SBA actually stands for, wait for it… Skate Board Association. Despite an incredibly pedestrian name, the idea behind it is somewhat interesting. It’s another skateboarding league with a couple differences. Coed teams compete against each other, and everybody gets paid something, even if they don’t make the podium. Now I have to admit, I assume these are differences, because I pay zero attention to the ins and outs of the other skateboarding competitions. Seeing a coed team of skateboarders compete against other coed teams is something I’d watch least once. Who is paying for this and what are their motives? Some investors, including Professional basketball player and former skateboarder Gary Payton II.

– Thanks to Will Powers for the tip.

Reposting this because I can relate to the story of starting a skateboard company out of a garage. I can relate to all of it, except the part where the company is successful… From Blockhead Dave:

Wow! Has it really been 40 years since I screen-printed my very first batch of skateboards in my parents’ garage?  It was late spring 1985, I was fresh from a screen printing class at Sierra College, and had never printed more than 1 or 2 of anything. 

I had 60 red Streetstyle boards manufactured by Uncle Wiggley and I was nervous as hell, but no choice but to just go for it. I pulled the squeegee over and over again, honing my skills as I went along, then I laid each board in the driveway to dry, since I hadn’t built any racks yet. Well, I made it happen, and there were 60 skateboards with my art and my company name on them and just like that I was in business! 

You can get on elf the limited Streetstyles in old school or the new school hole patterns starting Wednesday (9/24) at noon PST

It’s time for another installment of crap Commodore 64 skateboarding games, and this time I’m showing Skatin’ USA, a 1990 release by Atlantis Software, a UK company that would go out of business in 1992 after an 8 year stint. It looks like the premise of the game is an American kid on a skateboard battling English Punks. Seems like those two parties ought be be natural allies and not enemies!

The Thrasher edition is undeniably the coolest Polaroid camera I’ve seen. This is no easy feat as their cameras already had an appealing, iconic design. No two are exactly the same because the graphics are manually applied through hydro dipping. Despite that hand touch they are priced the same as their standard Gen 3 cameras. You might be thinking that you can’t really take skate photos with a Polaroid camera, but there’s sort of a workaround for that.

Blik is selling self-adehesive vinyl wall art with Keith Haring’s skateboard drawing. You would be forgiven if you thought this was just art done in his style and approved by his estate, but he did indeed draw this when he was still alive. This version has been cleaned up and given a different color way. Turns out now there are several color waysand line variations of this artwork being sold in various types of prints in “open editions” now.

Yes those are two different eras in the post title, but it totally makes sense. For $479 you can buy a skateboard with some 3D printed plastic panels glued onto it and then spray painted in what counts as “over 12 hours of 3D printing and meticulous hand-finishing.” Yes, that face is the face you should be making if someone tries to convince you this is worth almost $500, but you can get yours from Gimme Hoop in one of 3 finishes. If you buy one, friends will ask where you found it and admire your taste.

I can’ get enough of these Cold War era Russian skateboards. Here’s a board from 1986 courtesy of a cat named Jah Fish of Facebook. Translated text says the price was 26 Rubles, or about $34 possibly, according to some speculation found in various discussion on the internet. It’s impossible to say because you could not legally trade Rubles for dollars then. I have no idea what the buying power of 26 Rubles would be other than this skateboard. I’ve seen sources claim average monthly income in Russia would have been anywhere from 190 to 266 Rubles, so this skateboard would have cost about 12% – 14% of that.

These aren’t the first Devo skateboards, there was a possible bootleg as well as an official model from Globe circa 2008, although I never actually saw them for sale anywhere. It’s all moot now, as we dance the pool to these six new official Devo decks you can pre-order a the official Devo merch site. Five of the boards feature art based on the first 5 album covers I can see omitting Smooth Noodle Maps and even Total Devo but what about Shout! and definitely Something for Everyone? Oh yes, we have to mention the truly devolved Energy Dome model! All the boards feature different top graphics as well. These look great, and they should because they cost $120 (!) each except for the Energy Dome model, which is $150.

Another board from the old Canadian company Dominon. It’s no Rood Dood, but it’s still kind of interesting. This one almost looks like they licensed the likeness of Looney Tunes character The Road Runner. Who knows maybe they did. There’s an artist signature that looks something like T. Pailot or T. Millot, and other small text that could be a copyright, but doesn’t look like it says Warner Brothers.

– Thanks to Blis Jo Toen for the pics.

The orange-faced turd with a combover that sits in the Whitehouse thinks Portland is “Like living in hell” and has hinted he may send the National Guard here. Meanwhile, Portland does not give a toss what that jackass thinks, and we all remember what happened the last time he sent unmarked, masked police to randomly kidnap people off the streets. That truly was like living in a dystopian hell. Get bent Donny. This “Portland is what me make it” sign is in the window at Crafty Wonderland in their Alberta Street location, and has been for a few years. It’s kind of a reverse Portlandia episode, instead of “Put a bird on it” it’s “Put a skateboard on it.”