Those with a sharp eye will remember Carly “Midget” Richardson featured
in the table of contents photo from Vol. 3 no 5. Carly lives in
Vancouver, British Columbia, a place that has a reputation for being
both a skate mecca and a pretty rainy city. As you can see, Carly isn’t
going to let something like a little bit of rain stand in her way of riding.

What kinds of material do you incorporate into your products? Sean Methven, Product Line Manager, Pro-tec This depends on the price point and intended use of the product. Most pads we make utilize an injection molded hard cap, EVA foam, Memory foam, Ballistic Nylon, Neoprene, Airprene, Velcro, etc. We’re working with a company right now to utilize their proprietary impact-absorbing material. This new material will absorb impact more efficiently and be much thinner than normal foams. This will allow us to slim down our designs while improving the safety characteristics.

In June of 1961, East German leader Walter Ulbricht set things in motion for the
creation of the Berlin Wall. On August 9th of that same year the Wall was erected
and it became the most famous symbol of the Cold War. For someone of my generation
(born in 1964) it was inconceivable that the Berlin Wall could ever be torn
down. But in November of 1989, the wall actually did come down. The history of the
Berlin Wall is both fascinating and tragic. I am publishing this photo because I want
to clearly illustrate what happens when walls do in fact come tumbling down.

Green is a hot topic these days. Green stands for the environment and money. While we are proud to publish what will be the first of many stories relating to the environment, we fully realize this is a difficult, multi-layered topic that hits a number of hot buttons. Like most of you, we don’t find it that easy to navigate this “sea of green.” For some reason, however, we are compelled to keep hitting the buttons other magazines refuse to touch.

The global public skatepark movement planted its flag on the shores of a new land on October 30, 2007 when Galit Skatepark opened in Tel Aviv, Israel. Galit is the largest skatepark in the Middle East, covering 28,000 square feet. For the past 25 years Israeli skaters have been subsisting on plywood construction, pay-to-skate parks in various states of disrepair, a few private ramps and choice street spots that were quickly sessioned until the arrival of the rent-a-cops. Despite its hot, dry climate, Israel has very few swimming pools per capita, and every one we’ve spotted had squared walls with a square bottom. Ah, yes, there was one miserable attempt to create a mellow bowled skate spot in a Jerusalem park years back. Unfortunately, the local contractor mistranslated the phrase “smooth concrete surface” into “slipperyas- ice surface,” and hence, Sacker Park earned its nickname “Sucker Park.