Frontside laybacks just like you like ’em baby. This one’s for Thor. Directions to this pool and another pic after the jump.

PD’s Hot Shop, Canada’s oldest skateboard shop and home to Skull Skates celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. Famous for not following industry trends, they have released version two of their beach cruiser bike which, near as I can tell, doesn’t look any different from version one… Anyway, if Santa Cruz can do it, why can’t Skull?

Getting ready to go to Chicago next weekend for the 25th anniverary of Touch And Go Records, mostly to see the legendary Didjits reunion with all original members!(!!!) This is an excuse to bump that ugly graphic from the West Linn Tidings. So here’s a shot of a suburban Chicago skatepark in Burbank from 2002. At the time it was one of the better tranny parks in the Chicago area. Small, but with nice transitions and the smoothest finish to date. It was kind of a ghetto scene out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it’s changed. I hope I get time to hit some Chicago cement, but it’ll be rough with family and other reunions. There’s another pic after the jump. Holy @!$#! Street skating on Skate and Annoy!

A sensible reply to an irrational argument.

Railz may look familiar to anyone who remembers Ice Blades from the late 70’s and 80’s. Another company called Zema made a version in the late 80’s and 90’s. This decade has even seen a few replacement trusses with two inline skating wheels instead of the ice skating blade, not to mention a host of other wacky wheel replacements. Now you can buy Railz as a conversion or a complete board. Basically little snowboards that you attach in place of wheels. There’s an additional suspension kit that does something, I’m sure. Railz look like they’re made for hard pack, and apparently there are a few resorts that allow them. As if snowboarders didn’t have enough of a stigma using chairlifts, Imagine toating your snow-railz-board with a leash. It’s embarassing to find out about these products from the mainstream media. Come people. Step up! Gizmodo doesn’t cover these things nearly as obsessively as skate geeks demand.

Finally getting these pics posted. Aside from my usuall offereings there are a couple of extra pics contributed by MC and David Vierra. Didn’t know if this thing was going to be torn down before we could get it drained. Not the greatest pool, but it sure was fun stalking and staking it out. Ridnig it was fun too, of course. Top: Zaac. Left: Mark Conahan Right: Marek Litinsky Check out the feature.

Parks & Recreation, the official magazine of the National Recreation and Park Association, an organization whose goal is to advance parks, recreation and environmental conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people. The target audience is park professionals, urban planners, and concerned citizens. Kent Dahlgren, Executive Director of Skaters for Public Skateparks and long time Portland OR scenester wrote an article for the magazine titled “Taking It To the Street.” The article is not available on the NRP web site, but we have some highlights, complete with the requisite grunge typeface. How extreme.

I cleaned up the formatting and some errors on a bunch of the old posts, took care of some Explorer CSS bugs, and even found a missing post from May 2003. How embarrassing.

From 2001 in the heyday of the “Michael Jordan of Skateboarding” hype. This is a kids book which looks to be a dumbed down and probably cleaned up version of Hawk’s bio. For the kids… You know? Did you know that he made skateboarding a bona fide sport almost by himself?

According to (the complaining resident), the out-of-towners look “rough-and-ready.” They’re not wearing khakis and polos… Oh god. Here we go again. This joker is pissed cause he bought an overpriced house that sits on top of his neighbors and overlooks the West Linn skate park. His neighborhood association says they don’t like it. Well that means it’s time to move. The park sits in the midst of a pretty uptight neighborhood, that’s for sure. It’s time to get the folks over at Skaters For Public Skateparks to trot out the noise level studies again. Will they try to get it torn down? Seems implausible, but there’s a lot of collective wealth in those subdivisions. This guy has a lot of nerve posing for a picture in the skate park and giving his name, which is William Relyea. What a tool. Check out the story in the Aug 23, 2006 issue of the West Linn Tidings or read more commentary here.