PAST ENTRY > APR 25, 2001 : : There are many of you out there who are curious about the percentage of kills for a sponsored rider. You're watching the videos, checking the ads, the shots in the mags, and thinking, "Shit, do these guys ever bail?" Well, here's a gif of the current Robbie McKinley Girl ad to help put your minds at ease... maybe give you a little insight into the life of the sponsored. It's not all that. PAST ENTRY > APR 20, 2001 : : Eric Koston is the ESPN Sports and Music Awards Skateboarder of the Year, edging out fellow Girl rider, Rick McCrank by a Burnquistrowleysaari. If it's raining or snowing or your back is broken and you can only move your hands, take a couple of minutes and check the photo gallery for a laugh. Who wrote those captions? Who's spreading rumors that the heads at Podium Distribution (DVS/Matix) take their lunches at the Hustler Casino on Thursdays? Crail has caughtglimpses of the new Chocolate and Royal sites that are about ready to launch (sometime in May?). YE-AH. Sheffey seen riding his bike the wrong way on a California Freeway? Identifying rare species of birds? Climbing trees? Crail is trying to corner (maybe not the right choice of words) Shef for an interview in an upcoming issue. PAST ENTRY > APR 18, 2001 : : Remember Goldfish, the first Girl movie from back in 1993? Okay, and do you remember the part where Rick Howard goes into the manhole at the subway station and finds a skatepark? Well, the music from that section is downloadable here. PAST ENTRY > APR 17, 2001 : : Eric Anthony and Dave Maupin of the Girl Co. Sales Force caught wind of a rumor that the Fourstar and Lakai teams had openings. Team Manager's, Sam Smyth and Kelly Bird started getting photos. It seems the boys have aspirations other than sales... Crail says "at the very least, please take some Photoshop lessons." If you are experiencing problems getting into any of the Girl Family web sites it's because of a giant server switch which is driving everyone here nuts -- but mostly Web Janitor, Crailtap designer, Rob Abeyta. Watch for everything to be running smooth soon. Thanks for putting up with it. The new 411 website has launched. Check it. PAST ENTRY > APR 12, 2001 : : An in-the-field Crail Tap contributor sent us a little tidbit this morning : "Interesting photo attached from the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards©. After Hawk won three awards for Pro Skater 2, Dustin Hoffman rolled out on stage on Tony's board to give Warren Beatty a lifetime achievement award. One of Beatty's comments was that he didn't deserve the award, but maybe he should get best supporting skateboarder instead. I thought you might like to see this photo from the Blockbuster Web site." Crail Tap caught a sneak of a Lakai promo vid from the Australia tour. All we can say is Brandon "Monotonous" Biebel is the narrator to end all narrators... the video is being put out in a limited quantity and comes with an Australia Tour zine, shot and designed by Andy Mueller. Maybe a few of them will be for sale in the Crail Store... some time soon. If you're lucky. While on the subject of the store. Check the new goodies in there as of today... and keep your store bookmarks warmed up, Rick Howard has been rumored to have multiple pairs of his size 12 Lakais -- brand new, not-available-in-stores samples -- ready to post for sale. PAST ENTRY > APR 10, 2001 : : We know, you're tired of watching the Parking Block Cam for signs of Koston or Paulo... so here's a Parking Block cam session scedule : Daniel Castillo : April 12th, 3 to 4pm Tony Ferguson : April 12th 3:30 to 5:45pm Andy Mueller : April 12th, 10 to 10:15pm Rick Howard : (injured - session cancelled) Mike Carroll : April 13th, 3 to 4pm Scott Johnston : April 13th, 3 to 4pm Eric Koston : April 15th, 11 to 11:30pm Paulo Diaz : April 17th, 7am to 4pm Sales Department : at lunchbreaks PAST ENTRY > APR 9, 2001 : : We asked Girl Co sales staffers, Eric and Dave for a list of their favorite skate shop names. Crail Tap is in full agreement... Keep in mind, these are all real. PAST ENTRY > APR 3, 2001 : : Go to the Crail Tap main page and you can find the Crail Tap Search Engine. Sure it's an ugly-looking Google thing -- but it works. Just type in what you are looking for (i.e. Guy Mariano or 10 Foot Boneless) and it comes up with a list for you. In seconds. Decided today : The next issue of Crail Tap, #5, is going to be in paper form. No, we are NOT becoming a paper-based magazine. This is a farse, a lark, a one-shot. It will accompany the Girl Design show in Holland (June 17th, 2001 opening in Vleeshal). More information as we make it up. By the way... the gadammed Crail Shop is OPEN and it WORKS. So quit asking about it. Items being added weekly. PAST ENTRY > MAR 29, 2001 : : monster-egg-on-the-face Ever had the pins knocked out from underneath you? Well, imagine the shock and surprise when we found out we were a "quirky board-maker." I mean, sure, sometimes Rick comes to work with two differently colored socks on and once in a while, and Rob Abeyta, Webmaster, will back into his parking space (instead of parking head-in like the rest of us), but we didn't know people thought we were quirky. Good thing no one knows about that Disney character our Warehouse Manager has tattooed on his hip -- they'd think we went bonkers. MONSTERSKATE.COM (good friends of Jade McGarth, who manages one of MONSTER.COM's favorite clothing teams -- and does a wonderful job, by the way) really told us what time it is. On 3/28/01, that was yesterday, they broke wide open the kooky case of Guy Mariano vs Girl Skateboard Co. It's a long, crazy story, but you have to check it out. Something about the "legal tender being exchanged between Guy and Girl (that's us)." I'll tell you one thing, we may be "quirky," but we're not nuts enough to use phrases like "another ripping team" or "undeniable shred skills." Now THAT is seriously wacky. But speaking of things people told people, this guy, Tony, who works in our art department (you know him, T. Larson), he went out with this girl (who actually works at this gnarly club that's called CLUB GNARLY) who told him she was at a tradeshow party where Mike Carroll and Rick Howard were sort of pissed off about the legal tender being exchanged between themselves and... well themselves, so they're going to leave Girl but still own Girl. Damn. Now those two undeniable super ripper extremists are NUTS. PAST ENTRY > JAN 05, 2001 : : >> Here, finally, is the LAKAI Australia/New Zealand info. Be there. Note that all dates are in January. AUCKLAND > Fri Jan 19 / Demo at City Side Skatepark MELBOURNE > Sun 21 / Instore at Penninsula Surf Centere in Frankston Sun 21 / Demo at Frankston Skatepark Mon 22 / Instore at Yodgees in Camberwell SYDNEY > Wed 24 / Instore at Surf Dive 'n Ski Thu 25 / Instore at General Pants in Penrith Thu 25 / Demo at Cambelltown Skatepark GOLD COAST > Sun 28 / Instore at Skatebiz in Southport Sun 28 / Demo at Runnaway Bay Skatepark BRISBANE > Mon 29 / Instore at Goodtimes Mon 29 / Demo at Kurraby Skatepark Tue 30 / Instore at Extreme Skates Indooroopilly PAST ENTRY > JAN 03, 2001 : : >> It's a fresh new year—and this is what we get as the very first email. >> News from the passing of 2000 : Rick Howard seen hoisting WeeMan (of Big Brother and Jackass fame) over his head at the stroke of midnight, and throwing him. All in good fun, says Rick, all in good fun. PAST ENTRY > DEC 22, 2000 : : >> From the Girl Family ; Happy Holiday Mayhem. See you in the 01. >> Okay... here's the newest on the Australia/New Zealand trip. Directly after the LAKAI Tour (see below), the following rippers will be shipped downunda to flim for the Girl video ; Koston, Stevie Williams, Jeron Wilson and Rick McCrank. That means Ty Evans will be tagging along. Watch for a sneak from Ty—including video clips—in Crail 04 (February 2001). >> Speaking of Lakai, go check out the newly designed website. Here. PAST ENTRY > DEC 19, 2000 : : >> In case you were wondering how contract negotiations go down in the Girl family... click here. This one went down last night (12/18/00) about 11:45pm. >> Couple more Girl Family members added to that Lakai