The Gliderboard from Axtion Systems is both improved and lower priced, which means we somehow missed the first coming of this crazy tuck. It’s pretty much the same thing as a Z-roller truck with the addition of the grinding groove, as made famous by Gullwing. But hey, what about those funnel shaped wheels? The glider board is engineered(?) to keep you locked onto the coping, but not grinding it.

The July/August issue of Osider Magazine has a nice eight page feature on the history and legacy of skateboarding in Oceanside California. The cover features a 1985 photo of Mark Gonzales from the vaults of J. Grant Britain. Osider is one of those local lifestyle mags funded by ads from local business. It’s a fluff piece typical of these types of publications, but the photos are good and there’s even a Steve Rocco sighting. You can read the entire issue online.

I added the first 4 issues of Bodyslam to the zine gallery, which makes the collection complete. These issues are from retouched scans of the original pasteups used to photocopy the zine. Issue 3 was a crazy one. It had a screen printed cover and some color copies mixed in with the black and white pages. Bodyslam was (and is) mad by friend and former contributor to Skate and Annoy Mark Conahan, who probably would have thought I was soft had we met back then. Mark offers a perfect-bound compendium of reformatted Bodyslam reprints, or you can download high quality scans of the original here.

Heroin Skateboards reigns supreme when it comes to non-traditional skateboard shapes and sizes, and now they’ve added the Wingee Thingee which has been confirmed as an homage to the legendary Skatewing that is beloved here on Skate and Annoy. Have they flown too close to the sun with this one? Who knows. It’s not even on their web site currently, and 3rd party websites that do have them seem to have copy/pasted a description that is in error: “taking inspiration from an old-school winged metal skateboard and transforming it into a modern curb-crushing machine.” Although there was a plastic version at some point, the OG Skatewing is made from wood. To my knowledge, they never produced a metal version.

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.