I lifted this from Earthwing Skateboards where they have a larger version and no information other than this is a guy named Adam Auger, who apparently rides for Rayne. That’s the Montreal Olympic Stadium. There are lots of shots eslewhwere, but this is the only shot I’ve seen of it from this angle. It almost looks as if there is a half pipe at the bottom where the roof meets the ground in the, uh, foreground. Pretty clever, actually. The snow melts and funnels into a collection pond. Previously, the only skateboarding I’ve heard about associated with this stadium is Big O. Getting back to Adam Auger, I don’t know anything about him, but there’s a video after the jump and some random Big O vids too.

I was checking out the Black Label web site (See, those promotional tours really work!) when I came across something I think I remember seeing in Transworld Business that I had meant to comment on. This is the Blackhole series of “anti-wheelbite construction” decks from Black Label, and if I’m not mistaken, those are a modern take on good old fashioned wheel wells. I don’t know about you, but I miss wheel wells. On every deck I ride I get little burn spots from wheel bite. I don’t really worry about slamming from wheel bite, I think it’s only happened to me once in the last five years. It’s more of an aesthetic thing really. I just like the way wheel wells look. This new version of wheel wells doesn’t quite do it for me though. A few longboard companies have been doing a more extreme version of this for years actually. The wells actually punch through the entire board resulting in a fully functional but goofy look. (Can’t find one the damned things online when I need it.) So actually, this post should have been titled “The return of the wheel well to contemporary skateboards.” I wonder how these…

I like to geek out on multiple levels. The SkateDrive allows me to (over)spend money on two of my favorite areas of interest at once, computers and skateboarding. These are USB memory drives that come in the shape of skateboards with Santa Cruz logos. So you can put a bunch of skate rock MP3s on the drive and use it as a fingerboard when it’s not plugged in. Of course, you’ll pay a premium price for dual use “functionality.” In fact, it will cost you more than if you were to buy a 2GB memory stick and a fingerboard packaged separately, which hardly seems right. They must have done their market research on this one. I am a skateboarder who is smart enough to know how to use a computer, but dumb enough to pay an absurd amount of money for a skateboard shaped flash drive. – Thanks to Dr Brad for the tip.

This week’s Shot of the Week is the Q-Bert pool in Happy Valley, Oregon that everyone loves to hate. You don’t have to worry about how much it sucks anymore because it is recently deceased. This is Mark Conahan, obviously. If you think this pool is only good for “spending all day trying to get over the light,” I suggest you see the extra pic after the jump. Check out the Shot of the Week

If you love America, go blow something up! Or else watch the intro to Lakai’s Fully Flared for the 100th time.

Here’s part two of the remnants of the Indy tour visting Pier Park. Don’t forget about part one.

Yesterday I had plans to meet up with an out-of-state friend of mine who was in town to skate some Portland area parks. I had assorted obligations for most of the day, but I definitely wanted to hook up for his last session at least. I got a text message that he was headed from Gabriel Glenhaven to Pier Park, so that’s where we were going to meet. A short while later I got the text message above. I have to be honest, my first thought was negative. I wanted to skate with my friend and not watch the Indy tour circus. That’s not a dig at Independent or their team, I just figured the park would be jam packed full of onlookers and there would be a heated session going on – meaning we’d have to stick to other parts of the park or go elsewhere if we wanted to actually skate. When MC showed up for the carpool and said he hoped the Indy team wanted to skate street… So how did it go? MC via email: Any good shots? That was fun, much better than a Trifecta style blowout.

Since the early days of riding in pools, the object has always been to try and make over the light, or death box, or some other obstacle. If an obstacle doesn’t exist, the impetus is there to create your own. This looks like a fun little spot. Jeff doesn’t say where it is, but methinks it’s in or near Charleston, West Virginia.

Tracker has reissues of a couple decks stocked in new colorways. The GSD model and a Lester Kasai. That’s great and all, but what about Dan Wilkes? And while we’re at it, they should do a a proper Kent Watson model. Me, I’m waiting for the Tracker Man watch reissues.(No, I’m not.) Available at Tracker Trucks. I hope those boards turn… Yes, I’m phoning it in today.