O.D.G.

After reading the recent Sal Barbier Interview on the Chrome Ball Incident, (which is fantastic by the way), and also perusing the recent Thrasher Magazine article  on skateboarding in the Olympics, I became curious as to what the proposed format is going to be like. Being that there have historically been many different competitive formats in skateboarding's long history (street, vert, mega ramp, luge, freestyle, etc. etc.), I couldn't help but be curious. After pondering the different possibilities I was able to track down someone from the International Olympic Committee (IOC)  who had some answers. First how did the International Olympic Committee (IOC) come to the decision to include skateboarding? Was it someone on the committee who proposed it or if it was brought forth by a third party? The addition of Skateboarding to the Olympic programme in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 resulted from an 18-month process called the OCOG Proposal, where the host city (in th...

So February came and went. I only thought to focus on skaters for Black History Month partway through the month, and quickly realized that it would be quite a Herculean task. I also had a moral dilemma about the whole thing. Is it cool to single out skaters based on their race? I always thought of skating as being an equalizer in terms of if you got skills on the board, it doesn't matter what color your skin is. But that's just my experience... Ron Chatman, back in the early 90's, and again in 2011.  One of my heroes, Ron Allen. Was at a Demo/Contest at the same time as him recently and just missed him by a hair. Would love to do an interview..  Couple Jovontae Turner flicks. Eric Britton  Can't leave out Sal! Stevie Williams with a massive frontside noseslide..

Anybody out there had skate-setup madness? I went through a phase within the last year or so where I became extremely, for lack of a better term, OCD about my trucks. It became a total obsession to where if it wasn't exactly the way I wanted, I had to figure out what wasn't working. I ended up buying and going through several sets before finally settling on Indy 139's. When all was said and done I took a pic with my phone to document how ridiculous I had become;  I recently had the same issue with wheels. I went down to skating 50mm Bones which allowed for great control but felt like I was going too slow. So I upped it to 52mm Spitfires but that felt kind of clunky, I tried 51mm Bones, which also didn't feel right, and ended up back where I started with the 50mm's. I'm hoping that this will be where I stay as all this fussiness adds up to a lot of money being spent. We'll just have to wait and see.. Oh yeah, Happy belated Birthday to Sal Barbie...

Done with shoes.. but here are a few leftovers that I either forgot to add in other posts or warrant a second gander.. also a few random odds and ends I came across.  Sal Barbier nosebluntslide transfer.  Found an old photo of me recently wearing my favorite skate shoes of all time..Axion Guy Mariano's. I had three pairs of these damn things in a row and wore them until they fell apart. I thought it was cool to see Axion doing a newer version (" The Nino "), but it doesn't quite capture how rad these shoes were.  ..and sadly, I threw these out a few years back but kept the box for some reason. To be honest I didn't care for the shoes that much they were too narrow but dude ripped so I was hoping some of his good mojo would rub off on me. Nope.  This one really should have been on the Jenkem Mag's most  terrifying  skate shoe list.. the infamous Zero Two..  Oh, and these velco Airwalks were pretty...

I had a white pair of Sal 23's ..went to Europe, came home and they mysteriously disappeared.  I still have hope that they're going to pop up some time..  Javier Sarmiento PJ Ladd Rick McCrank  I was hoping to bump into Tom on my recent trip to Barcelona.. maybe next time.  Eric Koston Arto Saari, kickflip to fakie.  Check out the timeline in case you're not already familiar with them..  http://esskateboarding.com/

As usually happens...I have an idea for a post, flip through a magazine and come up with something else. Just going to run with it this time. Sal Barbier from the roof to the ramp and Markus Wyndham with a backside 180 nosegrind on his trademark rail... if you don't know what I'm referring to, go here . (at about 8:28) Always loved this part too... made skateboarding just look like fun, which is how it should be; And something from this decade, a great interview with Sal: http://www.skateboardermag.com/features/salbarbier/ The story behind his Plan B involvement is a great read. That's it, have a great weekend!

Haven't had access to my scanner for a bit and to be honest this thing takes more effort and discipline than I really have. However, here are a couple good ones I came across. I always admired Sal's skating, he went fast and had some pop which was not too common back in the early 90's. The Life ad with John "The Man" Reeves just caught my eye because of the sick photography.. ...loved that Sturt look. Got some more stuff in mind, I'll have to see how they pan out in a bit...