We are stoked to have the latest Penny skateboards in stock – the Penny Nickel.

Penny skateboards have been one of the great success stories in skateboarding recently, and many kids have gotten back into skating off the back of them. For those that don’t know, Penny skateboards are like the 1970s banana boards – short, thin, with a plastic deck and soft smooth wheels.

But some people may have found the original Penny’s a tad too small. After all they were only 22 inches long and six inches wide. Penny seem to have listened to their audience and have introduced a bigger version, the Nickel. The Nickel is 27 inches long and 7.5 inches wide with a wheelbase of 14.4 inches. So for all intents and purposes, the Penny nickel has the same dimensions as a standard skateboard. There is another improvement too – the original Penny had a steep angular rear kicktail that some people found hard to use. The Penny Nickel has a kicktail that curves gently upwards like a standard kicktail making it easier to navigate with.

As usual, Penny have released a sun-soaked, laid back commercial to get you in the required groove.  If only Australia could export their weather as well as their killer skateboards, huh?

I was gladdened to see that Aero used a skateboarder in their recent “Bubbles” ad campaign.

With the popularity of scooters on both sides of the Atlantic, you may have thought that a product aimed at the youth market would be keen to jump on the scooter bandwagon. But I guess the truth of the matter is that no matter how much fun scootering may be, it just doesn’t look that cool. Sorry scooter riders but we all know it’s true. Like surfing, skateboarding has innate style and grace (especially when done by the ad’s star Bob Burnquist) that scootering just seems to lack.

Like me, you may have assumed that the bubbles were created using CGI, but that is not the case. In fact, 50,000 brown balloons were pumped up and then poured into the bowls at Lake Cunningham skate park in San Jose, as this fascinating “behind the scenes” film shows. All that effort was worthwhile as it created a really watchable ad that presents the product in a great light. Not sure about the choice of music though.

But it’s great to see that skateboarding still has appeal to kids and advertisers alike. Perhaps scooters won’t be around for that long after all…

We came across this great little film featuring Thrasher magazine’s Michael Burnett on how to improve your skate photography.

With so many people filming and photographing skaters these days, it’s great to be able to get some tips from the pros.

If you’re a photographer and would like us to highlight some of your photos, drop us a line at info@skateboardsofchoice.co.uk

It’s great to see that Santa Cruz skateboards is as relevant today as they have been since their inception over 30 years ago.

As blogged about recently, Santa Cruz have been at the forefront of skateboard technology and culture. But older guys like myself always think of the surf-roots of Santa Cruz and forget that the brand also appeals to hardcore skate rats on both sides of the Atlantic. As this most recent short film, hosted on the Thrasher website shows, the Santa Cruz team is just as gnarly and talented as any other top skate team out there.

So if you’re looking for a new deck, you know you’ll be in good company if you opt for Santa Cruz!

Spitfire wheels has signed up UK rider Joe Gavin to its team.

Check out his welcome video! Filmed on the streets of Manchester, it’s striking how much grittier the skate terrain is in this country compared to California where most skate vids are filmed. Don’t they have litter in America? Or puddles? Or grafitti? Or cracked pavements? Or grey, overcast skies? Just managing to stay upright on our uneven pavements is a challenge in itself, let alone performing a nollie hardflip.

So well done Joe, hopefully your next video part will be filmed in sunnier climes!

Check out our range of Spitfire wheels, in stock and raring to go!

Two of the great things about skateboarding is that there are no limits and no rules: you can do what you want when you want to. There are no referees telling you that you have done something wrong, and no final bell telling you when to stop.

This is enormously appealing to those who feel constructed by the rules of traditional field sports. But I guess there is a downside to this freedom: there is no upper limit to what can be achieved. This means that there is a never-ending demand to do things bigger, better and crazier. Perhaps the best example of this would be the recent 20-stair ollie from Aaron “Jaws” Homoki, filmed for the July 2011 cover of Thrasher magazine.  As an athletic feat, this is probably up there with the sub-10 second 100 metres, but the risk to life and limb is considerably  greater. To do a stunt like this you have got to be prepared for your ankles or knees to disintegrate underneath you at any moment.

