I got an email with some computer renders from Team Pain that made me think they were dabbling with some prefab skatepark elements: Team Pain will be presenting their newest product line for the first time at the January 09 Surf Expo. Bringing a completely new feel to the show with some unique and artistic structures made from both hand poured concrete or solid steel! If you want to be one of the first to experience these new pieces, all you need to do is make it to the Expo and the course will be open to anybody who wants to skate. I thought I’d get some more info before I made the post since there were bound to be questions. UPDATE: Added video.

The Northwest’s newest skate rock band STINKBUG is making it’s live debut Tuesday the 13 at the Ash Street Saloon in Portland at 9pm. Right now it’s a two piece featuring our own Heath on guitar and friend of the site Troy Sliter who just happens to be the Monday Cover over at Earth Patrol Media, as well as actor/skater in the first three Santa Cruz videos and one time product reviewer here.

Won’t your client’s logo look great printed on the skatepark? Or, we could take pictures of kids at the skatepark and then print the images on the skatepark, then we could get the kids to skate on it and take a picture of that… A method for printing digital images on concrete. Not much more info about this but I got it from Design Spotter.

Ars Technica reports that the developer of the THPS series of video games has decided to bail on the franchise, even though it was the their main source of bread and butter for a long time. Strange, considering Tony seemed so stoked on the next version. Must have been sales talk. I wonder how he’s taking the breakup. Is thi s the beginning of the end? Will he be back to parking lot demos in spandex at Six Flags? I doubt it. Does anyone remember the old Thrasher video game Skate and Destroy? It was pretty fun, but apparently never really took off. – Thanks to Steve B for the tip.

December 2008. It was much the same as November. Some decks went for really big cash, some were below average, and there were some real bargains to be had if you were lucky enough or vigilant enough to spot them. Normally there’s a spike in December as loved ones bid on decks for collectors I the family. Let’s face it, they make the perfect gift! They are an unabashed luxury, and skaters often won’t pull the trigger themselves, deciding it’s too frivolous. What a nice surprise under the Xmas tree! However, that really didn’t happen this year. I’m wondering what January, February and March will be like. Normally they are big months because of tax refunds, but this year, who knows? Editor’s note: We’ve made the enlargements pop up in front of the page instead of loading in the same window, thanks to Slimbox 2. This should make for a better reading experience. If it goes over well, I’ll go back and retrofit the past columns. Note to web developers, LightBox 2 doesn’t seem to play nice with long pages. It only took me 2 hours to figure that out. If you experience any errors, please drop an email with…

GVK found this gem: During my endless search for good skate videos from my era, I ran across the dream video and job. This actually happened to a friend of mine and yours try and guess who. The guy in the video is a better skater than him. Who could it be? We can’t host adult content on our site, not that I’d really care to anyway. The good part, or at least the part that relates to skateboarding is excerpted and safe for work. There’s some great, uh, dialogue in the movie, and it’s clear that while the male lead may be Woody Harrelson’s developmentally challenged, mongo pushing younger brother, he does skate, or at least used to at some point.

This is a couple of weeks old. I had decided to ignore it, but I was exploring the French-Canadian Versus Skatezine which has a heavy Don’t Do It Army presence. I decided to see what Birdo was up to, and it turns out the Don’t Do It campaign has branched out into the whole action sports industry. One of the first things I clicked on ended up targeting Nike’s entry into the snowboarding boot market, which in turn reminded me of the Winter Dew Tour commercials on TV that have an action sequence of Shaun White skateboarding and morphing into snowboarding. The Dew Tour has a new logo, perhaps coinciding with the creation of the Action Sports Alliance. Make no mistake about it, despite a name that sounds like an operation for activism, outreach, or a rider’s union, it’s a company jointly owned by NBC Sports and MTV. Alli is a global business that joins the former Action Sports Tour properties (AST) with Maloof Money Cup, AMA Motocross Championship and King of Wake series to create the most diverse and robust action-sports offering in the world. The new umbrella brand, which will continue to be co-owned by NBC Sports and…

Somewhere in the land of amusement park skate terrain, an individual, or individuals have decided that they need more concrete. The thinking goes, “The skatepark is fine, but it’s not mine!” Actually, this came from Carl Warren, and was labeled as a “side project.” He didn’t say, and I didn’t think to ask him. I don’t know if it’s DIY or not, but it certainly looks like a private situation. More shots after the jump. Go for it!

After seeing himself in last week’s shot of the week, Runaway insisted that we at least use a good shot. That wasn’t a dig a Peter Dietsches’ photo skills, Keith was just being self deprecating. In order to detract attention from his corn rows, Keith furnished two great shots of TSOL member Ron Emory at the same bowl. Above is a close up of one of them. Love the debris flying off, and if you can believe it, it’s a make of a backside edger that took a turn for the hairy. Word is he made those regularly. Keith said Ron owned that pool, and you’ll be inclined to agree if you check out the full frame Shot of the Week as well as a bonus shot after the jump.

The final design and contractor for the replacement of Seattle’s skatepark that was dozed by Bill Gates has been chosen. You can check out the renderings or follow the saga at SeattleSkateparks.org. It’s a newline design, but who is the build contractor? For some reason it’s under wraps until the contract is signed. Construction is supposed to start in the spring. What I want to know is where are they growing those alien-like blurry trees that are showing up in the renders? – Thanks to Scott Shinn for the tip.