The Old Man Army crew decided to take off for a weekend to go down to San Diego to see what all of the hoopla was about at the ASR show. They wanted to meet in person a few of the people in the industry that they have dealings with. The only other thing on their agenda was to get a couple of pictures of the kooky skateboard gadgets for the Skate and Annoy. Check out: 2007 ASR with OMA

I thought we would get a lot more pictures from the Dunedin Florida skatepark opening, but so far all I have is a few from local Ed Womble, which includes a shot of Monty Nolder. You guys must have a poser’s scene down there, you don’t deserve a good skatepark! Haw haw! I kid! Check out the pictures after the jump.

I remember the first time I saw an ad for Bacon, it was a full page in Concussion I think. I did find their first graphic amusing. It was just the name spelled out in strips of bacon. However, my first reaction was “Here’s another upstart company with a stupid name that is going to blow through all their money in two years and then go out of business.” Boy was I wrong. Bacon is going strong, and getting stronger, and now I have to live and skate in the same town as that dick Colin who owns the company. Sometimes I even have to suffer the indignity of skating the same spots with him. Apparently, Oregon is some sort of hot spot for skateboarding right now, so he up and moved his company here. They are working on a new video (way to make sure you get your money’s worth from that flame stock footage!) and it looks like it going to be a killer. It’s great seeing some familiar faces destroying some familiar spots in ways you’ve never seen before. Check out the trailer on the Bacon site. You and your speed metal music can go suck an…

It’s amazing how unsophisticated skateboard graphics were in the early 80’s when companies first started to explore designs that were more than just a small logo on the bottom. Believe it or not, some people are going to be pissed off that I posted this picture of a rare old Neil Blender deck that is currently up for auction on eBay. They will say that we are somehow affecting the outcome of the final price, blah blah blah. I’m just using it as an excuse to embed a few Neil Blender videos from YouTube. Notice there is no link to the auction. I don’t want to encourage any (more) of the “Hey, check out my auction!” emails that we already get. After you are done watching these videos, head on over to Neil’s official web site The Heated Wheel.

Sean Cliver has a short interview over at Cool Hunting that is focused on his book Disposable. At the time he gave the interview he had no idea where and when it would show up. I’ve never really trolled Cool Hunting, but it seems like a site for people suffering from really short attention spans, the really lazy or terminally bored. It’s compilation of completely unrelated things that someone has determined “cool.” Disposable has been re-re-released on Ginko Press with minor cosmetic changes and factual corrections making it different from the last version published by Concrete Wave Editions. But of course, if you are a collector, you’ll need to get this one too. Cliver is working on a follow up to Disposable that he hopes will be released in Spring of 2008. Yes, much to my wife’s good humor, for the past 10 months I’ve been working on another follow-up book of sorts. This one will be more “collector” based, and my main intent is to showcase a big gallery of deck images from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and just a smattering of the 00s. I’ve pillaged/shot a number of heretofore unseen collections and archives, so I promise lots…

This Titan missile silo complex located one and a half hours west of Spokane Washington is for sale. $1.5 million dollars gets you 57 acres, three missile silos, thirteen other underground buildings and the most expensive street skating spot you can find. At least you won’t go to prison for barging it. Looks like a great spot for a photo shoot. [Source: Gizmodo]

K.D. Waltner was rolling some old-school custom quad rollerskates with wide trucks and sliding rails at Pier Park. He said he’d been out of it for ten years, but it seemed to come back pretty quickly. Must be like riding a bike. I think K.D. Waltner is German he’s working for one of the local shoemakers. You’ll probably see him around, he’s enjoying being back into it. Funny how rolling quads is okay when inline is not. The guy took his blades to Burnside and got heckled but went back with his roller skates and it was fine. Photo: Rich Burton

The easiest thing to try when “making your own” skateboard is to buy an uncut blank and cut out your own shape. That will usually suffice for most people. The next step requires building a mold and making a press. Instructables member Gregorylavoie has posted a pretty good in depth tutorial on how to make a skateboard mold and vacuum press. I’ve seen a various methods of DIY presses that don’t involve welding and hydraulics. Most of them involve clamps. The mold part is the most daunting of the two, and requires the most finesse. Professionally made molds are not just a top and a bottom cast together. That is to say, the top piece wouldn’t be a perfect fit to the bottom piece. Making the concave symmetrical along the vertical axis is a job best left for CNC machines or skilled shapers. Granted, for your own use you don’t have to be that picky. Using a vacuum press makes the job of the mold a lot easier, since you only have to make one side and the vacuum compresses the rest of the board against the mold. This is the same basic process that Roarockit sells as a home…