No, X-Carve is not another alternative skateboard designed to simulate surfing and snowboarding. It’s a hobbyist or slightly better grade CNC machine made by Inventables, a company whose goal is to bring manufacturing capabilities to (very) small business owners and DIY designers/inventors. There are small commercial CNC machines available, but not at this price point, which is roughly $800-$1300, depending on the size you want. There are also open source DIY plans for making your own CNC machines, but those can end up costing about the same, and while there are communities out there, support and troubleshooting building your own machinery, sourcing materials and integrating the software can be a daunting task for some. I’ve been trolling DIY CNC machines on and off for years for use specifically in manufacturing skateboards, and I would be ready to pull the trigger on an X-Carve setup (or at least set up a Kickstarter! Gimme, gimme, gimme…) but even though the X-Carve is specifically advertised as being capable of making skateboards, the reality is that it isn’t quite big enough for actual skateboard manufacturing. I’ll explain why after the jump. [Photo (Top right): Skateboard cut out with X-carve – Blue Sky photos /…

It’s been about 4 years since Skate and Annoy mentioned Fruit Shoot, but they’ve been shredding it up while our eyes were averted. They’ve got a YouTube channel that “…is the place to get all your info on Skills, whether you’re a football freestyler, a skater, a BMX flatlander, a dancer, or an urban gymnast.” I know skateboarders and Urban Gymnasts have historically been at odds with each other, vandalizing each other’s hal pipes and parallel bars, but the time has come to live peacefully amongst the larger Extreme!® community. To help you uncover your skills they’ve unlisted the talents of skateboarding pro (?) Stefani Five-O. They’ve fixed a series of skateboarding tutorials that she hosts. She actually skates in some of the basic ones, but hands off the more difficult moves to an accomplice. I guess she’s no Nikki Rose Quinlan. Who is she? You can meet her in a video bio. Up top is a screen capture from the Netherlands version of the Fruit Shoot web site. Skateboarding tutorials with Stefani and a couple TV commercials after the jump. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Tony Hawk loves movies and he’s going to talk about it for some reason, most likely because the folks at Fandango asked him to. They’d also like to remind you of his foundation. i guess movie theaters are having a hard go of things. I hear two large ones in NE portland at the mall are shutting down. I just caught the latest Mad Max in the theater, and holy cow… It’s an amazing addition to the series, doing the franchise much more justice than the Beyond the Thunderdome. The first two will always be flawed but “best,” However, Fury Road is insane. Now that I’ve done my part for the industry (freee of charge no less, and don’t forget about my foundation), click through to hear Tony talk about The Spy Who Loved Me and The Naked Gun.

We ridicule a lot of so-called skateboard improvements here on S&A, but here’s one that actually could be useful for a select subset of skateboarders who already use riser pads. Why not have the option to stash “something” in your risers or pop in a mount that holds your Go Pro? That’s probably the biggest seller right there, one that I’m surprised GoPro doesn’t already offer. I wonder if it’s similar to the setup they use on the Sony Action Cam. If you want to buy them you can fund their Indiegogo campaign. They are also trying to fund a much less novel idea in the form of another clear skateboard. I guess it’s worth noting that the deck is made from bulletproof glass, so if there’s a drive-by shooting you can hide behind it.

During the finale of Men in Blazers they aired a TV commercial for the Mini Cooper Countryman featuring Tony Hawk hauling his kids out to a waterpark in the middle of the desert. While trying to find the commercial online saw that he had ditched Jeep and signed some sort of extended agreement with Mini USA last year, appearing in several videos. And thanks to longtime contributor Matthijs, I also had some pictures of a weird MINI Skater, which is small skateboard with a built in strap binding produced by the Mini Cooper parent company some time around 2002. And just when you thought you couldn’t get enough MINI skateboard action, MINI released some augmented reality glasses that pair with your MINI to provide enhanced safety and visibility. I am not making this up! Whenever there’s a need to illustrate dangerous pedestrian (no driving) behavior, you can bet you’ll find a skateboard or two, and even a dog.

Lactantia smart milk from Canada. Is that a missing skateboarder? Lactantia sounds like the name of a villainess in a Russ Meyer film. – Thanks to Kevin Live (Yes, I’m cleaning out my inbox)

This image came from TheTruth.com about a year ago. Another installment in the car as skateboard series, or in this case, model truck. Must have a skateboarder in charge of this setup, because instead of a straight 50-50 grind they went with an alley-ooo. – Thanks to Kevin Live for the tip, last year.

This not the first time skateboards have been used to sell feminine protection. Recall Stayfree Maxi Pads in 1978. Playtex has a print ad and a TV commercial in rotation for their Sport Ultra Thin line of pads. Who is this woman (Update: She is Nikki Rose Quinlan.) and where was this shot? Catch the commercial and the advert after the break. Somewhere in this post there’s a joke about helmets and pad nannies, but I can’t find it.

Bow before my arcane knowledge of useless skateboard related information. This Valterra Rad-isaurus looks suspiciously similar to Denver the Last Dinosaur. Both appear to be released in 1988, although I can’t tell for sure about the Valterra board, the copyright is hard to read. They both appear to be the similar species, and they both wear mohawks and sunglasses, but only the Rad-isaurus has pants. Denver is obscene! Won’t someone please think of the children? Follow me dear readers, and we will tackle the question that archeologists have been pondering for decades: “What happens when a group of pop-a-wheely, BMXer, fun-loving, skateboarding, and rock-music-listening contemporary kids open an ancient dinosaur egg?”

Tony Hawk for the the Sony Action Cam, otherwise known as a Go Pro camera with an awkward form function. The promo video on loop in the display features Tony Hawk and Lizzie Armanto, selfie sticks and and even a bracket for mounting it under a skateboard. I should have got a screen cap of that bracket, as it looks like there is no skateboard specific bracket, but the video did briefly show a camera snapping into a bracket in front of the rear truck. I ‘d like to see how the made it work with their universal bracket. “Retired” sports figures are still used to sell products, but Tony’s the only one who can still perform up to the standards that made him famous in the first place. He’s not standing around with a bottle of talcum powder like Shaq.