Tuesday, April 17

The Weekly Grind

By Kevin Marks
Skateboarding.com

Ricki Bedenbaugh, aka "the dude", is the main man working on the New Deal video. "Accelerated Evolution" will be the first New Deal video in 7 or 8 years. The whole New Deal team is stoked to be in it. Hopefully it will fall in line and be ready by Christmas.

Podium Distribution, home of DVS, Matix and a portion of Lakai, has finally left the San Fernando Valley and relocated to the city of Los Angeles.

It's been rumored for a month, but now it's definite. Jason Dill is officially on DVS SHOE COMPANY. Yeeeeehaaaaa!!!

80's Skate Rock is back. "The Faction" is getting back together with the original line up for a reunion show some time this summer in San Jose, CA. Gavin O'brien- Vocals, Steve Caballero- Guitar, Russ Wright- original guitar player, Ray Stevens-Bass, Keith Divirgilio (Rendon), drums. They just had a long band meeting the other night to talk about the details. More details will be posted here as they come available.

The people at 411 Video Productions would like to invite you to check out the all new 411vm.com web site. Months in production, it's like nothing skateboarding has ever seen. Visit the site right now to discover for yourself why PAPER IS HISTORY: http://www.411vm.com

This topic was touched on last week, and here are more details. Steve Caballero is going to send ten skaters to Visalia YMCA Skate Camp this summer. The program is geared toward skaters that wouldn?t have an opportunity to go to Skate Camp without a little financial assistance. This time they get the whole tuition paid for by legendary pro Steve Caballero. Just contact YMCA Skate Camp and ask for a Cabs Kids application. 559-627-0700 www.skatecamp.org The deadline for sending the applications in is July 1st.

Kevin Taylor and Gino Ianucci are now riding for Stealth Wheels.

Brian Howard has been working on a new Duffs shoe that should hit the stores spring 2001. He's been working on getting footage for the "F.O.R.E. and Friends" video from Planet Earth and Rhythm. Brian will have a park review of the Ocean Beach Skatepark in the Duffs Promo.

Monday April 16th the Expedition One team leaves for Japan for 2 weeks of strictly filming for the full length. Joining them is photographer Pete Thompson and Expedition One filmer, Mike Rafter. Karl Watson, Richard Angelides, Chany Jeanguenin, Stefan Janoski and Kyle Leeper will meet Soichiro Nakajima in Tokyo. Amateur Ryan Gallant is gathering footage in Boston while pro Chris Lambert is filming with John Holland around the globe. Look for the Expedition One full length out soon!

The VANS Skatepark in Westminister, CO, is nearing completion. This park will have two concrete street courses, 1 INDOOR and 1 OUTDOOR. Also there will be a CLOVER BOWL that is finished and has water sitting in it to let the plaster coat cure. It consists of one 9-foot bowl, one 9 ?-foot bowl, and a 6-foot shallow end and has real concrete pool coping and tiles. This park is scheduled to open by the end of May.

Mike Peterson had to fly out to Costa Mesa, CA, for the Volcom skate park opening last week. All the other Volcom pros were on hand too. As soon as Mike got home he reported a possible broken wrist.

Illenium's super AM Ruben Garcia of Spain returned from a trip to Stockholm on April 9th.

Greg Lutzka will be accompanying his teammates Steve Forstner, Ruben Garcia, Al Partanen, Mike Peterson, Austin Seaholm on a road trip to shred the streets & parks of the Northwest and Vancouver B.C.. The crew will also be attending the Sound of the Fury contest in Seattle and the Slam City Jam contest in Vancouver.

The chief of Black Box Distribution, Wiggins, is having reconstructive knee surgery in about a month. He tore 3 ligaments in his left knee, his acl, pcl and lcl. He'll be back wrecking shop before you know it.

Matt Hensley has just gotten back from a long tour with his band. Since his return he has had little time to rest and hang out with this family. He has been filming for the Black Label video and the Duffs video. Look for some good Hensley stuff from him in the upcoming months. He is also working with August on a new Matt endorsed shoe.

Mike Taylor and Justin Case are now riding for City Stars Skateboards. They both have been filming for their video, which should be released soon.

Omar Salazar just got out from under the knife. He had his knee operated on and is on the road to recovery. Not before finishing a part for the Foundation video. He had a good part with rails and gaps that only Omar could do. As soon as he is back he?ll have some more footage for the next Duffs video. Has Sammy Baptista been cast in a new Larry Clark film? Seems like he'll be perfect.Pecker Heads Hardware is the biggest thing to come out of Texas since the original Zorlac. Check out http://www.peckerheadshardware.com