Outdoor Life Network Purchases The Gravity Games *.

Reports in the Cleveland Plain Dealer indicate that the Outdoor Life Network (OLN®) has purchased the Gravity Games and will return the event to Cleveland where it has run for the last two years.

Apparently more than 160,000 fans appeared at least year's five day event in the North Coast Harbor venue. OLN plans at least 20 hours of cable coverage for this years event, double the amount on NBC last year.

OLN also broadcasts the Tour de France * and a variety of other action sports, and felt that the Gravity Games fit its viewers' tastes perfectly. For the first time, one company will both own and broadcast the games.

This information was found at http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf ?/base/cuyahoga/1079350237275980.xml

Slam City Jam, April 30 - May 02 200 in Vancouver * BC for its 11th year.

Organizers report that this year's Slam "will be moving to a new venue located in the heart of downtown Vancouver called BC Place." Reportedly benefits over last year's location include a bigger street course, a "huge" public skatepark *, close proximity to clubs and hotels, easier access by transit, loads of skate spots nearby, better food, more toilets, "security that's way less lame", and "overall more to see, hear and do."

Organizers claim that ads should be "poppin up in the latest skate mags", and that they have updated their website.

Rye Airfield releases dates for Summer RAMP CAMP

Summer is just around the corner and the folks at Rye Airfield * say they've been busy planning the upcoming sessions * of their RAMP CAMP program, which is open to skateboarders, BMX riders and inline skaters of all levels, ages 8 to 17. June 16th marks the opening date, and camp sessions continue weekly until August 27th, from 9am to 3pm, Monday - Friday. This year the program has added some special one-night sleepover sessions on select Thursday nights. The camp also features a 5:1 camper to instructor ratio, group lessons, one on one coaching, the Softrucks skateboard system, games, contests, prizes and a visiting guest pro every week. Sessions start at $119 per camper, and discounts are available for members and families with multiple attendees. Pre-registration is required. Rye Airfield calls itself "New England *'s premier skate park and BMX track" and islocated just one hour north of Boston *, on the coast in Rye, New Hampshire *. The facility sits on 57 acres of land and claims to be home of "one of the country's largest indoor parks", a 1300-foot long downhill * BMX Super Track, and 25,000 square foot area of dirt jumps. For more information regarding Rye Airfield and their RAMP CAMP, contact Nels Tooker at 603-964-2800 ext. 13, or visit www.ryeairfield.com.

Atomic Warthog Russian Skateboard, Music and Culture Magazine

This came in our mailbag, and we thought people might find it newsworthy. It describes a little about the skate situation in Moscow, Russia *.

"Our names are Vova and Olya. We're the founders and editors of Atomic Warthog Magazine. It's a new Russian magazine (our first issue is coming in the beginning of March 2004 *) that writes about music (from punk rock to hip hop), skateboarding, snowboarding, BMX, graffiti and other things that make life really interesting, exciting and full of positive emotions. We're an official magazine ... but most of our authors are enthusiasts who took part (or still keep doing it) in DIY bands, zines and record labels. So called extreme sports scene and alternative music scenes (we mean independent music, like punk/hardore, not mainstream) are still really weak in Russia, because people don't have enough info about them. We live in a post-communist state, so the economic situation in our country is rather bad and there are still too many prejudices here. It's hard to believe but the most of the Russian people can't afford even to use Internet. A few cool bands/riders tour Russia and most of the people don't have enough money to go abroad to see the bands/competitions. There is too little of Russian magazines that writes about alternative music or skateboarding/BMX/snowboarding and that`s really hard to buy some American and European * magazines. Now we got only one skatepark in Moscow(capital of Russia) and the worst thing that it's open only for skaters and rollerbladers, while the BMX-riders are not allowed. Russian winter lasts about 5-6 months and it's really cold and snowy, so it's impossible to skate/ride BMX on the street for almost a half of the year. That's really shameful but another problem of our country is people's ignorance. There is a ton of bullies and nazi-skinheads (so called skinheads) in Russian cities and towns. And those aggressive dumbf@#ks are the real threat for little kids who skate or ride BMX. But despite all those problems there are a lot of talented kids in Russia and we're sure that our scene has all the chances to grow and become really strong and interesting. So we try to create some source of information for the kids, and we're the first magazine in Russia that writes about both music and youth culture (I mean real youth culture, like skateboarding, BMX, snowboarding, graffiti etc.). We try to do our best to create something that could inspire people and help our scene to became stronger. So, we just started and we still don't have our own huge photo archive or a lot of professional photographs/authors. (It's also really hard to make photos now just because all the streets are covered with snow). ... It also really hard to us to interview some riders because not everyone of them has his own e-mail or a web-page. We`d be really thankful for any help and support. ... Thank you very much for your attention! Take care and keep rockin' on! Sincerely,

Vova and Olya, Atomic Warthog Magazine

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