Amid property damage and serious injuries in today’s earthquake in Napa Valley, leave it to skateboarders to find some joy. From Twitter user Dudley Storey.

This slightly frightening, oddly surreal thing is a Smooshie from Fisher Price, circa 1987. A lot of toys have weird little adapters to enable the figure to stand on a skateboard, but this one is the most convoluted. It’s like an infant exersaucer attached to a skateboard, or some kind of toilet training seat. This sexually ambiguous creature in a dress is allegedly a boy.

Dave Bergthold started Blockhead skateboards in his garage in 1985. Since then he’s had a kid, worked on the TV show Built to Shred and had a minor relaunch of Blockhead handful of years ago. While there are bigger plans for the Blockhead brand in the works, Bergthold just is launching a new project called the Skate Crate via Kickstarter. It’s an updated version of the fruit crate scooter, the forefather of the skateboard. It’s essentially a vintage styled cruiser with a removable crate and handle bars attached. There are three graphics available, blue you have the option to design and build your own. Because it’s a Kickstarter project, there are some cool incentives to donate, including Blockhead t-shirts and a great looking cruiser in it’s own right.

And that is something I don’t want to catch. Anthrax skateboard shaped patch, circa late 80’s, possibly early 90’s. What’s up with that deck shape? Nostalgia costs $15. Bring the noise.

I have a half-assed collection of (photos of) “No Skateboarding” signs that I have been accumulating over the years, but I haven’t doe anything with them yet. I accidentally stumbled on MySecuritySigns.com which has a surprisingly wide variety of ways in which you can say no. They also sell signs for skateparks as well, with helmet rules, skate at your own risk, etc… But the adversarial choices are much broader. There’s even a helpful little section on liability. You need more signs.

There’s something about the tactile quality of these old, molded magnets that is really pleasing. Most of the ones I’ve ever seen were molded in the shape of a state or a tourist attraction. As a kid I ate a metric ton of Freakies cereal, and collected a lot of Freakies character magnet that sometimes came as the toy in the box. This Skateboard Happy magnet dates to the same era, a time when there must have been a lot of anger in the sport. Paying 10 bucks for this would make me angry though.

This tin sign is the perfect gift for any youngster that enjoys skateboarding. There’s no better way to encourage a free spirit by squashing their youthful enthusiasm!

MC tipped me off to these photos of a skatepark in Hirschgarten. It’s got a weird stadium vibe too it, like something you’d see as the sport of future in a sci-fi movie. The park looks like it would be a lot of fun, but the most interesting architectural aspect is unfortunately, effectively skate stoppered. It would be a nightmare of loose boards falling into the main bowl, but it seems such a shame to build something so inherently skate able, something that is part of an actual skateboarding facility, and then stick a railing in front of it. Top photo is via Klaus Leidorf on Flickr, and the bottom two were found on IanClairdge.net.

Dead at 53 from a heart attack, as reported by Fox Sports, among others. Catch a 2008 Interview with Jay after the jump.

Photo: Glen E. Friedman

Ah the good old days when you got dropped of at the skatepark by you mom, pulled your skate bag out of the trunk, pulled up your rainbow kneepads and got radical. Vintage vinyl skateboard bag, £20 courtesy of Ebay.