That pool shot looks real. Quick, what’s wrong with these pictures? Check out this hardcore documentary after the jump. Skateboarding was never the same again.

Troy Sliter sent these shots from California, Santa Cruz pipe edge, and Pacifica bowls. Road trip anyone?

I got this comic ‘zine a while back – the copyright is 2004 – but I came across it yesterday and reread it. It features comics by John Porcellino, Dan Moynihan, Dave Kiersh, Leslie Kleinberg, Jack Turnbull, Heath Row, and John Isaacson. Moynihan seems to be the ring-leader. I don’t know if it’s still available. My email to the guy was undeliverable. This website has a little information about it and a link to the inactive website that links to a portfolio site of Moynihan’s illustration work. I enjoyed the ‘zine for a nostagic trip back to teen skater angstville. I orignally picked it up at Reading Frenzy in Portland, Oregon.

Our new friends over at

An earlier post showed some laser-created relief on skateboards. Here is a Flickr set of similar work. I think they have one of these rigs out at Nike. I have seen experiments with decorating various items: shoes, cellular phones, laptop computers. I wonder if there have been any attempts to use it to enhance performance. What would be the optimum pattern and amout of material you could cut away and still maintain rigidity and strength? Thanks for the heads up Craig.

SkateDaily recently pointed to an interview with artist Jeremy Fish. I saw one of these carved and painted skate decks at a skateboard art show. I liked how he transformed the wooden blank, other artists in the show just painted or illustrated the bottom of the deck or stuck crap to the board.

Musique Concrete: Transforming Space, Sound, and the City Through Skateboarding. Hmm. Sounds better than my original post title – Techno Skate Nerd. I’m getting bombarded with emails about Musique Concrete. It’s almost as if some people make a point of reading this site! The emails range from the positive to nominations for Annoying Kid of the Month. Quotes like “My wheels make the sound of a harp!” should be more than enough to get the motion seconded. Here’s the deal: Simon Morris has outfitted a skateboard with sensors that measure the tilting trucks and spinning wheels. Computers automagically turn that information into light and sound. This must be the worlds first midi skateboard. Tip of the hat to Joesf for being the original tipster.

This is the Three Sixty table from Sports Utility Furniture in Germany. Right now its for sale in at The Future Perfect in NYC, for an unknown price. I’ll bet it’s spendy. It had better be, because the rest of their current designs are very weak. I’m not a huge fan of gratuitous skateboard parts in furniture beacause it usually looks very forced, but in this case I kind of like it. Hopefully the glass is heavy enough to keep you from taking an old Chevy Chase prat fall if you put a hand down on it. I imagine you wouldn’t want to use too good of a bearing in those wheels. I wonder what their durometer is? Independent trucks too, that’s a nice touch. [Source: AGP design notes]

Judi Oyama – Judi Oyama was born and raised in Santa Cruz, has been skateboarding for 33 years (currently ranked first in the World in slalom masters), and is an artist and graphic designer for Giro/Bell Sports. Judi worked with local skate artist Jimbo Phillips and concrete artist David Pettigrew to create a proposal for the park’s strongest visual element, the 18′ full pipe. A graphic grey-tone wave illustration will be transferred onto the full pipe using sandblasting and other concrete sculpting techniques. In addition to highlighting the wave form of the full pipe and addressing the park’s proximity to the ocean, the finished piece will also serve the functional need of discouraging park visitors from climbing on the wave form. I didn’t realize the public art aspect of the new Santa Cruz skatepark was done with the help of Jimbo Phillips. Judi herself sent in a link to some shots of the wave graphic preparation. Turns out it was sandblasted. Check it out. Also, check out the Santa Cruz Skate Park Blog.