What’s the most you’d spend on a skate deck? Maybe you’re a bargain seeker, riding around on a £25 supermarket board? Or do you like to do things properly, and drop £70 on a deck.
Shit, you could be one of those collectors who have a number of pristine £150 special edition boards, wrapped in cotton wool, safely tucked away in a safe.
Whatever your budget, you’d be hard pushed to roll around on a deck as expensive as these. They’re the work of controversial US artist (and former Dyslexic Beatle bassist Paul McCarthy), and the set of 10 can be yours for just $30,000 (about £20,225)
More accustomed to creating art involving brilliantly trashy pop culture icons and grubby sexual taboos, McCarthy has made the departure into skate graphics in a bid to help raise the quality of life of children in Africa.
It’s an initiative has been set up by Belgian charity The Skateroom, who invite different artists to create work that will adorn sets of decks that are then produced in very limited numbers.
The decks are then sold, and the money raised goes towards non-profit projects that empower and enable children through skateboarding and art.
The McCarthy decks are based on works created between 1972 and 1983, and feature decapitated dolls, rotting food packaging, and rather dilapidated looking incarnations of well known cartoon characters.
Buying the full set doesn’t just get you ten rather attractive decks. For your money you also get a custom flight case, and the hardware to complete the skateboard setup.
However, if spending just over £20k on a bunch of plywood is a little out of your budget, you can buy the individual decks for a mere £2,280 each. Reasonable.
If you’ve got the cash to spend, and you want to help out pretty amazing causes, head over to TheSkateroom and brace yourself for a very, very serious conversation with your other half about money.
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