I was geeking out over at Gizmodo when I noticed a skateboard in a web advert for the Toyota Matrix. There’s a scene at an imaginary extreme!™ sports complex that you are invited to shake up with your mouse. If you do, everything goes haywire but the car stays glued to the road. After a bit of time everything gets shaken off screen and the ad tells you to stick to the road with available all wheel drive. Then it says “get in touch with your dark side,” which near as I can judge form the advert, must mean if there is an earthquake you should ditch your skateboard and ride BMX bikes on a half pipe.

Matt Kline sent in a couple action shots of that DIY backyard bowl in southern Oregon that was under construction. Looks like someone is enjoying it! I showed these to my wife and she said (incredulously) “It takes up the whole back yard!” to which I could only reply, “Well, not the whole back yard. I’m sure it just looks that way.”

This is a Public Service Announcement, with(out) guitars. If you see this seemingly friendly, albeit sketchy looking dog hanging around by a certain pool, pay attention to him. He gets really agitated when you skate. Don’t stand too close to the coping in the shallow, because he bites. This dog bit me in the back when I wasn’t looking. It broke the skin. I hope his rabies shots are up to date.

Sean West passed away and is being laid to rest on Tuesday. Bob Pribble sent in this old shot of Sean on the cover of his “Very Sketchy” zine. People are leaving comments about Sean here, and here. There’s another site called Musical Family Tree that has discussion here and photos here. Rich over at EPM said if you look at Kendall’s first deck you’ll see “SWEST” amongst the graffiti.

Wouldn’t is suck to be the one family in this neighborhood who didn’t have their own backyard pool? I mean, you’d still have a very nice roof over your head, but still… This is a detail from a Vincent Laforet photo. It’s number 20 at his page on the Young Gallery.

MC should wear a Miss Skatepark Oregon sash when he skates Pier Park. This is his third appearance in a Portland based periodical skating Pier Park.

Aww, to hell with it. We’re already on a bunch of content blocking filters. Vintage Skateboard Magazines has a bunch of ads archived. On the left is a 1979 Dogtown advert from a US publication, where you can only show the cleavage. On the right is an advert for Olympic Skateboards in an unnamed UK publication that is a lot more cheeky. Love that site. Daniel has a standing invitation to have the archives hosted at Skate and Annoy if he ever decides it’s time for VSM to give up the ghost.

Hello, I have recently developed these unique performance wheels. They are pictured being track tested by professional rider Josh Rolf at speeds in excess of 50mph. Aside from being really fast, and incredibly sweet looking, they also drift, and slide predictably and comfortably. This wheel system also allows riders to inexpensively swap out their tires in order to change appearance, and durometer. I believe this awesome wheel system would be an excellent addition to your outstanding product line. I look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully we can work something out.

First of all, this is not a new idea. You may recall there was a company that sold the same type of system for short boards in the early 2000’s (Dang! Do I write the ’00s instead?) I can’t remember the name, but Grover actually tried a set and found them craptacular. They would spin on the hub. That seems like a problem that would be easy enough to fix though. Second of all, I swear I read the word “inexpensive” in there somewhere, but at $300 for the rims and $20 per tire???? That’s not inexpensive. Good luck with that patent.

Skateboard rack shots are a dime a dozen, but this one is pretty damned funny. Check it out on Bowl Freaks and say hello to Hans Moleman. UPDATE: Bowl Freaks domain expired and has been taken over by spammers. Link deleted.

OK, trying to tie up some loose ends. It’s getting hard to keep trak of everything around here. Here are some shots of the blue fiberglass ramps from the 70’s that found their way to Thrasherland and The Roxbourough in Philadelphia. There’s also a video clip of a modern day ramp using some pieces salvaged from Thrasherland after the jump. If you’ve sent me some Thrasherland/blue fiberglass ramp shots and I’ve failed to post them, please let me know. Same goes for Skateball shots.