This week’s Shot of the Week is from Rich Burton’s fully functioning memory card. It’s Addikt Skateboards rider Shane Bell, a half hour or so before he broke his leg at Matt’s Bowl benefit BBQ in Grants Pass, Or. This is a cropped version of Rich’s shot. Check out the full frame Shot of the Week.

Funny how often skateboard is used as shorthand for culture clash. Why don’t we ever see a headline like Skateboarder wears a top hat and monocle to get radical?

This is a closeup of a bootleg Powell Peralta deck with a Per Welinder themed graphic on the bottom. If that’s not enough, it has a Tony Hawk graphic on the top. It’s from an old 80’s Brazilian skateboard magazine sent in by Luciano Fleck Peixoto. It’s funny that the bootleggers thought they had to improve on the originals. Thanks to Luciano for sending this in. Check out his new skateboard company called Yerbah.

It looks like they made bootleg wheels too. Expect more gems from Luciano in the days to come.

Click to enlarge.

I sat on the story of Gordo the skateboarding parrot, but it blew up after he was kidnapped. I think the prime suspect may be the skateboarding budgies we profiled earlier. Now that they’ve got their own blog, they probably don’t want some parrot on a glorified sled stealing their thunder. It’s called Skateboarding Budgies, but you have to scroll through the most recent posts of them rocking out to get to the pictures and videos of the Budgies on Tech Decks.

You can always count on FKD to cover their riders at all the contests. See Lutzka, Biebel, Rodriguez, Fellers, Shannon, Bartie, and Reed at Tampa Pro.

HUF + DQM + Incase = Messenger bag colab. A better mouse trap from a triple threat you'll love to support — no problem.

TSM photographer Bart Jones gets interviewed by the good folks at Typical Culture.

A couple years back I heard a rumor about a green light being given to a Burnside-style project in Chicago. Having been a long time resident of Chicago, a city famous for corruption, and the political machine, I was hesitant to believe that any alderman would risk alienating the 10 unions that would stand to lose their piece of the pie if skaters were allowed to take the DIY route. It just seemed completely un-Chicago. I don’t know if this Logan Square skatepark project is the reality of that rumor, but it blows chunks. Logan Square is my old hood, I feel for you my brothers…

[Source: Time Out Chicago Photo: Scott Judd]

Chicago proper has one dung heap of a concrete skatepark on the south side, Burnham that yes, can still be a lot of fun, but you can’t argue that it was built or designed well. Well, they learned their lesson when it came time for the second park. Wilson is a well constructed, if somewhat generic Site Design Group skatepark on the north side. Somehow or other, Logan Square ended up with prefab. The Chicago Park District feels that prefab is cheaper, and may consider a permanent concrete facility “at a later date if it proves to be popular and a good investment.” It’s essentially a self fulfilling prophesy of doom. Chicago already has another prefab park (who knew?) that apparently sucks and is falling apart, and as such, rarely gets used. However, this park will be the only one with a roof, so it may end up being heavily used by default. Now neighborhood “concerned citizens” are bummed out about a massive amount of graffiti the skatepark has attracted.

I can’t believe this travesty happened, yet on some levels I can. In the words of Chicago punk legends The Effigies:

We’re da machine,
an organized dream,
And a greased palm down at city hall,
means you walk away clean.

Here is the cover of a Skateboard raping new Big Brother?

I went on a really fun road trip last weekend. I went down to Grants Pass for a fundraiser party/session at a private bowl. Along the way I stopped at three brand new skateparks in Oregon, including, Winston, Myrtle Creek, and Harrisburg. I even went to the old Grants Pass skatepark for the first time. I took a little over 200 pictures, and lost them all to a corrupt memory card. Unfortunately, this isn’t an April fools joke. Those three up top were the best I could salvage. I don’t want to hear any arguments about why film is better, because I’ve had catastrophic failures there too. Rich has some shots up from the bowl party, Harrisburg, Or and Winston, Or. I imagine he’ll be doling them out over the next week or so. Still, it could have been worse, I could have broke my leg like Shane Bell did.

My brother was in the Bay Area last week and snapped the wall famously featured in the Bryce Kanights photo of Mark Gonzales. He didn’t have a skateboard with him.

Bryce says they got in trouble for taking the original shot. That was the end of their tour.

I can’t believe anyone still wants to see this besides me and my friends. I had the day off so I decided to finish the 1st of the Spring Break (09) series. It may be the last also. There are a lot of parks and riders in here, I bet you cant name them all. Consider it a GVK challenge. That ought to boost my internet rating. Winner gets a personal dinner with the editor clothing optional! - GVK Adios.

Grover’s Video Korner #46: Spring Broken 2009

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YouTube version

Totem Decks has a few spendy but nice-looking laser etched decks. This three-deck piece is by Christian Pearce. Damn, as if $165 wasn’t enough for the deck, shipping is another $35! Must cost more to ship a work of art than to ship a skateboard deck.

They also have a model with a giant cock on it. Check the categories links at the top of the site. These would go nicely in your architect-designed ramp house