Skateboard Derby Professional Action Course

Go around! Go under! Develop skill and style with Skateboard Derby. The professional action course! This is an extremely rare find from 1977. It’s new in the box and never used, and priced accordingly at $499. To be honest, I’m more interested in the packaging and instructions than I am the actual contents. Although the contents are basic pieces of wood, some hardware and vinyl flags, it’s easy to imagine how exciting this would have been to open and set up as a kid in the 70’s. Our plastic banana board-riding crew used chalk and plastic cups for our slalom course. This would have blown our minds… There is one advantage to using chalk though. We used to draw oil slicks, flames, pillboxes with artillery installations, and other assorted hazardous obstacles all over our courses. Skateboarding war is hell.

I found this listed on Etsy, and the seller was nice enough to send a picture of the entire box separately. There’s a little wiggle room in that asking price, but ultimately way too high for me to buy it and have it sit in another box in my basement instead of being in a museum or display somewhere so people can see it. I’m not sure what other products Shamrock Manufacturing made, but my guess this was a garage or small shop operation by someone trying to figure out a way to make money on the skateboard craze. I searched for Shamrock Manufacturing in Manassas VA, but they don’t appear to be in business anymore unless they have relocated to Texas or Saskatchewan.

This is a fantastic illustration. It’s not clear if this meant to emulate multiple exposures in a single photograph or if instead those are triplets with hair that blends from blonde to red as they move from left to right.

Also for rollerskates and bikes, don’t ya know?

Some sensible safety and usage instructions.

Hastily rounded corners and sanded edges with a nice uniform application of competition bright orange paint.

The industrious folks at Shamrock managed to come up with a simple method of attaching adjustable holders for the poles so that they would not break if you failed on your high jump or limbo maneuver. The vertical poles go through the strap and the horizontal poles rest on top of the screws.

Figure10: The judicious application of yellow tape.