The Olympics came and went without the chatter surrounding the initial inclusion to the games in 2020. NBC featured a few seconds of skateboarding in TV commercials and yet they didn’t seem to promote it much otherwise. I watched quite a bit of the events split between about 5 different channels terrestrial TV, but only managed to catch the women’s park finals despite having the TV on in background and scouring the channels regularly. Someone in programming decided show a metric tonne of handball, filed hockey and water polo instead. I imagine it was easily accessible streaming via Peacock, but I wasn’t interested enough to look for it. One thing that I did notice this time around was the lift on the ban of skateboard brand names on the graphics of the board. In any case, this concludes my essay on Skateboarding in the Olympics, except to say that Tech Deck released a bunch of 2024 Paris Olympic fingerboards, including a few sets with obstacles. One of those sets was for Sky Brown, who actually won a bronze medal.

Just when you thought Tech Deck has had run its course. Shredline 360 is a motorized turntable with swappable obstacles that is 20″ in diameter when fully assembled. It’s a little small and janky looking for the serious fingerboarder, but I can imagine a little kid getting stoked about this and spending a lot of time with it. Yes, I am aware that I used the term “serious fingerboarder” without irony.

I’m surprised it has taken this long for Tech Deck to release longboard style fingerboards. Actually, I could have sworn they had a limited release of some already. This time they are upping the ante by introducing more longboard-centric models like pintails and drop boards. They even go out of the way to show the flex. Finglonger not required. Video after the jump. – Thanks to Greg Baller for the tip.

Bryce Kanights on Halloween as Steve Zissou from the Life Aquatic, and “Splinter the oceanographer” from Tech Deck Dudes. Bryce photo courtesy of EPM’s Halloween 2009 gallery.

Or so says recent new father Danimal – Congrats! However, I have it on good authority that “Dad” bought this for himself for X-Mas, and not for his firstborn, shown here. This particular bowl appears to have made the rounds with skaters of a certain age this year. I know three people whose “kids” got one. More details on this particular artifact later.