Santa Cruz has to be the king of novelty products, with all the giant foot-shaped boards, screaming hand oven mitts and the like. Now they’re adding some mostly brilliant executions of Simpsons themed skateboards. Bart’s board is great, the Roskop parody and Duff liquor store cruisers are pretty good too, but the Homer Simpson board is weak. To offset that they’ve included a Duff static wrap can cover, which they ought to sell singularly. Overall, though, an awesome idea, if only they had thought of it 15 years ago. Bart Simpson has to be the most popular cartoon character to be featured with a skateboard in it’s original context as well as with merchandising. It’s about time he got a real board.

It’s summertime, summertime. I’m gonna head to the beach and do some beachy things. I spotted this on an ice cream truck while plying my kids with cold sugar on a stick after one of those music in the park deals. Actually the band was pretty interesting. An all female sax quartet called the Quadraphones. More jazz and less funk than I’d like but still solid. The frozen confectionary comes in a cup, but unfortunately the packaging doesn’t have the skateboarding character. The gal in the truck wouldn’t let me buy the window sticker either. Now who gets the noprize?

20 years of skate films crammed into three nights this weekend (July 22nd-24) at the Hollywood Theatre in Portland. Guest speakers and a pretty cool lineup after the jump. Presnted by Vans, so it might be coming to your (major metropolitan) neighborhood soon.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports:

CAPITOLA – A 17-year-old boy riding a skateboard downhill Tuesday hit an 83-year-old woman crossing the street. The Capitola woman later died in a San Jose hospital, authorities said.

Apparently the kid saw the lady at the last minute and tried to avoid her, but that’s not good enough is it? No charges filed as of yet.

[source: LA Weekly] – Thanks to… everyone for the tip.

On the plus side, a portion of the the sales go to Girl Riders Organization, but the flips side of this new web series is that it’s horribly paired with new “technology” that allows you click on an object in the video if you’re interested in buying it. I tried clicking on the fiance, but apparently she’s not for sale. It’s hard to take the episode seriously when so many of the shots seem awkwardly contrived for displaying a product. So much so that it seems less than… above the board. Kyle’s got some moves though, so there’s that. Check out Above Board.

Skaters with elaborate painted faces spend the days and nights filled with suburban boredom. This is a side project from hip hop producer, Chasm

I think this is a Dr Don Don tune called King of the Stars, but I can’t tell for sure because I couldn’t make it through the whole video. The costumes are the least annoying part of the video, but there is some actual skilled skating involved.

[Source: Blastro] – Thanks (?) to Eric Cherry for the tip.

Well, maybe not famous, but apparently semi popular. An anonymous tipster told me about our listing in the Urban Dictionary that dates back to 2006. I guess I don’t google myself enough. At least they got the order right… number one, as in we coined the term in 1985 and haven’t quit since! So suck it, 12 year old kid on Youtube! Check out “Example 3” from the listing,

Example to #3: I went to a Kids Like Us show last night and Skate and Annoy was fighting people talking shit.

That’s pretty funny. I think I’ll talk about S&A in the third person from now on. Skate and Annoy over and out.

This Hydro commercial imitating a video game is a nice low tech complement to the high tech pinball game we saw earlier with the Mountain Dew setup. Not much for actual skating, but it is a great example of low budget creativity. In one section stuntman Alex Midler is riding one of those led boards. If your autism talent is remembering obscure skateboard marketing facts, you may remember Fruit Shoot put together a beginners skateboarding guide for the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts new (at the time) “Street Sports” merit badge back in 2008. Two versions of the Hydro commercial after the jump.

– Thanks to Keith “method” Ayers for the tip.

Wavves are a San Diego that depending on who you read, is either a solo project with hired guns, the new sound, or a bunch of noise. Here’s a good place to start. They released the Post Acid single on Green Label Sound, which is a, uhm.. mp3 record label owned by Pepsi via Mountain Dew. Check out the 2010 vid and a 2009 album on Fat Possum with an old-timey looking skate photo on the cover after the jump.

– Thanks to Alex I for the tip.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a very short piece on 76 year old downhill enthusiast Lloyd Kahn who’s only been skating for about 11 years.

– Thanks to Eric Cherry for the tip.