Indy the Dog

Here is a gratuitous dog shot. Enjoy.

Reggae Show Pics

Here are two shots of Shayar and Krooshal Force Reggae at The Empty Glass on Friday night. Look for the Black Label sticker in the second pic. It's on the left side of the pic and I'm not sure how it got there.

Reggae Tonight

Shayar and Krooshal Force Reggae will rock The Empty Glass tonight. Shayar spent time playing with Burning Spear and is an accomplished reggae musician who now resides in Appalachia. I guess the mountains of West Virginia are like the mountains of Jamaica only with more junk and less Jah. I'll try to get some pics of the band. If you are out and about then check out the Krooshal Force Sound System tonight. It is guaranteed to make you dance.

Photo Effects

I worked a lot with black and white photography as a college student. I shot with a Pentax K1000 fully manual 35mm camera. I was really into the archival processing of b&w film and prints. My favorite things were sepia tone and cyan tone which gave these black and white pics an even deeper degree of timelessness. Today I shoot with a Kodak digital and can make pics sepia, b&w, or even coloring book format by just pointing and clicking. Here are 3 examples and the differences are subtle but obvious. Evan's pic is first followed by his dad Dave in timeless Sepia. Eli wraps it up with a longboard manny. Skating is not happening at the moment as we are waiting out an intense thunderstorm. Hopefully the parking garage will be dry tonight.

Crooked Creek Giant Slalom Pics and Kentucky Fried Cone Fest

Thursday's pics are the pond at Crooked Creek and Dave Tolley as seen through the fish eye effect. DT is a slalom machine and he along with a ton of others will be participating in the Kentucky Fried Cone Fest coming up on September 15. This is a big day for slalom in the Mid Atlantic region with racers attending from North Carolina, WV, Ohio, KY, and parts unknown. Check it out at http://www.ncdsa.com/contest_registration.asp?ContestID=298#signup. This event is being brought to you by Lenny Poage and DownHillBillies along with Marc's BoardShop and more. I'll keep the info flow on the go as it becomes available.

Saturday Skate Pics

Following the HOSS Race on Saturday we hit up the curb spot. Grom was learning backside grinds by riding into them from the sidewalk. It was a good start. Check out his shot of my frontslide boardslide to wallpush out. This is a really fun spot.

HOSS Race Goes Downhill FAST

Yesterday's Huntington Outlaw Slalom Series Race went down without interference or injury. A good time was had by the riders and the few spectators on hand. The hill was big and fast with plenty of runoff. Points and finishings are up on the NCDSA web site but let me be the first to tell you that the times were CLOSE with these cats edging one another out by just one tenth of a second in some cases. Where do hippies live? IN TENTS!

The Art of Don Pendleton

Ravenswood, WV native Don Pendleton is one of skateboarding's top artists. Don has worked for Alien Workshop as well as Element and most recently collaborated with P. Rod and Mountain Dew for the Green Label Series. Don's work is awesome and recognizable. He is one of many restless native West Virginians who found a home in the skateboarding realm. Others include Chris "Sarge" Carter and Brian Ridgeway. This is an old pic taken after a demo in Dunbar, WV was shut down by the local authorities. That's Jesse "Cheese" Walker, Don Pendleton, and Dusty Smith on the jump ramp and Kevin Duffer (R.I.P.) with his arm in a sling preparing to jump over the ramp. Wow. Check out Don's work on his site at http://www.elephont.com/ because you need to.

HOSS Race Tomorrow

The Huntington Outlaw Slalom Series continues Saturday August 25, 2007. Hit up the NCDSA link for all details. http://www.ncdsa.com/contest_registration.asp?ContestID=334#signup

Cruisin' For A Bruisin'

I heard that expression many times in my young life. It usually was a signifier that one was about to be in a heap of trouble. Today it has an entirely different meaning to me. It fits in with another cliche'. The one that says Time Heals All Wounds. To a skater it is more like Time Wounds All Heels. Here is a pic of a bruise I received just before leaving for Nevada a few weeks ago. A day getting hurt skating beats a day at work.

New Moving Images Added

Hit up the Skate Shorts link to view some footage of yours truly and company in action. To see more visit http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=oldfatjeff. I know I may have used this pic before, however, it is one of my favorite spots to skate, AND it makes my beer gut look awesome.

Legends of Vert

While watching a corporate sponsored half pipe skateboarding event last weekend I noticed that the skaters (Bucky Lasek, Shaun White, Andy MacDonald, PLG, and others) would show the bottom of their board to the camera. Their decks were covered in stickers from their various corporate sponsors (blood sucking leaches who have nothing to do with skateboarding, think mobile phones and energy drinks). I guess this was a way for the pros to plug their sponsors on air. What is scarier is that they seemed to have been told to do so. Wow. I covered my deck in stickers from my "dream" sponsors and they included Daggers, Full Sail Brewing Company (Hood River), Daddies Board Shop and Indy Trucks among others. The brighter side of corporate skateboarding events are things like the Legends of Vert in which Old School legends unleash havoc on the half pipe. You will think it's the 1980's again with the exception of the somewhat apathetic crowd but I guess this wasn't Savannah Slamma. Kids don't "fan out" on pro skaters too much anymore because of the "if you can do what they can do then you are as good as them" attitude. Oh well, the list of pro skaters from back in the day is more than I feel like typing so hit this link NOW and check out the footage Brian Baade shot. Brian's site Rock The Baade is really cool. Thank you Brian and Skate and Annoy. http://www.rockthebaade.com/xgameslegends.html

