This is actually a fake surfboard constructed out of uses skateboard pieces, designed to hold an actual skateboard when it’s mounted to the wall. I’ve seen a handful of skateboard hangers, a couple of them made from old skateboards, but this is the best one yet. Made in Portland by TurnCo aka Skip Marcotte. You an get this one and other upcycled skateboard products from his Etsy shop, or from selected skate shops in Portland. I had a parent of a kid who is in school with my boy call me up and ask where he could get some used skateboards for his son’s art project. I had to tell him that he’d likely be hard pressed to find some these days.

Winter Madness usually strikes closer to January or February, but apparently MC caught a particularly virulent strain. What else would possess him to build such a marginally skateable contraption in his basement with a six and a half foot tall ceiling, 3.5 feet wide with a 4 foot transition?

Gizmodo reports on a project from tow MIT researchers called The Big Atlas of LA Pools. It is exactly what it sounds like, a catalog of every single pool, in the Los Angeles basin. It took 74 books and about 6000 pages to show all 43,123 pools with related data, like area, dimensions, water evaporation, lot price, and crime rates of the neighborhoods. No word on on whether those crime rates include trespassing in said pools. These volumes don’t appear to be for sale though, Gizmodo reports the volumes have only been printed once, allegedly at a cost of $3,700. The Big Atlas of LA Pools was not started to incur the wrath or aid a generation of upcoming young Salbas, it was started out of curiosity, after repeatedly noticing pools on approach to LAX. After watching the these videos, check out this 2008 Google Maps screen grab of an airplane flying over a pool on approach to O’hare airport in Chicago.

[Via Jim Goodrich on Facebook]

Aside from the top photo of the faux brickwork from Jesse McDowell, the rest of these photos are from the Washington Jefferson Skatepark of Eugene Instagram feed.

– Thanks to Sarib for the tip.

More oversized skateboard as surfboard action with a wet suit that we’ve seen before, but this this time it comes from Dan Cates and DC riding the same kind of board I mentioned in my original Simon Woodstock post. It was in fact Simon who showed Dan where he could pick up one of these boards. Plate. Shrimp. Plate of shrimp.

It’s been a while since I’ve covered the Kings Highway DIY project in St Louis. Much like BSSS before it, Kings Highway enjoyed an existence as an officially tolerated temporary DIY skate a finite lifespan. The crumbling bridge it rests under was built in 1936, and scheduled for demolition next spring. Amazingly, they’re still adding onto it as late as last week. Unlike BSSS, however, There are definite plans for a replacement… of sorts. The city is leasing an unused parcel of land to the non profit for $1 a month, but the non-profit has to pay $2,000 in insurance annually, as well as funding the entire construction. They are also losing the overhead coverage that they used to have, cutting down on the amount of time the park will be usable. You’d think a major American city with no public skatepark could do better than that. The locals have been actively fundraising though, and have even secured a 5k grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation, bringing their total fundraising efforts to $13,000. They’ve even got a listing for material and other donations on Craigslist. I’m not sure that the before and after square footage evens out though. The new location and design appears to have more of a public park presentation, and way more sterile than the existing atmosphere. If the skaters are organizing and paying for everything, they ought to be allowed to build what they want. Doesn’t that seem just to you? Watch a short documentary after the jump. The primary aim seems to be explaining the vibrancy of of the spot to the non-skateboarding crowd in St. Louis.

– Thanks to Bob Metchely for the tip.

Although it may look like Kentucky, Ken Henning, took these pictures at the zoo (Tiergarten) in Nuremberg, Germany in 1968. Pictured are American GIs from California enjoying a downhill session. Ken says this was the first time he ever saw anyone on a skateboard. The guys in these photos eventually shipped out to Vietnam, and Ken doesn’t know what became of them. Additional photo after the jump.

– Thanks to David Brosch for the photos.

1986 out of Hinsdale, Illinois

Those who have homemade concrete and those who help make it, from Elias Parise:

A Gift of Mud is a photo and video documentary that sets out to capture as well as communicate the structures, stories, hard work and dedication that each home owner has embedded with in the concrete that lays in his or her’s own backyard. The work also stands as a testament to all skateable structures that have, are, and will be built by skateboarders for skateboarders, whether private or public and to stand as a reminder to respect these sacred venues, as well as the men and women who helped design and construct these obstacles for your enjoyment.

Watch the trailer after the jump. Not quite open to the public yet. He’s trying to get a gallery space figured out.

Three issues of Death Mag added to the zine gallery, dating from 1982-1983.