you know? This was a downhill race that involved some slalom cones that seem pretty far apart, so technically that would be Giant, Giant slalom I guess. Just because they are spaced far apart doesn’t mean it was an easy course by any means. You can see in the footage that the alternating cones were extremely close to the shoulder of asphalt. Looks very burly. After the race footage there is some bonus Coleman slide session footage.