Worlds biggest skateboard contenders.

This started out as a quick post about this guy who has been floating around the news wires as the Sole Man. He entered a Red Bull soap box derby dressed as a classic Vans checkered slip-on on top of a homemade oversized skateboard. But like all things concerned with the Interwebâ„¢, it’s not always that easy. There’s the obvious comparison to Tod Swank and Foundation’s super-sized Ripley’s Believe It or Not appearance, and at least two others. Pictures and videos after the jump.

Who has the world’s largest skateboard? Perhaps archeologists will ponder this mystery after our civilization collapses.

The Foundation board.

First we have Tod Swank’s huge skateboard whose original appearance was in Foundation’s 1997 video Duty Now For the Future. Then in 2002, Ripley’s Believe It or Not featured it in a segment on TV:

Tod Swank will ride the skateboard he’s created through city streets and pop a wheelie. Believe it or not, his skateboard is the size of a car!

Also in this episode is a guy named Gay who vacuums prairie dogs out of their holes.

The Foundation creation even has it’s own web site titled, what else but worldsbiggestskateboard.com where you can watch both the clip from Duty Now For the Future and Ripley’s Believe It or Not.

SURRA – Maior Skate do Mundo

Next we have SURRA – Maior Skate do Mundo (World’s biggest skateboard). I stumbled across this while doing research on YouTube. I don’t know anything about the Brazillian web site Surra except it says “Atitude Radical” and the only thing currently on it is a picture of two topless gals and a banner ad. Their skateboard may actually be bigger than the Foundation board, but it looks a hell of a lot crappier. Notice the kicktail going flat. This thing definitely doesn’t have pop.

Sole Man

Then there’s Sole Man Grant Delgatty’s creation for the Red Bull soap box derby racing circuit, that has gotten a few write ups in papers like the The Pasadena Star News. Although he doesn’t skate much, Grant and his crew are all employees of Vans which explains the design.

Although not as big as the other two skateboards, Grant’s board has the, uh-hem, sole distinction of having trucks that not only function like skateboard trucks, but actually look like them as well. It would be nice to see them up close and find out how they were made, but there aren’t a lot of details available. Watch the video if you can stomach the inevitable and horrible “Soul Man” tune in the soundtrack.

World’s Longest Skateboard

And finally, the closest thing showing up on the Guinness World Records web site is the World’s Longest Skateboard.

Longest Skateboard

WHO: Moshe Arazi / Aaron Lyon / David Micley
WHAT: 9.17 m (30 ft 1 in)
WHERE: Newton, Massachusetts, USA
WHEN: 2005

The world’s longest skateboard measured 9.17 m (30 ft 1 in) long, 2 cm (9.8 in) wide and 5 cm (2 in) thick, and was made by Moshe Arazi, Aaron Lyon and David Micley (all USA). It was made in Newton, Massachusetts, USA and completed in 2005

The Foundation board was certified by Guinness in 2004, but for some reason isn’t cataloged on the web site.

Have you enjoyed today’s episode on big skateboards? If you did, and want to find out more about really, really long skateboards, you can go to your local library and pick up a copy of Rhyn Noll’s (now outdated) book Skateboard Retrospective: A Collector’s Guide that features a handful of absurdly long skateboards actually being ridden quite well.