Board Brain finale announced for 2011

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.

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

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

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

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?

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

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

Video courtesy of Shred or Die

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

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

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