This should really be part 1 I think. This is probably the first car as skateboard commercial I ever saw back in 2006, but I was unable to record it until now. This Jeep is so bad ass that it causes a ball of rolling jumk to follow until it spontaneously assembles into a robot and proceeds to ride the car like a skateboard. Automobile manufacturers are ever safety conscious, and so is the robot. He takes the time to rip a dome off the top of a nearby building to wear as a helmet. Quite frightening, actually. I wouldn’t want to have to worry about property damage suits everytime I drove my car. Watch the video and learn about the robot’s old schoool roots after the jump.

Brands that can’t be stopped. Apparently Debbie Does Dallas, “a well known 1978 porn franchise playing off the sexploitation of the Dallas Cowboys football team cheerleaders” has been remade several times. The title phrase is so catchy even people who have never seen the film know the title. Give me alliteration or give me death. Likewise Shepard Fairey’s iconic use of the word Obey and the Powell Peralta Ripper graphic by V. Courtlandt Johnson are part of the popular consciousness. Not sure what the picture on the right has to do with the movie. but there they were together on the internet with that coopted skateboarding t-shirt design.

There are lot’s of large skateboards, but only one title holder. Tod Swank has his work cut out for him running all that is Tumyeto without having to worry about people trying to take away his record for the world’s biggest skateboard. First there was that cheater (Update: Not a cheater) in Australia, Now there are a bunch of eggheads at Bay College who are building a 31 foot large skateboard as part of a project in a Computer Aided Design class. A student named Tim Timler (Seriously?) is the project lead. Tim, you suck. Tod didn’t need no stinking computers. The college president who is admittedly not a “balance person” is going to be one of the riders in the documentation attempt. Fantastic! [Source: Daily Press, Escanaba, MI]

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.