Board Brain

My First Powell Peralta - Brand new out the box

2011-11-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

And here it is. The Powell Peralta Old Skool Ripper I bought over a month ago.

Unbelievably in that time I've barely skated it, apart from at the first run of the now infamous infamous Bombing Florida 2011 event.

I'm stoked I took these SLR pics of it looking all bright and shiny, because it's so friggin' cool to look upon, one can hardly decide on whether to thrash it or place it on an easel in the spot the TV used to be!

By now you guys know the drill, we're going to examine this thing like it's the rosetta stone and we're all aliens who are trying to understand it while marveling at it's sheer stoke capabilities.

The leering face of the Winged Ripper is silkscreened in a single metallic gold colour. The deck itself is dipped in matte black and has a shiny jet black transfer base on both sides.

One of the main reasons I chose this model over a more familiar reissue is I'm often accused of living in the past. As a 10 x 31" deck, it's an early 80's pig shape but with very modern deep concave. A perfect blend of old and new principles in a very original retro board.

The reverse side is a re-coloured version of the classic Ripper graphics silkscreened directly onto a substrate which is then transferred onto the deck. Skateboards are way more concave now so screening complicated graphics can be expensive and challenging for companies.

In this closeup, the new Halloween colour scheme makes the 1983 graphic really pop. Look at the Escher-like detail in the hatching!

Powell Peralta's K15 concave is very deep with a sharp angled tail and plenty of clearance for monster size wheels.

You can see the shape of the tail is slightly rounded and very steep.
Helps this very heavy tank ollie into the contemporary parks.

The nose is a few cm's shorter than the tail and has a mean little upturned snout that isn't large enough to be used as another tail but clears pools and tight bowl corners with ease.

I own very few things with a stamped serial number, and this is one of them.
The decks also come with a warranty certificate and registration form.

Fast forward to November and the deck now sports Independent 169's, an original black Tailbone and a Nosebone. Behind the back truck there's evidence of the marks only coping can make when used for dropping in ...

Unwrapping the beast

2011-10-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

Early 90's Skateboarding in Durban, South Africa

2011-09-21T02:09:00.000-07:00

Now THIS is the way I remember it! Hell, these guys are the "best of the best" of their time and they wipe out as much as I do. See tricks like the no comply on the very cusp of invention in this beautiful timewarp, sent by xDoomx from STRAGE

My First Powell Peralta (Teaser)

2011-09-16T06:54:00.000-07:00

Click for a slightly larger preview image.

And here it is folks, a 2011 Powell Peralta Old School Ripper. A real beauty and at 10"/24.5cm's wide, theres more to love than your common-or-garden-variety popsicle.

The concave, graphic detail and gold screened top logo are a sight to behold in person but you'll have to wait a couple of days longer for the next ramble, featuring meticulous closeups of every angle and detail, test fitting of tail/rail/nosebones and, exclusive to Board Brain®, candid video footage of yours truly going ape-sh*t upon unboxing it!

Who knows, maybe even some actual skating ;-)

Happy Friday you three!

Fat Friday 5 - The Chosen One

2011-09-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

Powell Peralta Old School Ripper 2011
31.75" x 10"
K-15 Mega Concave

Board Brain finale announced for 2011

2011-09-06T07:38:00.000-07:00

Truth is, I started out as a hell of a noob with only vague memories of boards, tricks and so on from the hazy late 80's before I discovered girls and exams and before we could get our hands on classic shaped decks, wheels and hardware again. The only goals were to have the balls to drop in again (with video evidence) and an even more vague goal of owning my first Powell Peralta deck.

It's been exciting documenting my rediscovery of the small details that made skating what it was before the popsicle revolution but viewer ratings have declined following the sporadic updates about new rails, old decks found again so it's time for Board Brain to reach it's finale.

There is a good solid backlog of really cool things acquired in the past half a year or so which will be dealt with over the course of the next couple of weeks. Following that, you can all watch me lose my mind when the chosen one arrives (The long-awaited Powell Peralta) and we'll end off with some videos of actual bona-fide skateboarding!

No expense will be spared in terms of image retouching or the amount of lumo colours per pic, so get padded up and ready for the ride!

Peace, BB

Board Brain, the toy.

