Another moment in Alibaba greatness… This skateboard that, according to some of the descriptions and videos, actually dispenses a mist of some kind that is backlit by led lights to make it look like rockets. The descriptions are astonishingly vague on how this works. Nor do they offer any additional info in the listings that say they have a “music speaker.” The same product is listed by different agents, all with a different, amusing name.

Near as I can tell this is a new model for DIY skateparks, or for that matter, skateparks in general. Court 2.0 is a project to replace the DIY spot known as “Courts,” located on the Portland State University campus. Originally the site of derelict tennis courts, it became a permission spot for what was supposed to be a 1 year trial period. Basically, a sanctioned spot to build or bring your own obstacles. That spot was always going to be temporary, and PSU is going to begin construction of an art building on that site. In a lesson learned at Burnside, key to a DIY spot is being a good neighbor. Organizers have managed to secure a 300k grant to develop a new spot nearby, again with the blessing of PSU. This new spot will add a few amenities missing from the old spot, notably a set of skate able ledges somewhat disguised as seating. It’s important to note these obstacles are not concrete, and are therefore reconfigurable, but not in the model of the institutional modular skateparks. This is truly community driven.

Check out this newspaper advert for Vita-Pakt and Hobie skateboards. At first glance you would be forgiven for thinking this was from the 70’s, but might think this is from the 70’s, but the publication date is actually July 14th of 1968! This ad ran in the comics section of a newspaper. Which newspaper? I don’t know. Ebay sellers don’t like to reveal that because then you could just try to find the whole paper or magazine for less than the selected page they are selling. Check out Surfer Today if you’re interested in how Vita-Pakt and Hobie teamed up to manufacture skateboards in the 60’s. Keep reading if you want to see the advert.

I just added two Chicago based zines to the 80’s zine gallery, which I may have to rename because after scanning it I realized that Brian Sluggo’s 312 zine might actual be from 1990. The other is Chi-Town Shred #7, which marks the 4th issue of Chi-Town Shred that I’ve uploaded so far, with a couple more to come later.

This may look like a photoshop mishap or AI slop, but it’s actually a real product from 70’s skateboard manufacturer Grentec. For a split second I thought I may have saved some bad photoshopped images of this mini GT skateboard as a goof, but I managed to find another example, just one. And you guessed it, it was on Skate and Annoy, in an old Ebay Watch article from 2013. These guys made fiberglass decks too, but they were primarily known for being the Cadillac of the plastic skateboard world. I’m peppering this post with enough keywords to make sure it shows up again the next time someone searches for a GT aka Grentec mouse mini plastic skateboard. It predates the Doz’r, but I’m not sure about the Skircle. How is anyone supposed to ride this?

If you follow SkateDIY then you know who Clayton Graul is. If you’re ready to level up your DIY skate spot building projects you should check out his new venture California Transitions for your concrete finishing needs. It isn’t cheap, but if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right! They come in handheld and pole mounted version, and since they are hand made, they can be customized if you have a specific need.

Cleaning out the old hard drive again. I found an old 2013 auction for the Sidewinder skateboard at the bottom of the image above. My first thought was maybe it was related to the company that brought you Sidewinder wheels, but that seems more like a coincidence based on the quality of that deck and wheels, not to mention two different Sidewinder skateboards currently being auctioned off, both of which have the same logo as the wheels.

I added adverts from Skate Action Magazine to the Vintage Skatemag Advert Gallery. Skate Action was a UK based magazine that first came out in late 1988 and ran for a couple years. In issue #13 the title on the cover was changed to “SK8 Action,” but the inside pages still said “Skate Action.” I have issue #1, #5 and #14 in my collection, thanks to Steve from Jersey (UK). My copy of #1 is missing the cover spread and another 4 page spread. These 3 issues all have 56 pages. The contents are mostly color but there is a substantial amount go black and white pages in there. It’s heavily focused on the UK scene. The issues I have a heavy Deathbox presence, the Deathbox that later morphed into Flip, not Tod Swank’s early 2000’s company. This brings the grand total of adverts in the gallery to over 1300!

Spotted in near NE Portland, this driveway bank looks like it could be glorious, provided you could clean the decades of driveway moss off the surface. Get your soft wheels ready. I love a good driveway spot.

I added Bodyslam #5 (1987) and the May/June 1988 issue of Focus to the 80’s Skate Zine Gallery. Bodyslam was published by our friend Mark Conahan. You can actually buy a perfect bound compendium of the original 5 Bodyslam issues. I’ve got one, so should you. These two zines offer completely different approaches. Bodyslam is photocopied pure personal expression, while Focus is printed and aspires to be a “real” magazine. There are 63 zines in the gallery now. I was panicking earlier this year because I thought I had lost my box of zines, but I just found them. These are from the collection of Will Heesp.