Touchgrind is a new $4.99 skateboarding game for the iPhone. The guys at Gizmodo gave it aa run through and they seem to think it’s pretty cool. We’re not up for paying the $4.99 to do our own test, so we’ll just trust them.
It’s a fun time waster with a seriously high level of polish. Due to the limitations of the iPhone, I’m not sure how exactly to solve the issue of not knowing where the hell you’re going, but if they do come up with a solution you’re looking at one of the best games available for the platform.
To pick up a copy visit the Apple iphone App store and search for it.
Alli’s mission is to facilitate the momentous growth of action sports by showcasing both the competition and lifestyle aspect of these sports. We believe these are the sports of a new generation and Alli will bring together the best properties, athletes, and brands globally for the fans of action sports,” says Wade Martin, President of Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports.
With the new breed of über jugend comes the assumption that the parents are responsible for pushing their kids to the top ala Richard Williams, Joeeph Jackson, or Lynne Spears. But most people (and parents) don’t know what it’s like to have extremely gifted kids. Ryan Sheckler’s dad Randy breaks that down pretty straight up in this interview with Examiner.com’sColin Bane.
Ryan was a trip from the day he was born. He had uncanny hand-eye coordination, he was walking at about 6 or 7 months, and we always knew he had a gift. We just didn’t quite know how it was going to play out. Growing up he played T-ball, he played all the traditional grass ball sports, but ultimately none of that ever made sense for him. From the time he was about 2 years old the first thing to come out of the car was always a skateboard, so we supported him and we decided, “We’ll do whatever we can to get behind this.” As he got more into it we found the California Amateur Skateboard League and we just went with it.
Guess sometimes parents just have to be supportive and get out of the way.
In another reminder that skateboarding over death-defying gaps on gut-wrenchingly huge megaramps can be dangerous, Danny Way has reportedly broken two vertebrae during practice last week for an even in Brazil (click here for the video), according to an Adam Sullivan story on Transworld Business.
While he will make a full recovery, doctors say Way will be sidelined for up to 6 months—which could be anywhere from 3-4 months in Danny Way time.
He came up a little short, just barely caught the knuckle, and took one big bounce. The guy is too tough. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Many in the action sport media business have been asking what Wasserman Media Group was doing spending so much money on their Sportnet property. It appears someone inside the company asked the same question and answered by cutting 41 percent of the staff.
Twenty-eight of the group’s 68 employees were laid off late Friday, including Gabe Huerta, VP-product development, and a number of others from product development and support.
An email to Luke McDonough, the former president of Studio 411 was returned with the following message: As of November 21st 2008, Luke McDonough is no longer an employee at Wasserman Media Group/Sportnet.” And the recently launched Snowboarder.com has cut recently hired editor James Sullivan and is reportedly being run by a “project manager” at the company.
Joplin, Missouri based American Ramp Co., makers of mostly steel, wood, and composite skateboard ramps is busily consolidating the pre-fab skateboard park manufacturing business, according to a story in the Joplin Globe.
About four months ago, American Ramp acquired Solo Ramps, a Canadian company that specializes in prefabricated concrete ramps. . . ARC also recently acquired a competing business, Sk8parks International.
Apparently, there is a huge market out there for funky, pre-fab parks. “Last year, the company built about 130 parks and made almost $12 million. It employs about 80 people.”
Pharrell Williams is 35 years old and doesn’t have as much time to skate as he’d like, but Skateboard P. still sites skateboarding as his original influence, according to a story in the Guardian.
The first sport I got into – and the one that has had most impact on my life – is skateboarding. Most people think skateboarding is for some kid with blond hair from suburbia. But I remember when I was 12 or 13, growing up in Virginia Beach, everybody, black and white, was doing it. Skating taught me what it meant to be cool, to have credibility. I had it. I got so mad with it that I had a half-pipe put in my house. I had the look – the baggy jeans, the Vans. I still wear Vans shoes. I rap about skateboarding. My nickname is Skateboard P.
We’d still wear Vans too if our company sold shoes that looked like Ice Cream’s.
Question: why do the people who appear in electric skateboard videos always look like they’re stepping onto a skateboard for the first time? Answer: because they are.
We just added a new blog to the list. It’s called Boil The Ocean. We don’t know anything about it other than it features something we find rare in skateboard blogging: consistently intelligent opinion regarding skateboarding. We’re just embarrassed that we hadn’t read it until now. Check it, and let us know if you know who’s kicking down all this knowledge.