2011-07-14T02:32:00.000-07:00

Back from the dead! Sheesh it's been ages since I've been on here but fear not, the old skool obsession continues.

I was invited to customise a MAD*L for Toitoy in Cape Town and when the 10" blank arrived, ol' one-track-mind over here saw the monkey ears as a skateboard going through the little guy's head!

I wanted to post up the work in progress but time is tight so herewith, the finished piece:

A 10" MAD*L named Board Brain, customised using Montana spray paint, acyrlics and custom-designed decals.

"Skateboarding is not a crime" sticker on a Mike Vallely Bolt deck.

Mike V to the last detail, plus a small punt for the band (you can see the original sticker in an earlier post)

My weekend whip gets a new bumper

2011-05-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

As amped as I've been to pop a tailbone on each of my setups, I cling onto them like I do with stickers, the philosophy being that there may not in fact be an object on earth worthy of sticking a rad one onto. It started when I sold a spare guitar with a really cool No Use For A Name sticker on ... I missed the sticker more than the actual guitar.
Anyway, KFD have got some awesome stuff on the go at the moment so I wanted to get a shot of their board set up my way - old skool - to show them. The tail is already a bit thrashed but never too late for a pink plastic facelift!

Out with the drill and through the tail we go.

Even though the groms think KFD made a really wide "filming board", it's still approximately 1" slimmer than the smallest size Tailbone of the late 80's!

Enter the electric planer to shave it down to size.

E Voila! KFD returns to the present day in a time machine.

And now, the final product! Yup, it's a "hero shot" with some Photoshop augmentation but this ride deserves it dammit! KFD Pool Deck, Powell Thin Ribs, Powell Peralta Tailbone, Independent 169's, Killer bearings, 65mm Gooeys. Feast away, lurkers ...

Peace, BB

Deon's Custom Skate Art Deck

2011-05-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

My good friend Deon and I met through collecting Star Wars toys and for many years he put his drawing skills on the back burner but now he's back as Jumpsuit Art, kicking huge butt and taking names!

I threw a gig/party/live art thing at a local club for my birthday and asked 6 people to customise some old skool inspired (flat and unrideable) decks I made from leftover 6mm plywood. I was particularly enamoured with Deon's one, especially since he took into account where the trucks would go and he used the space well. When I saw the drawing taking shape, I offered to top any bid. Little did I know the crafty gent had been planning to give it to me all along! Feast your eyes below.

The full deck showing the start of a gentlemen's duel. This is my kind of fish! It would make a hardy rider, with space left for a jawbone and tailbone. Click for a larger view (recommended).

I really dig how the photocopy-proof blue pencil sketching is still visible up close. As an illustrator myself I have to marvel at the perfect balance and poise of these dandy dudes.

Oops! Offence has been taken and sword-cane's are drawn. You can see in this closeup how crappy the plywood is - it must have been a nightmare to draw on using markers.

I'm stoked to have such rad stuff to draw attention to my crappy little blog. I'm sure anyone who's made it this far has been pleasantly surprised to find two posts with absolutely no whinging about scratching the Slasher or how wonderful Speed Demon Gooeys are! Stick with me, there's more to come. Cheers, BB.

Sam's Custom Skate Art Deck

2011-05-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

How lucky am I to have such rad friends?

For my recent birthday I received not one, but two customised decks as a gift, amongst many other rad but non-skate related stuff. The first is a KFD deck sanded down to natural wood then painstakingly handpainted in gouache by my good friend Sam Breakspear aka Soopashy (she of the custom Slasher Munny last birthday). The subject of the artwork is kind of an inside joke but at least you can appreciate the ridiculously tight lettering and insane layout.

The full deck. Click for larger view (all pics).

The tightness of this hand lettered logo and the "Ozzie's Café" signage is font-like in it's crispness.

This little guy is so cool, and he's so stoked on his Santa Cruz! Look at the detail and authenticity of the logo and hardware - even the distress on the board and helmet. Insane.

No detail left out - even the typical sneakers–on–a–wire have become Vans Half Cabs!

Just one of two bits of stoking artwork to be uploaded today. Check out more of Sam's work here. I'll sign off on the next post.

Let's recap, shall we?

