If you like to skateboard, one Big Thing To Ride is truly amazing!
This Big Thing To See in the USA was built to break a Guinness World Record, and that idea came from professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek.
While taping the 1st season of his reality television show for MTV, Dyrdek wanted to have this Giant Skateboard built to break a previous record. He also needed something cool for the grand re-opening of a skatepark his foundation was building at a Los Angeles public park.
The episode of Rob Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory featuring this Titanic Thrasher Transport aired on April 5, 2009. In 2010, Guinness World Records certified it as the world record Big Skateboard!
Builder Joe Ciaglia of California Skateparks truly created something special, a new World’s Largest Skateboard that is a 100% real, functional skateboard! It can, and it has been, ridden by Dyrdek, Ciaglia, and many others — even by the Mayor of Los Angeles!
Photo by Rhonda Rhonlynn
L.A.’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa rode this Giant Skateboard at the grand re-opening of the inner-city park that had been revitalized and improved when Dyrdek and the Carl’s Jr. restaurant chain added Dyrdek’s first “Safe Spot Skate Spot” to it.
The World’s Largest Skateboard was handbuilt, and is a 12.5:1 scale replica of a standard size board. So instead of 3 feet long, this Big Thing measures 36 feet, 7 inches! It’s 8 feet, 8 inches wide and 3 feet, 7.5 inches tall. It weighs over 3,600 pounds. (That’s 1.8 tons, or roughly the same as one of the pickup trucks you can find when you do a car rental rate comparison here on VroomVroomVroom!)
This World’s Largest Skateboard is made out of 7-ply pressed wood over a steel frame, with custom-made steel trucks, adjustable rubber bushings, and 30-inch rubber tires.
If you have 2 minutes, visit YouTube and watch the video clip of Ciaglia riding the board down a grassy hill in Pennsylvania in 2010. It’s been viewed over 4.2 million times and is one of the most amazing skating videos ever, even though Ciaglia had to bail when this Giant Skateboard was about to crash!
Just search for the “World’s Largest Skateboard Disaster” and see for yourself!
Photo By Bill Willwhat
Also check out robdyrdekfoundation.org if you want to know more about the “Safe Spot Skate Spot” initiative.
While we’re not entirely sure you can still find the Giant Skateboard at Dyrdek’s Fantasy Factory… the skateboard tours the country, and you can even rent it for your next big event… the Fantasy Factory building’s at least worth a drive-by in your rental car. The 25 thousand square foot warehouse is Dyrdek’s skateboarding and office complex, and it’s located at 791 South Mission Road in Los Angeles.
