Skate Soup

Direction East - New Product Line

Direction East Clothing is from right here in Pittsburgh.  The new threads are now up on their site.

Are you supporting local brands?  Does your local shop carry Direction East Clothing?  Tell them they should. 

Support Pittsburgh Skating because no one else will.   I mean, it is your scene.  You need to create it and support it or else it all just melts away.  Local companies are the ones that support your local skating.  They are going to be there with the shops when local even are thrown, products are needed to be tossed, or donate some time to help out on a local project.

You may or may not like the Direction East Threads.  If you do, support them.  If you don't, create your own company.  Make your own boards, pants, shirts, hats and see how hard it really is to run a skateboard company.  It takes a dedication far beyond what you may be able to contribute.

And by "support" I don't just mean "go buy all their stuff".  Slap a sticker a on your board, post something about them on your myspace/facebook/twitter.  Show up at their events.  You can be down for something just by showing your support.

2009 - Year in Preview

Happy New Year to you rad dudes.  I could get poetic and do something like, "As the sun sets on 2008" or "F-YOU 2008 YOU WANKER PIECE OF CRAP, YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME".  Just kidding.  It is only a year.

I am assuming you have noticed a few days break in the posts.  It is not because we are slacking, but because I felt we were putting to much pressure on everyone to get things done around the holidays.  It is much more important to have some friends and family time, than to get your YOTW footage to us on time.

Things we are working on:
More Skatepark Listings:  I still have the Blairsville photos to edit and will be working on getting some South Park, Boyce, Imperial, Cranberry and B to the Cube photos in the coming days. I will be adding a Listing on the Left Hand side of the site for you to enjoy.

YOTW Series:  Steve Dimbokowitz will be the next YOTW and the series will resume next Wednesday.  Followed by Curtis George, Dave Kaule, Mini Ramp Jason with a Goat and some Friends, Jimmy Olsen.

Hater Magnet:  There will also be a check out on Hater Magnet as they regroup and prepare to relaunch the skate division of the company.  I believe it will be run out of Pittsburgh.  The team is getting pretty sick.  Collyn Adams, Jimmy Olsen and Rodney Jones.  We will also be getting an exclusive Hater Magent perspective of the Pittsburgh Hip Hop Awards. (I believe there will be some Mansion Crew antics thrown in there as well)

Skate?  Who does that crap?:  We are also trying to put together a huge skate session for the Greensburg Plaza in conjunction with The Shop sometime in February or March.  As the weather breaks we will be putting together jam sessions all over the place on a weekly basis.  In the meantime, invite us to skate your basement.

Email Blasts:  We also made some changes to the site.  The new Email Blast Prize for January is a PA Cheap Skates Shop Deck.  You pick the size and the color.  Anything you want. Just Sign up for our Newsletter and you will automatically be entered.  It is free to enter. 

If you you are already signed up then you are already entered to win.  If you are too cheap to sign up for free, then go directly to PA Cheapskates and get 2 Boards for $58.  Just tell them Skate Soup sent you.  Use the Rick James secret code: Pepperoni Bitch!

1ST Winner:  Congrats to Ian "Raging" Kegger of the Westmoreland County area.  He was the winner of the ATM Deck.  I don't know how I am going to get you the deck, cause we don't have a shipping budget.

Yinz Geezers:  Also, a new event reared its ugly head this week.  Dave Martin is having a birthday party at Pipes on Friday night.  I know you were not invited, but this is your chance to crash it.

Merry Christmas To Yinz All

I hope 2008 was a good year for you.  If it wasn't, don't let it define you.  I certainly know it was not my best year.  Those of you who know me, know that stuff just snowballed on me over the course of 2008.  In all honesty, I just want to get the hell out of this year and start on 2009. 

Skate Soup is my new project and the potential for it grows every day.  There are new ideas, new thoughts and direction that are continually opening up for the Skate Soup Project.  I am very excited about it and even more excited that I am still contributing to skateboarding.

So from all of us (me) at Skate Soup.com, We sincerely wish you a Merry Christmas.

I know some people would have said Xmas to keep it politically correct. In fact, the original post for the XBoard was all about how I was insulted that they replaced the word "Skate" with "X".  They were taking the skate out of skateboarding the same way "Xmas" takes the Christ of out Christmas.  It was going to be the original post for Christmas, but I decided to go with the Top 5 List that referenced hookers instead.  I thought it was funny, but I didn't know who else would get it.....like 90% of this site.

Upcoming Events on Skate Soup

We've been adding a ton of content these past few weeks and have a ton of stuff planned.  We are continually scheduling new posts and planning events for 2009.  Look out for the Soup!

Coming Up this Week:
SkatePark Section Gets  Underway.
We will be adding photos, directions and reviews of as many local parks we can get to during the winter.  We have already been to 4 and have photos of all the ramps and fun stuff.  We are going to be launching with Tarentum, Greensburg Plaza, Blairsville and Pipes during the course of this week.  If you have any photos of parks please send them to us.

It will look just like the  skate shop listings on the right hand side, except it will be on the left hand side.  We are like totally freaking geniuses.

Dom Scanga Yinzer of the Weak
This comes out on Wednesday December 24th at noon.  The whole piece is already done and scheduled to publish.  Thanks again to Dom for putting this together for us. 

The YOTW series is booked through February already.

HOW CAN YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOUP?
1.  Tell 40 of your closest friends about us.  Tell them SkateSoup.com is so hot right now.
2.  Use our Contact the Soup Page to pass on events, specials, sales, deals, products.

Photo: I don't your name, but I took this photo a few months ago when these damn kids were skating in an alley way behind sunoco.  It is a nice gapper.  Name this skater and get the recognition you have always wanted.

Skate Soup Partners with Google

 In an effort to bring you everything related to skateboarding on the internet, we have teamed up with Google to bring you a complete search engine built right into Skate Soup.  You can click Search on the top of this page or enter a search in the box below.

There is so much information out there on skateboarding that we can't always bring it all to you.  So if you do not see it here, look for it online.  This is just another reason why SkateSoup.com should be your homepage.

Plan B TV and B Zine

The Plan B online mag called B Zine has launched and available for you to download.  It is full of photos from all of their riders.  There are supposed to be 2 issues up, but when you download December 2008 you get November 2008.  Perhaps the second one has not launched yet and we are actually breaking a story. 

The zine is a little tricky to get to.  It doesn't just open up like you may expect.  Since it is in pdf format you will need a pdf reader and will have to download the zine.

If, for whatever reason, that is too difficult for you then go ahead and view some Plan B TV.   However, once you view a video, there is no way to get to any other videos other than clicking off of that page and then back to the video pages. There are tons of videos on there, just make sure you spend the half hour figuring out how to get back to them.

The SuperFuturePromo is definately worth a peep.  It has been out for about a month, but well worth it.  Danny Way always delivers some surprises and the Sheckler has a nice sized part with some serious gappers.  (And no, that does not contradict our last piece on Ryan Sheckler...we said he rips, we just can't take him crying anymore)

ATM Looking for New Team Riders / Josh Moh's Turns Pro

ATM Skateboards are looking for new team riders as posted on the ATM Myspace Page. You can send your videos to: 2919 SAN LUIS REY ROAD OCEANSIDE,CA 92058. Good luck. Let's see what happens.

Also in ATM News, Josh Moh's has turned pro and his first deck is out now. Check out the second video on ATM Video Page to see some footage of Josh. There is also a video of Devera. It is about 6 Minutes long and you don't see his belly.