VBS.TV presents "Epicly Latered"[~80 min, 16 parts, gnarly skateboarding], the story of John Cardiel.
posted on Mar 24, 2008 - View this thread

Skateboard Kings is a 1978 BBC documentary about the Dogtown skateboarding scene in late 70's Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Featuring a lot of footage of the skaters' daily life as well as an exploration of the business side of skateboarding, the documentary is a time capsule of late 70's Southern California. For more about Dogtown go to z-boys.com. [previously on MetaFilter]
posted on Nov 29, 2007 - View this thread

Take some assorted body armour. Attach an assortment of castor wheels to just about every part of your body and you become Rollerman _Flash. His real name is Jean Yves Blondeau, a former design student and proud owner of the world's only rollerblading supersuit. It may be handy for zipping in and out of traffic, but the fun really starts when you roll down an alp _QT, reaching speeds of up to 60mph with oncoming traffic. Is this insane, or an extreme combination of inline skating and street luge.
posted on Aug 14, 2007 - View this thread

End of an Empire Sadly (for me, anyway) the Empire Rollerdrome, last roller rink in New York City, closed its doors for good this weekend after nearly 70 years in business. Although it had a checkered history of sex, drugs, and hip hop, the Empire was in recent years a much-loved family and community center in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. DJ Julio (who kept the crowd rolling at the Roxy for decades until they too closed earlier this year) maintains a fabulous archive of material about all of NYC's bygone rinks. If you want to see what you've been missing, check out the Central Park Dance Skaters.
posted on Apr 25, 2007 - View this thread

The US Figure Skating championships are this week, but though the ice skaters in Spokane and elsewhere get all the press, another group of skaters toil in near-obscurity. Roller figure skaters (also called artistic roller skaters) skate on quad (or sometimes inline) skates, do all the moves that ice skaters do (and even more -- notice the "heel" and "broken ankle" spins in this program, spins that are not possible on ice), and compete, as they have for decades, in local, national, and international events. In 1978, skating was at a peak of popularity and Time magazine wrote "skaters are hoping to be included in the 1988 Olympics"; nearly 30 years later, roller figure skating still hasn't reached the Olympics, some roller skaters like Tara Lipinski have switched to ice to get famous, and the number of clubs and participants in the US have declined precipitously, but dedicated roller figure skaters still spend many hours practicing school figures (on circles painted on the floor), dance, and free skating, for the love of their sport. Want to see more? Skating videos from RollerSportsTV.
posted on Jan 23, 2007 - View this thread

In the 1980's, Mark "Gator" Rogowski was on par with Tony Hawk at the top of the nascent world of professional skateboarding. Contrasting the path Hawk took in the 90's (video games, ESPN tie-ins), things did not go so well for Gator. After surviving a hideous accident in 1989, Mark turned to Jesus, and then shortly thereafter he brutally raped & murdered a female friend of his ex-girlfriend's. The documentary of his rise & amazing fall appears today in limited release.
posted on Aug 15, 2003 - View this thread

Remember the 2002 Winter Olympics? This time last year, Apolo Ohno was making his Olympic debut as the wunderkind of short track speed skating. A year later, Apolo and the U.S. team were back in Salt Lake City, February 7-9, 2003 for ISU World Cup # 5. Here's an account from a hardcore short track fan who attended, which expresses the excitement of experiencing World Cup competition live. You can watch the competition this Saturday, February 15 on NBC at 2 p.m. EST.
posted on Feb 13, 2003 - View this thread

Finally, a Reason to Watch Court TV? An Olympics skating vote rigging Russian mafia fraud trial--what fun! Hope this happens, and I hope in happens in New York's Federal Southern District, because, well, what fun to bring down a stupid sport (And remove it from television); discredit the French, Russians... I want seats to this one! Or Perhaps E! will provide the coverage?
posted on Aug 2, 2002 - View this thread

"What do you expect from a bunch of underprivileged, delinquent teenagers? Certainly not genius, but that's what was happening." Welcome to the Z-Boy revival. A new documentary about Dogtown opens this weekend that tells the story about how some punks from Santa Monica turned skating hardcore and along the way transformed youth culture and spawned a $3 billion dollar industry. A 1999 Spin article "The Lords of Dogtown" kicked off the current revival.
posted on Apr 26, 2002 - View this thread

Russians going home? Apparently, Russian Olympic Committee president Leonid Tyagachev said there was a 24-hour window to address the situation, and that if Russia left Salt Lake City it probably would not compete in Athens in the next Summer Games.
posted on Feb 21, 2002 - View this thread

An insider's take on the olympics Working at the speed skating rink apparently holds ample opportunity for port-a-loo incidents and other funny not-so Olympic moments.
posted on Feb 15, 2002 - View this thread

Justice Served Canadian figureskating team gets their gold after all.
posted on Feb 15, 2002 - View this thread

U.S. CONSIDERS MILITARY ACTION TO REMOVE SKATING JUDGES. I don't mean to pimp Borowitz again so soon... but damn. Best line from this: While the decision to use military force against the figure skating judges was Mr. Bush’s, sources say there was a split within the Administration as to the appropriateness of using U.S. troops and air power to change the results of an Olympic skating contest.... These sources indicate that Secretary of State Colin Powell favored using economic and diplomatic measures while Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz advocated detaining and torturing the figure skating judges until they reversed their earlier decision.
posted on Feb 13, 2002 - View this thread

What were the skating judges watching? What a robbery! The Canadian pair, Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were just fantastic, and deserved the gold. It is hard to imagine what the judges were thinking, because they had it all - technical merit, drama, passion, and excellence. And after the decision, dignity.
posted on Feb 11, 2002 - View this thread

Olympics ban skate 'porn' I was so looking forward to the Olympics, and they had to do this. ;-( (link courtesy of Daily Rotten)
posted on Jan 17, 2002 - View this thread

Ouchyy... that's just asking for an accident! Is ice skating a safe sport? Who knew skating could be so dangerous?
posted on Nov 27, 2001 - View this thread

This has nothing to do with the web.. But in case you're like me and the time you spend away from your computer usually consists of drinking beer and/or playing on your neato video game system. You NEED Tony Hawk. the graphics on the DC version kick playstation's ass and its the perfect game to waste hours of time and lots of beers and to destroy your friend's ego.
posted on Jun 6, 2000 - View this thread