The Science Channel’s How it’s Made program featured skateboards as one of the items that they show… how they are made. For some reason they chose the skateboarding segment to include some gratuitous “history of” narration and crappy animation. None of the other products got the extra dog and pony show. The skateboarder in the picture above seems to be caught in some sort of time-space wormhole anomaly where he is forced to dress like the late 70’s but ride a skateboard that looks like it was designed in the 50’s.

Every skateboard manufacturing process seems to vary a little, but the basics are the same. If you’ve never seen this type of thing before it can be interesting. These guys are using the heat transfer process to apply the “decorations” as they call it. The video does not show how the heat transfers are printed (similar to printing t-shirt transfers, colors are printed in reverse order on a flat substrate.) but does show them being applied. The shapes are cut out by hand using an interesting shaping template and what I think is a planer. I’ve never seen it done that way before. Actually, a factory using heat transfers for graphics is probably also using a CNC machine to automate cutting out the shapes. They probably got out the old templates for the camera. Oh yeah, check out the crappy skatepark they show. Classic concrete tranny stuck on top of asphalt flatground. Sweet. If anyone knows where any of this was shot, please leave it in the comments. Watch the video after the jump.

Some kid (adult, actually) tried to ride his bike at a skatepark and got kicked out. Not a big deal, except for a few things that make this more interesting. The skatepark was already closed for a specai “summer camp only” session, so he was double barging. Not only that, but the kid came back a short time later and started yelling at kids while riding around the park “recklessly.” He even ran into and injured a nine year old kid. Way to go tough guy! To make it even stranger, he was friends with or at least on friendly terms with a bunch of the local skate kids. As if it couldn’t get any stranger, witness nine year old kids wearing pork pie hats as a fashion statement! This isn’t a really a BMX versus skateboarders story, just more of a moron vs. little kids story. In any case, the police picked up the kid, who hopefully has come down from whatever he was under the influence of before returning to the skatepark. Philip Delisle of Hillsboro Oregon, we salute you for your bravery! Watch the news report after the jump. [Source: Sleestak]

The Dallas Morning News has a surprisingly lengthy article on the older crew of skateboarders in Dallas that are still getting some, not only in local skateparks, but in less than legal pools as well. The article, titled These guys haven’t slowed down, talks a little about balancing their adult lives and responsibilities with skateboarding, and is thankfully short on the “Rad Dad” rhetoric. Here’s a good quote:

Now he wears a tie every day. But underneath the suit, he remains a skater punk. Mr. Stubbs says he has had to explain more than once to co-workers and clients why he has pus oozing through his slacks.

Reminds me of my friend Shawn who went out to skate on his lunch break, ate shit and had to spend the rest of the day explaining the holes in his fancy work pants and bloody knees. Now he carries an extra pair of work pants in his trunk. Not a prophylactic, but prophyl-slack-tic, as in “slacks.” Ba dum bump! Take my wife! Please! Uh, yeah. What else? The Sonya Hebert/DMN photo above has a quality that makes it seem more like an advertising shot from a prescription drug company or a financial institution than an editorial shot. I bet Sonya went to art school. Read the article in the Dallas Morning News. Thanks to Chip for the tip.

Dateline: Englewood Florida. Headline: County wipes out good, clean fun Overmonitoring, irregular hours and high fees mar new skate park

Eric Ernst wrote a piece for The Herald Tribune about micromanaging the fun out of the new Englewood skatepark that Team Pain built. Here in Oregon, most of our parks are free, open from dawn to dusk and unmonitored. And for the most part, this works out great.

It’s another case of designers with too much time (or LSD) on their hands. This time it’s Acconci Studio with their concept for a skatepark in San Juan Puerto Rico. I came across this in Dec/Jan 07 issue of Dwell magazine. It was on a page talking about the Cooper Hewitt 2006 National Design Triennial. The design evokes a 70’s snake run mixed with a waterpark. It may be fantastic to look at, but it shows a complete lack of practical skateboarding knowledge.

This guy was challenged to make 200 Bad Comics Hey! a couple of them were about skateboarding and a few of them were funny. Not necessarily the same ones though.

Last time New Jersey. This time in the UK. Local residents who live adjacent to the skatepark are very concerned with vulgar talk and behavior.

However, we now feel that if we allow our children to spend time in our garden they will have vulgar language permeating through their ears. What affects us more directly are the youths who smoke and use very vulgar language towards each other, which is audible from our garden. This means that we are unable to sit out on dry days with family and friends whilst this abusive language can be heard so clearly.

I felt kind of bad for them, until I learned where they lived.

SOME Cockermouth residents and councillors claim a skateboard ramp in the town is causing them misery..

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the blank skateboards titled “Avid Boarders Bypass Branded Gear: The $15 ‘Blank Decks’ Work Just Fine — A Marketing Challenge for Industry.”

Zoo York riders scored the photo incentives. If you’re hoping for the old school pen and ink renderings that they used to use for illustrations you’ll be disappointed. In fact the first composite illustration looks more like something out of a second rate USA Today. It’s like all those years without a photo editor have them crippled. One recurring theme is that the kids with real talent are the ones that are buying blanks, and the newbies are buying branded gear. I don’t know about your town, but I see mostly the opposite happening in Portland. The IASC is quoted, and even brings up their ill fated “A World Without Pros” campaign. Here are some interesting facts. There are an estimated 800 professional and semi-professional skateboarders on the industry’s payroll, and Santa Cruz (NHS actually) claims an R&D budget of $500,000 annually. There are a few factual anomalies in the article. Apparently in Sioux Falls Iowa you can buy a “complete” deck from Crown for $30, or a name brand for $60. I’m sure they meant deck only, but even so, $60 for a normal production run deck is a rip off. Another kid who broke his deck had to buy his own replacement when his mom refused to foot the bill. “…he chose a $130 one from Mystery Skateboards — on his own.” Someone should tell that kid that his trucks and wheels were still good. Read the Wall Street Journal. Just in case you are wondering, yes, we think Skate and Annoy is every bit as revered and important as the Wall Street Journal. More so, actually. Thanks to Michael Brooke for the tip off.

Dan Hughes tipped me off to Tony Hawk’s appearance on HGTV‘s show called Sizzling Summer. This particular episode had to do with sizzling backyards, and Tony Hawk’s cement “skatepark” was one of the backyards featured. I tried get this recorded on my own but all I could seem to find were episodes on a bunch of arts and craft projects. Dan was kind enough to digitize it himself. One of the related links that came up with it is a Red Bull authored video on Ryan Sheckler’s backyard skate ramp. It looks like Red Bull must have built it for him because it’s got Red Bull’s color scheme and a cheesy little built in fridge stocked with Red Bull. Watch them both after the jump. Update: Added Bob Burnquist’s house after a reader request.

Dave Tobin sent this link to a gallery of great skate shots.