Now that I’m 35 and have two kids, I don’t have the mindless spare time I had in school to play with tech decks, but as I mentioned, I have two kids, and there’s nothing like a tech deck to get them started on the right path in life.

So why am I talking about tech decks? Cause they sent me a few free ones as part of their “get the word out” effort about a batch of autographed tech decks. Here’s the official press release. Go get you some.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TECH DECK® BRINGS THE AUTOGRAPHS OF THE TOP PRO SKATERS FROM THE STREETS TO YOUR FINGERTIPS

Collect the limited edition board packages available exclusively this summer

Toronto, ON/ Los Angeles, CA – July 19, 2010 – Tech Deck®’s reputation for delivering only the most authentic replica skateboard collectables has reached new heights this summer. Tech Deck® has joined forces with the biggest stars of skateboarding and upped the ante for collectors. Some of the most respected pro riders have personally signed 100 or less Tech Deck® board packages, making these the rarest collector’s items of the Tech Deck® line. From the streets to your fingertips, the hottest collectable Tech Deck®’s will be randomly distributed later this month, to mass market retailers across the United States. This is every fan’s chance to finally have some of the biggest stars of skateboarding right in their own hands.

“I’m psyched to be part of this promotion, it’s a great way to give back to the fans that I may never get the opportunity to personally meet. Good luck to all the collectors,” said legendary rider Ryan Sheckler.

Featured Collectable Autographed Boards from:

Tony Hawk – Birdhouse

Chris Cole – Zero

Ryan Sheckler – Plan B

Paul Rodriguez – Plan B

Chris Troy – Black Label

Corey Duffel – Foundation

Shuriken Shannon – Black Label

Chris Haslam – Almost

Ronnie Creager – Blind

David Navarette – Creature

“Fans of Tech Deck® are pretty hard core. They’ve been amassing their collections for years,” states Craig Drobis, Marketing Director at Spin Master Ltd. “Whether they’re motivated to build their collections based on riders, boards, or skate brands, they’re all excited by the Tech Deck® brand.  We’re the only one out there bringing fans authentic replica skate board graphics from all the top skate companies – essentially putting some of the hottest stars of the streets into the hands of their fans.”

Autographs from the most respected riders will have fans racing to stores across America in search of the coveted boards. The packages can be identified by a special holographic Tech Deck® sticker that will be affixed to the front. With these highly-coveted autographs, these boards are sure to be worth far more than their face value of $3.29 SRP. Make sure to check out www.techdeck.com as well as each of the rider’s social media sites for additional information.

About Spin Master Ltd.

A multi-category children’s entertainment company since 1994, Spin Master has been designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing consumer products for children around the world and is recognized as a global growth leader within the toy industry.  Spin Master is best known for such popular brands as boy’s action phenomena and 2009 Toy of the Year winner Bakugan Battle Brawlers™, 2008 Toy of the Year winner Air Hogs®, Aquadoodle™, Tech Deck™, Moon Sand™, Liv™, and Mighty Beanz™. The company has also marked an entry into children’s media with the launch of Spin Master Entertainment, a subsidiary focusing on the design, development and production of television and other media properties.  Spin Master employs over 800 people with offices in Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris, London, Hong Kong and Mexico.  For additional information please visit: www.spinmaster.com.

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Some observations:

1. Good size nose and tail. I’ve had issues with other decks in the past that had a tail that was too small.

2. Good concave and steepness on the nose and tail.

3. Overall good shape.

4. Most importantly, the board felt natural as soon as I stepped on it. I realize here and there you’re going to have to get used to a new deck, but ideally I like to step on a deck and have it feel natural from the get-go, and the Fortica deck I tried gave me that experience.

These decks are going for $35 a pop on their website (link above) so go buy you one.

Ok, so that said, it’s a fine deck. It’s snappy, and I like that the nose is a little steeper than that on my last deck. The concave and shape are all fine, with one exception–I found the tail to be just a tad small for my tastes, but hey, that’s just me. So that’s it. Short and sweet, but what else do you want me to say? It’s a deck, after all, there’s not much to it. Oh, and they’re just $35 with free shipping on their website, so the price is definitely right.

