A Chipped Tail and Pretty in Pink

For most of today we had good weather in Connecticut, which meant Sk8terdude was back at S.P.I.R.I.T. despite his still-broken finger.  About 90 minutes into his session, he called home to say that he "landed hard and chipped the tail" and needed me to drive back with a replacement deck.

Um...it's only been three weeks since we purchased the last deck...and that one replaced another one that was only a month old.  Can you hear the giant sucking sound in my piggy bank?

So although I'm glad I bought two decks at once from Enclave Skate Shop (since it meant I didn't have to go shopping for a new deck today), I'm beginning to think it would be easier and cheaper to start chopping down all the maple trees in the backyard to make our own.  (LOL - I'm sure Sk8terdude would just LOVE that idea!!)

I am seriously considering buying him blank decks in bulk and using those instead, an idea that one of the skatepark monitors tossed out while (very kindly - thanks, George!) attaching Sk8terdude's trucks and wheels to the replacement deck.

What do you think?  Have any of you tried this?  Any suggestions for reliable sources?  There are a bunch of online resources, but how do I know if the quality will be any good?  (On the other hand, at approximately $10 per blank deck, it might be worth the risk even if they aren't so great...)

By this point in the afternoon, the clouds were rolling in and the skies were threatening a major thunderstorm (oh yeah, The Weather Channel was predicting one, too), so I decided to hang out at the park in case the rain began and Sk8terdude needed to beat a speedy retreat in order to keep his cast dry.

We used to use the Pro-Cel Waterproof Cast Liner material made by Gore Industries (of Gore-Tex fame), which made having a cast significantly easier for all of us.  Sk8terdude went to Florida twice with waterproof casts:  once to Disneyworld, where it made water rides and the hotel pool possible, and once to visit his Florida grandparents, where he was even able to go snorkeling in the ocean.  Unfortunately, Gore has discontinued the product line (maybe we were their best customers?  we were certainly their biggest fans!!), so this cast means rain is a problem.

While I was hanging out in my "personal parent lounge" (yeah, the car), another mom arrived with her two kids.  Although they live in NYC they have a weekend/summer home up here, so we know them from the town beach as well as the skatepark.  The daughter, V, was sporting this skateboard:

I was really delighted to see the hot pink grip tape!  I'm not personally into pink, but clearly she is, and she couldn't have been more excited to have something different on her skateboard.  Unlike the barriers to entry I talked about with the women at Kona Skate Park, this was clearly an effort on the part of some savvy marketing executive to encourage more girls to skate.

Or so I thought.

Turns out that as soon as the boys in the store saw V getting pink tape on her board, they all started clamoring for the same color!  And a quick google search showed me that more than one company makes pink grip tape, so clearly it's in demand by more than just the handful of girls who skate.

I wonder if Sk8terdude will jump on the bandwagon and demand a hot pink cast next time he needs one?