In the decade and a half since I got back in intermittent contact with Art & Steve Godoy we’ve heard stories from them about how they both raised Steve’s son Knox after fighting to get custody from the mother. After hearing about how “rad” the kid had turned out, I was surprised to hear that Art and Steve were no longer having anything to do with Knox because he had “turned into a fuckhead.” It seemed like something Steve didn’t want to talk about, so I didn’t pursue it. A few years have gone by and it appears they may have mended their relationship. Jenkem has just published an interview with Knox that is… Fascinating and disturbing. A real insight, like watching an autopsy.

[Photo: Sean Garrison]

Larry Gordon, the surfing pioneer who more or less invented the foam core surfboard, and was the co-founder of Gordon & Smith surfboards and skateboards passed away on January 1st. UPDATE: I originally reported Larry as the possible inventor of the foam core surfboard based on information published by the San Diego Tribune, which has since been revised to: “He was one of the first people to bring polyurethane foam boards to San Diego. Picking up on a nascent trend in the industry, he started experimenting with foam materials at his father’s factory, Gordon Plastics.”

[Source: San Diego Tribune.]

RAD Furniture makes metal furniture, as well as the occasional perforated steel skateboard deck, which you can build yourself in the from of onsite welding lessons for $350, or buy premade for $250. Think of it as an ollie strength trainer.

– Thanks to MC for the tip.

If you’re in the Philadelphia area and have a truck as big as the hole in your wallet, why not pick ups this bowl/spine/mini ramp combo? It looks like it’s well built and would be fun to ride. Does anyone ever actually buy giant used ramps like this? The price might be reasonable, but the whole thing is just so impractical to move. If you buy this, I think I’m out of town the weekend you’re moving it, but I should be back in time to help you ride it.

The Vancouver Sun reports on an amended city bylaw in Victoria that will finally allow skateboarders the same transportation rights as bicycles, lifting a decades-old ban on skateboarding downtown and removing provisions allowing skateboards to be confiscated by authorities. In a unique twist, helmets are not required, but nighttime lights are.

[Photo: Bruce Stotesbury: Times Colonist] – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

This cheap looking Alva complete sold for $118 on eBay a while ago. The sticker on the tail says it’s ‘made in Taiwan’. Sean Cliver thinks some company had a short-lived licensing deal with Alva to produce cheap completes, since there are only a few examples of these Taiwanese decks. Anyway, I did some research: details of this deck and more examples of Alva completes after the jump.

Mischo Erban has allegedly NGV Nextboards has set a land speed record for an electric skateboard on level ground at 109.2 kph or 67.85 mph. According to Mischo, the speed of the actual device had not maxed out yet. He did manage to melt a couple sets of wheels in the attempt. There are a lot of electric skateboards out there, most of them seem to geared towards the campus cruiser market, so this one is a bit of an outlier. One thing the admittedly have to tackle is their proprietary wheel setup, which seems like a deal breaker for anyone who would be serious enough about this type of riding to want to spend the dough to buy one.

I’ve never heard of Skika skateboards, but someone at Skika definitely knew the Vision ‘Guardian’ deck from 1984-85, designed by John Grigley. If you look very closely you can even read ‘old ghost’ on the head of the skull and there is something written on his chin too (probably ‘guardian’ like the original deck), but the pics are of very poor quality and the seller won’t send me better ones, so I have no more info on this one. You can see some amazing colorways of the original deck on disposabletheblog. I found this knock-off on leboncoin.

Tony Hawk on a vertical corkscrew run specially built in his facility, paid for by Sony Action Cam. You remember Sony Hawk… Yuk yuk yuk. I guess I overestimated his skills, I assumed this would be a piece of cake for him. What a fun line.

John Lucero is the guest on this FOSFM podcast/radio show run by Mark “Fos” Foster of Heroin Skateboards. It’s a rambling, not quite technically adept affair, but it’s still interesting to listen to, especially when they talk about the ABD obsession in skateboard videos and the industry in general. I haven’t heard this show before, so I don’t know what the regular format is. This episode is 90% talk with the occasional record spun live. The music selection is good but bland. Not to say the music is bland, but it’s kind of like a compilation of songs you’ve heard a million times in the past, or on any “New Wave” compilation, with the exception of Lucero’s own joint venture label (Black Vinyl Ltd) release of Dime Runner. and a couple other tracks.  (my talk about the music in this post takes up a lot larger percentage of this post, comparatively.) The beginning is a little slow, but stick with it. There’s a lot’s of talk about Black Label influences, Lucero’s graphic work, and of course, skateboarding.

Thanks to Darren Clum for this, he’s been helping out with some Broken Kingpins action.