I just got a Fallen Cobra hoody yesterday. After all, it was raining outside and all I had worn to the skate shop was a t-shirt, and I wasn’t looking forward to going outside again without some more protection, plus I like Fallen, so there you go.

This isn’t just a normal hoody though. It looks different because it has all this white stitching on the outside, but then it has this heavy, thermal camo lining. It’s really made for cold weather because it’s almost as though you’re wearing a thermal shirt under a hoody. In fact, that’s exactly what it is.

I wore it skating yesterday and even though it was only about 50 degrees outside I had to take it off after about 10 minutes because I was overheating. So if you live in the colder climates and want something that’s in between a normal hoody and a full on jacket, this will do it.

The hood zips off too. No, there isn’t anything printed on the back. There’s a small Fallen logo on the front pocket, which you can see in the photo, and there’s a Fallen logo and a cobra on the inside, and a little patch with some stripes on the sleeve, but overall it’s pretty low-key.

Here’s the official press release:

Upper Playground and FIFTY24SF Gallery Announce the Arrival of Lettus Bee

The long anticipated limited edition toy by Andy Jenkins has arrived. FIFTY24SF, in association with Upper Playground has teamed up once again with Ningyoushi to deliver another toy that is sure to go fast. Lettus Bee is the novelty icon of the Wrench Pilot comic series from Transworld Skateboarding Magazine. The toy presents Lettus Bee in a painful face plant with his board suspended mid-air above his Lakai skate shoes. This vinyl toy is 10” x 9”. There were only 500 made, so don’t sleep on it. To see more toys and Upper Playground’s other new arrivals, visit www.upperplayground.com.

Looks like one is in the mail to me. I’ll post a photo once I get it.

Maybe I shouldn’t say it’s a new format, because that generally means “content” and the content is about the same, especially since 95% of the magazine is ads. But the way the content is designed and layed out is a bit different, and I’m having a hard time adjusting because evidently I have subconsciously learned how to read Transworld based on the design, so a change is design is rendering me quasi-illiterate.

I wish the Alex Carolino interview had been longer. I was trying to find where it continued on subsequent pages but couldn’t find anything.

Seems like everyone is hyping Guy Mariano. He better pull out the stops with the Lakai vid or he’s going to end up pulling a Jordanesque comeback letdown. Go Guy go.

Mothership Distribution is a deck manufacturer with skate shops being their main target market. That is, if you own a skate shop and want to get some shop decks, you talk to Mothership and they’ll make the decks for you according to your specs (you can give them a custom shape or choose from their existing shapes) and they’ll screen your graphics onto the deck for you as well. You just send them the design you want, and you get a box full of nice shop decks. It’s easy. And they can also get you blank wheels, bearings, hardware, griptape, and trucks, amongst other things.

I’ve written about the blank deck issue before, as well as the issue of skateboard decks made in China. Mothership is a prime example of where those in the industry have either already moved or will be moving soon. But that’s not the point of this post.

The point is that Mothership decks, which are made in China, are a lot better than I expected. I had expected anything from China to quickly delaminate, break, warp, or explode. My experience has been anything but. In fact, I’ve tested these decks in ways that I’ve broken other decks and I’ve found that they are standing up to my 220 lbs much better than other name-brand decks I’ve had in the past.

That isn’t to say I haven’t broken any, but I break almost every deck I ride and these haven’t broken as quickly and in some cases they never broke. In fact, one Mothership deck I had actually cracked within 30 minutes on a flat bar (I routinely break decks on flat bars since I’m pretty heavy), but it was still rideable. I then ended up riding that deck for another 3 months, which included at least 400 boardslides on rails and flat bars, but it never actually broke and remained rideable for all that time. I ended up replacing it because the tail was starting to get a little sharp and the grip was wearing out.