2011-05-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Sheesh, my posts and sessions have slowed down conversely to the amount of rad old skool stuff I've acquired in the last 4 months! I can't wait to share some photos of all the rails, tailbones, trucks and even decks both old skool, flat and hand painted.

In the meantime, I thought we could all dig a nice update of the Slasher now that it has all it's original hardware and wheels back. I still think my setup looked better but I needed the gooeys for my main rider. These are Bullet trucks and reissue Bullet Church Glass wheels, although both have been scaled down to fit the micro sized deck.

It's now an actual small setup for a lightie rather than a cruiser. Took it down to the beach with my old mate Stuart (he of the backyard half pipe that was torn down in favour of a pool nobody ever swims in) and it rides just fine, but it's slower now without the big wheels.

Another useless ramble from your fishboard-obsessed internet friend, BB.

Skate Art Satire 2

2011-03-11T07:35:00.000-08:00

The skateboarding industry is the only one I know of where doing a tribute or satire of a famous graphic is allowed to fly and no one's feeling get hurt. With the incredible news that VCJ has rejoined Powell Peralta and is developing new graphics for them in his signature style, I bring you some of the most recent examples of tribute art. This time it's Element with Mike V and Ray Barbee decks that relook their first pro graphics from back in their Powell Peralta days.

First up is the Mike V Elephant (renamed Patchyderm in the case of the Element version). With Mike V back on Powell Peralta, this deck is already marked down at most online skate stores and will be gone soon. The original on the left is Vallely's actual first pro deck.

Not sure which artist is responsible for the new elephant on the right but this Element ragdoll guitarist below is done by Sean Cliver, the ex-Powell Peralta artist who created the companies most prolific graphics, including the original ragdoll, after VCJ parted ways with them.

Skateboard Graphics: Mike V reads my mind

2011-03-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

Video courtesy of Shred or Die

Fat Friday 4 - Pure, unfiltered full cream 100% fat decks

2011-03-04T02:28:00.000-08:00

Ahoy, it's been ages! What can I say, my house has kept me busy.
For this Fat Friday, I think y'all should explore on your own so I have compiled below, for your surfing pleasure, a shortlist of some of the finest independent and underground skateboard manufacturers, all of whom lean towards the fatter side of things.

Big Mess Skateboards - Early 90's "football" shapes with graphics by shit hot artists including the current art director of Santa Cruz, Lucas Musgrave and Michael Walrave, my favourite artist at the moment (see below)

Five Points Custom Skateboards - Custom old skool pool and ramp boards in every shape imaginable or design your own. Fat-ness!

American Sideshow (Johnny "Mojo" Munnerlyn) - Original Santa Cruz artist working under Jim Phillips in the 80's.

Never Again Skateboards - Honourable mention for effort, although a little on the slim side sometimes.

Destructive Hellride Skateboards - Really sick Z boy style cruisers with moulded death grip and the most original plastic accessories ever created.

Getting ready to bomb Florida

2010-11-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

I bought this "Diadora" Sector Nine knockoff as a complete from the local car boot market for R100 a while back.

Worst case scenario, I could use it for truck spares I thought. It came with really odd wheels - 53mm but wide and around 78a durometer. It had the worst graphics I've ever seen - an obviously traced image of a snowboarder and a set of stairs with absolutely NO perspective. Something had to be done!

While I waited for the first coat to dry I popped the hardware onto The Donor (you remember The Donor from before hey?). Took it for a cruise round the block - have you ever ridden a deck with hardly any concave, a short wheelbase and old skool mounting pattern? It's as weird as it seems!

This, by the way, is all in preparation for a mass bombing of Florida Road tomorrow, hosted by Zoo York.

Bombing Florida Poster

Until then, BB

Enough is enough.

2010-10-15T07:18:00.000-07:00

I'm going to take it right back to basics and keep it simple - no point trying to run before I can walk.

Here's my next goal:

Tech Decks, Bullet Rounds and "Guess The Vintage Board"

2010-10-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

Howdy, I've been mighty quiet on the updates. This would be due to finding over 1000 like-minded people who do nothing but eat, sleep, drink and talk (online) old-skool 80's - early 90's skateboards on the skull and bones skateboards website.

I've collected some shit to throw up here and since it's been over a month I'm cramming it all into one post!

