Screen snap from a recent Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Camp Woodward as the subject of one of the questions. Wow, a fly box? no way. I’ve never seen one in person. Har, har. If anyone caught this on video let me know please.

Via Neal Hendrix on Facebook

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.

I should have done this at least a week ago. If you’re looking for something to give to a friend or loved-one that skates ( and don’t care if it can’t make it in time for x-mas…) here’s a few ideas:

H.O.M.O.S. books fromAntigravity Press. All your favorite Hopless Old Men On Skateboards as drawn and written by MC, plus extras that weren’t published on the web, and more.

Doc Skaterock’s Vintage Skate Rock – The history of skatesploitation in vinyl. The definitive guide to skateboard-themed music before the modern term Skaterock was coined.

Toy Boarders plastic skateboard figures. Fun for all ages, hardcore and posers alike.

Maple XO – Jewelry and more, made from recycled skateboards.

Better If You Don’t Come Back, a short, skateboard centric fiction book by Joseph DeMough, published by Fat Thumb Publishing.

And of course, anything from one of our fine sponsors:

• Merde Skateboards
• Unheard Distribution
• Rip City Skates
• Weirdo Skateboards
• Diesel Fuel Prints
• Cold War Skateboards

Just like Skate Bush before her, only more risque. It’s Skate Moss, a web site dedicated to fake skateboard graphics featuring Kate Moss.

Crazy beatnik hippie jazz musicians…

– Thanks to Zane for the tip.

This video is not nearly as annoying as I had assumed it would be, but that does not mean I’m going to buy/download/pirate Flo Rida’s Wild Ones album. I can’t believe that’s what he picked as his rap name. That’s the Goat Ramp in the top shot.

– Thanks to… How did I find this?

I am predisposed to not like Jamie Thomas, I’ve heard rumors about some unethical practices, and I don’t appreciate the fact that had a big marketing campaign and skate video with the same name as my skateboard company. So, I am definitely biased. What about you?

From ESPN:

New Balance is the latest mainstream brand to throw its hat into the skateboard footwear market.

Based out of Boston, Mass., New Balance is strongly positioned in running and other traditional categories, but has not succeeded in their previous attempts to enter the skate market with the hi-top V74 and the V45 low-top sneaker, released in 2010. Their new entry into skateboarding is called New Balance Numeric or NB#.

New Balance, looking for a strong skate company to help ease their way into the market, will be manufactured and distributed by Black Box distribution of Carlsbad, Calif. Owned by professional skateboarder Jamie Thomas, Black Box currently distributes board brands Zero, Slave and Mystery, along with Insight Apparel and Fallen Footwear

I swear I recently saw an episode of SNL or Portlandia where they equated New Balance shows with senior citizens. When I think of New Balance I think of nylon running shoes. Way to jump on the bandwagon at the very last possible moment.

Another skateboard stairs concept reaches reality. Though featured on Recyclart, those are clearly all new skateboards, and kind of crappy modern Kryptonics if I’m not mistaken. The metal supports are a custom fabrication.

See skateboard stairs: Part 1 – Part 2

Addendum: I was looking at the Kryptonics web site, and they have a little page bragging about being around the original Burnside skatepark! There are some weird illustration/caption combos in their timeline.

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?