Kerry and I are on a mission to find, scan and post every news/magazine article we can find concerning the southeast Louisiana skate scene. We have a few articles online, but we still have a lot more to put up. Each post we put up will feature the scan itself (sometimes cut up so that the articles will fit on the page and still be readable), and we’re providing higher-quality Adobe PDFs of each article so you can print and share them. Make a special note of our Local Skating in the Media section of the site… the scans will be placed there according to the dates that the articles were printed, so they won’t show up here on the main page (unless they’re new articles). We’ll also be mentioning any television media in the same section. Get busy, it’s ya burfdaaaay!

If you live in southeast Louisiana, then issue #308 of Thrasher Magazine is a must have… I just got it in the mail, so it should be at your local bookstore now. Here’s the cover:

Inside is a photo essay by Shawn Macomber called “After the Storm,” featuring skating by our friends Todd Taylor, Alex Nunez, Ryan Watson, Tim Lightfoot, Dave Mitchael, Little Jaedon, and our very own locals Big Trey and Thomas Beach. Buy two copies… read one and save the other, it’s a keeper.

Chances are, if you’re reading this… you already know what went down. For those of you that don’t know, here’s the scoop.

Mike Vallely came to Hammond today with a film crew to tape for his show Drive (a program on Fuel TV). Before hitting the park, me, Kerry, Bankhead, Eric and a few other locals had a little mini ramp session… after that, Kerry and I walked around downtown with Mike to discuss skateboarding,the Hammond skate scene, and how great it is to be a skater here in Tangipahoa. We talked about how much the scene has changed over the past few years, and Kerry discussed some of the ways he and Chris helped to kick start a skateboard community that was just waiting to explode. Most of all though, we all just talked about how great skateboarding is… like all of us (and I mean you too), Mike eats, breathes and sleeps skateboarding. He’s one of the nicest and most down to earth people you could have the pleasure to meet, and we’re extremely thankful… grateful even… that he came to Hammond to skate with the locals and listen to us talk about our adoration for skateboarding.

I want to give a big shout out to the production crew as well… all of the fellas involved with Drive are really nice people, and they’re probably the most patient cats I’ve ever met. You rock, guys… all of you. We wish you a safe trip through the south.

Another huge shout out goes to all of the skaters that came out to see Mike today… you really showed our guests how big of a skate scene we have. Props to you, skaters… much love.

We have the two batches of photos from today’s events online… as usual, I put up both the good pics and the crappy ones as well. Props to Jilt3d who came through with a nice grip of pics… check out our new Photo Gallery under the “Demos and Pro Visits” category.

Note: The episode of Drive that Hammond is featured in will appear in early 2007. We’ll keep you up to date.

On April 18, an article was published by the Daily Star, featuring horribly misinformed commentary by Hammond resident John Schillace. Prior to the article you’ll see below, he had made some similarly uneducated and inflammatory statements concerning the Hammond Dreamland skatepark (we don’t have that one scanned in yet). I highlighted my favorite quote in the article, but you really should read the whole thing… it’s comedy gold. Here you go:

(click here full a much larger version)
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After reading Mr. Schillace’s insane comments two weeks in a row, Small Times decided to cover as many bases as possible and disassemble each of the claims made in the article. Our response is here (printed on April 25, 2006):

(click here for a much larger version)
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For a high-quality PDF of both of these articles together,
click here (PDF, 2.7 megs)
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Before ending this website entry, Small Time Skates would like to commend Heather Crain for the thoughtfulness and responsible journalism she’s practiced concerning skateboarding in Hammond, and skateboarding in general. In the past year, she’s written several articles that truly reflected the enthusiasm that local skaters have for not only the park, but for skateboarding itself.In the case of our response to Mr. Schillace’s comments, Heather herself made sure that our rebuttal was printed, unedited, and in short time.

Below is basically an article that goes over how kick-ass Hammmond is because of its skatepark. In case you were wondering, Hammond does indeed kick mucho ass. Here ya go (sorry it’s so long, but I had to chop up the article to make it fit horizontally):

For a better quality PDF version of the above scanned news article, click here (PDF, 3.8 Megs)