It’s official.  We will once again be opening our doors (sorry, no skatepark this time…) this time as a retail location in the esteemed neighborhood of Bloor West Village in Toronto and under the name Cardinal Skate Co.   Look forward to seeing your favourite skateboard and snowboard brands, shoes, apparel and accessories at the best prices…  Also, under the same roof will be RollerBug Skate Co., selling roller skates and roller derby specific gear.  Thanks to everyone who supported Common Ground in the past and we look forward to seeing a lot of you in the future!

Keep Checking in to find out the grand opening date (beginning of March), and rest assured we’ll be offering some of the best deals around for opening weekend!

Also, watch for the launch of the new site coming soon…. (this site will redirect you there eventually…)

Glen

Common Ground

If you hadn’t heard, Toronto lost one of it’s most dedicated skateboarders and friend to everyone on Sunday August 19th 2007. To anyone that didn’t know Rob, you may have missed out on meeting one of the nicest people to grace this world. He didn’t need to be long term friends with you or even know your name to make you feel like you had always known him. I first met Rob several years back, and as long as I can remember he always had a smile on his face, and was always happy to see you. He loved skateboarding, and loved life. That kind of personality had an impact on everyone he met, as you’ll hear from the hundreds of tributes paying homage to his life from family and friends. My condolences go out to his family and I hope that I get to roll around and have a drink with him again in the next life.

Damn. I’ve been away from the comp for a while, and a bunch o crazy ish happens… I’ll start with the bad news first… If you haven’t heard, we’ve lost a couple of the finer skateboarders in the pro ranks… Shane Cross was in an unfortunate (although probably preventable) accident with Ali Boulala which proved to be fatal for Shane, and left Ali in critical condition in a hospital in Australia… And Ben Pappas was also found dead under unexplained circumstances, only a week after his girlfriend was also found dead. Madness.

Common Ground team rider Ben Davis was friggin hit by a car whilst plank riding in Kensington Market outside Adrift… The motorist was not found at fault for the incident even though this video footage surfaced, and it was featured on the news… Ben, however, recieved a fine for skating on the road… Definitely brings up some issues about motorists and skateboarders, hopefully it goes in our favor, cause we all know that they look for incidents like this to point a finger at us. Just read some of the ignorant comments left, and you’ll understand.

On a brighter note, 3 new video clips have surfaced of old Common Ground footage, edited by Cephas Benson and filmed by Sebastian Lymann and Tomas Morrison. RESPECT!

Montage 1

Yes, Chad’s on Element for those who haven’t been paying attention for the last few weeks (ie. me)…. But more importantly, I finally got a new car, and only days after getting it, missioned to Montreal to check out the Knowshow tradeshow… Red, Ounj and I all got loose, and we forgot to take pics of the whole thing… That much free beer will do that.

Skatersinc has a new photo gallery up, it even has a couple of pics from the park…

Etnies really wants to give everyone a chance to win some free gear…  Simply fill out this form for your chance to win two pairs of Arto shoes, as well as some product from Flip, Ricta, and Fury!

Check out www.skateperception.com and have a look around.  They’re doing great work and add new videos on the reg… Show ya support!