Colin Bane over at Fuel TV has an argument against putting professional vert skating on life support. In his post titled Vert. Alive and thriving? Colin compiles some upcoming professional events and media exposure highlighting vert skating. I wouldn’t mention this, except I don’t want want to let anyone down, seeing as how we can’t shake the image that Skate and Annoy is for old men who like vert. Also, Colin has a shout out to Conahan and his H.O.M.O.S. comics. Hey, does MC know those guys over at Antigravity Press are ripping off his content and passing it off as their own? Image on top is from DC’s backside smith how-to video with Colin McKay.

Earlier there was some discussion about whether or not anything good ever comes from the X Games. I brought up the fact that they sometimes leave their ramps behind, and John Aguilar pointed out that such is the case in Mexico City. Mexican skate rag ReSkate reports that last year’s X Games vert and street ramps are being set up as a public skatepark in a few weeks. I can’t read Spanish, so I’ll have to take his word for that. And speaking of countries battling US skateboard manufacturers and extreme sports, the AST Dew Tour is opening in China this month as well. I guess there’s already a lot of skateboards there, so why not? Along with the usual contenders, Chinese athletes will be allowed to compete as well. How Extreme!™ is China? This 2005 article in the Christian Science Monitor (!?) talks about how Chinese officials promote certain cultural imports from Western countries, but most fade from popularity after the propaganda stops. That was three years ago, so maybe it’s not a fad in China. It probably helps that so many American companies are having skateboards made in China. I wonder if the top Chinese skaters ride skateboards made in North America? Probably not.

Flying out to Florida to meet my family.
Visiting the in-laws on the red-eye is such a chore.
Opening the inflight mag and what do I see?
World Industries makes water toys. Well, so much for “core.”

Man am I funny. Seriously though, several months ago when World was sold, there was an article in Transworld Biz quoting how World Industries was going to try to recapture part of the “core” skateboarding market that they lost with all the little kids crap. The same catalog also had World Industries wake boards, but that’s not even in the same ballpark as a glorified innertube.

A first glance at the web site for Penn State Industries makes it look like the company exists solely to supply a burgeoning cottage industry of making wooden pens. No, I’m not kidding! Hidden among the woodworking projects are two skateboard kits.

Skateboard Project Kit. Here’s a chance for you to make “awesome” custom skateboards. Cut our formed, quality, 7 ply hardwood deck to shape, decorate and install a pair of trucks with wheels and they’re ready to skate. The deck comes with the truck holes pre-drilled, a laminated sandpaper top and a pattern to cut the form. Truck assemblies are made out of lightweight aluminum and include quality bearings and durable quality polyurethane wheels.

Unlike some people, they have the decency to call griptape as it is. The “woodworking” aspects of this project seem pretty meager. Cut out the supplied outline and sand the edges. Must be a beginner project. Oh well, at least it’s not the Alan Parson’s Project. $50 for a complete (quality parts!) or $15 for just the deck at Penn State Industries. Why are we featuring this? This would have been highly unlikely ten years ago, and it’s pen-making supplies from a company based in Pennsylvania. Get it? Get it?

- Thanks to Steve Forcucci for the tip.

CBSC does not embroil itself in the China vs. USA or Europe manufacturing debate. Simply we are American Skaters living in China, for almost a decade, that have pain-stakingly established quality manufacturing supply channels that allow us to 100% always control quality on-site.

From the regular stream of business opportunities that come to our inbox. Cali Board Sports sure sounds and looks like an American operation, down to the soundtrack on the website. Draw your own conclusions. Skateboard quality? Who knows, but they make great babies. Congrats to occasional SnA contributor Egbert on his extremely recent adoption from the mainland, Mercy.

People love to complain about the frequency of advertisements in Thrasher and Transworld. When I first started reading Thrasher one of the things I liked about it was pouring over all the small ads in the back for all the obscure companies. When I acquired a stack of old Skateboarder and Action Now, looking at all the ads for funky skateboards and accessories was more interesting than the actual articles. Now I’m going to propose that you check out a magazine full of nothing but advertisements. Concrete Wave has been publishing a Buyers Guide for some years now. If there’s one place where you can pour over ads for obscure companies making odd skateboard products, this is it. Take the ad for Paris Trucks (Insert Ms hilton rides hard joke), above right. Who knew there was such a company? OK, lot’s of people that probably travel in a different circle. It’s actually a funny advert. They’ve decided to make an environmentally progressive “green” skateboard truck. In order reduce the carbon footprint as much as possible, they’ve gone to the extreme lengths of not actually producing the truck. I am amused.

