Art attack.

The inimitable artwork of Neil Blender, Court Johnson, and Hosoi, and companies like Santa Cruz, Alien Workshop, and Powell Peralta have mysteriously appeared upon a line of chic high-dollar messenger's bags. Word has it that this audacious art usage may be unauthorized. The designs are even more scandalous in that they mimic the groundbreaking creations of one Eric Zo, who reportedly may also be uninvolved. Beware of blatant forgeries. Rip-offs are not flattery.

The confluence of promotional zeal that marked the last couple of months will be hard to beat in the future. In a depressed or recessive economy, the presence of so many aggressive contest efforts has been very noticeable. The aforementioned Maloof Cup went off to tremendous fanfare with Perelson and SOTY Chris Cole winning a bunch of $450G. Bob Hurley and crew banded together with Converse and Hike 6.0 to transform the US Open of Surfing into a decidedly broader endeavor. The granting of $100,000 to Brett Simpson for taking first place in the huge waves of the Open got everybody's attention. Ditto for the official "opening" of 6.0's MotelNo Tell, featuring MadSteez and a glyphed DeLorean. The Converse Coastal Carnage event saw youthful combatants like Raven Tershay, Curren Caples, and Kevin Kowalski prevailing. Whereas at Boston's ISF event, Perelson (the youngest gun) and others saw the oldest guy, Bueky Lasek, capture a World Championship. And at the mother of all teleblitzkreigs, the X-Games, skate company owners and team managers saw their access being determined by skaters. No one was certain why Jim Thiebaud was dressed in a Security Cops uniform, but it seemed to work. As did Danny Way, PR, Joke Brown, and PLG, who all cut it hard.