Dave Nelson | SecretPenguin Blog

I fell skateboarding, and I must have slid in something tasty.

Hung out with my beautiful wife and our goofy dogs this weekend.
Riley howled at the tornado sirens, and James played paddle ball with me.

One of the things we focus on at SecretPenguin is making legit stuff for “youth culture”. I feel stupid even categorizing my friends and I like that. But there are too many Ad Execs that take skateboarding and our “lifestyle” and completely misrepresent it.

Even some of the larger companies that you think would do just a bit of research could get it right. But Cisco completely missed it, Target completely missed it, even Mountain Dew missed it, and just about every other company missed it.

If you’re not a skateboarder and you’re looking at the links above and don’t get why they are horrible representations of skateboarding, then it’s important to research it and hire a place that knows skateboarding and it’s culture before using it in advertising.

When I was a Freshman in high school, they used to let all the skateboarders out 5 minutes early to avoid fights, I’ve gotten jumped by a car full of guys because I was skateboarding, I’ve been handcuffed and thrown up against a building for skateboarding down the street heading somewhere, and I’ve had guns pulled on me because some guys didn’t like skateboarders. You have to understand, this is a tight group of people that were rejected for so long and recently over the past few years are being noticed.

And now that it is popular, people want to use it to promote their brand. And I’m fine with that, but at least have the decency and respect of doing a little research and getting it right.

A while back I agreed to do a skateboard photoshoot for some friends at Bozell for Alegent Health. The only reason I agreed to it was because I knew the people and I knew they would do it right… and most importantly, wanted to do it right.

I was able to choose what I wore, not wear full pads, and approve the photo.

I think they did a good job, and I’m really thankful that they were open and respectful to skateboarding.

This morning Sara and I brought our dog James over to Adam’s house for a photoshoot for Malone and Co. with Andrew shooting. It was a lot of fun!

We played in the yard, then James jumped in for a few shots, and then he relaxed in the back.

EDIT: Andrew just emailed a few photos!

My friend Tyler Paulson was working next door at BBB, LTD and wanted to skate outside.

We’ve been so busy here at SecretPenguin that we’ve been working 12 hour days plus Saturdays. He kept skating by the window to entice me to come out and skate…

On my way home, I saw that someone added a new “Love” to the Spread The Love piece!

I love it! I’d be psyched if people keep adding to it.

We hosted an event for AIGA’s Meet & Potatoes.

About 60 people showed, and it as a lot of fun! Huge thanks to Red Bull, PBR and everyone that came out.
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Sara and I went to Atlanta to visit my newly-wedded brother and his wife Cara. It was super fun to hang out with them.
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Kelly McManis giving his thoughts at the skatepark meeting.

The city of Omaha is planning to build another skatepark in the La Vista area. 15 years ago we got together and started meeting every week. After 5 years of working like crazy, meeting with the city and other skateboarders and finally getting organized with the help of Marc Kraft and the Student Democrats, we got a park built in 1999.
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Here’s a sneak peak of the 1st of many artist series boards for BBB, LTD.

REZO, an Omaha-based graffiti artist that’s been a long time part of the local skateboard scene designed the first one. Todd Fink is doing the next one, check out his video part in H-Street Lick from 1993 (his section is at 8:41). This was one of the first skateboard videos I owned.

Anyways, I finished up the the seal that will go on the tail of each board, with room for the artist to sign and number. And the first one should be out this next month.