Sup Suckkaaaas!

Hey everybody,

By now I trust you're all enjoying your breaks, breathlessly anticipating the return of Santa tomorrow morning. What's on my Christmas list you ask? Two iPads, an Android, and a fat wad of crisp Benjamins. If St. Nick doesn't pull through this year I'ma have to go up to the North Pole and chase him around his house with a sock full of coal...

But anyways, most of the boards are done and when we get back in 2011 we'll start getting all the necessary equipment to commence the Shredfest.

I leave you with a classic part - Jerry Hsu in Tilt Mode's Man Down. It was cool when I was in 8th grade so it's obviously STILL just as cool.

Have a great holiday season!!

Mr. Diptesh

BREAKING NEWS

A recent report conducted the well-renowned Dr. Dip has shown that video games and excessive amounts of time spent playing XBOX Live can lead to a) lack of vision from bright artificial lights, b) obesity from lack of exercise and too many flaming hot cheetos and c) inability to interact with the opposite sex. The Doctor recommends children in such a position attempt to both "shred the gnar" and "skate the gate" in order to avoid falling victim to video game addiction.

In other news, thanks to EVERYONE that helped out for the Hot Dog and Pizza Bagel lunches! Thanks to the parents that donated food, too - kids, give them a big hug. Shoutout to Ms. Trudy for running the operation so smoothly. We managed to successfully raise over $800!!!!!

Yes kids, you know what that means. It means Mr. Diptesh can finally pay rent and buy that pair of Nikes he's been eyeing for the last month. WOOT!

It also means we'll all have pads and helmets taken care of AND some money for ramps/rails or more legit skateboarding gear such as trucks, wheels etc. BIG DEAL!

Pictures of the last Shred Francisco painting session are up on the fb page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shred-Francisco/101203619950441. We'll be having a meeting this week - same time, same place - and we should be starting to wrap up the board painting.

In the meantime, I leave you with one of the COOLEST little videos I have seen in a long time: Lakairomania. And no, we can't try this at the school.

Skate the Gate!

Mr. Diptesh

FOUR YEARS. GO.

Hey Everybody,

Thanks to Janet at FOUR YEARS. GO, we've got ourselves a little press coverage. Check out this article on their website:

http://www.fouryearsgo.org/2010/11/13/allied-organization-stories/shred-francisco-building-community-and-fitness-through-skateboarding/

The goal of FOUR YEARS. GO. is to build a global movement of commitment and action that will cause a positive tipping point in humanity’s future by the end of 2014, setting us irreversibly on a new path to a just, thriving and sustainable future for all.

Be sure to check out some of the other Allied Organizations and support FOUR YEARS. GO and the work they're promoting!

Mr. Diptesh

Priming's done, and now it's time make that sweet sweet ca$h

What’s up dudes and dudettes,

Hope you all had a good weekend and are getting ready for a fun-filled week at school! A wise man once said that “Education = Awesomeness.” That Wise Man was myself.

Last week we all primed our boards (unless you didn’t show up because, oh I don’t know, you were at the GIANTS PARADE!). Next week we can apply our background colors and get going on the details of our designs. Dan “The Man” Allende should be with us again to give us some helpful hints so don’t be afraid to ask him some questions.

In other news, Ms. Gualco has given us the O.K. on a two-day lunch fundraiser. On Monday Nov. 22^nd we will be serving a hot dog lunch and on Tuesday Nov. 23^rd we will be serving pizza bagels. Since there will be no hot lunches on that day Ms. Gualco said that the school will pay for the lunches of those people that usually have hot lunches. That means that we will automatically make $400 on that day if all supplies are donated. SWEET!

Which brings me to my next point: please ask all your parents if they’d be willing to donate some food goods and/or their time on either of those days to helping with the fundraiser. Things we’d need include…

- Hot dogs

- Buns

- Ketchup packets

- Mustard packets

- Juice boxes

- Bags of chips

- Bagels

- Red sauce

- Cheese

- Pepperoni

- Brown paper bags

I will be sending out more information in the Wednesday folder this week. We already have Derek, Taylor, Rene, and Nataly making posters but let me know if you guys want to help in any other way. (And thanks to Taylor and Grazie for talking to Ms. Gualco about it)

I shall leave you with a funny video by Stefan Janoski on how to do my favorite trick - 360 flips. As he says, “driving’s boring. Skate around town. Do 360 flips on the way.”

