Here’s a couple pages from Lane Smith’s 1993 book The Happy Hocky Family. I guess the alliteration in Happy Hocky is more catchy than the Sardonic Hocky Family.

– Thanks to MC for the tip.

I’ve featured a handful or two of pages from Christmas catalogs and store advertisements from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, but this JCPenny (1993) is the first from the 90’s. Or it isn’t. I can’t tell for sure. A Bart Simpson skateboard is no big deal, but for the discerning reader of S&A there’s more to it than meets the eye. First off, there’s the awesome “pro quality” knee and elbow pads. Also, the country of origin is listed in the catalog descriptions. I barely glanced at the nondescript dinosaur skateboard until I read “Made in the USA.” Sure enough, if you squint hard enough you can see a tiny Nash logo where the wheel well should be. So that’s interesting, right? Maybe not. I’ve seen and thought I posted this Snoopy board before, but I guess not. It’s scooter/skateboard combo with cool illustration of Woodstock in full downhill racer mode. The funny-isn thing about this deck is the fact that they have a giant registration mark from the screen printing process visible over the front trucks. I guess they assumed everyone would attach the scooter handle. A quick search on S&A reveals Snoopy posts are in short supply. I need to rectify that.

A dead body found in a skatepark, as seen in the trailer for the 2013 film Blood. Another post I was sitting for years, and for no apparent reason. Apparently even in Europe the skateparks attract a bad element.

Skateboarding on German cereal boxes. Bonus shot of bizarro Osiris raver boot after the jump.

– Thanks to Daniel for the pics.

As seen on How Stuff Works, more aptly titled “How stuff works as vaguely understood by people who don’t quite know what the whole story is.

Avert your eyes from this advert found in the June 21st, 2015 edition of the NY Times magazine. Brian and Brody are sporting their finest for Father’s Day. Countess Mara makes accessories for any occasion, as long was the occasion calls for a tie or a bowtie. Send them your skate photos, you could end up in their next national advertisement.

– Thanks to Tallboycan for the tip.

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 / Chicago Tribune )

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.