…great for collectors, or sports bars don’t miss this one

NOS or not, $75 (shipping included) is too much for a plastic skateboard. Especially if you are just going to bolt to the wall of the local TGI Fridays knockoff. Still, it looks an awful lot like the first skateboard I ever set foot on. The listing says it’s a Marco Polo brand. That’s a new (old) one to me. I swear there must have been one mold for these yellow boards that a hundred different companies copied outright and made a slight modification for a different brand name.

OK, top picture first. Garage Manufacturing, the makers of Soft Trucks, also makes a wire rack that hangs over a door and holds several boards horizontally, plus one “go-to” board vertically. Not noteworthy except I liked the picture they used in the “natural environment” setting. With those Kiss and Farrah Fawcett posters there ought to be fiberglass GT boards in that quiver intead of modern popsicles. Look closely and you can see Farrah on a skateboard.

Lastly, aside from serving as a location to shoot Bratz commercials, Skatepark franchise Skatelab has teamed up with an artist called ZAZ (never heard of him/her/it) to sell skateboard bookshelves, pictureframes and the like at Target. under the name Skatelab Furniture. I’m not sure how they talked Target into it, considering they used to sell unbranded skateboard curios. Even Pottery Barn Kids used to do it. It’s not like Skatelab has huge brand recognition outside of their two locations and Concrete Disciples. There was a “news item” about it on Kids Today, turns out Skatelab has a few other licensing deals too.

Psst! Hey kid. Wanna see a titillating picture of Farrah Fawcett?

Police in Bournemouth England raided a garage and confiscated an illegal motorized skateboard offshoot. From the Timesonline (UK) article titled The skateboard that can top 45mph – and is illegal

The G-Wheel is widely advertised on the internet for about £499, but its sale is illegal in the UK. Tests on the seized machine revealed 15 serious faults, including an ineffective rear brake. Trading Standards officers say that the exhaust pipe can become dangerously hot and the plastic petrol tank leaks fuel over the pavement.

As the sour looking Sheila in middle can attest, the Wheelboard first appeared in Australia a few years back, and now can be found in Brazil and a host of other places importing them from China. I’ve even seen one on the outskirts of our local skatepark a few times, but the guy never had the stones to take onto the tranny, like his Brazilian brother at the top did.

Apparently, the Discovery Channel did a short feature on the downhill longboard scene in Canada, more specifically, the Rayne Longboards team and operation. I tried to find out some information on the context of the piece (what show was it on?) but the web site was mum. But they do sell a pintail longboard for some reason. That and those twisty boards. They would also like to recommend a jumping skateboard, or a Flowboard alternative skateboard. Turns out they’ll sell you anything but an actual, regulation length skateboard. Sorry, I got distracted. Watch the video for Discovery Channel’s take on downhill, including some extended Coleman slide action in the rain. Cliff needs to work on that web site. – Oh yeah, thanks to Skategeezer for the tip.

I didn’t have an appropriate cultural time machine sound bite reference for these boards like I did for the Max Headroom deck. I dunno, maybe I should have used “You can touch this.” A lot of 80’s and and even 70’s era boards have been reissued, but you don’t see too many from the dark ages. Or maybe you do, but I don’t. Here’s two circa 1991 from Foundation with the skinny from Swank himself:

Not a huge deal. Just some fun stuff. Eighteen years in business. That in itself is crazy. I like the mid modern shape to ride. It has a nose and tail and a melow concave. The OG seem to be popular to people from that era just to have one. I have been signing a handful. Very close to OG mold. The OG mold was a Prime wood and had a bump on the top for the arch of the foot. Brainchild of Rocco. Watson still has mold from back in the day. That place is a fricking museum. These are made here at WL in San Diego, USA. We have made some wide decks over the years but they mostly sat and my sales staff would not be siked on trying to sell. Whatever. We just keep them around for those few that wanted them.

I miss wheel wells sometimes. If you get yours, Tod can go back to concentrating on more important things like trying to top this.

Laurens Groenveld 566 consecutive kickflips beats the old world record of 563 held by someone who has already been long forgotten. He did the last 26 on a borrowed board after breaking a kingpin. All this while just trying to qualify for the Dutch leg of the Krux Kickflip Challenge. So says the guys in charge of the Norwegian skate site Tackyworld. I guess Laurens will be the heavy favorite at the Dutch Championships on the 9th of December in Amsterdam. Do you care? We would care more if NHS would send us some product. Right now it just looks like we’re on the Press Release Flow Team. Hey, that’s a great name for a skateboarding industry news site. I guess I meant to say Press Release Flow Team™.com

Not sure how I feel about this one. Although one of the twelve nominations, the skateboard was not one of the 2007 inductees to the National Toy Hall of Fame (Housed at Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY). This year’s winners are the Atari 2600 Game System, Raggedy Andy, and the Kite. Roller skates, and by extension, inline skates are already members, and so is the bicycle. Raggedy Anne was already in the Hall of Fame. Did you know the Hall used to be in Salem, Oregon? Yeah, me either. Dr. Brad, this G.I. Joe is for you!

[Source: Priced Nostalgia – pissed that My Little Pony didn’t get in! ]

Old Man Army lost a soldier named Grover a couple of weeks ago, and they put together a tribute:

He had a massive head injury due to a skating downhill a long time ago. He had massive brain seizures on a daily basis and it pretty much forced him to stop skating a few years back. Grover would still always show up at the park to yell at the riders and basically just heckel them..showing his support for our crew.

He drank a bottle of vodka and passed out. Since he was passed out he couldn’t take his medication and died while having a huge brain seizure.. Anyways, the Chandler crew came out in force to say goodbye to our long lost friend Grover..

Brain seizures kept him from skating, but he was still down for the session. That’s a love of skateboarding. Here’s a couple of pictures and the forum post if you want to pay your respects. Video tribute in the forum link or after the jump.