The Express-Times has short interview with old Zorlac pro and current Syndrome Distribution honcho Rob Mertz. The article, titled “Skateboard to top not pipe dream” is a short fluff piece, but it does contain an amusing fact – the town mayor was the one who encouraged him to follow his dream of being a pro skateboarder. If like me, you’re still skating as grown man with a family of your own, you can probably relate to hearing this kind of thing from your extended family, and in this case, from Rob’s mom:

All the years, miles and bruises later, Nancy Mertz still worries. “He skates every day on his lunch hour. You know he’s 41?” she sighed. “This is why they have hair dye; I turned gray early.”

More Mertz links after the jump.

Dave Cawdrey was a former pro skateboarder in Seattle during the 90’s. I didn’t get to the Pacific Northwest until late 1998 so I never really heard about him, but maybe you have. Dave is now living out the rest of his brief life in Bend Oregon. I say “brief” because he suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). This Seattle Times article is a long, sad but good read about his life before and after diagnosis in 2000. Skateboarding is a recurring element in the story. Dave’s physical deterioration contrasts the physical development of one of his sons, who has taken up skateboarding. It’s an atypically poignant case of a father living vicariously through his son. It’s a tear jerker for sure. After reading about Dave and his family’s situation, it makes me want to puke when I see guys like this that think they have it bad and want to have everything handed to them on a silver platter.

Looks like it’s a video post kind of day. This is probably the best car-as-skateboard, ahem, in-car-nation I’ve ever seen. Check out this spot for the Nissan Qashqai. “WTF is a Qashqai?” you ask? Well its a Turkic-speaking tribal confederation of clans in Iran. I guess that explains why they don’t sell it in the United Sates… And here I thought it was Icelandic. This post is labeled “Part 2” but I’ve skipped a car commercial or two. There’s another commercial with some sort of creature using a car as a skateboard but I can’t recall what for. I think I might even have it taped somewhere. The best part of this commercial? The wall ride! Watch it after the jump.

Hey fellas here is a video from late last summer. I figured I would put it up so we could have something to look forward to. See you at the park. Peace Off.

Extreme sports enthusiasts can’t wait to get their hands on this one – and attach it to their helmet, arm, leg or bike! David Addington brought a Oregon Scientific ATC1000 helmetcam to Pier Park a couple of weeks ago. I put together a few of the clips with some of the photos from that day. Check out the 15 frame per second motion sickness inducing video. What’s it like doing an air across the top of the mousehole? Read on.

The return of treecam!

A few days ago I went skateboarding at DOS (Department of Skateboarding for the PDX uninitiated) with a friend. This is a friend that I have known for nearly 10 years now. I friend that I met on the other side of the country, and that I have remained very close with throughout many of lifes changes: jobs, states, fatness, thinness, relationships, deaths. Everything. We used to skateboard together at work a long time ago, and we still skateboard together today.

During this session at DOS with my friend I saw a familiar face. I say familiar because it’s a face that I knew, but not one that I had seen recently. Not at all. This time, it was another friend from my days in the mountains of Colorado. I hadn’t seen him in many years. He was here on business and he did what skateboarders who travel for business do. They go to the local skatepark and ride their skateboards.

I just received an email from Neil’s mom, Shirley Heddings, and she has informed me that Neil is getting out of jail May 24th. She also hinted about a fundraiser, not sure where its going to be- from my guess it won’t be outta the state of California for quite sometime.

I’m looking forward to seeing the most natural skater back at it, he’s been pent up for a long time. I can only bet Washington St is going to be his domination, once he’s finally free of his 8X12 cement box. Anyone see the new Skateboarder, he’s already getting coverage again!

For those of you that would like to see the facts of his case go here and read. If I hear anything more- I will post it here on SKATE AND ANNOY DOT COM (annoucer voice)!

I like weird things. My friend Jason Beaudry is weird, and he too, likes weird things. So when it was time to build his ramp he decided to make one that is nearly impossible to skate. Which, is pretty weird.

Sorry, I had the wrong town in the title. Okay, how many of you bastards knew about this and didn’t tell me? I had to check out the Sleestak blog from the earlier post today and found this. Another Dreamland park in the area? One more for the cannonball run: Pier Park to Tualatin to Donald to Newberg to McMinnville to Lincoln City.