Outside Magazine? At first I thought this was going to be some real news, Tony Hawk coming out of the closet as the first highly successful openly gay skateboarder would certainly be news. Yeah I know there are other openly gay skateboarders out there, but nobody at Tony’s level. Turns out I was thinking of Out Magazine. Outside Online has an interview with both Tony Hawk and Shaun White, comparing career moves and their relationship as mentor and.. mentee? Err.. One of the best quotes:

HAWK: Someone came to me once and wanted to do a signature Hawk cologne. I was like, “Of what? Sweaty pads? Am I wringing out my pads into a little perfume bottle?”
WHITE: I’ve been sent like 20 movie scripts. And the first lines are always “What up, brah?” Nope, nope, nope.

It’s a good interview that shows a bit of the human side of these two larger than life personalities. At four pages long, this interview is still way too short. I wish they had made a longer version available instead of just mirroring the print edition, which is what I’m assuming they did. we like to poke fun of some of (well most, actually) Tony’s marketing decisions here on SnA, but it’s pretty good natured. He does give an awful lot of time and money towards building new skateparks, and you can’t fault that. read the interview here. Thanks to SnA commenter Mac for the tip off.

Source: Asscciated Press

(07-03) 08:48 PDT LITTLE ROCK, (AP) —
A police officer who appeared to choke a skateboarder and put two others in a headlock in a video posted online used appropriate force when making his arrests, an internal police investigation found.

The Hot Springs Police Department Internal Affairs Board found the use of force was within the police department’s policy on non-deadly force and recommended “no changes to this policy.” The decision was released Monday.

Officer Joey Williams confronted a situation that “would have overwhelmed any single officer” when he stopped those breaking a Hot Springs city ordinance by skateboarding on a downtown sidewalk June 21, the report said.

However, Williams was faulted for leaving a handcuffed suspect unattended while chasing another youth in the resort town’s historic Bathhouse Row.

Williams has been on administrative leave since the video hit YouTube on June 25. Police said he would return to active duty Thursday in the city’s downtown.

“I think it was fair,” City Manager Kent Myers said. Witnesses “consistently supported the actions of the officer and his efforts to control the situation.”

Video from a business’ security cameras shows 10 skateboarders rolling down the city sidewalk at a good clip, followed by Williams, who sprints past the last skater.

A video taken by skateboarders and later posted on YouTube shows Williams on top of one of the skaters, apparently choking him. The video also showed Williams putting another two skateboarders in a headlock, and the officer can later be heard threatening to use pepper spray on a skateboarder lying on the ground.

Police said they arrested Matthew Jon McCormack, 21, and Skylar Nalls, 19, both of Hot Springs, and four juveniles. McCormack faces a misdemeanor battery charge accusing him of pushing or striking a 67-year-old city employee during the melee. Nalls was cited for skateboarding and faces misdemeanor charges of fleeing and obstructing governmental operations.

McCormack has previously disputed many of the police allegations, especially his battery charge. He has said he pulled on the city employee’s arm after the man lifted a girl off her feet in a choke-hold.

Hot Springs is a resort town about 50 miles west of Little Rock.

The Simpsons Movie is having a so-called contest to see which city named Springfield gets to host the premier of the movie. I say “so-called” because it’s pretty obvious that Springfield Oregon is the inspiration for the city, given that Groening used to live in Oregon and lot of the character names can be found on the street signs of Portland predating the show. The contests involves each city making a video plea for their case. Why do we care? Because tony Hawk makes an appearance in Springfield Oregon’s video. [Source: Oregon Live]

Not much to say about this 1981 clip of Tony Hawk on the old children’s show Captain Kangaroo. I didn’t know the Captain was still on the air in 1981. It’s a little disappointing actually, since Tony’s appearance isn’t live on set with the Captain. Instead, it’s just video footage of tony skating Del Mar on a Steve Caballero board no less. The Captain’s crew even managed to record an old sea chanty titled Skateboard Johnny, not to be confused with the song Skateboard Johnny featured in this collection of 70’s skateboard tunes, or this UK child molester named Skateboard Johnny. Watch the video after the jump.

[Source: Wall of Gray]

This week Willamette Week recommends Pier Park as a good outdoor destination. They include a photo of Ben Wixon by Daniel Root.

Strange to see skateparks in the listings of things to do in the newspaper.

Skate Daily has posted some disturbing news, on 6/21 6 skaters crossed the path of Officer Joey Williams, a mistake. Joey took it upon himself to choke out a 16 year old skateboarder and in doing so, was filmed. Thanks to Youtube, the entire world can now see what happened on the streets of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

After you watch this disturbing video – please email a civil statement to the Cheif of Police Bobby Southard (bsouthard@cityhs.net) demanding the firing of officer Joey Williams.

MORE UPDATES: EMAILS FOR CITY COUNCIL NOW POSTED

‘pege1947@aol.com’; ‘direlainejon1@sbcglobal.net’; ‘srsmith12003@yahoo.com’; ‘sable@hsnp.com’; ‘td7965@aol.com’

UPDATE: emails no longer work, please use this contact information to get your message accross: Phone: (501) 321-6789 Fax: (501) 321-6708

This is unacceptable behavior by anyone wearing a badge.

UPDATE: Officer on leave after tussle with Hot Springs skateboarders!

[Photo: Skylar Nalls]

Back in January, Local IQ: Albuquerque’s Intelligent Alternative included an article about their new skatepark. The article Skate City is available on their website and includes a feature about and photos by Mörizen Föche formerly of Thrasher Magazine. Looks like a cool setting if the pictures are to be believed, they did a good job referencing the local architectural and skate heritage. Too bad they obscured the photos with their fancy graphic designs.

I get bombarded with press releases about the Dew Tour that I usually ignore. Thanks to Edison Carter of the now defunct (?) Flakezine for wrapping this up succinctly. Now if I could just get more people to do all my writing I’d be set.

In the Mike Judge film Idiocracy an army librarian is accidently frozen for 500 years. When he finally makes it out of his pod he is in America in the year 2505. Everything has devolved. Stupid people have reproduced, while smart people haven’t. Everything is jacked up and dumbed down. People wear clothing covered in corporate logos, and mention their sponsors in everyday conversation like they’re on the podium at a Supercross race.

While watching this film and cruising the web I noticed that Ryan Sheckler had just won the first stop of AST Dew Tour, the Panasonic Open. And look at that logo’d out shirt. It’s exactly like the one retarded lawyer Frito wears in Idiocracy. Skateboarding: living in an idiotic action future now.

The Examiner reports: “Skating a worldwide phenomenon.” Please click through for a thoughtful analysis of this late breaking news item.

So this post contains a YouTube video made from television broadcasts showing YouTube videos. Now if we could just get a video of this post broadcast on TV and re-recorded and posted on YouTube… The first bit is an Apple iPhone commercial and the second is Steven Colbert on The Colbert Report, both showcasing the skateboarding bulldog. Watch the vid after the jump.