I bought this vintage Russian skateboard advertisement some time before 2013, which is as far back as my Ebay history will show me. The stamps say 2009, but I don’t think it was that long ago. I wasn’t sure about the authenticity of this, but it did ship from Moscow, Russia, and the guy even had “SNA” in his name. I can’t even type in the Cyrillic alphabet to get an online translation. I’m not sure how old this is. It looks 70’s but it might be early 80’s. (1982) If you can help, please chime in. Maybe these guys know something. I remember at the time I bought it I felt like some sort of tomb raider, importing illegal cultural artifacts from the Eastern Block.

As a rule, if I decide to post a product release video, you’ll find it off the main page in odds and ends section known as Broken Kingpins. It has to have pretty bombastic footage or be highly entertaining to make to the font page. This 3 minute clip featuring Silas Baxter-Neal from Adidas made me laugh, and so here it is.

Jenkem Magazine hosts the online premier of Fancy Lads 3, which is supposedly only available for 24 hours. I don’t know where it goes after that. Watch it. It will be the most meaningful thing you do today, unless you are getting married or giving birth. It drags a little in the middle. Skip to the 32 minute mark if you get bored.

The best thing about these vintage 70’s era open bearing wheels from Trickray is the Ed Roth inspired package illustration featuring a guy that is some sort of greasy salesman or evil landlord riding a skateboard. With that striped suit, he’s either escaped from a 1920’s prison or a silent movie. I’m not sure why these “official” Trickray skateboard accessories carry the U2 moniker, but they do. Evidently these urethane wheels were meant for spy missions.

Skate Culture has a good guest article written by Rick “Spidey” Demontrond that talks about the process and history of his 2 pro models for Santa Cruz and his new one (Swindle 2) for Pocket Pistols. It’s a nice companion piece to an earlier profile on Skate Culture.

Recent additions to Pokhara Skate Park in Nepal, which has been around since 2011. Who knew? I mean, besides the skaters in Nepal.

– Thanks to Adlan Farazi for the tip.

I recently took a trip with my extended family to Costa Rica. It was one of those all inclusive vacations, and although we did take some day trips, I was unable to explore skateboarding in Costa Rica, even though I knew there were a few skateparks in the Guanacaste province where we were staying. In the small town of Playas del Coco I ran into the Costa Rican equivalent of Zumiez known as Arenas Skate and Surf. It was a bit odd, because most of the town (admittedly, only what I saw) seemed pretty low rent, yet there were a few almost self consciously glossy stores. In fact, I didn’t see a skateboard the entire time I was Costa Rica. OK, so I barely got out to see the types of areas where you would expect to see skateboarders, so this not be taken as a review of the Costa Rican skate scene by any means, just my own very myopic experience.

Eden Village Bike & Bordercross track located in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Looks super fun, although I wonder whether chose asphalt instead of concrete. Price, most likely. Images and photos after the jump.

[Source: Longboardism] – Via Michael Brooke

Rolling Homes, prefab homes in Svencele, Lithuania that come with a front porch that unintentionally doubles as an a miniramp.

[Source: Huffington Post] – Thanks to Ping for the tip.

Having printed more than a handful of skateboards myself, and designed a few jigs, I’ve always considered the possibility of somehow adapting a textile press for printing skateboards. The crew at Jolly Roger Skateboards are actually producing them. So far each Skate Mate sold has been configured for Lawson and Ryonet presses, but they are built on demand and can be made to fit any commercial press, including table tops. The wheelbase is easily adjustable which is critical for printing the same design on multiple size boards. Even though it can fit on a multiple color press, you’re still going to want to print skateboards like flat stock, one color at a time. So what’s the point? It could help with keeping better registration, especially if you have side clamps. You won’t need a kickstand to hold the screen up when placing boards and it saves space if you work in tight confines and already own a textile press. It’s pretty spendy at $300, but the build quality looks very high and prices are expected to come down as they recoup some development costs. The Skate Mate isn’t going to be for everyone, for one thing, it’s not going to work for tip to tail graphics, but it’s out there if you want one.