It’s been floating around eBay for a while, disappearing for a year or so and then reappearing with the same pictures if I’m not mistaken. It’s always at a price that would seem reasonable if it were in fact something that anybody knew anything about and was collectable. However, nobody seems to want to fork over $100 for something that seems to have absolutely no historical reference. It’s nature suggests that it might be a hand made one-off item, but then again, that strange metal plate doesn’t seem like it would be stock for anything I can recognize. Google it, and you’ll get pages of the auction description re-listed. On the Rat Rods Bikes forum someone linked to a patent from 1999, but I would have guessed this is older than that. I can’t even find anything on the Welin roller skate truck online. Is this skateboard-related? Maybe only marginally, but at least it’s not this. I’ve got an email into the National Roller Skating Museum to see if they know anything. As a side note, did you know Sure Grip International is still around? UPDATE: In 2021 we learned this thing is called the Sit-Skate.

Did you get one of these for x-mas? If so, you are one happy, radical dude.

I guess it gets cold in Boston. When it does, some people go stir crazy. Stir crazy enough to build a tracked skateboard thingy. This guy must be crazy. Doesn’t he realize that Valterra is worth literally tens of dollars on the Back to the Future eBay nostalgia road show? – Thanks to Boy Ipoh for the tip.

I’m not sure if this is related to the Skate Case or not, because this one has a different name, and a decidedly more upscale approach. The Brief Skate makers think you want to skate around with iPads and condoms in you skateboard, if you can believe the pictures on their web site. It makes sense you know, for those situations where skateboards are allowed but backpacks aren’t. [Source: DesignBoom] – Thanks to David Caldwell for the tip.

A Flex-trol skateboard, apparently the first one on the Interwebs, as I couldn’t find a single image of one anywhere. I’m guessing the name is combination of “flex” and “control.” Yeah I know, wild guess. This skateboard is fitted with a tension and torque control bar. The trucks are held at a fixed distance by the bar and as result: Has a sharp turning radius. It takes less lean to do a turn. Fewer skid-outs. The control bar tends to keep all 4 wheels on the ground during maneuvers. Board flex is controlled. As the flex increases, the board stiffens. This eliminates any “mushy” feel. Manufactured by the good folks at A.E. & Co out of Tarzana, Ca. I’m tempted to look it up and see if that patent ever got awarded. List of possible subtitles for this post: It takes less lean to do a turn. Fewer skid-outs As the flex increases, the board stiffens? Danimal picked this up recently at a Good Will!

Dan Dengler makes skateboards from cross sections of trees, among other things. We’ve seen it before, but not at this scale. They are gigantic, and immense, hence Gimmense.

Tesseract from Loaded Boards. Laminated to the bottom of the board is a layer of cork which provides vibration damping and (as we learned to our surprise during testing) a significant level of durability. The granular, non-directional structure of the cork helps prevent abrasive damage from propagating (in contrast to a traditional wood or bamboo veneer with long, oriented fibers). I’ve got cork floors in my kitchen, which ended up being a very poor choice. It’s just not durable to abrasion or water. I can’t imagine why Loaded added cork in the first place, and how they quantify the accidentally discovery of damage resistant properties, but I am highly skeptical. (Big surprise, right?) It seems like the first curb you bottom out on is going to shred the bottom of that thing. There’s also going to be a lot of tear and pinch potential where the trucks mount. I hope Loaded did more thorough testing with cork than Powell did with Bonite™ construction. Aesthetically though, it looks sharp, like something out of Metropolis magazine.

Simon Woodstock about to drop in on a 16 wheeler. 10-4 Good Buddy! From Skidmark Magazine via Instagram.

Long time (decades!) fixture on the Chicago skate scene, Stevie Dread made a skateboard out of Lake Michigan driftwood. He originally started making little fingerboards out of driftwood until I pointed him to MC’s life-sized creation. Stevie set out to make one of his own, but large driftwood doesn’t wash up every day on the beaches of Chicago, so it took a while for him to find a worthy specimen.

Electric skateboards are a dime a dozen, but Gnarboards are the first ones to have any “oomph” to them. With speeds up to 28mph and the torque to go off-roading uphill, these things look damned fun. They don’t however, look like much of a skateboard anymore. I’ll give them props when I see the first motor-assisted megaramp jump. It looks like they are massive and solidly constructed. That takes money, which requires the prerequisite trip to Kickstarter. If I was a rock star I’d buy a fleet of them, get loaded, puke on my dog and then drive them into my (full) pool. Pretty impressive product, actually, considering it can tackle the Whiskeydrome. Video after the jump. – Thanks to Concretins Nik for the tip.