Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
Jedi Grind Tricks: March 2010 By Scooter Newell I’d like to send a shout-out to all my topics that never make the cut, some of which managed to become almost a 1,000 words on my technicolor screen before I SELECT ALL and DELETE that garbage. Or was it garbage? Sometimes I think the “grind tricks” are too small a format to properly address certain issues within skateboarding — like skate career politics, non-environmental friendly manufacturing of products, or any other skate... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
Jedi Grind Tricks: February 2010 By Scooter Newell Nothing says “freedom” like the spirit of a skateboarder. I feel it most while just pushing down the road — carving; a quick Ollie over a manhole; locking into a manual on the double yellow line of a smooth road; ollie the gutter on to the sidewalk craving the hypnotic “ca-click ca-click ca-click.” Refined through technology yet primitive by design, the skateboard is the ultimate form of recreation and transportation. Part... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
Jedi Grind Tricks: January 2010 By Scooter Newell I’m still not sure that I have an actual resolution for this year. If I did, it would be to become the person my dog thinks I am. She always seems to be happy and smiling. Perhaps I can project that outward and make the world smile “… and maybe they’d be happy for a while.” Perhaps we can all help to generate some smiles this year I hate those darn things They drive me nuts. Although O-l<]: is kinda cool ... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
JEDI GRIND TRICKS By Scooter Newell It’s the end of the year as we know it, and I feel fine. … But I do feel a rant coming on. What is there to write about this December that will be worth reading? I’d like to start off with a nice little plug to support local beachside businesses. I could go on about how lame it is to order your skateboard gear from some website, and I’m sure you could go on about how you found your deck for $43 instead of $49 on the web. I get it. I know... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
I had to paddle out before the contest when I realized that the dolphins (porpoises?) were saying: “Get your board, you non-water creature. Come on out here with us and get some of this. It’s been flat for a week.” It was a great way to wake into the first morning of the 5th Annual Slater Brothers Invitational. I left my skateboard in the truck for the morning and took to the water to surf my heat. Mullzy said, “It was drawn out of a hat!” It was an honor to surf a heat... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
Jedi Grind Tricks: October 2010 • Scooter Newell • The Cocoa Beach Skate Park and Space Coast Junior Achievement came together and held a fundraiser contest on September 18, 2010. Over $2,000 in proceeds went to the Space Coast JA business programs in our local schools. The contestants were using the entire park as the terrain format, forcing competitors to show transition skills in the bowls as well as street skills on the ledges and rails. The contest yielded some amazing skating and mind-blowing... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
JEDI GRIND TRICKS By Scooter Newell I decided to “Get my Gump on” and Skayeet clear acrows tayown just for the soul session of it. And I wanted to celebrate the time of my life when my skateboard was my only transportation. I started off at my mother and father-in-law’s house out by the golf course where I was cat sitting. It was late, about 12:10 in the morning. I set up a board with nice soft wheels on a Chuck Dinkins Soul Trip deck. It had the luxury feel of a longboard with... [Read more...]
Jedi Grind Tricks: August 2010 By Scooter Newell While in college I refused to schedule my life around television shows and decided to use my television only as a monitor for my VHS player. I’m holding to my promise of being largely TV-free. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve logged plenty of hours as a kid watching “Family Ties,” “The Incredible Hulk,” “The Young Ones,” “The Smurfs,” “Moonlighting,” “The Honeymooners,”... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
Jedi Grind Tricks: July ‘10 • Scooter Newell • Happy would be the word that best describes the summer months of the skateboard world. This month and last month there was just so much going on in local skateboarding that I’m not even sure where to begin. But in neighborhood news: Eastwood, Cocoa Beach, and Graffiti all had a FREE skate day in recognition of “Go Skateboarding Day” this past June 21. Florida legend and streetstyle pioneer Chuck Dinkins made an appearance at... [Read more...]
Scooter Newell
Article Category: Jedi Grind Tricks
CJ Dixon Summer is here! I remember the last summer before the turn of the century. A new skate park had opened in Merritt Island and I was tasked with creating a summer skateboard camp. I never went to a skate camp as a young skater. In fact, back then there were no skateboard camps offered, or at least none in Brevard County. Like most young Cocoa Beach groms, I went to the City Recreation Center’s version of summer camp. We’d start in the morning playing basketball, volleyball or some... [Read more...]
