8 Ply Unfinished Blank

My latest eBay acquisition is this 8 ply unfinished blank deck from C.R. Boardworks out of Michigan. This unfinished piece will need some sanding a clear coat before being gripped and ready to rip. The deck is 9.25" x 32" with a 15" wheelbase. I'm real excited to get this one set up along with the Russ Howell freestyle deck my son and I will be putting together. Spring 2015 is going to be a lot of FUN! Photo credit.

Santa Slam!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidaze from the crew at Jeff's Skateboard Page!

It's That Time of Year. Again.

The art of Jimbo Phillips. Radicool. Happy Holidays from the frozen mountains of Appalachia. See you all in 2015.

All Terrain Ruler

Keeping up with Longboard Ric requires some skill! Thank you Lenny Poage of HOSS for the tip.

Octolion in Zion

"It is about experiencing time but it's also about listening." - Robert Serrano

In the Research and Development Lab with NHS Skateboard Wheels

Interesting video of how wheels are put through various quality assurance testing at NHS.

Tim's Curb Cuts

Tim's Curb Cuts. from The Friend Ship Skateboards on Vimeo.

Nice curb action from The Friend Ship Skateboards!

New Sticks from Jason Adams and Duane Peters

NEW Jason Adams Slappy Hour 9 x 32.75 from Elephant Brand.

And real STOKED to see this Duane Peters 9 x 33 deck from Magic Skateboards.

Krooked x Adidas

Mark Gonzales talks life in the city, YouTube videos, living with permanent injury, and of course, skateboarding in this latest collaborative effort.

Bombers #23

Courtesy of Mr. Jenkins, here is the latest in the Bombers video series, featuring footage of skaters from around the Tri-State skating everything!

Lost In Transition Official Trailer

"This film is going to rage!" - Jeff
"Lost In Transition is a full length skateboard video, featuring footage from 1984-1991. This video represents the back yard ramp scene of the South, an untold story in the history of skateboarding. Featuring full sections from The 1988 Underground Skatepark NSA Contest, The Ramp Ranch, The Garden Ramp, The Skatezone bowl in Atlanta, and The Charleston Hangar in South Carolina both built by legendary skatepark builder Tim Payne.
Also featuring a time period accurate soundtrack, this is truly a skate video lost in time.
Dedicated to the memorial of Mark Mintel, Sean Miller, and Blaize Blouin.
Check out our website for more info."

Chef Pierre

EMB, hot sauce, raw eggs, pop-up blunts and more. A true originator. Chef Pierre. Respect.

Hooked On Slalom

7.625 inch x 28.2 inch Comet slalom deck with a shape looking a whole lot like the Santa Cruz John Hutson Cutback model.

Toe stop. Crucial equipment for pumping to gain speed on the course.

Cambered deck, wedged front truck dialed in loose, de-wedged back truck so that kingpin is near vertical thus reducing turning and helping gain traction.

Pocket Pistols 69mm 80a Manx wheels sitting on Tracker Racetrack RTS trucks. Ready to roll.

There Never Really is a Good Time

There never really is a good time for news like this. Jay Adams. 100% Skateboarder. Rage in Paradise.

Charlie West Slalom Fest

For the first time in nearly 30 years, skateboard slalom racing returns to the Kanawha Boulevard in Charleston, West Virginia as part of the Sportsfest WV Games on August 16, 2014. For more information about the slalom event please visit the official event facebook page here.

New Video from Fynn Grabke's The Picturebooks

This one is circulating today and getting a lot of views for good reasons. The Picturebooks new video for their song Your Kisses Burn Like Fire features the video editing skills of Mr. Claus Grabke. Excellent work of both sound and sight!

Virgin Blacktop Trailer

From Charlie Samuels, Virgin Blacktop is a documentary about the Wizards Skateboard Team from Nyack, New York in the late 1970s. The trailer looks incredible, I can't wait to see the finished film.

New Z-Flex Wheels

Z-Flex introduces their new Z-Pro 60mm 90a wheel! The center set wheels feature a slight double conical shape like the Santa Cruz Bullets from back in the day.

Z-Flex wheels, available at finer skate shops everywhere.

Curbs and Cokes

Those who cannot remember the past...