Tech Decks. I really dig these! I've been trying to get my hands on any with classic graphics but I'll take satirical ones like this Black Label my friend Stuart gave me happily. This is a snap of the ones at work.

Now, a good long while ago before I found the pink Speed Demon wheels for my slasher (see 1st post) I caved in and bought a set of Bullet Rounds (52mm/1000a?). I never ended up using them but since the speed demons are now on my KFD pool board I thought I'd give them a spin. They look ok on the slasher, but not half as good as the green ones would have.

They're the polar opposite from the kind of wheels I like - and that's big and mushy if you hadn't gathered thus far. They are easily the hardest wheels I've ever encountered, they make for a very bumpy, noisy ride and the way a relatively smooth road rips into them reminds me of my first rollerblade knockoffs in 1996. Yup, BB was a 'blader once upon a time! I suppose they're designed for über slick concrete parks but they're no good to me.

The last little goodie I've got for you is a photo of a rad old skool setup that came whizzing past me while my lady and I were strolling around Cape Town last week. The guy was kind enough to let me take a snap. He couldn't remember where he got it and he really had no clue what I was talking about when I started enthusiastically rambling on about the bones brigade et al. Cool board though ...

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have some video footage of a cool secret spot by the next time you visit this blog! Peace out, BB

Skate-inspired design by Board Brain

2010-09-06T05:49:00.000-07:00

Oi! I've decided to share with you, a couple of designs I've done that are heavily based on 80's skate graphics.

Hope they make you recoil or at least put on some sunglasses!

Peace, BB

2007: This one predates Board Brain and getting back into skating by 3 years!

2009 Sticker design - Screaming Devil Horns?

Santa Cruz Slasher - Custom Munny by Sam Breakspear

2010-09-02T04:47:00.000-07:00

Yo! If you've read all my posts since the very first one you'll know it was the Santa Cruz Slasher that got me back into old skool skating, or more specifically, dropping in on a mini ramp in full padding in a goose-like pose.

Well my good friend Sam Breakspear aka Soopa Shy is just starting off in the world of custom vinyl toys and for my birthday she turned a standard Munny into the original Slasher character from 1984!

The original pre-sword surfin' slasher

Check out more pics of Sam's awesome Slasher custom here.

p.s. If you don't know what a Munny is, check out Kidrobot Munnyworld.

Fat Friday 3 - Sims Lester Kasai Pro Fattie

2010-08-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

Frak me! It's after midnight as I post this - can't believe Friday disappeared so fast. Anyway, since I have but three followers and one RSS'er to date, I'm sure you guys won't mind if I post the latest fattie on what is technically Saturday morning!

As a grom of the 80's, I was a full on Hawk, Caballero and McGill devotee (the bones brigade were just so cool man!) but at the same time, old Lester was getting some serious air riding for Sims. This model looks like the one Makro must have taken to China and said, "Replicate, only cheaper".

Check out Lester and co kicking it lumo in '86!

Good night, BB.

Chick Skaters (who skate better than me)

2010-08-25T04:57:00.000-07:00

Fat Friday 2 - Pure, unfiltered full cream 100% fat decks

2010-08-06T00:14:00.000-07:00

Another Friday rolls around and I do have much to say about "learning to drop in again". That's the easy part - but I'm fully slapstick when it comes to rock to fakies so let's not even talk about it until I have either cringeworthy pics and video, or until I've successfully completed this simple old skool trick.

In lieu, have some pics of even fatter fatty fat fat old skool decks than the last Fat Friday!

First up, as promised last time - the Dogtown Bigfoot:

The iconic Hosoi Hammerhead - possibly the most Ninja-like deck shape ever!

A Zorlac Fire Demon (both sides shown):

And finally, the fattest of them all. This is like if Hummer made boards. I don't even know what this Sims monstrosity is, it was sent to me on email to pwn my claim of the Dogtown being the widest deck I could think of. I stand corrected Sirs!

And so ends another useless ramble. Until next time, Peace! BB.

Taking it b-b-b-b-back in time ... to the 80's

2010-08-02T06:19:00.000-07:00

It's done. I didn't need a time machine to retcon my KFD Pool Deck as a full-on 80's setup.

