Rene Magritte

OK, this week is gonna get arty. You have been forewarned. Belgian Rene Magritte is my all-time favorite and doesn't get the recognition he deserves. If you only know him from "The Son Of Man", dig a little deeper. He thought of painting as a job just like a baker, mailman, etc. He wore a suit, kept 9 to 5 hours, took a break for lunch like any normal business man. The different was, of course, he was creating surreal masterpieces.

Ed Templeton "Heads In A Row"

Hands down, my favorite of his work.

Small Beating ramp footage

This is the first footage to surface of the Small Beating garage ramp a-k-a Jackson Bowl aka Chud's Pain Factory aka The Ego Buster. This thing has been around about 5 months. Certified rippers have been humbled and others have taken one run and said, "WTF?". After skating this thing most backyard pools will seem like a walk in the park.

Hollywood Jills "He Makes Me So Mad"

Super rare girl-group boldness from New Orleans circa '68. The backing track sounds like pure Stax Records.

The Cherry Slush "I Cannot Stop You"

Every time I DJ this is always one of my go-to's. It's the bass line that makes this tune so great. I lucked out years ago and picked this up for $5 at Amoeba here in San Francisco. They have no idea what stuff like this is worth.

Having A Wild Weekend Part 3

The first pool was fun but paled in comparison to the majesty of The Powder Pool. This pool was really old and full of cancer dust. We swept and bucketed half of a five gallon bucket worth of concrete dust out of the bottom of the deep end before we skated.


Matt Sneddon, frontside air
Errol Griffin with textbook form looking like the old Upland Pipeline logo.
The next day it was back down south again to hit Roosevelt in San Jose. Dave "Unagi" Kojima with a f/s slasher.

Having A Wild Weekend Part 2

After skating the worst run skate park in the history of Western Civilization for a few hours, Errol showed up to save the day. He had not one, but two backyarders. Jah must luv us or some other such bullshit.
I'm calling this one the Apricot Pool since we had to spend a good half hour scraping sun baked apricots out of the flat bottom. This one was a permission pool. The home owner was super cool and sat in a lawn chair watching us skate while drinking the beer we brought him.
Santa Cruz loc and backyard wizard Errol Griffin with a crail grab grind over the missing light. Lance would not approve!
Matt Sneddon spreading his wings on a frontside grind. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see the gem that is The Powder Pool.

Having A Wild Weekend Part 1

Started out bright and early at the worst run skate park in the history of Western Civilization. If you've been there you know how many Commandments are being broken in these pics.
Chad "Chud" Jackson serving up a classic decked-out rocknroll

Shallow end f/s 5-0 in the same spot I scorpion-ed onto my face the first time I ever skated this pool. Good times.
Matt Sneddon b/s tailslide over the death box. He's not called Mattside for nothing. He can b/s tailslide anything.

Welcome to the team Matt Moffett

The skateboard company that cannot be killed has done it again. Ripper supreme Matt Moffett will have his first model on SMALL BEATING out October 1st. Check the newly updated site with Chud and Nelson's Oregon tour via Mini Cooper(?!) plus, the gnarliest pool ever, THE SNORT FORT. The new batch of PS Stix-pressed decks with all new shapes will be in soon. Quit fucking around. Demand that your local shop carry Small Beating or if they are lame just contact Small Beating directly to get the goods.

DON'T BUY THESE BAGS!!!

Please do not buy these overpriced rip offs. What the bag makers are calling a homage is actually them using Neil's artwork without his permission for their $300+ messenger bags. The bags themselves look like a rip of the old Zo Bags from San Francisco anyway. I heard from Neil today and he had this to say:

"That bag is a shocker.They're using all kinds of graphics from companies.Vision?T.Hawk?Weird,wonder what can be done?wonder if they even sold any bags,terrible looking items." -Neil Blender

In addition to the companies Neil named they are also using designs from Jim Phillips/Santa Cruz, Hosoi, VCJ/Powell Peralta, and Alien Workshop.

If you want to buy Neil's artwork, get it straight from the man himself here. He's got 2 pieces up right now. He closed The Heated Wheel site a while ago but he's now selling his stuff on eBay. Support Neil not those trying to make a buck off his efforts.

UPDATE:
The bags have thankfully been taken off their site. Here are some of the other bags. I couldn't find the Hawk or Alien Workshop ones.

Here's a letter of apology from the offending company, Reload Bags via our friends at Skate Daily. A big thanks to Chris, Bryce and crew for getting my post out to the masses. OK, now that this is over I can get back to doing 15-block alley-oop 50/50's at Potrero. See you at the park.

Buddy Holly legend, victim

It's unbelievable that this phone call exists. It's Buddy Holly being informed he has been dropped from Decca Records and them refusing to give his unreleased masters back to him. Buddy was too much of a gentleman and a class act. He was taken advantage of everywhere he went. R.I.P Buddy.

The D Coys "Bad Times" 1966

Adelaide, Australia duo with a hot cover of The Roulettes' classic from '64. This one was comped on the great "Ugly Things" volume 1 LP.

Usual Potrero post

Matt Sneddon, up and over the hip with a b/s tailslide. Yes, it was a make. Click to enlarge to the see the stoke on the face of the kid in the background. Rad.

Jason Duncan (me) reeling in a Josh Nelson to fakie while getting poached in the background.

Grant Taylor

He just turned pro this week for Alien Workshop. This is the best clip I've seen in a while. He skates everything and most importantly does it FAST!

Outsiders "Lying All The Time" 1966

Along with Q65, Outsiders were the epitome of Nederbeat. How this band did not become huge is baffling. I'll chalk it up to them spending the prime of their career on the tiny Relax Records. Their full story is here.