Ignition TV has recent (I assume) footage from the grand opening of the Mission Valley YMCA’s new (to them) vert ramp. A bunch of vert dogs were there, Bucky Elastic, Bony Hawk, the French Canadians… There were other people present on deck but they didn’t make the cut, perhaps due to space limitations. Although posted on Metacafe, the clip’s producer is Ignition TV, who is the, uh, leader in action sports fro you mobile phone. You can chose by sport and brand on their web site, so you know that’s Extreme™! Mission Valley’s vert ramp was donated to them by the X-Games. We had one of those X-Games retired ramps in a suburb of Portland for a while, where it mostly sat as a platform for kids to practice flip tricks off of the flat bottom onto the cement. There was a small community of vert riders who would session a couple times of week and chase the kids off the flat. Ask MC about it. They banded together to meet and talk with the park district to ensure and volunteer upkeep, but the district wasn’t interested. As more and more concrete parks opened out here, the already underutilized vert…

Day three: Professional Skateboard Simulator for the Commodore 64, from 1988. Yeah, Commodore 64 again. Noticing a trend? It looks like they Photoshopped (well it was 1988 so MacPainted) Jeff Kendall’s face onto a guy skating a Mark Gonzales board on vert. They used to run the occasional pic of the Gonz on vert, this might have been copied from one of those. Actually, the guy has a Read and Destroy sticker on his helmet, so it’s likely lifted straight form the pages of R.A.D.. UK readers, help a brother out. I heard that the new Pro Skateboard Simulator 10 (Ryan Sheckler edition) has a level where you practice running out of the arena crying if you don’t win first place.

No, this isn’t the start of a recurring feature, just a reference to the fact that we had a similar post last friday. Adult film stars are kind of like pro wrestlers sometimes, they need to have a gimmick to distinguish themselves from the rest of the competitors. Keeani Lei lists skateboarding and surfing among her other uhm, talents. I first got, err, turned on to her via a Sleestak post, but they got it from the NSFW Slap Magazine forums. Come to think of it, Slap sounds like some sort of a fetish magazine. In any case, Keeani does indeed skate and appears to enjoy it. She’s into flyouts, women, Jason Jesse re-issues and you know… other things. I like the shot where she’s pretending to drink OJ’s out of a juice pitcher, a visual pun that would be lost on anyone who didn’t skate. Reminds me of some of the 80’s skateboard advertising. She’s really going for the niche market. There’s safe for work video after the jump.

Tim Hubbard sent in a link to more Dunedin opening day pics. Thats Josh Black inverted, and an unknown rider carving over some very chunky stairs. Tim also included a link to Punk On Board which is a mish mash of Florida skateboarding, punk rock and art both past and present. The linka are all over the place, and seem to be in conjunction with another site called Art Gone Bad. It’s not the easiest thing to navigate, but just keep clicking. There are snapshots from a Skateboarder Magazine photo session at a backyard ramp, a weird looking life size paper mache mosh pit circa 82, Mike Weed freestyle action, Monty Nolder at Grigley’s ramp, vintage McGill, backstage at the Warped Tour with Anti Flag and the Buzzcocks, Joan Jett looking tuff as nails and all kinds of good stuff if you dig around for it. If I lived in Florida I’d be hanging out with this guy, provided I was punk enough.

Is there anyway you guys could post some info about the Michael Tubb’s benefit being held on Friday Oct. 5 in Portland, OR. Trying to make some money for Tubb’s hospital bills due to head trauma from a skating accident. I’m sure you have heard the news, if not check out his recovery site – mtubbs.com. Tubb’s is from Tempe AZ, but has lived up in Portland for the last 2 summers. I would be really stoked if you guys helped to pass this benefit info along. But of course! Tubb’s benefit art, and skate silent auction Oct. 5 @ the Chesterfield, in Portland, OR 1111 E. Burnside

Rotten Apple Media has an archive of California Cheap Skates mail order catalogs that range from 1991 to 2001. The CCS branding that they switched to made me forget that these guys used to call themselves California Cheap Skates. Aside form being an trip through nostalgia, it’s also interesting from a historic point of view, at least if you are one of the geeks frequenting Skate and Annoy. You can trace the de-evolution of skateboard shapes and graphics. In 1991 most of the boards offered had a distinguishable nose and tail, but the shapes in general had already become homogenized. In 1992 you can see the appearance of the the popsicle stick as we know it, as well as the trend towards copyright infringement in art direction. By 1993 there are no longer any shaped boards available, and the general number of companies starts to increase dramatically so the board pictures get smaller and smaller. It’s not until 1997 that a few alternative shapes start to turn up again, mostly in the form of longboards. Those earlier years are also interesting if you look at the offerings from some of the giant names in skateboarding, especially when you put them…

I ribbed them about the lack of photos we got from the grand opening of the new Dunedin Florida park, and David Adams replied that they are too busy skating to take pictures. Fair enough. He did, however, take the time to scan and send in this 1979 postcard of the now defunct Clearwater Florida skatepark, which he said was the last park of it’s kind (until Dunedin) in the west central Florida area. (Did you know there’s cement parks in North Port and Sarasota?) The caption reads “GBM in full take off mode! Awwwk Awwwwkk!!” David also mentions that Ed Womble, George McClellan and himself were on the Clearwater Skatepark team back then, and are still skating today. If you take a look at this postcard, your first reaction might be “Yuck!”, but man, wouldn’t it be fun to go back in time and skate one of these sprawling concrete landscapes? I wouldn’t want all my parks to be like this, but you make your own fun, and I see fun written all over the place. If you’re in the mood for something newer, Chuck Dyer has some shots from opening day of Dunedin.

In honor of EA’s Skate and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, which the Interweb™! can’t seem to shut up about. I’m going to bring you seven days of bad skateboarding video games. Day One: Cheap Skate for the Commodore 64, from 1988. Look out! That guy has to dodge meteors! Talk about skate harassment. Giant skateboard with Speed Racer mountain climbing wheels? Check! Button down shirt with smart sweater over the top? Check! (Sorry, this is a U.K. game, so I think “sweater” should read “jumper”)

I thought we would get a lot more pictures from the Dunedin Florida skatepark opening, but so far all I have is a few from local Ed Womble, which includes a shot of Monty Nolder. You guys must have a poser’s scene down there, you don’t deserve a good skatepark! Haw haw! I kid! Check out the pictures after the jump.

I remember the first time I saw an ad for Bacon, it was a full page in Concussion I think. I did find their first graphic amusing. It was just the name spelled out in strips of bacon. However, my first reaction was “Here’s another upstart company with a stupid name that is going to blow through all their money in two years and then go out of business.” Boy was I wrong. Bacon is going strong, and getting stronger, and now I have to live and skate in the same town as that dick Colin who owns the company. Sometimes I even have to suffer the indignity of skating the same spots with him. Apparently, Oregon is some sort of hot spot for skateboarding right now, so he up and moved his company here. They are working on a new video (way to make sure you get your money’s worth from that flame stock footage!) and it looks like it going to be a killer. It’s great seeing some familiar faces destroying some familiar spots in ways you’ve never seen before. Check out the trailer on the Bacon site. You and your speed metal music can go suck an…