Using some old truck bases as a guide helped me drill four extra holes to accommodate the old skool hardware I pulled from the donor. I've had some Grind King Bridge Bolts for years and years now and I always knew they'd come in handy again! They're clever little U-shaped mounting pins so you only need a spanner or skate tool to take them off and on. No screwdriver or allen key. A bunch of us oldies getting back into skating went for a session on the mini ramp at the Pavilion skatepark last week and my gooeys kept biting into the deck so now I've put ALL the risers I own between the trucks and the deck and at around 40mm long, the Bridge Bolts fit them snugly.

Somehow I seem to only be able to take really crap photos of this latest monstrosity but I'll try again soon to get some good shots of the beast from different angles.

The Donor Part 2

2010-07-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

The Donor proved fruitful!

I was very surprised to discover that beneath the purple paint job, my sister (then aged 17) had carved in the Hanson logo and an old boyfriends name. Equally interesting was that between the expected trucks - one Indy, one Pirate Skate, remember? - and the deck were Santa Cruz Cell Block 1's! STOKEMON.

They were "the stackable riser" back in the day but fat chance of getting my hands on more of them. I had completely forgotten I ever owned them.

What I really wanted the The Donor to yield was my old wide trucks - especially the Indy cause I've been dead keen to see which modern size it equates to. It's the 169 now but back then it was 1-size-fits-all. All 10" wide decks, that is.

That skull leering at you in the background, you'll recognise as one of the KFD Pool Decks I rambled on about a few posts ago - I finally chose one of the four shapes in the series and as usual, Ping at [R]EVOLUTION hooked me up. It's a beaut, so naturally I screwed lumo orange rails into it!

It looks hella long to me but it's some sort of gnarly hybrid of modern performance with old skool single kick - I can't wait to try it out. Don't ask me where The Donor fits in amongst the great skateboard shape timeline but look at how small it is! Yes, the grip is blue. Yes, that IS leopard print grip on the KFD.

Bad taste to go with my bad blog formatting.

Cheers for now, BB.

The Donor

2010-06-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

While busy packing up the house with my wife for our big move into our new house, I realised I have enough bits and pieces to assemble four different skates! That's ridiculous, especially since I'm currently only into cruising on my weapon of choice, the slasher.

That blue Powell board is all set up once again and even has an old skool style grip job thanks to Ping at [R]EVOLUTION. I took it out into the driveway for a push on some really crazy old wheels Ping found lying around in the shop - they're like 64mm and only slightly harder than a jelly baby. I now know why we used to have such thick risers back in the day cause one simple turn and you get the gnarliest wheelbite as the jelly babies make contact with the deck. Needless to say, the blue bullets are back on but to me they are just too rock hard for anything other than a skatepark. In my humble opinion anyway.

The other two "setups" are a well-thrashed Iron Fist that I just bought off a mate (I just wanted the trucks and whatever else I could scavenge from it). I think besides being ridden hard, it was stored in a bucket of water in the middle of a hot tin shed in the kalahari cause the deck is warped, full of stress cracks and has razor-tail at both ends. Any takers?

The final board is one that's being lying around in our old band room for about 6 years, and I'm calling it:

THE DONOR

This is probably even older than the Powell cause it's wide but the ends are kind of squared off like a freestyle deck. We painted it purple and covered it in blue grip years ago so who knows what brand it started off as?
I haven't even seen this thing for the last few years but what I do know is that it has my old trucks on from my very first board (the one covered in really dumb stickers) and they're juuuuust the right width for a fattie!

Watch this space.

Fat Friday 1 - Pure, unfiltered full cream 100% fat decks

2010-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Until such time as I have either decent, or funny, footage and photos of me attempting to skate again let me collect some of the finest fatties on the internet here for all to see. This is the first Fat Friday and in keeping with what's most familiar to me, herewith, a bunch of late 70's/early 80's Powell Peralta decks.

Beamer - this is before both our times, kids.

Look Mom, no Peralta!

Early spoon nose.

Ray "Bones" Rodriguez Pro Model.

Steve Caballero 1st Pro Model.

That's enough for now, if any groms checking these out think they look like UFO's or "filming boards", just wait until the next Fat Friday where I'll unleash the Santa Cruz Duane Peters model and the Dogtown Bigfoot!

