Our skate buddy Smay, the face of Rebel Skates for so many years, has been working with Knuckleheads clothing and they made a doll that they named after him. Where’s his little skateboard and does the doll have tattoos?

I got an email with some computer renders from Team Pain that made me think they were dabbling with some prefab skatepark elements:

Team Pain will be presenting their newest product line for the first time at the January 09 Surf Expo. Bringing a completely new feel to the show with some unique and artistic structures made from both hand poured concrete or solid steel! If you want to be one of the first to experience these new pieces, all you need to do is make it to the Expo and the course will be open to anybody who wants to skate.

I thought I’d get some more info before I made the post since there were bound to be questions. UPDATE: Added video.

Won’t your client’s logo look great printed on the skatepark? Or, we could take pictures of kids at the skatepark and then print the images on the skatepark, then we could get the kids to skate on it and take a picture of that… A method for printing digital images on concrete. Not much more info about this but I got it from Design Spotter.

I wish someone had posted this choking warning around the time I entered my first skateboard contest. Ouch! I found this after I followed MC’s link for the arts & craft skateboard. It’s the Razor Punk Ramp. It cracked me up that a launch ramp was a choking hazard. While searching for “punk ramp” images on Google, my story about the Punk Sucks Ramp showed up on page four.

While Bamboo skateboards might face a little bit of an uphill battle for your average gnar dog to accept, alternative wheel compounds might have an easier row to hoe. It’s a probable that most skaters don’t care what wheels are made out of as long as they work, whereas many skaters probably wouldn’t step on a bamboo board except to goof on it. Sector Nine has a line of wheels out called Biothane, which is made with some percentage of soy-based urethane. They don’t go into the specifics of the compound, but they do share a few statistics: The manufacturing process results in 36% smaller carbon footprint than traditional methods. In addition, their manufacturing process consumes 61% less non-renewable energy sources. Maybe they bake them in the sun. They seem to be in the same price range as the rest of their lineup. Sector Nine’s web site doesn’t appear to have anything on the wheels at the moment, but you can see the advert that ran in Transworld Business after the jump.

Ohio has a few renegade skateboard companies, including one called Sleezy Skates. In their own words:

homemade spray painted planks from the heart of southern ohio. skatopia lurkers. doin it fer the kids in the sticks!

These are a few of my favorites at the top. Although really crude, they have a large “body of work” that has definitely has an outsider art appeal. What more would you expect from the land of Skatopia and Devo? Check out Sleezy Skates.

It’s impossible for me to read read or type the words “Sick Boys” without instantly thinking of the Social Distortion tune. I’ve never actually seen the skate video titled “Sick Boys” but it was released in 1988, two years before the Social D. song was released, so who knows. The video Sick Boys was shot on Super 8mm film and released on VHS, and 20 years later it’s being rereleased on DVD. Watching the sequences of Natas will immediately bring to mind his Santa Cruz appearances, mostly because it’s at some of the same spots and the film quality is similar. There’s also that weird genre of Norcal acid rock music that you only hear in early Santa Cruz videos. It also features Tommy Guerrero, Mickey Reyes, Bryce Kanights, Mike Archimedes, Julien Stranger, Jim Thiebaud, Ron Allen, and Steve Caballero as well as shots of Christian Hosoi, Tony Magnusson, Eric Dressen, Danny Sargent, as well as other less famous names. It’s sounds like the skate video equivalent of unearthing King Tut’s tomb. That’s something I’d want to check into, or at the very least have sent to me for review. Opps. Did I say that out loud? It appears to be mostly street with a dash of vert. Every time I watch street skating form the late 80’s I’m reminded of how much fun it is.

You can watch the trailers after the jump plus a bonus video of Social Distortion playing Sick Boys live on a trailer at Cal State in 1990. And of course, check out the Sick Boys web site.

After probably a 30 year gap, there’s another Skitch Hitichock model out. This model made by Skate Designs looks like a pretty nice cruiser, complete with wheel wells. I want to say that Skitch the guy who invented the gorrila grip, but I’m not sure. Proceeds from the model will help Skitch with some life threatening medical needs. Video and pics of vintage Skitch after the jump.

– Thanks to Craig Snyder for the tip.

From the website:

Subhead Grip was founded by Jesse Milden. These products were inspired by years of riding skateboards and making custom grip tape designs.

Jesse grew up riding around the block in Los Angeles. He has continued riding in Oregon, New York, Boston and now Seattle.

Subhead Grip is designed and manufactured in Seattle, WA.

$12 a pack (12 skulls for example or 4 strips with whales) – why didn’t we think of that? The website says they do custom orders! Came across this on Boing Boing

In case you didn’t read the comments on the previous custom board graphics post, JF pointed out the Board Pusher website. They have a much better range of sizes and shapes and are skate-centric. I wonder how the quality compares.