I like to geek out on multiple levels. The SkateDrive allows me to (over)spend money on two of my favorite areas of interest at once, computers and skateboarding. These are USB memory drives that come in the shape of skateboards with Santa Cruz logos. So you can put a bunch of skate rock MP3s on the drive and use it as a fingerboard when it’s not plugged in. Of course, you’ll pay a premium price for dual use “functionality.” In fact, it will cost you more than if you were to buy a 2GB memory stick and a fingerboard packaged separately, which hardly seems right. They must have done their market research on this one. I am a skateboarder who is smart enough to know how to use a computer, but dumb enough to pay an absurd amount of money for a skateboard shaped flash drive. – Thanks to Dr Brad for the tip.

If you think Tony Hawk has the market cornered on skateboarding birthday paraphernalia, well, he does. but there’s always room at the top… of the cake. Har, har. Shoot me.

There’s a new animated Batman movie being released on DVD to coincide with the hype of the live action feature with skateboarding actor Heath Ledger. Batman: Gotham Night has an opening sequence chock full of skateboarding. There was a pre-release rip on the web, but surprise, surprise, it’s been removed. Speaking of copyright infringement, remember the short lived Batman skateboard from Vision? The image above is from the Warner Video where they only show a second or two. If you really want to, you can see it after the jump. – Thanks to Joesf Heffner for the tip

Even though he’s “all old and rickety,” Fox 12 spotlighted Mark Conahan in the Oregon Sports Final segment. Did you know he invented skateboarding in Portland? And then he went on to fund, design and build all the skateparks in Portland. All this was done in his spare time away from his job drawing skateboard comics. You can watch him being interviewed by a barn owl on the FOX 12 web site. Keep your eyes peeled for other notable figures in the Portland skate scene media. I wonder why he’s not promoting this…

Sports Illustrated Kids has a video tour of Kona skatepark. Think of the intended audience and get prepared for you Federal Recommended Daily Allowance of flyouts. For a video tour, there sure are a lot of still photos. Check it out

He’s got a foundation, a skatepark, and a contest named after him, and he’s been honored by the Smithsonian, but what do you really know about Tim Brauch? Pete Koff is producing a documentary for release in 2009. He’s looking for your stories and photos of Tim to make this community project and help round out the documentary. More information and the trailer after the jump.

The State Games of Oregon have been organizing “amateur Olympic-style competitions for all ages and skill levels” since 1986. They claim 38 sports and 16,000 athletes, so it’s quite an affair. Skateboarding (in the form of Slalom) has been part of the agenda for the last three years. There were three days of slalom events this weekend, including something intriguing called “slalom cross” which looks like it’s head to head on the same set of cones. Sounds like fun to enter or watch. The Statesman Journal has an article and photo gallery. Come on, don’t be so uptight. Slalom can be fun. – Thanks to Judy Oyama for the tip.

Two of the event locations for this years Oregon Trifecta have been announced. For some reason one is still in Washington. The overall purse looks a lot bigger, and appears to include some sort of ATV. (Not that kind of ATV as seen on Wheelbite) What’s the stock photo graphic doing up there? It came from a recent iStockphoto.com promotion and signifies my surprise at finding out that the Trifecta’s official web site thinks I’m running some sort of free stock photo service. I don’t begrudge them, but a heads up and a spot on the links page would have been nice. Crap. I think I’m in Chicago for my grandmother’s 90’th birthday that weekend. – Thanks to Ryan Hass and Jeff Hottle for the tips.

I got a publicity email from Current TV about featuring this video called “The State of Black Skate,” but I was going to feature it anyway since I found it when I had the Burnside clip on the same site. It’s a short piece on skaters of color (as long as that color is black) in NYC. It ends just as you’d think they were about to get started. It’s almost like an intro segment for a full length production. So, there’s not much meat to it, but there are some good skating sequences. See that guy in the shot above? He’s barefoot. Current ought to encourage longer, more in depth pieces, otherwise it’s just so much filler.

The powers that be in Oregon are hip to skateboarding. The official web page for the State of Oregon has a small thumbnail of a skateboarder enjoying some Oregon concrete on the main page for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. It appears to be just for illustration purposes and doesn’t link to any sort of information about skateboarding in Oregon. It should link to SkateOregon.com. (Thanks for the tip Sam!) Anyone care to hazard a guess as to identify the skater and the park?