This week’s Shot of the Week comes from Greg Baller, who was actually in a Shot of the Week last year. Greg was a partner in Burly Caps, a company that made… burly recaps for knee pads during the late 80’s and early 90’s. Burly Caps are back again, and the web site has a lot of pictures of vert riding in the Great White North from the same era. Burly Caps are made from UHMW plastic. What? Glad you asked: Ultra High Molecular Weight, much denser than you garden variety caps. Burly Caps, Right? This is Neil Blender in Vancouver BC, as shot by Greg. Neil Blender used to have a web site selling his art online, but he’s since moved his operation to an eBay store. There is still a few hours left to bid on his original painting (alternate version) for cover of the Best of Dinosaur Jr. See the full frame Shot of the Week.

If I read my Google Alerts anymore I probably would have known this before hand, but Tony Hawk (Yeah right, more like his minions) stashed autographed boards in several locations world wide and then provided clues via Twitter and Shred or Die so his fans could find them. Pretty cool idea. GVK had a similar plan, that involved hiding candy in his pants… – Thanks to Mrs. Kilwag for the tip. [Source: Perez Hilton]

I thought this Battle Ground, WA video montage from Joe Stevens contained some footage from the same session in Battle Ground that I was poaching him in back in January, but it was uploaded before that day. I’m trying to talk Joe into becoming a contributor. I love seeing videos of my friends skating, but it gets literally and figuratively, uh, old after a while. As The Dogs said, I traded in all my old attitude, for a younger point of view.

Time for the annual SOLV Pier Park Pickup. 9:00 AM-1:00 PM, This Saturday, April 18, 2009 North Lombard St. and Bruce Ave. (From Lombard turn down Bruce Street and go to where it ends at the corner of Bruce and North James St.) SOLV Meeting Location: Meet by the turn-around at the beginning of the disc golf course. You can also meet us at the skatepark.

I found this picture uncredited on one of those image amalgamation web sites. It actually had a WB watermark in the bottom corner. Heath Ledger was known to pick up a skateboard, who knows, maybe he had a kickflip in him…. It looks like a photoshop job though, especially with the board backwards. Regardless, the end result is a good one. Full frame after the jump.

For some people this is one of the second most important holidays. Of course I’m talking about little kids looking forward to getting the second largest candy haul of the year. Watch the Easter Bunny skateboarding after the jump. You get exactly one guess as to who this is.

HouseofNeil hates the band Sublime and their skateboards. But Sublimegman doesn’t. He’s got a more than a handful and he’s been doling them out on eBay: You seen it here first! This thing is major old school and you just couldn’t ask for a more awesome piece of “sublime” history. Just a thing of beauty……PERIOD! Do what you have to do,……beg, borrow and steal to get this baby…..Sh*t,….If you need to sell one of your organs to benefit science and your sublime collection,….so be it!!!! Scars will heal, Bro,…another chance to get one of these skate decks may not come around again! Call the “organ donor hotline” quick,…You’ve got an auction to win!! I don’t really need to promote this thing,……It sells itself….. An insanely RARE, OOP, 100 MADE, completely key “40 oz. to Freedom” skateboards… Don’t get all high and let this auction pass you by. Put this sucka under your watch list, add it to your “favorites”,…whateva….just don’t be late when the bell rings on this one! The band had 100 of these things made and somehow this guy has at least 10 of them. Hang on, is that Diamond Dave? – Thanks to Dutch Guy for the…

Say you are watching Fox News, (Please don’t…) and you see some guy on TV and you’re thinking, what a stuffed shirt, there’s no way I could possibly relate to that guy. Well never judge a book… Aw forget it. Michael Morrison was on Fox News today talking about his iPhone app called Bailout Watch, which tracks federal money, blah blah blah. When he’s not appearing on fair and balanced news shows, he can often be found above the heads of locals in a Nashville Franklin, TN skatepark, as seen in this photo from Nick Zierden, who coincidentally knows our own very, very infrequent contributor, Ryan Coulter.

Saturday Skateboards passed on these photos to us. There are two guys in the army in Iraq who managed to convince the Commander and First Seargant of Camp Victory to allow them to build what look like a pretty decent miniramp. It’s a lot better than what the other guys are skating in Iraq. Alex and Keane are calling it “Operation Dust Pipe.” Notice the giant concrete barricade surrounding it? I suppose that’s to keep the snipers from pinching them during big airs… The surface looks like it’s been painted white like a giant reflecting oven, which is probably why they are skating at night. Check out the gun leaning up against the side of the ramp. That’s got to be against some regulation! Enlarge the photos after the jump. Thanks again to Saturday Skateboards for sharing. You can see a little of Andrew Cannon skating Saturday’s indoor park in the cross country trip video at the bottom of this page.

It looks like Tuscon’s new lighted skatepark is almost ready to open. The top shot is from Danimal’s friend Erik and the bottom two are from TusconSkaters.org. It’s funny how you can get an idea of who builds these things just by looking at them. This park has Site Design written all over it. The shot that gave it away for me was this one. Except that conflicts with a story and video in AZStarnet.com. Both Site design and California Skateparks list it in their portfolio. California must be the build contractor. Strange design choice, that keyhole pool. You don’t see too many of those being built now, and for good reason I think. Still, the channel looks fun. Notice that it’s not just a straight roll in for some reason. It’s a $1 million, 12,000 square foot project.