BMX celebrity Rooftop is interviewed about Tony Hawk’s foray into entry level BMX bikes branded after the Boom Boom Huck Jam. I don’t follow BMX at all, but I recognize the name Rooftop, so he must be a celebrity. Catch one interview on Vital BMX and another on The Come Up. Thanks to Concretin for the tip off. Tony looks like he’s been listening to some Aphex Twin. [Photo: Vital BMX]

Figures, he’s on roller blades. I was following a link from a comment on officer hard-ass beating the rap. The link was from a site called Skate Theory that features a random picture popping up on the front page. On my first visit I happened to catch the pic above. It’s from 2001 when a friend of mine and former roommate dressed up as Captain Corporate America and crashed a Fourth of July parade in Urbana Illinois. I know the skateboarding link is tenuous at best, but the same guy also illustrated this skateboard company logo for me. You can read the full scoop on Captain Corporate America at Media Geek.

How telling that the day after our country celebrated our independence I end up making a flippant post about how the US government is helping to fund “extreme sports facilities” in El Salvador in hopes of combating violence amongst disaffected youth. As if Extreme!™ Democracy wasn’t enough (see Iraq). The News Blaze has an article titled Extreme Sports Offer Salvadoran Youth Refuge from Violence – United States provides extreme sports facilities to Salvadoran youth center.

This popular rejection of violence is what the founders of Fundacion Salvador del Mundo (FUSALMO) hoped to see when they created a recreational facility for the youth of Soyapango in 2003…

…In 2006, with a grant from the U.S. government, FUSALMO expanded its facilities to include extreme sports: bicycle motocross (BMX), skateboarding and break dancing.

Break dancing and skateboarding? Sounds like 1987, not 2007. I guess skateboarding heals all wounds. I’m sure a few American-made prefab ramps will make up for the fact that the USA backed a bloody dictator for all those years. I can’t think of a better way to say “I’m sorry for the death squads and you know, those 30,000 executions. Let’s put this unpleasantness behind us with some method airs and a little pop locking.” Big surprise, the source for the News Blaze article is the U.S. State Department.

Skaters from El Salvador – send us your pictures and vids! We’ll put them up.

[Photos: Top – Salvadoran Tourism Ministry. Left – Children of the Street. Right – United Nations]

Happy Fourth of July. If you love your country, you’ll blow something up.

Dreamland is building two more skateparks in the Portland area right now. Holly Farm is a small skatespot in Southwest Portland. I had kind of written it off as something that was going to be for neighborhood kids but it is looking gnarly. That wall behind the spine looks six foot tall and the front pocket looks about eight. They are planning a KGW banks treatment around the outside.

Meanwhile, two miles down the road, Tigard is also in progress. It is not as far along but it’s bigger.

Troy Sliter sent in some pictures from a recent road trip he took to New Mexico. I’ve never skated there, have you? I like the look of that ditch, that’s for sure.

Outside Magazine? At first I thought this was going to be some real news, Tony Hawk coming out of the closet as the first highly successful openly gay skateboarder would certainly be news. Yeah I know there are other openly gay skateboarders out there, but nobody at Tony’s level. Turns out I was thinking of Out Magazine. Outside Online has an interview with both Tony Hawk and Shaun White, comparing career moves and their relationship as mentor and.. mentee? Err.. One of the best quotes:

HAWK: Someone came to me once and wanted to do a signature Hawk cologne. I was like, “Of what? Sweaty pads? Am I wringing out my pads into a little perfume bottle?”
WHITE: I’ve been sent like 20 movie scripts. And the first lines are always “What up, brah?” Nope, nope, nope.

It’s a good interview that shows a bit of the human side of these two larger than life personalities. At four pages long, this interview is still way too short. I wish they had made a longer version available instead of just mirroring the print edition, which is what I’m assuming they did. we like to poke fun of some of (well most, actually) Tony’s marketing decisions here on SnA, but it’s pretty good natured. He does give an awful lot of time and money towards building new skateparks, and you can’t fault that. read the interview here. Thanks to SnA commenter Mac for the tip off.