You might remember a Dutch newspaper article from 1980 talking about how skateboarding was becoming very popular. Here’s remnants of the same skatepark in the May 4th, 1982 edition of the Leidse Courant newspaper. This article is about the sport’s demise. This must have been slightly better than it looked when Jeroen and crew found it in 1985. Even then, you had to keep an eye open for those Mad dogs. – Thanks to Jeroen for the tip.

Crazy expensive but beautifully designed and constructed by Focus in Rotterdam, these newly released tables come in two different sizes, and are constructed with the largest continuous surface area of recycled skateboard decks I’ve ever seen. The smaller one (200x90x77cm) aka DecksTop 33, is constructed with 33 skateboard decks while the larger (240x90x77cm) DecksTop 39 uses… well you know. They start at €2.726,45, but that includes the hefty 21% VAT tax. Man. that’s a lot of tax, but they probably have bitchin’ free health care and a decent education system. Someone’s is reaching their ID students well, that’s for sure.

Skateboard slaat aan in Vlissingen – Skateboarding is catching on in Vlissingen, according to the December 4th, 1980 edition of the Dutch newspaper Provinciale Zeeuwse Courant. Check out the photo of that skatepark. Even though it’s low res black and white newspaper photo, it’s clearly one of those fiberglass ramps that was part of the Skate Ball system, and possibly the same blue fiberglass ramps used in Thrasherland. It’s hard to know for sure, could there have been more than one manufacturer of blue fiberglass skateboard ramps? There are similarities and differences between the two if you compare, but it’s conceivable that there were a few minor iterations over the product lifespan that would account for that. This is the only photograph I’ve seen showing the incline, full pipe parts (only half here) and the Skate Ball ramp. I’m just shocked that some of them made it all the way over to Europe. The article comes courtesy of S&A reader Jeroen who rode this thing in the Netherlands. His crew actually found abandoned parts of the park and reassembled them in their own configuration and rode them in 1985.

Wrapping paper from the Netherlands featuring Sinterklaas (Santa Claus) companion known as Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). – Thanks to Matthijs for the pics.

Empty, anxiety, surprise, encouragement. All of these emotions can be found in these Eurosport station identity spots from 2011. You can watch just the skateboarding bit, but if you have a bit of time to kill you might enjoy some of the overly enthusiastic, awkward english voiceovers featured in the behind the scenes clip. It’s almost like watching an english language release of a Japanese cartoon, except filled with marketing talk. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Rolling Homes, prefab homes in Svencele, Lithuania that come with a front porch that unintentionally doubles as an a miniramp. [Source: Huffington Post] – Thanks to Ping for the tip.

Station ID for France 3, one of France’s state owned television channels. It actually dates back to 2013, and so French readers, I’m disappointed in you for not letting me know earlier. – Thanks to Nick Dawson for the tortue de la planche à roulettes.

MC tipped me off to these photos of a skatepark in Hirschgarten. It’s got a weird stadium vibe too it, like something you’d see as the sport of future in a sci-fi movie. The park looks like it would be a lot of fun, but the most interesting architectural aspect is unfortunately, effectively skate stoppered. It would be a nightmare of loose boards falling into the main bowl, but it seems such a shame to build something so inherently skate able, something that is part of an actual skateboarding facility, and then stick a railing in front of it. Top photo is via Klaus Leidorf on Flickr, and the bottom two were found on IanClairdge.net.

Another shot of Grindline concrete work at Denmark’s “Street Dome.”

Well, not exactly the source. Smurfs are from Belgium, but these came from the Netherlands, although, maybe they were made in Belgium, at least the ceramic mug was made in Europe. I can’t imagine a PVC Smurf figure for even a European McDonalds would be made anywhere other than China. I got these both as separate purchases from the same seller, who was kind enough to put the figure in the mug and refund the extra shipping charge. $5 is a surfing excellent deal for shipping both of these from the Netherlands.