...are condemned to repeat it. 90s nostalgia, for me anyway, is best left as just that, nostalgia. The wistful desire to relive the big pants small wheels era, or the sentimental yearning to experience what riding bearing covers is like for the very first time, is beyond me. But that's the beauty of it, subjectivity. And things being what they are, I'm sure NHS will sell a shit load of these little wheels though. Just be sure to get this football shaped slick bottom deck to go with them and a pair of size 48 jeans with the bottoms hacked off. Photo courtesy of OJ Wheels.

Andy Roy though, you ain't gonna argue with that. 40, 43, or 46mm.

Harold Hunter bearing condoms. Boom.

All Laced Up and Ready to GO!

Skate Strings are here! We are really excited to test ride these exclusive laces and will have words, pictures, and video as soon as we get a break from the rain.

The "high tech abrasion resistant" laces look good and have a hand that feels somewhere between nylon and say maybe space age Kevlar.

Obligatory Go Skateboarding Day Post #2

OK, so what if you can't go skateboarding today? Let's say maybe it's raining, or you're stuck at work, or some other set of circumstances is keeping you from stepping on your board and riding today. How can you miss Go Skateboarding Day? Will you ever be able to live it down? Sure you can. Personally, as a skateboarder, I'm not going to do anything I feel obligated, or forced, to do when it comes to skateboarding. That flies in the face of everything skateboarding stands for to me in my own view. But that is because I choose to see skateboarding as a subjective activity, one that is fueled by emotion and inner experience. Skateboarding is the truest expression of freedom. So, if you're not able to go skate today, there will be other days to skate. Maybe even tomorrow. And like Batman says, "It's go skateboarding day everyday."
Meme created by ToddTwist.

Obligatory Go Skateboarding Day Post

June 21 marks the beginning of Summer with the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The date also marks Go Skateboarding Day which began 10 years ago as the "All City Skate Jam" in New York City. The creation of the NYC event, now one of the largest in the world, is credited to Steve Rodriguez of 5Boro NYC. Today, right now, skaters are hitting the streets, parks, and backyard ramps all over the globe in celebration of our favorite pastime. And today, right now, yours truly, me, the blog guy, is banging out words on the page for you to read while I wait for the rain to pass and the streets to dry so that I too may join in solidarity with skaters all over the globe to celebrate what started as a hobby for some, but has become a lifestyle for us all.

New Bill Danforth from 1031

Nice looking new Bill Danforth deck from 1031!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the Rad Dads out there! One day they are standing in front of you with their arms upstretched saying "Dad, pick me up," and ten years later they are calling you saying "Dad, pick me up." Time moves so very fast and the years become seemingly shorter as we roll along, but son, I will always be there to pick you up. Photo - Father's Day 2008.

Still spry!

Boneless on the bank captured by Gnarleston Goods! Thanks for making an old guy look good.

OBX East Coast Does it Right!

Another gem from ChuckieP72 featuring awesome footage of the Waves bowl and the elusive Big Chief of Wanchese. Ripping!

Hangar Bowl Charleston, S.C. 1992

Lots of incredible skateboarding going on here at the famous Hangar Bowl, Charleston, South Carolina. Big Thanks to Chuck Powell for posting these up! 1992 East Coast skateboarding at its BEST.

Locals Only

"Locals Only” Vintage Santa Monica Picture Courtesy of Daniel Travers.

Gnarleston Goods: Blair Burns Quick Clips

Blair Burns Quick Clips 6-7-2014 from Gnarleston Goods on Vimeo.

The Assault Video

Courtesy of Lowcard.

Coping Mechanisms

The grind. It is perhaps the gnarliest thing you can do on a skateboard. Metal versus concrete, the force of inertia. But what about pvc? Is the grind any less of a grind when good old polyvinyl chloride is introduced to the eqation? Personally, I have always liked the slippery slide and grind of pvc coping, but others may disagree. Adding pvc to your trucks is a novel idea and is nothing new. GSD and others were making homemade copers out of shopping cart handles in the early 1980s. And we've seen trucks that will grind anything, and we've seen these. Either way, copers, feelers, grinders, whatever you want to call them, have been on my mind lately.

A photo of a well worn Independent coper that I found on the internet. Photo credit unavailable, I'm lame.

Darren Navarrette's Skeleton Key Mfg. produced these gems. They are now sold out. Apparently I am not alone in my love of the slip grind. Or The Turf has been unearthed and reopened.

