It’s been about 4 years since Skate and Annoy mentioned Fruit Shoot, but they’ve been shredding it up while our eyes were averted. They’ve got a YouTube channel that “…is the place to get all your info on Skills, whether you’re a football freestyler, a skater, a BMX flatlander, a dancer, or an urban gymnast.” I know skateboarders and Urban Gymnasts have historically been at odds with each other, vandalizing each other’s hal pipes and parallel bars, but the time has come to live peacefully amongst the larger Extreme!® community. To help you uncover your skills they’ve unlisted the talents of skateboarding pro (?) Stefani Five-O. They’ve fixed a series of skateboarding tutorials that she hosts. She actually skates in some of the basic ones, but hands off the more difficult moves to an accomplice. I guess she’s no Nikki Rose Quinlan. Who is she? You can meet her in a video bio. Up top is a screen capture from the Netherlands version of the Fruit Shoot web site. Skateboarding tutorials with Stefani and a couple TV commercials after the jump.

– Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

This is a curious product. I imagine it came into being via a discussion about the quickest way to cash in on a fad while spending the least amount of money. They must have thought the very clean design and sharp top graphic would fool an unsuspecting customer into thinking this was an actual skateboard, and if you glance at it sideways and squint your eyes, it look s good. The strangest thing is that the Starter Skate allegedly comes out of England in the 70’s. We’re talking England in the 70s, not Soviet Russia in the 60’s. I asked Neil about it, he said he’d never seen one before. The UK had much better crappy skateboard technology, so this one is puzzling. I’ve seen boards with fixed wheels passed off as skateboards before, but never with such presentation. This one sold for about $50, and the fact that anyone bought it at all is no doubt in large part due to the very nice pictures the seller provided. This looks like a prop from a Back to the Future movie if McFly traveled to Nazi Germany.

Tony Hawk loves movies and he’s going to talk about it for some reason, most likely because the folks at Fandango asked him to. They’d also like to remind you of his foundation. i guess movie theaters are having a hard go of things. I hear two large ones in NE portland at the mall are shutting down. I just caught the latest Mad Max in the theater, and holy cow… It’s an amazing addition to the series, doing the franchise much more justice than the Beyond the Thunderdome. The first two will always be flawed but “best,” However, Fury Road is insane. Now that I’ve done my part for the industry (freee of charge no less, and don’t forget about my foundation), click through to hear Tony talk about The Spy Who Loved Me and The Naked Gun.

We ridicule a lot of so-called skateboard improvements here on S&A, but here’s one that actually could be useful for a select subset of skateboarders who already use riser pads. Why not have the option to stash “something” in your risers or pop in a mount that holds your Go Pro? That’s probably the biggest seller right there, one that I’m surprised GoPro doesn’t already offer. I wonder if it’s similar to the setup they use on the Sony Action Cam. If you want to buy them you can fund their Indiegogo campaign. They are also trying to fund a much less novel idea in the form of another clear skateboard. I guess it’s worth noting that the deck is made from bulletproof glass, so if there’s a drive-by shooting you can hide behind it.

If you’re not in Riccione, Italy, you can watch it here on S&A on Saturday, May 29th and Sunday May, 30th. Skateboarding, live bands, etc. I believe it is being co-hosted by Jim Gray and Jeff Grosso… Click through for the live stream and a preview.

During the finale of Men in Blazers they aired a TV commercial for the Mini Cooper Countryman featuring Tony Hawk hauling his kids out to a waterpark in the middle of the desert. While trying to find the commercial online saw that he had ditched Jeep and signed some sort of extended agreement with Mini USA last year, appearing in several videos. And thanks to longtime contributor Matthijs, I also had some pictures of a weird MINI Skater, which is small skateboard with a built in strap binding produced by the Mini Cooper parent company some time around 2002. And just when you thought you couldn’t get enough MINI skateboard action, MINI released some augmented reality glasses that pair with your MINI to provide enhanced safety and visibility. I am not making this up! Whenever there’s a need to illustrate dangerous pedestrian (no driving) behavior, you can bet you’ll find a skateboard or two, and even a dog.

Visited the new Grindline bowl on Vashon island over the Memorial Day weekend, great session with some Seattle veterans, amazing bowl. Here’s a short video I put together, enjoy …

Weapons of Mass Construction. This is a great graphic and shape from Wouldshop. These hand-crafted, screen printed boards are priced to sell, and available in other shapes too.

– Via Clayton Graul

Lactantia smart milk from Canada. Is that a missing skateboarder? Lactantia sounds like the name of a villainess in a Russ Meyer film.

– Thanks to Kevin Live (Yes, I’m cleaning out my inbox)

This image came from TheTruth.com about a year ago. Another installment in the car as skateboard series, or in this case, model truck. Must have a skateboarder in charge of this setup, because instead of a straight 50-50 grind they went with an alley-ooo.

– Thanks to Kevin Live for the tip, last year.