The quality of skateboard footage and skateboarding videos has changed tremendously these last few years. And these days there are tons of alternatives to just going out with the same old Sony vx1000. Don’t get me wrong, the Sony Vx1000 is a staple in the skateboarding video industry and will always be regarded by many as “the camera,” but with all the HD and higher end 3 chip cameras out there it’s kind of hard not to try something new.

I personally have always stuck by the Vx2000. I can’t stand having to look into the eyepiece of the vx1000, plus the camera is so old now that parts and service on the camera itself are near impossible to find. The Vx2000 is a good skateboarding camera and has been used by countless highly regarded filmers in the skateboarding industry. You can find one on eBay at an average price of around $1,200 and they go up from there.

There are even cheaper alternatives to getting good skateboarding cameras, such as the Sony Trv-900, which you have probably seen Beagle using in the Baker videos. The Trv-900 camera on eBay can be found running anywhere from $350.00 and up. It’s a super sturdy camera that won’t let you down. Plus, you would feel more comfortable having it take a beating than having your $3,000 dollar Vx2100 take the beating, if you know what I mean.

If you are really rolling on the dough, you can go ten steps beyond everything and switch over to the Panasonic Hvx200 which is what famed Lakai filmer Ty Evans has been using a lot of lately. If you have the $4,000 to pay for this magical camera, it will defiantly be a worthy buy. But for some of us like me, it would cost us an arm and a leg before we could get our hands on one of those beauties.

Regardless of skill, the high quality of the skate footage will always make it more pleasing to our eyes. And a good steady filmer is always nice as well. Feel free to comment if you would like any tips or help on finding some good skate filming equipment.

Venice Beach will be home to a new 16,000 square foot skatepark. The skatepark is said to be totaled at over $2 million dollars. Judging by the looks of the layout, the skatepark looks amazing to say the least.

There are so many rad obstacles within the skatepark and at least half of it looks super street orientated. On a side note though, judging by the press release I read they don’t fully explain in detail which existing area they will be removing. I really hope they don’t decide to do away with the existing skate plaza they got there. If they don’t remove it, Venice Beach will be thee “spot” to skate. This skatepark will just add to the wonderful obstacles they got going on out there to skate.

You can basically go out there and spend all day filming amongst the street spots. From the double gaps to the infamous Ledges and many pads that lie stretched across the boardwalk. And if you are really gutsy you can stroll on down to the nearby Santa Monica triple set. You can basically film a full video part in one area. And with the addition of an amazing skatepark in the works, I guarantee you I will be one of the hundreds of thousands heading out there to skateboard until my hearts content.

The Venice skatepark is expected to go under construction sometime between September and October and to be finished in a ten month span. This basically means that it will be done in a little over a year. I can’t wait to skate it.

Many of you have heard the name Johnny Romano around the scene throughout the last few years. And if you don’t know him by now, you soon will. Johnny Romano is a 10 year-old fellow skateboarder who has had three pro boards for Real skateboards. He’s a “Make a wish kid” who has been fighting cancer for almost half his entire life. He is currently getting chemo therapy every day and the medical bills keep piling up. Especially now that he needs a much needed bone marrow transplant.

This kid has heart on a skateboard, and many big time heads in the industry have been generous and helping Johnny out. I firsthand witnessed the legendary Skin Phillips dedicate an award to Johnny Romano at the TWS awards which was amazing!

I am super happy to see many taking part and spreading the word to help Johnny. And now I want to help out and let all of you out there know about this wonderful fellow skateboarder in urgent need of help. Like I’ve mentioned various times before, we as skateboarders all share the common bond of skateboarding. We are all brothers from different mothers. We should all help each other out and this is a perfect situation to help out a fellow brother. If you would like to help out a fellow skateboarder check out Johnnys website.

Legendary professional Skateboarder Danny Way is said to be plotting a stunt down the Luxor hotel and casino in Las Vegas, NV. There are currently negotiations going around before the stunt will take place but we all know they will sort that out and we’ll be hearing official news on this in no time.

Danny Way is no joke when it comes to the gnarliest eye catching stunts capable on a skateboard. The man has jumped the great wall of china for goodness sake. And I don’t doubt Danny for a second on this next stunt, as a matter of fact I feel almost 100% that he will pull it off successfully.

