How is your stimulus check hanging? On the one hand, the economic downturn is good news for skaters. We’ve all been made redundantly aware of the fact that their are a lot of empty pools associated with mortgage foreclosures. Even the Mayor of San Francisco knows about it. Apparently, Gavin Newsom is very concerned that something must be done about teenagers who use google maps to find foreclosed homes with pools, so that they can then drain the pools and skateboard in them…ruining the pools and lowering the property value. Another upside, funding the pad nanny position at public skateparks is no longer a priority in communities like Watauga County, NC. All the skateparks in San Diego and Ocean Beach are no longer pay-to-play for the same reason. While some cities like Portsmouth, VA have to put off plans for new skateparks, at least one town, Pawtucket, Rhode Island is going to get a brand new skatepark as a direct result of Obama’s stimulus plan. You can check out a video highlighting how the toothless residents feel about this use of federal funds after the jump. – Thanks to Sean Mykael for the tip. Obama skate logo courtesy of AGP.

Graham Taylor has made a video comparing skateboarders to modern ballet dancers. It includes some UK footage from the 90’s on. Noticeably present, the Craig Stecyk quote about technology, a cement playground and the minds of 11 year olds. Noticeably absent is the Daniel Gesmer spotlight. In any case, It’s an odd little film that might make you chuckle, especially when the jump cuts between the two disciplines get hopping. Try to imagine a session at street spot with everyone in tights. Then try to imagine ballet dancers gathering secretively in an empty warehouse with their generators and mirrors, practicing their moves and then cursing loudly while trying to focus that big wooden bar. [Source: When we was RAD]

Jay Adams is selling a Jay Adams SMA deck on eBay. I don’t know if this is/was a production model or a one off. He gives no details on the deck auction except to say he will personalize an autograph if you want. Just looking at the picture makes me feel intimidated into bidding. Less than five hours left. UPDATE: It’s over.

I know what you’re all thinking, it’s the boy who cried wolf… but it isn’t really. The reigns of Concussion might end up being turned over to two longtime contributors. Davoud has requested omitting the specifics until the final details have been ironed out, in case the deal goes sour. The story has been leaked elsewhere. Believe it or not, I found this Skate Zombie photo over at BMXmuseum.com.

Time was, when there was a big contest coming up you’d learn about it in advance from Thrasher, then have to wait one or two months after the event to read the coverage in the magazines, then another 3-8 months before you could rent the video from from your local skate shop. Remember when skate shops would rent videos? Does anyone do that anymore? The price of skate videos has gone down, for the most part. In 1989 you would have paid $29.99 for Public Domain. . You can get the Thrasher videos for a really reasonable price. Don’t you agree that all skate videos should be $15 or less? Getting back to the point, in my day we had to skate uphill both ways in the rain, on clay wheels that were missing 35% of the open bearings… Nowadays you can just get on the Interwebs™ and watch the contest live, through a series of tubes, as is the case with the Tampa Pro contest at SPOT. Tune in to Fuel TV on Sunday, March 22nd from 12-6pm EST.

You would think that being a reporter for the Wall Street Journal would preclude you from writing about skateboarding, but one man found a way to make it happen. Conor Dougherty contacted me in reference to the New York Times piece of failed mortgages and pool skating. Over the phone he mentioned that he’d been trying to figure out an angle to get the WSJ on board with a skateboard story for a long time, and it looks like he finally swung the deal with a piece called Skateboarding Tourney Stirs Its Own Midnight Madness and another called The Economics of Skateboard videos. The first piece is about the recently hyped game of SKATE put on by the Berrics, and the second one is essentially a recap with some information about professionally produced online video, including the fact that you can usually find recently released skate videos on YouTube. I wondering how he pitched the first story, as far as usefulness from a business standpoint. I’m not pointing this out to be critical, but rather to say “way to make it happen.” Both articles use the same video, which you can watch courtesy of the Wall Street Journal after the…

That’s right, “Skurfing.” This is a short clip from a 1965 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation piece on skateboarding. The reporter interviews a gal who says she had to form a “Sidewalk Skurfing Association” to keep from getting kicked off campus. It’s got lots of Peanuts-esque light jazz piano and the soon to be archetypal reporter flailing on a skateboard. Best line, hands down: Do you think this will be obsolete in time, like the hula hoop? There a short excerpt on YouTube, but to see the whole thing you have to go to the CBC Digital Archives. At the end there is a gratuitous shot of the original skateboarding dog with a dire voiceover about the current skateboard sales trends in major Canadian cities. Love the visual quality of that vintage video tape. It looks like it’s ready to catch fire. – Thanks to Curtis for the tip.

Surf and Skate historian extraordinaire Scott Starr turned me on to this clip from Green Acres that originally aired in 1967. There’s a community play production of The Beverly Hillbillies that Oliver and Lisa have to step in at the last moment when the leads get injured. Jethro finds a skateboard by the “cement pond” which was what the hillbillies called their pool. This is probably the first time a skateboard was ever used as a plot device on a TV show – the inevitable “unsuspecting tv character gets injured on a skateboard.” I believe there were earlier skateboarder appearances on talk shows and game shows such as What’s my line?, not to mention some ABC sports action, but if this aired in 1967 it was probably after the skateboard fad had died a seemingly overnight death. According to Starr, 1965 was the big commercial year for skateboarding, and Christmas catalog research seems to validate this. Watch the skateboarding segement after the jump.

I don’t know what the deal is with this Black Label Chris Troy ad in the April 09 issue of Transworld. Estes spotted it and sent in a blurry photo. I’m not sure how to respond to this. Surely someone in the marketing department should have googled “Skate and Annoy.” We’ve been mentioned in Thrasher as recently as the March 2009 issue, as early as 1988, and even made it into the 25 Year anniversary book. We’re certainly not famous, but come on… See the whole advert after the jump.

Joesf sent in some more video captures, this time from Hudson Hawk, circa 1991. I remember this scene vaguely. They used skateboards to roll past some bad guys quietly. I don’t know who made the Shark model, but it’s Guh-narly!