It’s mid 1980 and the term “music video” had yet to be coined. Meanwhile, Devo had been making films to accompany their music since 1976. The skateboarding industry is slumping, so much so that Skateboarder magazine changes it’s name to “Action Now” to include nascent Extreme!®™ sports coverage in an attempt to broaden the appeal and hopefully stay afloat. Action Now published a 6 page feature on the making of Devo’s “Freedom of Choice” in issue #1 dated August, 1980. They titled it “Freedom of Choice – The Film.” 1980 was an interesting time for skateboarding and music. The magazine’s record reviews covered X, Devo, Frank Zappa, John Foxx, Emmylou Harris, and a jazz fusion act called The Jeff Lorber Fusion (and the album Wizard Island). There’s an ad for Corky Carroll’s “A Surfer for President” album, and an article on up-and-coming LA bands Human Hands, and Wall of Voodoo as well as a couple of random pics of the Stimulators. Devo blew minds. I know they blew my mind when I unexpectedly saw them on SNL in 1978 performing Satisfaction. I did not know what I was looking at or listening to, but it instantly connected with me on…

This is (un)fortunately not a real action figure. It’s AI and photoshop work done by @hypeverse.

This was a new one to me. Long time readers know I have a skateboard-based ski-trainer fetish, but I’ve never seen try Ski Trek before, seen here with aftermarket axle extenders on the trucks. The trucks pictured are not original equipment. The Ski Trek appears to be based on the Techni-Ski with the addition of what looks like a front end extension that allows for adjusting the wheelbase. As usual, there is nothing about this on Interwebs™. No amount of adjusting key words, quotes or hyphens seems to help. Check out that bikini girl logo. Yikes. Watch out for road rash! – Thanks to Fernando Linhares for the pics.

Ice Board Blades are a product of a group of kite surfers in Hungary. Their products are a being improved since 2017, and primarily used in conjunction with a kite or wing, but also for riding without the wind, and even a snake board if you’re up for it. The main difference here is the addition of a rigging holes for connecting an elastic band designed to keep the rails parallel to the board. After thinking about this for a little bit, I have to assume this just helps the board return to a straight position after turning. Who knows, maybe blades and cold bushings have a tendency to get stuck in a turn. You could always try Bitter Bushings too. – Thanks to Bob Mechtly for the tip.

Task and Purpose is an online publication covering US military news and culture. They recently published an article awkwardly titled “Meet the skateboarding Green Beret shredding the civilian-military gap.” It’s an odd fluff piece filled with bits like “Klakowicz describes a Green Beret spending time on the range to improve their shooting skills with a skateboarder trying to perfect a kickflip. You’ll fail, but with attention to detail, you can learn that new trick just like you can master clearing a room.” The article includes a couple of embedded video parts as well. I haven’t watched them yet, I’m headed off to read How many Russian generals have been killed in Ukraine? (Hopefully lots…) – Thanks to Heidi Lemmon for the tip. Photos: Brian Godinez

Introducing the Flybar 3-in-1 Skate Trainer, a less elegant version of a concept we’ve seen once or twice before, but hey, it’s been almost 10 years since the original product appeared, and almost 5 since it apparently failed, because you can’t find these for sale anymore and the domain name has expired. This version may look like it exists in renders only, but it’s a real product that you can buy at places like Walmart. In a paradigm shifting development in the multi-use board industry, Flybar adds stationary trucks for ollie training. Hardcore scooter and bouncing enthusiasts may find this a deal breaker. If you’re familiar with the Flybar brand, chances are you’ve seen or used one of their many bumper cars, animal hoppers, hopper balls, “antsy pants” systems, scooters, swurfers, pogo sticks or even pogo stick trainers. It’s OK, we won’t tell anyone. They also make conventional skateboards that are about 80% cheaper than this $50 setup, so you know they are good. – thanks to ____ for the tip.

The USPS has a set of Forever Stamps called Art of the Skateboard and set vinyl skateboard stickers that match the stamp designs. This stamp series might have been better off served with a different title as the “Art Of the Skateboard” typically brings to mind the history of production graphics rather than brand new art stuck on the bottom of the skateboard for the sake of art. So maybe “Art On Skateboards” instead of “Art Of The Skateboard.” It’s nit picky for sure, but you are reading this on a web site devoted to skateboarding and popular culture… How did I find out about it? Obviously, by reading the Winter 2023 issue of the official USPS magazine Philatelic. I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up: the collection and study of postage and imprinted stamps. I had a rant locked and loaded about my thoughts on the artistic merits of these stamps and how they looked a little clip art-ish. Then I found out that at least one of them was designed by Navajo artist Di’Orr Greenwood, who is indeed a skateboarder herself. From the Navajo-Hopi Observer: “Greenwood said the opportunity to have her art showcased nationwide is…

Thanks to longtime reader Will Heespelink who was cleaning out his closets and sent me the August 1987 issue of Transworld. So now there are 900 vintage skateboard magazine adverts in the gallery. Incredibly, with the doubles already posted this came out to exactly 900 and I didn’t have to pad it any. A few of my favorites from this batch include JFA for Kryptonics, Del Mar Skateboard Ranch t-shirts, ol’ Steve Rocco for Vision Street Wear, SLAM! wrist guards, and Radicool!

First of all, Tech Decks are still a thing. Based on my casual perusal of the toy aisles over the past 2 decades it appears they were in a slow decline from their heyday in the 2010’s, but they are still out there releasing new products beyond the endless release of popsicle stick graphics from Element and the like. We get a lot of PR mail sent from various companies, and occasionally I’ll actually reply (usually in a flippant manner) something along the lines of “That sounds amazing! Why don’t you send me a (insert Extreme!™ product) for review? Most often times that is met with no response. However, not the case with The Berrics Transforming Park. Join me, dear readers, as I fulfill my implied contractual duty. Check it out!

There’s a new addition to the Skate and Annoy Galleries, Check out these Skateboard Surfer trading cards from Wall Ice Cream, circa 1978. The gallery features the complete set of 20.