My daughter snapped this shot while visiting friends at Oregon State University. Looks like if you cabled two of the rungs together your trucks and wheels might keep someone from removing the board. Is this really a skate rack? I wonder if the thing fills up with longboards during class hours.

I haven’t seen this many band boards since Punk Rock Skateboards. Remember Punk Rock Skateboards? I mean, the company? They burned bright, and then disappeared. But I digress. DC Jam, home to skate rock bands of legend and today has a new venture called Backstage Skateboards. Check out the lineup: Narcoleptic Youth, JFA, BYO Records Aggression Youth Brigrade, Dr. Strange Records, Teenage Bottle Rockets, Fishbone, Meat Puppets, T.S.O.L., 300 Pounds, Frontside Five, Goverment Issue, DC Jam Records and McRad.

Portland’s sports arena is now called the Dew Garden. Snorkels are an extra $5 at the door.

Unaware of what year it was, Dr. Brad and Grover wandered into the Dew Tour desperate for help. But the English language had deteriorated into a hybrid of hillbilly, valleygirl, inner-city slang and various grunts. Dr. Brad was able to understand them, but when he spoke in an ordinary voice he sounded pompous and faggy to them.

Skull Skates has actually been available in the US for at least five years, but you had to go to one shop, Cal Skates in Portland, Oregon to find them. Blitz Distribution just signed on to distribute Skull Skates on a wider basis in the US, with the none other than Bill Danforth heading up the effort. You won’t find Skull Skates at Zumiez, as Bill and company will be screening the potential vendors down to limited group of core shops. The shot of Bill up top is actually from a Life’s a Beach ad in the June 1989 issue of Homeboy Magazine. Remember that one? In any case, you’ve got to see the whole shot, it was sent in by a friend of Bill’s for the sole purpose of annoying him. Some friend! Here’s the press release.

Vision Street Wear (through Select Distribution) is pimping a limited release of the Vision “Tribute Series” including, for immediate delivery the “Gator Ramp (with his actual name on the boards)” I pressed the sales rep for information on who gets those royalties, and after a few elusive, vague responses I ultimately received the answer that Select somehow owned the Gator name from the get go, and so they don’t need to pay any royalties. I don’t know how that pans out for the boards “with his actual name on it.” My guess is Mark failed to trademark “Gator” and didn’t think about it since it was already his nickname. He probably figured he didn’t need to. Remember When He started going by a different name? Mark Gator Anthony or something… What does Mark “Gator” Rogowski have to say about the re-issues? He spoke up about it in Sean Cliver’s (great) new book, Disposable The Skateboard Bible.

One redeeming (and useful) gesture would be for companies that still sell decks with the old Gator graphics (with or without the name) to please direct what would have been royalties to organizations devoted to ending violence and promoting understanding. That could be really healing.

It’s on page 236.

Your reviews are coming. I’ve been working on a new back end to present our product reviews, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Back populating the the old reviews has been taking a lot longer than I thought, and it’s finally made me realize how much static HTML can suck, especially when it’s really old and poorly formatted! That’s Danimal above riding a Toy Machine Billy Marks Fiberprime deck. I’ve got Atomic Wheels, Tarantula Trucks, Dekline shoes, and a host of other, long, long overdue reviews.

Ahh… Facebook ads. Check out the selection of skateboard bearings at VBX.com, prices range from $5 a set to $320 a set if you buy the fully ceramic ones, and I mean fully ceramic, right down to the casing. Of course for slightly more than $350 you can get 100 sets of “ABEC 7” Bearings. Buyer beware. Rockin’ Ron, were are you?

A lot of people are excited about this book. Disposable was reprinted in several editions with additions. The Disposable Skateboard Bible (Or Disposable II, depending on where you look) is available from Gingko Press. I’ve got conflicting information on cover art and page counts, but I’ll find out soon enough when my copy arrives in the mail. (Update: The Gingko site has prerelease information and graphics, as they are in the middle of a site re-design.) The scope of the book is supposed to be broader. I asked Sean Cliver if the new book encompassed the first one, and here’s what he had to say:

…it’s an all-new book. a complement to the first, really. 1) Includes 60s/70s stuff; 2) Includes a lot more 80s stuff that didn’t fit the first book; 3) Includes new artist/rider stories from like VCJ, Greg Evans, Art/Steve Godoy, Gator, etc.; 4) much more of a “collector” bias in its opening words. on that note, it’s also far less wordier than the first book with more pages devoted to board images (a total of like 2500 i think?).

Can’t wait to see it. He’s been working on this for a few years now, and with high level the bar was set at by the first Disposable, I’m guessing this one is going to be…. brilliant as well. I was going to say “anything but disposable”, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Except I just did.

Normally I’d be all over something like this, but I like the board so much that I don’t feel compelled to ridicule the optional equipment shown, namely the $25 aluminum scooter handle. I mean, If you are going to ride a scooter-skate, you don’t want to risk getting hurt on some cheap toy… Right? I think I can see where they are coming from on this, and that means I’m in a weird place right now…. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for these old solid aluminum decks, and I am solidly behind manufacturing a liquor store board that happens to be a near museum quality reproduction. This would probably fall under the movie prop category, since the wheels look the part, but have been upgraded to center set bearings so you could actually turn at speed without feeling like the wheels were about to blow out . The firm known as Roger Brothers Downhill makes these, as well as a surprising host of other machined products, including a skateboard deck with a built in bottle opener (where the skyhooks would go…) Now I’m definitely a fan.

Well we’ve got skateboard lighters, so sure, why not have skateboard knives? So says Snake Head Kives, the “Maker of the world’s first Skateboard Knives.” These two are already available, or at least they exist, as there doesn’t appear to be a way to buy them. They have three new styles in the making as well. Meanwhile, Dogtown Skateboards has a limited edition signed Jesse Martinez model. I didn’t realize Dogtown was a real company again. They’ve even got re-issue Bigfoots. I’m still more than a little turned off by the Dogtown fashion line. Track suits anyone? This was a couple years ago, and it was in an asian market, so who know if it was even legit.

– Thanks to William Buckley for the tip.