Sign in

Will

@simons.dev
50 followers 99 following 86 posts

closing the loops 🛹 skateboard.fyi building an online home for skateboard history

PostsRepliesMedia
Will @simons.dev · 24/09/2026
got some stickers made :) will have them for sale on the site soon
120
Will @simons.dev · 09/09/2026
I fixed the white balance on the Poweredge magazines ~ they were slightly red. As part of this, I worked on a tool to look at the colors of pages. On the skateboard.fyi/magazines/ page you can sort the magazine covers by date, hue, warmth, and lightness
030
Will @simons.dev · 02/09/2026
010
Will @simons.dev · 02/09/2026
Working on og:images today for the site. Built a custom tool to take 'pictures' of the spreads. Here's the first Poweredge Jan 1991 skateboard.fyi/magazines/po...
skateboard.fyi
Poweredge — January 1991 — SK8.FYI
Poweredge, January 1991. 41 pages scanned and readable in full.
021
Will @simons.dev · 01/09/2026
Poweredge scans are up on the site skateboard.fyi/magazines/po...
121
Will @simons.dev · 28/08/2026
Listening to Tommy Guerrero while I build out the annotations layer for skateboard.fyi
youtube.com
Tommy Guerrero Best Of | 最高の
YouTube video by partedoparque
030
Will @simons.dev · 12/08/2026
The beauty of OCRing these mags is we can formalize our understanding of when vert actually died. We can see street skating come in to the picture with terms like "handrail", "ledge", and "switch"
010
Will @simons.dev · 01/07/2026
POWEREDGE December 1990 This is a great issue. There is a beautiful diagram by Alec Schroeder that outlines every possibility for a trick on a ramp.
110
Will @simons.dev · 29/06/2026
POWEREDGE February 1991 - Issue 31 Rad Chris Miller feature
010
Will @simons.dev · 23/06/2026
POWEREDGE July 1980 Brian Boyd cover, Remy Stratton, Tommy Guerrero, and a 17 year old Peter Hewitt
110
Will @simons.dev · 22/06/2026
POWEREDGE June 1990 Mark Gonzales on the cover. Chad Dinkins on the contents page, with an upside down Cockroach Australia ad. Super sick Jeff Walsh spread on the Tallahasee Banks
010
Will @simons.dev · 22/06/2026
diyskateparks.net A 3D archive of DIY skateparks across America. Here's a ramp I collaborated on, I did the final welding installation of the tower portion.
010
Will @simons.dev · 17/06/2026
POWEREDGE May 1990 Alex Schroeder leaves as managing editor. $17.70 for a yearly subscription. Thrasher today is $36.95.
010
Will @simons.dev · 13/06/2026
POWEREDGE March 1990 Vancouver and Berline features
010
Will @simons.dev · 12/06/2026
POWEREDGE February 1990 "I used to be disgusted... but now I'm just STOKED" #skateboarding
021
Will @simons.dev · 11/06/2026
POWEREDGE January 1990 ANARCHY ZONE #skateboarding
020
Reposted by Will
Kyle Beachy @kylebeachy.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
if anyone you know is a skateboarder you've likely heard that Marc Johnson, a legend, died yesterday at age 49 youtu.be/J48y_Z2fuic?...
youtu.be
Marc Johnson - Modus Operandi (Transworld 2000)
YouTube video by PristineParts
1359
Will @simons.dev · 22/05/2026
POWEREDGE 1989 Photo Annual
121
Will @simons.dev · 22/05/2026
Transworld January 1985
001
Will @simons.dev · 13/05/2026
I'm working on a shoestring budget these days. 2 days a week at a local butcher shop, and the rest for development and other money making schemes. Started working on my own personal finance app to get better insight in to my spending, saving, investments, and side-project spend.
000
Will @simons.dev · 13/05/2026
Now the work of processing scans: crop, adjust, collate. Then ingest in to the sk8.fyi pipeline/knowledgbase
040
Will @simons.dev · 05/05/2026
Phew! My averages were pretty good.. Scanning progress using an Archivist DIY Book Scanner 1126 pages per hour 3.2s avg sec per page 2.69s latest sec per page 22 latest pages/min
010
Will @simons.dev · 05/04/2026
first look: Rob Welsh Transworld January 1998
020
Will @simons.dev · 05/04/2026
Working my way through Transworld. I've scanned 150 out of 397 total ~ 37.8% complete. That's around 40hours left of active scanning time. Let's get it. I built a progress dashboard to keep me on track and have front and center my scanning goal for the day.
010
Will @simons.dev · 15/03/2026
Started streaming the scanning efforts. Will do a write up on the software/hardware architecture that I settled on, I'm pretty happy with it.
131
Will @simons.dev · 26/02/2026
Redid the site skateboard.fyi
020
Will @simons.dev · 24/02/2026
Poweredge January 1989
032
Will @simons.dev · 23/02/2026
Poweredge November 1988
020
Will @simons.dev · 23/02/2026
scanning
010
Will @simons.dev · 20/02/2026
made a severance mode for corner crop adjustments
000
Will @simons.dev · 17/02/2026
sick Natas Kaupas spread in Poweredge May 1988
110
Will @simons.dev · 15/02/2026
Poweredge January 1988
010
Will @simons.dev · 15/02/2026
Rad @jgrantbrittain.bsky.social interview in June 1991 Poweredge
010
Will @simons.dev · 15/02/2026
First magazine processed. Poweredge June 1991 Here's a contact sheet
000
Will @simons.dev · 14/02/2026
the scan processor is a program that takes a collection of scanned images, and allows for cropping, image correction, deskewing, and collating. To double check the automated cropping, I have a web ui that allows me to quickly modify the bounding polygon that was found.
000
Will @simons.dev · 11/02/2026
Setting up a livestreaming studio to scan the complete Transworld Skateboarding over the next few months.
A freshly painted blue-gray room Several crates full of skateboard magazines
000
Will @simons.dev · 05/02/2026
listening to some public domain Muddy Waters this morning archive.org/details/wate...
archive.org
Muddy Waters, McKinley Morganfield LP (1947-64) : Waters, Muddy : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Muddy Waters, McKinley Morganfield (1947-64).  Chess 2CH-60006. Needle-drop recording.  Commercially not available.  Public domain in Canada.Boston Public...
010
Will @simons.dev · 31/01/2026
there's some good names in skateboarding.. came upon Gerd Rieger in POWEREDGE April 1990
000
Will @simons.dev · 29/01/2026
working on a scan processor for all the skate mags. I'm using local Apple VNDetectDocumentSegmentationRequest API to detect the corners. Then, I can use arrow keys to adjust corners. I get a little preview of the final crop, as well as a fine tune corner view for pixel level adjustments
000
Will @simons.dev · 22/01/2026
scanning some old POWEREDGE mags
000
Will @simons.dev · 29/12/2025
gathering wires and packing up to head down south ~~~ hoping/planning/pushing to digitize some skate mags in the new year!
000
Will @simons.dev · 04/12/2025
skate goals before I'm 40: 1. Switch flips 2. Ollie Wallenberg
000
Will @simons.dev · 04/12/2025
Currently working on building an Archivist style diy book scanner. In my research, I realized that Noisebridge in SF has one from the before times. Here's a picture I took last night ~~ it's in a hallway, covered in dust. Ready to be revived
000
Will @simons.dev · 14/11/2025
got rid of DO and switched skateboard.fyi hosting to Hertzner
skateboard.fyi
000
Will @simons.dev · 13/11/2025
Interesting career development - I got a job as a butcher in a small neighborhood shop. I'm learning a lot, getting better at knife skills and customer service. Best of all, I am feeling strong from lifting 40ish lb things all day.
000
Reposted by Will
Andy Bell @bell.bz · 30/09/2025
There’s never been a better time to switch from Next.js to Astro nitter.net/rauchg/statu...
nitter.net
914231
Will @simons.dev · 30/09/2025
borzoi dog spirits met on a rainy sf day
020
Will @simons.dev · 24/09/2025
salmon.leaflet.pub
failure is obvious
and success is revealed through it
020
Reposted by Will
kepano @stephango.com · 26/11/2024
File over app · 2023 stephango.com/file-over-app
File over app is a philosophy: if you want to create digital artifacts that last, they must be files you can control, in formats that are easy to retrieve and read. Use tools that give you this freedom.

