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 Recently IASC has been working to remove the outdated clause under which skateparks must require elbow and knee pads to be worn while skating in public skateparks.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.

I haven’t been reading my Google alerts, but a little birdy (Thanks Matt Beasley) told me that Etnies GvR and the Soul Bowl contents have been cancelled this year thanks to the lame economy. That’s OK, because the 5th annual Vans Protec Pool Party will be shown live on Fuel TV. The Combi Bowl contest purse is $90,000! Fuel TV has some promotional interviews with some of the pros getting ready for the contest, such as Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg and the often entertaining Steve Olson on How to Judge a Clusterfuck.

Live HD Webcast. May 16th, 1-9 PM, Pacific Standard time. Whet your whistle with this trailer.

We reported on the rumor a couple months ago, but the possibility has become a reality. Concussion Magazine is back on the newsstands. Regular photo contributors Brendan Kline and Brooks Fritz have in effect taken over the publication of Concussion. Davoud and Jonathan are still there in an advisory capacity, or as “training wheels” as they say, for a couple issues. I didn’t know what to expect when I opened the envelope. I half expected it to have a new masthead. Issue #41 looks the same and different from Concussion (Classic). The first thing you might notice are few seemingly out of context color ad spreads, which appear to be one time only deals and are dutifully explained in Davoud’s editorial. I thought I detected an extra dash of artsy-fartsy in the new layout/content as well, but it may have been my subconscious talking. All in all, it’s great to see it still going, and I imagine quite a surreal experience for Davoud and Jonathan. Davoud succinctly summed it up: “…but I am no Kevin Thatcher and Brendan and Brooks are no Jake Phelps. Thanks God.” Good luck guys!

I had never seen, nor heard of this TV show called Sledge Hammer! that ran for two seasons from 1986-88. I watched a clip of it online and it was pretty good, certainly calling to mind the short lived TV show Police Squad from 1982 that ended up turning into the Naked Gun series of movies that ironically came out in the last year of Sledge Hammer. What I really want to talk about is the very excellent Star Trek spoof series from 1979 called Quark. At least I remember it being excellent, but on the other hand I recently tried to go back and re-watch some episodes of another show I recalled as being brilliant, The Young Ones, and found it hard to sit through. Enough about Quark. An episode of Sledge Hammer! features the time-tested comedy archetype of someone jumping on a skateboard without having complete technical mastery, in this case, an nice looking Alva Street Fire.

– Thanks to Mike D 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.

For only $150 you can buy this light that says to all who enter your domicile, “I like to skateboards and I have bad taste.” I was going to say this would be perfect for the Xanadu, House of the Future, but that would be insult the whole Wisconsin Dells region. Which made me curious… and then sad. The Xanadu hoses have all been demolished! Check out an old prom vid for Xanadu Homes after the jump, and mourn the future that never was. Where are those damn flying cars already?

[Source: Arcadian Lighting]

A few skateboarding stills from the 1976 movie Car Wash, starring Richard Pryor and George Carlin, thanks to Josef Heffner. Man, that is one narrow board…

I can use “potpourri” right? I mean it’s core, isn’t it? Clockwise from the top left. Tony Hawk shows you how to ollie on one of CNN’s iReport videos. Nice PR move, as if an ordinary citizen gained a private audience with Tony in his training facility and captured an impromptu interview. While we’re talking about CNN, I need to repeat how annoyed I am with CNN’s recent fixation on “iReporters” and call in opinions. It’s supposed to be the news, not amateur talk radio. Next: More pool skating mortgage forclosure pieces, this time via the BBC who took a camera crew out for a very, very short video. Rumor has it that the Reader’s Digest is also working on a rehash. Next: Weird Al Yankovic collects Vans… Err, OK. Lastly, the New York Times Home & Garden section highlights a skater owned property that cost a pretty penny. Who knew that the team manager position for Think Skateboards paid that well.

– Thanks to John Aguilar, Rich Burton, Dean Tyrell, Corey Nelson and Aaron Shims (via Bordistan) for the tips.