If you’ve ever said to yourself “I wonder what Steve Caballero is up to,” wonder no more. Just go check out his blog Have you seen him? The “him” isn’t capitalized, so I assume it’s a reference to Animal Chin and not the Him. The first real skateboard I ever had was a Steve Caballero dragon on the bearing pig. I also saw The Faction play a show in a garage in suburban Illinois. There was a small half pipe in an adjacent field. Most people were there for the punk rock, but there were some skaters as well. Caballero was very accommodating and encouraging to those who weren’t in his league. It was amazing seeing him at a crappy little ramp in the Midwest. I don’t remember much from that day and I think he only took a handful of runs, but I have a recollection of looking up at him on the deck and thinking what a nice guy he was. He was one of the biggest names in skateboarding at that time, and he showed up with no attitude or sense of entitlement whatsoever. It was like anyone else dropping by for a session, except, well, he was massively better. Have you seen him?

– Thanks to Bryce for the tip.

I heard the President of my country on the radio lying this morning. He must have been lying because he was talking. Anyway, mentioned something about the recent escalation in violence in Iraq, which is a great excuse to post this retread of a retread story about skateboarding during the time of operation Desert Storm. The story has resurfaced on a sketchy website called Skateboarding Magazine. I say sketchy because it is brand new and is mostly populated with generic articles that seem like they are more designed to drive traffic for Google Ad Words than they are to actually express a point of view about something. Kind of like what you might hire a room full of monkeys for. Originally this story was associated with a web property called sk8shop.com, and was circulated in an email from Louie Bar. I got two of them back in ’03 and ’04. Right now sk8shop.com is dedicated to selling you photos of pro skaters taken at different public events. It’s Louie Baur’s story, so maybe he’s behind the Skateboarding Magazine. It’s titled “Skateboarding in Desert Storm” but that’s actually a little misleading since all the skateboarding action takes place in Turkey, well away from the front lines. In any case, it’s still interesting to anyone who remembers skating with guys in the military at that time. In central Illinois there was an Air Force base in Rantoul that was about a half hour away from where I was dropping out of school. We always got a few mostly cool skaters that would be session with us when they were able to get off the base. I was in touch with a guy who was skating in Iraq a few years ago. He was going to send some pictures in but never did. Maybe he didn’t like our political leanings. Then again, maybe he fell victim to an I.E.D.. Don’t forget to vote!

Sometimes when digging starts on a construction project, assorted archeological artifacts are uncovered that demand shutting down the site while experts in academia and tribal leaders argue it out to determine the historical significance and rightful “owners” of human remains. Archeologists in Oregon recently puzzled over a ceremonial structure uncovered while expanding community services at a city with a rich variety of taxonomy in skatepark terrain. At issue is what sort of tribe would find it necessary to erect a parallel ritualistic structures when existing structures were already culturally advanced. There are some, however, that hypothesize this as a burial place for the last website editor who blew out a spot. Scientists at the EPM Institute have documented the excavation.

After a period of inactivity, followed by a period of me failing to check in, it looks like the official archive of RAD Magazine (see our stickers) is very much alive. I reference Britain’s defunct Read and Destroy every so often here, and for those who have no idea what I’m talking about, or for those that do, you should investigate When We Was Rad. Aside from the colloquial coverage of the UK scene, there’s always a bit of U.S. based interference as well. You know how fond we are of sending advisors and spreading democracy… Above left is Steve Caballero skating South Bank on the cover of the September 1988 issue. On the right is a page featuring Winstan Whitter in 1991. Winstan later direct the U.K.’s answer to the Dogtown documentary, Rollin Through the Decades (reviewed here) which was in many ways superior.

Tim Leighton-Boyce was the editor of RAD, and is naturally the person behind When We Was Rad as well. He’s putting up one page scans at a time, accompanied by any related recollections he had, and sometimes transcripts of the text. RAD existed from 1987 to 1993, so he’s go t his work cut out for him. Do a little encouraging by visiting When We Was Rad.

This week’s Shot of the Week is from Michael Goetz at The Skateboard Archives. It features Andy Adams, a Toast rider, on the Burnside bridge in Portland Oregon. You’ve heard of Burnside, right? This concludes our street coverage for 2008. Just kidding. In the full size version I swear you can see Ziggy Stardust hanging out in front of the building in the background.

Check out: Shot of the Week 3-24-08

A VH1 blog for the show Best Week Ever has a list of the top 10 professions that are one death away from extinction. Meaning if the most famous guy dies, nobody will take his place. Coming in at number one, Skateboarding and Tony Hawk. They are actually aware of other pro skaters, but their rationale is that… who cares. But, maybe they are on to something. Perhaps the almost dead profession should have been Vert Skater since I keep getting tips relating to vert skating and BMX being dropped from the X games. Also being dropped? the VH1 show Best Week Ever, unless they get picked up by ESPN.

The rumors are flying, and the official word is that “changes are coming.” I doubt the loss of vert in the X-Games mean much of anything to skateboarders, besides the ones competing. It might have more of an impact on Madison Avenue than anywhere else. Commercials and cartoons will have lost their point of reference for portraying skateboarding.

– Thanks to Concretins for the first tip.

Among this weeks iStockPhoto’s “Hot Shots” is a photo imaginatively titled “Skateboarder flying through the air,” available here.

Ha! Made you look! So, save your “Don’t do it” speeches. If you are going to geek out over shoes and skateboard toys, this Reese Forbes Nike SB figure would be your wet dream. He came with extra shoes and shoe boxes. I guess these are hard to come by. I don’t know when they were released, but there’s a set of two on eBay going for $195. That’s a lot of cash for a an upscale Tech Deck Dude. Archived for posterity after the jump.

[ Source: Skateboarding Fashion Right images: Sneaker News ]

He’s not included on this poll of favorite heartthrob skaters from madmoiselle at Team Sugar. Who is this (platinum) user Madmoiselle? She’s got almost 8,000 sugar points, so she must be able to buy a lot of virtual gifts. (This one is for landpiratemafia! Meme! Meme! Meme! Meme! Meme! Hawt!) Oh yeah, I need to mention Tony Hawk so I can add this post to the category.