Bugs, errors, glitches… Expect all of this and more as we roll out a new site design in bits and pieces as it is evolving, instead of completing it all at once like a sane person would.
Skate and Annoy: Daily
National Skateboard Review
I’ve added 97 ads from the National Skateboard Review to the gallery of Vintage Skate Ads. If you’re counting, the galley is a at 1,441 ads! These latest additions came from scans of used with permission by Di Dootson-Rose, the original publisher. Shoutout to Natalie Porter of Womxn Skate History, which is where I first found a link to Di’s online archive. The scans are not the greatest, as these were printed on newsprint some 50 years ago, but the ads are interesting because you get to see a lot of riders that didn’t hit the big time. The stakes were lower so the companies weren’t as concerned with impact. So far I’ve only goten through 1976-77, but you can view them all, up to the last issue in 1979, at the National Skateboard Review.
TDK – So Real
Here’s an ad for TDK tapes that brags about being able to “clearly reproduce the complete music spectrum of digital sources.” That looks like Venice Beach, and that looks like Tony Alva. What say you? 1988 is the year of this ad, which seemed doubtful to me until I looked it up and saw that 1988 was the first year that CD’s outsold records. You can buy this ad in the usual place for as low as $8. Photos from this session were used in another TDK ad. Looks like I thought it was Hackett or Olson last time around, but that ad doesn’t really show that TA looking long hair. UPDATE: When you blow it up there is no long frizzy hair, it’s just motion blur and shadowy leopard print.