Also, check out the pics below of the good times we had priming and painting last week. And don’t forget to Like the facebook site, get your facebook friends to Like it to, and follow the blog if you can!

Skate the Gate

Mr. Diptesh

To see more pictures see the fb site at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shred-Francisco/101203619950441

Derek's First Pop Shuvit

Ch-Ch-Check it out everyone. Derek AKA DBallPedro's pop-shuvit extravaganza!!!!

Be sure to watch the whole thing - the end is by FAR the best part!

More Updates

Hey Everyone,

Hope you all had fun at the Halloween Dance. Here are a couple of updates for ya:

• I've submitted a grant application to All Stars Helping Kids, a non-profit that supports programs that enhance the health and fitness and life skills of children. If we get it, that would be AWESOME! But we also need to think of other ways of raising ca$h-money
• The Donations page is up and running. If you have any friends/family members that'd be interested in donating, LET THEM KNOW!
• I got new shoes. They're etnies, and they're pretty sweet.
• My friend Dan Allende of the futurefarmers artist collective will be coming in to help us out with our boards on Wednesday. He knows a lot about arts and will be able to help you work out any problems you're having with your design. GET PUMPED and check out his site: www.danallende.com and the futurefarmers site: www.futurefarmers.com for more info

Next week we'll finish painting the table and hopefully get done priming our boards.

That's all for now.

Skate the Gate (and Happy Halloween)

Mr. Diptesh

Updates

What’s going on party people.

Great news: WE GOT THE BOARDS!

Yes, all of your boards are hidden in a top-secret location in the school and will be released to you shortly.

Next week those that are finished painting their graphics on the table can start priming their boards.

I’ve uploaded your pictures on to the Shredders and Artist section and put up your board designs on the Artwork section.

Remember to be in the playground before 4:15 so I can sign you guys out and we can get straight to it.

If you're on facebook - and I know most of you kids these days are - be sure to Like the new Shred Francisco page and get your friends to Like it too. I'l be throwing up some pics/designs/links as we go along.

Finally, here’s a sweet clip form the Girl video Yeah Right! Enjoy and see you next week!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyejDe1V4Ls

Skate the Gate,

Mr. Diptesh

FIRST MEETING

Thanks to everyone that made it to the first meeting!

To those of you that didn't come: SHAME!

Just kidding. Make sure that you tell all your parents when the club is though...

4:15 to 5:15 ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOONS

During the first meeting we drew up a few board designs on templates to get an idea of what type of graphics we'd want. Check em out in the Artwork section!

Next week we'll keep working on the designs and hopefully get painting soon.

Also, check out the Shredder & Artists section. Here you can see the profiles of all the members.

Until next week,

Mr. Diptesh

Skate the Gate

What We're All About

It is my pleasure to announce that this year Mission Dolores will be starting its own Skateboard Club– Shred Francisco.

Shred Francisco will be a predominantly student-run project for 5^th through 8^th graders aimed at integrating arts and sports in to community development.

The first component of the project will consist of a board-painting workshop. Students will pay an initial fee for their blank skateboard deck ($15). They will then spend about a month first planning their design and then painting their skateboard. We also aim to have local artists participate in the workshops to give the kids inspiration and teach them fundamentals of painting.

With their self-designed skateboard deck, the children can then choose either to keep their deck for themselves, or sell the deck through the school and local skate shops. With the proceeds from their sales, the kids can use the money to sustain the club and buy other necessities i.e. pads, helmets, other skateboarding accessories.

We then hope to begin the actual skateboarding lessons after winter break. This will include weekly tutorials on skateboarding fundamentals in the school playground. For these the children will be supervised, and knee and elbow pads along with helmets will be required.

Shred Francisco aims to dispel the negative stereotypes that are often associated with skateboarders. Through the process children will not only learn how to paint and how to skateboard, but how their passions can be transformed in to concrete works – both artistic and, hopefully, profitable.