I love watching old footage of skateboarding on TV, and it has nothing to do with the abundance of mustaches. This is almost 20 minutes of an ABC broadcast of the Catalina Classic from 1977, uploaded by someone at NHS who has resurrected the Roadrider brand. The cast of characters in these events is no more cartoonish than you’d find at today’s events, but man the 70’s were corny. Downhill, slalom and freestyle are shown, with a bunch of names you’ll recognize if you follow skateboard history, or even had a subscription to Thrasher in the first few years. The slalom guys had it dialed in, but the downhill guys (I’m going to catch flack for this) look like they would get smoked by today’s downhill crew with all the speed wobbles in evidence. Those guys need sails. Check it out after the jump. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip

Park slalom is back in West Linn. Skate Legion has the low down, but it’s pretty much the same info you see in the flyer above. Man, I haven’t been to West linn in… I’m gong to say two, possibly three years. I wonder if the neighbors have relaxed now that there are so many other Portland area skateparks open. Stp by the contest and say hello to former S&A contributer and contest co-organizer Mike Estes.

The World Slalom Championships are being held this weekend, July 16th- 18th in Hood River, Oregon. It’s being billed as the biggest slalom event of 2009, yet not one of the sponsors on the press release has any mention of it on their web site. Very odd. In any case, Giant Slalom is on Friday. Saturday is qualifying and prelim rounds for the Tight and Hybrid Slalom events. Sunday is the finals. About the only other information I have is that the poster was made by Jim Phillips. Slalom is fun. International Slalom Skateboard Association Seismic Skate Systems – Thanks to Skip Marcotte for the tip.