Coolest skateboard designs you'll probably ever see

Falling off skateboards is rarely enjoyable, but beautiful deck art is. Challenge Skateboards Skate Deck Art brings its best to China

By Tim Cheung 14 July, 2011

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It doesn’t take a pro skateboarder to truly appreciate a good skate deck design, but since not every skater can do an ollie airwalk like Tony Hawk, designs on skate decks often go unnoticed.

That is especially true in China, where skateboarding is still a niche pastime. Fortunately, a board sports enthusiast, Miriam Deller, came up with the idea of exhibiting skateboard art at the annual Challenge Skateboards Skate Deck Art (SDA) in various cities across the country.

Deller, founder and organizer of SDA, says she wants to show the beauty of board sports, and in particular skateboarding to a wider audience, an audience that might have never encountered the skate culture.

"In 2009, I had this idea to start a Skateboard Art exhibition in China," said Deller. "I love board sports and thought it would be a great idea to launch Skate Deck Art in China to promote the skateboarding culture."

A fluffy and fancy skateboard chair in lambskin by Da Wang.

This year's SKD exhibition tour will run till February 2012 in seven venues located in Beijing, Shanghai, Hanzhou and Hainan.

The ongoing tour showcases 44 amazing deck designs by Chinese artists, street artists, graffiti writers and tattoo artists, and is accompanied by live music and painting.

While some of these decks -- prices range from a few hundred to a few thousand RMB -- are still good for skateboarding, we wouldn’t recommend taking them out for a spin and risking destroying their immaculate surfaces.

Hurt by Nod Young.

Interested parties can contribute to the 2012 Challenge Skateboards SDA by emailing SDA at skatedeckart@corepowerasia.com.

Now to July 15 in Bed Beijing; 117 Zhangwang Hutong, Jiu Gulou Dajie, Dongcheng District; tel. +86 (01) 8400 1554; www.skatedeckart.com

Future tour dates and locations:

September 13-14 in Hangzhou
October 2-4 at the Modern Sky Music Festival in Beijing
November 5-6 at the Surfing Hainan Festival in Hainan
February 22-25 at ISPO Beijing, China National Convention Center in Beijing

Tim has traded in his supply and demand curves for a Master of Journalism degree in hope of doing something a tad more relevant to life, like drinking beer and maybe writing.