Danny is planning to ride down the side of the Luxor hotel’s pyramid into a mega ramp that will launch him over the Sphinx statue. How awesome is that? I seriously would be stoked to see this go down in person. I have stayed in the Luxor before when I was younger and I have always looked at it in a magical skateboarding way. Not really thinking it would be possible but more in terms of how rad that would be to do. It’s insane that years later someone is actually going to pull something like that off. The whole stunt sounds like something straight out of a video game. Dropping down a pyramid flying over a sphinx? No matter how many times I say that it still doesn’t sink in as normal. And by the way did anyone see Danny Ways latest cover on Transworld Skateboarding August 2008 issue? One word, WOW! 360 flip across the mega ramp no hands just straight up perfect catch. Its tricks like this that I don’t doubt for a second that he will miss making the jump over the sphinx. Danny Way is a maniac on a skateboard. He can do just about everything he sets his mind to. Where there is a will there is a WAY!!!

A fully rendered image of the street course at the Maloof Money Cup has been revealed and it looks amazing! The course was designed by Andrew Reynolds, Erik Ellington, and Rob Dyrdek. If that’s not a legit group of designers, I don’t know what is.

It’s awesome that we finally see a course designed by pro street skateboarders. Now I wish we could all get a chance to skate it at least once before they destroy it after the comp. I love the layout, the entire course looks amazing to skate. They even got what looks like a mock up of a Carlsbad gap on the far right corner. You can definitely see the street skateboarding influence in the design of the course. The ledges with the drop offs, the gap to bank, the tech section, and even a mini spine to rail.

They should design more skateparks with these kinds of obstacles built in. I know there’s the DC skate plaza which is more of a street based skatepark, but this 3 day park just looks and feels more street. They did a really good job and I cant wait to see what them - and the rest of the skaters - throw down on all the obstacles. There is so much innovation that can go down during the contest. Everyone be prepared to see one hell of a skateboard contest. I could say I have my predictions as to who I think will win but honestly I have no idea, it’s anyones game.

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Do you know what I hate? When you’re skateboarding and a person walks right up to you and says “don’t break a leg,” or some other negatively de-motivating remark. Seriously, I’ve heard it countless times and it really ticks me off. I’m sure many of you fellow skateboarders have heard the same thing or anything similar. I don’t go walking around football fields yelling “hope you don’t sprain your ankle” or let alone hear regular people state horrible things like that about athletes from other sports.

Have you ever thought about that? Why do we get picked on so much? You can get hurt in EVERY sport, almost no exceptions, particularly in the more popular sports.

I recently read an article on Forbes.com about the top ten most hazardous sports in the world. You would be surprised (or maybe not) to find that Skateboarding isn’t even on the list. Snowboarding’s in there, at the start of the list so you know they aren’t disregarding the board sports. And according to them, Basketball ended up being the number one most hazardous sport.

Seriously why does everyone stereotype that we are reckless and doomed for the emergency room. Yes, accidents happen and we have our fair share of injuries, but so do tons of other sports. I can even recall having friends injured from events that occurred when they weren’t even skateboarding, from just playing around or even in ridiculous places like the gym.

We probably can’t do a single thing about this problem but I just felt like bringing up this point. People will continue to judge us and many will continue to bring us down. Stay up my skateboarding friends, keep pushing and don’t let others bring you down.

June 21st is right around the corner and if you don’t know by now, it’s the official GO SKATEBOARDING DAY!!! There are tons - and I mean tons - of events going on everywhere for this special day of ours. Personally for me, everyday is go skateboarding day but I guess this is the “official” day.

Just about every skateboard distribution company is assembling an event together for Go Skateboarding Day. If you’re not aware of something going on near your hometown then go by your local shop and get the details. If there still truly is nothing going on in your area it’s ok. You have two options… One you make something happen yourself, hit up all your homies and build the biggest skateboarding session you have ever assembled. You could even cooperate with your local core shop on doing something and I’m sure they would be up for it. Or option number two, you just skate! Yea that’s right, even if you are alone make sure you skateboard on go skateboarding day.

