Wish him luck. First time was easy. Second time was easy. Third time's a charm. Hope their security is not as tight as ours.

Back in 2001, I wrote us this little inventory system thing that tracks everything from what products are sold to how many skaters come through the doors here. After eight years of using this system, we've piled up quite a mountain of data about all kinds of skateboard bid'niss crap. Everyone's complaining about the recession. How bad is it really? I looked at a bunch of numbers and broke down some details for you in this article: Bid'niss Is Down Like An Erection. More economic analysis coming up soon. Let me get my suit.

Right now Clem's still out in California being that Hollywood promotional type guy. There was some Fuel TV thing he did yesterday and now he's with Jesse Fritsch, who hooked him up to do a guest appearance on Tony Hawk's radio show. It's tonight at 7pm Eastern, 4pm Pacific on Sirius.

PJ Ladd vs. Andrew Reynolds at the Berrics was amazing if you haven't seen it already. You know what I haven't seen? My butteryasstee that I ordered like 80 years ago. Mail order sucks, except us of course.

One of my Florida favorites has a new Mag Minute at The Skateboard Mag. Nollie big spin back nose blunt? Back lip to front bluntslide like Koston but on an inside ledge? Switch 5-0 switch 360 shuv out on an upledge? Damn, Evan. That's how you go from flow to contract with DC. Saw it coming five years ago.

Does your city have those huge grass fields that are wide open, lit up, unsupervised, and free for anyone to use to throw a hard round object at your friend while he swings a big stick as hard as he possibly can to slam the hard round object back in your padless face right after scratching his nuts and spitting out his dip? Sounds more dangerous than skateboarding to me, not to mention way gayer. I bet this New Tampa skate park will be the opposite of the stick bashing game and have full pad nannies employed by the gub'ment with limited hours of use and a three page legal document to complete. Oh well, at least they hired Team Pain this time.

Etnies has a new TF and it looks like there's some pretty unique stuff in there. Jose Rojo, Kyle Leeper, Sean Malto, and Tyler Bledsoe show you what you can't do on that stuff. I think someone should buy me a plane ticket out there, put me up in Pierre's Newport Beach loft, feed me, drink me, give me shoes, and take me to go skate that thing just for being a nerd and talking mad crap on the internet. That would be amazing.

This website called Tweaker almost makes you feel like you're reading a real magazine, kind of like a blow up doll almost makes you feel when it comes to a real woman. Derewenko has a piece in there.

Check out the full results, story, and photos from The Skateboard Mag’s YBAm & Damn Am Awards 2008 Presented by Nike SB and Red Bull, including some other random ASR stuff. Now let's go home.

We have much skateboard bid'niss going down today so the story and photos from The Damn Am Awards and the rest of this ASR madness is coming up tomorrow. If you were in this crowd last night, thanks for coming to the awards and enjoying our free $8 trade show beers.

I'm in San Diego now with a crew from Tampa. I spent most of my day at Black Box yesterday skating and high fiving all my friends in the sketchy skateboard industry. This Crossroads Trade Show made it seem less sketchy and more of the way things should be. No meat head suckurity and no curved hat wearning tribal tat jock rockers trying to sell you something extreme? Imagine that. Checkout some photos and a short story from Clem: CrossRoads Trade Show at Black Box Distribution. Also check out slightly more professional coverage of Crossroads than my silly photos provide.

Big bid'niss deals going down in the sketchy skateboard industry. The Euros are saying the company that owns Vans bought DC from Quiksilver for 80 billion cents. This after Quik paid a mere 8.7 billion cents for DC last year. That's a come up. The High Ollie Contest is still cancelled, though. Grind for Life is having their own version of a High Ollie Contest at ASR as usual, though. DVS is also doing one involving the beer garden. See you there.

Clements went on a pool adventure this weekend and snapped some photos: Regular Weekend In Tampa. I spy "that flag." Speaking of that flag, some classic Florida character just wandered into Innetech and landed himself on the Quotes Page.

Today you skate free if that stuff that encases your muscles and bones has a certain hue to it. Ask Ternell in the Shop for details.

Someone started the official FSEC. It's a very exclusive membership.

Yesterday we skated some new Team Pain stuff. It was in this big convention center where we had an entertaining sketchy skateboard industry bid'niss meeting. Clements hung with his boy. I left early and went for yet another Wu Tang show at Janus Landing.

Here's an $1,800 skateboard table to put that Louie on that you bought last week. Welcome to sketchy skateboarding, furniture making company.

Let's say you sent me this email right here: "Yo Rob, I went online to get Tampa Pro tickets and they're sold out! Hook me up because, I'm like, the coolest, bro!!" Right now I could just answer with, "Nah, they're not sold out, you can get them right here" instead of giving you a letdown when they do actually sell out. Let's make this easy on both of us. Thanks.

If you were an architect like George Castanza, wouldn't you be motivated to "adjust" the design of buildings to make them fully skateable? Check out this article I found in a nerd publication.

Our friend Charlie Crank just finished editing footage from an event way back in 2006 here at SPoT: Binky's 2006 Bowl Jam. I guess it doesn't matter if the footage is two years old when the tricks are 20 years old. How old do you have to get before you can start doing little kid tricks again? I'd say at about 45 it's okay. From blunt grabs you were made, to blunt grabs you will return. Thanks for the footage, Charlie.

