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 egg Colin! I don’t care if most of them are from Oregon, take your team and go back to California! (P.S. I’ll see you at your open house, and yes I’ll bring the wife and kids.)

It’s amazing how unsophisticated skateboard graphics were in the early 80’s when companies first started to explore designs that were more than just a small logo on the bottom. Believe it or not, some people are going to be pissed off that I posted this picture of a rare old Neil Blender deck that is currently up for auction on eBay. They will say that we are somehow affecting the outcome of the final price, blah blah blah. I’m just using it as an excuse to embed a few Neil Blender videos from YouTube. Notice there is no link to the auction. I don’t want to encourage any (more) of the “Hey, check out my auction!” emails that we already get. After you are done watching these videos, head on over to Neil’s official web site The Heated Wheel.

Sean Cliver has a short interview over at Cool Hunting that is focused on his book Disposable. At the time he gave the interview he had no idea where and when it would show up. I’ve never really trolled Cool Hunting, but it seems like a site for people suffering from really short attention spans, the really lazy or terminally bored. It’s compilation of completely unrelated things that someone has determined “cool.” Disposable has been re-re-released on Ginko Press with minor cosmetic changes and factual corrections making it different from the last version published by Concrete Wave Editions. But of course, if you are a collector, you’ll need to get this one too. Cliver is working on a follow up to Disposable that he hopes will be released in Spring of 2008.

Yes, much to my wife’s good humor, for the past 10 months I’ve been working on another follow-up book of sorts. This one will be more “collector” based, and my main intent is to showcase a big gallery of deck images from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and just a smattering of the 00s. I’ve pillaged/shot a number of heretofore unseen collections and archives, so I promise lots of nice new eye candy, but I’m also using this as an opportunity to tie up a few loose ends from the first book, with quotes and stories from artists that were either MIA or just didn’t fit in.

There are a few mostly half-assed or narrow in scope books out there on skateboard graphics. Disposable is the only one you need, and unless he totally blows it, Clivers’ next book should be just as good.

This Titan missile silo complex located one and a half hours west of Spokane Washington is for sale. $1.5 million dollars gets you 57 acres, three missile silos, thirteen other underground buildings and the most expensive street skating spot you can find. At least you won’t go to prison for barging it. Looks like a great spot for a photo shoot.

[Source: Gizmodo]

The easiest thing to try when “making your own” skateboard is to buy an uncut blank and cut out your own shape. That will usually suffice for most people. The next step requires building a mold and making a press. Instructables member Gregorylavoie has posted a pretty good in depth tutorial on how to make a skateboard mold and vacuum press. I’ve seen a various methods of DIY presses that don’t involve welding and hydraulics. Most of them involve clamps. The mold part is the most daunting of the two, and requires the most finesse. Professionally made molds are not just a top and a bottom cast together. That is to say, the top piece wouldn’t be a perfect fit to the bottom piece. Making the concave symmetrical along the vertical axis is a job best left for CNC machines or skilled shapers. Granted, for your own use you don’t have to be that picky. Using a vacuum press makes the job of the mold a lot easier, since you only have to make one side and the vacuum compresses the rest of the board against the mold. This is the same basic process that Roarockit sells as a home kit. The Roarockit actually works (video review coming soon), but the mold is made from styrofoam and it’s more of an arts and crafts type educational project geared towards little kids. However, there is a community of longboarders out there that is very serious about using the Roarockit to make a cambered board. Gregory’s Instructable is a lot more rugged and reusable than the Roarockit, and it’s ads another DIY layer of customizing and accomplishment. There’s more to it than these few photos show, and the devil is in the details.

Juice magazine has a chunk of an older Jim Murphy interview with Ian McKaye where Ian talks about his skateboarding past. I always thought that Ian was in the Dogtown and Z-Boys documentary because Minor Threat was so important to so many skateboarders but he was idolizing that Dogtown stuff just like we were. Sounds so familiar. He mentions that he and Henry took a bus trip out to California to skate. That’s like, 2600 miles which would be several days on a bus right? Pretty hardcore for a 16 and 17 year-old. I wonder how they got around the release forms. The interview was in issue 50. You might be able to order a back issue from them if you want the rest of the interview.

Ian still runs Dischord records and the prices are very reasonable and the service is excellent.

If you are bummed out about skateboarding not making it to the olympics, you can still get your roller-jollies from the the International Federation of Roller Sports. FIRS is planning on holding the first Skateboarding World Championship at an undisclosed location on an undisclosed date in 2008. Must be top secret. Here’s how they define skateboarding:

This is a show of the emerging roller disciplines which are day by day reaching the same importance of the “historical” official roller disciplines. Much appreciated by young people, these sports are stylish, aggressive, acrobatic, in a word: modern sports for young people.

SKATEBOARDING: Acrobatics on half pipes or specific skateparks on the renowned four wheeled platform. Recognised different styles: Freestyle – Aerials – Flip tricks – Slides and Lip Tricks.
First FIRS world skating Championship is scheduled in 2008

Hmmm… I can hear the controversy now. Do we want our renowned four wheeled platform acrobatics performed in unspecific or specific skateparks? Thank god we are approaching the same historical significance as the other official roller disciplines.

No word yet on who is on Team USA for skateboarding, but I hope they are as balanced as a certain Team USA figure skater who has this fascinating bio excerpt:

Most Prized Possession: My bass guitar

Hobbies: Playing bass guitar in my band.

Music Listened to During Training/Competition: Me playing bass guitar in my band

Unique Quality: I play bass guitar in a band called Currently Unknown.

Go Team Bass Fish Guitar USA! Let’s see, what else? Oh yeah, looks like they swiped a pic of a female street skater for use on their web site, but there are no credits.

[Source: Skate Daily]