Balance boards? Ok, they can be fun indoors if it’s raining. I suppose they actually do help your balance skills. Enter the iJoy, a motorized balance board. This decade’s mechanical bull or just plain old bull? The illustration of the “bad Idea” is from the product’s owner’s manual. Nice use of lowercase “i” to imply it’s somehow internet/iPod related.

Product Page [copped from ConcreteWaveMagazine.com]

This summer has seen a bumper crop of pools in the Portland area. There must be a lot because even I know about them. The last time I rode this many pools in such a short time period was shortly before I dropped out of school. Since I can’t post the pics of the pools that are still going, you can see some highlights of my poor decision in the late 80’s.

It’s almost here! Can’t wait? Click the pic or follow this link way too many photos of the 2005 Oregon Trifecta. Rumor has it that Christian Hosoi might be one of the judges. I’m eagerly anticipating getting to see him rip up our local spots in between judging duties, aren’t you? It makes me feel like a dork that I’m that excited by it. In any case, let’s hope they let me in this year! After criticizing last years’ event on this web site I got an angry email from promoter Choppy Omega and a concerned phone call from Volcom big wig Remy Stratton. If Dave Duncan decides to call me out on the mic I’ll have to remind them of the three pages of positive coverage I got published in Concrete Wave magazine. Also on the prowl at the Trifecta will be Earth Patrol Media shooting for the upcoming documentary on female skaters. BTW – That’s Dave Reul at Lincoln City and Tim Johnson at West Linn in the photos above.

After the initial excitement died down over the figure eight with a metal full pipe crossover being built by Grindline in Dillon MT, some people began to speculate about the feasability of placing concrete over a metal full pipe. Basically, the thought was that the pipe would be too flexible and cause premature cracking, possibly falling apart. Set your fears aside because it looks like there is already one case where it has worked. The public skatepark in Lancaster County PA has a “unique pipe, which is a marriage of half-inch-thick steel over shotcrete, is the only one of its kind in the United States.” So there you have it.

The Slasher has a new model on the Santa Cruz Veterans Division. I guess they are going to stick with it after all. Looks like a good shape, though the graphic certainly reminds one of a certain Rick “Spidey” DeMontronde board. See them both after the jump. The press release also mentions an upcoming SantaCruz video titled V-Day “which traces the influence and contributions of Santa Cruz Vets Eric Dressen, Tom Knox, Jason Jessee to the skateboarding community.” Meek’s web page & bio is still M.I.A. from the Santa Cruz Skateboards web site.

The plot thickens! Digging a little deeper than the not-so-skateboard-obsessed Gizmodo, I came across the UK based parent company for the USurfer. (U Suffer? Har har..) named Urban Mover. Remember the BMW Streetcarver? Well apparently Urban Mover does. They offer not one, but two models based on Streetcarver over-engineering.

No more kicking on that skateboard to get you around! Try the new environmental and pocketbook friendly transportation.

Err.. yeah. Whatever. Yet another electric skateboard enters the market. Taking design cues from it’s gasoline powered brethren, the Urban Surfer has an ugly wad stuck on the tail of an otherwise stock looking mountain board. $1200 Australina or about $700 USD. If you are going to go electric you stand less of a chance looking like a dork on one of these. USurfer might have better endurance though. Someone over at Gizmodo.com used to skate. They like to cover this stuff now and then with the familiar air of “I used to skateboard as a teenager until I fell off and broke my arm.”

Video – Product Page [Extreme(!) Toys for Boys, via Gizmodo]

Not blowing out anything here man. This was found on a public forum over at a place called F R O N T S I D E G R I N D The home of old school Kiwi skating circa ’73-now! Follow the link for more pictures of a pretty unique looking find. Not sure what’s up with the site besides the forum as the top level domain appears to be a generic webhosting thing. Photos from a post by a forum user named CPS.

There’s nothing getting passed by 240 lbs of skater on 57 inch longboard going 29mph. It happened to me. I ws on a respectable longboard at Mt Tabor getting speed wobbles so I stood up, and all of the sudden I get passed by Steve Grover on a turn with generic bearings and wheels about about 2/3rds of my diameter. Portland park locals know to stay out of his way in the bowls, but now you’ve got to look out on the hills too! Photo courtesy of Ryan Hass.

Not much going on there lately. Check out some pics that Mark Conahan took from a vantage point I was too lazy to investigate. Leave to Mr. artsy-fartsy.