Never mind the questionable corporate merchandising tie-in and issues of sweat-shop assembly, this Lightning McQueen child’s skateboard looks just the right size for your toddler skateboarder. But the thing barely turns and is really slow. We learned why when dad swapped out the wheels, Hey! Those aren’t bearings at all! They just molded some plastic into a rough precision-bearing shape. I suppose it’s a good thing that the wheels and bearings could be replaced, the reproduction was accurate enough for that. What do you want for $25 right? Dang, those Disney marketing folks are such assholes!

Grove City, Ohio? I thought this was a weird rendering of a concept when I saw it on The Concretins. But photos of people skating the thing can be found on this site. It needs to be bigger. Someone needs to get a shot of 4 people hitting inverts on the various walls of this thing at the same time.

Meeting about Gabriel Park design June 26 details at Skaters for Portland Skateparks. Pictured is Airspeed’s preliminary design. They should have a revised scheme at the meeting. Be there to provide feedback. Community Open House Tuesday, June 26, 7:00-8:30pm Multnomah Arts Center, 7688 SW Capitol Hwy Portland, OR

Yesterday I was checking out Tim Kulas’ new bowl progress at Bowl Surgeon. I noticed Tim had a few computer renders of his work in progress. I was surprised by the high-tech at first, given his philosophy of dumpster diving for the majority of his wood. Then I learned it was done with some free 3D software called Google SketchUp. It inspired me to download it and work out a sketch for an idea I have for some home improvement on my garage. Originally I had dreams (delusions, really) of tearing down my small garage and re-pouring the foundation to make it wider, and adding a second story for a mini ramp. Besides money, the biggest drawback is the massive pine tree (bigger in scale than the picture above) about 5 feet away from the back corner. I couldn’t reliably dig up the sidewalk that separates the garage from the tree. I don’t want to damage the tree. It’s gigantic and I don’t want it falling on my house. It’s already causing the sidewalk to the back alley to buckle up a little. Tim’s approach and free software inspired me to have a look at tearing off the existing roof…

Team Pain Skateparks sent in some pictures of a magnificent looking new skate facility they recently finished for Eastern Skateboard Supply in Wilmington, NC.. Eastern is the largest skateboard distributor on the East coast and is owned and operated by former Walker pro Reggie Barnes. The bowl is probably one of the biggest on the East Coast. The first week the park opened it hosted a demo with the Plan B team along with a handful of other pros. I’m just looking at those pictures and I can smell the birch! More pictures and Reggie Barnes after the jump.

– Thanks to Kathleen for the tip Update: From Kilwag – I had to make an addition to Mark’s post. Usually I’m hands off but in this case, for the sake of continuity and timeline, I’ve added a cartoon titled How Electric Skateboards Really Work after the jump.

Tilt Mode! from Tilt Mode Army, circa 2000. Tilt Mode Army is a group of skaters out of San Jose, California. The videos are the mastermind of Matt Eversole, Chris Avery and Jesse Erikson, with help from NC Clothing. The Tilt Mode videos seem to be more about having a good time with friends rather than landing a single trick after fifty tries, which makes the video stand out from all the others out there. A lot of companies now-a-days could learn a lesson from these guys.

Skateboarding dogs, monkeys and pigs are for the birds. Haw haw! His name is Tony Parakeet. Get it? Get it? Yuck yuck. This small bird does little more than perch on a fingerboard while the owner, dare I say trainer moves the board into position to roll down inclines or rail slide (extreme cave-man style) down a railing. they even set up a few ramps and ledges so the bird naturally maneuvers into a tail slide through sheer gravity. Low impact fun. Hey vid-heads, is this a section from a larger video? Watch it after the jump on embedded LiveVideo. Speaking of embedded video, does anyone else find the new YouTube interface intrusive and annoying? Seems like it kooks up web browser performance too.