OK, I haven’t been out since Day 15. That’s not exactly true, I skated for about an hour last Saturday morning, but had to leave just as I was getting warmed up. Seriously. It takes me that long to warm up when it’s a morning session. We hit Glenhaven today for about an hour and some change, but what a difference an afternoon session can make. I felt like I was regressing after Newberg, but even so I was glad to land a few.

Drove by this house today on the way to the skatepark for a quick session. I know I’ve driven by it more than a handful of times, but this is the first time I noticed it. It looks more fun in person than it does in the pictures. I blurred the house out because I don’t want to give the owners a headache if they don’t already have one, plus the guy came home as I was standing in the street with my camera, blocking his driveway. I will say that it’s near Glenhaven skatepark in Portland.

Salt Lake City Utah essentially bans skateboard ramps on private property, except for the rich. Hey, it’s just like 1984 again! Here’s the link to all the new regulations, #21 – Community Noise Pollution Control Regulation is the one you want. 4.5.21. Sporting Ramps. No person shall build or use nor shall any person cause, allow, or permit anyone to build or allow anyone to use any skateboard, roller blade, bicycle, or snowboard ramp or half-pipe or similar configuration within 800 feet of a dwelling, except within facilities that have been designated for such use by a government entity. Actually, it’s the Salt Lake Valley Health Department that is the regulating body. Local Nick Hale was one of the first to get a visit from the Mormon Machine. He started a website where he’s collecting signatures for a petition to overturn the ban over at SLCminiramp, although he might attract a wider audience demographic without the giant “Bogus! Weeeeak!” graphic. This is… so lame. I’m not going to bother preaching to the converted, but we’ll keep our ears open for future developments, help rally the troops, etc. Image above is from the SnA feature on the demo halfpipe in the…

This week’s Shot of the Week is courtesy of Dylan Davies. It’s a nice 4×5 camera shot of Grant from New Zealand at the Bonsor skatepark full pipe in British Columbia, Canada. Every time I see pictures of this park it makes me think it’s some old relic, but I guess it’s actually from this millennium. You gotta admire the skate photographer who uses a 4×5 view camera. You need to lug the camera to the location, load the film in a true dark room,none of that red light cheating, do your metering, focus on the ground glass and pop the film back onto the camera. Then you slide the slidey thing out (it’s been a while) and hit the shutter release. Then slide it back in, take the film back off and bring it to a dark room to develop, one negative at a time. That’s a lot of hassle to get a decent shot. Not something you’d want to try on a kickflip variation that might be a bust on the first 20 tries. Check out the full frame version.

This tip came labeled as “the latest in absurd use of a skateboard in a graphic,” and you’ll get no argument from me here. Looks like two pieces of canned clip art and about five minutes of work. IBM wants you to use some of their software, and in return they’ll send you a Chumby, which is actually a cool little Interwebs™ powered physical gizmo that would be fun to own as long as you didn’t have to pay for it. Chumbies (chumbi?) sell for $180, so that IBM course must be pretty expensive. See if you can get your boss to pay for it. Details online, but it’s a webmail campaign, so if it disappears you can see the ad bigger after the jump. Now that I’m looking at this, they might have actually had a guy jump out of a plane with a skateboard to pose this shot. – Thanks to Jeff Hottle for the tip.

There’s still time to bid on some art boards over at the Ism SK8OLOGY charity auction. Most boards are still at pre-ridiculous eBay levels, so if you want to class up your apartment for a hot date, or you know, buy some art and help a good cause, get on over there.

I missed this on Skate Daily, but it looks like John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin is a fervent skateboard harasser. She supported penalties for using skateboards on public or private property as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. “ — after the expected opening of the $233,000 Wasilla Skate Park — skaters will be breaking the law if they use their skateboards, in-line skates, bicycles, scooters (or any other recreational, non-motorized wheeled device) on public or private property where signs are posted forbidding their use.” OK, fines for skating on public property where a sign is posted seems like something that falls within the realm of the law, whether you agree with the inherent justness of the law or not. Penalties start with a written warning and escalate to fines and eventual permanent confiscation. However, skateboard specific fines and the permanent forfeiture of your property for skateboarding on private property where a sign forbids it seems like an entirely different matter. I wonder if she’d support forfeiture of personal firearms in cases of trespassing that didn’t involve assault or some other violent crime. It’s doubtful. In any case, it’s a great excuse to post the SNL video with Tina Fey as…

I haven’t made any invert attempts since Saturday, but this video trick tip from Bacon’s Tim Johnson makes me think that eggplants shouldn’t be too hard. Yeah, right. Everyone except Conahan can check it out after the jump.

Sure, we’re all about Japan here, but when are we going to cover something that often gets overlooked, like, oh, i don’t know. Say for instance, the Northwest bowl scene? Bailgun is a video put together by Steve Reeves. So this was submitted (Not by Steve) as a potential palate cleanser after watching the Overground Broadcasting clip. I’ve often wished cheap video cameras were available when I was a wild impetuous youth, but then after watching some of the scenes in Bailgun, I’m kind of glad I didn’t film all my, errr… escapades. Bailgun is not without charm, but it’s a bit long. Did you know the U.S. Army had a weapons program where gun howitzers were tested for firing nuclear bombs in artillery shells? You can see one in action, mushroom cloud included, in the opening credits of Bailgun. Awesome, and very disturbiing. Watch it after the jump. Completely unrelated Bailgun news: Bailgun Magazine #7 is now available for viewing and download. Bailgun is based in Germany, and #7 is the Swedish issue. – Thanks to Daniel Evans for the tip.

Actiga is a company with it’s finger on the pulse of… No. let’s see… Carpal Tunnel syndrome was never this Extreme!™ Oh never mind. These guys have a couple of products aimed at enhancing your sports gaming experience. First up is Big Vert, a skateboard that you stand on an use as a controller to play skateboarding video games, kind of like the Wii Balance Board, huh? They also appear to have a series of games with little controllers that look like the sport you are supposed to be playing. [Source: Gizmodo. – Thanks to Dave Arpin for the tip.]