Are dead malls the equivalent of foreclosed homes with pools for street skaters? Is this spot a bust? The DMV is the only thing you can access, and it’s usually got a huge line. The employees inside are so busy they’d likely be oblivious. Is there a hoard of zombies trapped behind that plywood wall?

This is the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. This photo is from a deleted account on Reddit. I originally spotted this in the subreddit TonyHawkitecture where it has appeared more than once. This particular subreddit is hit or miss, a lot of of the images are just vaguely skateable, but we’ve all done that in our heads when driving by a building or some landscape architecture. This spot looks pretty amazing, but allegedly carries a $300 fine and is heavily monitored.

A non-skating friend of mine was on vacation and took some pics of a skatepark he happened on in a small town Called San Pancho or San Francisco, depending on who you ask. It’s about 30 miles north of Puerto Vallarta. The locals were friendly and consented to being photographed, so don’t blow it out readers! “Franco, forever in our heart.”

– Thanks to Stephen B for the pics.

I just added 23 ads from the issue #30 of German skateboarding magazine Monster to the Vintage Skatemag Advertisement gallery. It offers a bit if a break from the same old ads you probably saw run in multiple issues of USA based magazines. The content of the magazine is in German, but the ads are mostly in English for some reason. Bi-monthly at the time, this is labeled December 87 / January 88 in the masthead, and includes a 2 page spread on a then 10 year old event, the 1977 World Champions as held by the “World and United States Skateboard Association.” Check it out after the jump. Includes a bonus photo of Christy McNicol.

Here’s two winter board sports products from the April/May 1979 issue of Skate magazine. Surprisingly, there were no ads for these products in this issue, just the product announcements. First up is a Snowboard from Elite. It’s 1979 and this is a far cry from what was right around the corner in the snowboarding industry, say 1982. This one looks like a Snurfer with the addition of a couple of very shallow surfboard-style fins on the bottom. Meanwhile, the Snow Skate is a set of 4 skis that strap on to your wheels.

Chris of Good Roads Collective is the uncontested the King of D.I. Y. skateboards. In the photo above he’s holding a board where the only things he didn’t make himself are the axles, mounting hardware, bearings, and grip tape. Yes, that is a home pressed skateboard, hand poured urethane wheels, 3D printed riser pads, and home cast trucks complete with hand poured urethane bushings and pivot cup. Let that sink in. He essentially made the whole damned thing himself, and he’s got videos and products that can help you do the same thing. Aside from the stuff he sells, he’s also got open source projects with files you can download for free if you want to save some cash or modify them in any way. In addition to skateboards, he also tackles fingerboard pressing and snowboard construction. It’s an arrogance-free channel. He doesn’t claim to be a definitive expert in any of these concentrations, and freely illustrates the mistakes he makes. If you’re interested in any of this, I’d recommend following any of the links in this paragraph, but be prepared to disappear down a rabbit hole. Chris has a Patreon account if you feel like helping him out. About 7 years ago or so I had the idea to make spoof video about a grisly guy who hand milled his own paper and made trips to the coast mine the perfect sand for his artisan griptape. His whole spiel would have been about how any can do the easy stuff like pressing boards and frying trucks… you know, big deal, aluminum can be melted in a campfire… Well, add that to the long list of concepts I never fully realize. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chris makes his own grip tape at some point, or even his own hand tapped mounting hardware… Theres a bunch of screencaps after the jump. Again, follow the links if you want to see more.

Hats off to Blast Skates out of Berlin the U.K. for My First Skateboard, an 80’s inspired kids setup that comes in a box with everything you need to assemble, including kid-friendly instructions. The Blast product lineup appears to be a little high end, with their decks going for an equivalent of about $87 USD. This setup for little kids is about $154 USD. Sure, you could find completes for kids at a considerably cheaper price, at least in the US, but what you’re getting here is a fully realized concept that is well executed. It’s an experience that is more than the sum of the parts. Granted, it’s not clear whether a child will enjoy it nearly as much as the adult who gifts it. I love the spot on the top of the deck for writing your name on the board. I’d rock an adult sized deck with that top graphic. EDIT: Turns out Blast is in the UK but uses Berlin for shipping to EU due to Brexit making it expensive to ship to the EU.

– Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Way back in the 2000’s Skaters for Portland Skateparks (SPS) started organizing to get a proper city-built public skatepark built in the city of Portland. At the time we had Burnside and funky, poorly designed and constructed Army Corp of Engineers Park in a part of town that was technically Portland, but was isolated on the outskirts of an industrial area that eventually leads to shipping terminals. I don’t know how it happened, but suddenly there was some money to rebuild Pier Park. SPS had an ally high up inside the Mayor’s office staff in skateboarder Tom Miller. He and SPS were pushing for a system of skateparks for Portland instead of just the one. I thought the plan was a little bit naive and was possibly going to blow the opportunity to get anything out of the city. Fortunately for the skateboarding community of Portland, Tom did not suffer from my lack of vision. We did end up getting several skateparks out of the proposed system of 20. This one near the Steel Bridge was always going to be the biggest of the lot, and the most complicated to get approved. It took a long time, and frankly most assumed the deal was dead. In a city with a $615M backlog in repairs, somehow this project is going forward. Don’t be like me. Be like Tom and SPS. Dream big.

Pocketknife fingerboards, brought to you by Blade HQ. First of all, it’s an old April Fools joke, so settle down. It’s a pretty funny joke too, especially the accompanying video.

– Thanks to Steve Aycock for the tip.

Another obscure note in skateboarding history. This is the Gary Horeskowsky pro model, dating back to 1987. You may point out that you’ve never heard of this fellow, and that could be because he may never have actually existed, and if he did, he resided in Finland, home of Statum Skates. According to Mikko Antero (thanks for the pics) it’s a local brand from an era when American pro models were still hard to come by. In the end of the eighties this changed and Statum went dormant, only make a come back in 2012. Statum is indeed a thing again! You can buy decks online. They have a history page online but it’s very short and very light on the details, even if you view the translated page.