Yeah, I’ll take any excuse to get in a good Surf Punks reference. The City of Santa Cruz has a brand new skatepark ready to open on February 22nd. As part of the public art provision of the Parks Board, the full pipe was designed to look like a wave. Making a required public art portion of a skatepark actually skateable has been done before. It’s a great idea. everyone should do it. Links and more pics of Mike Fox park after the jump. [Photos: Wormhoudt – Source: Sleestak]

Hey loyal viewers here is a video of little D. I came about this footage via Justin when he didn’t have his own shop. Its that old. Derek gave it to me for a sponsor me video. Well, he is older, wiser and better now. So sponsor him. Derek is an all around good guy, if you need any tile work done, I believe he is a professional tile setter, and a hella good skater. So here is your video “d” 3 years later enjoy. Peace

Under Fire: A Special Report On The State Of Skate Hardgoods is brought to you by the International Association Of Skateboard Companies and is produced in conjunction With TransWorld Business and TransWorld SKATEboarding The IASC (International Association of Skateboard Companies) and Transworld Business have included an insert in the latest issue of the industry rag Transworld Business. It’s a marketing piece designed to promote the purchase of branded boards over blanks and shop boards. It didn’t stop Transworld from accepting quite a few ads for companies advertising OEM services to make those evil boards in the same issue. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.

A World Without CEOs is a response to A World Without Pros. It’s a good piss-take on the Blitz’ site, although it would have been better if it had stuck to rational argument instead of the occasional name calling and profanity. Not that I have anything against profanity in general, but in this case I think it’s counterproductive. I just think it would be more effective without calling the IASC a bunch of morons. The “Don’t sue me. I’m just a poor skateboarder” page is kind of weak too. If you are going to make a statement, stand by it and don’t include a “just kidding” as an afterthought.

Coca-Cola Road Trip: I think this aired in the summer of 2006. In the story line, some kids get bored building their miniramp so they go on a road trip to find some full pipes in the desert. They skate for five minutes and get kicked out. Someone did some cultural research, throwing in terms like “desert water project” and having full pipes in the first place, except the pipes are small and metal. The punch line is “At least someone got to skate.” Gee, maybe if you hadn’t brought seven guys to the session in the middle of the day it wouldn’t have been a problem. These kids need to learn about stealth. All in all though, a fairly innocuous effort. Catch the video after the jump.

Speed Freaks from Santa Cruz Speed Wheels, circa 1989. This was the first video ever made by a wheel company. It gave Santa Cruz the ability to bring skateboarders from different board companies, and put them on their videos. This makes the video that much better, with a great mix of street and vert skating. Santa Cruz also put out Streets On Fire in 1989, which featured some of the best skating to date, especially Natas Kaupas’ groundbreaking part. More about the 80s and skateboarding after the jump.

Remember that Sony patent we reported on for a vehicle steerable by movement of center of gravity? Well, Sony may have an artist’s conception of a stick figure snowman riding one, but some college kids at UBC (where?) have video footage of pretty much the same device that they made and actually rode back in February of 2005. Patent law in the U.S. is one big mess. I’m sure these kids will get screwed. No matter, it’s not like the devices are going to become popular. Catch the video after the jump.

A lot of commercials featuring skateboarders have been popping up lately. Yesterday I posted the CarMax advert, so starting today I’m going to see how long I can keep it going. Nissan has a fetish for skateboards. Here’s a commercial featuring Danny Way for another Nissan vehicle.

V-Day for veterans? That’s Valentine’s day for the Veterans Division of Santa Cruz Skateboards, not V-Day or VE-Day or VJ-Day. Someone at NHS needs a little help with timing press releases. After 5:00 pm Pacific time on the day of the event does not cut it. Jason Jesse signed 250 special edition skateboards with a Valentines Day graphic that have been distributed among skate shops. There’s no more when they are gone. Check out Jason’s special message after the jump. I’m predicting one will show up on eBay within a month.