Just because Tony Hawk has financial stake in ShredorDie.com doesn’t mean he has turn over every embarrassing bit of memorabilia, but it looks like he has to some extent. I was sent to Japan to be on a show called “Incredible Kids” (or something like that) when I was 14. They asked me to demonstrate tricks, but to change some of the names to be “Japanese friendly.” I was just excited to be overseas on my own, so I went along with it. Tony says he was 14 at the time but he looks more like a 12 year old Macaulay Culkin in some of these shots. It’s pretty entertaining stuff. Part of the show has Tony attempting a few launch ramp gap jumps over an increasingly large number of audience members. No, the distance doesn’t get any greater, they just stuff more people in between. It’s pretty crazy how young he looks. It’s even crazier that these people think helmets will help them if Tony comes up short. Tony even grabs for the jumps. Nowadays he’d ollie it or 360 air over it. Check out the takeoff ramp. It looks like one of those old Firestone metal frame and…

I’ve been watching Fuel TV more and more lately. I have the DVR set up to pick up “skateboard” in the title and descriptions, that way I don’t have to sift through all the extraneous wakeboarding, motocross, BMX and snowboard programing. I’ve blown it off for a couple years because I figured it would all be watered down X-Games drivel that I just don’t want to sit through. There is still a little bit of that in their skateboard programming, but for the most part it seems like they are in tune or at least sympathetic with the “lifestyle,” as if someone in programing actually skates. It’s mostly street oriented but they do throw in the tranny and vert occasionally. In general they have a respect for the history of skateboarding, meaning they don’t offhandedly dismiss everything that happened over two years ago. It’s not perfect by any means though, but surely acceptable for a daily dose of skateboarding on your TV. Of course, these are probably the “good old days” of Fuel TV, akin to when MTV started and used to actually play music videos. In five years Fuel TV could end up being a hugely popular channel full…

Here’s a still from the music video for the 2003 track Heartbeats from the Swedish band The Knife. It’s got some vintage skateboarding footage, about 15 seconds or so looped repeatedly. Those kids in the striped shirts look kind of cool going downhill together. I thought they might be up to some editing trickery at first. [Source: Drawer B]

Kickbacks? That’s the only thing I can think of that would convince a physical education program to buy Waveboards for PE classes. Let me try a different approach: In my day we had to push uphill five miles on a dirt road to get to the waveboard track and the U-shaped slide. Kids these days are spoiled in their PE classes with alternative sports. Not working for you? OK. Seen above, Angela’s friends stage an intervention and try to divert her from her quest to run off and join a very low paying circus for social outcasts. I’m not sure if these are better than the flat boards with caster wheels that they use for crab races on rainy days. Where did I get these pictures? Why, from the Ledger’s article titled Physical Education Rides the Wave Of New Recreational Technologies. Jealous? You can even buy print copies for yourself!

Tony Hawk’s Big Spin has been open for a while now. It’s got to be surreal having your own amusement park ride. There’s no Michael Jordan’s Big Dunk ride out there, but you would think he would have been able to sign the contract if he wanted. Here’s two YouTube videos with two different takes on the ride. One is a guy who obsesses on amusement park rides and the other is a couple of snotty kids who just like to hear themselves say “I hate Tony Hawk.” Check ’em both out after the jump. – Thanks to Tito for the tip.

Whatever your stance on Nike’s presence in the skateboarding industry, you’ve got to hand it to them for the commercials they made and actually aired on broadcast TV the first time around. They are great from a skating and an advertising perspective. I’ve been trying to get ahold of these and post them, but someone else has already done all the work, so why reinvent the wheel? My personal favorite is the running one because it brings back the times when people literally thought you were a freak if you were over 12 and still skateboarding on a public sidewalk. Of course now you’re a freak if you are over 30 and the hassle often comes the skaters instead of the non-skating public. So you can still be a rebel and participate in one of the world’s most popular sports. [Source: Transworld beat me to it.]

Mad Magazine is too highbrow for little kids, so they rolled out Mad Kids for the youngsters. I checked out the PDF preview, figuring it would be all Spongebob-y, and it is, but the cartoon ladies that Don Martin draws still have impossibly large gravity defying breasts. Tony Hawk is on the cover #9, where they gave him the Photoshop bug-out treatment. What is that move anyway? He’s also got an interview inside. OK maybe he’s not mad at kids, but mad for the kids! (And not in a creepy NAMBLA way…) – Thanks to Danimal for the tip.

Stop the presses! The days of slipping, banana peel-style off the top of your deck are over. Ferrari has made an important advance in friction technology. Apparently, the grip tape on this Ferrari branded skateboard is also coated with some sort of magical anti-slip material, which would make it even gripier than regular old grip tape. I hope they didn’t use spray-tack on griptape, otherwise my patent dreams are over. The Ferrari skateboard features a seven-layer Canadian maple board and stretches 79 cm by 20 cm. The Grip Tape on the upper surface (with Ferrari logo) is coated in an anti-slip material to improve grip. A stunning Ferrari red finish, the Italian tricolour and the Prancing Horse logo adorn the underside. The skateboard also has black 54 x 36 mm polyurethane wheels custom moulded with a red stripe. The Ferrari skateboard comes in a stylish red nylon carry bag too. Ferrari has been slapping their logo and PMS color matched red paint on host of mediocre non-automotive devices such as laptop computers for several years now. Further diluting the brand name with a mediocre skateboard must have seemed like a good idea to them as well. Who makes those trucks…

Yes folks, it’s the same people that bring you modern day cannibals, a woman who had 69 babies and the 200 pound tumor. The 9th wonder of the world appears to be something known as the “Urban Jib Park.” Witness the wonder and the horror of The Ripley’s Urban Rail Park – an urban rider’s dream, according to the folks at Polson Pier in Toronto, where it is located. Although open since December 21st, pictures of the actual park appear to be as rare as ostrich-footed Africans. Apparently, they built some rails at the bottom of a pile of snow for the snowboarders and put up a big heated tent with some ramps for the skaters. Things must be bleak in Toronto, because you can even buy a season pass for all this awesomeness: 20ft wide 4 foot mini-ramp 4 stair with hand rail 60 ft wide bank with grind box at the top 5 ft ¼ pipe 6 ft ¼ pipe Fun box with rail They will have unspecified rock concerts, pro demos and contests. I predict that this park sucks – BELIEVE IT OR NOT!! [Source: PR-Inside]

Yes, this is old news, thank you. Because the media portrayal of skateboarding it’s not enough of a zoo already, pro (?) skateboarder Chad Knight is supposed to be appearing on the January 6th premier of the revamped version American Gladiators on NBC. I have that question mark in there because I don’t know anything about Chad. His official web site is blocked by the content filter where I work (?! – Hey, I’m on my break!) but according to this outdated (and not dated) interview with Chad in Skateboarder, Chad turned pro in 1997 an had a model on the now defunct INC. skateboards brand by Syndrome. Currently he’s on 1031, which is ether a shop or a clothing line or who knows what since the mailing address is in California but you have to buy everything from Beer City in Milwaukee. Kristian Svitak seems to be the main perpetrator. Hell, I don’t know. Wow, it’s hosted by Laila Ali and Hulk Hogan. Why isn’t Mike V. on this? [Source: BuddyTV]