I was out of town last week in an area with zero phone/internet access, and thus there were no posts. And now I’m back, and miracles of all miracles, I skated an honest to god vert ramp in Portland over the weekend. It’s 40 foot wide with 9.5 foot transitions and 1.5 feet of vert. Instead of kickass skate photos, I took a few of an uncooperative goat that calls this ramp home.

After inspecting the insides, it appears this knitting pattern from Marriner is for chunky yarn, and not chunky kids. It’s pretty awful, and the best/worst part is that they think someone might actually want kneepads and elbow pads knitted out of yarn! Believe it or not, this is the third post about knitting. – Thanks to BPA for the tip.

Hey look, someone ran over a squirrel. It’s kind of flat, but maybe I can use it for taxidermy practice. Hmmm. It’s not really cooperating with me. How can I make this look more natural? I know. I’ll make it look like he was riding a skateboard and just wiped out! My work is awesome! I wonder why nobody bid on it? – Thanks to BPA for the tip.

Dave England performs a public service in this video by RossAngeles. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip

Two Keith Meek Slasher graphic ripoffs in one week. I just couldn’t resist the title, sorry. I don’t think this is is officially licensed by Warner Brothers, as I couldn’t find it anywhere except on Ebay. – Thanks to BPA for the tip.

Adam needs your help… Willits Bowl, A.K.A. Adam’s Bowl is a super sick DIY in Northern CA. The deck around the bowl is only half finished… The forms are set for the second section of deck, which will include a corner hip off the big quarter pipe and a Derby style berm. Now we just need a little help to pay for the mud. Many have come to shred, Few have donated to the cause. Let’s get it poured!!! Anybody who donates is of course welcome to come out. If you don’t know where it is, I guess you’ll have to be content with watching it in videos.

Adam Shomsky has a Youtube channel filled with high frame rate slow motion videos of skateboarding and “other random stuff that looks cool in slow mo, like fire.” A writer over at Wired used an open source physics video analysis tool called Tracker (Insert Tracker vs. Indy joke here.) to break down the forces at work in an ollie. The resulting animated gifs are vaguely interesting and sort of hypnotic, especially if you like looking at lots of vectors and symbols overlaid on skateboard videos. Check out The Physics of Doing an Ollie on a Skateboard, or, the Science of Why I Can’t Skate.

Learn to skate with Sportskool, just don’t try to learn how to spell. Instructional books and videos for learning how to skate are nothing new. The only reason I paid attention to this one is because I happened to catch a video shot with Omar Hassan at Pier Park, here in Portland. (There’s another one with Omar skating in West Linn Oregon too.) Sportskool has videos and DVD’s for the whole gamut, including Extreme!™ sports and even fishing, but sadly, no curling that I could see. Some of the videos are available for free via Youtube channel, but others require a subscription fee. Choose your discipline, street, bowls or vert. Who are your instructors? Omar Hassan, Mike Vallely, and Andy McDonald. Did you know Mike V. wrote a book? Would it surprise you to learn that it appears to be about a fight he was in? (FISTFIGHT VOLUME 1: THE CKY3 FIGHT EXPLAINED) It’s important to note, as every Sportskool video will remind you, Sportskool is not liable for any injury or accident “befalling” any viewers of their programs. The large image above is from “How to Skateboard a Small Bowl with Omar Hassan.” Unfortunately, it’s all general skateboarding instruction,…

This ‘Thrill Seeker’ is your typicall, cheap 80’s skateboard and it’s also a bootleg. The top design is some Jaws-like creature (I think), but the other side is definitely stolen from the Keith Meek ‘Slasher’ graphic. Found it on eBay a while ago.