File over app is an appeal to tool makers: accept that all software is ephemeral, and give people ownership over their data.

In the fullness of time, the files you create are more important than the tools you use to create them. Apps are ephemeral, but your files have a chance to last.

The ancient temples of Egypt contain hieroglyphs that were chiseled in stone thousands of years ago. The ideas hieroglyphs convey are more important than the type of chisel that was used to carve them.

The world is filled with ideas from generations past, transmitted through many mediums, from clay tablets to manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, and tapestries. These artifacts are objects that you can touch, hold, own, store, preserve, and look at. To read something written on paper all you need is eyeballs.Today, we are creating innumerable digital artifacts, but most of these artifacts are out of our control. They are stored on servers, in databases, gated behind an internet connection, and login to a cloud service. Even the files on your hard drive use proprietary formats that make them incompatible with older systems and other tools.

Paraphrasing something I wrote recently:

"If you want your writing to still be readable on a computer from the 2060s or 2160s, it’s important that your notes can be read on a computer from the 1960s."

You should want the files you create to be durable, not only for posterity, but also for your future self. You never know when you might want to go back to something you created years or decades ago. Don’t lock your data into a format you can’t retrieve.

These days I write using an app I help make called Obsidian, but it’s a delusion to think it will last forever. The app will eventually become obsolete. It’s the plain text files I create that are designed to last. Who knows if anyone will want to read them besides me, but future me is enough of an audience to make it worthwhile.
926434
Will @simons.dev · 31/08/2025
Skaters With A Cause - Thrasher October 1984 "Four skaters take to the road on a cross country skate trek to benefit the Multiple Sclerosis Society and, as Bob Denike reports, to find out a little more about America and themselves."
131