These Extreme Sports Valentines brought to you by the Dollar Store and printing facilities somewhere in Indonesia feature the holy triumvirate of skateboarding, freestyle motocross and… rock climbing. It’s a pretty weak showing for Valentines Day, but don’t be dismayed because this year they’re still making those “You’re Cool” Snoopy chocolate-filled hearts.

The inside of this freebie Chipmunks themed activity book unfolds to show a poster of said chipmunks getting radical on skateboards. Target stores gave these away in 1990. This is the only appearance of skateboards in the publication. [Source: Cult Oddities]

The February 2016 issue of AARP Magazine has a print piece that augments the Sisters of Shred video. 50 Reasons to love Being 50. [Via – Claudia Hoag on FB]

Vogue Magazine asks the question “How the Thrasher Tee Became Every Cool Model’s Off-Duty Staple,” pointing out various models who have appropriated skateboard culture, and even those like Natalie Westling that actually skateboard. Everyone knows that Steve Olson is the original skateboarding model. [Vogue Photos from top left: Jerome Chrome – Vans – Phil Oh ]

Graava is a camera/app combo that is supposed to make it easier for you to actually do something with all the footage you acquire. Basically, you dock the camera and the open the app, decide how long you want the the end result to be and then let the app make a video for you after it analyzes the footage for… what I’m not sure. A skateboarder is used in their marketing video, and apparently he works in an office where it’s cool to come in late and edit skate videos… hold on, his video is edited for him while he works so he doesn’t have to worry about getting fired. Obviously, this wouldn’t work for any sort of “real” skate video, but it seems to do the trick if you’re just pointing a selfie stick at yourself while you cruise on the bike trail. The question is, why build and sell a separate camera instead of just making an app that takes video from any source? If only someone could invent an app that automatically compiles and writes an Ebay Watch.

Two different Claus Grabke boards featured in unrelated fashion shoots. I’m still trying to track the source of the one on the left,  doubtfully commissioned by the gelato company. The one on the right has an Underwear Expert watermark, which is a good place to go get your dong on.

I saw this add for the online freelance market Upwork.com on Facebook while I was neglecting my own freelance duties. Also, I’m not sure if I’m using the semicolon properly in this post title, so maybe copy proofing is not the job for me. Apparently this guy’s “highly specialized project” was shooting some sort of hybrid freestyle skateboarding/rap video. Unless that’s supposed to be a phone and not money. Freestyle selfies?

I was checking out the Movi camera, which a smart little system that uses a single 4k camera to capture video, combined with an app that lets you zoom and pan through the 4k image in real time, while saving or streaming the final footage. The end result lets you simulate multiple camera angles for live events with only one physical camera. I got to thinking that it would be fun to use at a skateboarding event, but probably not actually very useful due to the unique demands of shooting compelling skateboarding footage. Just as I was writing it off as interesting but not practical for a skateboarding application, I found this image on their web site.

Rich Burton’s significant other acquired this Taco Cabana cup in Texas way back in 1995, some 10 years before before getting together with Rich, and another 10 before Rich noticed it and sent a picture to me. If the hippies had their way, this invaluable piece of cultural history would have bio-degraded and been lost for all eternity. Now it’s up on the Interwebs, where it will last for all eternity, or until I let the domain name lapse, or the zombie apocalypse, or Sky Net becomes self aware. Enjoy this jalapeño pepper frontside 5-0 grind while you can.

These ladies are more core than I am lately. This is a still from an AARP (American Association of Retired People) marketing video featuring ladies of a certain age who skateboard. The leader of The Sisters of Shred is non other than the skateboard mom/cow, Barbara Odanaka. – Thanks to Charles Glover for the tip.