Most of us in the Northwest are partial to a particular brand of coping, but if you live at the opposite end of the country or are self-motivated you can always hand pour your own. Tim Kulas appears to have the continuous pour method wired. He’s got a video up as well as a series of pictures. Right now the pics are at the top of the blog, but Blogger’s interface kind of sucks as far as providing links and reading, so if you are reading this post after he’s made a bunch of updates you’ll need to navigate back to the month of November, 2008.

October 2008. The economy is totally in the toilet. The stock market is plummeting by triple figures daily, people are being laid off, and stores are closing. Folks just don’t have the discretionary income that they had even a few months ago, and this is evident on eBay. I’ve never seen a month like this. I was hard pressed to find 40 decks to put on here because so many decks didn’t meet their reserve or had zero bids. Sellers, if you want to sell in this Market you’re going to have to lower your prices, be realistic or you’ll end up paying eBay fees for nothing. Buyers with a few hundred dollars in their pocket are suddenly able to afford decks that were totally out of their price range just 60 days ago. It’s a crazy time. Buckle up because October was a bumpy trip.

Check out eBay Watch: October 2008

Do you remember the pool that Mark and I caught a lot of flack for riding repeatedly? I had to laugh when I saw a full page shot of Al Partanen in the latest Concussion – #39: The Photo Issue. Apparently Davoud and photog BK didn’t get the memo about that place not being cool. I wonder if Al is pissed? The Skateboarding media conspiracy is out to fool everyone. Just think of how many potential “uncool spots” you’ve been tricked into thinking people actually enjoyed. I included a few shots from one of the sessions we had there after the jump.

Sneaker Freaker has a few skateboard shoe features that have some great paraphernalia shots aside from just the skate shoes. Part one is with Tony Hallam who was a pro skater from New Zealand in the late 70’s and early 80’s and reportedly has one of the best skateboarding collections in the world. I made a note to highlight his website before, but it seems to be in a state of disarray right now. Here’s the link for when he gets it fully functional again. There’s some shorter interviews with the likes of Bruce Walker, Stacy Peralta and others hidden towards the end.

The new Grindline park in Yakima Washington looks good. Lots of pool coping on the bowls a large size street area that looks like a departure from your typical Northwest-style street area. Check out the picks on the Grindline site.

[Source: Earth Patrol Media]

It’s impossible for me to read read or type the words “Sick Boys” without instantly thinking of the Social Distortion tune. I’ve never actually seen the skate video titled “Sick Boys” but it was released in 1988, two years before the Social D. song was released, so who knows. The video Sick Boys was shot on Super 8mm film and released on VHS, and 20 years later it’s being rereleased on DVD. Watching the sequences of Natas will immediately bring to mind his Santa Cruz appearances, mostly because it’s at some of the same spots and the film quality is similar. There’s also that weird genre of Norcal acid rock music that you only hear in early Santa Cruz videos. It also features Tommy Guerrero, Mickey Reyes, Bryce Kanights, Mike Archimedes, Julien Stranger, Jim Thiebaud, Ron Allen, and Steve Caballero as well as shots of Christian Hosoi, Tony Magnusson, Eric Dressen, Danny Sargent, as well as other less famous names. It’s sounds like the skate video equivalent of unearthing King Tut’s tomb. That’s something I’d want to check into, or at the very least have sent to me for review. Opps. Did I say that out loud? It appears to be mostly street with a dash of vert. Every time I watch street skating form the late 80’s I’m reminded of how much fun it is.

You can watch the trailers after the jump plus a bonus video of Social Distortion playing Sick Boys live on a trailer at Cal State in 1990. And of course, check out the Sick Boys web site.

What can you do with under $1000, some patience, and a whole lot of salvaged wood? Tim Kulas’ old bowl is long gone, but his new project is going strong under the name of the Pumpkin Bowl. When finished, it will have over 80 feet of continuous hand-poured coping. Check it out at Bowl Surgeon. Did you know that Tim is the sole pro for Beer City Skateboards? [Photos: Bennystee and Kulas]

As part of Portland’s 19 skatepark master plan, the Steel Bridge site was chosen for the main Regional Facility, or essentially, the destination park. The official Parks & Rec definition:

Regional Skatepark: A regional facility will be a single large facility (>40,000 square feet) that will accommodate many users at once. It could be lighted and possibly serve as a venue for competitions. This type of facility will not be located in residential areas.

Steel Bridge is supposed to be our Louisville, in terms of square footage and drawing power. Our landmark skatepark, not that anything could replace Burnside in the skateboarding public’s eyes. The City of Portland has started accepting proposals – the RFP is posted. You need to be a registered vendor to view the related documents. The list of registered vendors (as far as skatepark building companies is concerned) appears to only contain Dreamland, New Line and surprisingly, Wally Hollyday Design. (UPDATE: Found another – Artifex.) The rest of you need to get your paperwork in order because the bid closes on january 9th of 2009. Also confusing, there’s an item marked Estimate:$50,000.00, which isn’t going to buy much. Perhaps Mr. Miller will enlighten us. Flame on!

– Thanks to Matt Redhead for the tip. [Bridge Photo: Wikipedia]

P.S. Where is the money going to come from?

This shot breaks a cardinal rule for skate photos, but the outstretched hand in combination with the butt shot makes it interesting to me. This is Omar Hassan at the Rumble in Ramona, Creature’s invite only vert ramp contest held the 17th and 18th of October. You’re seeing it here because Davoud from Concussion shot it, and he’s got more cardinal rules than I do. I thinkthis breaks three of his, Butt shot, fisheye lens and pads. Who knows, he may even be wearing a helmet. You can check out this week’s Shot of the Week or watch some video from the event after the jump, courtesy of Transworld. It’s set to auto play, so mute your speaker before you jump if you need to.

Whenever Jyme (Jymie?) George used to come in to travel with the Surf Ohio crew, he always had stacks of stickers and t-shirts to give away, printed by the guys at Graphics Lab, who were just starting out at the time. Jyme let me enter the first big amateur contest in Dayton even though I didn’t have a sponsor, under the condition that I had better not embarrass him. I actually made the first cut, but I basically blew my wad and didn’t have anything else left to show. Lacking any reserves in my bag of tricks, I decided to repeat my first run on a plastic toy skateboard. Needless to say, I didn’t advance again. I must have accumulated 5-10 different Surf Ohio shirts in a few short years. Instead of hoarding them all, I only hoarded half of them, and gave the rest away to a bunch of friends.