South Shore skate park in Houston, Texas gets ready to host the 15th annual Johnny Romano benefit Skate Jam. Over 50 of skateboarding's best including Chris Cole, Dennis Busentiz, Sean Malto, Tommy Sandoval, Ishod Wair, Steve Berra, Silas Baxter Neal, and more are all expected to be there to help generate funds for the children who are in need.

The event is held in memory of Johnny Romano, a young skater who grew up in Galveston, Texas. In 2005, at age seven, Johnny was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, he was able to attend the annual Texas Skate Jam (the previous name of this weekend's event) and meet and skate with the pros. Johnny passed away, at age 10, in September 2008.

Tickets are $40 each with 100% of the proceeds going directly to Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Gulf Coast & Louisiana.

In 14 years the JR Skate Jam has raised over $650,000 for Make-A-Wish thus directly effecting about 130 kids in making their wishes come true!

Johnny's parents set up foundation in his name to continue the spirit he brought to life. The mission of JohnnyKicksCancer is to cure childhood leukemia's through awareness, research and advocacy, as well as empower and encourage patients, families and doctor's in their fight against the number one childhood cancer.

Check out the touching story of young Johnny Ramano.

KCDC in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC is one of the most legit shops on the East Coast. They carry all the right product and consistently have some of the best teams in the industry cruising by to sign autographs, put on demos and just let loose. Plus, the owner is HOT! Her name is Amy Gunther and she used to be a model or something (Check out the clip below the Zero/Mystery demo video where she talks about opening the store). If you find yourself in The Big Apple KCDC is for sure worth checking out, while your there say hi to the rad shop employee, Lisa, for me.

Anyway, the Zero and Mystery teams recently stopped by and did the usual mega pro skate team thing. Check out the video below:

Lifted Research Group better known as LRG recently stacked their skate team with the signings of Billy Marks, Tommy Sandoval and Tom Asta. These are three of the best in the business, The Chief aka Jamie Thomas has been hyping up Asta for more than a minute now in videos over at Black Box. In case you didn't know Sandoval kills it, enough so that he finished second in last year's Maloof, and almost had the trick of the contest; a huge gap ollie to b/s 50-50 to wall drop-in. Then there's Billy Marks, he's been one of the main guys for Templeton over at Toy Machine for years now, and consistently gets the clips.

Check out this artsy little Billy Marks welcome video that looks like it took a long time to make. For more on LRG cruise over to www.l-r-g.com.

Visually Heard / LRG Skate Introduces Billy Marks - Full from LRG on Vimeo.

Photo: Shigeo via Fallen footwear.

What do you get when you drop a waffle in the sand? No, not a Tommy Sandoval, that's what you get when you draw an oval in the sand. When you drop a waffle in the sand you get a sandy eggo, get it San Diego. And ovals drawn in the sand, and sandy eggos, both apply to this San Diego native, Chula Vista to be exact.

Tommy Sandoval has been turning heads for a few years now. One moment that sticks out is his performance at the 2009 Maloof Money Cup, yeah he finished second in street and everything, but what really sticks out for me is the gap ollie to backside 50-50 across the big wall that he was attempting. To pull it off he would of had to land one of the biggest 50-50 re-entrys I've seen. Not to mention, the gap to 50-50 part, it was pretty damn insane. Everyone was on their feet from Koston to Rowley, and everyone in between. Anyway, here's a 10 Tricks video clip courtesy of www.blackboxdist.com:

The Zero crew checks back in with another clip from there Southeast Tour this time at Plus skate shop in Walton Beach, FL.