Rumor has it that the vert ramp at the Hood River skatepark is for sale. 5K is the asking price for this highly modified ramp that rests on the chassis of one of those old Firestone touring ramps consisting of a metal frame with a plexiglass surface. I think you can still actually see the plexiglass underneath. Those old Firestone ramps didn’t have any flat bottom either. These things have turned up at skateparks before, always resurfaced. I guess the plexiglass goes bad, although you would think it wouldn’t. I think this ramp was resurfaced last year? Supposedly it’s being offered for sale to public entities only, but if there are no takers after a set time period they will offer it up for all interested parties. Why is the ramp for sale? They’ve got plans for concrete in that spot. There’s no information on the offcial parks web site, but one thing is for sure, if it ever becomes available for private purchase, interested buyers will have to wrestle Steve Grover (right) for the rights to make the first offer. [Photo left: Hood River Valley Parks and Recreation]

Team Pain is about halfway done in Colorado Springs. Catch three pictures of the bowls after the jump. What’s next? The street area, of course. Thanks to Tito for the pics. How are those inverts coming?

This week’s Shot of the Week is from Carl Warren, and it’s a shot of Tom “Wally” Inouye with his wheels at the edge of the coping on the hip of the bowl in Donald, Oregon. Check out the full frame version.

Globe has teamed up with the band that brought you the first ever music video featuring skateboarding. Of course I’m talking about Devo’s Freedom of Choice. Prove me wrong if you can. Skater Dater doesn’t count, it’s a short film meant to showcase skating, not to provide visual accompaniment for an existing song. You might recall that Globe had the limited edition Clash shoe collaboration that I had a hard time wrapping my head around. It certainly makes more sense in the case of Devo, a band that always had a marketing and merchandising strategy. You used to be able to order the yellow hazmat suits and red energy domes from the inserts in the albums. What the heck does this have to do with skateboards? Globe’s collaboration goes beyond shoes to include, among everything else, a complete skateboard with a Devo branded wheel. Devo had an allegedly unlicensed skateboard before courtesy of the now defunct (?) Punk Rock Skateboards. Although that was Gerald talking, and perhaps it was a case of the right hand of Devo not communicating to the other right hand of Devo.

After the very high rent Getty Images bought the very proletariat iStockPhoto they started sending out a weekly email called Hot Shots that highlights eight pictures from each service. Usually the iStock photos rival and sometimes even best the Getty choices, but not this week. Included in the iStock top eight is this shot of a guy who looks like he’s going to bail on his massive living room ollie over a couch. That’s one short takeoff. I’m not exactly sure what the point of this one is. I’m not an advertising genius, but the shot isn’t even well executed. Get some.

I’m not here to make Frank Lavallee the butt of a joke, but I stumbled across this photo of him giving a freestyle demo at the Vans Warped Tour. According to his sponsor Khiro’s web site: …he is doing about 60 demo’s every summer including Van’s Warped tour, Monster Truck Shows, Schools, Shops and where ever it’s happening! The only thing they left out is professional wrestling matches. The thought of a freestyle demo in front of a rock concert or monster truck show really amuses me. Nothing gets me more stoked at a punk rock show than (watching) a few caspers. Sorry Frank, nothing personal. Feel free to mock me at your leisure.

This video tour of the Dwindle wood shop narrated by Rodney Mullen is fascinating on several levels. I’ll start with the elephant in the room, the factory location. Sure, the wood comes from Canada, but the labor appears to mostly be comprised of girls just old enough to compete on the Chinese gymnastics team. Next, there’s the joyless, dry narration by Rodney himself. In the first few minutes of the video it’s hard to tell if this is going to be a parody of corporate industrial films or a bona fide video. Lastly, there’s the technological innovation in board manufacturing. These guys have figured out how to make boards seemingly identical to one another. A big part of that would be the fact that only one board gets pressed in one mold at a time, although the molds are stacked on top of each other. To hear Rodney talk, they have a bunch of prima donnas really picky pros who would reject up to 80% of decks from a run because they weren’t up to their critical standards. I know people who are hyper aware of the physical characteristics of the deck they are riding, but most of us can…

Wrapping up some longboard-centric items. First up is fashion designer Adam Kimmel’s promo film Claremont consisting of a couple of beardos screaming downhill in suits we can only assume were designed by Adam Kimmel. I’m not exactly sure how the tie in works, but it seems to be getting people talking. The right people? I can’t make that call. I thought it was a hoax at first, as far as Adam Kimmel being in the fashion industry, but it would have to be an elaborate one. The downhill action looks insanely fast. These guys even pass a car as well as passing the camera between themselves and shooting backwards. I don’t know how they do it, but my helmet is off to them. They make a certain German downhiller look like a wuss in comparison. Supposedly, German police are on the lookout for a man assumed to be “a professional stuntman” in full leathers who reached 62 MPH on a two mile stretch of the Autobahn after getting a tow in by a motorcycle. Pfffft! Talk to me when you do it in light blue polyester. Lastly, there’s the L.A. Times article titled More skaters switching to longboards, from the…

So I threw down the challenge to myself really. I figured some public heckling if I failed to make good would be motivating. The first day was not exactly inspiring, but the second was fun. Then I had a couple of days when I didn’t have time to skate, and I worried I would lose what little progress I had made. Then I started getting comments and emails from others stoked on taking the challenge themselves. I’m in the middle of a kitchen remodel, among other things, so my free time is more limited than usual. Stories of other people’s progress was starting to get under my skin. On Friday night I kind of hassled Conahan into hosting a miniramp session so I could get a little practice in. It’s pretty easy to talk Mark into skating, it’s just a matter of talking him into the “where.”

So me and some of the crew explored the oregon coast in search of Skate Ghost. We saw a lot of stuff, some old friends and some new parks. The one thing we did not find was Skate Ghost Senior, but we did find his offspring, Skate Ghost “Junior.” He is killing it. He made me feel old. He will make you feel DEAD. Maybe you can join us on our journey next year to find the father. You may never find Skate Ghost but the search is the most fun anyways. Killed by cute. Audi Grover