Foster Hunting (and friends) built a three tree, two level treehouse and a cement bowl to boot. This is the Northwest. The Cinder Cone is located in Skamania, Washington. It’s named after the debris that accumulates in a hill downwind from a volcanic vent. He’s documented the entire process for a book he’s publishing through Kickstarter. He raised almost 80k, well over his initial goal of $30,000. That ought to go a long way towards recouping some of the costs of building. Remember, that’s not all profit, printing costs probably account for the lion’s share of that money. The Kickstarter window is closed, but you can still preorder the book here for $35, which is only $5 more than it was during the early funding Kickstarter phase. The treehouse seems to be the main focus of the book, but the bowl construction does feature as well.

I’ve got my own much smaller treehouse bowl project in my back yard. Right now it’s stalled at the treehouse part. I want to join this cult.

[Source: Curb Cut]

You’d think with all the amazing skateparks, backyard bowls and DIY terrain here in Oregon that there ought to be amazing skateboarders getting national coverage. It’s a shame, no an outrage that… Wait. What? Never mind. Here’s Frank Shaw killing it, as usual. Highlights? All of it really, but I like the appearance of venerable old Pier Park that starts about the 2:40 mark.

I really hesitated a second to buy this ‘Roskopp’, since I will probably never be able to afford a NOS one and this complete looks not bad at all. Of course there are some differences with the original Santa Cruz deck from 1988 by Jim Phillips: the graphic isn’t all over the board, the shape is different and the Santa Cruz logo is not there. Still, if you’d remove the plastics and trucks, this thing might confuse any collector and would look good on your wall. Some more pics after the jump! Found it on leboncoin.

– Thanks to Kamer Kermad for the pictures.

On the left we have the Street Art Stencil book from OllyStudio published by Lawrence King. It’s less a brief introduction to stencil artists and more a book of actual laser cut stencils you can use to make the artists more famous or get them into trouble. The skateboarding gnome is attributed to Bandit. On the right is a stencil as seen on the Twitter feed of Longboard Girls Crew @longboardgirls. It’s pretty good renegade stencil work but it’s hard to ignore the some obvious signs of Photoshop manipulation. Just look at the repeated patterns on the bottom right. Is the whole thing fake? Even if it is, it’s a good idea. My favorite type of street art is the kind that incorporates some element of the surroundings in the composition instead of just using it as a canvas.

– Thanks to MC and @philosophersk8r for the tip.

Well it’s here. The hoverboard park of the future, as well as details about the board and the park. It’s both amazing and quite a letdown at the same time. What you can do with this Lexus built hoverboard is pretty amazing. In some ways it’s the promise of Back to the Future delivered… with one huge exception: You are limited to riding on a predefined track. In spite of all the talk of innovation and and achieving the impossible, it’s basically a maglev train that you push with your foot, with a few oversized Hot Wheels style jumps thrown in. Is it anything new? Not really. Is it freaking cool? Yes. Lexus spent over a year and who knows how much money developing this concept. Is it better than the Hendo hoverboard? That’s a tough call. The Lexus version is more fully realized, from a demonstration point of view, and the nature of the fixed track means you aren’t going to slide out constantly like a snowboard on ice with no rails. In that respect, the Lexus version is more like a skateboard, however the Hendo’s ability to pick an infinite number of paths (as long as it’s on a special surface) definitely appeals to skateboarding. It doesn’t require power, except that to make liquid nitrogen to keep the thing floating. In addition to flat ground riding, there’s also transition and attempted rail slides. The park has been painted to simulate concrete, but most of the transition elements built for the hoverboard appear to have a wood covering. I swear this is real, if not, it’s the most elaborate and well done viral hoax I’ve ever seen. Loads of video and pictures after the jump.

– Thanks to Concretins Nick for the tip.

In Stan Lee Presents – The Condor, Tony Valdez loses his parents and the use of his legs. Then, with the help of robotic legs and nanobots from the family business, he turns from professional skateboarder into the skateboarding crimefighter known as the Condor. The reviews for this straight to DVD release are not good. It already aired on Cartoon Network at least once, but you can watch it for free on Hulu while it lasts or rent it from YouTube. It’s horrible, unintentionally funny, and the main character is almost totally unlikeable. 10 minutes into the plot, the publisher of the “biggest extreme sports magazine” invites Tony to spend the night so she can make him a superstar. There’s quite a bit of PG-13 sexual innuendo, micro short skirts and heaving cleavage, but the overall quality of the animation, story and voice acting is so poor that it’s only going to appeal to a much younger, somewhat confused audience.

This video almost got relegated to Broken Kingpins but there’s some excellent dork session and bad joke telling in it. Enjoy some good stuff from Skidmark Magazine

Check out this design for a simple DIY skateboard rack from Instructables. It’s super clean looking and pretty easy to make, I just wonder how sturdy it would be. I’m imagining my kids cracking it after a month or so. It’s pretty clever though.

– Thanks to Kathleen Conahan for the tip.

UPDATE: Well Crud. Posted the same concept 2 years ago.

Like the Turf before it, a section of the previously thought to be decimated Del Mer Skate Ranch was briefly uncovered and skated earlier this month. I’m actually surprised that this didn’t make bigger rounds on the Interwebs, even if it was a hoax, and I don’t think it was. You never can tell with Tony and his hoverboard videos. The photo below is of another legendary spot that gets dug up every 5-10 years and skated, despite each “last time” being the final demise. The spot shall remain unnamed because, you know, it’s a big secret. Which of you have skated the bottom spot? Leave a comment if you have.

A short video from Urban Skate Project about what inspires Clayton Graul. Motivational/inspirational videos about DIY are not in short supply, but this one is worth watching if only for the wealth of spots it shows.