If you search for the Space Rocket XS-17, pretty much every image shows it with skis instead of wheels, but this one here has wheels on it. This is where it gets tricky when you’re trying to pinpoint the first commercially available skateboard, because there were certainly several skateboard-like devices manufactured in the 50’s and even earlier. While this may not have been manufactured for riding in an upright position, it’s an easy conclusion to jump to that assumes these were ridden standing up at some point.

– Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

We’re running a 2 for 1 special on Dork Sessions today. First up we’ve got some extreme wheelbarrowing from Alexander Siegfried. The gag is executed pretty well, even if it does run a little long. Next we have a tribute to Breaking Bad in the form of a toy Winnebego mounted with skateboard trucks. Yes, that is that a Tonka Truck.

[Source: Sploid] – Thanks to Tim for the tip.

The Disney book Learn to Draw With Phineas and Ferb comes packaged with a random eraser in the shape of a character from the show. This particular pressing features Perry the platypus, who has appeared on a skateboard in the series. Someone must have “thought of the children” and decided to make sure he had a helmet on this time.

If this this tart could be shipped from/to the USA, I’d think about buying her. There’s not much information about these Susie dolls from Woolbro, they only seem to exist online in cases where they are for sale. This one looks like it dates back to the 70’s, perhaps a contemporary of Dashing Daisy.

– Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

After inspecting the insides, it appears this knitting pattern from Marriner is for chunky yarn, and not chunky kids. It’s pretty awful, and the best/worst part is that they think someone might actually want kneepads and elbow pads knitted out of yarn! Believe it or not, this is the third post about knitting.

– Thanks to BPA for the tip.

Hey look, someone ran over a squirrel. It’s kind of flat, but maybe I can use it for taxidermy practice. Hmmm. It’s not really cooperating with me. How can I make this look more natural? I know. I’ll make it look like he was riding a skateboard and just wiped out! My work is awesome! I wonder why nobody bid on it?

– Thanks to BPA for the tip.

Two Keith Meek Slasher graphic ripoffs in one week. I just couldn’t resist the title, sorry. I don’t think this is is officially licensed by Warner Brothers, as I couldn’t find it anywhere except on Ebay.

– Thanks to BPA for the tip.

Adam Shomsky has a Youtube channel filled with high frame rate slow motion videos of skateboarding and “other random stuff that looks cool in slow mo, like fire.” A writer over at Wired used an open source physics video analysis tool called Tracker (Insert Tracker vs. Indy joke here.) to break down the forces at work in an ollie. The resulting animated gifs are vaguely interesting and sort of hypnotic, especially if you like looking at lots of vectors and symbols overlaid on skateboard videos. Check out The Physics of Doing an Ollie on a Skateboard, or, the Science of Why I Can’t Skate.

Adobe and Girl Skateboards have teamed up for a contest of sorts. Enter your skateboard designs and you could win one of 4 internships at Girl. 2 of them are on site, 2 are remote. To Adobe’s credit, winners also receive $500 (total) for their designs. To enter, you must be a student, and you must use Adobe Creative Cloud in the design process. Then you have to post your work on Adobe’s Behance network with some poorly chosen tags, #madethis and #girl. Make sure you search for both tags, as the singular tag #girl leads to some NSFW content. Contest ends October 13 for the US and October 20 for international students. Details at Adobe.

I was riding my bike home from work the other day and sped by the usual detritus in the street, but my brain recognized a brief glimpse of something archetypal, so I doubled back to check on it. It was a children’s book titled Albert’s Gift for Grandma, and there was a skateboard on the back. On the pages inside, Homer does some scary tricks.

“Look at me!” Shouted Homer. “I’m doing scary tricks!”
“Oh my!” wailed Grandma.
“Your tricks are too scary!” shouted Albert.

Selected page from the 2006 publication of Albert’s Gift for Grandma, by Barbara Williams, illustrated by Doug Cushman, after the jump.