Jesse McDowell works a mean trowel and rides for Merde. Egbert had this to say: Jesse has been riding for us for about 5 months now, I think. Whenever he was in town, we’d try and get some filiming in, but he’s a pretty busy guy…building parks and what not. Either way, welcome aboard Mr. McDowell! We’re happy to have you as part of the family. Catch the sponsor luv after the jump.

The spot from yesterday’s Shot of the Week is in Salem, Oregon. Thanks to Ryan Hass for the picture.

This shot of Jeremy Tuffli taken by Garric Ray recently appeared in Skateboarder magazine: I shot the photo of Jeremy on January 2nd and he did the trick in 23 degree weather! I think I spent a couple hours with a weed wacker to clean up the spot so you can see the drop as well. I still trip out that he landed the blunt fakie in the first place. Not sure if you’ve been to the St. Johns quarter pipe under the bridge or not, but you can get really hurt skating that spot if things go wrong. You can check out the Shot of the Week, but I would stay here for enlarge-o-rama so you can see what’s happening. I need to get that incorporated into the SOTW.

This is a Grindline park in Laconner, Washington which is about a half an hour south of Bellingham. That’s Ted or possibly Fred on the backside boneless which was in fact a make, according to regular contributor John Aguilar. -Thanks! I saw pictures of a new Grindline park in Atlanta, GA (mainly in the street sections) that looked like it had some elements of a new direction for Grindline. Hard to tell from the tiny pictures though. Any of our Hotlanta readers want to scout it out?

This edition of drive by cellphone shots, these aren’t tank traps on the Maginot Line, rather light fixtures and car barriers at a high school in Redmond, Washington.

Ripzu skatepark in Vancouver, Wa is having a contest on Saturday November 20th, 2010 Registration Begins at 10am. Details after the jump.

Sleestock 2009 is this weekend, June 6th and 7th in Hood River. I had planned to attend but the concrete doesn’t wait for anyone. I might be able to make it out for a bit on Sunday. If you get into town early on Friday June 5th, Wally Inouye’s IPS skate shop will have three live bands (Pink Gravel, OAC, & The Vipers) as part of Hood River’s First Friday, starting at 5pm..

So we’re involved with this thing called Skate Life Northwest. In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a lot of hype on the Northwest. It’s the first annual (we hope) event that is essentially a trade-show-ish meet/hang out thingy to check out Northwest based skateboard companies and assorted scensters. Probably really close to to what Thrasher was donig for a while, only regional. It is my hope that along with some of the strict skateboard companies we can also get some zines and other skateboard related entities there. Let’s own this thing before someone else does. We got on it very last minute, so it can only get better next year! At the very least, it will be a good excuse to hang out and throw some food on the grill. It’s going ot be behind the Department of Skateboarding who is strictly actin in the landlord capacity for this event. There will be a short bank to wall contest with a cash prize as well. More details at SkateLifeNW.com. Hope to see you all there if you are in the neighborhood. My top rejected name for the event: “Northwest Kookfest – A trade show”