Skateboards made from recycled aluminum. There’s no guarantee it was a beer can in a past life, but Beercan Boards sound better than “Diet Pepsi can Boards.” They’ve taken the old aluminum death plank board of yesteryear and upgraded it with a channel beam which I assumed was to give it stiffness, but it turns out that’s also part of the “TruckTrax” system that allows you to micromanage your wheelbase to your OCD heart’s content. Who needs that? Downhill guys, of course. The boards aren’t even expensive compared to their wooden brethren. Right now, the corporate site only features downhill boards, but Keystone Skate Supply also has some more traditional shapes. I don’t know if those are also traditionally priced because Keystone’s web site is kind of jacked. To help preserve the ends, Beercan boards have “bottle caps” made from 100% recycled milk jugs. In the event that you do wear it out, you can recycle your recycled board and get a new one for $40. I’ve never seen one or ridden one, but the concept seems pretty solid, especially given the target audience. If I had a beef it would be that those concaves look a little clunky. It’s all made from extruded aluminum, so the concaves seem to have a very defined bend point even though the side profiles can look more organic. Replacement tips are $20 a set, which seems steep, but they are custom to each board design and I haven’t priced out the machining cost of the molds. Of course there was a Kickstarter campaign, somehow we missed that one. The video is pretty flat. Interesting that they are trying to diversify a business that makes custom auto parts. I’m not getting a vibe that these guys actually skate. For instance, there’s no pictures of anybody actually skating on these things.

Here’s another video about the Detroit’s Ride It sculpture park, this one from the Tony Hawk Foundation, that just raised another 25k for the project. Portland’s own Evergreen Skateparks is there working on it.

I bought this Australian stamp from 1990 on Catawiki for $1. It’s actually a postcard with a stamp and a postmark of Stanwell park. I guess the guy could be Billy Ruff, since he is riding a G@S ‘Clown puppet’ bootleg deck from 1987! The clown on the stamp doesn’t hold a puppet and  there are no names or brands, but still …

That’s Skreech on the cover of the latest Confusion zine. Apparently he’s turning over a new leaf after evaluating his life via Dragonslayer, so he’s going by Joshua instead of Josh. He didn’t ditch the “Skreech” moniker though. He’s no dummy when it comes to marketing. In addition to the Skreech interview, this shot of Elias Assmuth on a skateboard made out of a fingerboarding ramp got my attention. Radness! Those guys at Blackriver Ramps take their skateboarding every bit as seriously as their fingerboarding, or vice versa.

Rip City Skate grand reopening on Friday. This thing should be skateable by then. Yeah, it’s a blurry cell phone shot, sorry. Maybe there’s something to those Nokia commercials. The new location is kind of accross the street from Jiffy Lube. It’s basically a half a block south of NE 33rd and Sandy Blvd.

UPDATE: Added a little video of the event.

Skateboards made with surfboard technology is nothing new, I recall it was Hamboards that used to offer a foam and glass construction board, although it seems like they’ve gotten away from that. I was ready to dismiss this kickstarter project for Hydroflex Skateboards almost immediately, but in the interest of pretend skateboard journalism, I decided to check it out. I’m pretty impressed, actually. They’ve taken technology they developed for surfboards, adapted nd improved it for skateboards. Besides being waterproof, they appear to be highly durable and functional as well. You usually don’t see radical (no pun intended) alternative skateboarding manufacturing technologies put to the test in the street. It’s a foam core board with a honeycomb of resin running vertically, connecting the top and bottom layer. Of course, it’s never going to replace 7ply Canadian maple because it’s too labor intensive to produce. I’m not sure how the materials cost compares, but these the prices range from $90 to an unbelievable $230 for the deck alone. As durable as they are for some applications, you aren’t going to want to slide these on anything. Maybe there’s a place for Hydroflex boards in the industry, who knows. Do yourself a favor and watch some of the videos. Even if you don’t see the need for the process, it’s still interesting to see.

While wasting time on Alibaba.com, I saw a lot of bootlegs. Especially the more recent Tony Hawk designs from Birdhouse seem popular to rip off. If you order a minimum of 100 decks, you’ll get them for a few dollars a piece. Yes, I definitely took most of these pics from the sellers, but what will they say? That I stole from them? Also, take a quick tour in their factory here.

A sneak peek at the proposed design being discussed at tonight’s meeting.

Basically the options are on the snake, a new snake or this snake that replicates the old with some new more practical renditions. We will most likely replicate the old if the decision to raise the OG happens. Leaving it up to the city and board to make that decision. The only change would be the down sidewalk would get transitions on its side almost all the way up, and the banks would get smoother radius with coping…

Whatever the decision is, you know it will be built right.

The news about the new skatepark design meeting in Tampa got me thinking about the Bro Bowl. Ages ago I posted about a Bro Bowl documentary that was in progress, so I decided to see if anything ever came from it. They finished it, and it’s available for viewing in it’s entirety. The opening sequence starts off a bit rough, but once you get past that, it’s pretty good. Notably missing, however, if an interview with the guy who designed and built the place, Joel Jackson. The Tampa Bay Times interviewed him in conjunction with the Bro Bowl being nominated for the National Register of Historic Places as one of only two 70’s era public skateparks still in existence in the USA. The par was originally surrounded by housing projects, but the whole area is slated for redevelopment. It’s not quite the same situation as Southbank, the redevelopment is in advance of a State of Florida Department of Transportation edict to widen the road adjacent to the skatepark. The city has advised locals to accept a the funding of a replacement park as the best possible outcome, over any temporary reprieve that activism may be able to achieve. The history of the neighborhood is complicated, not everyone (including skaters) want the the bowl saved. The documentary doesn’t really touch on any of this, instead choosing to tell stories about the sessions that went down. So while it’s not super informative, it’s still entertaining. Watch it after the jump.

[Photos: Tampa Bay Times 1, 2 ]