A high school in North East Portland had to be closed down due to asbestos or black mold, or so the rumors go. It was too expensive to rehab it and they apparently didn’t need the space so they decided to tear the whole thing down. It was where Gus Van Sant filmed the 2003 movie Elephant that Grover mentions in his GVK episode titled Paranoid Park Tryouts. It was already vacant when they filmed the movie, and for the past few years or two it was home to a DIY street plaza that the locals had built in the semi-secluded parking lot. There were a bunch of grind rails and artificial ledges set up on the island curbs, as well as a couple crazy ramps of various size and design. It was all very sketchy, but admirable. Every once in a while I would spy a few kids dinking around on their boards. Whenever I drove by, which was a couple times a week, I made a mental note that I should photograph it. Well, needless to say, I waited too long. This Spring they finally demolished the school to make way for some real estate development because the…

Skateboards: Your child may not want to cruise the neighborhood on his skateboard, but he’ll probably think it looks cool in his room – you can easily turn this into a rad shelf that holds his important stuff. Purchase a pair of L-brackets that are a little more than half as long as the skateboard’s width. Screw the brackets into studs in the wall and set the board on top. You can remove the wheels if you choose. Hey kids, you know what really looks cool? A skateboard smashing a television set and a kid going out to skate! Other helpful hints from Real Simple magazine via CBS News Parenting I just stacked all my skateboarding books on a skateboard and took a picture.

Americans don’t have the market cornered on wacky skateboard inspired technology. From Germany comes the DIY Struller scooter and skateboard combo and from the UK we have the Magic Wheel, which is like a skateboard if it had one bicycle wheel replacing the front truck. Err.. and a shopping cart wheel on the back truck I guess. I’m reaching here. Will somebody please post some actual skateboarding on this web site? [ Source: Magic Wheel – Gearfuse ]

Is inline skating back from the dead? Yes, according to the Press Enterprise story “Inline Skating Part of Action Sports Tour Lineup.” I’m not sure why that warrants the headline. it seems like only a few years ago that inline skating was dropped from the X-Games. So uh… kudos to the Dew AST for having it’s finger on the pulse of Extreme!™ youth trends so that the skateboarding community can heckle the booters instead of BMX guys or worse, each other. Exclusive video of the official promo video for inline skating after the jump. The crappy watermarked image that I couldn’t be bothered to fix in Photoshop is “courtesy” of All Posters, who claims that it has “pure color and exceptional detail that is suitable for museum or gallery display.”

OK, I’m going to cop to not putting a lot of effort into SnA since the baby was born. The obvious lameness of this post title ought to give you a hint about how sleep deprivation is affecting me. Hopefully it’ll settle down with time. Here’s the first in a long line of quick and dirty posts. At one point in time I was thinking about having a gallery of “No skateboarding” signs from around the world until I realized how boring it would likely be. Now it could contain at least two interesting signs. All those skateboarding bulldogs on YouTube are going to pissed off about this “No Skateboarding Dogs” sign spotted on Chuck Woodbury’s Roadside Journal. Yes, I know, the sign is meant to say “No Skateboarding, No Dogs,” but it’s amusing none the less. Second, we have this “Thou Shalt Not Skateboard” sign in front of the Claremont Presbyterian Church in the city of Ontario California, as reported by the Daily Bulletin. At least they have a sense of humor. Also attached, “No Skating or Grinding,” but Kickflipping is apparently allowed. And what is that middle symbol? No Moonwalking? And now for something completely unrelated, a spider…

Our pal Steve Grover turned 40 yesterday. Happy Birthday dude!

So Here it is the long lost version of “My Great Movie” assembled in late 04 early 05. Its an epic saga of a group skaters that had only 2 parks to ride with in an hours drive, not like today where we have 5 parks with in twenty minuets of my house. and 10 with in an hour thank gawd. Bonus film “Washed Up Old Vert Skaters.” A title bestowed by some street skater trying to ollie to tail at the old beaverton ramp while I was in the middle of a run. – GVK Off!

The 70’s was a funny time in skateboarding. At times, the industry and the public at large tended to view it almost as a carnival ride or amusement park attraction. Case in point, Skateball. I received a couple old pictures of a Skateball installation at the Olympic Skatepark in Crystal Lake Illinois a few years back when SnA was being updated on a very infrequent basis. Seeing the Radical post reminded me of them, so I dug them up. Fortunately, I was still able to contact Jeff Hottle for some larger scans, and he obliged with a few bonus shots as well. Skateball was basically pinball on a halfpipe, where the skater simulated the ball. It’s one of those things you hear rumors about but don’t quite give them credit unless you actually see it. Five pictures and a little history after the jump.