Snowboarding is about to get a lot more interesting. The Frends crew got a big writeup in the New York Times this weekend and Kevin Pearce and Mason Aguirre finally said what everyone had figured: the Frends ain’t friends with Shaun White. Pearce goes all in, “I feel the last couple years, Shaun has kind of dominated snowboarding. I think that people are getting sick of it, and they’re getting sick of seeing him.” Is it really beef or well executed pre Olympic hype? We’ll have to wait and see. Read the entire story here.

Amid a sea of foreclosures, advantageous skateboarders in Southern California have discovered a bright side. There is an almost endless concrete wave of abandoned pools. “Skaters Jump In as Foreclosures Drain The Pool” in today’s New York Times gives an account of a how skaters track new empties, and is accompanied by a few choice images. Draining pools provides an important service as well, clearing out often bacteria filled still water.

Another example from the article after the jump.

The NYT reports on skate shoes in this weeks Thursday style section. A revelation to us all? Hardly. The focus is on the style over function nature of most skate footwear. The speed skaters run through sneakers. And, just what’s cool. There is brief discussion of skates influence on the now typical rapper list — NERD and Lupe. Check it out for yourself here.

There is an interesting new article up on the New York Times website about the transformation of skateboarding in the last couple of years. They mainly talk about how it is not anymore a “white boys” sport at all. Definitely an interesting read.
Check it out here.