It Starts

2010-06-17T03:32:00.000-07:00

Hello internet peeps, I've been quiet on the board brain updates but I'm pleased to say it's because I was actually tick-tacking around and dropping in on my slasher, instead of just talking about it!

I sessioned the newly upgraded Durban beachfront skatepark with my mates Pee Man, Zong, Skeg and Woogy this last weekend. The new additions didn't "bowl" me over until I tried them out and now I'm sold! As soon as the world cup is over I think we'll get together and make a little concrete surfing video.

In the meantime, let Steve Caballero aged 15 show you how it's done:

Yes, he's 15 here - if you don't believe me go check out his blog in the SICK LINKS to your right ...

KFD Pool Decks Part 2

2010-06-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

I'm absolutely stoked to see the full range of KFD skull decks (pool series) online, if you didn't read me rambling about them about 4 or 5 posts back then let me reiterate:

These are SICK!*

*SICK = Extremely rad, unequalled

Mr. Ping wouldn't believe me if I said I want/love/need a board like this so much that I couldn't care less about the new iPhone, in fact I'm being somewhat disloyal to my earlier allegiance to 80's giants Powell Peralta and Santa Cruz - I'm totally day dreaming about these new/old/pool/anywhere fatties from local stick syndicate KFD. Check out the range below, available from all real skate shops:

In my quest for fatness, I'm kind of drawn to the middle two - but see which one you think suits me:

(click on images for much larger view)

Go spread some love on KFD's site, they're kind enough to think Board Brain is newsworthy, so they're alright by me! http://www.kfdskateboards.com/

The Slasher's Legacy

2010-06-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

This blog is getting to be a bit too "bloggy" and for that I apologise!

It really was supposed to be about me rediscovering skateboarding and sharing the graphics that I geek out to, with you five loyal readers. In the spirit of the latter, please enjoy these great Pocket Pistols decks which satirize Jim Phillips famous Slasher graphic (you'll remember the slasher from earlier posts).

"Eyepod" (7.75" x 30.50"), eyes like Kate Bosworth.

"Piggy" (9.25" x 32.75"), looks like a Jimbo Phillips graphic.

"Porker" (12" x 32.75"), a Jim Phillips/Matt French collaboration.

Pocket Pistols Skateboards are one of the sickest new era companies in my opinion, because they are the current champs of putting out decks and graphics which really make great fun of the old skool style. They also often make very limited runs of decks for "guest" riders such as Geoff Rowley. These are just a few of them, there are many more Slasher inspired sticks, believe me!

Have a surf via the SICK LINKS to your right ...

My First Skateboard

2010-06-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

My mate Rory and me with our rides.

This is my first proper board.

Like everyone else I had a "Skika" first, which was basically a cheap complete spoon nose like the ones you can still get in Makro and Game. They were always white with a secondary colour like blue or red and everything from the grip, to the wheels would be this secondary colour. They had a huge tail skid which looked something like an apple mouse stuck on upside down. Before that I had what we called a banana board - which was a small plastic Dogtown looking toy skateboard with rollerskate trucks and wheels. Number one cause of broken arms in the 80's!

One Christmas my ballies* gave me this blank (allegedly Powell Peralta) deck and I added the tail skid, rails, nose bone and everything later, bit by bit. I can't really tell how old I am here but I don't remember those trucks and wheels at all. I managed to get one hand-me-down Independent truck and, thanks to a cheque from my dad and a trip to Island Style in Pickering Street, added a Pirate Skate truck on the back and four green slimeballs knockoffs,which were the last things I had on that setup if memory serves. I rode that thing in rain or shine until about age 13 when Chris Cormac's famous backyard halfpipe was finally torn down in favour of a pool which no one ever swims in.

I'm surprised that apart from that skull one, I put such lame stickers on my board! Maybe the really rad Jim Phillips stickers were always sold out, or too expensive?

It was a rad board though, what a pity I got rid of it to get that kak blue Powell in the post below ...

It's a shame there's no photo of the other side of it cause I had this siff transparent grip tape with barbed wire printed on it, and flies!

