The Economists has an article talking about the greed and selfishness of today’s youth, and their lack of involvement in public service sector. I’m not sure about the public service record, but I’m pretty sure the previous generation’s greed is a huge part of the reason we’re in this mess. What’s the point? The illustrator used a skateboard to portray the folly of youth. You could be upset if you cared, but if you think about it, skateboard media itself does a good job of perpetuating the stereotype. Not all of it, but a sizable portion. I was talking with an industry insider this summer who expressed some regret over that, while fully copping to perpetuating negative stereotypes in skateboarding through his own product and actions. Ah… What are you going to do? Do as I say, not as I do? Skate and Destroy or Skate and Create? Does anyone care? – Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip.

Halifax Canada weekly The Coast, tackled the mounting malaise caused by the Halifax Police departments increasingly draconian enforcement of helmet laws for skateboarders. Whew! That was a mouthful. Sign me up for journalism school. They’ve gone so far as to use undercover police officers in sting operations. The article is aptly titled Skate Free and/or Die. The cover features a very nice Riley Smith shot of Dale Hussey helmetless, doing a proper straight-armed layback air. Nice cover parody of Thrasher, by the way. I guess they normally don’t do the fake cover gimmick. On the right is the now out of date cover of What’s Up!, a monthly newsprint magazine dedicated to covering the music scene in Bellingham Washington. I had no idea there was that big of a music scene there. The skater illustrated is rumored to be ex Lib Tech rider Ryan Williams. Catch the covers after the jump. – Thanks to Greg Baller and John Aguilar for the tips.

Front magazine features “Britain’s fittest girls.” The latest issue tells readers to “Put on your kneepads, take out your shiny helmet and do some serious grinding as Rosie and Hettie go skate!” Errr, yeah. Rosie and Hettie seem more interested in other activities actually. I’m going to go out on a limb and call them, ahem, posers! Yes, I am that witty! Front is a carbon copy of any one of the many young men’s hipster lifestyle pinup magazines, except that it’s more NSFW than the typical U.S. fare. – Thanks to Aaron Shims fro the tip. [Source: SkatevideosGT]

The first comic I submitted to Thrasher appeared in the February 1982 issue. That must have been my birthday present. I turned 21 that month. Thrasher Magazine has posted all of the issues from their second year on their website.

This week, Thrasher Magazine’s editor in chief, Jake Phelps, is clearing the air on his famous list of five skaters that he permanently banned from the magazine. This week-long feature entitled “Five Days of Hate” details why Benji Galloway, Tony Farmer, Frank Hirata, Choppy Omega, and Billy Pepper were excluded from coverage. Love him or hate him, Phelps is maintaining his reputation as an outspoken and brutally honest figure in the skateboarding community.  Will his words expose injustices in skateboarding?  Or will he simply go on a  slanderous rampage?  This week will showcase Phelps in his true form. Above picture taken from thrashermagazine.com

The magazine Fast Company is all up in Shaun White’s business. Sure, Tony Hawk was in Success magazine, but leave it to Shaun to appear in a “hipper” business publication like Fast Company. I happend to catch an episode of MTV’s Run’s House where they were trying to figure out in a very contrived way how to make one of Run’s kid’s feel better about being heckled for skating. Run had a contrived inspiration to have Tony Hawk come and visit, but one of his sons had a contrived idea that it had to be someone cooler, like Ryan Sheckler. He might have said fresher or even younger, I can’t remember. Anyway, what a coincidence, Sheckler just happened to have a show on MTV at the time. Poor Tony. First he suffers form age discrimination on MTV, then his Mad Dog pajamas catch on fire. With a name like “Mad Dog,” you’d figure they would be Tony Alva pjs. I think my nephew might actually have a pair of these. [Source: Boardistan]

Michael Goetz of The Skateboard Archives shot Chris Nukala at a renegade project and it showed up as Thrasher stoke of the day.

Success Magazine did a short piece on Tony Hawk. Chairman of the Board Maybe the print version includes skate photos. I could drop by a dentist’s office and check the waiting room.

I came across a cool t-shirt on the internet of the drawing on the left. (reacharound to Monoscope) which led me to a short piece by the artist. Oh yeah, and Huck magazine, which seems to be one of those all action sports mags from the U.K. has the shirt in their store.

The previous issue (1058) of Rolling Stone had a feature on Skatopia. It would never occur to me to actually pick up a copy of that magazine, so I missed it. The web site has a photo gallery that you have to get ten pictures into before you can actually see any skating. they’ve also got “exclusive” footage from a trailer for Skatopia, The Movie that is supposed to be out in 2009. I haven’t seen the article so I don’t know how long, bad or interesting it is. I seem to remember Rolling Stone had an article about Dogtown that predated the documentary, but if you search for it now yo uhave to sift through endless Lords of Dogtown reviews and and soundtrack information. – Thanks to Michael Brooke and Larry for the tip.