It’s vaguely near Christmas again, so the toy catalogs are already in the mail. Time was when you could get a semi-legitimate skateboard from your toy catalog. I got one in the mail from Fisher Price that features Earth Ace, one of the Planet Heros. He skates on the moon. “The moon. This is what I’m talking about. Hey! Look out!”

I have posted about SkaterDater before. This guy has a chunk of it posted on YouTube. Man, I keep saying we need to get matching windbreakers.

This clip of Tony Hawk skating in the desert somewhere is pretty amazing. I’m guessing (and pulling it out of my ass, really) that this is from the new Birdhouse video The Beginning maybe? As for the skating spectacle and cinematography, it’s great regardless of your personal feelings on Tony. And really, let’s talk about our feelings. Are you ashamed that you have personal feelings about Tony Hawk? Do you wear a hat made out of tin foil to keep him from discovering them via telepathy? I’m going to be really bummed out if I find out those dust storms are computer generated. Also of interest is Jeep product placement, which I’m sure he got paid for. Who knows, maybe it’s for an upcoming Jeep commercial. As for the web site it resides on, Shred or Die, don’t get Mark started on the name. As far as the site goes, it looks like another crossover action sports social networking attempt, and Hawk is all over that place. I’ll say one thing for them, they did a good job on the video controller compared to the rest of them, YouTube included. They have an instant replay feature and the holy grail…

Earlier in the week when we were having technical difficulties, Grover put together a clip he felt was not worthy of full GVK status, although I’m not sure why. We couldn’t post it because our web host sucks so EPM scooped us on our own content. Hopefully it will dry up by the time this post goes live and I won’t be relegated to making goofy videos instead of actually skating he new Tigard Oregon skatepark.

Black and Blue Vol. 1 from Vox Footwear. Vox was formed by Ed Dominick, Dr. Chen (Osiris Shoes) and Nathan Peacher in 2005. This is what it says in their “About Me” on their Myspace page: Im either made out of canvas or suede, ive got a lace that ties me together and keeps me on your feet, weigh a few oz. I come in various colors and styles. Can be found ONLY in skateshops. I like to go and hang out in skateparks, rails, pools, legdes, ditches, parking curbs, gaps, hills, concrete, wood,…Basically anything skateable, im there.

Everyone has their favorite scenes from the Bones Brigade Video Show. For me, one of the standouts was always the downhill slide sequence featuring Cliff Coleman I believe. Just typing this subliminally triggers the opening wild animal sound effects in my head. If you can imagine that sequence amped up on today’s equipment, sounds and video technology you might get the trailer for the movie project Drift. Drift was actually supposed to be released on October 10th, but it has been delayed, perhaps indefinitely. The film is being made by a few key members of and with help from the downhill scene in Montreal, Canada. Watch the whole thing and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The camera work and editing are sharp, and the music fits well. Even in today’s polarized climate of what is and isn’t cool, I’ll feel sorry for you if don’t get stoked by Drift. – Thanks to Jace Samikov for the tip.

UPDATE: In the wake of the passing of Steve Schneer some 7 years after this post was written, I feel it’s important to point out the title of this post is a reference to his famous Ho Ho plants and how these magnet embedded skateboards would make it so much easier for kids to do this trick. There’s no disrespect intended towards Steve, and in fact in meeting him a few times in my capacity as editor at S&A he was always very friendly and never mentioned it.  My kid plays with these little toy figures that have magnets in their feet that stick to small skateboards. They are called Tech Deck Dudes and there are something like 60 of them now. They are fun to play with for both of us, although I can’t figure out why some of the guys have weapons too. They obviously call to mind the old Sky Hooks, which you can still actually buy from no less than three (Count ’em. 1, 2, 3.) manufacturers. Apparently there’s no current official trademark holder. But Sky Hooks are so 70’s, and magnets make for a more up to date dork session. Besides, you could just change shoes if…

I hesitated to post this because I didn’t want it to come off like we were pushing something off that was paid advertising in reality. (Hey check out Active’s dope new ad, it’s effing insert latest slang here!) Of course, if you are listening Acitve Mail Order, there’s room for you in our banner ad rotation if you you want to buy it. OK, so Active had an open call to show up for an ad shoot for Erik Ellington. His fans showed up, they shot the ad and documented the process as well. I don’t know jack about Erik Ellington, but he comes off well in the short video, even taking the time to shake every extra’s hand and thank them personally. I imagine if you were a fan of his and got to meet him informally and be in one of his adverts you’d be age appropriately stoked. The ad is slick, but the reality is mundane. If you’ve ever wondered how these things go, spend a few minutes behind the scenes. Note to Active: You have a dead link to the casting call. All those social networking links are nice, but it would have been a lot…

Concrete Wave has released their third volume of the Evolutions DVD that they give out free to subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber, they’d like to entice you by letting you watch the whole thing online via Google video. They also have an arrangement with Silverfish Longboarding to make the whole thing avialable for download in compressed AVI files. Concrete Wave is famous for their extensive, some might say over-extensive coverage of longboarding, downhill and slalom. There’s plenty of that kind of footage to be sure, but there are other styles to balance it out. You can watch the videos and get my 2 cents after the jump.

So this summer Geth came to town to cruise with people to get their feedback on Gabriel park the next city sponsored skatepark. What you are about to witness is some of the cruising/skating/feedback. If you did not show up I suggest you shut up and ride what you get or wait for the other 15 parks to be built and ride one of them. Remember to celebrate Diversity. See you at the park. Peace Off Grover.