Skateboarding has spawned some interesting cottage industries. I just found a guy making fingerboard skate obstacles under the name Stone Tech Ramps. The halfpipe, bowls and street obstacles are made out of some sort of resin that must be lightweight. You can see a kid above lifting up one of the massive bowls without a problem. The scale of the ramps vs. the Tech Decks have tipped further towards gigantic. There’s a wide variety of obstacles, and you can easily spot his earlier work where he didn’t quite have the casting method down. The stairs and would-be sharp edges have the appearance of rock left under a waterfall for 50 years. Prices are pretty high. That half pipe will run you $95 and one custom bowl has a buy it now of $165! Smaller obstacles start around $16. These are hand crafted, one of a kind toys, but still, that’s a lot of coin. Check out a hilarious “review” by a nonpartisan source. It’s a kid whose “friend’s uncle” makes these things. Stick with the whole thing, it’s great how he bashes the Tech Deck gear, using sounds as a benchmark. he’s a regular Billy Mays in training.

Dan Hughes’ Northwest Skater has an archive of the regional newsletter/zine Skateboard Northwest from 1978. Yes, that’s Mark Conahan on page three. Now that Dan has moved to Utah, will he change the name of his site? Did you know Dan is getting married? For those of you that know Dan, S&A obtained an exclusive sneak peak of the ceremony.

If you can believe it, this adult film uses skateboarding to sell itself, yet according to one review, if you blink you’ll miss the brief instance a skateboard actually shows up, and they make no mention of in the dialogue. It’s almost as if, (gasp!) the plot is entirely unimportant to the movie.

I was stoked on seeing last year’s roll in challenge, so I expected an invite if it ever happened again. Geez, what’s a fellow gotta do to be popular on the Skateboard Interwebs around here? I’ve even got a spot lined up. PDX Downhill has the photos and a rather long-ish video from this year’s participants. They start out on some mellow stuff but graduate to some gnarly spots. On second thought, I don’t know if could hang… Aside from the roll in footage, there’s also some good old fashioned street skating. Looks like it was a damn fun way to spend Go Skateboarding Day, or any other day. Check it out.

- Thanks to last week’s SOTW, Casey Morrow for the tip.

Skate Like A Girl is doing a West Coast tour. You can follow it the tour blog, or better yet, come out and see the action. Check the flyer after the jump.

There’s more…

I was digging around for more skateboard guitars and someone mentioned the Ben Harper video for Ground on Down, which led me to the SK8 lap guitar from Cole Clark Guitars on some sort of loosely affiliated Ben Harper web site that isn’t the official one. That lap guitar has the good sense to have Indy trucks coupled with a poor choice of World Industries wheels. And then there’s the Ben Harper longboard, with artwork created by someone you’d never guess… Winston Smith, the man behind the Dead Kennedy’s logo and accompanying photo collage artwork.

I’ve got a Weirdo Skateboards deck to give away. Near as I can tell, it’s either the 8 1/8 inch wide model or the 8 and 1/4 inch wide model, depending on how you measure. It’s got a 14.25 inch wheel base, and was made by P.S. Stix, so you know the quality is there. All you have to do to enter is to send in a picture or (Flickr link, YouTube, whatever) of yourself or a friend being a weirdo on a skateboard. Define Weirdo? I dunno, skateboarding with a prop or costume of some kind, an overabundance of clothes or lack of clothes, wigs, masks, animals, wackyboards… Don’t worry, GVK is disqualified. We’ll be posting entries as we get them, and then I will pick a winner at random, but I reserve the right to chose the winner if there is something/someone that is especially weird. I’m going to say this contest will be open to readers anywhere. I’ll ship the board but the winner will be responsible for any tariffs if they happen to live outside the U.S.. Thanks again to Weirdo Skateboards. Now go let your freak flag fly! Let’s see some killer dork sessions - not the skate zine. Well, sure, I’d like to see that zine again too.

Contest ends Midnight Pacific Standard time on Sunday, July 12th.

Normally I’d be all over something like this, but I like the board so much that I don’t feel compelled to ridicule the optional equipment shown, namely the $25 aluminum scooter handle. I mean, If you are going to ride a scooter-skate, you don’t want to risk getting hurt on some cheap toy… Right? I think I can see where they are coming from on this, and that means I’m in a weird place right now…. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for these old solid aluminum decks, and I am solidly behind manufacturing a liquor store board that happens to be a near museum quality reproduction. This would probably fall under the movie prop category, since the wheels look the part, but have been upgraded to center set bearings so you could actually turn at speed without feeling like the wheels were about to blow out . The firm known as Roger Brothers Downhill makes these, as well as a surprising host of other machined products, including a skateboard deck with a built in bottle opener (where the skyhooks would go…) Now I’m definitely a fan.

Bugs bunny used always call everyone a “maroon” in those old Looney Tunes cartoons. It might be an intentional mispronunciation of moron, and less likely to be the other definition, a loud signaling firework, or the descendants of escaped slaves living in a certain part of the West Indies. So, speaking of Bugs, what about Daffy? Along with handstands, the daffy is one of the last remaining truly “old school” tricks to make a comeback. High jumps, excuse me hippie jumps came back, so why not the daffy? I guess there are v-sits and catamarans still out there too. I found this this photo on Skate Curiosidade, a site in a language that I can’t decipher, but I’m going to guess Portuguese? In the enlargement you can see the skatepark above appears to bee in a very tropical location, more so than southern California. Who knows? Plenty of daffy, handstand, and even barrel jumping action at Skate Curiosidade.

This is a detail of this week’s Shot of the Week, and another one from the archives. I can’t remember who this kids was, but I do remember feeling like I was becoming obsolete when I saw this young kid ollie to 5-0 on an overturned bike rack. It was something I would have thought of, but not pulled off. Anyway, this is one of the last skate shots I took before moving out of the Champaign-Urbana area to start silkscreen business in Chicago with a few partners. Needless to say, I didn’t skate a lot in those first years of trying get the business off the ground. This remains one of my favorite shots, partially because it reminds me of a pinnacle in my life. Dang, that kid looks familiar.

Check out the full frame Shot of the Week.