Scott Selover sent in a bunch of pics of some young rippers from Bend, Or. One of them is is son Jake. The other is his friend Dru. Here’s two from Pier Park. These kids are 12 years old. I guess there is a vert scene in Bend. I hear rumors about a 11 foot vert ramp. Did you hear about the 19 year old who landed the 900 at Maloof? These kids have a few years to go…

He’s Bobcat! (Cue theme song.) Master of Sleestak, unicorn-lover, Seattle scenester and magick DJ. He’s being interviewed byJohn Doe Zine tomorrow at 5pm Pacific tomorrow (7-22-09), and you can call in to listen live. Get the details over here. John Doe zine has been doing a lot of these call-in phone interviews. It’s intriguing, and with Bobcat on the line, I’m going to check it out. If you want more I’ve got a stream of consciousness history of Seattle skateboarding coming up soon.

This week’s Shot of the Week is from Steve Potwin, who captured Steve Caballero on the monolith at San Jose’s Lake Cunningham skatepark. I actually saw this on Caballero’s blog. You need to see the full frame shot to get a sense of how GNARLY this is. Check out the Shot of the Week. And then go see Potwin on MySpace, he’s got more pictures and some animated sequences too.

There is some insane footwork in this video. Street skating, straight up freestyle, and several points in between. For instance, the guy doing the handstand fingerflip in the shot above actually ollied on to the top of that pole to get there. Think Natas spin without the spin, and then a departure. I guess kids are out ther getting stoked on old Rodney Mullen videos, and then taking it from there. These guys have got technical skills out the wazoo, but my desire to worship at the altar of their talent is severely tempered by the same geek vibe that hampered freestyle in the 80’s. In this case it’s the cheesy sense of vintage freestyle in their choice of soundtracks. Sick skating though. Check it out after the jump. – Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

This photo set of backwood gulch launch heavily reminds me of something you’d see on the always fun show Built to Shred, except for the gratuitous firearms. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your spot from being poached. See what I mean at Skateboard Archives

Just got this image of the completed X Games superpark course made from concrete poured over a wood frame from an anonymous source. Thanks! Down the road there is another media event called the Converse Costal Carnage. Looks like they’ve got another crazy temporary bowl setup.

It’s a far cry from doing demos in the paring lot at Six Flags for a couple hundred bucks! That’s right, you can have your own private session with BONES BRIGADE members Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Lance Mountain, Tommy Guerrero, and of course, Tony Hawk. It will cost you $75,000, but the money goes to the Tony Hawk Foundation, I assume after all the expenses are paid. That’s a buttload of cash for a vanity session, but if someone rich kid’s parents or middle aged lottery winner wants to shell out that kind of money to benefit skateparks, so much the better. They have cheaper packages at Tony Hawk Experience. Actually , it will cost you more to spend a day with Tony’s family (100k) than it will to skate with the Bones Brigade. Sure, it’s absurd, but I have to say I’m all for it, considering the the benefit. However, the prices make it seem like many of these packages may go unclaimed. They hired a special firm to set this up, so maybe they know what they are doing. For $2,000 you get a phone call from (Limit, 10 packages). So if our readers want to pony up…

Friend of the site Weirdo Skateboards is also one of the sponsors of a contest series at Lake Cunningham skate park. More info at sjparks.org, or check the flier after the jump. I hear that Cab is a regular there. Sure would be a bummer to have to skate against him, huh?

Boardistan has a video interview with Brian Harper from California Skateparks talking about the cement on wood structure used in the Maloof Money Cup. I sort of assumed they were going with prefab concrete elements, but it looks like they used foam underneath and concrete on top, with no rebar. The concrete can be recycled, and I suppose the foam could be too. I still feel like they should build permanent skateparks and leave them, but that wouldn’t jive with the Maloof Money Cup sponsors and the X-Games need to have large amounts of spectator seating and controlled access by the media. – Thanks to Brian Baade for the tip.

Just got a few pics of Bill Danforth from the gal who set up the (Ramp it Up) Smithsonian show for Native American Skaters. BTW, Here’s a link to a Washington Post article on the ramp jam. Here’s what she had to say: God bless Danforth. I had the extreme privilege of taking a memorable road trip with the King of Hate in 2007 and snapped this picture of him hitting the pipes near the Pala reservation in CA. Takes the cigarette out of his mouth and says, “You ready? Cause I’m only gonna do this once…” then proceeds to kill it. Danforth spent the entire trip trying to convince me to hire Mini Kiss as the entertainment for my opening party at the Smithsonian. He also swore to me that he never dated girl skaters because “who wants to kiss someone who smells like a kneepad?” Good times… Haw, haw! Good times indeed. Bonus tree in the face shot after the jump.