Skate and Annoy: Daily

Athena Catalog Mega Drop

4-17-2026 by Kilwag modified 4-18-26 - 1 comments
Categories: Bootleg Boards, Industry Crap, Skate
Tags: catalogs, crappy skateboards, Nash, Valterra, Variflex

OK get ready for it, this is a long one. I found a catalog for Athena International Corp in that magical place you’ve all heard me refer to: a box in the darkest depths of my basement. 8 pages of amazing crap in glorious color! Lot’s of bootleg stuff in there too… they even bootlegged the Nash logo! The styles are split between the 70’s and 80’s so it’s difficult to say exactly when this was printed, although there are a couple clues. I have no idea where/when I acquired this, I might have bought it off Ebay or a reader might have sent it to me. ( Was it you? Let me know! ) Enjoy!

Woah! Check out the logo! They basically copied the Nash logo and (poorly) replaced “Nash” with their own name. Amazing! I was really surprised the first time ai saw this. You have to wonder if this company acted as the manufacturing arm or supplier for Nash. The Athena name still exists, but the various companies using it do not appear to be related to this one. A quick dive into the the Telex info turned up one or more companies named Shiah Yih with different New York based addresses. It (or they?) appear to be importers cheap asian crap, so they might actually be related, although none them seem to offer any skateboard related paraphernalia.

I can’t be sure I have the entire catalog intact. There doesn’t appear to be a definitive cover, although that might be the style in which it was produced. This is the face of the outermost layer, printed on the heaviest stock. Starting at the top, some helmets that appear to be based on designs from Norcon and Cooper. I suppose it’s possible they were the original manufacturers of those helmets, Cooper did have a New York mailing address circa 1978. The next thing you’ll notice is the obvious Rector ripoffs. I’m not sure what year Rector switched to their iconic riveted hard cap style, but in 1978 they were still hawking soft leather style pads. The rest of the pads definitely mimic some of the barely functional designs of the 70’s.

The inside spread features skateboard accessories that are again, a curious mix of 70’s and 80’s styles. Those small neon grip tape sheets for DOZ’R-style boards point to the latter 80’s, as do a few other items you’ll see if you keep reading.

Here’s both pages separated so you can see the details better.

Let’s look at those trucks! For some reason they were still manufacturing or at least trying to sell old 70’s style trucks, as seen below, upper right.

These look straight out of the 80’s. Interesting that the axles appear to be pre-rusted on the package on the right.

You gotta love the kids engaged in unrelated sports on the packaging, soccer, football, I want to say baseball, but those might be roller blades he’s wearing, and some others that are indistinguishable.

What’s up with these wheels with the insanely large cores on these wheels?

Here are two tail skids styles that have defiantly appeared on Nash Boards. The top row as seen everywhere, and the bottom row as seen on this Nash Heat Zone, and lo and behold, Valterra as well. I thought that singular model might have been a Power Pivot style but I couldn’t find an in the vintage accessories gallery. The rest are pretty generic styles that can be found on Nash boards and some those old Variflex models.

These lappers are kind of interesting. They actually reinforced the ones on the top row, and combined them with copers to make a one-piece lapper-coper, although they called it a “Cooper.” I’ve never seen that crazy contraption in the real world. If you have, send pics!

And now for the back, another accessories page, this one full of wheels.

Let’s get a look these wheels. These look like copies of Powell Cubics.

This is a unique profile. There’s no way these are actual UFO products.

This profile looks familiar too. Not Bullets, but maybe Blurrs?

These could be just about anything.

These on the other hand, wholly unique! These are the insanely large cores mentioned earlier.

Shortly after rediscovering this catalog, I reached out to fellow purveyor of crappy (AKA Gateway) skateboards, Michiel Walrave. He said he rode a bunch of these wheels as kid and was kind enough to share some photos. His review: Soft and smooth, but definitely needed to be upgraded when you moved on to real skateboards. You can find Michiel on FB and Insta under the handle @michielwalrave, not to mention Meltdown Skates. He’s recently acquired some of these from a guy who bought the contents of a delinquent storage facility, Storage Wars style. Starlight Express and Pacer are the brands.

Here’s the first page of the next insert, a weird combination of skateboard-scooters, Nash DOZ’R style mini boards, and wait… real decks?????

Check out these deck shapes! I see obvious Hosoi Hammerheads, and echos of Tony Hawk’s bird skull, Aaron “Fingers” Murray, and maybe even Lester Kasai. Is that that a Skull Skates Mutant??? What is happening??!! Actually this lends credence to the old rumor about bootleg Hosoi decks. I rode a couple of these for a while until I bought one from our local skate shop (OK, bike shop with a small selection of skateboards) that seemed sub-par, and sure enough, it broke unexpectedly. That’s when I switched to the Zorlac Devil Fish, A board that was so ugly and unpopular that no one would bother to bootleg it. Same-ish great shape though… Anyone know what F.R.P. stands for? Is it truly Fiber Reinforced Polymer? Boneite?? Made with genuine plywood! Am I missing any of the referenced shapes? Let me know.

And now for the reason most of you are here. Skateboards Professional! (Not to be confused with Professional Skateboards.)

Split in two pages for maximum enjoyment. These are the graphics you see all over Ebay and the auction sites, as well as “I found this in my dead relative’s garage, how much is it worth?” posts. If look closely you’ll see several of the graphics featured in Best Image Training for Surfing and Tube Riding! Clearly, Athena was manufacturing service to the best of the worst private labelers like American Sports Services. Some of the decks can also be seen in this post about crappy AISI skateboards.

So much gloriously bad graphics to take in. Don’t stare at them or you’ll go blind from the intensity!

Check out the Mad Skull in the catalog and compare it to this one from the collection of Michiel Walrave, featuring the most exaggerated fish-tail you’ve ever seen.

Again, a curious combination of late 80’s and 70’s styles here. They were still making or selling plastic banana boards as well as some fiberglass decks that would have fit in perfectly in those 70’s issues of skateboarder.

The back page of this fold is the least interesting of the whole catalog. Somewhere, someone can probably figure out when this scooter style first became popular.

Accessories, whee!

That’s the end. 42 pictures and a few hours of writing and putting the post together, not to mention scanning. What the hell am I doing with my life…

I’ll leave you with some pics of Michiel’s recent purchases. On the left, the original picure from the Portuguese auction site. The next two are proper photos of the decks. Looks like they were possibly trying to reference the first Tony Hawk board on the Stareagle top graphic, who knows… There’s no sign that tail domes were ever applied to these decks, even though they appear to have holes drilled.