what-board

A what?

Could there ever be any doubt that this is a skateboard? Thankfully, the manufacturer labeled it in big block letters, “Justen” case you weren’t sure. It really messes up an otherwise clean, and kind of cool top graphic. I guess people in the 70’s were dense….

finger-weird

Weird Fingerboards of the Week

Apparently even fingerboard manufacturers are over their phobia of shaped decks. Witness these two weirdly shaped fingerboards that appear to be made out of some very cheap metal. Skull Skates Mutant? The only thing I can think of is that they had thousands of oddly shaped scraps left over from manufacturing some other crappy product and couldn’t be bothered to melt it all down again. The auction says plastic, but insure looks like metal, and not plastic chrome.

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brandfire

CitiBoard

Citiboard is a totally fake but totally well done spoof of the Citibike rental perpetrated by BrandFire, although I can’t seem to find the original anywhere on Facebook or Instagram. Of course, it’s over a year old, I probably just need to go back farther. Excellent choice of generic 80’s style skateboard for this concept, something you could use in a pinch, but you wouldn’t want to steal it.

[Source: Digiday]

readermail

Random Reader Mail

Random reader mail captured while stuffing envelopes. Read the letter, I think the kid thought he was contacting Rob Dyrdek directly. We still get emails like that based on an old post about the Fantasy Factory. For some reason kids think he works at Skate and Annoy too.

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pigeon

Pidgeon Park

Pigeon Park in Hernando Mississippi, built by Evergreen Skateparks. Hard to believe it, but this is Mississippi’s first public skatepark.* It appears to be out in the middle of nowhere in a field. Maybe it was the only parcel of land the city was willing to part with. A nice setting nonetheless. 5 years in the making, thanks to local organizers and fundraising, and now it’s open. Wonderful.

Video and still from Above Productions.

(Update: Hard to believe because the video claim appears to be incorrect. Thanks to Joesf for pointing out another public concrete park already in existence in Vicksburg. This shouldn’t take anything away from Pidgeon Park. )

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kona-revamp

Kona Renewal

Kona Skatepark needs work. The owner of the longest running private skatepark is trying to raise money for repairs to the park. The fundraising campaign is incredibly vague on what the 50k is going to be used for, instead pointing to a recent Folio Weekly article that sheds light on Kona’s interesting, sometimes troubled history as it approaches it’s 39th year in operation. For instance, the park declared bankruptcy twice in the first 18 months after opening in 1977. It was in limbo for 6 months before the the current owner’s (Martin Ramos) parents bought it. Economic downturns, wildly unfortunate personal accidents, and some questionable business decisions, all detailed in the article, make public funding for a privately owned skatepark a hard sell. Kona’s place in history and many skateboarders hearts might help it stay alive. Ramos has some interesting ideas to help keep the park afloat, some of which you’ve heard before that haven’t really worked for anyone else…

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