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]

The first skateboard I ever rode came from Sears. My dad bought it for my mom at a Sears catalog outlet store. At the time, Midland Michigan wasn’t big enough for an actual Sears store. Instead, we had a small shop with a few displays of smaller objects you could buy on spot, and a counter that you would go to to look at the Sears catalog, pay for what you wanted, and pick it up when it arrived. One saturday the family made a trip there and my mom became infatuated with a stand of Roller Derby brand banana boards. They looked just like board “B” above, only yellow. My father, being infatuated with my mother, decided to buy it for her. I think it was $14.99.

That pool shot looks real. Quick, what’s wrong with these pictures? Check out this hardcore documentary after the jump. Skateboarding was never the same again.

It’s over folks. we have skateboarding in PE classes and now high school skateboarding teams that travel and compete against each other. Read all about in a Thousand Oaks Acorn article titled High school skateboarding teams gearing up for inaugural season or this identical article with different title (High schools set to battle for skateboarding supremacy) and pictures. The real question is, will they have cheerleaders? Awesome! Update: The Acorn just doesn’t quit! Here’s the same article again, with a different title. Local skateboarders finally have a league to call their own. Rosie O’Donnell should be proud.

A few details at Skaters for Portland Skateparks.