Manteo Moment

I know i already posted some really rough footage from this stop on the trip, but it was such a good memory, and we found this at the bottom of the flipcam's memory file... didn't want to skip it...

So much of skateboarding is just showing up and being there... No kidding. At Manteo, we had some of the best memories formed in like a 40 minute visit, right before a long trek home from a snowbound trip. As skateboarders, we adapted to our snowbound situation and just skated in the dry spots...

we had more fun than we expected to. it was rad.

props to all the OBX locals. Mike, Bob, Jesse, the Artisan crew who built this killer spot. Props to Eggbowl Evan (name right?) and everyone there that shows the love to the wandering fickle crew...

New Product Line Coming Out this Spring

This spring (date to be announced) we are releasing our first line of boards. All of our boards are hand made in the Fickle Underground Lab. Lew makes the boards... and they are going to be more than good enough for you to destroy.

So please, this spring, look for our boards at finer skate shops, or order them direct from us in our soon-to-come Web Store. You'll be riding a piece of history!

Weston gets a fiver off Kappa...

we are all gonna be bummed when we get this spine to vert wall, and the bank, done. the "death gap" is home to many rad transfers... Thanks to Kappa for the motivation. Fun fun fun with weston...

Goofing off at Powell last summer

This is Matt, who runs Fickle with Lew, and Weston, who will probably run Fickle in the future... Living the fun...

More of the Yard

this is a first visit for everyone but Lew. Josh Viles, Weston, Ben, Lew, Seth... and our intrepid Guide, Will Boatwright. Please enjoy the session. It is low-level, but it was a first visit to a seriously challenging spot. Good stuff got landed and some of it made it onto clips... epic memories, living the fun.

Weston didn't win the 2-litre on this one...

Matt offered a 2-liter for every foot Wes slid this back tail... he didn't even get a can of coke off it...

JV at Bloomington...

JV killin it in the first ten minutes of the session... this is warmups for the guy...

Thinking of Warmer Places, friendly faces...

Fickle Boards Remembers our trip to Savannah in the wonderful "SuperBee" Bus. Cue Flamethrower's "Superbee". Shut up and ride the superbee. Cue Tony Trujillo's Van's Promo, second song...

One of our first stops in the Savannah area is The Yard.
The Yard will kill you.
The Yard hates you.
The Yard loves to hate you.
You Must Skate The Yard!

Will Boatwright was our intrepid guide on this visit to The Yard. Thank You Will Boatwright! Fickle History was made that day. And many thanks to the Savannah-Area-Boatwrights! A clan of distinction, practising true Southern hospitlality. We were fed and cared for like family for not a small number of nights' stay!









Something you don't see in these pics is how many screw heads are sticking out... how warped and weathered the wood is... and how ridiculously SLICK and bowed up the white plastic surfacing is..
and it's all rad. go there.

We all appreciate Will's taking us down there to meet up with Joe Burdick, our SAV area rep. We will soon have wood on the way down there and be shredding on the regs down there with the good folks at Woody's Skate Shop. Get on their site and check out "Thelma and Louise".

But The Yard is insane and if you get a chance, and you know who to ask, and you got some dough to slip in the doorslot, you can skate it and have a great time... even though you're going to get torn up and broke off... Try some softer wheels, maybe...

...speaking of Skate Shops!!!

We can't tell you how much we here in the Fickle crew support the efforts of Gary Collins, through the Galaxie Skate Shop. Just 5 Minutes from downtown, within 20 minutes of Ollies and Florence... Gary is running a SUPER LEGITIMATE skateboard shop. He will get you what you need!!!

Listen, there isn't something this good anywhere nearby! Jake up at Demented in Fairfield, and Joe at Blacklist in Lawrenceburg are the nearest things that hold a candle to the super-shredding goodness of the Galaxie Skate Shop.

"The best skate shop in Cincinnati! (located conveniently just across the river on the 600block of Monmouth St. in Newport KY)

Sorry Folks... We aren't a skateshop...

First off, THANK YOU for calling us and don't hesitate, all you folks who are hitting us up and asking for Trucks, wheels, advice, and directions to local parks. Serisously, it is is an honor to be a part of your skateboarding life. Any time we can pick up we'll answer your calls and direct you to your resources! THANKS FOR CALLING!

And now, a small clarification:

We actually are not a "Skate Shop". We aren't a retail store, that is. We aren't a PLACE that sells stuff.

What we ARE is a small community of skateboarders who MAKE skateboard decks by hand. Rather, Old Lew is making them, Ben helps, Weston helps, and we all get along real well. Fickle Boards are handmade and relatively rare.

We will be releasing a public line of hand made decks this Spring (saaay April or May) Date to be announced. These will be carried in skate shops that see the future... and the future is that you'll soon have 2 alternatives:
...handmade skateboards from people who care...
and mass produced crap... that may come from people who care, or from corporate hype machines... it doesn't matter.

No matter what you buy, or what you ride, RIDE! Get out there and skate today. Go thirty, or do kickflips on the carpet, but push it today and get stoked. If you're hurt, work around it. If you can't ride, dream and plan. If it's crappy weather, get a road trip planned for spring. Or a trip south. Or for after you graduate...

Oh and by the way, you'll be able to order your fickle board this May/June! Make sure to buy everything from The Galaxie Skate Shop, Demented, Black List, or wherever there is a skateboarding-exclusive shop that supports the community. And hey, not the mall shops, okay kids? Just trust us. if you want anything good for the future, tell you moms to shop at a REAL skateboard shop! Just a friendly suggestion.

Dump your girlfriend. Quit smoking. Get sharp and get out there and shred! Kill it today!

Winters with Weston and Josh

On the way up to Cinci last month, Josh Viles and Jacob Dohm (Knoxville TN) Picked up Weston in Louisville... See what the weather was doing?



