I was in a pub ordering a cider a couple of months ago and looked up at the TV and saw what appeared to be a Jeep commercial with Mike Vallely. The sound was turned off but I seem to remember Mike sitting in a drainage ditch (LA River scale) and a graphic that said “Mike V on skateboarding” or something like that. I haven’t seen it since, but I did find a web site called Sportskool.com that is essentially trick tips for all kinds of sports, most of them no-so-Extreme. Mike V. is the go-to guy for skateboarding, and Jeep Patriot is the sponsor. At one time this would have struck me as odd. Maybe Jeep is trying to capture the Mike V and the Rats demographic.

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article on Zach Wormhoudt of Wormhoudt Inc. titled Chairman of the Board. Get it? “Board” as in “skateboard.” Ah ha ha ha! Get it? Get it? Oh stop, you’re killing me. Oh wait, you don’t get it? Wormhoudt’s father built Santa Cruz’ infamous Derby Park which is the world’s oldest surviving skatepark. Everyone is a critic, as evidenced by this quote from the article: “I have nonskater friends who say, ‘You have the greatest job in the world!’ My friends who are skaters say, “I don’t envy you.’ ” It’s a decent article. Check it out. Update: Links fixed. [Photos Top: Chronicle/Mike Crane and Mike Kane, Bottom: Wormhoudt Inc.]

Unfortunately, she’s carrying a Razor scooter for her son. Maybe that’s why it didn’t work out with Kid Rock. [Source: In Case You Didn’t Know]

This is golden. 80’s era footage of a skate park called Ramp City on a “Good Morning America” type show localized in Cleveland. Gary Lumpkin is the man on the scene. Lord. God. King. The banter between the hosts (not to mention the accents) and low key nature of this program has the Midwest stamped all over it. The skaters are good and the reporter is a good natured goof who really does his best, unlike some. Hear terms like hodad and youngster bandied about. Listen to the hosts go from genuinely concerned for the safety of the Lumpkin to Jackass-type encouragement in one sentence. Also, check out the incredibly corny (even for that time) canned background music during the second half of the location shoot. It’s almost a riff of a Keystone Cops movie. Highly recommended, it comes from a BMX site actually. The owner was a 16 year old BMX guy, although they conspicuously don’t explain where he got the money to open the place. I almost forgot the best part. Gary calls the ramp a half-tube.

A party bag decorated with some sort of anthropomorphous sponge character. They got his back foot in the right place but went ahead and drew him stinkbug.

This quick wall in the street area at Glenhaven remided me of some photos of Glen Woodruff from the first issue of Skateboarder when they revived it in the seventies (Vol. 2 No. 1).

Ben Pappas – who used to earn $15,000 a month as a teenage skate star in the US – was dragged from the water by police divers off Victoria Pier at Docklands. Homicide detectives had been looking for Pappas, 29, since the body of his former girlfriend, Lynette Phillips, was found at Dights Falls in Abbotsford eight days earlier. [Source: Herald Sun, Australia] Update: Link fixed, plus more links after the jump.

Seen on the streets of Portland, Oregon. Bucky Lasek I think. Hey if they’re giving money away…

Portland Police are upset that a skateboard shop also sells (expensive) spray paint, as they see skateboarding and graffiti culture intertwined. The cops say The Office is tacitly encouraging graffiti by selling the spray paint. The Office says their paint is expensive and therefore typically used by commissioned artists rather than your garden variety high school delinquent. I hate taggers and I hate graffiti, but I like stencil art. Normally I wouldn’t bother to report on this but I thought The Office’s manager, Kevin Nimick, made a good point: “I don’t want to go head to head with the police,” says Nimick. “But they’re just trying to have a place to direct blame for Portland’s graffiti. Why not ban the sale of handguns, if they’re worried about people getting shot?” More skateboards and spray paint after the jump. [Source: Portland Mercury]

Taylor, with his short haircut and businesslike demeanor, doesn’t fit the profile of the average skateboarder, who’s often a teenager with stylishly long hair and a devil-may-care attitude. Taylor’s more the Tony Hawk type, a guy in his 30s who can make money doing what he loves. He doesn’t fit the stereotype, but they still used This dude’s rad boards ‘feel right’ as the headline for an article about Drifter Skateboards, a small D.I.Y. skateboard manufacturer. Hmm… sounds familiar. Other than that, this article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution is OK, just brief. Hold on… of all the interesting parts of the process involved, they chose a picture of owner Ryan Taylor shrink wrapping an unidentified object. Someone fire that photo editor. Those graphics remind me of a certain Blockhead era. Update: Drifter web site.