August 2008. I’ve tried to focus on some more unusual stuff this month, tried to change things up a bit. And sorry this is late, but I’ve been studying for one of my Apple certification exams, so I haven’t had much spare time. I passed it yesterday though with a score of 98%, so I’m pretty stoked. And the funny thing about August, there were more big-ticket decks in the 70s and 90s sections than in the 80s. Unusual that. Probably a first. Check out eBay Watch: August 2008

This week’s Shot of the Week is courtesy of Dylan Davies. It’s a nice 4×5 camera shot of Grant from New Zealand at the Bonsor skatepark full pipe in British Columbia, Canada. Every time I see pictures of this park it makes me think it’s some old relic, but I guess it’s actually from this millennium. You gotta admire the skate photographer who uses a 4×5 view camera. You need to lug the camera to the location, load the film in a true dark room,none of that red light cheating, do your metering, focus on the ground glass and pop the film back onto the camera. Then you slide the slidey thing out (it’s been a while) and hit the shutter release. Then slide it back in, take the film back off and bring it to a dark room to develop, one negative at a time. That’s a lot of hassle to get a decent shot. Not something you’d want to try on a kickflip variation that might be a bust on the first 20 tries. Check out the full frame version.

This tip came labeled as “the latest in absurd use of a skateboard in a graphic,” and you’ll get no argument from me here. Looks like two pieces of canned clip art and about five minutes of work. IBM wants you to use some of their software, and in return they’ll send you a Chumby, which is actually a cool little Interwebs™ powered physical gizmo that would be fun to own as long as you didn’t have to pay for it. Chumbies (chumbi?) sell for $180, so that IBM course must be pretty expensive. See if you can get your boss to pay for it. Details online, but it’s a webmail campaign, so if it disappears you can see the ad bigger after the jump. Now that I’m looking at this, they might have actually had a guy jump out of a plane with a skateboard to pose this shot. – Thanks to Jeff Hottle for the tip.

No matter how much you think your town sucks to skate in, someone somewhere has it worse. Like… Afghanistan. Time magazine has a video featuring of all things skateboarding Afghans, who are skating the burliest pool I’ve ever seen ridden. Image courtesy of Time Update: Skateistan’s website has more photos and information. 

I came across a cool t-shirt on the internet of the drawing on the left. (reacharound to Monoscope) which led me to a short piece by the artist. Oh yeah, and Huck magazine, which seems to be one of those all action sports mags from the U.K. has the shirt in their store.

In case you didn’t read the comments on the previous custom board graphics post, JF pointed out the Board Pusher website. They have a much better range of sizes and shapes and are skate-centric. I wonder how the quality compares.

Came across this in the Concrete Disciples forums where a heated discussion was underway about silkscreened skateboard graphics vs. heat transfers. Some member calling himself 5CU111 ALX posted the link. Zazzle’s website offers to put your custom graphics on a skate deck. I didn’t see any dimensions but they do offer three sizes.

There’s still time to bid on some art boards over at the Ism SK8OLOGY charity auction. Most boards are still at pre-ridiculous eBay levels, so if you want to class up your apartment for a hot date, or you know, buy some art and help a good cause, get on over there.

I missed this on Skate Daily, but it looks like John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin is a fervent skateboard harasser. She supported penalties for using skateboards on public or private property as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. “ — after the expected opening of the $233,000 Wasilla Skate Park — skaters will be breaking the law if they use their skateboards, in-line skates, bicycles, scooters (or any other recreational, non-motorized wheeled device) on public or private property where signs are posted forbidding their use.” OK, fines for skating on public property where a sign is posted seems like something that falls within the realm of the law, whether you agree with the inherent justness of the law or not. Penalties start with a written warning and escalate to fines and eventual permanent confiscation. However, skateboard specific fines and the permanent forfeiture of your property for skateboarding on private property where a sign forbids it seems like an entirely different matter. I wonder if she’d support forfeiture of personal firearms in cases of trespassing that didn’t involve assault or some other violent crime. It’s doubtful. In any case, it’s a great excuse to post the SNL video with Tina Fey as…

I haven’t made any invert attempts since Saturday, but this video trick tip from Bacon’s Tim Johnson makes me think that eggplants shouldn’t be too hard. Yeah, right. Everyone except Conahan can check it out after the jump.