TRASK
SHIFT CHANGE
MIKE MALDONADO HAS SIGNED UP OVER AT WORLD, WHILE
Canadian shredder Dan Pageau was sent packing. Kanten Russell and
Dave Mayhew are poised to launch their own clothing line, Eilenex,
which will undoubtedly include garments for both plastic bench trickery
and jumping off of buildings.
Toy Machine frontman Ed Templeton was
hospitalized recently for an especially nasty
case of pneumonia, a malady he whopped
just in time to go over and sack himself silly
at the big European events.
vert shirts and bandannas), inebriation? Will
J. Strickland be involved? The answers are
as follows: maybe, maybe, yes.
Adrian Lopez is in a perma-cast for the
next month (while on tour with Zero), after
Chad Knight is the proud father of a boy, which he has to get some wrist surgery
Colin Knight.
After the extra-janky judging of the Slam
City Jam girl's contest, skating's sweetheart
Elissa Steamer announced she will be enter-
ing only regular pro events from now on.
What superteam is rumored to be on the
verge of breakup only to re-form, sans
one team member, under the banner of
Darkstar skateboards?
Will Pissdrunx skateboards become a real-
ity? Will the higher-profile Drunx actually
leave their solid gigs to take a chance at an
endeavor based on, among other things (i.e.
Marc
Johnson
gets
buggy
around
the house
MA
involving blood, bone grafts, and other
ghastly medical-related nastiness.
In the what-took-them-so-long department,
I Path has decided to put shoes on Kenny
Reed's feet.
After losing $100 in five minutes of dice to
Kevin Taylor, did Rob Welsh take his luck
to a horseshoe tournament in Maine?
Looks like Tim McKenney has gotten goat-
roped to the altar. Plans of a wedding in La
Honda, CA, are being made, but be sure this
is one fish he won't let get away.
SMOKE SHOW
Tony Alva and Mr.
RESIDENT RIPPER
Skaters like Mark Hubbard are the new
breed of skatepark designers. They live
there, design on site, make it right,
and skate it tight. Jobsite: Newburg, OR.
COUCH SLOUCH
In 1994 a typical family with cable TV had
access to 21,000 hours of sports programming
per year. This year that same family will have
access to 86,000 hours-that comes out to 235
Lucky were allegedly HALL OF MEAT
jailed overnight in NYC for
skate crimes and misde-
meanors.
Steve Olson
used some of his ill-gotten
dot-communist spokes-
man gains to purchase
their freedom.
Think schwag keeps
appearing in the oddest
places. Stone Cold Steve
Austin was son Nash
Bridges wearing a Think
flamer shirt. Fred Durst
aftired
similarly
Think-ish in a new
Limp B video. And
Think stickers are
is
all
over the
film Losers.
hours and 40 minutes
per day. Mainstream
sports broadcasts, how-
ever, are taking major
hits, as many are posting
record viewer lows. The
NBA is down 21 percent
from last year. The
NCAA men's champi-
onship posted an all-time
low. And major league
baseball also ranked in
with a record low 2.9 rat-
ing. With statistics like
this, it doesn't take a sci-
ence teacher to figure
that broadcasts of sports
like skateboarding,
snowboarding, and surf-
ing, which are all grow-
ing in viewership, consti-
tute the future. Not only are people not watch-
ing mainstream organized sports, but they are
not participating in them either. From 1987 to
1998, the number of kids playing baseball fell
by more than 18 percent.
Ray Ramirez' speed bump came
by way of a chump clotheslining
him in Visalia, CA.
Andy Kessler is officially an
employee of the City of New
York, thus proving the power of
skateparks to transform the
youth of the land. Perhaps
more unsettling is the fact
that old Kessler and Zephyr
graffiti crony Philip "Snafu"
Pucci is now a director
in Hollywood.
The International Association of Skateboard
Companies expects sales of premium products
to hit $900 million this year to $700 million
from last year. Skate shops account for an esti-
mated 45 percent of sales.
In another momentous occasion for "roots
marketing," MacElroy Communications, maker
of a number of slicko skate and surf ads, is
rumored to have been absorbed by the behe-
moth Foote Cone and Belding agency. When
New York comes to Newport Beach what does
it mean?
CLASS ACT
Cypress High School in California became the
first school in the world to install skateboard
racks. Says principal Norm Fried: "People who
have cars have parking spots, people who have
bikes have bike racks. I don't care what any-
body says about skateboarder culture, I think
skateboarders should have a place to put
their skateboards."
Thomas Campbell's recent opening at
Alleged's art gallery space in New York was a
resounding success as scads of $3000 paint-
ings were snapped up by eager collectors.
Tommy Guerrero pro-
vided musical entertain-
ment for the opening
night throngs. Revelers
included Michelle
Lockwood, Aaron
Rose, Chris Habbibe,
and the usual cast of the
unbalanced cultural crit-
ics. Damon Way flew in
for the evening to demon-
strate support.
shade temperature must have yielded some
impressive thermodynamic test statistics. The
basic heat formula goes something like this:
122 in the shade translates to 9 additional
degrees in the sun. So now we have 131
degrees. Next we must factor in another effec-
tive additional 50 percent increase from the
heat radiating from the ground. This brings our
overall working temperature to a whopping
196 degrees. Unfortunately, this simply convo-
luted tale diverged here. Were the wheel tests
being analyzed actually executed on full size
touting sport coupes by thorough Bavarian
motor mechanics? The lads all stayed in a neu-
tral site at the Furnace Creek Ranch. Stukin
was observed filming the tests of the BMW
Motorworks, the same firm that is favored by
the Vitello brothers and others. Also testing
coincidentally was an outfit from Range Rover.
