I’ve been half heartedly trying to spark some interest in a skateboard print magazine based in the Northwest, something like For the Krew does out of Florida. It would be fun idea, lord knows we have the spots and the talent in this region. Nobody wants to bite on this idea, because print is a pain in ass, and it seems like Concussion is 2/3 Northwest coverage lately anyway. That being said, this week’s Shot of the Week was recently in Concussion as a half page advert for Merde Skateboards, a merdvertisment, if you will. It’s Chris Nukala in his back yard, shot by Michael Goetz of The Skateboard Archives. Way to go Nukala, you’re looking like a star! It’s been pretty amazing to see the local talent in Oregon and Washington come of age since the first good parks were built. Check out the Shot of the Week or see the Merde advert after the jump.

Main I’ve been remiss with this one because it happened before Christmas!

Big news! We have a new champion! The $6,000 Hawk is no longer the high price champ! On December 18 2007 a Caster Chris Strople was won at auction for $6,099. It’s a flat deck with 2 layers of fiberglass between the plies. It’s been set up and ridden, and has a Woody space plate on the tail.

Here’s what the ad in the March Transworld Business says:

From the undisputed leader… The X Games™ creators of the most high profile action sports competition on the planet, has teamed up with NSS™ to introduce a line of footwear truly worthy of a podium sweep.

If the quality of the X Games skateboards are anything to judge by, you can be sure these shoes will be top notch. You can get a closer look at the 14, X-F1 and Allyoop after the jump. Push for gold!

There’s enough Bart Simpson skateboarding merchandise out there to choke a horse, not to mention bore it to death, but this motorized Doodle Double Dare set is amusing when dissected. Quick, what’s the first you imagine when you think of a naked dude and twin sisters? I’m kind of surprised this one got made. Since we actually got to see Bart’s “doodle” in the scene from the Simpsons movie recreated by this toy, why bother to put the leaf on? It’s still pretty funny, all things considered. Not funny enough to warrant the $25 price tag, no matter how fast he skates around in a circle. Still, if you’ve ever wanted to see a cartoon character skateboarding naked (Jackass crew excluded) now is your chance.

Here’s an interesting short video about concrete skateparks as an art form, from the perspective of a concrete worker. It’s a podcast put together by Concrete Decor Magazine, and mainly features Michael Dahl talking about hte work he and others did/do with Airspeed Skateparks

[Source: Wall of Gray]

I tried to stoke House Of Neil to write this one, since it falls in his area of expertise, but he’s not typing another word until he gets eBay Watch stickers and T-shirts. In the late 80’s and early 90’s there was a group of tag team wrestlers called the Dynamic Dudes. The Dynamic Dudes wore a lot of neon, made the hang loose hand sign and carried skateboards as props. Progressive Boink voted them the 9th Gayest Tag Team in their top 20 Gayest. I don’t think PB was taking into account the Lucha Libra Exoticos. Of the two guys in the team, the only one anyone seems to care about anymore is Shane Douglas. We’ve got a few pics as well as an incredibly blurry video of the Dynamic Dudes picking out skateboards at a skateshop after the jump.

[Source: Relient K]

Frequent tipster and commentor John Aguilar sent in some pics from a recent session at Bellingham Washington’s skatepark. The riders himself, John V, and Jeremy Brown, in an order that I can’t quite make out, except I can tell you for sure that the bank shot is not John A. I’m not sure what’s up with the assortment of black and white, sepia tone, and color photos, that’s they way they came. A gal named Amy gets the photo credit.

Is Samaire Armstrong a celebrity? Maybe not-so-much, but she was in Not Another Teen Movie (Warning, that link is a buzzkill.) and was a regular on The O.C. for a while as well. She posed for some pinup pictures in Stuff Magazine and Maxim, which are both owned by the same company. In an interview she said she regretted agreeing to both photo sessions, and subsequently fired her managers for talking her into it, among other things. Sounds like a weak excuse. I imagine she regretted being forced to pose with plastic skateboards from the 70’s. Works for me though. Maxim decided fight back by removing the pictures from their website. I pulled these off of a site called Sk8 the Planet.

Grover’s ego is out of control. He practically knocked over my executive assistant Trixie when he barged into my office and demanded more promotions for Grover’s Video Korner, or he was going to take the whole production elsewhere. He said his people were having talks, and his agent told me unless I start taking Grover seriously, the deal was FUBAR. I sat down with my lawyers and we came up with a one point promotion plan that will knock your socks off. The official GVK on SNA sticker. That’s right, this is the official one, not those cheap knock offs you’ve seen on the bottom of Chinese skateboards. You can see an enlargement and find out how to get yours after the jump.

Concrete Wave looks like it’s going to try and tackle 411, in a round about way. Evolutions Video On Line is going to be the, err… online companion to the annual DVD freebie Evolutions. Where Evolutions is essentially a series of adverts from different entities, the preview of On Line looks to be formatted the same way that 411 is, but with a different content type. As with the printed mag, the tagline is 100% Skateboarding (as long as it isn’t street and rails, actually.) Looks like a lot of downhill, slalom, “freeride cruising”, some bowl/park riding and yes, even a little freestyle, which apparently has been renamed “flatland.” Seriously, what’s with all the renaming? Downhill is now called Speedboarding, Freestyle is Flatland… what’s next? How about coping bumping? I wonder if Rodney Mullen pees his pants with hysterical laughter when he sees that 1- People are still practicing traditional freestyle (sorry, flatland), and 2- Traditional freestyle skating hasn’t progressed any since he dominated it (to death) in the 80’s. The first installment of Evolutions Video On Line is set to hit this summer. You can watch a preview after the jump.