This week’s Shot of the Week features Larry Martin circa ’88 or ’89 out in the Mojave desert. There were better “skate shots” to pick from his batch, but I wanted to showcase the ramp and not necessarily the action or the photo. Here’s a little more on the subject from Larry:

I built this ramp on poached land in the Mojave desert near Lancaster, Ca. around 88… I had moved there with my wife after living in Ventura/Fillmore Ca. all my life. There wasn’t many ramps in the Antelope Valley at that time. The Palmdale one from the “Great Desert Ramp Battle” was toast. So, I made some new street/ditch skater friends and enlisted them in my idea to just build a halfpipe in the desert for anyone/evryone, and hopefully the police would leave us alone. They did, and we had it for about a year/half before the High School party crowd ruined it. We cut the templates with a jig, but the rest was all done without power tools. The wood of course was scavenged. This was during the savings and loan scandal, and huge housing projects were closed everywhere in the valley. Signs were just the easiest, as they were roadside, and blown over from heavy desert winds. Lots of funny stories of course surround the ramp. After it’s demise out there in the desert we rebuilt it 8 more times in backyards. Ahh, the good old dayz we all know so well.

Bonus shots after the jump.

Crazy beatnik hippie jazz musicians…

– Thanks to Zane for the tip.

Indoors, a video from Elias Parise covers some of Portland’s indoor spots, well known and otherwise. 155 days of rain a year? Who knew?

Brooklyn Street Skate Spot – Benefit / Contest / BBQ / Meeting of the minds…. on Saturday December 15th. Hope the weather holds out. Sponsored by no less than three local PDX skate shops Cal Skate, Shrunken Head, and Rip City. Maybe there will be a wrestling match in the cage at the top of the stairs too.

EVENT POSTPONED

Got 15 minutes to kill? You could do worse. Maui babe is a pretty mellow video that has high tides of intensity, some good music, vert, street, ditches, pools and skateparks. What else could you ask for? And it’s from Thrasher.

This bottle of Dylan Rieder/Thunder Trucks wine is part of an auction to benefit skater Billy Moyle who was recently paralyzed from the waste down. Actually, they’re still figuring out how to do it since eBay doesn’t allow alcohol sales. If you’re not into wine the other items range from Jason Adams art prints and Spitfire Wheels ninja stars. Say hello to Fargo.

Good ole William Spencer. I thought he was trying to be a stuntman in Hollywood. Maybe he still is, but he hasn’t been letting his skateboarding skills suffer. Then again, maybe this is a really old video of him skating at the Berrics. I don’t follow mainstream skate media (just mainstream media about skateboarding). I met Steve Berra once a few years ago when he was here in Portland. We talked about the big vert ramp demo that Zeltzer Seltzer and Island Water Sports put on under the shadow of the St Louis Arch circa ’87 or so. He was amiable. Back to Spencer though, that kid is fun as hell to watch, gimmicks included. I suppose he’s a young man now and not a kid though. Bah! You’re all pesky kids to me now. Watching this video though, makes me feel like a kid. Interestingly, it was uploaded by Richie Jackson, another maverick of modern skating.

– Thanks to Zane for the tip.

Gang Green out of Boston have been around since 1982, skating, rocking and drinking, splitting up and reuniting again many times. They have a new album in progress that was once announced for the year 2007! Last year saw a little teaser, a 7” single with the songs “I fear” and “The other place”.

Another video about screen printing skateboards. This one not so much about technique, but more about philosophy. Screaming Inc, (I thought they used to be Screaming Squeegees) are undeniably the kings of screenprinted skateboards. If you doubt me, just take a look at anything rolling out of Pocket Pistols. I pull a decent squeegee, but these guys make me feel inadequate to the point I’d consider interning even though I don’t make a living selling skateboards. Skilled artisans I tell you.

Part 3 of the Lifeblood & Blood Wizard Summer Tour. I didn’t know there were two other parts.