EXPN.com has an article yesterday regarding the Ryan Sheckler golf tournament  - a tournament to raise money for 5 charities including Ryan’s own Sheckler Foundation.

Great idea, celebrity golf tournaments are almost always entertaining and seem to draw a good crowd… prime sponsorship opportunity to raise money for the charities.

One thing didn’t sit right with me, read the following line and tell me if you see it:

"Ryan Sheckler Hosts First-Time Golf Tournament; Brody Jenner, Mia Hamm, Kevin Federline, Bode Miller Among Those Attending"

Kevin Federline? Seriously? This is supposed to be a "celebrity" tournament not the "5 minutes of fame" hack fest. How do you go about adding a name like Federline to a golf tournament raising money for children’s charities.

Anyways… good luck to all of the "true" celebrities playing… it should be off the hook-yo!

This coming weekend marks the 15th anniversary of the U.S. Open of surfing and the 10th year of the Soul Bowl.

The site, Go211.com is anticipating over 400,000 visitors to the event over all and should be a good "fun in the sun" turnout.

From the site:
Today’s top action sports super stars in skateboarding and freestyle BMX will showcase their skills in the 68’ (long) by 46’ (wide) one-of-a kind "Soul Bowl." Celebrating it’s 10th anniversary, the Soul Bowl will host veterans that include skateboarders Sandro Dias, Omar Hassan, Tony Magnusson, Dave Duncan, Cara-Beth Burnside, and Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins as well as BMX riders Chad Kagy, Van Homan, Kevin Robinson, Koji Kraft, and the “Condor” – Mat Hoffman.

Skateboarder List

We are going to try and cover the event at some point this weekend, but if anyone gets a chance to take some killer photos, please send them to us… we will be giving away t-shirts to the best submitted photos!

We recently received a comment regarding Safety equipment in Costa Mesa’s park…

Moved comment to its own post here.

Save the date, August 9th is the Skateboard for a Cure event to help raise money for the TJ Martell Foundation.

The event will allow thousands of kids to skate with pros, celebrities and others through the streets of Los Angeles finishing at Fairfax High School where there will be autograph signing, food, games and more.

Donations of $20 or more will receive a free event t-shirt.

The TJ Martell Foundation is a devoted to Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS research.

I know this is not an OC event, but it is close enough and is for a good enough cause to mention. If you can make this event, go.

You can get more information at www.skateboardforacure.com.

We got to spend some time at the cup this weekend (though not as much as I would have hoped) and overall it was a pretty exciting event. I did feel like there was a little too much "NBA" influence. The other downside was the typical fair crowd. Once you get past all that the events were pretty exciting.

Eric and I took turns showing up where we could, but I was lucky enough to catch some action for the Pro Street finals (we even got admitted down to the grass surface for some photos.) The media could have had a little better access to some better shots, but all in all I think we got some nice shots and look forward to getting them all up. For temporary, I have put some on Flickr to get started: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28605642@N06/

I also had a chance to get pretty close to some of the guys like PLG, Shaun White, Bucky and a few others on the vert during warm ups on Friday. Those photos are in there as well.

Well done event over all and the course was sick!

Results for the event:

Just a reminder to those of you who haven’t been paying attention…

The Maloof Money Cup, marked as the "World’s Greatest Skateboarding Competition" starts on Friday the 11th and runs through Sunday the 13th.

We will be out there checking out the competition and snapping shots of the talent, so keep your eyes out for us!

Click Here for a Schedule of Events

Westminster resident, pro skater Brian Patch plead not guilty to to charges that he had sex with a 15-year-old girl who had run away from home.

Supposedly the girl ran away from home, called Patch who told her he wouldn’t be home that night and showed up at 2am to find her at his door where he proceeded to let her stay.

I have issue with these circumstances, and I am not making the judgement on guilt or not. The jury in that case is responsible for finding whether or not he did it, not me.

My issue is in the surrounding circumstances:

1. Supposedly this girl had skated with Patch at local spots for 3 years, starting her at 12 years old. - Cool, make friends with the locals and spend time skating at the parks with them… Don’t exchange phone numbers with underage girls!
2. When the girl showed up, CALL HER PARENTS! If there are criminal circumstances surrounding her running away (molestation, abuse, etc…), CALL THE POLICE! There is no excuse for a 15 year old girl to spend the night at a single, 36 year olds house. Simply unacceptable.
3. Lastly, directed at the parents… and please bear in mind I am a parent of a young daughter so I do understand certain situations… what went wrong? Why is your 15 year old daughter running away to a single 36 year old mans house, then claiming pregnancy? Can you say emotional issues from some under-rooted problems at home?