Australia/New Zealand Tour we mentioned. Rumor has is Koston and Jeron have tickets... >> Brandon Biebel is stoked. PAST ENTRY > DEC 18, 2000 : : >> We're back. Told you we'd keep up. >> LAKAI Australia/New Zealand Tour happens in January, 2001. On the road are Scott Johnston, Cairo Foster, Rick Howard, Anthony Pappalardo, Brandon Biebel, Jeff Lenoce. Aussies & Zealanders out there, get ready. Anyone else... unless you have an extra $1000 for a plane ticket and a place to stay, forget it. • 1 / 19 = Auckland • 1 / 21 = Melbourne • 1 / 25 = Sydney • 1 / 28 = Goldcoast • 1 / 29 = Brisbane >> Our fascination with skateboarding on ebay continues. Last time we logged on (search word: Skateboard), a full half-pipe was up for sale. $7000. Not bad... of course, getting it to Boston from LA might be a bitch. >> The boys are back from Brazil. Watch for a full treat in Crail 04. In the meantime, we'll have a couple of pics up in Randoms soon. PAST ENTRY > DEC 15, 2000 : : >> Here's your first installment of the Crail Randoms segment. Check back here every week or so, and you'll find some new items. Enjoy. >> Go to the McCrank interview in issue 03. The last questions have been answered. A good man, Mr. McCrank. >> In case you were wondering where the Crail Store is, it's on the way. Some problems with, ah, digital vandals, has caused a slow down here in Torrance. When it is up, we'll let all Crail Subscribers know... A tip: Rick Howard will be selling his color way sample Lakai's (size 12) in the Crail store... and they won't be $3,000 (see note below). >> If you can get ahold of a Ruby Fall 2000 catalog, it comes with a 7" vinyl recording of Rudy Johnson and Paulo Diaz jamming with friends, Songs Amongst Friends. If you think this is going to be an amatuerish, raspy piece of crap vanity record, you're dead wrong. It's really good. You'll be surprised at how clean the two songs on this record are. Watch for the next Ruby Republic Recording release to be a 7" with songs by Neil Blender and Lance Mountain. >> Girl Family members have been filming in Brazil for the past two weeks. Footy is being collected. Rick had to get another passport for the trip, and this is the photo. Can you believe it? >> "I wanted the fists to shoot out and for it to come with a bunch of masks—like a Clinton one...!" —Mike York's comment on his Fresh Jive doll/action figure. >> Recently, an ancient Dog Town board sold for over $3,500 on ebay. TWS Skatebiz contacted our office to get a comment and here's what one staffer said; "I have an idea that the person who paid that $3,550 is outside the outside—a ramora attached to the non-caring shark. "My hope is that skateboarding not get that precious... I don't want it to wind up like baseball with the baggage of sappy sentimentalism and nostalgia attached. I suppose that with an ever growing history, some of that is inevitable, but at the end of the day, skateboarding is still about the physical actoin of ONE human being on four wheels... movement and sound. Freedom. Rebellion. "Another thing. I think we as human beings, in general, are way to into ourselves. We're a narcissistic lot... the idea of collecting "art" (or otherwise) for large amounts of money (and this is all relative) is just ridiculous and egotistical on many levels. I realize I'm being hypocritical here—I'm human too. It doesn't mean I can't laugh at myself. "It's funny, isn't it?" —Jenkins Another email from a Crail Tapper (who shall remain nameless), let us in on another amazing fact about skateboard collector fanatics; they (who are they?) will pay up to $100 a pop on ebay for old stickers! Example; the Jason Lee Cat In The Hat. Pull out all your dusty shit... >> Check Sack Lunch for oddball and inside news from the skate/snow/surf industries. >> Crapper (Crail Tapper) Oak Kelsey (no, not named for a tree), found this photo of Gator from back in the day. He thinks Spike shot it. We're not so sure. Our morbid curiousity continues... >> Check it out, skateboarding on the cover of an art magazine. Mario Rubalcaba in the Free Basin installation, Chicago, Illinois, April 2000.