Before everyone get’s their panties in a bunch, this was purely a design exercise and not a product meant to be sold to the general public. It’s kind of a fascinating train wreck to watch. It looks like a successful design of a skateboard you can ride down stairs, at least in a less jarring fashion than you could anyway. However, I’m not sure how much of that is due to the Frankenstein truck modifications and how much is due to the flexibility and longer wheelbase of the board. PoChih Lai is the guy who designed and made it. Whatever your opinion is on this exercise, you have to give him credit for actually fabricating this contraptions instead of just presenting it as a bunch of CAD renders. In fact, he constructed several different iterations just to get to this point! Buy one? No, but I’d like to try it.

[Source: Dezeen] – Thanks to Colin for the tip.

You know, kick glass, like kick ass, but it’s a skateboard, so it’s kick flip glass. Uh… I got nothing. If someone is doing something unusual or unnecessary, you can bet there will be at least two others doing it. Although for every two object d’art, there’s one item that more or less serves a purpose. These are skateboard decks made out of glass. Glass skateboards. Glass. This one and this one are set up with trucks and can technically bee ridden, while this one appears to be a serving tray for food. There are tips and there are tips. Boy Ipoh from SkateMalaysia.com tracked these down. All of them. Way to do my homework for me. Thank you.

Just a note to let everyone know that I will no longer feature imaginary magical skateboards that exist only in the minds and hard drives of aspiring industrial designers. There are just too many. Don’t even send them to me unless they actually exist, or are so amazing that they need to be seen (or ridiculed).

– Thanks to Boy for the tip.

$120 bucks will get you a Snap foldable skateboard that looks like a Tony Hawk Ride video game controller. It’s not the first time we’ve seen the concept, but maybe the first time it’s actually being somewhat mass produced.

It is just now on the market and really awesome!
It is alluring, revolutionary, unparalleled and a new idea!
It is foldable, invincible, affordable, cool and saves money!

So we know there is no way these guys are going out of business, so there’s absolutely no need to archive the pictures....... Video after the jump.

UPDATE: Added video showing folding action, etc…

– Thanks to John Aguilar for the tip.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a new wackyboard™, but don’t worry. There’s no end in site. You can blame CAD and rapid prototyping for the products from Aris Sport. The ARIS stands for “Advanced Research in Sport,” so that would make their whole name Advanced Research in Sport Sport. It’s a surprisingly sophisticated variation of the paint roller-type truck configuration. The conical wheels aren’t a new development. I can’t find the picture right now (actually, here’s one) but there are already a few paint-roller type truck assemblies with a similar wheel profile. The way they managed to work the truck design in there looks nice. Not nice for skateboarding, mind you, but nice from an industrial design standpoint! They are heavy on the futuristic renderings where the boards look like plexiglass, but the actual prototypes look conventional. The Bladerunner series promisee to be “street carving redesigned.” Redesigned for what? From the looks of the renders, they are redesigned for the Bonneville salt flats. What’s with all the renders anyway? Well they aren’t being mass produced yet. If you feel like making it happen, you can check out their kickstarter page. I’m surprised that their prototypes are so polished. The marketing however, is cliche 101. Brace yourself for “We’ve reinvented the wheel,” “This changes everything,” “Join the revolution,” and (stifling gag reflex…) the phonetic spelling of carving complete with a dictionary definition.

– Thanks to Boy Ipoh for the tip.

So when I first saw the video I thought it might be a spoof, but it turns out it’s really for sale, and patented in a partnership with the University of South Florida. There’s something to be said for coming up with an absurd idea and then seeing it to fruition. Classic video footage after the jump. Highlights include using a skate case to carry a small netbook, which sounds like an excellent idea. There’s a regular popsicle stick version and a longboard version that holds, you know, “…two composition books deep in there as well as many pencils.” Witness campus cruising, acid drops and even kickflips! Are we being chased by a rattlesnake? Nah, that’s just Dilbert and his Skate Case full of many pencils. AmMazing soundtrack on the first video. Buy yours from Looshes Labs.

– Thanks to Boy for the tip.

Just don’t stray too far from the approved hoverboarding facilities… I know the supercooled exhaust is there for reasons of physics (I assume) but it also nice retro-futuristic icing on the hovering cake. Premiers tests du skate à lévitation supraconductrice construit à l’université Paris Diderot-Paris7. Hey, that’s French for Back to the Future!

– Thanks to Andrew Wahl for the tip.

MC’s driftwood skateboard made an appearance in GVK #70. As Mark explained it, “I got the idea to make a skateboard out of driftwood.” Photos by Rich Burton, courtesy of Earth Patrol Media after the jump.

Well… RollingFoot from Japan sells these chairs made from skateboards or pieces made to look like skateboards, some custom fabricated legs and then, you know, skateboard trucks and wheels. The chair looks kind of cool but seems not very practical.. Seems like it would be annoying to actually use it as a chair. They also sell all kinds of wacky miniature and six-wheeled skateboards.

{Source: CrunchGear] – Thanks to Seth Levy for the tip.

This is actually the second grass board I’ve seen in this week. Billy Meiners made this as part of a design class project. Check out the grassboard in action after the jump.