If you don’t want to brave the crowds for the Saturday stop of the Trifecta, you can brave the likely much smaller crowds to be found at the Lake Oswego 2009 Youth Skate Competiton, to be held at the Lake Oswego, Oregon Skatepark… …errrr? What? There’s a skatepark in Lake Oswego? There’s a ton of money in that town, so you know it’s got to be great one, right? I guess not.. Who knew? Catch the flier after the jump. – Thanks to Dave Arpin for the tip.

Or the same one, I can’t speak Japanese. Actually, probably a different one than MVP’s Louie. He doesn’t use the cheater binding made out of a shoe. – Thanks to Stephanie Murdock for the tip.

A note made from a piece of the old Animal Chin ramp that sits in the Team Pain office. Click to enlarge.

Matt Mahoney hooked us up with some pictures of a relic he owns, possibly the ultimate achievement in wackyboards. It’s either the Nash Jamm Sound Board or the Radio Active, depending on whether you believe the top or the bottom of the deck. In Matt’s own words “It’s perfect for listening to static while skating around town…” I remember seeing adds for this thing before, I can’t imagine they made more than one model. It’s too bad the Nash factory burned down, I’ll bet there was some cool stuff in storage.

Come join a bunch of women skaters as they invade your local spot. S.L.A.G. is an advocacy group organizing skate camps and skate activities for females and they are rolling through an eleven stop road tour through the west. Various women pros will join up along the way. They’ll be in Hood River and at D.O.S. tomorrow.

Scott Selover sent in a bunch of pics of some young rippers from Bend, Or. One of them is is son Jake. The other is his friend Dru. Here’s two from Pier Park. These kids are 12 years old. I guess there is a vert scene in Bend. I hear rumors about a 11 foot vert ramp. Did you hear about the 19 year old who landed the 900 at Maloof? These kids have a few years to go…

He’s Bobcat! (Cue theme song.) Master of Sleestak, unicorn-lover, Seattle scenester and magick DJ. He’s being interviewed byJohn Doe Zine tomorrow at 5pm Pacific tomorrow (7-22-09), and you can call in to listen live. Get the details over here. John Doe zine has been doing a lot of these call-in phone interviews. It’s intriguing, and with Bobcat on the line, I’m going to check it out. If you want more I’ve got a stream of consciousness history of Seattle skateboarding coming up soon.

This week’s Shot of the Week is from Steve Potwin, who captured Steve Caballero on the monolith at San Jose’s Lake Cunningham skatepark. I actually saw this on Caballero’s blog. You need to see the full frame shot to get a sense of how GNARLY this is. Check out the Shot of the Week. And then go see Potwin on MySpace, he’s got more pictures and some animated sequences too.

There is some insane footwork in this video. Street skating, straight up freestyle, and several points in between. For instance, the guy doing the handstand fingerflip in the shot above actually ollied on to the top of that pole to get there. Think Natas spin without the spin, and then a departure. I guess kids are out ther getting stoked on old Rodney Mullen videos, and then taking it from there. These guys have got technical skills out the wazoo, but my desire to worship at the altar of their talent is severely tempered by the same geek vibe that hampered freestyle in the 80’s. In this case it’s the cheesy sense of vintage freestyle in their choice of soundtracks. Sick skating though. Check it out after the jump. – Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.

This photo set of backwood gulch launch heavily reminds me of something you’d see on the always fun show Built to Shred, except for the gratuitous firearms. I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to keep your spot from being poached. See what I mean at Skateboard Archives