Someone went through the trouble to bring back the Gull Wing Trucks brand, but neglected to include the design that made them famous. Regardless of whether you are a fan of the original Gull Wings or not, it seems like a no-brainer to make them at least somewhat resemble the old trucks, even though you’re not going to fool anybody into thinking that Gullwings have been available without a break since the 70’s. They have one model that looks like everyday trucks, plus they’ve jumped on the longboard market boom with several reverse kingpin designs. And then there is the sidewinder truck, pictured above. I’m not sure what the purpose is since the web site doesn’t provide any information whatsoever, but it’s undoubtedly to provide more of carving feel to simulate surfing of snowboarding. Maybe the purpose it to eliminate wheel bite forever. Gullwing was advertising in Concrete Wave for what seemed like a year before they even had a web site going. It looks like once they got it going they pretty much abandoned it circa 2007.

Here’s a couple pics I liked from the Concretins blog covering a recent trip to North Carolina. This private spot is called the Crawdad Hole. The top shot cracks me up. Somebody’s gal has a sense of humor. Good on ya. Check out Concretins ongoing road trip posts.

– Thanks to Nik for the tip.

Yes, they did make trucks (baseplates) for rollerskates too. There’s a vintage set up on eBay right now, currently up to $400, with a buy it now of $500. Hell, you can still buy Powell Roller Bones wheels at your local rollerskating rink.

– Thanks to Colin for the tip.

Word is that the lease is up on the tenant that currently resides in the building that houses Milwaukee’s famed Turf Skatepark. I erroneously reported that the concrete had been demoed, but I guess the truth lies closer to some missing coping and a lot of landfill. I here to report on the rumor that there people in Wisconsin working on trying to get a third lease on life for the Turf Skatepark. If there’s no truth to that rumor, then I’m here to start it, in hopes that someone who still lives in the area will get stoked. The Turf still lives in more than memories and photos, a crew of BMXers has the old miniramp from the Turf. At the risk of becoming very unpopular, I was watching some video of that park and it made me think that perhaps the fond memories have more to do with nostalgia than the quality of the terrain, especially compared to the modern crop of skateparks. Still, I’d be all for digging it up and slapping some new coping on. I hope it happens.

Photos – Clockwise: Old exterior shot from Thrasher Magazine, as found on the Facebook page for Pete D’s 30 year anniversary Turf photo show. Next – Tod Swank from one of Pete D’s photos from his Turf photostream on Flickr. Bottom Row – Video stills from some old videos shot at the Turf, circa 1989, found at MNTRS.com.

UPDATE: FALSE! The lease is not up. Check it.

OK, definitely lamer than the title these guys came up with. Illusion Labs, The company that developed the Touch Grind game for the iPhone has demoed their touch screen games on one of those massive table top touch screens, and it looks pretty damn fun. The tiny size of the iPhone screen is the main criticism of this game, but hte table top display brings it to a whole new level, provided you can shell out 10k for the display. The game would also work on a laptop or notepad computer with a multitouch display. Watch the video after the jump.

Some architects help turn an old theater into a flagship store for an Italian clothing brand called Bastard. Those bastards have a skate team and and a ridiculously cool bowl suspended above the main interior of the store. I’ve never heard of these Italian bastards, but they must have a lot of money, and they are making me channel George Costanza. You can see some before and after views at Arch Daily and some construction photos at ARPlus.com Mark found out about these bastards over at The World’s Best Ever. Watch some bastard skating after the jump.

I haven’t been reading my Google alerts, but a little birdy (Thanks Matt Beasley) told me that Etnies GvR and the Soul Bowl contents have been cancelled this year thanks to the lame economy. That’s OK, because the 5th annual Vans Protec Pool Party will be shown live on Fuel TV. The Combi Bowl contest purse is $90,000! Fuel TV has some promotional interviews with some of the pros getting ready for the contest, such as Bucky Lasek, Rune Glifberg and the often entertaining Steve Olson on How to Judge a Clusterfuck.

Live HD Webcast. May 16th, 1-9 PM, Pacific Standard time. Whet your whistle with this trailer.

Kevin Porterfield from Dokument Skate Shop sent in some shot from a session at the Harrisburg, Oregon skatepark. Check them out after the jump.

Enjoy my stream of consciousness, started by watching a Black Ox skateboard animation.

Black OX on a skateboard.
Black Dicks (oops!)
Black OX action figure
His nemisis, Gigantor
Gigantor by the Dickies.
Dickies skateboard.

– Thanks to Janis for the tip.

This shot came from the Royal Hawaiian Pool Service web site. The official title is Wallos – pre “Animal Chin” hype. This shot of Stacey Gibo dates back to 1985. Stacey was a local “skate punk legend, he later went on to work at Thrasher and Dogtown… …Probably the most fearless and feared skater from Hawaii. He was our Duane Peters. This pic was from one the first Wallos contests – Stacey won first place hands down. The Bones Brigade got nothin’ on him.”

Check out the Shot of the Week, and while you are at it, .The R.H.P.S. store has been relaunched, they’ve got some cool stuff in there like stickers that will fit your (Indy) truck hangers and the Aaron “Fingers” Murray – Guest Model, complete with the sidecuts his name has become synonymous with.