Up top is the Epic Snowboards shop at NW 23rd and Vaughn in PDX. It’s actually sharing a space with a scooter shop – Vespa Portland. This ramp used to be in the Grenade facility, which I believe was somehow associated with the now defunct Office. Regardless, I think this Saturday the doors are open for free durning the grand opening celebration featuring DJ’s and bands, etc.. but I can’t be sure because the flyer I got was illegible. When I get more info I’ll update this post. In the meantime, you can check out some construction pics courtesy of Mike Estes after the jump. UPDATE: Added the flyer.
On the bottom is an indoor ramp at Rip City Skate, also in Portland. This one has been dormant for a while, but reportedly will be done in about a month.
This week’s shot of the week is from Steve Aycock, AKA Scphotog. This is Jon Horne in a house in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve seen a lot of indoor ramps over the years, but nothing quite compares to this bowled in living room. I especially like the diving board painted in persepctive on the back wall. Steve has an interview with the owner in the works. Look for it on S&A in the near future. In the meantime, check out the shot of the week.
Lately I’ve been reading the new issue of Poweredge magazine during my breaks at work instead of geeking out on my iPhone. It’s been a pretty good read, actually. The art direction, although definitely reminiscent of the old magazine at times, feels a bit unfocused. I am enjoying the content, with the exception of the CAPS LOCK USED IN SOME OF THE ARTICLES. IT MAKES IT HARD TO READ. Poweredge will be coming out four times a year. This issue, the first since 1992 or so is 120 pages (in color) and features Mike Vallely, Mike Smith, Sean Sheffey, Jake Brown, Dayne Brummet, Alec Beck and more. There is a generous helping of old photos in with the new. There are supposed to be multiple covers, but this is what mine looks like. Strange choice for a first cover, but I’m stoked that Poweredge is back. I was a subscriber the first time around. I found it a good mix of Thrasher and Transworld. Nowadays I’m not sure where it would fall in the spectrum of skateboard magazines, but I’m rooting for it for sure. Where can you get yours? At select skate shops and newsstands. You might have to do some hunting until they get the distribution channels sorted out. Barring that, you can subscribe too. Poweredge is supposed to be launching a new web site any day now.
That’s right. I’m part of the problem now. You know those annoying little virtual gifts you can send and receive via Facebook? They annoy me, and I used to refuse them whenever I received them. But then I started to think that I was possibly offending people by blowing off their harmless gestures. Then I started geeking out of them, trying to see what old boards I could unlock. We’ve all seen those boards though, so I started thinking there wasn’t much point to it, ultimately, except to engage in social interactions in cyberspcae. So I made my own gift app for sending pretend wacky skateboards to your pretend Interewbs friends and called it the Skate and Annoy Wackyboard. Right now there are forty wacky skateboards in the quiver, many of which haven’t been featured here yet. There’s more on the way if I can determine people actually want to use this thing. And so now, I am part of the problem and not the solution. Geek out.
This goes back to September 5th. I completely missed this because I don’t get the paper, no matter how many times the Oregonian calls my house and tries to give it away. Then again I could have read it on Tony Hawk’s Twiiter account like the guys at Boardistan did, nerds…. I kid, I poach from Boardistan and vice versa. If I knew who the hell they were we could be interwebs friends. Getting back to the comic, big deal… Tony will really be famous when he gets mentioned in Andy Cap. These old comics are weird, the way they have new artists take over after the original one retires or dies. 20 years from now in an anthology someone will look at this and think “Who the hell is Tony Hawk?” It would make about as much sense as a Barney Oldfield reference today. Check out John Hart Studios for more B.C. (and Wizard of Id) action.
Notice I posted this before I got around to the Pier Park stop of the Trifecta? Albany locals have pride. Red Cement threw a contest back at the end of August, and I’ve got photos from Danimal, Kevin Porterfield and Mychal Brown after the jump.
Skateboard documentaries are a dime a dozen these days. We’ve seen Dogtown, New York, the UK, Rocco, Duane Peters, pool skating, and many others. What’s missing? Brazil, I guess. Near as I can tell, there’s a pretty slick looking film coming out that documents the scene in Brasil form the 70’s through today. I have to guess because the only thing I can understand are the bits with American pros that are subtitled in Portuguese (I think…) I hope they release this on DVD with English subtitles, because it looks pretty interesting. Besides, you’re a putz if you aren’t interested in broadening your horizons. Check out the trailer for Vida Sobre Rodas, which roughly tranlates to Life About Wheels.
