So this isn’t the main toy, but rather the toy’s pet. According to Club Penguin, the black puffle is strong and “loves the skateboard.” I kind of like this, but not for 33 bucks. Is that a grind rail on the side of the ramp?

The Shot of the Week is Cameron Schafer with a kgrind 180 out as captured by Joe Stevens. It looks much better in enlarge-o-rama.

Céline is French company that makes handbags, pants that look like they came from a 70’s time capsule and other accessories. Nothing says ‘fashion” like an androgynous topless girl and a skateboard. At least she’s healthier than the last model. We are the goon squad and we’re coming to town. Beep Beep!

[Source: Fashion Gone Rogue and Piecesofme.]

From the upcoming Bumbershoot music festival in Seattle, a scheduled art installation called ‘Skaters Gauntlet’:

W. Scott Trimble’s sculptural installation is a fantastic obstacle course that includes a 360-degree skate pipe, skate bowl extension towers, a freestanding quarter pipe, ramps over obstacles, and more impossible structures that would taunt the most seasoned and reckless of skateboarders — if they were allowed to skate on it.

As Bobcat pointed out, “…basically, not only are they going to close Seaskate for Bumbershit…. they are going to build an ‘art exhibit’ and not let skaters ride it.Time to rile up the Daggers.”

An artfully done video of indoor skatepark construction in an old tobacco factory in Madrid, Spain with mostly recycled materials. It’s a bit long but it’s interesting, the soundtrack on middle timelapse section section had me cracking up. Check it out.

– Thanks to Sarib Khalsa for the tip.

Last year’s promo must have been a hit, becasue they upped it from the first 2000 to the first 5000 fans in the park who got a free Portland Timbers skateboard. I have to tell you I thought our mayor was a bit looney pushing for a major league soccer team in our town. I hold soccer in about as much entertainment esteem as the Onion does, and I figured it would flop, but boy was I wrong. Games are regularly sold out and the fans are rabid. I heard last year’s board was not really the same size as an actual skateboard, more like a toy hand board. I’m still a little bit confused by this cross promotion. Makes about as much sense as a skateboarder printed on a frisbee, or Air Grip brand flying disk as it were. But damn it all if I don’t want to jump on the bandwagon and go see a game, cause I do. Update: Well this post is pretty funny in retrospect, as 5 years later I am now a huge Timbers nerd. So much so that I actually travelled to Columbus Ohio to watch them win the MLS Cup.

[Photo: Portland Timbers] – Thanks to Greg for the tip.

A lot of talk recently about the X-treme sports television contest industry giving back to the community in the form of permanent skate facilities instead of building temporary throw away parks. The Rob Dyrdek Foundation and Street League Skateboarding series is kicking in:

Newark, NJ – August 24, 2011 – Mayor Cory A. Booker, Members of the Newark Municipal Council, Devils Arena Chairman Jeff Vanderbeek and world-record holding professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek will hold a press conference to announce a $110,000 donation from the Rob Dyrdek Foundation to the City of Newark that will enable construction of a new skateboard facility at Hayes Park East, on Thursday, August 25, at 11a.m., at the Prudential Center at 165 Mulberry Street.

To be fair, $50,000 of that donation is “design services” which is bullshit. Any good design-build firm will include the the design for a nominal cost if not free. It’s only “valuable” when you get into companies that don’t build their own parks or situations where state laws (Like in Washington) don’t allow the same firm to design and build the park. 35K is in donated obstacles from this years tour which leaves 25k as an actual cash donation and not an inflated write off. It’s not as impressive as something like the Tony Hawk Foundation, but it’s a good thing and let’s hope we see more of this.

[Image of Rob standing on a pile of cash: Gentlemanly Conduct]

I’ve seen pictures of a miniramp on a trailer before, but the Goat Ramp implementation has to be the slickest yet. check out the photos and some sequences of the setup on the link. I’m not sure how they get the seam to disappear where the hinge is, but it looks like they figured it out.