Ian Johnson: Artist lands on his feet

Ian Johnson's work is featured right now at San Francisco's White Walls Gallery, another show is coming up in Tokyo in May and a book on his art is due in August.

The 28-year-old who dropped out of art school credits his recent success to one thing: skateboarding.

"Skateboarding is entirely responsible for where I am right now with my art career," says Johnson, who is known for his detailed portraits of authors and jazz music icons from the '40s, '50s and '60s. "I've always been into art but never really considered it as a career until Western Edition launched."

Western Edition is the San Francisco skateboard company that Johnson started in 1999 with Kent Uyehara. Johnson is the company's art director. More here.

Baltimore Officer Suspended After Video Surfaces of Him Berating Skateboarder

Posted everywhere so why not here?

The Baltimore Police Department suspended a police officer after a video surfaced on the Internet showing the officer berating two kids for skateboarding, putting one of them in a headlock and pushing the boy on the concrete.

The video shows Officer Salvatore Rivieri approach the kids at the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, the area where they apparently were skateboarding. The kids tell Rivieri they didn't know they couldn't skateboard there.

"You back-talk me, I'm not your father," Rivieri says. "You hear me? I'm not your father. You give that attitude to your father. You give it to me, I'll smack you upside the head. Shut your mouth, I'm talking." Complete story.

IASC Announces the 5th Annual International Go Skateboarding Day

The International Association of Skateboard Companies (IASC) announced today the 5th Annual International Go Skateboarding Day (GSD) will be held this year on the first day of summer, Saturday, June 21, 2008.

Go Skateboarding Day, founded by IASC, is recognized internationally by skateboarders, skateboard companies and the industry as a whole as an official holiday and continues to grow exponentially each year; both the number of people who celebrate it and the number of events taking place in its honor around the globe. Complete article.

Kenny Likitprakong Makes The Leap From Skateboard To Vineyard

Kenny Likitprakong exudes the American free spirit, idealizing Woody Guthrie and the iconography of the hobo. It is best witnessed in the two passions - skateboarding and snowboarding - that he picked up by high school, when he spent all his free time careening down slopes and half-pipes. Yet being a winemaker was his last choice as a profession, a fallback after most other paths - doctor, filmmaker, professional skateboarder - had been knocked out.

Clearly, Likitprakong lives to take risks. He likes to think of himself as making wines for other skateboarders. "I want to run my wine company like a skateboard company," he says, without the sort of corporate values that strip wine of its individuality to make it work on the mass market.

Complete article here. Check out Kenny's Hobo Wine Company website.

Don’t Look Down - Shaun White Documentary Opens at Mountainfilm

It even started like a movie.

Brothers Charlie and Willie Ebersol stood in a pricey souvenir store in Turino, Italy, as Willie contemplated buying “an overpriced Turino jacket,” as Charlie tells it, in the midst of the 2006 Winter Olympics. “Just buy it,” Charlie told him, as a woman standing nearby chimed in.

“I’m buying it,” she said. “My son just won the gold medal!”

Within 24 hours, the two Ebersols, whose father, Dick, is chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, were forging their now-epic friendship with the then-19-year-old Olympic gold medalist Shaun White (and his older brother, Jesse, a designer for Burton) in a back row of one of the two NBC jets that travel daily between New York City and the Olympics. Complete article here.

Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park Opens December 26th

Why do indie film-makers love skateboarders so much? Steve Rose on Gus Van Sant's new slacker thriller.

As Larry Clark once put it: "There is more life in a skateboarder skating down the street than in a hundred Hollywood actors." No matter that said skater is likely to be an inarticulate white middle-class stoner in baggy jeans - for a certain brand of film-maker, skateboarders embody the soul of young America like nobody else. There are plenty of reasons: they are the quintessential urban tribe; they are romantic radicals on the edge of society; and they are generally photogenic teenagers. Their sport has never been uncool; Avril Lavigne's Sk8er Boi notwithstanding, it's possibly cooler now than ever. And, occasionally, they get out of the house and do something cinematic.

On December 26th we get another skate movie, Gus Van Sant's Paranoid Park. It received a special prize at this year's Cannes film festival, and continues along the path Van Sant has been hacking out with previous movies Elephant and Last Days: studying America's disaffected youth with an artful, non-judgmental eye. Article continues.

