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]

Found this funny shot of Alva on Rocket’s MySpace. He’s an old dude in Cornwall, England and has a bunch of old ads and skate photos posted. Are you skill skating?

its when tony come over to england to tour some of the local parks the year i think was 1978. he skated ROM @ KNEBWORTH PARKS this is him meeting some of the local skater dudes of the time if my history serves me well dude’ ill look into some more for you dude k….its all kriptonics and bengy boards back then…i had road rider 4s and a santa cruz 5 ply wide ply deck with ACS 500 trucks………it used to rip dude

One of the things on my long list of “eventuallys” for this site is a gallery of dead skateboard magazines. I have a milk crate in my basement with some old skate rags, and I thought I had a few gems that would surprise people. Well I don’t have anything compared to Vintage Skateboard Magazines. It’s a work in progress without a lot of bells and whistles. What it does have are covers of skateboarding magazines from the 60’s to the 80’s from the US, UK, France, Australia and Japan. Some of the UK issues have scans of inside pages as well. There’s a lot of interesting documentation there, my only beef is that the scans aren’t larger. If it were up to me, every page would be available, but then again maybe it’s a good thing it isn’t up to me since our gallery isn’t even up yet. Check out the varied and often wacky past of skateboard magazine publishing at Vintage Skateboard Magazines.

This weeks SOTW comes from Kings Park in Bristols UK, courtesy of Bob Scumtash.

So we went to Kings Park t’other weekend and some tweaker turned up with a loada posh camera gear. “I used to skate, can I take your pic?” Errrm…Wayne had a quiet word bout “reprezentin tings” correctly and we did some stunts. Got a bit lame after a while and the dude started to take shots of us carving a corner, never one to miss an opportunity I hitched me kegs down a little a did a sweet carve over his head for the close up Harris shot. This one’s a keeper mate…

I had a hard time deciding on whether or not this was a candidate for Annoying Kid of the Month. I figured Shot of the Week was a better fit. Besides, I don’t want to have to start updating that section too! Check it out in all it’s, uh, full glory.

If you have an extra $1500 laying around, (and who doesn’t?) you can pick up Skateboard Joe for your kids to hang their clothes on. Seriously. That’s what it’s for, and that’s what it costs. Available from Boot Kidz. You can see it larger after the jump.

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Imagine yourself hurtling down a hill sitting on a skateboard just inches off the ground. Sounds crazy… but it’s true. THIS is Skate Karts.

Lightwater Valley is one of those amusement parks geared more towards little kids. It’s in the U.K. somewhere, and they charge a general admission by the height of the kid. One of the attractions is the Skate Karts. It actually looks really dangerous for little kids. I foresee lots of bloody knuckles unless the hill is really, really mellow. I’m guessing it’s less than extreme since they don’t show a comprehensive view of the “track.” Of course they could just skip the imagination part and actually, you know, skateboard. More thrilling pictures after the jump.

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Canada’s Much Music had an event on Go Skateboarding Day that featured something called the Hide-n-Skate Ramp. It’s not super ground breaking, but it’s still pretty cool, so you’d think you could find a few pictures of this ramp being set up, in transit or at the very least, being skated, but no, there doesn’t appear to be anything anywhere on the web. WTF? I wonder if the Much Music channel actually plays music videos, unlike any of the MTV channels. Coincidentally, I also recently stumbled across plans for a mini ramp that folds up into a shed(!?) on RampPlans.org. Michael Cheah’s got seven pages of instructions and photos, but amazingly, not one picture of the damn thing folded up into a shed. As weird an pointless as that sounds, I want to see it. Come on people, let’s follow through on the obvious! You could all use some pointers on documentation from Tracy Sigler.

Day three: Professional Skateboard Simulator for the Commodore 64, from 1988.

Yeah, Commodore 64 again. Noticing a trend? It looks like they Photoshopped (well it was 1988 so MacPainted) Jeff Kendall’s face onto a guy skating a Mark Gonzales board on vert. They used to run the occasional pic of the Gonz on vert, this might have been copied from one of those. Actually, the guy has a Read and Destroy sticker on his helmet, so it’s likely lifted straight form the pages of R.A.D.. UK readers, help a brother out. I heard that the new Pro Skateboard Simulator 10 (Ryan Sheckler edition) has a level where you practice running out of the arena crying if you don’t win first place.

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Americans don’t have the market cornered on wacky skateboard inspired technology. From Germany comes the DIY Struller scooter and skateboard combo and from the UK we have the Magic Wheel, which is like a skateboard if it had one bicycle wheel replacing the front truck. Err.. and a shopping cart wheel on the back truck I guess. I’m reaching here. Will somebody please post some actual skateboarding on this web site?

[ Source: Magic Wheel - Gearfuse ]

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