OK. So I’m adding a “Shot of the Week” post category because a lot of these pictures have more history than the SOTW format allows, and I might as well let people chip in their own recollections or similar experiences. This week’s SOTW is from a 1984 Peoria Journal Star article on skateboarding and punk rock or something to that effect. The Peoria in question is Peoria Illinois, the same Peoria that is referenced in the familiar saying “But will it play in Peoria?” The shot is of Peoria’s premier (at the time) punk (dare I say skate punk?) band Caustic Defiance, a project of collaboration with the infamous Steppe brothers and our own Dr Brad in his more defiant and skinnier youth.

Canada’s Much Music had an event on Go Skateboarding Day that featured something called the Hide-n-Skate Ramp. It’s not super ground breaking, but it’s still pretty cool, so you’d think you could find a few pictures of this ramp being set up, in transit or at the very least, being skated, but no, there doesn’t appear to be anything anywhere on the web. WTF? I wonder if the Much Music channel actually plays music videos, unlike any of the MTV channels. Coincidentally, I also recently stumbled across plans for a mini ramp that folds up into a shed(!?) on RampPlans.org. Michael Cheah’s got seven pages of instructions and photos, but amazingly, not one picture of the damn thing folded up into a shed. As weird an pointless as that sounds, I want to see it. Come on people, let’s follow through on the obvious! You could all use some pointers on documentation from Tracy Sigler.

Steve Cave knows pro skaters but he won’t flow! Aww, come on man, give me Shecklers phone number! Haw! Haw! Steve does About.com’s skateboarding blog, AKA How to apply grip tape and clean your bearings, and he’s compiled tips on how to contact pro skateboarders. Tip #1: Don’t ask him! Actually this post just an excuse to reference the old “Maps to the skaters… Holmes!” scene which is one of the highlights in Animal Chin. Tip number two? Buy the map!

I can’t stop watching this video of a Primo slide to back flip. Ok, it’s very light on the slide, in fact, I think it’s just called a rail stand? Freestylers help me out here. Freestylers? I don’t know who this shorty character is but he reminds me of the high school wrestling team. Check it out after the jump.

[Source: Wiskate via the Skateboard Mag]

We’ve had a few risque posts here lately, so I thought I’d be open handed and fair by putting up something for the ladies… This exotic dance team will be appearing at the Scab and Flab nightly for your enjoyment. Try the chicken fried steak and don’t forget to tip your waitress. So drink it in, and don’t thank me all at once. And, yes, summer is over.

As if there isn’t enough going on in Portland this weekend. There’s the Rocco Docco(umentary), the Cording/Frisone affair and also the Michael Tubb’s Benefit where aside from helping a brother out, you can catch the premier of the new Vox video, Black & Blue Volume 2. Someone should start a calendar so people can schedule these events without conflict. Someone. Hmmmm…. Who should that someone be?

This is a shot of a well known Portland skater Wes Cording taken in 1980 at a skatepark in Philadelphia called the Roxy or Roxbourough or something. Wes originally submitted it for the blue fiberglass ramp collection, but I am using it to announce that Wes is getting married tomorrow and all interested parties should meet at Union Jacks tonight if you want to send him off in the customary fashion. That’s not him on the cover, but you get the idea. Wes cleans up real good, you can see the proof after the jump.

Everybody sing!

Who can take a sunrise
Sprinkle it in dew
Cover it in chocolate
and a miracle or two?

The candyman Handstand man!
The Handstand man can
The Handstand man can cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good!

I’m not going to begrudge anyone from trying to make an extra buck off of a web site, but the Handstand Man is really, uh, pushing it. He’s got one claim to fame, and it’s a burly one to be sure, he’s ridden a handstand down the infamous Signal Hill. That’s gnarly, but he won’t show it to you unless you pay $14 for the DVD. He has some still photos for sale, but has graciously provided a few “free” pics for downloading as well as a couple of video clips you can watch for free, as if that is some kind of rarity. Let’s see, anything else? Most of the pics don’t show his face and he performs most of his stunts in track pants, sometimes even white sweatpants! The whole site is a trip:

“The ballsiest skateboarding action sequence I have ever filmed!!”
As quoted by James, the video cameraman who filmed the stunt.

Hey kids! head on over to the Handstand Man, and look for his new model out on Skatekings – HA! I kid, but if ever there was a perfect match…

UPDATE: NEWS FLASH!!!!! The Internet is full of jokers! It has come to our attention that the Handstand Man was actually being impersonated in some of the comments. Those comments have been tagged accordingly. We fell for it. I even looked up some the email address and IP’s to see if he was being spoofed because some of the responses seemed over the top. Anyway, the real Handstand Man is not such a bad guy when he’s not calling you gay or inviting you to throw the first punch. The copyrighted images are still being replaced with these lovely artist’s renditions, and Brad is making a few changes on his web site as well. PLEASE! Let us never speak of this again.

[Source: South of the North]

Tracy Sigler built a mostly modular miniramp in his basement and documented the hell out of the whole process. It cost him about $800 to get all the materials delivered to his door to build what looks like a 12 foot wide 3 and a half foot tall mini ramp. I’ve built a handful of ramps in my day, and I’ve been known to over engineer my structures so that they could withstand large earthquakes (or small Grover-quakes.) Tracy builds them right. He’s more of a Yankee Workshop ramp builder than a measure once cut twice guy. Er, I assume tracy is a guy, or maybe I’m just a sexist pig. Tracy even has a nice diagram on how to set the coping (too low!), which is one area where a lot of first time ramp builders balk. Check out Tracy’s basement ramp break down, he/she is Heavy Duty.