*Ballies = Parents

Board Brain goes new skool

2010-06-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

It's been bugging me, seeing a nice little stack of hardware, wheels and stuff staring at me. I decided to haul out my old 90's deck - the one on which I did the "dabbling" mentioned in my very first post.
I bought the thing as a full setup from a mate and it came with no name wheels and trucks but on the deck itself was a little logo which shed a bit more light on the mystery of what the hell kind of deck this is.

Apart from the size and company, I don't know anything else about this deck. It must be fairly old cause it's got that really flat concave that decks had when they first became double-kicktail popsicles. It has next-to-no pop but it's sort of fun to just ride around on. The pile of parts in question were the aforementioned no name trucks, but in my quest for wheels for the slasher, which ultimately ended with those beautiful pink Gooeys, I bought some Bullet Rounds 52mm, some KFD deck bolts and Killer bearings. I put them all together but before attaching to the deck there was one more thing to be done.

It has a pretty gnarly chunk out of the one tail and when we were groms we used to just fill it with wood glue, which dries hard and totally transparent after a while. Then you can add grip and stickers without little dongas* everywhere. Check out this next pic to examine my fine craftsmanship!

When the glue is about halfway cured you just smooth it out with a bit of cardboard and make it fit the shape of the crack better. I reckon I'm going to grip this thing up the old skool way - in two parts and inset about 1.5cm.

*Donga = Pothole

KFD Skateboards

2010-06-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

I have a mate called Ping who obviously loves these new(ish) KFD old skool-esque pool decks so much that he would prefer a stack of them to sit in his shop than go home in my car! Tut, tut Mr. Ping ... These are sick! They come in four different shapes, each saucy enough to make you blush.

Check them out on KFD's page:

http://www.kfdskateboards.com/new-skull-deck/

The really pointy one looks like trouble, especially for someone like me who has to start at the bottom of the ladder again, but the fatter, shorter ones look like the boss!

KFD please send me one to test! Please?

The Slasher

2010-06-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

Damn. I'm so bloody clingy about the graphics on my board, I even bought enough extra bits last week to reassemble a new skool setup to ride instead. The thing is, I bought the book The Skateboard Art of Jim Phillips not too long ago and if being an illustrator myself didn't make me appreciate that kind of detail enough, Jim talking about the ancient techniques under which they had to produce these classic graphics did.

Jim Phillips talks about his favourite graphic, the slasher, in this little clip:

It's almost 7pm - opening time for the next session at the [R]EVOLUTION skatepark ... hot damn that's tempting. That little slasher would do great on a small half pipe.

Skate Art Satire

2010-06-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

By far my favourite thing about skateboard art is that it's constantly self-referencing and satirising.

Take these Welinder, Hawk and Rodriguez decks with their iconic VCJ* skull graphics; The images were prolific enough to trigger instant recall in anyone who saw even a corner of one not obscured by stickers.

Compare these later decks for Rudy Johnson, Jason Lee and Mark Gonzalez, and what you get is a small grin forming at the edges of your mouth. These are from the then-newly created blind skateboards, a company started by Gonzalez. The decks were a response to a Powell Peralta ad which poked fun at blind, and other new smaller skate companies like World Industries and Flip, which involved former riders of theirs.

Want to see how Powell handled it?

VCJ* is an acronym for Vernon Courtland Johnson, the artist responsible for all Powell Peralta art in the 80's. He seems to have vanished into obscurity, save for some new work, and a collaboration with the mighty Jim Phillips, for Pocket Pistols. Unlike the former, the latter has many books out liberally packed with eyeball-popping graphics and continues to turn out amazing and extremely influential artwork.

More old skool setups

2010-06-03T09:30:00.000-07:00

Ahoy!

I found this setup on the Skate One forum a little while back, while surfing teh interwebs for other people who are digging the return of all these old boards as much as I am.

This setup belongs to a guy named Nick Spesia, and it's just about the loudest colour scheme I've ever clapped eyes on. The deck is a limited edition Powell Peralta reissue in metallic green, with a lime top. Nick's done a custom grip job that assaults your eyes and would actually critically injure anyone who wasn't around in the 80's to see this kind of thing the first time round! Steamy. Nice one, Nick.

