Hood River Oregon’s small and dedicated group of young builders has accomplished allot of work in a short time. The team was headed by Mark Goddard of Benchmark Designs, but he recently departed and left in apparent puff over the design. I applaud the remaining crew for standing up for this communities local scene, hell, they skate it everyday and have serious pride in the outcome of this project. UPDATE: I got a call (!) from Mark who informed me this was never a Benchmark project, he was never the boss, and he was just hired on as an employee. He didn’t leave on bad terms with anyone. It was one of those “agree to disagree” situations. Our apologies to Mark Goddard. – K.ed

Several of our jokes were thwarted at the opening of the Jim Griffith Memorial Skatepark in Tigard yesterday.

These articles about old guys who are still skating are still being generated. The latest one from the San Francisco Chronicle it titled “Shredding Again: In which we chronicle midlife skateboarders and their return, to be schooled by 6-year-olds.” It’s a fairly lengthy article, and includes the now obligatory video piece and photo gallery, except this time they managed to get a decent action shot. See above – “Joey Vela, 38, pulls a giant backside air out of one of the giant bowls at Pacifica Skatepark. Chronicle photo by Mike Kepka.” OK, they call it a backside air instead of a frontside, but it’s still an above average photo for one of these pieces, and not bad in it’s own right. Highlights of the article/video include a 45 year old relating the story of being taught how to drop in by a 9 year old kid. Also amusing are the quotes from the young kids whose turf has been invaded by the old dudes: From the kids’ perspective, the old-schoolers are a welcomed addition to the parks. “They rock!” said Colin Dallara, 11, from Lagunitas. “They remind me of the Z-Boys; they’re really good at axle stalls.” Yes, axle stalls.…

Wes Humpston and Kat Von D got together to design a skateboard on Kat’s tv show LA Ink. Supposedly they are going to have a whole line of boards, although it seems more like something that was cooked up just for TV. The first hand drawn original board is being auctioned on eBay to benefit the Tony Hawk Foundation. My DVR didn’t pick up that episode, but someone else’s did. In the beginning of the design process there’s a funny bit where Kat says, “What should we put in the inside?” and Wes responds with “I like to do skulls and stuff.” Didn’t see that one coming. You can see the board in detail and watch the episode after the jump. It hasn’t been edited to show only Wes’ bits (get your mind out of the gutter), but hey, I didn’t have to do anything. The auction ends Friday, November 16 at 6 PM (PST). I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Kat is slightly more photogenic than Wes.

This is the new skate video directed by Wes Anderson, starring Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson. A day of skateboarding around the city of Bangalore, India. Video by Maxwell Scott and Paul Mathews. As far as skate videos go, it’s not spectacular, but it is a very well executed piece of editing. Highly pleasing, in fact. Of course they skate in India, they’re doing in Armenia for the love of Hosoi. Now name the band, song, and album: “India….. I’m American. Ha ha ha.” Or watch the video after the jump.

Wow. What a totally shit month on eBay October was. I can’t remember covering a more generic month in the 5 years that I’ve been doing this. Guys that bought and sold in October, don’t take that as an insult, and admittedly there are a couple of beauties, but on the whole it was a blah month. If anything totally cool went off, then I missed it. Please, fill me in. Or am I totally wrong, and just getting burned out? Let me know. Any and all feedback is always welcome. Check out: eBay Watch: October 2007

Calling all Ho-dads near and far. One week ago there was a meeting you should have attended. If you do not see your self on the tape consider yourself out of the club, and banned from future meetings. Pledges may attend next year for consideration of entry. Pledges must make themselves recognizable by wearing a pair of women’s panties on their head. – Signed The Boss of All.

Seth Berg sent in this picture of a Ryan Gray air in the square corner at Tigard. It’s not technically masterful, but it has a certain appeal. Enjoy.

The Back Athlete Sports Network (Yeah, I’m a subscriber) has an article titled Extreme Sportsman Carving His Own Way Through Life. I love the title “Extreme Sportsman.” It makes him sound so gentlemanly and brings to mind some old English guy dressed up for a safari with a pith helmet, pipe and Elephant gun. Blacula, I mean Blaxtreme sportsman Christopher “Crib” Butler’s interview is not very extreme. We do learn that in the 80’s his black friends accused him of trying to be white by skateboarding. Flying in the faces of stereotypes, he actually had to go to the ghetto to buy his first real skateboard! What was it? A Vision Kele Rosecrans. That makes him even more of a minority! Oh stop it, you’re killing me! Crib still skates, surfs and snowboards. Since 2007 he’s been shaping some nicely crafted longboards reminiscent of old surfboards under the name Malu Longoboards. For a brief time in the early nineties some of my friends and I thought we were “______.” I leave that term blank because “Extreme Sports” hadn’t been coined in 1992. We were skateboarding, bungie jumping, mountain biking, skydiving and motorcycle riding, etc. We called it “Live by the…

Grip tape stencil art from “Lefthand” in Duluth Minnesota. Get the punchline after the jump, or over at Stencil Revolution.