Who needs friends? (Kidding — don’t be a goober, you know you need good buddies.) But in a pinch, when there’s no one around to throw you some balls in the backyard to perfect your batting style, the Electronic Pitching Machine is ready to stand in — and won’t require heavy lifting or multiple credit cards to pay off.

Pitching balls every ten seconds, the pitching machine lets you adjust the pitching height and comes with a 27″ collapsible plastic bat and 8 safe, plastic balls for practice in the backyard or on your next camping trip. For $29.95 at the Discovery Channel Store, the battery powered Electronic Pitching Machine is a great step up for your T-ball superstar, or whiffle ball champion in training.

Summer 2007: No Wipe Outs! They look a bit like skates on steroids, but who am I to question Olympic champs that dance on TV?

LandRoller has created a new skate with Ohno’s help (yep, red was his choice) and are making full use of his Dancing for the Stars win to capture new enthusiasts ready to upgrade their Rollerblades. Why the crazy wheels though? Turns out their “radical wheel configuration” is exactly what’s going to keep you from curb checking as often as you do — the larger wheels minimize road vibration, increase your stability, and make it easier to brake without falling backwards. Plus they’ve dropped a speed lacing system so you’re in and out in a flash. Act fast, though — The Apolo Ohno models (checking out at $269.99) have been made in limited quality, and you’d hate to have to lose out on translucent red tires, right?

The Scarpar is a concept off road snow-surf-skate like motorized board. There is no terrain this hybrid beast can’t conquer from snow to pavement to dirt, nothing gets in its way.

We all know there is nothing cool about riding around bleeding profusely from every major extremity so, grab your helmet pads because the Scarpar is said to shred at speeds of 35 mph. They say nothing is set in stone yet but, after 5000 hours of engineering the makers of this juiced up board say you should be able to go about 20 miles between fill ups.

Keep an eye out for the Scarpar at your local ATV dealership “sometime in 2007.” What, you want a launch date set in stone? Come on, these guys are building a frickin tank tracked skateboard that could have a top speed of 50 mph when all is said and done.