Donavan came almost rode out of a couple of these whatever you call them, where he flies out of the shallow and pant his board on the back wall, then pops back into the bowl. Unfortunately, he hit his head pretty hard on his last attempt. The building had pretty much emptied out and not too many people saw it. He was having a hard time walking. His friends are planning on sticking with him and keeping him awake tonight. They say he won’t go to the hospital again without insurance. Hopefully he’ll be alright. Kids, wear a helmet and get insurance. Donavan, please go to the hospital.

Masters Division 1st Place: Glen Charnoski. Photographers were thick as flies. I had to take this on from overhead to be able to get anything.

Masters Division 3rd Place: Buck Smith. (Yeah, I know his foot is amputated, but the other good shot I got of him was an invert and I didn’t want to use it.)

1st Place Ladies. I believe this is Julie Kindstrand

MAsters Division 2nd Place: Steve Alba. This was not a lien -to -tale but the end of a long grind with a nose grab that he tweaked before reentry.

Taking a quick break from the Trifecta to post a couple of pics. Duane Peters was totally living up to the “Master of Disaster” title, it’s fun to watch that guy ride when he’s on his game.

The Donald. Get it? No, get it? Went to Donald today for the first time in over a year. Had a lot of fun. It looks like they are getting ready to add something on to the mini pipe section. Met three guys up visiting from Santa Cruz. More pictures after the jump.

From the forums at Skateboard.com.au comes these two different approaches to stopping skateboarding. The first one on the left is from Mother Nature who dumped a ton or two of sand on Bondi skatepark during recent storms. Bondi is a costal town, in case you haven’t guessed. On the right we have man made bureaucracy and the most elaborate skate stoppers I’ve ever seen. They don’t want kids grinding rails or even ollieing over them. For more pictures, follow the photo credits. [Photos: Snakeos and Morgs]

Hey. It’s summertime. The weather is nice. We’re out skating. This shot was taken in April of 2006 at West Linn Oregon. Don’t know who that is. I’ve been known to hang out with those two nerds in the background…

I had an idea to make a basic skateboard photography tutorial for our DIY section. Not that I’m the greatest photographer or anything, but a few simple tips can really go a long way for the beginner, especially in this day and age of relatively cheap digital SLR’s. Heck, the best photo advice I ever got was from Kevin Thatcher when he was at the helm of Thrasher. He sent me back an envelope full of negatives with a hand scrawled note that read simply “Use a faster shutter speed and your pictures won’t be so blurry. – KT.” In the spirit of that advice, I present this link to Heyday Skateboarding’s Shot Composition Basics tutorial that features a lot of solid tips. Of course all of these tips are hard to remember when you are trying to capture fleeting shots that aren’t set up or have some technical difficulties, but that’s what separates the guys who don’t get paid for skate photography from the guys that don’t get paid very much. Heyday also has some video editing tutorials and a lot of other content to boot. Some people will try to jealously guard supposed industry secrets while others aren’t afraid to help out for the greater good of all. I know which ones I’d rather hang out with.