O.D.G.

Too good not to re-post. A look into the darker side of the skate industry; http://site.48blocks.com/anthony-pappalardo Thank you to 48 blocks for getting the answers out to many peoples' questions. If I could support Pops through a skate product purchase I would be on it like white on rice. However from the sound of the interview I'm pretty adamant that I'll boycott Converse for life. Sorry Kenny..

Fast and loose style with a nice frontside 360...Danny Sargent. Oh how I miss the New Deal bright yellow ads..what a great company. Hope you have a great Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or whatever holiday you may celebrate. Glad the world didn't end.. See you in the new year..

While perusing the FTC site recently, I came across some great Pier 7 videos added by Brad Johnson on Vimeo.  Although there seems to be a Tsunami of great stuff going down in skateboarding right now, these videos are too good not to mention. Lots of legends in here...Lavar McBride, John Igei, Enrique Lorenzo, Josh Kalis, Drake Jones, Brandon Biebel, among many less well known but equally talented dudes. Check it out.. (may have a short load time, give it a second). RIP..

   . Better late then never.. had this one partially done then some technical difficulties put a spanner in the works.... ..hopefullly the inclusion of some Robert Williams art and covers should make up for it. This guy is bonkers.  The blog got 15,000 hits as of today. Thanks to everyone who has clicked on here and/or commented. This is just something I do for myself but it's good to know that other people are looking at it and hopefully enjoying it as well. -O.D.G.

In the eager anticipation of the Pretty Sweet video that comes out next week I've been racking my brain trying to imagine who will have a part and what tricks are going to go down. After weeks of torturous brain racking I went the other direction and came up with a few highly unlikely (but hopefully amusing) hypothetical situations that may come from the most anticipated skate video of 2012... Guy Mariano's part is so good that in early screenings viewers' faces were literally melting off...the video is recalled and he is asked to tone it down a notch. Devine Calloway's picture perfect smile is noticed by higher up corporate execs at Colgate and he becomes the first pro skater to get a toothpaste sponsor. Garvey steals the show in Chris Roberts ' part and ends up getting on the team, Chris gets the boot. After exhausting every scarf/hair color combo imaginable, Mike Carroll reverts (pun intended) back to the 80's flop over haircut and hot pink com...

This post started off with an idea to put up the 101 ad with Gabriel...then realized that it's hard to mention him without also mentioning Guy, Rudy, and Paulo. Love these videos by Jacob43, aka Jake Rosenberg. Especially considering that they were filmed in my old stomping grounds in Santa Barbara. Frankie Hill cameo.. This one's a little old but nevertheless an amazing display of raw talent by Rudy Johnson.. ..more Wrench Pilot 'toons coming next. Promise!

1. no comply (43) ..Kalis' call to put it to rest partway through a line is a solid indicator of how commonplace it is nowadays. Gotta love the no comply/tailslide to switch crooks combo. Never did get why it was also known as a 43 though.. 2. boneless ..They were big in the 80's then died out with the street explosion, and now that it's ok to skate tranny again they're everywhere. Some people never stopped doing them. Shout out to Peter Hewitt.. and Brian Anderson for the handrail innovation. 3. five o to fakie ..this one's older than dirt. Why it suddenly made a reappearance is anyone's guess. Stalled out or with a long grind, always looks good.. 4. late shove it.  Ronnie's 360 late shove it over the trashcan in his Berrics' Battle Commander part is mind blowing, and Pfanner (again popping up on here) has a mean backside one.. and with that hair I sometimes think I'm having a Sheffey flashback. 5. impossible. Hard to explain how huge th...

Small blip on the ever-growing skateboard radar but we lost a soldier/pioneer in the world of skateboarding recently-Tom Sims. Anyone who was around when skateboarding was huge back in the 80's and even prior most likely remembers Sims skateboards.  His contributions to skateboarding and snowboarding are huge, so as a way to commemorate his passing here is a quick look back at some of the skaters on the team and ads that stood out to me.  Consider it a minor gesture to a major figure.. Geez...look at that lineup! Buck Smith had a ton of coverage and probably deserves his own post..  As an aside, Ride Channel had a great two part feature on Kona Skatepark with an appearance of the above mentioned. If you have a second, check it out on YouTube. Even if you're not familiar with Kona or Buck Smith, it's a great way to learn about some skate history and the oldest still functioning skatepark in the U.S.  As another aside...new lif...

Recently I have found myself staring at a few pics in skate mags and thinking "how is that even possible?". After trying to find explanations through the use of fish eye lenses or new board technology, I am at a loss. Maybe skaters are just capable of more than we had previously thought? This was one of the first ones that caught my eye... couldn't believe it when I learned it was a kickflip. Austyn Gillette Then this guy added to the madness. Chris Pfanner Even the old dudes are getting in on the action. Dill Hard to find just one Brandon Westgate flick to focus on but this sequence caught my attention for not only the ollie up but the lengthy gap at the end. Every time I look at it I can't help but think "who would try to skate this?". This is just disturbing. Aldrin Garcia These guys just might be aliens.. Gilbert Crockett, Donovan Piscopo.  Although this is a great photos, the  video  o...

This one's been staring me in the face for some time now. Couple atv's and the impetus for Consolidated Skateboards , Karma Tsocheff and Alan Petersen. I might have had some beers tonight so I'll skip the rhetoric. And not to take a trip to negative town, but F this dude, and F these dudes. Even in 2012, with skateparks everywhere, we're still getting harassed.

Still not sure how a whole genre of a sport can just disappear, but there you go. Always seemed pretty amazing to me but had a certain air of eliteness that made it seem somewhat unnaproachable. And those boards, sheesh. I don't know how anyone was able to do anything on them. Have you ever tried riding one? Rodney Mullen's transformation to street is nothing short of amazing. I heard him refer to it in an interview once saying that he had to get used to rolling when doing his tricks.. (by the way, in case you didn't know, the guy in the inset above is who you're referencing when you say you landed "Primo") Can't forget about this dude.... Correction: the kind folks over at Vert is Dead pointed out that in the 'Toonage post I did recently I wrongly attributed the "Everything Sucks" ad to Lance Mountain, when it was actually Sean Cliver who did the artwork. Sorry about that.

Shredder's Lair is a skateboard, apparel, and hardware goods company coming out of Lancaster, California. I caught up with CEO and co-founder Steve Hansen recently to get the low down on the company and what they're all about. Check it out.. How did Shredder's Lair come about? From the love of pure shredding of anything you can possibly skate on and wanting to create a product to represent our love for the ART OF SHREDDING. We were unsatisfied with the lack of a pure 100% raw for skateboarders by skateboarders company with all American made products for the highest quality at shredder friendly prices. How did you come up with the name? Shredder's Lair found us. We had the spot where shredder's came together before and after sessions escaping the societies "norm". Here we are able to focus and dedicate ourselves to the art and life style of shredding! Who's on the team? Shredder's Lair has a very diverse and unique team. The ...

In honor of Koston's Epicly Later'd, figured it would be appropriate to have a post with some of the key players mentioned... Never knew about the relationship between Eddie Elguera and Eric Koston until these Epicly Later'd episodes came out... dude seems like a really down to earth guy. ..always loved the timelines that H-Street did in their ads.. and that's a switch front blunt, in 1991. Been looking for a reason to plop this one in here. Alphonzo Rawls, amazing skater who by the way posts some great stuff on Instagram. Do I really need to say who this is? The one and only Natas Kaupaus. The man himself..caught myself thinking about the 360 flip noseblunt at the end of his Yeah Right part the other day. Still amazing nine years (!) later. Really looking forward to future episodes, including how the transition to Girl went down..