I think England built a lot of public parks in the 70’s and instead of bulldozing the outdoor ones after the bust, they just left them to rot in the elements. House of Neil, can I get a confirmation? The Hackney Bumps is a 70’s era skatespot in London that is still going. There’s an event called the Hackney Olympics that takes place with some regularity. It seems like it might be a localized and smaller version of Skatopia. This year’s Olympics are on August 9th. My favorite quote from the web site:

Some people still claim that they can’t find HACKNEY BUMPS. I find this remarkable. Some people also claim that you will get killed when you go to HACKNEY BUMPS. That is not really true, though the kids that burnt the vespa and the (motor)bikes on the photos above DID have REAL guns, though they could not care less about the skateboarders…

Video and flyer after the jump. - Thanks to Tony Gunnarsson for the tip.

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Another one from the collection of John Drummond, this is Go For It! - the Swindle Issue. It’s a pretty good one. Lots of decent photos and a nice glossy printed cover. The Swindle refers to the fact that the outside is glossy but the inside is photocopied. It’s printed on an odd size of paper, not any derivative of A4 or anything, The insides are all a bit smaller than the cover. It must have been custom trimmed. It’s 90% UK vert scene. A lot of names that are vaguely familiar to the colonists. Phill Burgoyne’s interview is amusing, as is the one with Gregor Rankine. I didn’t remember that he was from New Zealand. This is Steve Douglas’s zine. Some of you might remember him as a pro rider for Schmitt Stix. He was one of the founders of New Deal and Giant Distribution. Right now I believe he’s a big wig at Dwindle.

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After last week’s post on saucy skateboard ads from the ’70s (UK vs US), the editor of Vintage Skateboard Magazines was kind enough to send in some scans he hadn’t gotten around to publishing yet.

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Aww, to hell with it. We’re already on a bunch of content blocking filters. Vintage Skateboard Magazines has a bunch of ads archived. On the left is a 1979 Dogtown advert from a US publication, where you can only show the cleavage. On the right is an advert for Olympic Skateboards in an unnamed UK publication that is a lot more cheeky. Love that site. Daniel has a standing invitation to have the archives hosted at Skate and Annoy if he ever decides it’s time for VSM to give up the ghost.

The Surf Flyer appears to be a European phenomenon. At least nobody from North America has chimed in about them. This one comes to us from Dean Tyrell ( It’s his week!) Believe me when I say that there are virtually no other shots of the vintage Surf Flyer skateboard anywhere on the web, so help me Google. The wheels of these things were supposed to be near rubber like and super slow. On the detail shots you can see some sort of weird bearing covers that probably didn’t help either. The truck design is another winning design that looks more ’60s technology than ’70s. Can anyone date these? Follow through to see more pictures of a Surf Flyer than you’ll likely ever want to. Someone has to do it.

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Another installment of That Place, That Time, This time coming to you from the U.K. and Dean Tyrell. These three pics date from 1977, ‘78 and ‘79. Dean is the same guy that sent in the shots of the crazy skateable terrain in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.

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What does Dreamland concrete look like in the UK? The same as it does here, except really grainy and in black and white apparently. I’ve heard about the gray weather there, but come on. Check out this clip that looks like it’s from the UK’s Sidewalk Mag:

Check out this Kevin Parrott crafted clip from May Bank Holiday Weekend at Saffron Walden and Cantelowes, with Div Adam, Benson, Awadh, Aaron Sweeny, Kev the Plasterer and Mark Nicholson, with a cameo by sir Alex of Irvine.

These names don’t mean anything to me, but there is some ripping in the clip. Stick around until the end for a big warm fuzzy.

- Thanks to Nicky for the tip.

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After a period of inactivity, followed by a period of me failing to check in, it looks like the official archive of RAD Magazine (see our stickers) is very much alive. I reference Britain’s defunct Read and Destroy every so often here, and for those who have no idea what I’m talking about, or for those that do, you should investigate When We Was Rad. Aside from the colloquial coverage of the UK scene, there’s always a bit of U.S. based interference as well. You know how fond we are of sending advisors and spreading democracy… Above left is Steve Caballero skating South Bank on the cover of the September 1988 issue. On the right is a page featuring Winstan Whitter in 1991. Winstan later direct the U.K.’s answer to the Dogtown documentary, Rollin Through the Decades (reviewed here) which was in many ways superior.

Tim Leighton-Boyce was the editor of RAD, and is naturally the person behind When We Was Rad as well. He’s putting up one page scans at a time, accompanied by any related recollections he had, and sometimes transcripts of the text. RAD existed from 1987 to 1993, so he’s go t his work cut out for him. Do a little encouraging by visiting When We Was Rad.

So I finally figured out who uses the A4 paper size. Lot’s of people in the UK, I’m sure, but hey, I never actually realized that until I went to scan in this issue of Sad Mag. The scans were all cut off, so I went back and noticed the pages fit nicely inside the “A4″ markings on the scanner. Sad Mag is a zine from Shepshed, Leicestershire England. At least that’s where I think it is from. The mailing address is hard to read and I still don’t understand how the english system of addresses breaks down. This zine is actually a skateboarding and BMX zine! Who knew? I guess the scene over there was not segregated as much as it was/is here. They had Read and Destroy, which was a glossy skate/BMX mag that was actually respectable, especially as the BMX coverage dwindled. I guess we had Homeboy magazine here in the states too.

What’s with the guy on the cover? “Is he havin’ a laugh?“

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A reader’s comment on an earlier earlier post led me to check out a site on the history of a skatepark named Solid Surf in Southport England. at first I thought it was just the one (very long) page consisting of some personal recollections and photos as well as a lot of vintage magazine advertisements and feature articles. Worth a post by itself, but the single page was the precursor to a larger site that is still a work in progress. The skatepark was part of an amusement park facility. You can see rollercoasters in the back of some of the photos. It had a long history of ups and downs, finally being completely replaced by a go kart track in 1999. There are some pictures from the early 80′ where the park looks like a ghost town. Check it out.

[Source: Solboy from SNA comments]