A 3 man crew of hardcore assholes is targeting Portland skate shops. The jackasses pulled 3 smash and grabs in the past couple of weeks. The losers targeted Cal Skates Skateboards, Commonwealth Skateboarding, and most recently, Smart Collective. These are small business owners who are being hit. Someone in the greater Portland Metro area, Oregon, or Washington knows who these lowlifes are. Turn them in. If you are near any of the affected shops, consider dropping in and making purchase to support them.

It looks like the long, protracted war is finally over as Skateboarding will be proposed for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, so it’s pretty much a fait accompli. The International Skateboarding Federation is excited about it. Who is in that federation, some notables for sure. Also, the Telegraph definitely thinks I’m too old to skateboard. On a positive note, four Canadian skateboarders are being honored for stopping a sexual assault and helping to apprehend the culprit. (The image on the top left is from Mpora, who has a lot to say about the Olympic announcement but for some reason can’t bring themselves to actually link to it.)

An inmate at a minimum-security facility in Watsonville walked away and escaped the grounds Thursday morning and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help finding him. Stakeout the nearest DIY spot – Case solved. At least he didn’t get a company logo tattooed on his face. – Thanks to Coulter for the tip. [Source: Kron 4]

PORTLAND – Officers arrested a suspect after a man was stabbed at the Burnside Skatepark late Friday evening, police said. Just before 10:30 p.m., a man was stabbed in the leg after getting in a verbal altercation while skating under the Burnside Bridge on Southeast 2nd Avenue, said Sgt. Pete Simpson with Portland police. The victim was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police arrested 29-year-old Jeremy Moore Friday night and booked him in the Multnomah County Jail on first-degree assault charges. [Source: KGW]

The incident began before 9 p.m., when about 1,500 skaters and skate fans showed up to a theater that only holds 600 people to watch a free premiere of the skateboard movie, “Bake and Destroy.” At least NBC News knew what was going on. One site said it was 300 “protestors” who were mostly skateboarders, except they couldn’t say what they were protesting. That’s the left wing media for ya man, I’m voting for Reagan. – Tanks [sic.] to Evil Tom for the tip.

I would like to apologize to the posts that appear above and below this one.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports: CAPITOLA – A 17-year-old boy riding a skateboard downhill Tuesday hit an 83-year-old woman crossing the street. The Capitola woman later died in a San Jose hospital, authorities said. Apparently the kid saw the lady at the last minute and tried to avoid her, but that’s not good enough is it? No charges filed as of yet. [source: LA Weekly] – Thanks to… everyone for the tip.

Some people like to geek out on skateboard paraphernalia, while others like to geek out on intellectual property rights. Our worlds have collided. If you know Zorlac you probably know it was sold some time in the late 80’s, with Jeff Newton remaining on in some capacity, but the company definitely had an altered vibe. Some time in the next decade the brand ceased to exist for all intents and purposes. Some time after the millennium Jeff started up Gringo skateboards, using some similar imagery and marketing, and then suddenly Zorlac reappeare, but with Newton at the helm again. I wondered how he gained control of the trademark, or if he was just barging it since no one else seemed to be using it. Back in 2000 Rob Mertz was quoted in Transworld Business (summarized here) about the apparent retiring of the Zorlac brand, right about the same time all the old school guys and collectors were coming out of the woodwork. The phrase “Smooth move Ex-Lax” seemed appropriate at the time, but eventually Syndrome wasn’t going to take it, ahem, sitting down. Property, intangible has an interesting piece on the battle for the Zorlac trademark that Newton apparently lost.…

In this amusing video you can hear the newscasters baffled, scratching their heads trying to figure out why anyone would bother to steal all the parking blocks from a parking lot. Even the business owner is shocked that the more valuable items in the window were left behind. There really is a glaringly obvious reason… It must be a cult. Turns out parking blocks cost about $25 a pop. Somewhere there’s a DIY spot in the greater Kansas City area that just received a nice donation. Check out “Strange Theft Of Parking Stops Confuses Police, Victim” on KMBC.com. [Source: Yahoo News]- Thanks to Jeff Roenning for the tip.

Portland skateboarders foiled a possibly deadly assault on a woman, knocking out the ice pick wielding assailant with a skateboard and holding him until police arrived. Good job citizens. Were these skaters the PDX equivalent of the Red Angels of Dragnet City? (Noprize anyone?) Nope, they were skating a recently built concrete ramp outside of River City Bicycles, where the owner of the shop had the ramps built specifically “for learning tricks on.” While he doesn’t specify whether it was built for skateboards or bicycles, he credits the “quarter pipe” with saving the woman’s life. OK, we can give him that. There’s room for bikes and skaters to get along in Portland (BIke lane! Bike Lane!) especially if you keep building spots for us… As long as you look up the definition of quarter pipe. Is it just me, or does that look like banks and not tranny? – Thanks to Shawn F and Sam for the tip. [Source: BikePortland]