This week’s Shot of the Week comes from Colin Walsh. Whether or not he rules depends on what side of the bed he woke up on that morning. This is Brandon Morris at the Buena Vista pool in Watsonville California. Brandon loves Watsonville so much he had it tattooed on his legs. Are those NOS Airwalks or did they bring back the old logo? Man I hated that logo and those shoes when they first came out. (No offense, Brandon.) Hey look kids. it’s Pabst Blue Ribbon! Check out the Shot of the Week.

Here’s a couple of shots of another private indoor spot in Virginia known as the Cardinal Sins. I’m not sure how the name applies to this spot. Maybe some of the sinners will chime in.

– Thanks to Chip Atkins for the pics

Late notice as usual. This will be the forum for input about the plans for development around the Burnside skatepark neighborhood. Skaters need to show up or they’ll think we’re not interested. 524 E Burnside, 7th floor of Bside6 doors open at 5pm. Be cool, but be there.

Why? Because the area around the park is being redeveloped, and nothing is set in stone. I mean, there was even talk of adding a BMX track.

Wednesday, January 27 from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. 524 E Burnside, 7th floor

Chinese candy with skateboard packaging. You can’t buy them directly, you have to contact a guy and arrange to import them. Oh cruel importers. How you tease me. If anyone sees these in the wild, pick one up for me would ya? I have a dietary deficiency in lead and melamine. These ducks look like Elmer Fudd.

You can get skateboard checks, check covers, calling cards and address labels from an outfit called Styles Check Company:

No obstacle is too great. No trick is too extreme. You’ll rattle the competition with these edgy, action-packed designs. These single or duplicate checks show 4 different skate decks that are sure to showcase your own style.

Rattle the competition? The check writing competition? Is there some sort of game of SKATE that involves mailing everyone a check? Here’s my card, meet me at this address for the contest. See these custom checks with Cartoon Network looing skaters on them? That’s right, I don’t fool around. I’m in your face, edgy, and action-packed.

Working title for this post: Skaters can check their balance.

Some folks are looking forward to the Superbowl, while others in the New York/New Jersey area aren’t phased by a Jets loss, they are more interested in an Orange Bowl. Private indoor spot sent in by Eric G. I like the weird and angular volcano thing in the center. Did anyone realize that enlarge-o-rama is working again?

Some fun lettering by Grand Army. Here’s how they describe it:

Theo van Doesberg inspired typographic treatment for Nike SB. Letter construction: stair sets, rails and ramps.

Wasn’t Theo van Doesburg on Vision?

Illusion Labs showed a demo of their Touchgrind iPhone game running on a MacBook. The game design is pretty unique, well not so much when you consider today’s “pro fingerboard” agenda. The biggest beef with the iPhone game is that the small screen severely limits game play. MacBooks and MacBook pros have a track pad that is multi-touch sensitive, so the game can still be played with your fingers and you’ll get the added benefit of extra screen real estate. I may actually buy a game for my Mac for the first time since Myth II, back in the OS 9 days. Loved that game. Finished Myth I, but couldn’t make it past one of the levels in Myth II. Apple even makes a mouse that has a trackpad built into the top surface. I wonder if you can play Touchgrind on that. Hold on. Buy Touchgrind? Wait a minute, what am I thinking? Review copy! Now if I can just get Apple to send me a review copy of that rumored new tablet computer.

– Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip. [Source: Engadget]

That’s right. $75 professional quality replacement trucks for your fingerboard. My kids have handfulls of Tech Decks, and the axles on the trucks are always the first thing to break. I’ve switched out trucks and wheels for my kids so many times… but this is just a smidge too much. I suppose if you’re going to go ahead and spend $30 on replacement wheels, with bearings even, you’d want them to go on a quality truck. They even sell replacement parts for Black River trucks, like axles, bushings and kingpins. Of course, you’ll want to spend anywhere from $26 – $52 on a fingerboard deck. You could save money by picking up a complete for $28 to $60. These things seem to be a European manufacturing phenomenon, (France, Germany, Poland, three brands out of the Czech Republic!) but there are American brands included.