Bryce Kanights on Halloween as Steve Zissou from the Life Aquatic, and “Splinter the oceanographer” from Tech Deck Dudes. Bryce photo courtesy of EPM’s Halloween 2009 gallery.

The crack of 2010, and lo and behold, old dudes in St Louis like to skateboard. That’s crazy talk, I can’t believe it. In the words of MC, “Old guys skateboarding? Well, now I’ve heard everything.” Check out Recapturing thrills, spills from St. Louis Today. Still awake? head on over to An Ethnographic Study of the Skateboarding Culture, which is where the title of this post came from. Unbelievably, the data for this scholarly paper was obtained by watching the DVD Planes, Trains and Skateboards, focusing on X Games X in Los Angeles, CA. Are you kidding me? A scientific analysis based on on someone’s video editing bias? I mean, why not choose the movie Thrashin’ instead? Seems just about as valid.

– Thanks to Bob Mechtly and Daddy Yo for the tips.

There’s a bunch of guys traveling across different countries on skateboards. Guiness World records for distance must be falling faster than world’s biggest skateboard records. The only reason I’m bringing up Rob Thomson from New Zealand so I can lament over the fact that Flight of the Conchords is not returning for another season. Well that, and the fact that Thomson uses a trailer on his longboard. For some reason, he’s got like five web sites. Follow his exploits on Skatefurther.net as well as 14 degrees off the beaten track. I guess that’s only two web sites. Get the long winded explanation of the trailer on his YouTube channel.

From Skaters for Eugene Skateparks:

Here it is amigos. With your input, Dreamland has narrowed the field to one design. HOWEVER, this is not the final word. It is time to tell them what you think. Join us at the next public design forum presentation next Wednesday, January 13t at 6:00 p.m. at the Library.

Check out the design renderings and video fly throughs at SkateEugene.org.

– Thanks to Chad and Sarib for the tip.

I’ve been collecting (pictures of) boards with beer graphics on them for a future gallery. I just found two boards from Deathwish that have taken logo appropriations a step further by actually making the boards in the shape of a bottle and a can. It was annoying trying to track these down. I didn’t follow the saga of Baker skateboards, never really been a fan of their gestalt, and so I was confused by the whole Baker/Deathwish entanglement. Thank god for Wikipedia. Extra points to Deathwish on the beer-colored wheels. That’s a nice touch. Points deducted for screwing with the proportions of the tall boy can. It looks more like Red Bull.

I forgot this one when I made the Wheel Packaging post the other day. It’s Banzai Products wheels. The corresponding check boxes are all blank, so it’s impossible to tell which ones these are. It’s curious that Banzai Products repackaged another companies trucks (ACS) and sold them. ACS stands for American Cycle Systems, by the way, and were still seen advertised in the early issues of Thrasher, if my memory serves correctly. Getting back to it, these NOS Banzai wheels sold for $47 on eBay. Banzai also made a wicked aluminum board too. It’s funny how in the U.S., anything Japanese was considered exotic in the 30’s, evil in the 40’s, cheap and crappy in the 50’s and 60’s, and then Radical in the 70’s and 80’s.

Skateboarding is an inherently risky activity. Make no mistake about it. The more you skate, the greater your chances of eventually getting injured. What I can do without is the added risk involved when a facility that you pay to skate in does not sweep frequently enough, especially in the case of a wooden bowl. I know what you’re going to say, plenty of other people skate there without managing to blame their mishaps on dusty conditions. Truth is, I saw three different people eat it that night in the back bowl due to slippery masonite, but none of them were seriously injured. Fact of the matter is, my injury was 100% preventable. Believe me, I eat it all the time there without complaint, but this particular injury was caused by a dusty bowl. Maintenance will likely say “But we clean and sweep the bowl X times a month/week,” to which I reply “Not good enough. You need to increase the frequency.” Rant over. What’s the prognosis? No torn tendons or ligaments thankfully, just a lot of inflammation, fluid and a nasty contusion. Yes, I had knee pads on, thankfully, as I haven’t been wearing them there lately. 187’s with the heavy duty cap, but it felt like I was wearing socks wrapped around my knee. I used to swear by these pads, but last night I was swearing at them.

Taqwacore is both a fictional book described as “Catcher in the Rye” for young Muslims and a documentary film on the birth of Punk Islam. The trailer, press and web site weren’t as interesting as I had hoped. It’s all a little too slick and calculated, almost as if it’s being done because it’s such an obvious dichotomy, the purporters knew it would generate interest. I’m still interested in seeing the film, although I distrust anything to do with organized religion and gung-ho adoption of popular culture. And speaking of… I’ve also got some year old video of skateboarding inside the Catholic school system. The real story isn’t the skateboard that was designed and given to the Pope, instead it’s Father Peter Pomposello dragging his knuckle on the gym floor at St. Elizabeth’s in Washington Heights, NYC.

– Thanks to Tito and Sarib Khalsa for the tips.