OH yeah, I forgot to title this “Vert is dead, not dead, dead, not dead, dead….” I’m losing track of where we’re at here. Dave Swift over at the Skateboard Mag has some pictures of the new setup for the Super Park event at the X Games. If you recall, Super Park was supposed to be the replacement for the vertical event until the talent mutinied and said they would prefer to compete on the halfpipe. So now we have Vert and Super Park. Without getting into the politics, the Super Park course certainly looks more interesting than a vert ramp, and is more in step with what people who aren’t training for the X Games are riding, if not in the street. Now, to get into the politics, or at least social responsibility, carting that thing around to different venues seems like it would be a gargantuan task. We all know what happens to these ramps when they got through a season or two, they get donated. It’s one thing to fix up up a vert ramp or some pyramids that have seen some abuse, it’s relatively straight forward. What’s going to happen when they discard these massively complex bowl constructions? Sure, it’s not as wasteful as something as ludicrous as building a concrete skatepark for one time use. (Don’t get me started on that, it’s something I had planned for a rant already…) I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again, ESPN needs to give back to the sport (besides paying the salaries of the top pros) by advocating for and financially facilitating concrete skateboard facilities across the nation, if not world, in ways similar to other high profile entities that make bank from skateboarding. Right. Don’t forget to check out the Super Park. It looks fun as hell. – Thanks to JF for the tip.

Friend of the site Brad the Handstandman was on The Late Show with David Letterman on July 18th. Can we call him a friend of the site? Sure, why not, after all the heckling, veiled threats and assorted rigmarole. The original Handstandman post is almost in the top five of the most commented posts. Such lively discussion is usually reserved for Airspeed, Benji Galloway and Wormhoudt in San Jose. I can’t help but feel that a true friend of the site would have given us the heads up before he was on national television. You can still watch it on Late Show highlights. Just head on over to Dave’s site and click on the video link for “”Late Show” Rewind: Week of July 14-18, 2008.” Handstandman is about halfway into the clip – after Ricky Gervais and before Rosie Perez. The video player is a little buggy, and you have to sit through a short commercial. SnA comment army, please remember, we’ve been through all the name calling already.

Motion Theory is a motion graphics studio that has done a lot of work you’ve probably seen, like the HP ad for Pharrell (hi res here) that also features skateboarding. They did a short ID piece for ESPN on Evolution, specifically the evolution of skateboarding. Apparently, it aired during the Superbowl, but which one? You can watch it and download it from the Motion Theory site. I wonder if they will notice a bandwith spike? As far as the animation goes, it’s fun to watch. As far as the evolution of skateboarding goes, it stops with what mainstream skaters consider the dodo birds of skateboarding, AKA the vert ramp riders – but I’m sure that’s what the client wanted. – Thanks (again) to Livmo for the tip. yeah, it’s going to be that kind of day.

The Gorge Games went off in Hood river last weekend. We didn’t cover it – Estes, this was your time to shine! Looks like it will be broadcast by Fox Sports Networks August 18 – 22. The Gorge Games featured slalom and and bowl-riding skateboarding, plus wind surfing and a bunch of other Extreme!™ sports you’re not interested in. It’s kind of like a localized X-Games for Hood River, Oregon, which if you didn’t already know, is supposed to be one of the premier spots for wind powered water sports. It’s a major event in Oregon tourism. I heard legendary skater Tom “Wally” Inouye was heavily involved in the Gorge Games this year. So far all I have is a little slalom coverage. The photo above is from a Flickr stream belonging to Carvethebowl. There’s also video footage after the jump where you can see one of the Fox cameramen following the action on a skateboard. The announcer is mildy amusing. It’s almost golf-style reserved, polite and quiet, except broadcast over a loudspeaker. – Thanks to Judy Oyama for the tip. That’s her on the left.

Just about this time last year everyone was freaking out over Jake Brown’s amazing escape from a potentially life ending or at the very least, life changing bail on the mega ramp at the X Games. Hard to believe he walked away from the slam heard round the world. Thankfully I’m not posting about the first annual memorial Jake Brown contest. I’m sure he’d be pissed that we’re bringing it up again, but after the jump there’s a handful of links that date back to the hysteria, and of course, you can watch the video again if you are feeling robust.

So it’s 30 years later and the Today Show is still into skateboards. This time is from a recent segment on how to stay young. The video is embedded after the jump, but unfortunately there are nine minutes and thirty seconds of unrelated facial cream, fashion and stress management footage before you get to the skateboard. There’s not really much to see anyway, although it is slightly amusing to see the host stall for time in order to avoid having to ride on camera. In local news… the setup is advertised as coming from Portland’s Daddies Board Shop.
– Thanks to Michael Brooke for the tip.

This week’s installment of Saturday Starrs is a 1977 Today Show piece on the new and booming skatepark industry. The report was filed by Irving R. Levine, and is about as dry sounding as it gets. It’s funny to hear about the owners of Skatopia expecting to take in twice the cost of building the park ($300k) in the first year. It mentions the first skatepark in the world being built in Florida, but it doesn’t say what the name is. The guy who built it Charles Cromie, says a skatepark operator can expect to recoup a $175K investment and own the land in 18 months. Levine said 50 skateparks were built in the first year, and at the time there were 100 more planned or in construction. What he doesn’t mention is that 125 will be gone in two years. It’s full of excellent terminology like “radical” and “water surfing.”

For now it’s an industry going full speed ahead, and not at all worried that it might be headed (wait for it..) for a financial tumble.

Good stuff.

Or at least the character he played as an actor. I’ll spill the beans after the jump.

Even though he’s “all old and rickety,” Fox 12 spotlighted Mark Conahan in the Oregon Sports Final segment. Did you know he invented skateboarding in Portland? And then he went on to fund, design and build all the skateparks in Portland. All this was done in his spare time away from his job drawing skateboard comics. You can watch him being interviewed by a barn owl on the FOX 12 web site. Keep your eyes peeled for other notable figures in the Portland skate scene media. I wonder why he’s not promoting this…

Gumby and his band are performing at a skateboard rally, but before he can get to it the Blockheads steal Gumby’s board (7 minutes). You can watch a short segment here. No blockheads but Yes that is Gumby throwing up the hang loose looping and playing his guitar at the same time. Prickle on Sax, Goo on keyboards and Pokey on skins.

For $1.99 you can download Gumby Adventures
episode 86 from Amazon and it will be yours to cherish. Provided you have a Windows XP SP2 or Vista PC or Tivo Series2 or 3 box or a Video-ready Playsforsure portable device registered with them.