Skateboard

Skateboarders paint with remote-control spray cans

Some cool new gadgets aren't sold in stores. The D*Face Spray Paint Skateboard Interface took a year to create and won't be found on the shelves of your local skate shop.

Let's break down the D*Face Spray Paint Skateboard Interface. D*Face is a London-based street artist. Spray paint and skateboards are self-evident. The interface part refers to a remote control system that can trigger paints cans attached to the underside of skateboards.

This technology could easily be used for less-than-noble purposes, but D*Face created and harnessed the devices in the name of art. The canvas was a skateboarding pool in Southern California. The pool had previously been a site for a D*Face project that covered it with piles of painted skulls.

According to a behind-the-scenes look in Concrete Disciples skateboarding magazine, the chosen spray paint was a very fast-drying enamel. The cans are strapped under the deck with Velcro and are controlled by wireless remote.… Read more

Marty McFly meets Tron with LED skateboard

These days, it's becoming a somewhat cringeworthy phenomenon that companies add LED lighting to just about everything.

In the latest victim of tacky meets tech (or is it cool meets tech?), California-based skateboard company Flexdex is illuminating the skating scene with the light board. The flagship model, the Clear29 LT longboard, features a "clear as glass" polycarbonate frame, translucent wheels, and strips of LED lights powered by 9-volt batteries that run along key areas of the body (no mention of battery life). Gadgets and Gear sells the futuristic skateboard for $199 in blue, red, green, orange, and white.

Who'd want to rock this ride? A prepubescent hellion with a geeky side? Your inner (or real) child? Hard to tell.

After watching several demonstration videos, I'm not exactly sure if the Flexdex LED skateboard is the brightest option out there. The video below from Flexdex will undoubtedly inspire the use of fast forward. As you can see, this is no Tron light bike. I need atomic glow. … Read more

And now: Teen Wolf on a gas-powered skateboard

It's Friday afternoon, and I could be writing about more iPad 2 or iPhone 5 rumors, or Star Wars coming to Blu-ray finally, or new 3D TVs.

But it's Friday. So instead, I'm bringing you a first look at a guy in a Teen Wolf costume walking his dog around a kickball field in Seattle on a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-style gas-powered two-wheeled skateboard.… Read more

DTV Shredder: Gnarly tank-inspired skateboard

Oh my god! Get a load of the DTV Shredder--a motorized skateboard that looks like a cross between a Segway, a skateboard, and Johnny 5 from the "Short Circuit" movies.

Instead of wheels, the device uses two continuous tracks of the sort you'd get on a tank, and is powered by a 15hp 200cc Honda engine. It looks pretty easy to use, too. Forward motion seems to be activated by twisting the handlebar grip and steering is taken care of by leaning left or right on the skateboard-type platform that sits above the tracks.

By using … Read more

Skateboarding on the iPhone

Skate It is the handheld version of the popular EA game Skate that most will recognize from console versions. On the iPhone, your control system includes using the accelerometer to turn your skater, a couple of buttons for kicking and grabs, and various swipes of your finger to pull off tricks. Having played the console games quite a bit on the Xbox 360, we were amazed at how many of the original locations are available on the iPhone version. The graphics are predictably not as good as on console versions of Skate, and older 3G iPhones may struggle to keep … Read more

Easy dictation and console-like skateboarding: iPhone apps of the week

As we know, Apple is notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to upcoming releases. The strategy of making everyone wait until the big announcement from Steve Jobs at a carefully timed event has paid off well for Apple over the years, with relatively few foul ups. That's why it's especially shocking to see the iPhone 4G hardware leaked not once, but twice.

By now most people are aware of the details surrounding the iPhone 4G left at a bar by an Apple engineer and the aftermath at Gizmodo. After a fire drill like that one, I would never have … Read more

iPad can double as skateboard

The iPad just got a whole lot more intriguing. The tablet can not only help you surf around the Web and check e-mail, it can also serve as a pretty useful skateboard.

Jeff King, who hosts the Fuel TV show "Built to Shred," took a 64GB iPad and, using some innovative techniques, transformed Apple's tablet into a fully operational skateboard. King asked professional skateboarder Chad Knight to try to ride it down a half-pipe.

After attaching wheels to the iPad, Knight took it for a ride. Unfortunately, the iPad's screen cracked in the first try and … Read more

TuneBug vibrating speaker for boarders and bikers

LAS VEGAS--I can tell you from experience that there's nothing quite like riding down a mountain with your own personal soundtrack. I'm sure cyclists feel the same way, particularly when it comes to long-haul biking.

The problem is safety: these activities already involve a fair amount of risk, and that shoots up when you impair your ability to hear what's going on in your surroundings. (In fact, in some places it's illegal to ride with two earphones in.) Luckily, we have this great thing called technology, which allows for innovations such as TuneBug's Shake.

In … Read more

The 404 Podcast 468: Where we take a RIDE with Tony Hawk

CNET's The 404 Podcast is very proud to welcome Tony Hawk to the studio today! The man who rode skateboarding to mainstream success sits down with us for a chat about his expansive video game franchise, skateboarding being added to the Olympics, and, of course, his newest game, Tony Hawk: RIDE.

All of us have been huge fans of the Tony Hawk video game franchise since the first Tony Hawk Pro Skater, but his latest game, Tony Hawk: RIDE, brings a new level of entertainment to the series with a physical skateboard equipped with a contoured base, infrared sensors, and four smart motion sensors that help you push, turn, lean, and pull off unbelievable tricks within the virtual environments. Tony tells us all about the creation of the board and the prototype decks that didn't make the cut. He also explains the motivation behind making the switch to a physical board instead of the hand-held controller that propelled the original games into instant classics, making comparisons to the Wii Fit Balance Board to show how much extra work went into the dual accelerometers.

After getting the full scoop about the game (in stores tomorrow for $120), we're all very excited to see him in action with a live in-studio demo on an Xbox 360. Tony shows us how the accelerometers pick up the movement of your feet on the board and how to grab the nose by simply bending over and reaching toward the front of the board. After he goes through some of the basic moves, he hands the board over to me to give it a shot. Obviously, Tony Hawk himself is a hard act to follow, but I think I pulled off a few tricks before face-planting onto the concrete. Be sure to check out the video for all the action.

After the break, we talk to Tony a bit more about the game and how influential the series has been on bringing the sport to mainstream popularity, the eclectic music choices in the soundtrack, and some of the active characters you can choose. And, of course, we have to get Tony's take on the future of skateboarding and whether or not the sport will ever go the way of snowboarding to make it as an official event at the Olympics.

There's a whole lot more to talk about with Tony, a few Calls From the Public, and some insightful questions from the chat room, so be sure to listen or watch the entire episode for the full scoop. Much thanks to Tony for coming on the show and keep listening for a chance to win a copy of the game!

EPISODE 468 Subscribe in iTunes audio | Suscribe to iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more