Steve was a personal fave of these engineers
since he owns about
a dozen Rovers.
Reportedly not even
World Industries
President Bruce
Freeberg had any
knowledge of the
aforementioned
alleged activities.
Low media points,
runners
POSER
OF THE MONTH
Suspect: Nick Nguyen's sister
Crime: Crooked k-grind
Punishment: In-breeding
The values of skate cul-
tural artifacts keep rising.
Right now NOS split axle
Gullwing trucks are going
for $375. We heard that a
pair of '60s clay-wheeled
Duke Kahanamouku
skateboards went for
13,000 bucks. A new Wes
Humpston Bulldog design goes for a grand a
pop, and a grouping of life-sized animated
Kevin Ancell hula dancers will set you back
about 50 thou. But it's not about money. Take
legendary pool rider Tom Inouye's personal
collection as a sample of getting it all right.
Tom has a section of tile and coping from
every major pool he's ever ridden. They are all
there too. The Del Mar Skate Ranch, the
Marina Del Rey Dogbowl, the Nut Bowl,
Paramont, Anaheim, Montebello, the Fruit
Bowl, etc.
WHEEL IT
Secret wheel testing is back in vogue. While
Rocco claims to be out of the day to day run-
ning of World Industries, apparently he's still
involved with R&D. His old associate Paul
Stukin left a meeting in Los Angeles with
Mayor Richard Riordan and immediately
drove out to Death Valley. The Riordan parley
was reportedly about getting youth recre-
ational opportunities going in the inner city.
The DV trip saw Paul and friends running big
narrow tread-rolling surfaced wheels down the
Panamint mountains into the inferno of the
world's hottest pit. The 122 degree in the
Producers
Grazer,
up:
Brian
Ron
and
Howard,
Eddie Murphy's
backslapping con-
spiracy on the TV
show PJ's, where
now clay animation
figures kickflip in
the titles. The loser:
Seen on the X Games. An X Games commen-
tator's quote that "all Danny Way wants to do
is qualify for the X games." Isn't that just a lit-
tle too inbred?
DOG DAZE
Several people claimed that they saw Jay
Adams in an Oahu, Hawaii, based documen-
tary on prison life.
Pancho Moler is rumored to be doing pornos
with Jim Powers.
Three days of Rage in SF. Sony Music dis-
claimed all knowledge. It was definitely not a
live CD recording session. Bruce Gilbert dis-
avowed any and all knowledge and denied
laboring on Bamboozle, a Spike Jonze minstrel
show joint as well as discounting his involve-
ment on the new Charlie's Angels. Glenn E.
Friedman denied that he was an official pho-
tographer but did admit to hanging out with
Vice President Al Gore. Zach De La Rocha
said he knew nothing and was particularly for-
getful over a Vanity Fair cover shoot with
Annie Leibowitz. Bobby Carrillo, Takuji
Masuda, Beto, Guerrero, Reyes, Ancell,
Meta, the Carroll bros., Fish, and Frank
Romero all lied too. Everyone wasn't there.
MAPLE SKATEBOARD
PRSNTS BLACK CAT 68
THIS MOVIE IS NOT RATED
Black Cat Premiere
fter being trumpeted in by double-page
A ads featuring a certain feline excitedly
interacting with an adult magazine, Maple's
long-awaited
Black Cat video
premiered June
2nd at Encinitas'
La Paloma Theater
to a grip of skate
fans eager to see
what that preco-
Burnett and Knight all
through the night.
cious Black Cat, and the entire Maple team,
would do next.
Whether drinking booze while flying a bi-
plane, blowing shit up with dynamite, or
cavorting with busty women at a strip joint,
the adventures of Maple's lovable Black Cat
provided the perfect prelude for each of the
team's respective parts. Knight goes big and
gets wild, Coyne teases the ledges with his
technical trickery, Jesse Erickson works in
the flip-in, flip-out medium like a fine artist
might work in clays or oils, Louie Barletta
gets loose, Charlie Wilkins keeps it well-
rounded, and Jerry Hsu blasts benches and
batters rails en route to household name sta-
Ol' Dirty Smolik and
Flogging Hensley
THOUGHT BUBBLE
tus. You can
almost hear the
kids in the
Midwest crying
it
out now,
"Hoo soo!
Hoo-soo!"
"Hardcore skaters are adventurists in every
way." -Chad Fernandez
"We don't want mom or dad to say they're not
buying it because of what it's depicting."
-World Industries President Freeberg
"This is how I get high." -Just Say Never spot
with Andy MacDonald
"My worst nightmare came true. I was stuck in
traffic behind a bus that had a ten foot tall pic-
ture of Olson on it. I'd say that qualifies me as
Mr. Unlucky."-Rick Blackhart
"Thanks to the popularity of extreme sports,
money is pouring into the skate business."
-The Los Angeles Times
201