You can buy fake fire hydrants for your dog to pee on, why not for a skatepark as well? Skatewave, the modular skatepark company you love to hate, has a line of skate obstacles called the Urban Series for simulating objects that you can, well, already buy. I’m sure they’ll argue that their knockoffs are more durable, although that fire hydrant looks weak compared to some of the heavy duty ones in the dog link above. At first I only noticed the tables. I thought it was funny that they made real fake (or fake real) tables for skateboarding, especially the one that is closed off to protect beginners. The simulated construction barrier with a metal top may actually be an improvement on those orange plastic ones. If only they sold a simulated Natas to do that fire hydrant ollie spin move. Watch it after the jump.

Through a random act of Google, while searching the web for pictures of David Lee Roth on a skateboard (no joke!) a stumbled on Mohammad Burney’s travel pictures. Man this guy travels a lot. Japan, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Morocco, Malaysia, New York, Kuwait, Egypt, England and India, which is where the bowl above resides. One of the three pictures (1, 2, 3) Shows that it is some sort of astronomical observational tool. Check out that coping. If you decide to ride this bowl and are take a chance on getting stoned to death by an angry mob, at least use copers. I’m not sure how Google pulled up this page in my search for “David Lee Roth” and “skateboard,” but it did. There’s a way to view it with comments enabled, and he’s essentially got reams and reams of comment spam. Maybe that’s where it came from.

Barcode Art has this sign language primer for skateboard trick names. The videos on the page are all set to auto start and repeat, so it’s a little distracting to look at. If you are deaf, I imagine that page would kind of be the equivalent of standing in a room with a bunch of people yelling. On that note here’s a link to Deaf Skateboards, a team made up entirely of deaf skateboarders. They have a cool logo of a monkey skeleton on a skateboard covering his ears. It looks better than it, uh, sounds. I couldn’t find a decent Monty Nolder link. I know he’s still skating.

[Source: Skate Daily]

Speaking of long awaited reissues, Van Halen is on tour with David Lee Roth. I love Van Halen. OK, I’m out of the closet now, in terms of rock and roll. Van Halen requires David Lee Roth to be considered the real Van Halen. Others need not apply. Are we on the same page here? Good. Now someone please tell me where this old picture of David Lee Roth on a skateboard came from. This is the largest size I have, and everyone knows Diamond Dave is larger than life. Actually, any larger and you might be able to see some brains peeking out. Nice sack, man! This is as good as an excuse as any to call for celebrity skateboarding photos. Send them in. [Photo: Right – Official Van Halen]

KATU News reports (Via Associated Press) that the father of a boy who fractured his skull at a skatepark is being charged with child neglect and criminal mistreatment. It seems dad left the six year old boy at the skatepark for a couple of hours. That’s the actual Medford skatepark in the background. We are going to milk this police officer stock photo for all it’s worth. [Medford photo: Troy Sliter]

Black and Blue Vol. 1 from Vox Footwear. Vox was formed by Ed Dominick, Dr. Chen (Osiris Shoes) and Nathan Peacher in 2005. This is what it says in their “About Me” on their Myspace page:

Im either made out of canvas or suede, ive got a lace that ties me together and keeps me on your feet, weigh a few oz. I come in various colors and styles. Can be found ONLY in skateshops. I like to go and hang out in skateparks, rails, pools, legdes, ditches, parking curbs, gaps, hills, concrete, wood,…Basically anything skateable, im there.

With all the recent skatepark construction in the greater Portland area and beyond, it’s hard to believe PIer Park is only a year old. It seems like an institution already. This past weekend saw some great Indian Summer weather in Portland, and although the pictures might not show it, there was a healthy, festive crowd at Pier Park on both days. More pics after the jump.

While I was chasing off a Chinese bandwidth thief I came across a link to a three page photo set from ASR. It’s in Chinese, so I don’t know what the scoop is. Here are two of the most interesting ones. The first is what appears to be a very ornate six wheeled skateboard and the second is some band playing at the House of Blues with a giant Thrasher logo in the light show. Does anyone know what the scoop is on either of these two items? Also, not shown is the children of the corn.

[Source: Kicker Club]

Ooops! Forgot to switch over the week. I’d feel bad except it seems to keep happening, so everyone still gets about a full week. This week’s shot comes courtesy of Bryce Kanights, who had this to say:

From the early 90s and beyond John Cardiel blew many minds and raised
skateboarding’s gnar level up several notches. In 1992 he leapt over Ft.
Miley’s tall turnbuckle setting yet another benchmark.

Check out the full size version of this week’s Shot of the Week.

This appropriately named spot is called the Bubble Banks. A reader named Mark W. pointed out that it was near the mystery spot that we found through the Disciplinary Architecture Anti-Sit Archives post. The Bubble Banks photos are from Quartersnacks.com, a NYC-centric web site that even has an online guide to various spots, complete with location, occasional direction, bust factor and visual aids. I guess in a city as big as New York it’s not a big deal to spell out all the details on spots because they are all probably blown out already. It’s not like posting an online map to something as fragile as a pool ecosystem. Check out Quartersnacks.com, named after those Little Debbie snacks you can buy for a quarter, I guess. There’s a lot of content and it looks like they put some effort into the design and concept.