And whilst this is cool to watch, I’ll bet there are a million potential skaters out there thinking “no way man!” . If the ultimate goal of skateboarding is to put yourself in a position where you risk serious injury (just falling off the ledge at the top of that stair could have killed Homoki), then maybe it starts to look a little less appealing to its target audience. In fact, one of the comments for this video on youtube is “skateboarding is insane”. Looking at this video, you’d have to agree.

And I think the industry itself is starting to recognise this. As we know, the last few years have seen a rise in the number of longboarders (especially in the States), longboarding being a relatively low-impact version of skateboarding where ollies and kickflips aren’t on the agenda. And now we are seeing the rise of the mini cruiser from companies like Penny and Stereo. What’s really interesting is the way that these companies promote their product. A recent ad for Penny shows two kids just cruising and carving, not an ollie in sight, and the most recent Stereo spot features a fatherly Jason Lee showing a young boy how to cruise on his board, the emphasis being on the enjoyment of just flowing and carving, not the need to do ridiculously tricky tricks.

I think this is good for skateboarding. We need to take the pedal off the metal for a while and get back to basics. Skateboarding is meant to be about fun, and I think the rail/stair hegemony of the skate mags and videos has taken us down a path that could end in the sport of skateboarding falling off the radar of kids that have so many other options available to them. And nobody wants that. right?

Check out this review of the new Stereo Cruisers on the Skateboarder Magazine website.

Like the man says, they are crazy fun to ride! And what with Spring around the corner, it could be time to get yourself the skateboard that comes with a free pair of colour co-ordinated sunglasses!

It’s part of human nature that we always want to know what the cheapest option available for any product is. Especially in these difficult times and especially if you are a teenager with limited funds.

But as with everything that is labelled “cheap”, there is a risk that another, unseen label is sitting right next to it that says “and not very good”. Is this also the case with “cheap skateboard decks”?

Well actually, the good news is that the answer to this is usually “no”!

We sell a wide range of decks here at Skateboards of Choice, but our best sellers tend to be at the lower end of the price range. Our cheapest deck is the Voltage Lightning deck at £19.99. This deck is pre-gripped and made from 100% Canadian maple wood and comes in three sizes – 7.5, 7.75 and 8.0 inches wide. It is manufactured in China, but frankly, what isn’t these days?

The next step up is the Blank Skateboard deck at £22.99. A blank skateboard deck is one that has absolutely no markings on it whatsoever. We also have a range of blank decks in different colours. These are £1 more expensive and also come in the same three sizes. Blank decks are often made in the same factories as branded decks and use the same materials.

We have been selling these decks for over three years now and we can count the number of complaints we have had about them on one hand. I guess the drawback is that blank decks are only really available in the three main sizes, so if you are looking for a 7.625 or 8.125 wide deck you are out of luck.  However, if you are willing to spend a little bit more, we would recommend the Powell Mini Logo decks – the Red Dot series retail at £25.99 and the Logo series decks retail at £34.99.  The difference in price is explained by the fact that the £25.99 decks use Chinese maple and the more expensive ones use Canadian maple.

Just slightly more expensive than these at £37.99 are the Jart decks – these have been independently tested and have proved to be the most reliable decks on the market. And they are made in Spain from Canadian maple.

So the good news is that as long as you have a minimum of about £20 to spend, you can get yourself a 7-ply Canadian maple deck with free grip tape! not bad for months and months of hassle free skating!

Hi there

Just a quick post to let you know that our eBay site is now up and running. It doesn’t have much stuff on it to be frank, but every now and then we may list some premium products at cheekily low prices. So it’s always worth checking it out if you’re on the look-out for a bargain.

Cheers

UK-based music and skateboarding website Caught in the Crossfire has been supporting the UK skate scene for an incredible 10 years now.

To mark this impressive milestone, they are organizing a skate video competition. The deadline is end of February so you’d better get your act together if you are thinking of entering.

Good luck!