Q: What do these people have in common?
A: They all had the balls to session the big bowl at Pier Park this afternoon.

Where were you guys?

Grover did show up as I was leaving

It’s good to see that skateboarding on gravel is finally catching on. This picture is part of a feature called Day in Pictures from the international version of the BBC News. You can see it larger here, but you’ll have to manually select picture number 5 once you get there. More skateboarding in Iraq after the jump.

I got this comic ‘zine a while back – the copyright is 2004 – but I came across it yesterday and reread it. It features comics by John Porcellino, Dan Moynihan, Dave Kiersh, Leslie Kleinberg, Jack Turnbull, Heath Row, and John Isaacson. Moynihan seems to be the ring-leader. I don’t know if it’s still available. My email to the guy was undeliverable. This website has a little information about it and a link to the inactive website that links to a portfolio site of Moynihan’s illustration work.

I enjoyed the ‘zine for a nostagic trip back to teen skater angstville. I orignally picked it up at Reading Frenzy in Portland, Oregon.

Anyone who read Thrasher in the 80’s should remember references to the Capitola Classic downhill race series. They covered it when it was going, and pined for it when it wasn’t. It seemed there was always a Capitola rumor in On Board Trash. Of course, seeing as how my own front yard ramp got mentioned there once, they pretty much printed anything. Rumors be damned! Former competitor and second place women’s finisher Judi Oyama is doing her best to resurrect the Capitola Classic. She’s in talks with the city to try and bring it back. Not bad for someone who got uninvited to the race for being a chick. Judi has two recent appearances in local news concerning the Capitola Classic and getting the new generation, and especially women involved with their own scene. The poster is Jim Phillips design from the 1980 race and the picture is by Judi’s father. More Capitola links after the jump.

Our new friends over at Skateboard Fieber tipped us off to an article about a visit they made to Jim Phillip’s studio. It’s posted on FecalFace.com. it’s not really an interview, but more of a recollection and visual tour. Definitely worth checking out for fans of skateboard history.

I served on the selection committee and read all the proposals for the Glenhaven skatepark in northeast Portland, Oregon. Dreamland Skateparks’ proposal was the clear favorite of the committee, even though there was a street skating faction that didn’t believe that Dreamland could build a good street park. The committee pared the field to three firms who would be interviewed but in the end only Dreamland was properly licensed to do work in the state of Oregon. Grindline’s license had expired and NewLine didn’t have the proper licenses in the first place.

Here is the original Dreamland proposal for Glenhaven. This was actually one of three designs originally proposed for Pier Park. During the Pier Park process there was a lot of static from street skaters about the designs being favored by Skaters for Portland Skateparks. This of course pissed off the guys who had spent three years doing public outreach and fundraising and lobbying.

The funding was available and we knew Dreamland was going to build the thing, all we needed was a design that would please everyone.

I have posted a lengthy rememberance of the project with many of the design drawings I did between February and April 2006 over on Antigravity Press. You’ve seen some of it if you went to any of the meetings but I wanted to put it all together. Hard to believe I did all that a year ago.

Yes, I’m struggling again. Here’s some pics of Chris Nukala from April of 2004 on his ramp in his back yard. The point of this is not to mention the crappy photos (my fault) or the fact that Chris hadn’t gone through puberty yet (his parent’s fault) but rather to point out that he recently had to tear down his ramp due to complaints from the neighbors or some city ordinance problems. Typical BS you have to deal with whenever you decide to take matters into your own hands. This was a quirky, but cool set up. Fortunately, Chris lives near Pier Park now. He’s a lot better skater post-puberty. Puberty. Puberty. Puberty. And death metal. Enlargements and a more recent shot of him after the jump.

This should really be part 1 I think. This is probably the first car as skateboard commercial I ever saw back in 2006, but I was unable to record it until now. This Jeep is so bad ass that it causes a ball of rolling jumk to follow until it spontaneously assembles into a robot and proceeds to ride the car like a skateboard. Automobile manufacturers are ever safety conscious, and so is the robot. He takes the time to rip a dome off the top of a nearby building to wear as a helmet. Quite frightening, actually. I wouldn’t want to have to worry about property damage suits everytime I drove my car. Watch the video and learn about the robot’s old schoool roots after the jump.