Colin at Bacon Skateboards forwarded a link to a Benji Galloway interview on Skateboarder Magazine’s website. Check out the two photo sequences: one a backside-lipslide over the steps at Donald and the other a backslide-tailslide over some other pool steps. Sick! Benji is an amazing skater and has been incredible to watch in the Oregon Trifecta. He won the 2005 series. Bacon’s Southern Slaughter Tour video also looks pretty insane. The 162MB video is available for download. photo: Kyle Bunker

Unless you happen to be around PDX right now, in which case winter is fully on vacation and spring is in command. Sessions have been happening daily at Pier, West Linn and every other concrete shrine around Oregon over the past week as a nice, sunny high pressure system has delivered clear blue skies and a complete lack of precip of any kind.

Friday myself, Capozzi and Jon Brown headed out to West Linn for it’s first dry day in a while. Rebel Chuck was there, along with a few of the locals. It felt very good to grind around that corner again. The fall from the top to crushing hip blow didn’t feel good, but sometimes that’s the price you pay.

The coping at West Linn is awesome. It’s that right mix of concrete pool coping gnar, but still in shape enough to move through. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not steel pipe, but you can get through it with enough inertia and speed. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Capozzi worked out body jars while Brown flew around, frustrating the children with his runs that emcopass the entire park. The fact that he does this in slacks and a blue dress shirt frustrate them even more.

“Do you rock the party?” a kid asked me. I said “What?”. He said it again. I said “No, I doubt it.” He walked away and left me alone, for sure disappointed in my inabilities to completely rock the party. Damn, I must be old.

Today, it’s back to Pier for me with J.P. and Capozzi (and many others). Some are out on a secretive pool mission followed by a stop by Aumsville. Good luck to the hunters.

[r]

The Story from H-Street, circa 1997. This is the sixth video in the H-Street Box Set. This is a really long video, it even gives you the timing of each section so that you can fast-forward to each part. Of course, this was back in VHS times, so the timing means nothing now.

H-street was the brainchild of Mike Ternansky(along with Mike Carroll, Matt Hensley, Danny Way and Sal Barbier), who formed Plan B, and Tony Magnusson, who now runs Osiris.

I had to include the Story of Iron Cross, which is an interview with Art and Steve Godoy from Skate and Annoy 6.

Featured Skaters: Ron Allen, Jordan Andreen, Felix Arguelles, Barker Barrett, Andre Camacho, Colby Carter, Chad Conner, John DeAgo, Jason Ellis, Kit Erickson, James Frazier, Trent Gaines, Buster Halterman, Eric Jueden, Kien “Donger” Lieu, Brian Lotti, Cheyne Magnusson, Tony Magnusson, Dennis Martin, Chris Miller, Jeremy Owens, John Reeves, Mark Roach, Jason Rogers, Ally Roller, Shane Rosson, Noah Salasnek, Brennand Schoeffel, Sean Sheffey, Jovontae Turner, Aaron Vincent, Danny Way, and Paul Zuanich

run time: 2 hr 32 min 19 sec – Check it Out

Video Days from Blind Skateboards, circa 1991. One of my all-time favorite videos. Spike Jonze was the director for this video and he definitely set the bar when it comes to filming/editing. Blind was started by Mark Gonzales in 1991. The company name is an intentional jab at his former team, Vision.

This was a time when Street Skating was developing at an insane rate. Although the video is mainly street oriented; there is some vert featuring the Gonz and Jordan Richter. There’s some really good music on here as well, including Black Flag, Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr, and much more.

Blind now offers this video on DVD by combining it with What If?.

Featured Skaters: Mark Gonzales, Rudy Johnson, Jason Lee, Guy Mariano, and Jordan Richter

run time: 24 min 0 sec – Check it Out

Jürgen Horrwarth won the vert and was winning the mini-ramp-bowl portion of the European Skateboard Championships in Basle, Switzerland when it was rained out. There’s an interview with Jürgen on the Red Bull site. It’s supposed to be a direct link, but it’s wacky. Once the page loads you have to click on the “Visit Red Bull International” option and click the “interview” button. Another case of superfluous Flash Development gone awry…  The interview is really dry. Your time is better spent blowing it off and reading this excerpted  Claus  Grabke  interview from Juice Magazine. If you’re a die hard Jürgen Horrwarth fan, we’ve poached the whole thing after the link.

Is What it is from Consolidated Skateboards, circa 1999. I really enjoy these earlier Consolidated videos. It has a really good mix of Street and Vert throughout each persons part.

More about Consolidated Skateboards after the jump!

Old Man Army is at it again, this time interviewing 70’s skate legend Russ Howell. I know what you’re thinking. By the end of the 70’s nobody much cared about Russ (in the skateboarding world) so why bother now? Well, it’s an interesting read nonetheless, especially for Howell’s take on the Dogtown documentary. He’s got a bone to pick with Stacy. The guy he should have a beef with is Richy Carrasco. See, Howell set a 360 record in 1977 (35 spins) but claims a personal best of 163. Meanwhile, Carrasco beat his record in 1978 with 35.5 spins and then again in 2000 with 142 spins. I don’t know how Russ lets a guy get away with calling himself the 360 King when Howell’s best is 21 over the Guinness Record. Did you know Russ Howell currently has a signature model? Learn this and more in the interview at Old Man Army. Don’t forget to check out the official web site of Russ Howell which stays true to his old school roots by maintaining a look that is circa 1996 web design.

Way Out East! from Stereo Sound Agency, circa 2004. This is a three week long tour video of London, New York and Paris with a little west coast action thrown in for good measure. I really like this video for its smooth style, and it always seems like they are having a blast. Isn’t that what skateboarding is all about? To answer my own question… Yes, yes it is. The entire video is shot in either 8mm or 16mm film.

I didn’t even know that Stereo was still a company, but I guess Jason Lee seems to have run into some money with his TV shows and Movies.

Stereo was originally founded in 1992 by Jason Lee and Chris Pastras. After Jason left the company to pursue his acting career, Chris kept the company running, until 2000 when it closed its doors. In 2003 Chris and Jason relaunched the company under the Giant Distribution company. By 2006 they were able to distribute independently which was probably their main goal in the first place.

Featured Skaters: Jason Lee, Chris Pastras, Clint Peterson, Benny Fairfax, Keegan Sauder, Olly Todd, Brian Brown, Rick McCrank, Mike McDermott, Soy Panday, and Snowy

run time: 27 min 19 sec – Check it Out

Skateboarding adults are funny. Lulu Maude gives it the old Onion try in her post titled Harriet Miers Quits White House, Wants to Spend More Time Skateboarding Check it out here. Lulu’s profile says she is a “a retired schoolmarm.” What’s a schoolmarm anyway? Did she retire in the 1920’s? Just in case Take Your Medicine folds, we’ve got it here too.

Cheese and Crackers from Almost Skateboards, circa 2006. Its a new year, so we can break out the videos from last year right?

This is one of the better skate videos to come out of 2006. In my opinion Daewon Song and Chris Haslam are two of the most creative skaters out there, and it definitely shows in this video. Flip tricks off of blunts and into noseslides and everything in between. They even incorporate tires and suspended flat bars for a little extra flavor.

The video may be short, but I usually end up watching each part multiple times just to catch what is going on.

Featured Skaters: Daewon Song and Chris Haslam

run time: 14 min 56 sec – Check it Out