The rest of the setup is as follows:

Trucks: Independent 169's
Risers: Tracker
Wheels: Rat Bones
Bearings: Bones Swiss
Accessories: Gorilla Ribs / Tail Bone / Jaw Bone

The price of this setup in South African rands would buy you a small car! Admittedly, a car Xhibit would call "a bucket" on Pimp My Ride, but a working car nevertheless.

For interests sake, here below is the original board that Nick's reissue is based on.

As you can probably tell by now, a Powell Peralta deck is the holy grail of old skool decks for me. That's not to say I am nothing less than a devoted fan of Santa Cruz and all of Phillips Studios graphics.

Last up is a Vision deck in lemon yellow with matchy-matchy Rat Bones wheels, a nose bone, and just about every accessory NHS ever made for skateboards! I never saw Vision boards around back in the day - I'm not sure if I mentioned but literally everyone had either a Powell Peralta or a Santa Cruz. There were a few Santa Monica Airlines and Schmidt Stixx but the former two were king. Anyway, I'm rambling ... here's the board:

My Slasher

2010-06-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

It wouldn't be fair to casually mention that my good mate Sean gave me his Santa Cruz Slasher without sharing a pic of it. It's the micro version so it's 8.7 x 26", more or less the width of a wider modern board but the length of an old skool freestyle board. It's gem for carving around and power slides etc but hard to ollie!

It's a sick Jim Phillips graphic. I can't bear to screw rails into it, even though the reason I got the rails in the first place was to protect the graphics rather than for board sliding!

Check out the full setup here below:

I added Element risers, Girl bearings and all the stuff you saw in my first post, namely:

• Killer trucks (An awesome South African company)
• Speed Demons Gooeys* wheels - 65mm/78a
• Powell Peralta Tail Bone

The Powell Thin Ribs are still on the shelf for now ...

Thanks Sean and Mai for the deck, my gorgeous wife Nadia for all her patience and for the "board brain" nickname, my dear old mum for hauling the Powell Peralta stuff over from the UK, and [R]EVOLUTION PAVILION SKATESHOP - the sickest skate shop in Durban.

*I've named each of these wheels "Gooey Deschanel" after one of my favourite actresses :-)

Here's a little video of one of the first test runs of it as a complete:

John's old skool setup

2010-06-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

This is my brother John's old skool board which he was kind enough to haul out to share with me.

Check out that early 80's style! White Gullwing trucks, white rails and tailbone, a nose bone, cellblock risers and a lapper on the back truck. The wheels are Kryptonics classics - slightly softer ones on the back.

I think what's driving me towards old skool, apart from the obvious nostalgia, is that the way I learned to skate was to just go charging out my front door and go for it.

The older guys that used to let us tag along never drove to a spot and sessioned it like skaters would start doing 10 years later. In them days it was mainly backyard half pipes and mini launch ramps on the street.

With a fat old skool deck under my feet I don't see an extra kicktail in the front challenging me to try a shove-it. It feels more akin to a downhill board - but with the option to ollie onto a curb or over a crack in the pavement.

I always thought it was cool the way each pro rider would have their own shape, tailored exactly for their individual abilities and signature tricks by the good elves at Powell or NHS.

Board Brain Begins

2010-05-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

I have to confess, I've always disliked blogging.

It just seems so trivial yet so self indulgent but now that Twitter is around, blogs don't grate me quite so much. The lesser of two evils. Truly though, the reason this is a blogspot and not a website is because I can't be bothered to learn how to make a website and besides, I don't have a viable product or service to offer ...

I just want to talk about skateboards!

I have a few, but they currently do more hanging on walls than hanging on vert ramp coping.What I geek out to is old skool skating, graphics, setups and approach. They take me right back to being a grom with a Powell Peralta blank, hand-me-down-indy's, jaw bone, tail bone and rails. I've since dabbled in a bit of skating on and off since 1996 but I just never felt comfortable on a skinny popsicle and wearing no pads. I also can't believe no one minds grinding off the incredible graphics in a single session - Powell still manufacture rib bones and they slide just fine.

A good friend of mine recently gave me a Santa Cruz Kieth Meek Slasher reissue and I managed to get my hands on some fat wheels after much searching. A tailbone has been added, and the rails have arrived, now it's time to venture out from the front yard and into the world of skateboarding again.

I haven't got the stones to skate a half pipe again yet so don't RSS this - it may just be a passing phase.