"Imagine a city of the future where skateboards are used as the primary form of transportation and recreation – in and out of your home. A utopia city for skateboarders would mean that a skateable path, like a ribbon connecting everything together, links each building in an unending ability to keep in motion on your board. The PAS House takes this concept and brings it to life through an architectural project mixing a modern single family home with a skateboard ramp structure – all from an environmentally-driven perspective."

One would have to wonder what this unique house design (still in prototype stages) would look like without the Ollie. The oval deck shape used throughout the house as a theme was a by-product of the Ollie, as well as certain design aspects of the interior to entertain Ollie-based maneuvers. Pierre-André Senizergue, founder of the Etnies brand and its mother company, Sole Technology, has been working with designer Gil Le Bon Delapointe, the man behind the Skate Study House project, and Los Angeles-based, French architect Francois Perrin, on the PAS House where skateboarding and art collide.

Most people don't think of Japan as part of the skateboarding explosion that took place in the early to mid-1970s. They, in fact, built one of the first skateparks of that era, opening in early 1976 at about the same time as Skateboard City in Port Orange, Florida, and Carlsbad skatepark in California, Japanese skateboarder and snowboarder Shigeru Ishihara recently obtained this wonderful footage of a 1976 skateboard contest in Japan in a parking lot and posted it on his facebook page. Shot with 8mm film, this clip runs over 10 minutes and features slalom and freestyle with quite a few talented lady skaters.

A Secret History of the Ollie has been noted over at the skateboarding blog run by Chris Eggers in Germany. Sk8boarding4life is bi-lingual and published in German and English. The posts on skate history at sk8boarding4life make for some great reading.


Above: Marc Mitzka throwing out a frontside Ollie at the Green Ramp in Germany, circa 1991. Photo: Christian Eggers

Kilwag over at SKATE AND ANNOY [ www.skateandannoy.com ] made a nice post regarding the book. Yes, Kilwag, it's true. Volume 1 of A Secret History of the Ollie is focused on the East Coast. This is due to the fact that Florida was where the Ollie emerged and where it progressed until it achieved global exposure through SkateBoarder magazine. There is a lot of West Coast history in the book too, as well as Sweden and Texas. This is meaty fare and believe it or not, there was a lot to write about. Just wait and see.

BAILGUN Magazine [ www.bailgun.com ] is a beautiful publication from Germany centered around skateboarding, art, photography, travel, and reportage. Based in Munster, BAILGUN recently took note of A Secret History of the Ollie and will being doing an interview with yours truly soon. Stay tuned.

P.S. Back issues of the magazine can be found online HERE.