Category Archive: Media Watch
Burnquist
sideshowskateboarder wants to share a video with you. Well, they wanted to share a video with me and I want to share it with you. A bunch of crazy Bob Burnquist footage. Including the above – which I’m guessing is that giant Shanghai park with the pipe into the pipe thing. I hadn’t realized it was so big. I’m all impressed that Bob is going over it and then I see he’s nose grinding.
Projected skateboarders don’t cause bomb scare.
Sure, some guerilla marketing tactics can get you into trouble. Others, not so much. Take this video footage of skateboarding being projected on buildings from a moving van. It makes it look like a guy is skateboarding down the street or along the roof tops and ledges of second story buildings. This projection trick has been done before on subway trains, but for art, not money. The skateboard projection is for a gum called Sportlife, Holland’s equivalent of Gatorade Gum (yuck!), proving Americans aren’t the only ones trying to jump on the Extremeâ„¢ bandwagon. Catch the video and more after the jump. [Source: Ninjawax.com]
Pop Swatch – Welinder, Mullen, and Mountain
Get out your overpriced plastic watches and put on at least three of them RIGHT NOW!!! Swatch used to sponsor an extreme sports like tour before it was, you know, Extreme!â„¢ It was purely spectacle, no contest. There was BMX and roller skaters in addition to skateboards. Bands? Seems like it but I might be confusing it with one of the old Vision Street Wear tours. They also used Per Welinder, Rodney Mullen, and Lance Mountain in one of those in store promo videos. You might think it strange that I listed those Bones Brigaders in that order, but that’s representative of their respective footage totals. Apparently, someone at Swatch had a thing for Per. Mullens’ stuff is impossible, and Lance is barely in it. It’s three minutes and thirty seconds of pure 80’s synthesized drums and keyboard soundtrack. Odds are that Stacy Peralta was on the production team and Dennis Dragon did the soundtrack. Catch this video from 1987 after the jump.
Shy 12-year-old pupil with skateboard was pedophile aged 29
“He wore make-up and shaved body hair.” Yeah, Err.. uhm.. I went through a phase like that once too, but it was in order to pick up new wave chicks. Teachers said that he was an average pupil with a poor attendance record who sometimes handed in homework, while neighbours remember him building skateboard ramps and doing wheelies on his bike on the streets around his suburban home. Since we like to entertain and educate, did you know you could spell “pedophile” like “paedophile” as well? More skateboard crime after the jump.
The War on Blanks
We’ve weighed in on “The War on Blanks” before, but it keeps popping up, and looks like it’s going to be an industry focus in 2007. Personally, I can’t respect hypocrisy, which is what I see when a company says blanks are bad for the industry but Chinese manufacturing is good. It’s all about the profit margins. I think it’s a case where the industry has made it’s own bed and now doesn’t want to sleep in it. What I’d like to see is information on where these blanks coming from and how many different skateboard manufacturers actually exist. The quote coming from George’s mouth above is actually from Andrew Reynolds on the web site called “A World Without Pros.” More hypocrisy and links concerning the War on Blanks and the War on George Bush as expressed on skateboards after the jump.
Be nice to old people: Part 2 (Grandma disses street skaters!)
In an article titled Granny’s donation fuels funding for skate park, The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that Jean Berlin has donated $200,000 to an Englewood Florida skate park fundraising effort, helping to fulfill a long time dream she shared with her late husband. No only is she Oyster Creek Skate Park’s largest benefactor, she’s also topped the previous record private donation (that we know of), which was a mere $161,000 in stock. As well it should, the donation has made her a local celebrity with skaters, earning her a spot as a judge in a contest. She mentioned she wasn’t really qualified, but it didn’t matter since nobody landed on their feet anyway. Sounds like kickflip syndrome to me! She also stopped the contest to chastise an entrant for dropping the F-Bomb. Speaking of grandmothers, Have you seen the AARP commercial with a Buzzcocks soundtrack?
Publication #93
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission would like to offer you some advice in the form of Publication #93. Several factors, including risky stunts and irregular riding surfaces like steps, ramps and railings, are often involved in skateboarding related injuries. Skateboard riding requires good balance and body control, yet many young skateboarders have not developed the necessary balance and do not react quickly enough to prevent injury.
Aaron Fotheringham vs. Leeder O. Men
One of the stories being recycled on CNN (TV) today is footage of some guys at the winter X-Games doing back flips on Snowmobiles. Whatever. Get back to me when you do it in a pickup truck. In the mean time, in a case of life catching up to skateboarding, a 14 year old kid named Aaron Fotheringham has completed a backflip on his wheelchair. What do I mean by life catching up to skateboarding? I’m talking about the character known as Leeder O. Men from the 80’s skate zine known as Naughty Nomads. Although fictional, Leeder was the first guy to ride vert on a wheelchair. There have been admirable, but mostly tame videos on the web of guys in wheelchairs at skateparks. Aaron seems to be taking it to another level. A where-are-they-now for Leeder O. Men, Naughty Nomads and more on Aaron Fotheringham, including the video after the jump. [Source: News of Doom ]
Time to die…
Time Warner sold off 18 of it’s magazine titles, including the group that was responsible for Transworld Skateboarding. Swedish company The Bonnier Group was the winning bidder. Expect increased Per Welinder and Tony Magnuson coverage in the near future. Yes, this is going in my photoshop resume… Links to some actual legitimate news sources after the jump.











Recent Comments