Where are the video cameras when you need them? This would have been perfect for the Grover’s Video Korner opener. Thanks to Earth Patrol for the shout out. Right back at ya. There are also a few good straight skate shots in the link, so check it out.

Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! I’ve been asking for this for months now. This is the holy grail of 70’s wacky commercial skateboard exploitation. They actually advertised these in Skateboarder. I’ve never seen one in person but I remember seeing them in ads. Even though they looked completely ridiculous, I always wanted one for their sheer absurd nature, just to prove they exist. Thanks to Thor for locating and scanning the advert. See the full ad in all it’s 70’s glory after the jump.

Doing business in communist China is easier than in Santa Cruz, said a local surfboard, snowboard and skateboard maker. Coupled with the first sentence of “Local skateboard maker toys with leaving S.C.,” you’d be left with the impression that Novak is contemplating moving (all) Santa Cruz Skateboards production to China. After all, the over regulation and complaints from gentrifying neighbors are some of the same alleged reasons that Clark Foam, the world’s largest manufacturer of surfboard blanks shut down. However, according to the interviews, Novak is only considering moving to an adjacent town. Do you believe him?

This pic is from a SLC skatepark called Real Ride. I don’t know if it’s still open because this was taken way back in 2002 when I was part of the work crew building a vert ramp for the Olympic Village. You can see a larger full frame version after the jump.

Lots of injured skateboarders making the news, mostly by the hands (or wheels) of others. Also, some unfortunate deaths. There’s a web site called MyDeathSpace that seems to just be a repository of obituaries. It might be in too poor of taste for even us.

He told a Melbourne Supreme Court jury the group were taping themselves picking up a live snake and skateboarding down a steep hill while weaving around traffic. “We were pretty inspired by the movies (Jackass) at that time,” he told the jury. Unfortunately they also got the idea from the Bumfights video series to light a homeless man on fire, killing him in the process. Please people, if you have an IQ of pile of dung, please take up scooters or something else instead of dragging us down with you like these murderers in Australia did. Most of us can watch movies and TV shows without being prompted to torture people.

It’s crap like this that leads to skateparks getting closed down, insurance rates rising, etc. Morons! Take responsibility for your own actions. Apparently these two geniuses have never seen or heard of an overhead electric powered trolley car, train, or bus, or even bumper cars at the fair because they climbed up onto a train and got too close to the wire, then suffered electrical burns. Then they sued because they thought someone should have held their hand and told them not to. I don’t know who is more retarded, them or the jury that awarded the verdict. My appologies to retards for even placing you in the same category as these half wits. Klein and Birdwell… …They were skateboarding when they decided they wanted to see the view from the top of the boxcar, according to their lawsuit. Klein was shocked by the catenary wire, which hung 6 feet above the car… …Birdwell was burned while he tried to help his friend. Read all about it on Delaware Online, and the Eagle World News.

MC’s got the 411 on Glenhaven, including spy photos of the plans captured on camera he bought out of the back of a comic book in 1974. too bad he can’t get the 110 film developed anywhere… But seriously, he does have enlargements of the floor plan. Enlargements on microfiche that he swallowed and smuggled out in his intestines. Check it out the progress report.

This pool was up and running for just about forever and a day. There were rumors of $200 tickets being given out but that was likely just subterfuge as nobody seemed to actually know anyone personally who had gotten a ticket. The pool was in a motel that was being torn down. Seems like that was going around this summer. In any case, there are action photos to be seen as well. I’m trying a different approach to the thumbnails for the sake of uniformity and saving a little production time. Sometimes they are close to full frames of the enlarged versions, sometimes they just highlight interesting parts. Please let me know in the comments how you think it works out. Check it out.

Seriously. I had a hard enough time with Defender, so when Defender Stargate came out it was just too overwhelming. That’s how I feel with the video games these days. Too many button combinations to remember to be able to freaking enjoy playing. That’s why simple games like Guitar Hero are the best. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam is available fro two platforms, Nintendo DS and more importantly in this case, The Nintendo Wii. Why? Because with the gyroscope motion sensitive controller you can use the involuntary muscle spasms and body movement to your advantage when pretending to skateboard. There’s a video showing how it works here. It’s actually kind of cool. That one guy might be related to Weird Al.