I have a vague recollection of this style of Levis commercial. This one dates back to 1977 and briefly features some kids and possibly even a gorilla on a skateboard. It’s hard to tell compressed and small, plus the psychedelic nature of the animation doesn’t help any.

– Thanks to Eric Shea for the tip.

The Half Moon Bay Review reports that their police will enforce helmet regs but that pad use is discouraged. Unless you’re skitching, then no pads or helmet. Huh?

As you recall from last summer, the Independent team did their 30th anninversary tour.  When they came through, I was at Glenhaven for a session, and Tosh Townend, Brian Anderson, and others were ripping it up.  Lance Mountain, David Gravette, Chet Childress, etc. were casual observers of the session, sitting in the shade on a hot day.  Afterwards, the team went to Pier Park, where they met other members of this online community for a session.

You will be happy to know that Independent has the footage for viewing on their website.  You can view the video footage of the above session that Kilwag was shooting.  If I’m not mistaken, you can see MC on deck while Grosso grinds through the corner.  By the way, the Dwarves are rad.

“Ramp it Up” will be exhibited at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian ( On the National Mall, Washington, DC) from June 12, 2009–September 13, 2009

Ramp it Up celebrates the vibrancy, creativity, and controversy of American Indian skate culture. Skateboarding combines demanding physical exertion with design, graphic art, filmmaking, and music to produce a unique and dynamic culture. One of the most popular sports on Indian reservations, skateboarding has inspired American Indian and Native Hawaiian communities to host skateboard competitions and build skate parks to encourage their youth. Native entrepreneurs own skateboard companies and sponsor community-based skate teams. Native artists and filmmakers, inspired by their skating experiences, credit the sport with teaching them a successful work ethic. The exhibition features rare and archival photographs and film of Native skaters as well as skatedecks from Native companies and contemporary artists.

This is actually the first ever Smithsonian exhibiton on skateboarding. Apparently they are just now recognizong the cultural significance of Back to the Future. You can read the entire press release here.

UPDATE: added new poster images for the show.

Hoverboards, the mythical flying car of the future for the skateboarding crowd. Let’s run down the hoverboard links first:

1. A fan makes his own adequate replicas
2. Auction of one of the original props
3. Photoshopping hoverboards into existing photos

What else is there? Well there’sa guy in the UK who will sell you a, uhm, realistic looking prop for the paltry fee of $290 USD. Hoverboard.org.uk has some fancy replicas with only sublte finishing differences that are only visible when you compare them side by side with the original. They even sell replicas of Griff’s baseball bat for people who are clearly over-obsessed with Back to the Future.

Lastly, check out the Hoverboard graphic from Boston’s Proletariat, pictured above right. It’s one of those “Why didn’t I think of it? ” ideas. Proletariat’s decks are really well executed, and clearly the winner because they are only $49 and you can actually skate them.

– Thanks to Aaron Shims and Mike for the tips

Here’s the trailer for Street Dreams. What’s that, you ask? Because we mentioned it here earlier and nobody seemed to notice. It’s a movie that Rob Drydek wrote and produced. It stars guys like Rob Dyrdek, Paul Rodriguez Jr., Ryan Sheckler, Compton Ass Terry, and Ryan Dunn. It looks like the biggest stars may be the DC skate plaza and SPOT. I love to make fun of skateboarding in the media, and the excesses. It would be easy to jump all over this, but I have to say the collective times I’ve watched him (Dyrdek) on TV have made me a fan. Maybe I’m learning to let it go, or it’s because he hails form the midwest, or I’m getting soft. Piss off! That being said, I’d like to welcome a new sponsor to S&A… Just kidding. I’m still not going to see this, even though I have to imagine this will be better than Thrashin’ as far as movies go. Comic relief? Who knows, it’s an uphill battle without Eddie Reategui’s eyebrows as extras. Official website: streetdreamsmovie.com/ plus… Twitter and Facebook? In theaters June 12th, also the same day the cast will appear on Fuel TV’s Daily Habit. Trailer after the jump.

Episode 21 of season 20 of the Simpsons, titled “Coming to Homerica” aired last Sunday night. I didn’t catch it, but fortunately Jake Ferranti, AKA Jakeandannoy tipped me off. About 10 minutes into the episode on Norwegian immigrant paranoia, Bart and Milhouse encounter some Ogdenville skaters of Norwegian descent. Jake thought this might have been a tip of the hat to Per Welinder, but Per is from Sweden, so who knows. Maybe it was a nod to the European ski jumpers and not freestylers.

We love to help out our less fortunate neighbors in such skateboard repressive states as, uh, California? From the International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC):

As many of you know, IASC has been working tirelessly for many years to change the laws affecting California’s public skateparks.  We were previously able to extend the bill which protects public skateparks, but in doing so, had to make some concessions in the bill. Recently IASC has been working to remove the outdated clause under which skateparks must require elbow and knee pads to be worn while skating in public skateparks.

That’s right, according to state law, you must wear elbow and knee pads at public skateparks. I know thi law isn’t enforced everywhere, but it still needs to go. Apparently the repeal has passed the State Assembly 76-0, which is stellar news, but it still has to pass through the senate. If you live in California and want to find out how how to help the effort, visit the IASC site for details. However, If you want some super stylish kneepads, check out these licensed Speed Racer knee pads with clear caps that double as Speed’s visor. Pretty cool actually, especially in combination with the Mach 5 roller skates.

– Thanks to Roger Harrell for the tip.

More skateboarding vid caps sent in from Joesf Heffner. This time the flick is called Hooper, starring (duh!) Burt Reynolds. There’s also a bonus shot of some terrain that ought to be familiar to anyone whose seen the Bones Brigade Video Show. There’s an actual skate shot of Neil Blender hitting it in an old Tracker advert on Freakbeatfuzz.

This is from the 2009 pinup calendar published by the NYC clothing brand Mishka, and shot by fashion and pinup photog Ellen Stagg. Looks like it’s sold out or missing from the web site, so no idea whether or not there were more skateboards than the one found on the cover. There’s a coule sentences from Ellen on the Mishka site, and a large version of the cover on Frank151.