So I'm back from a whirlwind tour to southwest Colorado... ahhhh, the homeland. So 34 hours of driving for 72 hours of hanging with the bros ain't bad right? Still haven't posted my Battle of the Shops slideshow... It's really not all that anyway but look for it later after I actually put some work in here, in the name of the Cross.

Active just put up a window wrap on their Rancho Cucamonga store with art from Braydon Szafranski's recent Slap ad.

Stop by and check it out in person at: 10399 Foothill Blvd. Suite 104, Rancho Cucamonga.

That reminds me of when I was 16 I drove with my friend Rob Fucelli from Denver to SD and we stayed in Rancho Cucamonga. There was this super fun little city park right next to a bank that had banked walls down some small steps, ledges, a couple of gaps and stuff... super fun.

First person who sends in a pic of that spot for my scrapbook gets a FREE SET OF INDYS. Click on kdub below>

Today is Independent's unofficial Birthday... marking the anniversary of the Hester Pro Bowl Series contest at Ride On Skatepark in Newark, CA.

28 years and counting... Ride the best, f#@% the rest!

Ground Zero: Newark, CA, 5-23-78
By Bob Denike
Recorded history places the commercial arrival of Independent in Northern California at the Newark Pro Bowl contest in May 1978. Now back track about 12 months to the initial development and riding of a full-suspension slalom truck, along with a few loose meetings in Santa Cruz and San Francisco to pinpoint its actual conception. Four men met to talk about a better skateboard truck. They stumbled upon an indelible brand.

The key ingredients were two motorcycle race mechanics, two guys with a skateboard company, a handful of renowned team riders, and a powerful icon. The founders were... (read more of this story in the book Built to Grind - 25 Years of Hardcore Skateboarding)

So I'm back from Battle of the Shops and a crazy 3 days & over 18 hours of driving with the Santa Cruz Skateshop team. Full story and some random photos to follow later.

In the meantime; I'm kind of disturbed by this and the striking similarity to the quoteunquote I'd rather fight than switch ads of Chrisian Hosoi and most recently Tony Trujillo. Apparently according to Vice Magazine it's an underground record of bands that were pro gay before gay was an acceptable lifestyle. Hey, it's a modern world people! Both parodies are based originally on 1960's Tareytan cigarettes ads.

Back to the Battle of the Shops... Justin Schulte won the Tech Center, Jimmy Carlin won the Gap (4 flat 4), local Santa Cruz shralper Josh (add one of many knicknames here) Mattson won the tranny event with his deep, deep bag of crazyness, and Marquise Preston won the Rail. Overall shop winner was Pharmacy. See the full results page here and while you so axiously awaiting my photo gallery you can check out Rob Meronek and Ryan Clements' SPoT coverage. Here's a preview of my slideshow for all the diehard teenage boys that visit StrangeNotes.com>

Here's some pics from Lizard's visit to NHS. Although I spent most of the 2 1/2 days with a VX in my hand, I got some nice still shots from our night out at Brady's and other fun stuff. Click below to peep>