One of the owners of a small wheel company recently sent me two sets of wheels to review… the same urethane durometers, but different sizes. He asked if I’d do an honest review of his stuff, so I did.

Be warned, there’s nearly 20 minutes of footage below this text, and a lot of it is me being talking like a geek… but if you’re into that sort of thing, you might just enjoy it. If not, don’t worry… i’s free. Hugs.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Oh yeah, the sprain (mentioned in part two) was received yesterday evening after I got off work. Ankles suck.

The culture and geography is something we can’t relate to, but skateboarding is a thread that runs through us, binding us all together. You may have seen a glimpse of this before on Mike V’s television show Drive, but I encourage you to dig in and check out The Uganda Skateboard Union.

Skateboarding isn’t sponsorship, it isn’t a long trick list, nor is it a fashion show. The kids from Uganda (featured in video and throughout the site) know what it’s all about… fun.

I want to skate that mini, too.

Mark “Red” Scott, the President of Dreamland Skateparks, recieved a fractured skull in a very recent skateboard accident as reported by our very own Chrissly Bear. Check out the thread Chris started here.

For anyone that isn’t familiar with Hammond: Red built a skatepark here that changed the skate scene dramatically, and left us with one of the best skatepark I’ve ever had the pleasure of riding.

We know that he’s already talking about hopping back on his board (which may be a little while), but all of us that enjoy your work and respect you as a fellow skater want to wish you a speedy recovery and we hope you come back 110%.

Much love from Hammond.

First of all, we want to thank EVERYONE for entering the 2nd Big Mike Raffle… as you already know, all the money collected went directly into the Big Mike Trust set up by the shop, and the winner of the contest got more skate gear than anyone would know what to do with… just tons of stuff. For a reminder of what the winning prize-stash contained, click here.

Well, March 1st (after the shop closed) was the deadline and the prize-winning drawing… I meant to put all this up before going to bed last night, but I’m a bum, so I apologize to anyone who stayed up waiting for me to post this.

Here’s a full-on photo essay of how it went down:

Mr. Gregory Tracey, winner of the first raffle, was given the magical raffle box and asked to pull out a random winner… here we can see that Gregory took great joy in shakin’ that thang like a salt shaker:

…but shaking the box isn’t good enough. To ensure complete randomness, the raffle box had to be drop-kicked (like we did during the first raffle). No raffle entries were harmed during the kicking of the box:

(Interesting note: Chuck Norris based his fighting technique on Gregory’s martial arts skills. Wait, I’m telling a lie. Sorry.)

…Gregory looked up to the sky (which was blocked by the shop’s ceiling) and rummaged through the raffle box the same way I rummage through the dryer trying to find matching socks.

\\\{{{(((::: WINNER :::)))}}}///

Stoked! Long time friend of the shop, Mr. Zach Anthony, was smiled upon by fate, and officially became the winner of the biggest raffle we’ve had yet! I blurred out his phone number so nobody would try to call him and try to bum any fresh gear from him. I have the number though, so maybe I’ll do it instead. (KIDDING).

As you can tell in this photo, it caused Gregory a great deal of physical pain and anguish to tell someone that they’d just won hundreds of dollars worth of gear. It’s not that he wanted the stuff for himself, he just wanted to wallow in it for a little while, hugging and caressing the decks, DVDs, hats, wheels, and shirts. Greg’s funny like that.

Seriously though, Greg called up Zach, and a few minutes later Zach and his crew came over to enjoy the bounty:

There is a LOT of stuff in that box… I’d be shocked too!

A good photo of Zach, this round’s big winner.

Something really interesting that I want to share with everyone about Zach’s win… Zach entered a few times (like many others did), but while at the shop yesterday, he entered one more time just for the hell of it… it turns out that the entry he put in yesterday was the winning ticket! How insane is that?

Anyway, CONGRATS ZACH!!! Enjoy all the new gear, and thanks for helping out with the cause! As we all know, the prizes are awesome, but it’s the reason we’re having these raffles that’s the most important thing.

Thanks to everyone that contributed, we were able to collect $355.00!

The next raffle begins in ONE WEEK! BE READY!

If you’ve been in the shop in the past few weeks, you’ve probably seen the photo below… I hadn’t seen it as I was getting married, honeymooning, and subsequentially being attacked by a case of bronchitis. Anyway, Kerry had told me about this pic, and yesterday I went to the shop and saw it for myself… all I can say is that I was overwhelmed with how BAD ASS this is!
A crew of fellas that are down for the shop took it upon themselves to stencil out “Small Times Army” and put it on their boards and shirts… making it a part of their kit. I was so stoked on it that I got Kerry to let me bring the pic home, scan it, and put it here for everyone:

(Click the pic for a larger version)

For me, this picture encapsulates part of what Small Time Skates is all about… support. The crew in this photo support us, and we in turn support them. If you’re reading this, and you have an insatiable appetite for skateboarding, we got your back too. That’s really what it is… skaters being down with skaters. If you want to be part of the STS Army, you already are. Just skate hard and remember that all of us on board are family. Get out there, watch each other’s backs, and have FUN.

Some of you may already be aware of this, but I want to make sure that those of you that don’t know… know.

The Hammond Harley Davidson Shop here in town has gone out if its way to show its alliance with Small Time Skates. They recently put out a newsletter, and in it, three of our friends are shown rocking a couple of mean bikes as well as a stash of Small Times’ boards… at the bottom of the newsletter, they even state that “Hammond H-D proudly supports Small Time Skates,” and I personally think that’s the sickest thing ever. The cats over at the Harley shop are seriously cool, and they’ve been down with us since we all got introduced to each other.

Here’s the newsletter in question.

Personally, I think core bikers and skaters have a number of commonalities… the main one being that neither of us are quite understood by the general public, but at the same time, we really don’t care to be. For the most part, we’re all good people that choose to live our lives based around an activity that saturates every cell in our bodies. Core skaters and core bikers are lifers… it’s in our blood, and I’m glad to say that we have a mutual respect for each other because to some degree, bot groups know where the others are coming from. If you’re in the market for a Hog, Buell, some leather, or just need to get your old bike back up to showroom standards, check out Hammond’s very own Harley Davidson shop. They’re cool as hell, and they’re 100% down with the cause.

We don’t normally do plugs for businesses… but it’s Harley Davidson, son! How bad ass is that?

While I’m at it… be sure to add Hammond Harley Davidson to your MySpace list… they’re right here!