He’s got a foundation, a skatepark, and a contest named after him, and he’s been honored by the Smithsonian, but what do you really know about Tim Brauch? Pete Koff is producing a documentary for release in 2009. He’s looking for your stories and photos of Tim to make this community project and help round out the documentary. More information and the trailer after the jump.
The State Games of Oregon have been organizing “amateur Olympic-style competitions for all ages and skill levels” since 1986. They claim 38 sports and 16,000 athletes, so it’s quite an affair. Skateboarding (in the form of Slalom) has been part of the agenda for the last three years. There were three days of slalom events this weekend, including something intriguing called “slalom cross” which looks like it’s head to head on the same set of cones. Sounds like fun to enter or watch. The Statesman Journal has an article and photo gallery. Come on, don’t be so uptight. Slalom can be fun. – Thanks to Judy Oyama for the tip.
The results are in and the Grovefather trounced the competition, so congratulations to Larry Pescatore, who will be receiving his prize package consisting of a Cold War skateboard and some assorted junk. We also got a few late, late entries after the voting had already started. You can see them after the jump.
For the second installment of Saturday Starrs, I bring you this short clip of the 1979 Rose Parade in Pasadena California. The City of Lakewood had a float with one of the clear plexiglass ramps on it, and of course, someone was skating on it too. From the archives of Scott Starr.
Mark Conahan, Rich Burton, Shawn Reinert and a few others are road tripping down to San Jose as you read this. Mark is making progress reports via cellphone snaps on Antigrav Remote. UPDATE: “Too far, too hot.” Supposedly it hit 100° yesterday. MC and Rich are hitting the Oregon Coast parks instead. A couple other guys are still going to San Jose.
[Photo: California Skateparks]
Lets all welcome back Arron Lui. He is back cleaning up Aumsville, he has started a trash patrol. I love sponsoring this kid. No KA Oi. figure it out. Pose Off Grover.
Who needs subtlety when you can hit someone over the head. The Censored series from DGK expands on a familiar theme in skateboard graphics. There have been some European companies with more explicit decks in this decade, and pin-up art on skateboards predates the Corey Webster model. In the early nineties there was the infamous Randy Colvin World Industries deck that came in a black plastic bag. I’m not going to host this image, yes, I’m prude. A lot of online skateshops have blurred them as well. You can see it on the Slap Forums or anywhere else if you do a search of DGK and Censored. The DGK Censored Series… When you care enough to let the whole world know you’ve got no class.
I’ve just about exhausted the collection of John Drummond. I was looking at my collection of skate zines, trying to decide how to proceed, but the decision has been made for me thanks to the generous loan of one Sonny Robertson, whose pictures have appeared once, twice , three times (…a lady). You can look forward to such titles as Preparation S, Dirt Rag, Pad Rot, EA Zine, The Abandon Manifesto and The Page. There’s also an issue of Underbelly that dates to the year 2000 thathas some interesting items in it. Don’t get you panties in a bunch. These zines were carefully placed for the photo above. Click to enlarge.
Hey look, I’m not making this stuff up. This is a system for skateboard wheels that consists of an aluminum hub with interchangeable urethane treads. It dates back to around 2003 or so, possibly a little bit earlier. I believe they were made by Dragonetti, although I could be wrong. If not, I think it was some similar sounding name with an Italian sounding suffix. These pictures are from a used set, and I neglected to clean out the skatepark grime that accumulated on them, but you get the idea. The aluminum hub was actually a two piece fabrication. Pressure from the axle nut was supposed to compress the hub against the inner lip of the urethane wheel to keep it stable, but the reality was that normal use would cause the wheels to slip on the center hub. It seemed like a difficult but not insurmountable deficiency to overcome. This might have been a case where the product was rushed to market too soon. They don’t seem to be available anymore. In fact, this set belonged to Grover, and he was in contact with the manufacturer for a while about the performance issues. They said they had a solution figured out and were supposed to send him a replacement set under warranty but nothing ever came of it. The costs of the initial wheel and hub combo was moderately more expensive than a traditional wheel, but the replacement treads were priced to make them cheaper than buying a new set of standard wheels. There are some more pictures after the jump.
