Tag Archives: skateboarding

Montreal's Newest Skatepark: Le Taz – Panoramic Views

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Here are some quick and dirty panoramic views (QTVR + frames) of the Taz, Montreal’s newest skatepark. Embed VR scenes from the pictures can be found below the gallery.

Construction happened during the Winter, so the even larger outdoors park (94,000 sq/ft) is not built yet. With 83,000 sq/ft indoors, I think we can wait another couple of month. ;)

Sorry for the abysmal quality, but I had more important things on the mind: riding, riding aaaaand, riding! :) Don’t worry, tons of pictures will surface online this week for sure.

Feel free to download the movie files if you want full screen.

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J. Grant Brittain Limited Edition Pro Board #17 of 99

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When I told my wife that I bought my first ever collectible last week, she started having cold sweats, thinking I had just grabbed a chunk of the family savings for a way-too-early mid-life crisis. Needless to say, she was relieved when she found out that the object of my desire was just a $75 skateboard.

But what a board! And especially dear to me is what it represents, since the fact that I am fanatic about extreme sports, and have been since I was a child, is far from a state secret.

In 2009, Mumble will be presenting three people who have had an outstanding influence on the skateboarding industry over the last decades with pro skateboarder diplomas and honorary pro model decks.

The first person to be induced in this hall of fame of sort, in association with Powell Peralta and The Skateboard Mag, is none other than legendary photographer J. Grant Brittain, the founding photo editor of The Skateboard Mag.

And today, I received my own copy of this limited edition deck, number 17 of the 99 that have been produced. And to top it all off, I also got myself a classic Ripper shirt to go with it. Can you feel the joy? It’s positively palpable, isn’t it? :)

Now, I can’t wait to see who the next two legends will be. I’ll definitely try to get these boards too, as well as a[nother] personal treat: a re-issue of Steve Caballero‘s original Cab Street, my first real skateboard, in Martinique back in the 80s.

Hey, it could be worse, I could have been tempted by one of the Rip the Ripper tribute art pieces! Not that I’m not, but there’s no way I can afford one of those… :p

Update 1: I so feel like mounting trucks and era-specific wheels on this bad boy and ride the […] out of it! But I’ll be strong…

Update 2: I forgot to mention that the proceeds of the sale of these limited edition boards will be going to the Grind for Life foundation, helping people with cancer.

The Fifteen Minutes Snowskate

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I got really inspired to try something out yesterday, after discovering Snowsk8r, Pedal BMX‘s sister site: I wanted to rig myself up something in the general spirit of a snowskate from miscellaneous recycled parts.

If you are not familiar with snowskating, just check out the following embedded video to get the gist of things.

YouTube – Chairlift Skeptics… A Snowskate Flick

An appropriate short description would likely be: the newest surefire way to injure yourself while laughing your head off. :p

Looking at the various kinds of snowskates out there, there seems to be three general types:

  • simple boards with an oversized tail and nose, referred to as single deck
  • what looks like a standard skateboard made out of marine plywood, with a mini snowboard underneath, aka bideck
  • and the same, but with multiple mini-skis (2 to 4), with or without suspension

The easy way out for me would have of course been to just grab an old skateboard and gone for it as is, but my kids and I have done that many times in the past and although it’s fun, there is just not enough kick to it. What became obvious was that the elevation from the ground that trucks and wheels provide was what I was looking for in the rig.

After finding a photo of the now out-of-production Danny Kass Snowskate model, it became apparent that simply joining 2 old skateboards might just do the trick nicely, at least to mess around with and see if there’s any sense in spending more time or money on getting setup.

So that’s what I just did. You can see the basic steps I took by browsing to the photo set of the build process I uploaded on Flickr, or you can use the following embedded slideshow (full screen mode will let you see the attached instructions).

Voilà! Nothing too fancy, but it promises to be a blast to at least try out. :)

The kids and I will go do just that shortly.

Updated 2009-01-18: I’ve added some picts of our test run to the slideshow. Fun stuff! As expected, it works best with heavily packed snow. Not a problem in Montreal. ;)