Rebelscum.com reports from the Agenda trade show that Santa Cruz is releasing some licensed Star Wars skateboards. It looks like some of them come packaged like little action figures. Santa Cruz will put out a skateboard with anything and everything on it. As weak as the idea of a Star Wars skateboard is, I really like the replica action figure packaging. That’s pretty good attention to detail. Check it out after the jump, as well as a Skate and Annoy exclusive insider pic of the limited edition, super technical slalom deck that will likely cost an arm and a leg.

The left deck is an ‘Autex Sports’ complete. The graphic is a crazy mix of the Rob Roskopp 3 from ’85  (designed by Jim Phillips for Santa Cruz)  and Powell’s famous Ripper (by VCJ). It all looks pretty ridiculous: a violent Ripper seems to have eaten the monster and is almost strangling himself with a chain, acting all clumsy and the flames make no sense at all. The right ‘Alpha’ deck is clearly a counterfeit of Rodney Mullen’s Mutt deck from 1981, it even says ‘Mutt’.  The board was relisted on eBay, since it ‘only’ reached $200 in the first auction, but that wasn”t enough for the seller. Thanks to christopha80  for the tip and Omar for the pictures.

Sure, his boards have been reissued in life size and on fingerboards, and they are always very active on eBay, but you don’t hear about Rob Roskopp the person anymore. I had heard that he was heading up the mountain bike division of Santa Cruz, but had never actually read anything confirming it. Leave it to a mountain bike site inexplicably named Pinkbike.com to tie it all together. Find out which old pros are hitting him up for mountain bikes, what exactly is the connection between the companies, and exactly how much crack Rob was on when he chose his graphics – that’s an actual question from the interview. Biggest shock? Roskopp used to look like the epitome what the rest of the world thought California surfers looked like. He’s still fit, but those golden locks have moved on. What about the body jars? Check it out. Interesting aside, I’m fairly confident one of the images used in the post is from an old eBay Watch, and yes I realize we lifted it from eBay…

I went to my hometown in Michigan on July10th and hooked up with my old friend, David Scot Campbell. He is by far the biggest skate influence in my life. In Michigan in 1986 he was doing stuff you would see in California skate magazines with little or no live example. He has weathered all of skateboarding’s highs and lows riding through the whole mess, and I mean from the beginning. Dave enjoyed a little notoriety at the end of the vert era when he was picked up by Santa Cruz skateboards. His talents are showcased in the video “Troops of Tomorrow”. Even though vert skating died, Dave kept skating underground because there was no upper ground. He continues to ride to this day and will ride until it’s physically impossible. I’m proud to have him as a life-long team member of Cold War Skateboards.

Judi Oyama is organizing a show called “Praise the Board” at Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History from September 4 – 27. There’s a skateboard contest being held in association with the exhibit on the 19th. The show is designed to showcase the talent of local Santa Cruz artists and how they have contributed to the worldwide success of skateboarding as a sport. This isn’t an official NHS function, it’s more a case of contributing artists tooting their own horn. The image above is one of the things Judi has collected in preparation. Can’t make it Santa Cruz? Your generous benefactors at Skate and Annoy are working to bring the show to Portland after the run in Santa Cruz. We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, contest details after the jump.

There’s a lengthy interview with Tom Knox on Concrete Disciples, with the usual high quality photo work of MRZ. I flaked out on interviewing Tom around the time when the Veterans Division video came out a while back. I just couldn’t think of anything interesting to ask him since I didn’t know that much about him in the first place. Sorry Tom. Don’t worry Bryce and Jim, I won’t do the same with you. – Thanks to Larry Pescatore for the tip.