In today’s episode of WTF is going in skateboarding, I’m just doing my part to save the industry and get more skateparks built by trying to make sure the Red Bull company get’s their maximum ROI on this world record drop-in by Sandro Dias. Is this skateboarding? Technically. Is this an insane human achievement? Yes. Is this an insane waste of money? Yes. We’ve all driven buy a building with a transition and thought “I bet you could skate that!” whether or not it was practical. Who was the old record holder? I’m guessing Danny Way, but do I care enough to confirm it. No. They probably mention it in the video.

A non-skating friend of mine was on vacation and took some pics of a skatepark he happened on in a small town Called San Pancho or San Francisco, depending on who you ask. It’s about 30 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. The locals were friendly and consented to being photographed, so don’t blow it out readers! “Franco, forever in our heart.” – Thanks to Stephen B for the pics.

It’s a Pink Panther jumbo post! – Thanks to Cool Steve for 99% of this.

I recently took a trip with my extended family to Costa Rica. It was one of those all inclusive vacations, and although we did take some day trips, I was unable to explore skateboarding in Costa Rica, even though I knew there were a few skateparks in the Guanacaste province where we were staying. In the small town of Playas del Coco I ran into the Costa Rican equivalent of Zumiez known as Arenas Skate and Surf. It was a bit odd, because most of the town (admittedly, only what I saw) seemed pretty low rent, yet there were a few almost self consciously glossy stores. In fact, I didn’t see a skateboard the entire time I was Costa Rica. OK, so I barely got out to see the types of areas where you would expect to see skateboarders, so this not be taken as a review of the Costa Rican skate scene by any means, just my own very myopic experience.

Mexico City. Some ancient and not so ancient spots, a lot of finger flips, varials, wall plants of various types, and even some freestyle. (Dave Campbell, pay attention to the 1 minute mark.) It’s all one guy who goes by the name of Salchicha Perro, AKA Wiener Dog. Apparently even his mom calls him that. – Thanks to John Aguilar for the tip.

A miniramp suspended by a hot air balloon, the brainchild of Brazilian skateboarder Vanderley Arame, as seen in Cemporcento Skate magazine. Exclusive video after the jump. – Thanks to Giancarlo at Skate Cultura for the tip.

One more in our series of indoor commercial architecture waiting to be barged. This one from Addicted to Retail shows the Ayres store by Dieguez Fridman in Buenos Aires. Free t-shirt skateboard (deck) to the first photo (or video) of this place being skated. That’s legal in Argentina, right? No Photoshopping please. My apologies if you sent me this tip, It’s lost in my email.

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, my plane got delayed and TAM Linhas Aéreas lost my luggage. It took a while to get things sorted out, but I’m happy now, and tripping out cause I’ve never been in the southern hemisphere before. The toilets flush backwards! What???? Crazy! Anyway, I finally got the go ahead to post a couple of pics I took of Jake Brown. Holy cow, he landed the world’s first backside 720 Ollie over the gap in during the Big Air contest…

MC found this Nike SB outdoor advert that was produced in Brazil circa 2006, so don’t go looking for these here and now. There’s not much information from the source because you have to (pay) subscribe to actually read the content. It’s called Mub Skateboard, from a firm called F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi. It looks like an appendage they add to existing structures to make them skate able, like a skate-prosthesis. I don’t remember I we talked about this earlier or not, but Nike had plans to tear down the artificial barrier they erected between SB and the rest of the company, and looks like they’ve been absorbed at last, the old url redirects to the corporate site. Very sterile. [Source: Advertolog]

I finally found a board of my favorite band, McRAD. The board is produced by VILA Skate out of Sao Paulo, Brasil and is available in different sizes and shapes.