Korea.net has an article titled “Financial crisis knocked Koreans down, lifted them.” One of the featured success stories is Kang Sin-ki, who is now the CEO of Slovie, Inc, and the guy who actually invented those wacky toy skateboards: Homeless, he slept near Seoul Station and picked up day labor when he could get it, sending any extra money back to his family. In his free time, Kang thought about a way to escape his lot and came up with a great idea — a wholly new skateboard. Mastering the design was less difficult than securing the means to produce, promote and sell the product. He pitched his idea everywhere looking for venture capital. Finally, through a whopping 1.5 billion won government-backed KIBO Technology Fund loan, Kang was back in business. 1.5 billion won loan? Talk about a government bail-out. But how much is a won worth and how much money could he be making on such a piece of crap? The article says he’s sold 10 billion won worth of Essboards in the US and Europe, which as of this writing, translates to $10.8 million.

Frank 151 has collaborated with French luxury leather goods craftsman and designer Jacques Ferrand to release limited edition ostrich and crocodile skin skateboard decks with the Frank151 brand. I’m going to call bullshit on these, and I’m going to do it smugly while sitting at a desk wearing leather tennis shoes. What’s next, Snow Leopard decks just so you can show off your bling? How shallow can you get? 90’s teenager culture meets the classic french elegance! Lame. Lame. Lame. Very lame. Thanks to

Oh man, he’s killing it! Oh wait… Just in case snakeboards aren’t wacky enough for you, you can always add snowboarding bindings. The most interesting thing about this video is the fact that it was shot with an adapter that lets you stick 35mm lenses on a regular old camcorder, for all kinds of artsy-fartsy depth of field effects. Oh yeah, I’ts shot at Australia’s Bondi Beach. Look for the guy on the regular old fashioned skateboard falling down. What a sucker, huh? Thanks to John Aguilar for the tip.

This one is electric powered instead of gas powered, and has more car club appeal. The Skate Scepter guy must be pissed, although I’m sure he’d win in a race. Check out the Electric Crusier. [Source: Gizmodo]

€179 ($258 as of publication) will buy you a 4size magnet skateboard setup with shoes, the French Equivalent of the ex-Magnatron. It’s a bit more sophisticated than the Magnet Skateboard, the magnets are designed to be removable in case you have to walk across a field of hard drives and floppy disks at work or don’t want to get your feet sheared off in an escalator. They’ve even designed a special box that is supposed to make sure you never touch two of the magnets together. Apparently they are strong enough to be a pinching hazard. Hey man, did you break your finger landing that ten set? Nah, I did it putting on my skate shoes.

While I was chasing off a Chinese bandwidth thief I came across a link to a three page photo set from ASR. It’s in Chinese, so I don’t know what the scoop is. Here are two of the most interesting ones. The first is what appears to be a very ornate six wheeled skateboard and the second is some band playing at the House of Blues with a giant Thrasher logo in the light show. Does anyone know what the scoop is on either of these two items? Also, not shown is the children of the corn. [Source: Kicker Club]

UPDATE: In the wake of the passing of Steve Schneer some 7 years after this post was written, I feel it’s important to point out the title of this post is a reference to his famous Ho Ho plants and how these magnet embedded skateboards would make it so much easier for kids to do this trick. There’s no disrespect intended towards Steve, and in fact in meeting him a few times in my capacity as editor at S&A he was always very friendly and never mentioned it.  My kid plays with these little toy figures that have magnets in their feet that stick to small skateboards. They are called Tech Deck Dudes and there are something like 60 of them now. They are fun to play with for both of us, although I can’t figure out why some of the guys have weapons too. They obviously call to mind the old Sky Hooks, which you can still actually buy from no less than three (Count ’em. 1, 2, 3.) manufacturers. Apparently there’s no current official trademark holder. But Sky Hooks are so 70’s, and magnets make for a more up to date dork session. Besides, you could just change shoes if…

Gizmag, is a web site devoted to presenting high tech gadgets in the most low tech way possible outside of chiseling it in stone. Seriously, learn how to work Photoshop, would ya? These days the term skateboard tends to refer to a whole raft of different transport modes that go way beyond the two-axle, four wheeled conveyances that rose to prominence in the 1970s – everything from in-line caster boards to spokeless mini-motorcycles and sit-down street machines tend to be categorized under the genre. Err… yeah. Some guy is trying to bring to market a hydrogen fuel cell powered version of something two different groups of college kids have already done, but Sony felt compelled to file a patent for anyway. Also working against him is the fact that there are already at least two technologies called iSlide, namely an oven made by Siemens and a handful of software slideshow utilities. Just looking at the “inventor” riding an iSlide in his socks will assure you that he’s going to succeed. [Source: Gizmag]

Americans don’t have the market cornered on wacky skateboard inspired technology. From Germany comes the DIY Struller scooter and skateboard combo and from the UK we have the Magic Wheel, which is like a skateboard if it had one bicycle wheel replacing the front truck. Err.. and a shopping cart wheel on the back truck I guess. I’m reaching here. Will somebody please post some actual skateboarding on this web site? [ Source: Magic Wheel – Gearfuse ]

Bringing you the finest in in-depth skate journalism, do I getting a freaking pretend Pulitzer Prize in skateboarding for this or what? No, that’s not another one of MC’s experiments in photoshop, it’s an actual picture of the new world’s biggest skateboard. No, it’s not official yet, but it’s in the bag. Swank’s board is 12 feet long, and Grant Hick’s is 20. This creation of the Bay College CAD class weighs in at 31 feet long by 8 feet wide. A one inch equals one foot scaled up model of a skateboard that is by far the most realistic of the three contenders. You can read a couple of regurgitated stories from the Michigan press or follow the link for more real information, including construction pictures and a video that looks like one of those “UFO” sightings. Check out the Skate and Annoy feature: New World’s Biggest Skateboard?