Other problems I’ve experienced in the past with other blank or shop decks are shape, weight, thickness, concave, and pop. I haven’t had any such problems with Mothership decks. They’re light, thin but strong (I got a Shuvit blank once that seemed like it was super thick and I couldn’t stand the thing, I don’t like thick decks), they’ve got good shapes, the concave is right, and they’ve got as much pop as any other deck I’ve ever had.

If you’re a kid looking to buy a blank deck Mothership isn’t where you go, since they don’t do retail. You can buy their products through www.myblankskateboarddeck.com or even better, go to your local skateshop and tell them they need to get their shop decks from Mothership Distribution.

Is this a product? Sort of, even though you can touch or hold it. Well, whatever. Half of the posts on here are hard to categorize, but we do our best.

Now go check out www.workedmagazine.com. I had heard of this magazine, but I didn’t realize it was all online and free. And after finding out it was online only, I didn’t realize what a clever format they had come up with.

Now if someone had told me “There’s this new online magazine, and it’s got a bunch of cool Flash stuff, and you can actually turn the pages like a real magazine!” my first reaction would have been to think “Yeah, great, it’s like a real magazine, sounds like someone trying to be clever but it’s really stupid.”

But upon experiencing it firsthand, I realized what a good idea it is to make it like a real magazine, and here’s the reason–advertising.

When you flip through a real magazine, you’re sort of forced to see the advertising, right? Sure, you can skip it, but unless you’ve got every page memorized you might skip something you’re looking for. Chances are you’re going to see each ad that’s printed in a magazine several times.

The problem with most online magazines is that their ad response rates are low. So they try to force you to look at ads by creating popups, which are usually really annoying because they get in the way of what you’re trying to look at.

But with Worked, it’s different. It’s just like a printed magazine. You click in the lower right corner, and it turns the page. When you see an ad, it’s not covering up anything. It’s not in your way, or at least it doesn’t feel that way. I think it’s rather ingenius.

Now there are some downsides to it. The site is Flash, so it’s not going to be indexed by search engines, nor can you bookmark a certain article or page and return quickly to it later or copy the url and send it to a friend. You have to flip through all the pages again to find it. But when you consider that it’s well designer, has all sorts of video clips in it, even the ads are nice to look at, and it’s free, you really can’t complain much. I know I’ll be visiting it in the future.

1. The backpack is obviously a fake. They show a zoomed in photo of one of those cheap toy gyro/tops and expect us to believe that this 50-cent toy is going to keep a 180 lb skateboarder moving at 25 mph from falling down? Gyros of that size aren’t that strong.

2. “not available at 360skate.com” it says. Right, real clever. They said “not” when it really is available. That makes me like them, because they’re clever. Oh wait, I went to the website and typed in “gyro” and it’s true, it’s not available there. Now I’m intrigued.

Hmmm, while the actual product is not available, the ad is. That’s what I said, the ad itself is for sale. I guess if you buy it they’ll tear the page out of SLAP and send it to you. And guess what, it’s on sale! It’s been marked down from $1,000,000.00 to only $800,000.00. Yeah, you read right, $800 grand for the ad.

3. The final clue that it’s a joke? This text on the same webpage:

What will we think up next. This crazy Gyro Backpack was thought up by our Design Department as our second magazine ad. The crazy thing about this product is that we are actually getting a lot of requests for it. The Gyro Pack doesn’t actually exist though. If you want to assemble your own you can do so with a backpack, a chicken feeder, and a handle from a toy broom, and assemble it with some wire and glue. Oh and don’t forget your gyroscope on the inside. You might look a little funny as our rider Jason did as we were shooting this at the skatepark, but who cares. Until the next Ad. (which is our best yet)

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Man, I feel like such an idiot right now. Suckered in by trick advertising. Well, I suppose they deserve the publicity of having me actually post this. But I’m going to show them what’s what by not buying anything from their site. Ha, take that suckas.

You know why the ad tricked me though? Cause there is actually stuff pretty close to this being promoted in real ads. But I’ll have to make fun of them another day. Time to go home.