Personal “Avatar” for Flickr, Facebook, etc.

I got tired of looking at those mystery person silohuette avatars I have on the various social sites so I made this graphic. To me, it’s funny. Those fists are actually Hulk Hands ™ that I bought on eBay and sprayed with chrome paint. The knuckle letters were inspired by some of the ideas at KnuckleTattoos.com. But “GIVE” and “TAKE” actually came from a drawing in the liner notes of one of the more recent Metallica albums.

Kevin Shelton’s Skateboard Collection at The Push Gallery

This one if for my main man Bennie. He was the first guy I knew to have a “serious” skateboard. It was a Kryptonics Krypstick with gnarly see-through pizza deck grip tape, Tracker trucks, and some sweet green Kryptonic wheels. He was cool enough to let me use it to commute to summer school one year in junior high. It was slower than riding my bike but I really wanted to show off that board, even though it belonged to Bennie.

Asheville’s Kevin Shelton has quite a collection of cool boards too. And he’s not just a collector; he once was pro and road for Walker skateboards. Thanks to Push Skateshop Kevin’s collection is on display in their gallery. The gallery, which is probably bigger than the skateshop, regularly has art exhibited, paintings, sculptures etc., but this collection really combines the twin forces of art and skating like nothing else. I didn’t even know about it until I started talking to Rob, the owner, when he was helping out at my son’s skateboard camp last week. He helped Mars learn some new things. Maybe I can get him to coach me.

I took a ton a pics of this collection and had a difficult time picking these few. Shelton also has quite a collection of vintage snowboards and land luges on display, but the skateboards are what do it for me. Here are some of my favorites.