ID check, supervision, consent, annual fee, per use fee, helmet, elbow pads, kneepads. A problem exists when facilities designed to promote action sports are more of a burden than a blessing. This burden is the Southern California skate park standard. From the editorial titled Skate parks constrained by unnecessary regulation by former skatepark employee Kory (Webster?) Prindle in the North County Times in Escondido, CA. I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but if you are from the land of free and relatively unregulated skateparks (i.e. Oregon, Washington, Idaho…) it can be a shocker when you travel elsewhere and suddenly have to worry about how much the park will cost, does it require elbow pads of all things, and whether or not the park will even be open during school hours or on holidays. it’s about time someone spoke up.

Portland Police are upset that a skateboard shop also sells (expensive) spray paint, as they see skateboarding and graffiti culture intertwined. The cops say The Office is tacitly encouraging graffiti by selling the spray paint. The Office says their paint is expensive and therefore typically used by commissioned artists rather than your garden variety high school delinquent. I hate taggers and I hate graffiti, but I like stencil art. Normally I wouldn’t bother to report on this but I thought The Office’s manager, Kevin Nimick, made a good point: “I don’t want to go head to head with the police,” says Nimick. “But they’re just trying to have a place to direct blame for Portland’s graffiti. Why not ban the sale of handguns, if they’re worried about people getting shot?” More skateboards and spray paint after the jump. [Source: Portland Mercury]

All Claus Grabke, all the time! You know we love us some Claus over here. Check out this video tour of Claus Grabke’s complete pro skateboard model history, from Titus to Madrid to Powell to Santa Cruz to Titus to Pocket Pistols. It’s narrated by the man Claus himself. In this video you’ll learn many interesting facts such as the correct pronunciation for Titus (Tee-tus not tite-us) the fact that Jerry Madrid still owes Claus some money, and of all his 80’s graphics, the Madrid board might have been the best one. Actually it’s hard to tell because the whole thing looks like it was filmed by the light of a match. The screen capture above is highly processed to make it more visible. I was going to post pics of the decks or even re-edit the video myself with superimposed shots, but they are next to impossible to find. I couldn’t find a picture of the early Titus deck anywhere on the web, but we did have a rare Powell socked away in an eBay watch. At this point I gave up. Fortunately, the audio content is enough to make the video worthwhile.

Taylor, with his short haircut and businesslike demeanor, doesn’t fit the profile of the average skateboarder, who’s often a teenager with stylishly long hair and a devil-may-care attitude. Taylor’s more the Tony Hawk type, a guy in his 30s who can make money doing what he loves. He doesn’t fit the stereotype, but they still used This dude’s rad boards ‘feel right’ as the headline for an article about Drifter Skateboards, a small D.I.Y. skateboard manufacturer. Hmm… sounds familiar. Other than that, this article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution is OK, just brief. Hold on… of all the interesting parts of the process involved, they chose a picture of owner Ryan Taylor shrink wrapping an unidentified object. Someone fire that photo editor. Those graphics remind me of a certain Blockhead era. Update: Drifter web site.

You think your scene is bad? At least you don’t have to make knee pads out of palm fronds and bamboo. The Uganda Skateboarding Union Is an organization dedicated towards trying to keep Ugandan youth alive by giving them something positive to do while educating them on social and health issues, like HIV/AIDS. They just got NGO certified, which means your skateboard donations won’t be hit with crippling import tariffs. From the looks of those neon wheels, Uganda is receiving donations from 1980’s era time travelers. They also take cash. Unfortunately they are importing ideology too – now that they have a skate park built, they want to put a fence around it. The skateboard scene in Uganda was started by a visiting South African named Shael Swart who built the first ramp with Ugandan local Jackson Mubiru. Those efforts were discovered by another visitor, a Canadian named Brian Lye. Brian has taken it to a completely different level. Spend some time checking out the pictures. It’s a warm and fuzzy skateboarding experience. Much better than the alternative. Right now the program is active in one small town, which I’m guessing must be in southern Uganda, since children in the…

Oh great, now I’m not the only wannabe skate-photog lurking in Portland. Hey Rich, how’s that new camera working out for you? Pretty good, huh? Just don’t get in my shots man, or I’ll sic Lil’ Pimp on you. Everyone is a photographer. Why not make the deck a little more crowded by checking out How To Steal My Job by Transworld photographer (I assume, because I don’t have a subscription) Scott Pommier. It’s lenghty and humorous piece filled with good practical advice. Lastly, when you look at the above picture of Chris Nukala, make sure you are humming speed metal and not Blink 182.

Dave Hupp sends along this announcement of a benefit event for Neil’s homecoming. March 31 in McMinnville. Your chance to check out the new Dreamland/Vox video, win prizes, and more. Also check out Dave’s website. There are some killer new photos up.

I had this post planned for today before I saw Mark’s other Andrecht post. As you can see, he’s still doing them. These are some shots from a quick session at Pier Park over the weekend. It was wet and overcast, but the weed burner enabled a safe entry and exit into the deep end. More after the jump.