Clements informed me that he just got off the phone with the higher-ups that run the Maloof Money Cup. Apparently SPoTlight Productions has been commissioned to run the amateur portion of the event that's happening July 10 - 12, 2009. Looks like another trip to California is on the calendar.

This weekend is the Cigar City Tattoo Convention hosted by Atomic Tattoo. If you got a free tat during Tampa Pro over the years, stop by and thank them.

Serious bid'ni$$ went down in our weekly SPoT employee meeting yesterday. In our SPoTlight meeting prior to that, we had to figure out what to do about Quiksilver bailing out of the Reese Forbes High Ollie Challenge last minute. It was supposed to be at ASR later this month. Recessions apparently make the waves go down, too. We have four new employees: Adam K taking product photos, Adam J taking care of inventory, Jeff in the Snack Bar, and Josh in the Shop. Say what's up. Frosty says the Big Ass Fan is busted and will be back to decapitating kids soon. Cara in the Snack Bar wants to know who broke all the pool sticks. Keep an eye out. Bristol says the last remaining inliner on Earth comes to SPoT and is causing trouble in the Shop. He and his busted chick attempted to bring baseball bats in and get all gangsta. Kelly says learn your alphabet because the shirts in the Shop are now in alphabetical order. Keep them in check. Schaefer said something about a tattoo convention which reminded me of the worst selling graphic in SPoT history. Red Bull Sarah left us cookies for the meeting. Thanks, but we're used to much better. Altamont, Emerica, eS, and Etnies had a sales contest with Shop employees. Wizard Smoke and Ternell each won $100. Ternell also won the Gift Card selling contest we had in the Shop. He gets a flight to ASR. Until next week...

Due to my seven year grudge against Canada, we are no longer shipping online orders there. Just kidding, a little. Actually, the volume's pretty low and it's uneconomical to service the few that do order. The gub'ment, taxes, and UPS issues led to this. Candian Customs helped, too. Kidding! I love Canada, a little. Oh, and we no longer have free shipping on $89 orders. Shhh.

Rob Brink did a Danny Garcia interview and I'm posting it because of the email he sent. You can also see Danny at Tampa Am nine years ago on the Thrasher site along with Sheckler in full pads and Chris Cole in clam diggers doing ollie roast beef grab fingerflips over the pyramid. Check out more interviews from Brink on Rob Brink.com.

If you don't participate in these online product giveaways, the way it works is pretty simple. Given two choices, you pick what you think the most popular choice will be based on all other other people picking with you. It always produces some interesting results. On this last one, 76% chose tight women over loose women. 52% would rather date a fat person than ride trucks they hate. 57% would rather go bald than ride bad trucks. Check the full results from the Destructo Giveaway along with the rest of the stats. Top three got a set of Destructo D2's.

You can get an $8,000 skateboard and a $250 t-shirt to go with it, but you have to act fast because, "By Friday, there probably won’t be any more left." Thanks Louis V, welcome to skateboarding. Please start making some bangin' man purses for us, too.

Damn Am 2009 dates have been confirmed for Minneapolis (June 5 - 7, 2009), AmsterDamn Am (July 24 - 26, 2009), Vancouver (August 7 - 9, 2009), and Costa Mesa (October 22 - 25, 2009). There's one more in Australia that we're working on for November. Don't send footage if you're still doing blunt nosegrabs - ha. Just kidding, sort of, a little. See you there.

Before resorting to the sauce on New Year's Eve, we had a quick session at Jorge Michael's Mini-Ramp.

I wonder if the recession has hit Shaqueefa Threads as hard as others have been smacked. Looks like the film production budget is strong and they remain in the streets as you can see in this Shaqueefa Crew and Friends video containing SPoT Family, SPoT FSEC members (Former SPoT Employee Club), and the one remaining current employee. When you start with a Ramen Noodles budget, there's isn't much to cut back. Our numbers here at SPoT have not been looking the best they ever have either. More on that later. I've been working on all kinds of tech/nerd crap for the site involving subliminal sales pitches to improve the bid'niss digits. For example, now when you add something to your cart, you get a "Things People Buy After Viewing What You Put In Your Cart" list. I stole that idea straight from Amazon.com after buying something there this weekend. Like most sales pithces, it's a 100% lie. That list really comes from us back here in Innetech assigning related products to help make shopping easier for you. It wouldn't sound as cool if I told the truth. Welcome to the sketchy skateboard industry, kiddies. Surprise, the grown ups lie to you, and this is just a little white one. We are also organizing pro products. Anyway, while content here is slow and things are keeping all of us busy, don't forget the News Watcher Page for a nice daily dose of random skate crap. And of course, the best skateboarding viewed on a computer screen is The Berrics.

Learn about the skate scene in Cuba: Cuban Skateboarding Crisis. Let's have a SPoTlight shindig there, or maybe Boards For Bro's. Call it Sticks For...well, you finish the rhyme. I'm down to pay the $10,000 fine to travel there. It's business. Check that tranny to tank spot. Watch out for "the death" on those early grabs off jump ramps. Check out more on what's happening there from Chris Nieratko.