Phone companies love skateboarding. Might even be a real action photo and not a posed shot. What’s up with that claw hand? Somewhere in L.A.. – Thanks to Kilwag’s mom for the pic.

Qool, by Joan Cornella. – Thanks to MC for the tip.

Sector 9’s new Schlepp Tote kinda sorta did something cool with the wheels. It almost looks like a real skateboard wheel, but not quite. It’s hard to tell in the photo, but the lathing looks weird and the axle nut is funky. They should have just used a standard wheel and an axle with the same lock nut used on a truck. Yeah, yeah, expenses…

This is a cool old tracker shirt. Producing halftones was a mechanical process back in the day. It took skill and training to be able to do it correctly. Not sure if this is 70’s or 80’s era. Probably early 80’s at the latest.

Insta-Ledge is a system of portable, skateable ledges in modular lengths of 4 feet. Sure, you could go skate somewhere else, but Instaledge definitely has some potential benefits. Suppose there’s a great spot you’d like to skate without actually destroying some artfully built ledge. Say it was covered with ceramic tiles, (or skate stoppers) you could still skate it, potentially without drawing the wrath of security. OK, most likely not. It could still help you in situations where skate stoppers were just too burly to overcome. Some might argue that it’s a bit like using copers, or Z-roller trucks. What’s the point if you can’t skate the actual terrain? I don’t really have an argument to counter that. Insta-Ledge is at the very least, a very smart solution to a problem that might not exist. Why do organizations use skate stoppers? In the promo video there’s a spot where the ledge has had uniform notches gauged into it at regular intervals, clearly after the fact, and designed to do what? Keep skateboarders from ruining the look of the steps? Too late. Is it for insurance liability reasons or to prevent damage to architecture? Just to keep people from having fun.…

I have no idea what this pin is supposed to mean. It’s an 80’s era pin, possibly early 90’s. Maybe the 40 down the drain is for your dead homies? All I know for sure is that the first thing I thought of when I saw the weird face on the skateboarder was the movie They Live. Sigh… R.I.P. Rowdy Roddy Piper.

It’s weird 1920’s swimsuit evil landlord villain surfing on a skateboard. He first made an appearance on the packaging for Trickray wheels. This time it’s a fiberglass Mark IV skateboard deck, large enough to make out the artist’s signature – Pfister. I’m not sure if this Mark IV is another Trickray product or if this illustration was just passed around. I seem to recall posting another instance of it but I can’t find it.

This is the cover of the 2015-2016 CharmTV sponsorship brochure. CharmTV is a local channel all about Baltimore, which explains why I found out about this via that Skatepark of Baltimore advocate Stephanie Murdock. And here I thought Simon Woodstock was living on the west coast.

Foster Hunting (and friends) built a three tree, two level treehouse and a cement bowl to boot. This is the Northwest. The Cinder Cone is located in Skamania, Washington. It’s named after the debris that accumulates in a hill downwind from a volcanic vent. He’s documented the entire process for a book he’s publishing through Kickstarter. He raised almost 80k, well over his initial goal of $30,000. That ought to go a long way towards recouping some of the costs of building. Remember, that’s not all profit, printing costs probably account for the lion’s share of that money. The Kickstarter window is closed, but you can still preorder the book here for $35, which is only $5 more than it was during the early funding Kickstarter phase. The treehouse seems to be the main focus of the book, but the bowl construction does feature as well. I’ve got my own much smaller treehouse bowl project in my back yard. Right now it’s stalled at the treehouse part. I want to join this cult. [Source: Curb Cut]

You’d think with all the amazing skateparks, backyard bowls and DIY terrain here in Oregon that there ought to be amazing skateboarders getting national coverage. It’s a shame, no an outrage that… Wait. What? Never mind. Here’s Frank Shaw killing it, as usual. Highlights? All of it really, but I like the appearance of venerable old Pier Park that starts about the 2:40 mark.