In this edition of counterfeits we have a fake Brand-X deck. The original team deck from 1987 was designed by silkscreen-artist Bernie Tostenson. In the late seventies and early eighties Bernie was working for Sims where he created the famous ‘Winged logo’ and Brad Bowman’s ‘Superman logo’. In 1984 he and Bud (a photographer and salesman) started Brand-X. They ran the underground company for about 5 years illegally  from Bernie’s garage, where Bernie did all those crazy silkscreens. He said these were the happiest years of his life and they had fun, while the big companies destroyed the soul of skateboarding. In 1988 Brand-X made a partnership with one of their distributors and did well for about one year, but the story goes that the new partner stole the Brand-X name, fired the whole crew and amateur team, hired cheap artists and screeners and let the company die in only a few months. Bernie still designed for Flip in the nineties. He died in 2009. For sale at 2dehands.be. [Sources: Disposable 1 and 2 by Sean Cliver]

This crazy thing doesn’t need much explanation. It’s a bootleg of a Powell Peralta Mike Mcgill ‘Skull and Snake’ with snakeskin background from 1986 or 1987 and  it even has wheel wells, where the original one (seen on right) doesn’t. The original artist is of course VCJ and I guess you could say that the counterfeiter made a pretty nice ‘interpretation’ of VCJ’s work, although the ‘skating fox with slippers’ on the topside has nothing to do with the ripper or any of the Powell graphics. For sale on Ebay. Thanks to Sara Raso for the pics.

In this edition of Bootleg Boards we have a Denny Riordon bootleg. Kryptonics used this graphic in 1988 for Denny’s first street deck. Later that year, after Kryptonics reincarnated into Toxic, they released a seemingly identical shaped Rordion deck with a slightly different ‘people in my head’ design. In 1990 the head popped up a third time on a Toxic Riordon freestyle deck. Maybe whoever copied that deck thought it was a very popular design, although the ripoff we have here was clearly based on the first version of the graphic. Even the skull with the dagger on the top side reminds me of the Ripstik and mid to late eighties Kryptonics decks or maybe it’s because their boards looked kinda cheap as well. Sold on Ebay for $15 on a Buy It Now.

This month’s counterfeit is a Street Warrior with a top side that bears a strong resemblance to a Per Welinder, courtesy of a French auction site. The bottom side looks like a knock off of a sideways glance at a Nash board, or a 7-Up advert. – Thanks to David Maes for the tip.

The live stream from the Vans BOWL-A-RAMA™ in Wellington, NZ starts Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. PST and goes to 9 p.m. PST. There’s an embed of the live stream after the jump. I’m sure there will be commercials and whatnot, but hopefully it works. I heard last year’s was pretty good.

Another frankenramp creation, Barnside (unofficial name) is somewhere in the Kansas City area. Four videos after the jump. Chin Ramp indeed. – Thanks to Dave Campbell for the tip.

Down in the basement! Although if this was in my basement it would be a different story. Check out this incredibly tight (transitioned) mini bowl in Nate Latimer’s basement.

Kevin Kowalski’s backyard skate complex featured on ESPN.com. Stick around for the end as Kevin extends an invitation that you see him instantly regret as the video fades to black.

I was at the DOS bowl a couple months ago and noticed a rack on the wall with a few boards up there, more than there were people there. It was almost like one of those bowl of pennies at the store counter. The D.O.S. Bowl in Portland was full up over the summer, but now there are a few open spots in the membership roster, just in time for the rainy season. The facilities are clean and just like the Ramones sang, There was (is) beer in the soda machine.

After a few making a few DIY spots in Zurcih, Switzerland, the September Wheels crew decided to build a bowl, which they christened “The Beast.” You can watch the process (16 minutes) after the jump or check out some pics on blogspot.