Two instances of world class athletes using skateboards for cross training purposes. First up is 10k Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah allegedly building balance on a skateboard, though admittedly just an experiment, and more likely just a photo op for the The Oregonian. On the right, Daniel Woods “prepares” for the 2010 Bouldering World Cup at a skatepark. With the event just two days after the video footage was shot, he was probably just trying to relax, get his mind off the competition, and of course, not get hurt! Video footage of Daniel after the jump – Just a tiny bit of skating and a lot of bouldering, but it’s some amazing bouldering footage. – Thanks to Jim Lilly and Chris Yeager for the tips.

May 4th, in Portland, at the Unheard Ramp, soon to be renamed the sweat box. It’s the Unheard Invitational. $2000 in prize money. Sponsored by a brewery? Yes, Hopworks. I (un)heard the HUB night raised about 3K in sales and donations for Powell Blvd. Skate Spot.

Evergreen Skateparks is making progress on the Happy Valley skate spot. It looks like it has a couple interesting features already. They are splitting the construction updates between Facebook and their official site.

Not much to say about this one. You either love it or hate it. Maybe about 20 years too late though. Still funny though. Get yours at Mustache Empire.

Bryan from right here in S&A’s back yard sent in some pictures of a ramp he built in his garage. Longtime reader here, just got back from Afghan and finished up the last corner of my garage ramp. Two main sides are 6ft radius and 4ft and 7.5 ft tall, house door side is 4.5ft radius and 2ft tall and garage door side is 3ft radius with 6.5ft tall near-vert wall. The newest corner has a 1ft tall roll-up to 4ft radius quarter to wall ride. The corner at the base of the 7.5ft tall section is a compound curve-based hip. Looks pretty excellent. What are you using on that top layer?

The thing I like (second) best about this video from Roger Skateboards is the way they described it: …check out our Token Older Vert Skater, Paul Zitzer, performing a vert demo for two children sitting on an extension. We expect big things from Paul in the next few years. And by “big things” we mean we expect him to skate a vert ramp at least once a year and to film it for us. Watch Paul hitting the Louisville, KY vert ramp after the jump. I wonder if this was filmed on the drive down to the SPOT Tampa Pro vert session that got rained out?

From the mind and memories of Simon Woodstock: I remember when I first met Salman. It was in 1988 and I was working at Winchester Skateshop in Campbell, CA and he came rolling up one day in a beat up lowered brown Toyota. His driver’s seat was also lowered so all I could see were his nose, eyes, and Afro haircut through the car door window as he bouncily drove up to the shop front. Pretty hilarious! He parked his car and pulled out a Powell Peralta set up and started doing some really consistent flat land lines in front of the shop but nothing too insane. I later saw him around at skate jams doing some pretty cool (yet standard for the time) launch ramp airs. We eventually became good friends and hung out a lot in San Jose doing whatevs. We sort of just cruised around from spot to spot doing slappies and wall rides and so forth. Until one day… Get the rest of the story and a video after the jump. Thanks to Simon for sharing.

Sorry about the lack of posts this week, my plane got delayed and TAM Linhas Aéreas lost my luggage. It took a while to get things sorted out, but I’m happy now, and tripping out cause I’ve never been in the southern hemisphere before. The toilets flush backwards! What???? Crazy! Anyway, I finally got the go ahead to post a couple of pics I took of Jake Brown. Holy cow, he landed the world’s first backside 720 Ollie over the gap in during the Big Air contest…

A Push to Remember is a a skateboard ride across the USA by Jack Smith of the Skateboarder’s Journal. It’s about raising awareness for Alzheimer’s Disease, which is near to Jack’s heart as his father passed away from complications due to Alzheimer’s in 2011. If the cross-USA skateboard trek sounds familiar, you might recall that Jack made a similar journey that was covered in the pages of Thrasher circa 1984, but that wasn’t even the first time he did it, which was in 1976! His 1984 journey also made it as a question in Trivial Pursuit. Help him out with his fundraising efforts if you are inclined. Watch the video and see the card after the jump. – Thanks to MC for the tip. Yes, he meant to send it earlier, but he forgot.

Let’s see… got an axe to grind? Want to throw down a few hammers? Tools with handles made from used skateboards and tennis racquets! Some of them are quite beautiful. Get yours modestly priced at Copemans Corner. – Thanks to Rich for the tip.