flatland

Flatland wizardry out of nowhere

There is some insane footwork in this video. Street skating, straight up freestyle, and several points in between. For instance, the guy doing the handstand fingerflip in the shot above actually ollied on to the top of that pole to get there. Think Natas spin without the spin, and then a departure. I guess kids are out ther getting stoked on old Rodney Mullen videos, and then taking it from there. These guys have got technical skills out the wazoo, but my desire to worship at the altar of their talent is severely tempered by the same geek vibe that hampered freestyle in the 80’s. In this case it’s the cheesy sense of vintage freestyle in their choice of soundtracks. Sick skating though. Check it out after the jump.

– Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

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chin

Skate with the Bones Brigade (for $75k)

It’s a far cry from doing demos in the paring lot at Six Flags for a couple hundred bucks! That’s right, you can have your own private session with BONES BRIGADE members Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Tommy Guerrero, and of course, Tony Hawk. It will cost you $75,000, but the money goes to the Tony Hawk Foundation, I assume after all the expenses are paid. That’s a buttload of cash for a vanity session, but if someone rich kid’s parents or middle aged lottery winner wants to shell out that kind of money to benefit skateparks, so much the better. They have cheaper packages at Tony Hawk Experience. Actually , it will cost you more to spend a day with Tony’s family (100k) than it will to skate with the Bones Brigade. Sure, it’s absurd, but I have to say I’m all for it, considering the the benefit. However, the prices make it seem like many of these packages may go unclaimed. They hired a special firm to set this up, so maybe they know what they are doing. For $2,000 you get a phone call from (Limit, 10 packages). So if our readers want to pony up for a $2000 interview with Tony, I’m game. On the opposite side of the scale, anyone with gas money can win a session with GVK!

– Thanks to Colin for the tip.

[Source: Skate Daily]

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Concrete information

Boardistan has a video interview with Brian Harper from California Skateparks talking about the cement on wood structure used in the Maloof Money Cup. I sort of assumed they were going with prefab concrete elements, but it looks like they used foam underneath and concrete on top, with no rebar. The concrete can be recycled, and I suppose the foam could be too. I still feel like they should build permanent skateparks and leave them, but that wouldn’t jive with the Maloof Money Cup sponsors and the X-Games need to have large amounts of spectator seating and controlled access by the media.

– Thanks to Brian Baade for the tip.

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Bill Danforth

Bill Danforth sighting

Just got a few pics of Bill Danforth from the gal who set up the (Ramp it Up) Smithsonian show for Native American Skaters. BTW, Here’s a link to a Washington Post article on the ramp jam. Here’s what she had to say:

God bless Danforth. I had the extreme privilege of taking a memorable road trip with the King of Hate in 2007 and snapped this picture of him hitting the pipes near the Pala reservation in CA. Takes the cigarette out of his mouth and says, “You ready? Cause I’m only gonna do this once…” then proceeds to kill it. Danforth spent the entire trip trying to convince me to hire Mini Kiss as the entertainment for my opening party at the Smithsonian. He also swore to me that he never dated girl skaters because “who wants to kiss someone who smells like a kneepad?” Good times…

Haw, haw! Good times indeed. Bonus tree in the face shot after the jump.

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dinojr

Dinosaur Jr vid with J Mascis skating and posing

Check out the video for “I’m Over It” by Dinosaur Jr. Old Jay is engaged in some street skating in the vid, most likely with the help of a stunt double or two. Most music videos with skateboarding don’t go through the trouble of showing the band actually skating, even if they are posing tricks. He brought along one of his Alien Workshop Dinosaur Jr skateboards and a posse of BMX riders for the shoot. I like the vid, especially if it is posed.

– Thanks to Peter Brown for the tip.

[Source: The Village Voice]

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TESTING – We may have been hacked.

Actually, infected is a better description. I think I’ve removed the affected files, but if you are still getting a malware or virus alert, please leave a comment. It would also be helpful to know what browser and if you are on a MAc or a PC. Please check the time of the last comment made, if it’s only been 10 minutes, chances are I’m still working on it.