The New York Times...Still Stuck on Extreme

The New York Times seems to run a piece on "extreme" sports almost weekly, a far cry from the early days of skateboarding when any article about skateboarding in a mainstream publication was required to use the word "fad" in the same sentence.

The most current article is about how "extreme" sport films are no longer regulated to a straight to video release.

From the New York Times...

THE new documentary “Steep” takes viewers where only the most extreme athlete has dared to go: alongside skiers as an avalanche, which looks more like a river, nearly carries them away; watching another skier narrowly slicing his way through backcountry trees as if he’d sneaked onto a Christmas tree farm; in a helicopter as it approaches a snow-glazed mountain when one of the skiers deposited on it zips down an almost vertical slope.

Had it been made a decade ago, “Steep” would have been relegated to ESPN or the video sections of sports stores. Yet it is being released on Friday in actual theaters by Sony Pictures Classics. “Steep” is a sign of how legitimate so-called action sports have become, and the peculiar ways that this mainstream crossover manifests itself.

Films showcasing alternative sports have been around almost as long as the sports; the director Bruce Brown’s classic surfing documentary, “The Endless Summer,” dates to 1966. The current twist involves films that focus on the bastard children of surfing — skateboarding, snowboarding, freestyle BMX riding and extreme skiing — that can now be found at the multiplex. (continued)

Six Hundred Needy Kids Get Early Christmas Presents From Etnies

LAKE FOREST – When Daniel Gonzalez unwrapped his new Etnies skate shoes, he had his plans set. "I'm going to wear them to school tomorrow," said the 10-year-old Anaheim boy – his eyes bright with joy. He had just gotten out of foster care from Orangewood Children's Foundation and rejoined his mother and three siblings. "They're the style everyone wears at school. I had some but they don't fit anymore."

On Wednesday, Daniel was among 600 needy children who crowded Etnies Skate Park for the fourth annual Holiday Festival. Each child got a box of new Etnies sports shoes, posed with Santa and Mrs. Claus for photos while local pro skaters wowed them with tricks. Complete story here.

The Skateboarder's Journal applaudes Etnies for this generous gesture.

Jake Brown: The Comeback Kid

While sitting at my computer this morning, with my television on in the background tuned to the Today show on NBC, I hear the name Jake Brown. I know I should be used to it now, but I still laugh when I see a skateboarding story featured in the mainstream media. When I first started skateboarding the only time I would see skateboarding on television was the rare spot on Wide World of Sports or CBS Sports Spectacular, and of course the usual "fad" news coverage.

Oh, how times have changed.

Here's a link to an interview with Jake on the NBC site.

Skateboarders' Date With Royalty

Oh yes, skateboarding is just so hard-core...file this one under "strange".

A team of skateboarders escorted the Queen and her royal procession around a new stadium to celebrate its official opening.

Thirteen members of the Pioneer Skatepark and The Den Youth Club in Heathlands Drive, St Albans, aged between ten and 16 were asked to be guard of honour to the Royal car when the Queen and Prince Philip paid a visit to Milton Keynes on Thursday. Complete article.

Vancouver’s Skull Skates Immortalizes Local Ambassadors Barry Walsh and Marc Tisson

Respect is a big word for guys like Barry Walsh and Marc Tison. Respect for their chosen sport and lifestyle. Respect for the city they come from. Respect for people who keep it real. As members of the famed Embassy MTL (also known as EMBC MTL) skateboarding crew, Walsh and Tison are also the newest faces for Peter “P.D.” Ducommun’s Skull Skates in Montreal. This week, Skull Skates launches its limited edition Barry Walsh and Marc Tison boards, and for the Montreal duo, it’s as close as they’d like to get to a valediction of their 20-plus years on four wheels.
Vancouver-based Skull Skates has always had an independent streak, shunning the sport’s fluctuating trends over the years. Like Walsh and Tison, the company remained apart from the bigger names, and bigger money, the sport had to offer. “It’s a perfect philosophical fit,” Walsh says. “He’s bringing his brand into Montreal with respect.” More...

S.F. Skate Club's Class Is In Session

It's a gloomy Saturday morning in San Francisco, and the streets are slick with drizzle as the San Francisco Skate Club, a program dedicated to providing children ages 8 to 13 with skateboarding lessons and mentoring, gears up and departs for the Novato Skate Park in Marin. The weather on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge is pleasant, perfect for skateboarding.

