Smoke Break #834: Skating The Ripples And Rubbles Of Christchurch After The Quake…

Skateboarding is the sport of opportunists…

Cool Thing We Want #259: Mark Gonzales’ Super Sweet Signature Adidas SK8 Sneaks

One of my childhood hero/role models, The Gonz, gets a gorgeous shoe with his own name on it. It looks like a Swedish patriot’s Gazelle with a Vans sole and I. Must. Have. It. Available at Adidas, worldwide. Not aware of the legend? Click after the leap for an intro… Read more

Smoke Break #800: Definitely The Most Inspiring Thing That You Will See This Week

Meet Italo Romano, a double amputee who rips harder than 99% of kids who enjoy the full use of both their legs. In the words of my old friend Jude (who shared this with me on FB), mad respect.

Smoke Break #783: Super Freaky Tron-Lit Halfpipe In Melbourne

We have a nice little halfpipe in the Scout office, but if we Tronned it up with touch screen masonite and jazzy blue lights, we’d most likely be in comas right about now from spatial disorientation and our heads impacting the ground. It would be a much cooler stunt if the riders did double runs, cutting each other off and exploding like glass statues.

Smoke Break #727: On The Silver Lining Of Home Foreclosures…

A new mini-doc called Cannonball shows how skateboarders in and around Fresno have been capitalising on the recession by riding all the abandoned pools in the backyards of foreclosed homes. It’s very similar to what the Lords of Dogtown kids did around Venice during the water shortages of the 1970′s and early 80′s.

Once upon a time, Fresno was the California Dream. Own a car. Own a house. Own a pool. Everyone wanted it and the wonderful world of credit made it all possible. But now, with the foreclosure monster running wild, the dream is dry. Thousands of pools are festering in the hot Central Valley sun. For most people this is tragic. But for some, it’s an opportunity.

Proof that every apocalypse has an upside…

Smoke Break #725: Shredding The World’s Biggest Skateboard…

Outstanding.

This summer, California Skateparks brought The World’s Largest Skateboard to Camp Woodward, PA. One afternoon, campers and staff took the enormous skateboard out for a ride. Later in the day, California Skateparks owner Joe Ciaglia decided to take his creation for a solo ride…

Smoke Break #686: Rainy Day Dreams And Stop-Motion Radness

Damn this rain! To all the friends and food wonks who will soon break ground on the miniramp inside Scout’s new office in Strathcona, thank you!. Let’s do this, for blessed be the ride.

Front Foot Impossibles Like This Are Improbable Possibilities…

From Ferrari’s illegally racing through the streets of Paris in the 1970′s to juvenile black bears falling thoroughly tranquilized out of suburban sycamores, one can feast upon quite a bit of YouTube. Case in point, back home from dinner this evening it provided what are probably the best two seconds of skateboarding I’ve seen in my life. Watch above, a perfect front-footed impossible done at speed over a sketchy loading gap. Even if you’ve never stepped on a board in your life, I hope you’ll agree that it’s worthy of pause. If not, maybe watch it again.

Soundtrack #91: Happy Day Today

Happy Day Today, a very good song by Jim Noir, made better by some pretty burly street skating.

Random #453: Ceiling Wallride

Not sure what video it’s from or when it was shot, but I never would have thought it possible: Danny Gonzalez goes bank to backside wallride and then slaps a method air/wallie on to the ceiling. It’s just unnatural. Were it not for the fact that I couldn’t possibly do that, I would most likely leave my desk to go try. More of Gonzalez below, including a bone break (cover the kiddies eyes) and a 360 flip fast plant off a tree and over a gap at speed.

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