World's Smallest Skateable Miniramp?

This is classic - some dude built a mini mini mini ramp in his dorm room at school. His roommates probably want to kill him, but it looks pretty fun!

The Return of the Banana Board

I couldn't resist this image of a 21st century skateboarder catching air on a 70s banana board - granted, those look like new-school wheels but still you have to give the guy serious style points. Nice muttonchops too, AND he wears his sunglasses at night.

Plastic Toys, Real Skateboarding (Skate and Annoy)

Concrete Backyard Jungle

Found this cool video of a little skatebowl in an Oakland backyard. Too bad they didn't include a drain. I'm looking for more videos and photos of backyard skate ramps - if you know of any, let me know.

The Skate Pond

Mini-me vs. mini-me

Here's a short video I made of my kids skating at the Culver City skatepark. I really like this park because it's public, free and very friendly - and it's new and well designed too. I've found that if you go early on the weekends, it's not too crowded and there's usually a lot of little kids and dads, along with some old-schoolers and the more serious kids. Later in the day it gets crowded with teenagers and a lot more hectic with people hanging out and it gets more dangerous for the wee shredders.

If you find this stuff boring, leave me a note in the comments - I figure it might not be as interesting to others, but I'm trying to keep some videos so the kids can see their progression over time and get motivated. Skating rules - and the best part about taking your kids to the skatepark is you get to skate too without feeling like a geezer who doesn't belong there.

Millions of Mini Ramps

When I was growing up skateboarding in NY, I knew a lot of skateboarders but almost nobody I knew had a halfpipe. That was the kind of thing you saw in magazines, in pictures from California. The ones that were around on the East coast were usually either super-sketchy or even more sketchy. And small halfpipes were generally looked down on as 'beginner' ramps, to be abandoned or torn down once you were ready for vert. Nowadays, it's a whole different thing - as you can see from this site. Mini ramps are all the rage - less pain, less space required, good for skaters of all abilities, and better for today's technical tricks. The free ramp plans distributed by Rick Dahlen have been used to create ramps all over the world, and many are pictured here. It's like a dream - an endless plywood playground.

Mini Ramp Photos

Bombing the Berkeley Hills

Holy smokes this is absolutely nuts. These two guys bomb through Berkeley's Claremont Canyon on longboards, wearing suits. This is like skydiving except you could suddenly hit the ground at any time - not to mention oncoming traffic. They even pass the camera back and forth a couple of times. I am in awe - but I would never, ever try this. I used to bomb hills in my neighborhood but nothing remotely like this, and I don't even do that anymore.