At the skate park, the club is surprised to find the place virtually empty, which is unusual considering its reputation for being crowded on the weekends. The kids waste no time slapping on their helmets and pads. Nine-year-old Stratus Elmore rolls down one of the park's banks and lofts an ollie out of a mellower section of the bowl. The kids are hyped. The session is on.

Full story at the SFGate.com

Shanghai’s Skate Showdown - From The New York Times

The world’s largest skatepark (as in skateboarding and in-line skating) is in Shanghai, or more precisely in New Jiangwan City, a planned community that includes an enormous park (think Central Park-size) as part of the city’s emerging “greenbelt.” To celebrate my son Edward’s 11th birthday, we spent Saturday October 27th at the 3rd annual Shanghai Showdown, a competition for the best “professional skaters, inline and BMXers from around the world.” For those of you who may not be regulars on this circuit, as none of us are, “BMXers” refers to trick bicycles, on which riders do amazing stunts in the half-pipe.

The complete article is here.

D.O.P.E. (Death or Prison Eventually) - New Documentary Featuring Skateboarding Legends

“You had to commit a felony to see the premiere,” said 1977 World Skateboarding Champion Dennis Martinez concerning documentary, D.O.P.E. (Death Or Prison Eventually). D.O.P.E. features Martinez and lifelong friends and legendary skateboarders from the 70s, 80s and 90s - BRUCE LOGAN, JAY ADAMS and CHRISTIAN HOSOI. Famed actor, DANNY TREJO, narrates.

Combining never before seen pristine archival footage with current HD interviews and reenactments, D.O.P.E. moves through three decades of skateboarding, violence and drug history: the 70s, 80s and 90s. More at Business Week.

Puehse Twins Going Hollywood

Tristan and Nic Puehse enjoy getting big air while skateboarding, but soon they might be getting a different kind of air, as in airtime.

The 9-year-old twins, formerly of El Dorado Hills, who now live in Shingle Springs, will have a starring role in a movie, which begins filming in January. Beyond that, on Monday the twins, along with their parents Mike and Karyn and their 6-year-old sister Natasha, met with officials from Disney to discuss some television projects.

Full article here.

Skateboarders Now and Then

Here's a cool article I found on "The Lookout News", a Santa Monica based website.

The Lens was just a lad when, in the mid-‘70s, the polyurethane wheel and Santa Monica’s Z-boys transformed the skateboard from a Eisenhower-era gimmick into today’s all-consuming obsession. That a kid in the Inland Empire could mimic a bit of surf culture made it all that more cool.

I distinctly recall using the skateboard (a banana yellow Malibu Grand Prix with a kick tail) to travel from point A to point B, and soar down insanely steep hills. Today’s generation of skateboarders, however, seem fixated on grinding their boards along such things as curbs and handrails, stairs and benches.

Complete article.

Black Friday Bargain Stock: Volcom

Like many high-growth stocks, Volcom (Nasdaq: VLCM) has been volatile, wiping out at any hint of slowing growth. Its latest face-plant gives investors an opportunity to buy shares of a great company at a bargain price.

If you recall, when it reported its most recent quarterly results, Volcom may have increased sales and earnings by more than 40%, but the company's guidance spooked investors and its stock plunged. In the last month, it's down more than 40%.

Read more at the Motley Fool.

Bring Your Skateboard To School?

Students at Northam Primary School are being encouraged to keep active and children who enjoyed skateboarding are allowed to bring their equipment to school.The skateboarding option has been running at the school for over five years and students this year were keen to restart the option.Students from Year 4 to 7 are welcome to bring a skateboard and protective gear to use during the break times under supervision. The full scoop is here.

Related website - Skate Pass.

Nike SB Marketing

Click here for an interesting take on how Nike SB markets their shoes to the skateboarding world. You'll have to read most of the way through the article before you come across the Nike section...it's worth it.

Signal Hill - 30 Years Later

It was 1975 and skateboarding was hugely popular when Jim O'Mahoney, head of the U.S. Skateboard Assn., got a call from the producer of ABC's television show, "The Guinness Book of World Records." The producer wanted to shoot a skateboarding event for the show.

As a child, growing up in Long Beach, O'Mahoney begged his parents to drive fast over the steepest section of Hill Street, an almost 30-degree incline in Signal Hill that mimicked the feeling of a roller coaster. O'Mahoney told the TV producer he could create a downhill skateboarding race on the steep Signal Hill incline, bordered by oil fields.

Read the rest of the article in the LA Times.