I received more spam from Chinese skateboard manufacturer. Not very remarkable except for a few things. The first thing I noticed was a picture of an assembly line for completes. Are those children or small women on the line? Look at the shot of the factory. I swear those are soldiers guarding the entrance to the plant. Also interesting, you can buy blanks for under $6. American skateboard manufacturing is doomed.

Just look at what Reedsport looks like these days. Just kidding. I shot this totally skateable rock at the Oregon coast over the weekend and added the skater shot by Rich Burton this morning. I put a couple more shots on AGP.

Gnar Gnar from Krooked Skateboards, circa 2007. This is a limited edition VHS from the Gonz and his boys at Krooked. The entire video is filmed using VHS Camcorders. There are rumored to be only 1,000 copies on the market. You might be able to find one on eBay for around $50.00+ or so at this point. The video is great in my opinion! Each of the skater’s parts are interesting, and you can tell they were filmed on the fly. It sort of beckons to the days of making homemade skate videos with your friends. Bring back DIY to skateboarding!

Do you want to see a dead guy skate vert? (I don’t mean Ben Pappas. ) Gunther von Hagens looks more like a character in a bad movie than he does a scientist, but he started the Institute for Plastination to preserve bodies in clear plastic. His latest traveling exhibition is called Body Worlds 3 and it features a creepy looking skateboarder inverted. Is that a frontside invert? You can even buy posters of a dead guy skating vert, and I don’t mean Jeff Phillips.

No these aren’t more laser cut skateboards again, but a few house cleaning links to skateboard art, including a Paul Schmitt program at a technical school, embroidered skateboards, and one show in Kansas that looks like it was held in Twin Peaks.

Sometimes you skate a pile of crap, not because you have to, but because it’s fun. OK, only about enough fun for five minutes.

Keeping in mind that some kinks need to be worked out… is this design more or less annoying than it used to be? Comments? Suggestions?

Less than breaking news I need to clear off of the hard drive. People have been motorizing skateboards since the 70’s. Most of those contraptions resulted in big clunky boards, but someone has moved the motor off the board. This is the Skate Scepter, what the inventor calls a “Motorized Skater Assist.” Basically, it’s a weed eater that pushes you on your board. To be fair, they appear to be well designed. They even have a disk brake! Might be fun to goof around with, but not for the kind of scratch that they cost. You can check the web site for pictures and video. And, because these type of companies tend to go out of business quickly. I’ve archived aome pictures for posterity. [Source: Absolute Gadget]