That didn't stop Josh from Gettin a piece in the dry spots...



...and in the wet spots... nice wet skate lite there...



how do you follow that up? Go straight to Matt Simpson's Mile-High-Ramp and shovel a small track and do the rainbow! Proper inclement skateboarding insanity going on daily here and there with the Fickle Boards Crew.

For real, Josh Viles is down to skate. The kid just can't NOT skate. It's serious. It's like a medical condition. Seriously... We're not sure we can contain it! For real, would a real skateboard company please come and poach this guy and make him a california pro so we can all go out there and skate warmer stuff?

Actually no. Don't.

We take it back. Josh is terrible. He's a wimp. He is lazy and hates to skate. We have to go get him at the crackhouse for demos. and on and on. All he wants to do are casper flips and flamingos. Viles is horrible.

Phweew. Close one.

News again... update #49

You know, we used to produce our wood... out of a GREAT wood shop right here in America. But we needed to get a better control on our stuff. We wanted to set shapes, develop concaves, and get our stuff going at levels that mass-production just couldn't feasibly support...

...AND we saw some serious quality-dips (meaning: drops in quality) coming out of ALL the factories that we knew of...

SOOOOO...

We Designed and Built our own press.
...and are presently working up our own molds.
and experimenting with glues and wood sources...

And...

We...
...are...
...loving it!!!

We are taking the opportunity to use whatever boards we like from other companies, test them out and see where we want to be in a few years (or sooner?).

We are spending our time SKATING together and working together to create something amazing... a skateboard production crew that works with our hands to get wood under feet, locally, regionally... and with the originality and personality that set Fickle Boards apart as a feel-good crew of good guys (and gal).

So I'm going to get off this post and go skate for a while, and we will see you in the spring... around April or May, with handmade planks of Mapley goodness for you to shred and destroy all summer long.

Carrie Willis... she's at it again...

Since Carrie broke the ankle last year... she has grown and come back strong... here old and new clips for you...



Look for GREAT THINGS from Carrie this year, as Fickle Boards puts HAND MADE in Cincinnati lumber under her now fully restored feet.

Native Nik Old Clip Foundation Spot Tuck knee Ollie

Now and then I like to dig around in the clip basket and I find something good down there... We're having a good winter over here in Cincinnati, working on our wood operation... Nik shreds.

Dfaul put this vid on his youtube... catch the ender.

Found this floating out there...

Looking for something, I ran across this pretty tight "unofficial" edit of ben and weston out there... we always want all of you to have fun with our skating, so if you poach some stuff, feel free to post it up! Make it official! Here. Now its official.

We Push. We GO! By the way, a lot of the footy is from our buddy Kwaleb here in Northside. Thanks, quails! kwayles? quales? thanks man! I suspect that it is all your work... It sucks in all the right directions.

Local Cincinnati News of Note: Galaxie Skate Shop

Our Beloved Galaxie Skate Shop, your home for all things Fickleboards, has changed hands!

And better hands couldn't be found! Cincinnati's own Gary Collins, of longtime local fame and captain of Instrument Skateboards, has come to the helm of The Best Skateshop In Cincinnati (located conveniently 5 minutes from downtown in Newport KY).

That runon sentence, and all it's fragments, was brought to you by our very hearts of goodwill for all things skateboarding in our hometown here... By the way, our hometowns are almost all somewhere else, but we are sheltering for the time being in the Queen City, Cincinnati.

So get down to the Galaxie NOW and buy a complete setup! Make sure Gary knows your preferences, and if what you want isn't in there, you either don't need it, or he'll order it for you. There is NO HOLDING BACK! Support skaters skating and moving skateboarding forward for more skaters to skate... and all the while, There's Gary, RIIIPPPPPPPIINNNG! He and his whole crew.

Yerp has found a home at the Galaxie! Yerp to the core!

Oh, and look for Fickle Boards on the wall in the Springtime, as we present our handmade offering to the core community of Cincinnati at the Galaxie, Demented (fairfield), and other fine skate shops.

We Push. We Go!

Pretty Cold out: Update No. 48

Well, things are COLD, lately, around here in Cincinnati. The skateboarding world is turned on it's ear as local powers scrap it out for top dog of the heap, while we here at FickleBoards are hidden away in our top secret lab, cooking up the best wood we can for the springtime. We'd like to have an April 1st release of product, along the official lines, but a deadline like that looks like an invitation to failure.

Needless to say, we'll keep you updated and set dates once we're sure you'll like the wood.

Meanwhile, top secret ramp sessions are going down at HQ. Ollies is sheltering a good number of us on the regs, and all our riders are eagerly awaiting wood to flow again, like waterfall... (put it on the pizza)

Manteo NC skate spot park...

Manteo NC has a great little park. Can't have more than about 5 people at it, but in the weather we found it under, we were set. Pics will be on sunshine's site, soon.

News Update #54

We have been preparing our press for a long time... you may remember, dear readers, that we stopped producing with our previous supplier and broke out of the mold, some months back... We custom designed our press, have worked with our local fabrication expert, and have it standing, and almost completely complete. It is beautiful, simple, and seriously able to make skateboards!

I would post you a picture, but it's probably not a great idea. There is some need for a modicum of secrecy... I can't resist though. Here's a little view of a part of it.

There... Now you see it.

We aren't sure when we're going to drop any product. It looks good for the Spring Time. We will drop a date once we've got a couple of molds working and we're sure it's a full-on GO.

Until then, we'll keep pushing. We Push. We Go!

dorks

Check out the Runnin!

Go NOW to "Aaron's Photo Blogger" and see Sunshine's latest work. Josh Viles came and destroyed crap for a week during the xmas break.