Skate of the Union

I love to read skateboarding magazines because I love skating. Juice, Thrasher, and even the trendsetting Transworld SKATEboarding all occupy a spot in my reading stack. I dig Juice because it is raw punk rock coverage of the skateboarding world. Same goes for Thrasher which was always a little edgier than TWS. In the October 2007 issue of Transworld, Mackenzie Eisenhour penned an interesting piece titled "FASHION, FUNCTION, AND FORGET ABOUT IT". The article states that "We've entered a stage in skateboarding where everybody and anybody can pretty much rock and do whatever they want, whenever they want." I couldn't have said it better. The proverbial door to the world of skateboarding is wide open. I won't say that I feel fully accepted when I show up at the park pushing 60mm wheels on an old school big board but I never skated to be accepted. Skateboarding was and is for me a borderline outlaw punk rock activity. In 1985 there was no public skatepark in my hometown. We skated street which then meant curbs, benches, ledges, banks, and even flat. Some kids had backyard half pipes and we built the hell of jump ramps, or kickers, if you will. Most of this was pre ollie as Mark Gonzales had yet to unleash the ollie on street skating. If you wanted to get up on a bench you did a boneless. If you wanted to blast a method air you had to grab your board before going off of the ramp. We skated what we had to skate and Cheese and I even snuck into our first pool together by climbing the fence. Skaters were often subjected to ridicule by the participants of organized sports. I think the whole jocks vs. skaters debate is as old as skating itself. But, to get back to the point, we now skate and live in a world where you can show up at the park and bust your bert slides while the kids pushing the 52mm's tre flip the stair set. The one's who have watched Lords of Dogtown kind of it get while others are going "Why did he just put his hand on the ground?" I have lived and skated through some really weird times in skateboarding. I witnessed the slow and painful demise of vert skating during the late 1980's and the rise of street skating in the 1990's along with trends such as ridiculously oversized pants and even more ridiculously UNDERsized wheels. I do not miss walking into the shop only to find that the biggest wheel I can buy is 39mm. However, that is not to say that I didn't ride a set of those damned things at one time or another back then. Today truly is a Golden Age for skating. Differing and various aspects of skating are being explored. For example, vert is back finally and so are some of my favorite skaters like Chris Miller, Hosoi, Sergie Ventura, Ben Schroeder, et al... Slalom is in and pool skating is HUGE. Check out two of my favorite websites like Skate and Annoy or Mark Conahan's AntigravityPress and you can see for yourself how lucky skaters in the Pacific NorthWest United States truly are. There is a skatepark boom occurring right now in Oregon and Washington State. It always has been a truly good time to be a skater and now the times are better. My only wish is that the younger generations of skaters will learn something from the older generations. And not just tricks either, but that skateboardings is life and skateboarding is for life.

Krylon Art and The Fremont Street Experience

Fremont Street is Old Las Vegas and home to The Pioneer, The Gold Nugget, and our favorite, The Las Vegas Club. Freemont has been covered by a big concave ceiling upon which a pseudo psychedelic Las Vegas light and video show takes place every hour. The show features quirky pop tunes and images of all things Vegas like drinks, cards, roulette wheels, dancing girls, and even dancing sugar cubes. It was truly a spectacle to behold. While strolling between casinos you can visit different kiosks where you can pick up anything from custom Bob Marley and South Park poker chips, to frozen booze concoctions, to Krylon Art. The Krylon Guy was cranking out these paintings and was really cool to watch. Armed only with a few artists tools and ton of Krylon this guy dropped bombs. Check the Vegas skyline and the man in action.

Archival Photo And Skate News

Today's featured pic from the archives is... The no comply shove it. I've recently started doing these again and they are fun to do. I was riding a Schmitt Stix board here and I'm sure it was a tank as most boards were in 1989. Today I'm popping these on a 10 x 33 pointy nose board. Things don't change much. In the skate news department I learned today that BLACK LABEL SKATES has issued a Chelsea Peters Memorial Deck with the proceeds going to the Peters family. "Chess" Peters was the son of old school pool ripper and punk rock legend Duane Peters. The Label has also released Jimmy "The Greek" Marcus' pro model on the EMERGENCY division of Black Label. Direct your browser to http://www.blacklabelskates.com/ and check out the pics, clips, and product. There is a Royal Hawaiian Pool Service deck currently available from Emergency that is nice. Custom shaped and checking in at 9 x 32 it is a rad board for those who like the wider ride. Check it out at http://www.emergencyskates.com/.