If Brian is innocent, there are things here that could have avoided all of this. If he truly did nothing and this is a ruse from the girl then I will feel bad for him… but at the same time, at 36 years old, he should know better. Celebrity status (no matter how small) should be no excuse for stupidity of this caliber.

Keywords: skateboarding, brian patch, westminster,  minor, parents

Promo Video

I finally received the press information from Maloof’s PR company. This video was provided so I figured I would share it.

I have to say, everyone I have personally dealt with at Maloof has been very friendly and helpful (even to us little guys). It probably helps being in the casino/hotel business (customer service first) but I really am impressed with the personal connection they are making with small-timers like us.

OK, enough blatant kissing up for credentials.

Just enjoy the video.

The Maloof Money cup has provided its layout for the tournament:

The spread is a nice mix of vert and street and should give a good display of the talent on hand.

In addition the Maloof street team has been around the neighborhood handing out tickets and goods from the tournament… did you get a chance to see them? If you did we would like to see any photos you may have lying around from their visit to any of the OC parks.

We will keep our eyes out for more news on the tournament, in the meantime check out their site if you haven’t already (www.maloofmoneycup.com) and get your videos up there.

Friends Don’t Let Friends Push Mongo

Let’s face it, half of us skaters learned to push the wrong way. Weather it felt more natural at first or some poser convinced us pushing with your front foot and steering from the back was the “correct way,” mongo happens. I see it every day…and it’s not just the beginners. Pool skaters like to think it doesn’t matter. When you drop in there is no pushing required…but you still look like a dork when you skate off to get your frosty refreshment. Pushing with your front foot is not only bad style - it is dysfunctional technique. No matter what their skill level every mongoloid out there should take the time to learn it right.

Avid street skaters seem to be the most willing to correct this particular bad habit. There comes a time when the gaps grow larger and the runways shorter and pushing at the speed of mongo just doesn’t cut it anymore. The need to progress usually catalyzes the effort to switch feet. From those who don’t think it necessary I’ve heard every excuse:

1) “I’m more comfortable and get more speed pushing like an angry donkey.”

2) “I learned to push this way and it’s too late/difficult/boring to switch.”

3) “I’m just starting to really progress, switching over now will only slow me down.”

And worst of all:

4) “I don’t care if I have bad style.”

To number one – staying in your comfort zone is never a progressive attitude toward skateboarding. And even though it may be slower learning to push correctly at first, after a little practice you will be introduced to a whole new world of speed. Have you ever seen some one attempt a running-start-hop-on to mongo? Not effective or pretty so take the time to learn it right.

To excuse number two – it is never too late or too hard. Think of it like learning a new trick. Kickflips even ollies are crazy hard at first, but if you apply the same determination and relentlessness to correcting your awful habit as you did to learning the other basics, you will not only make the switch but you will be very glad that you did.

Number three - I can see your point. It really does feel like a giant step backward. Not to mention working on pushing all over again is not the most enjoyable or rewording experience. But, I cannot emphasize enough how crucial it really is. Yes, it feels like a regression at first, but try to picture yourself with all the skills of your favorite pro, against them in competition. They exude the fluidity of a graceful glide that can only come from effortless propulsion and seamless foot placement competing against you, kicking along like three-legged dog with arthritis. Who do you think will take the X-games gold? It is worth the time it takes to do it right and will ultimately speed up the learning process. All that time you waste wiggling your feet into place can be spent on learning new tricks.

Lastly if you belong to excuse number four… go to Play It Again Sports and trade in your deck for a razor scooter or a nice pair of shinny new roller blades. Be sure to pick up a copy of Tony Hawk’s latest video game on your way home.

Seriously, if you are just starting out, save yourself a ton of trouble and learn to push with your back foot. You don’t need to switch your stance from regular to goofy or vise versa, simply plant your front foot on the board FIRST every time and push with the remaining extremity.

Mandy Esch
360SkateSchool.com