Why Am I Me?

That’s some crazy megaramp action from Bob Burnquist, especially sticking that switch backside ollie.

Managed to get to the last day of the Ed Templeton show on Saturday. Bought a copy of his book Deformer.

Unkle – Heaven Remix from We Love You So on Vimeo.

Just found myself over at the Spike Jonze blog and saw this video for Unkle, saw the original footage from Fully Flared a while ago and thought it was great, as is this video; skateboarding, explosions and music from Unkle.

Thrasher Skateboard Magazine

Just headed over to the Thrasher website and saw they have a new video player. No bad thing, I used to hate the Quick Time movies they had, so slow. This is some RAD footage of Christian Hosoi, that benihana! Holmes.

There’s also an Hosoi interview on the Fuel.tv website.

Skatepark in Kampala, East Africa

Good to see the locals in Kampala, Uganda have built their own skatepark. The photo is from a series by Yann Gross. I saw a few kids with boards in Ghana when I was there, never saw where they skated though.

In other skateboard news: Skateparks Go Green, apparently.

Bamboo skateboard

I bought some Bamboo flooring a few years ago and part of it’s appeal was it’s green credentials, so I was very interested in this article on bamboo skateboards I came across over at the Inhabitat website. According to the Science Channel “…skateboards have replaced furniture as the leading contributor to maple deforestation”.

I remember that the shop I bought my flooring from telling me bamboo is stronger than oak but, as it’s a grass, crops in 4 to 6 years. I wonder how they are to skate though? That’s the real test, would be interesting to see if they are able to replace maple boards, that would have a massive impact on the US skate industry.

In other skateboard related news:

• Plan B video taster of Superfuture over on their website
• Danny Way breaks his back, again! Ouch. Get well soon.
• Silas Baxter-Neal wins Thrasher SOTY

This is a moment most skaters have been through, that first drop in, a right of passage. Clearly it’s the easiest trick in the world, other than pushing along or riding off a curb perhaps, but it doesn’t feel like it when you’re up there looking down that first time. Put the tail on the coping with your back foot on it, move your front foot onto the board around the front truck bolts, move your weight forward and roll down the tranny. Easy!

Damn, I feel sorry for the little fella. It’s pure psych when it comes off, and then, once you’ve made it, it’s almost impossible to bail it ever again. It’s all about that first time though. He’s definitely got his front foot too far forward there.
I think I made my first drop-ins at all heights thankfully.

Barefoot and Bitumen

Tony Hallam is about as vintage a skater as you’re likely to get (we don’t think he’ll mind us saying that). with a remarkable collection of skate memorabilia including stickers, photos, magazines and a mind-blowing 800+ boards, the guy is also a serious collector. How serious? When he offered to bring in some shoes for us to photograph, he even asked if we wanted to see the original plastic shopping bags from back in the day! He’s an obsessive-compulsive for sure, but Tony is also a qualified engineer who has been designing skateparks for over 15 years, and he is still a common sight on a board in his hometown of Melbourne. he remains one of the few elder statesmen of the sport – Thanks to gnarly dudes like Tony Hallam, history has survived to tell this tale…

Wow, 800 boards! I have to confess that I do have quite a few pairs of Vans that I find extremely hard to bin, none of them are quite as battered as the ones above although I did have pairs like this back in the day.

Finally bought a new board, a Black Label Adam Alfaro. The graphics are by Christian Hosoi and the board is part of a series to celebrate ’20 years of the Elephant’, other boards in the series have artwork by the Gonz, Natas, Lance Mountain and Ed Templeton. What a line up.

Can’t believe that Black Label have been around that long, although I reckon that time includes the company in its original incarnation when it was called Lucero, I don’t think it was too long before Lucero became Black Label though. The first Black Label board I ever had was a Max Evans slick which, I think, I would have bought around 1992? I can’t remember for sure but I’m pretty certain that this is my fifth Label deck.

I also got a new set of Indy’s, Stage X 139′s. Rubbers are a little crappy so I think I’m going to get new ones. How hard is it to skate new trucks though? I think I had my last set for around 4-5 years so it’s been a while since I had to break new trucks in.

Happy 20th birthday Black Label. And remember, NEVER FORGET.