A certain someone I know loves those ridiculously tacky nature shirts with airbrush styled wolves and eagles and bears. He’s been known to frequent many a skate spot wearing a shirt covered in similarly styled killer whales frolicking all over it. Some one at Element either shares his sense of humor or has the same bad taste. They have collaborated with The Mountain on a series skateboards and t-shirts. Seriously? I mean is this a goof or what? What’s next, a collaboration with the guys who make… I don’t know, “No Fear” t-shirts? See if you can make sense of this.

Skateboarding Bet is a short stop action animation made with Legos that look like they came from my set I had as a kid, considering you can get fancy skatepark Lego sets these days. It’s short. It’s here. You might as well watch it. You’re just here wasting time while at work, right?

Frank 151 has collaborated with French luxury leather goods craftsman and designer Jacques Ferrand to release limited edition ostrich and crocodile skin skateboard decks with the Frank151 brand. I’m going to call bullshit on these, and I’m going to do it smugly while sitting at a desk wearing leather tennis shoes. What’s next, Snow Leopard decks just so you can show off your bling? How shallow can you get? 90’s teenager culture meets the classic french elegance! Lame. Lame. Lame. Very lame. Thanks to

Another webcomic that references skateboarding. I like scooter-brat and mullet-guy in the background. I’m thinking maybe the guy skates? Imagine, wearing costumes to the skatepark for an art project.

I went to art school. Best five years of my life… But none of this silliness. No sirree. It was all business. Not like Matt Cheney, action artist. He makes art while doing things like skateboarding and skydiving. He’s even used his skateboard as a brush. Now that’s putting your parents’ tuition money to good use! [Source: John Bakos]

Dan Garland has been awarded the commission for art for the Ed Benedict skate plaza. Dan is a skater as well as an artist: Here is how he describes the project: Basically, I wanted to create an installation that speaks to the interface between man and nature and point towards balance as a solution. I wanted to create something using the bold, iconic visual language that is such a part of the skate culture and give skaters something fun to skate but also pique their interest in what this giant symbol stood for. To have an element of discovery that can play out in skaters interaction with the plaza as many of them will spend so much time there.

Design Within Reach is a catalog and store that sells “modern” furniture and household doodads that look cool and are often kind of expensive, but less so than typical modern furniture that you don’t buy from Ikea. Bottega Montana has produced an edition of 57 boards in collaboration with Design Within Reach. As far as I can tell, the collaboration consists of wood burning the DWR logo on the deck. If the name Bottega Montana sounds familiar, it might be because we covered another collaboration they did last year. These decks will actually be available for purchase in select Design Within Reach stores. What will they cost? Get ready to spend at least $400, judging by their current catalog. Think of them as family heirloom skateboards. They also reportedly have a Shepard Farey short board collaboration in the works. Update: Available online and priced at a whopping $798, down from $1000! See DWR

Wes Humpston and Kat Von D got together to design a skateboard on Kat’s tv show LA Ink. Supposedly they are going to have a whole line of boards, although it seems more like something that was cooked up just for TV. The first hand drawn original board is being auctioned on eBay to benefit the Tony Hawk Foundation. My DVR didn’t pick up that episode, but someone else’s did. In the beginning of the design process there’s a funny bit where Kat says, “What should we put in the inside?” and Wes responds with “I like to do skulls and stuff.” Didn’t see that one coming. You can see the board in detail and watch the episode after the jump. It hasn’t been edited to show only Wes’ bits (get your mind out of the gutter), but hey, I didn’t have to do anything. The auction ends Friday, November 16 at 6 PM (PST). I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Kat is slightly more photogenic than Wes.

Grip tape stencil art from “Lefthand” in Duluth Minnesota. Get the punchline after the jump, or over at Stencil Revolution.

Some snaps I took at Tigard last week when there were only four people there.