Disclaimer: No, I don't work at this shop and am not an official representative, I legitimately liked it enough to spread the word on my own. For anyone traveling through Texas, Austin is a must-stop city to skate, it has one of the best skate plazas I've ever skated, some good surrounding parks, sick DIY spots and ditches, and a great mix of all kinds of street terrain. Those are well known facts, nobody needs me to reinforce them, but that was all huge factor in me deciding to make Austin my home.
Since moving here I've checked out the local shops and there are some good ones, each with strengths and weaknesses. One shop in particular stuck out though and right when I first walked through the doors I knew it was going to be my home base. The shop im question is Apparition Skateboards. I've brought this place up in a couple recent posts but wanted to put them on here. It wasn't their inventory that impressed me, although they have a good selection of boards and hard goods. The overall feel of the shop took me back to the small midwest shops I used to go to in the 90's. It's not like a boutique that sells boards, this shop is as core as core gets. Aside from regular boards there are plenty of old-school style boards, some long boards, and they supply the TXRD so so you might run into some fiery derby girls when you go, so that's am added plus.
The owner, Troy, is a fantastic guy who is serious about what he does. He runs the place by a champ. When I first called to see if they carried 1031 boards he was out of stock but called his distributors and within 20 minutes called back to let me know what could get. I've read Yelp reviews where people even said he delivered a set of wheels to some girls work knowing that she had derby practice that night. When someone is willing to put that much effort into taking care of their customers, they desire some support in return from the local scene and anyone traveling through should make a point to stop in this humble shop nestled amidst some independent coffee shops and vintage clothing stores in north-central Austin.
I brought this up in the set-up thread, their shop boards and fantastic. When comparing quality to price they're the best deal you'll find, much better than what a lot of the bigger board companies are putting out nowadays.
Whether local or travelling through, give 'em a shot.
Oh, did I mention that they have live bands play I'm the shop and they showcase local art? Yep, yet another reason to go.
There's a costume party and show this weekend and I think all items in the shop are on sale 20-30% on Oct. 28th-30th. That $42 shop board should be closer to $35 gripped and out the door if I read the flyer correctly.
119 E North Loop
Austin, TX, 79751
(512) 459-7827
http://apparitionskateboards.com/http://www.facebook.com/pages/Apparition-Skateboards/261918867372