Universal copers, cut out to fit around the kingpin and snap on over the hanger. Sometimes they snap off of the hanger too, typically mid-grind (see also: The Downside of Copers).

Another view of the Grinders.

Vintage Santa Cruz copers found on eBay. If I remember correctly, these were universal fit, like others on the market today.

Get Laced with Skate Strings

The primary purpose of your shoe lace is to fasten your shoe in order to hold it tight to your foot. When it comes to skateboarding, your feet are in control. So it is essential to have your shoes laced securely (unless you are doing this).
As skateboarders we know that our favorite pastime destroys shoe laces. And if your shoe laces are destroyed, you risk the destabilization of your shoe and loss of control. Period. So, unless you are one of those talented shredders who can manage with a 14 inch piece of shoe lace tied in six knots and running through only the middle three of your shoes seven eyelets, you may want to check these out. SKATE STRINGS High Tech Abrasion Resistant laces are ready for shipping NOW and I am lucky enough to have a pair on the way to me. I will be posting photos and a review in the coming weeks so stay tuned!

Photo sources.

This Machine Destroys Curbs

No Comply Variations

The no comply impossible, or 360 foot wrap, is one of my favorite "go-to" flatland tricks. And while the no-comply itself, the no hands boneless one, either executed on flat ground or bonked over a curb, can be credited to one Mr. Neil Martin Blender, the whole step-hop, or step-off, style of skating that exploded between 1988 and 1990 can be credited to the creativity of such skaters as Ray Barbee, Matt Hensley, Mark Gonzales, Natas Kaupas, and so many more that I could fill the rest of this post with names. Here at home, we were initially trying to do this trick as a sort of bastardized version of a step-hop shove-it by stepping off of the board and sweeping it 180 degrees. That is until one day our friend Joey said, "Try it 360, it's easier than the 180. Just scoop it with your foot!"

The Return of the 10 x 33 and Other eBay Finds

Regular readers of this blog may recognize the above shape as something I have written about plenty of times before. These decks are available from a handful of sellers on eBay and range in price from $15.99 USD up to $24.99 USD. The stained bottom veneer and the wheel wells are a new edition that I've not seen before and make these cheap decks even more visually appealing. So, what's the deal with them? Are they worth buying? That depends on you. Are you a skater on a tight budget like myself? Can you live with the fact that the 16" wheelbase may leave a small gap between your risers and your deck? If you answered yes to either of these questions then these decks are not a bad deal at all.

Next up is the "Seven Sins" 7 ply retro square tail slick bottom skateboard deck, made in U.S.A. and reasonably priced at $27.99 USD. This one caught my eye as I was browsing for 9" skateboard decks and stands out because of its simplicity. It's simply RAD.

Top view of the tapered square tail. This seller also has an 8 ply "Big Boy Board" as well, made for, you know, big boys. If you are in the market for a slick, or for a thicker deck with less flex, then check these guys out.

Assault Skateboards Video Trailer

Greg Harbour, Wildman, Demarcus James, Casey Meyer, Donger, Chris Livingston, Ace Pelka , Ricky Winsor, Mario Rubalcaba, and Ned Hadden are about to turn shit upside down with this release!

The Return of LUCHASKATE

I am STOKED to have added LUCHASKATE to the blog roll today. I can only imagine the work that D.T. put into the online magazine in order to keep it going while keeping up with this thing we call LIFE. Glad to see you back on the block.

Don Pendleton at Huntington Museum of Art

May 17th, 2014 from 2pm-5pm, the Huntington Museum of Art (located at 2033 McCoy Road, Huntington, WV 25701) will be hosting Skate Day as a part of the Fine Lines: The Artwork of Don Pendleton exhibit. Meet and skate with the artist and browse around. Trace from Gnarleston will be there with product as well! The exhibit runs through June 1, 2014.

Dresden Deck by Elephant

Vallely's Elephant Brand Skateboards dropped this photo of the new 10" by 31.5" Dresden art deck which is already drawing compliments due to its Natas Kaupas inspired shaped.  With a wheelbase of just under 15", this deck looks great and built to shred all terrain.

Groundhog Day

Lake Skateboards Nightmare Returns in 2014 Line

Excited to see the hammerhead style Mark Lake Nightmare deck return to Lake's 2014 line. Decent.