Rasta Rafiki Releases Fall Show Dates

It's fully official. After 10 years the band is getting back together to play 3 very special Reggae shows winding down at The Empty Glass on the Autumnal Equinox. Check the flyer for dates and venues and check the site www.myspace.com/rastarafikiband. More skate pics will be posted after Sunday's skate sessions. Until then...

The Tom Batchelor Band Gets IRIE!

The Tom Batchelor Band provided an Irie and positive energy to the crowd at Charleston's Empty Glass Pub. Opening the first set with Bob Marley's "Small Axe" the band set the pace for a night of incredible Reggae music. Andy was working the sound board and using some tricks he learned from New York's original live dub experience Dub Is A Weapon, and I mean Andy was WORKING the board. The sound was awesome. The band worked "Bank Robber" by The Clash into the set as well as "The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth" by Bad Brains. I realized tonight that I have been watching this band in one form or another for the last 17 years. Wow. That is nearly half my life. The RASTA RAFIKI tour dates are set for the third week of September for the West Virginia area. I'll post them at some point in the not too distant future. I only wish these pictures could speak the music I heard tonight.

96 Degrees In The Shade...

Real Hot. That's what it is today. 103 degrees with 26% humidity. The Dog Days of Summer. We went to the skatepark early and kids were already ripping and dripping with sweat. I broke out with a 180 no-comply and started an impromptu step hop sesh with all those in attendance. It reminded me of the old streetplant sessions I used to witness. Fun. Kids were doing endless no-comply variations so I stepped it up and busted out the step hop shove-it which has been shelved since 1989. It is nice to see the state of skateboarding today because anything goes. New or Old School, No School Rules. From the kids in spray on jeans doing backside 180 kickflips over the stairs to the old men in high tops stylin' out a backside Smith grind anything goes. Today's pics are the skate rats on the roll in and a kid named Travis caught mid-flip over the drop at Coonskin.

Some Dog Pics

Here is a shot of 7 year old IKE. He is more human than dog and enjoys boating, fishing, and traveling. Ollie is pictured in the grass with the ball he just stole from IKE. Ollie's purpose in life is to aggravate IKE. Thus far Ollie has fulfilled his life's purpose completely.

Perspective

Perspective is your point of view. How things relate one to another. Perspective can also relate to size. My shoes are size 11, and a pint glass is, well, a pint glass. Indy is no bigger than my shoe now but in a year he'll be Ollie's size. It is really rad to watch your dog develop. We acquired Ollie when he was 5 weeks old and Indy is now only 6 weeks. The fun has already started with these two.

Introducing INDY

INDY is the latest edition to our family. He is our 6 week old rare "blue" Boston Terrier. The blues are more of a silver or gray but have a blue tint to their hair and skin. Now Ollie has a brother and I have one more dog to take skating with me. Rad. We couldn't be more stoked.

Two Pics For Tuesday and Oregon Trifecta

Before Tuesdays Gone With The Wind I wanted to post a few pics and mention the Oregon Trifecta Bowl Series. First and foremost today's solo pics featuring The View From Above and Ollie the Dog hiding in the tall grass. Both of these images were captured at Coonskin Park early today. Now for something important. The Oregon Trifecta went down this past weekend. I was lucky enough to be in Portland at this time last year and witnessed some Rad skating to say the least. With the likes of Buck Smith, Duane Peters, and Steve Alba in attendance and then add to the mix the ladies division and the local rippers and it equals one incredible weekend of skateboarding. Check the link at http://www.oregontrifecta.com/ and the hot coverage at Skate and Annoy. The Pacific Northwest is a hot bed of pool skating and deserves recognition.

Saturday Skate Pics Ahh Yeah

Nothing beats a sundown hesh sesh at the curb spot. After blasting a handful of wallrides at the Old Dirty we proceeded to skate our new favorite yellow curb spot. A very mellow bank like incline leads to the yellow curbs at the top and the possibility are endless. I kept it old man and opted for the backside and frontside slappies. There are also some nice boardslide spots along the sidewalk as well, a few that even allow you to wallpush as you ride away. Nice. Real Nice. The curb sequence is courtesy of Eli. One pic is mid grind with a frontside grab and the other is of me riding away. There really is nothing else in the world like riding away from a trick. Satisfy my soul, know what I mean? Eli is depicted mid curb drop. Until next time Peace Hippies.

A Few More Shots of The Vegas Experience

Wow... Lately I have really realized what a long strange trip it's been... Here is some more debauchery and scenery from the adult playland known as the Vegas Strip. As for the pool in the previous entry, well it was dry and fully ready to skate once the leaves were removed. The brown in the bottom of the pool is dry leaves ready to be swept away. The hotel itself was open but only one car in the lot. This spot is easy in easy out. Enjoy the scenery. I did.

Circus Circus at night.

Hoo-uhs.

Fremont Manic Street Preacher.

Vegas

We are back in the Mid Atlantic but still on Vegas time. It is 12:34 p.m. EST and I can't wake up. In Sin City it's just past 9:30 in the morning and I would still be asleep. Here is a plethora of pics from Vegas, Las Vegas, that is.