The buyers guide is a print issue with no less than four alternate covers. The one above features a rad Dan Bourqui photo of Steve Stedham. The format has been changed up a bit and as a result is a lot more interesting to look at. The print issue goes to subscribers and is free at skateshops that carry Concrete Wave. You can also download a 27MB PDF here.

When he was alive, my father worked for a blood sucking chemical corporation. His job essentially was to sell the little plastic pellets that other blood sucking companies use to make all kinds of things from TV shells to styrofoam cups. The last time anyone gave a crap about the planet was back in the 70’s. Remember the big green “E?” It was about that time that my father began to be involved in learning about recycling plastics. I think it all started when one of his clients got scared by the hippies. For many years they had been packaging their corporate death burgers in styrofoam containers, and it was my Dad’s job to manage that sales relationship, because he ultimately sold the plastic pellets. When the fast food joint went to paper packaging due to public pressure from environmentalists, the writing was on the wall. The Blood sucking chemical corporation decided to investigate and push recycling technologies to combat a potential loss of business.

Fascinating huh? But what does this have to do with green skateboards? Every time plastic is recycled it becomes less and less usable in practical applications. It’s basically only a couple iterations away from ending up as a brown lunch tray in a school cafeteria or correctional facility. And really, how many of those do we need? Green skateboard technologies applied to longboards are nice but not particularly effective in terms of environmental impact unless they can be used to produce a respectable short board for the kids that are going through a deck every three weeks. That’s the reason skateboards have reportedly become the worlds top consumer of hard maple. The market segment for longboards is dramatically smaller than short boards, and once sold, a longboard tends to remain in use over a much longer time period. In fact a year or more isn’t unusual at all.

That being said, the latest entry into alternative green skateboard construction is a Brazillian joint effort between a Let’s EVO and materials developer Fibra Sustainable Design. And it looks like a leaf!

[Source: Treehugger.com] - Thanks to Denny Renshaw for the tip.

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We get all kinds of great skateboarding business opportunities sent to the SnA corporate offices.

Dear Sir/Madam,

How are you? I hope everything goes very well at your side.

We are a specialized manufacturer and exporter which mainly deals with various kinds of skateboard shoes. Attached are some new styles of our products for your reference, pls check. If any interest, pls don’t hesitate to contact with us.

Any comments from you will be highly appreciated.

B.Rgds,
Steven
TOPWAY INDUSTRIAL CO., LTD.
Quanzhou City,Fujian,China

There are quite a few bamboo based boards out there. According to some sources (more on that in a few) the skateboard industry has surpassed the hardwood floor industry as the number one world consumer of hard maple trees. lets put that into perspective. If properly cared for, a hardwood floor can last 100 plus years in house, while a skateboard isn’t going to last a year unless you’re just using it for transportation. Now consider that a maple tree takes 28 years to mature for use commercially. Sustainability is big in industry right now. It’s even creeping into skateboarding, mostly through the red headed stepchild of skateboarding, longboarding. I’ve seen a few of them up close and they don’t look quite ready for prime time, at least as far as short boards go. It sure would be great if a decent shortboard could be made out of bamboo. There’s a TV program on the Science Channel called Invention Nation where a bunch of hippies the show’s hosts travel the country in a biodiesel powered van and investigate cottage industry inventors of green technologies. It’s a short bus, but it’s green, not yellow. Comet Skateboards was featured on the Less Landfill episode for work on a bamboo composite board. It doesn’t air again until March 17, but you can watch it here.

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From the Burton web site:

DNA Distribution, which includes skateboarding brands Alien Workshop, Habitat and Reflex, today announced that the company has been acquired by Burton…

“We are very excited to bring the DNA family of brands to Burton - a company that we truly respect,” says Chris Carter, Chief Executive Officer for DNA Distribution. “Burton clearly leads their market in terms of team, innovation, marketing and values. Joe, Mike and I look forward to leveraging Burton’s strengths to reach the full potential for the DNA brands: Alien Workshop, Habitat and Reflex.”

Blah, blah blah…