My wife picked this up at Target for about $10. She buys things for me all the time with the understanding that I usually return them after photographing them, but it looks like this guy has found a permanent home here. It’s kind of weird looking and causes a lot of double takes from visitors. The “09” stands for 2009, as these things are supposed to be limited editions, but it with the helmet it makes him look like a football player holding a skateboard he stole from some skatepunk he beat up. Ah, nostalgia. Enlarge-o-rama. Alternate view after the jump.

I’ve been contemplating some designs for skate spots in my head lately. One idea that I’ve had for a while consists of parallel tracks of wave like bumps varying in frequency and staggered side by side. Watching this video was both disappointing (because it’s kind of been done) and validating at the same time. It looks pretty great for found terrain, but if it was built for skating I’d lie to see the tracks staggered and directly adjacent. I have to applaud the length of these things though, they certainly didn’t skimp on the concrete.

– Thanks to our resident secret bike spy in the house, Mike Estes.

Update: Added some actual skate footage too.

My inbox has been flooded with protests and requests that I ban the entity known as Daddy Yo. It’s not worth all the drama and distraction, and so I am taking the easy way out and reinstating the Daddy Yo ban. You can follow Daddy Yo at his own blog which I assume is going to dedicated to the patent on his mountainboard hybrid. The innovation here is supposed to be that the trucks are mounted on the upturned nose and tail, although I swear I’ve already seen this before, recently, and at the very least, on the Wheelee Board. I couldn’t find the actual patent online, but Michael was kind enough to send me the text from the application.

We had a sparse couple of days this week, so I thought I should do another Saturday Starrs, Digging into the Scott Starr archives this week for a segment from a news feature show called Evening Magazine that originally aired in 1983, two years from the release of the Bones Brigade Video Show. Peralta was one smart cookie. I’m sure he engineered getting this thing on air. There’s about the same amount of footage of Stacy talking about Rodney as there is actual footage of Rodney. Two points of interest: This is possibly the first public video evidence of the flatground ollie, and Rodney Mullen sounds a little like Michael Jackson in these clips. Listen to the squeaking of those truck bushings.

Check out a few skateable features at the The Julliard School of Music in New York, NY designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects. Courtesy of SpaceInvading.

– Thanks to Skate D for the tip.

BBQ at Toxic Skatein Vancouver, Washington on Saturday the 5th. Sponsored by Merde and Bacon.

Thing is, I get distracted easily, and to me, the internet is like a strobe light for epileptics. While trying to track down a copy of the Carvells L.A. Run, I accidentally learned about a Danish relic from the past known as Mabel. These guy look like a bunch of Rod Stewart clones from the Hot Legs era. never heard of them? I guess they didn’t make it that far out of Denmark. Turns out it’s not that expensive to get 7″ vinyl records from Sweden, where I ended up getting this one. I got the hideous cover on the bottom right, which is so bad that it’s actually better than the understated one, which is a full length album. There’s also a Japanese version of the Skateboard Rider single, but the only place is turns up on the internet is a postage stamp sized dead link on someone’s very extensive Mabel fan page. Calling 1978.

Illinois’ legendary skatespot known as the Elgin pipes, named after the town of Elgin where they resided. Legends, myths and truths trickled throughout the Midwest like.. oh I don’t know, hazardous chemicals leaching into the water table? Here’s a few I remember, located next to a mental hospital, someone was murdered there, spikes welded on to keep skaters out… the list goes on. This is Michael Hammecker with a tail stall to nose grab. Let’s hear some Elgin pipes stories. Enlarge-o-rama.