I expected this to be another article on old skateboarders, but the print issue of the June 2019 issue of ESPN Magazine instead features a brief excerpt of photographers David Burnett’s exhibit titled Fourth Quarter: Senior Athletes and Their Indomitable Spirit, currently showing at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Fl. That’s an old friend of the site Judy Oyama in the two page spread there, probably wishing they’s actually shown her skateboarding. The web site article has some, well… gnarly looking senior athletes. The hockey team is my favorite. There’s also can alleged photo of Mark Lake in there too. I say “alleged” because the caption reads “Skateboarding legend Mark Lake, 61, began his pro career at 19. Here, he takes one of his patented “Nightmare” boards for a spin at the Ramp48 Skateboard Park…” but the photograph is a guy on rollerblades. I don’t know if that’s Mark on roller blades or not. I couldn’t have picked him out of a lineup in the 80’s let alone today. While opinions on the Nightmare remain mixed, we can all agree it doesn’t look like a pair of inline skates.

This is the cover of Elle Zen from the Spring 2018 issue. I couldn’t find any more photos from the cover session, but the web site had a couple “articles” including one that translates to “3 good reasons to go skateboarding.” From the picture I assumed at least one of them was going to be fashion accessory or dating related… but they’re all very good reasons: To feel good about yourself. To be fit. To have fun. They also have another article titled Mettez-vous au longboard! Although article is actually about surfing, it is inexplicably illustrated with a woman posing on a skateboard.

NBC Sports reports “The Russian Anti-Doping Agency says Maxim Kruglov, known as “Mad Maxim,” was punished under a rule against athletes who evade or refuse giving a drug-test sample.” So yes, a top Russian skateboarder was hit with doping ban. Is he a top Russian skateboarder? Where are our Russian readers? (Not the ones trying to brute force their way into the back end of the site…) I don’t think the Olympics is the place for skateboarding. I don’t think skateboarding needs the Olympics. At most, a few winners might get their faces on a Wheaties box, and maybe a few “training facilities” get built. The biggest benefits are going to be for soft drinks and soft goods manufacturers. I also don’t think the Olympics are going to somehow ruin skateboarding. Keep skateboarding for the core skaters? That ship has sailed. Hey kids, if you want to skateboard in the Olympics, follow their rules. No collusion.

Honda is airing a commercial for the Civic Sport that features a bunch of, you know, sporty actions like BMX, tightrope walking and skateboarding on giant obstacles that spell out the word “Civic” in the middle of the desert. It’s actually very visually pleasing. Hard to tell wether they actually built all those mirrored obstacles and carted them out there, or whether there’s a ton of computer rendering involved, but it looks great. It has a vaguely 80’s vibe too. If you know who the “trained professional” is, please leave it in the comments.

Random, unbranded kid’s cup from a restaurant in a mall in Florida. Looks like he’s hanging loose while doing a finger flip, and has a giant baseball sticker on the tail. Makes sense. Oh wait, there’s a tennis ball on his show too. The text probably says “Can you find ___ balls on this cup?” So it actually does make sense.

Sketchers have announced their first pro model skateboard shoe…

I don’t know if Portland Thorns midfielder Tobin Heath is actually a skateboarder or not. These illustrations come from a collaboration with Dark Horse comics and the Thorns front office designed to sell some t-shirts, scarves, and patches. I suspect it was just an easy way for Dark Horse to conjure a loose (or lazy) association with the Silver Surfer in The illusions and energy manipulation of Tobin. I do know that Tobin has mad soccer skills, and plays for the best women’s team in the world. Both of them, actually. Women’s World Cup is coming this summer.

These are stills from a Sweetarts commercial featuring the the old archetype of the skateboarding ballerina, right? The simple message is “Grace & Grit. Sweet & Tart. Be both.” The ballerina in question appears to be doing her own stunts, and I should be able to recognize who she is, but I’m an old sexist bastard, so I don’t. Or just possibly, I don’t actually follow professional skateboarding anymore, at least not the skateboarding part of it. Oh I make sense….

Steve Caballero is appearing in Kawasaki ads for the “Good Times” sales event. Makes sense, as he sort of concentrated more on motocross riding at the expense of skateboarding for a while sometime after the new millennium. I can’t recall if he had a factory sponsorship with Kawasaki or not, but he did turn up here in the Pacific Northwest, Hood River area, talking with the locals about his love of motocross and the fact that he wasn’t skating much. The best part of this commercial is the legal disclaimer shown while Cab ollies out of the transition over a motorcycle. “SKATE LEGENDS ONLY,   DO NOT ATTEMPT.” If you can ID the skatepark, please do so in the comments. Why don’t they license “Let the Good times Roll” from the Cars? Should I have titled this post “Cabasaki?” Curse you SEO best practices for foiling my dad joke.

There was a time, oh, say anything before the year 2000 when this would have seemed inconceivable.  Cross marketing between a mainstream commercial brand and a core skateboarding brand? Not a big deal anymore. No, I don’t know how a “Zine Rolltop Lunch Bag” differs from a regular rollmop lunch bag. It must be more hardcore. Check out the Igloo x Independent Collection. I think the “X” is for eXtreme!