Just think, at that moment on that day when you are skateboarding, there will be millions of others doing the exact same thing. Imagine how many kids are doing ollies at the same exact time as you. How many tricks are being done in unison with each other? And how much street shredding will be going down. It’s a pretty remarkable thing if you think about it. So be sure to skateboard on this glorious day, and most importantly to have fun. Introduce some of your non-skateboarding friends to pick up a skateboard. Improve on your skills or just cruise the streets. Either way make sure you SKATE!

The Krux kickflip challenge has been going on for close to a month now and there are still a ton of stops left. I like this event a lot, in the sense that it gives a lot of kids the opportunity to participate in a contest they normally wouldn’t. For one thing, the contest is free to enter and the only thing you have to do is kickflip ’til your heart’s content. But sometimes that’s simpler said than done. At the end, Krux gives out these cool little stickers that say “I choked at the Krux Kickflip Challenge” for those that participated but didn’t do as well.

On the other hand, some kids get their kickflips down to the point and on lock. For instance, the current world record holder, a boy named Zach Kral who did 1,200 kickflips consecutively? WOW! Seriously that had to take hours and hours before he reached that amount. The kid deserves a pat on the back and a lot more than a one-year sponsorship from Krux if he has a kickflip that down by the age of 13. And what is the most insane thing is that as the years go by, the record breakers never seize to fail, which is pretty mind blowing to try and imagine what the following record will be next.

Also, if you pay close attention to the many kickflip challenge winners, you’ll notice that the majority of them are young guns that are holding it down. I witnessed with my own eyes, my 13 year old brother Diego Najera do 579 kickflips with like a single 5 second water break. And countless other kickflip challenges have been won by the younger crowd, which goes to show that even some of the young newbie’s can get their tricks on lock.

So if you are a shop owner, hook up with NHS distribution and get a Kickflip challenge going in your area. It gets the local rippers and the youth more involved and you will get a good amount of entrants as well. Plus it’s a fun time and a good chance to do what we all love and have in common. SKATEBOARD!!!!

We all know Nike is already present in the Skateboard industry with its SB and 6.0 lines. But, is there yet to be another addition to their skate influenced shoe invasion? By the looks of things, it seems there truly will be. Jordan skateboarding shoes are the newest addition to their onslaught of various sub-brands. The first shoe they will be releasing will be called the “flipside”. Rumors of them working with professional skateboarder Stevie Williams are said to be proven correct. Will he be the first team rider?

Jordans have always been pricey shoes to begin with, so it makes me wonder what these kicks will sell for on the market. Personally, I don’t really feel there’s a need for so many skateboard sub-brands on Nike’s behalf. If they are going to make Nike skateboarding shoes, then they should just keep it under one name. One more point that I feel would be worth bringing up, is the fact that the Jordan logo is still the same - the all-familiar icon of Michael Jordan going for a massive basketball dunk. It almost feels wrong to see someone skateboarding in this shoe. I will remember Michael Jordan for what he was, a legendary Basketball player. Definitely not a former skateboarder or anything even close related to that.

Sun Diego has been notorious for throwing some of the biggest events in Skateboarding. So when a new event sprouts out of there minds, there’s no doubt in mine that it’s going to be just as amazing as the other. AM SLAM is an amateur skateboard contest series with 5 stops in San Diego County, followed by the 6th which will be the finals at the Mission Valley YMCA skatepark. There are over $10,000 in cash and prizes and the list of sponsors backing this series is huge! There is a limited entry of 30 skaters per contest age group, which you bet will fill up quickly. Especially since its points based and being at every stop is vital.

Is this the next big AM contest to hit the skateboarding world? I would think so, seeing as how Sun Diego’s Spring Break Yo’Self contest is a staple in the industry. Don’t be surprised to see Sun Diego’s AM SLAM contest up there with Phoenix Am, Damn Am, and maybe even Tampa Am later.

One of the reasons I state this, is the fact that San Diego doesn’t actually have a full on Am contest of this proportion yet. I really think this contest will stick and even be a career making contest for some of the unheard AM’s in the local skate scene. Note that the flyer features Godzilla terrorizing the city behind the AM SLAM text. That’s basically a subliminal message stating to you that the contest will be of epic proportions, you can count on that.