Check out this clip of Jan and Dean lip-syncing Sidewalk Surfin’ on American Bandstand. August 22, 1964. Dick Clark talks with audience a little bit about skateboarding (a young man’s game?) and half the “band” actually does sidewalk surf on the stage. There’s even a little bit of dorking around during the lip sync session. See what passes for a “trick” in 1964. All in all, a very interesting clip showing skateboarding and skatesploitation in mid-60’s popular culture.

I just added 20 new adverts to Vintage Skatemag Advert gallery. These are from the January, 1998 issue of Thrasher. Not all of them are entirely interesting, but they’re there for the sake of uniformity. New ads include Antihero, Cadillac Trucks, California Skate Express, California Cheap Skates, Dare Devil Bearings, Freedumb Clothing, FTC, Menace Clothing, Nicotine Wheels, Plan B, Greed Garments, Halo Bearings, Intensity Skates, Recs Shoes, Mad Circle, Beer City, Concert Express, Etnies, Vans, and North Cal Distribution. Oxford comma for life!

My wife thinks I have a mild form of mental illness because I have hours and hours of skateboarding footage recorded from TV shows, movies and commercials. What’s the point when nobody else will ever see it? That’s not entirely true… Some of the footage was donated to a respected documentary. How else can I justify the time spent cataloging and digitizing? I present to you the first episode of Skate and Annoy’s Found in a Box VHS Skate Theater. If you’ve got a half an our to waste watching a mishmash of skateboarding in and around popular culture, then go ahead and watch it. As usual, the format needs polishing, but it’s only going to get better. Check it out.

Ernest Packaging has produced a great series of marketing videos called Cardboard Chaos in which they make unusual things out of cardboard, including snowboards, surfboards, and of course, skateboards. Professor Schmitt and Tony Hawk were brought in to help with the skateboard edition. The first try worked pretty well until they got to the frontside disaster. After they worked out the kinks they let Tony have a go at it. His verdict: It’s essentially as good as any other skateboard, but it’s too heavy. They left out some footage that would have made it more interesting, but perhaps diluted their message. I would have liked to get the details on which construction methods worked well and which ones didn’t. Between the initial testing they went from a board that felt light to one whose heavy weight was practically the first thing that Tony commented on. All this proves really, is that with enough fiberglass and epoxy, you can probably make a skateboard out of anything. Beanies off to Ernest Packaging for finding a way to get exposure through Extreme!™ sports in way that doesn’t turn skateboarder’s collective stomaches. Just think, you could make a skateboard out of recycled issues of Thrasher.

– Thanks to MC for the tip.

This week in pairings of creepy toy dolls with entirely unrelated fingerboards: Two big-eyed dolls with Star Wars fingerboards from McDonalds Happy Meals. It’s a confusing listing, but the Tonner and Kish dolls are just being used for display purposes to show off the toy skateboards.

An entity called Artist of Design offers a retro typeface called AZ YoYo which was “inspired from a ’70’s vintage skateboard logo style.” Just in case the name doesn’t give it away, the logo in question is Yoyo wheels from Gordon & Smith. The advert on the left is from a 1978 issue of Skateboarder, as seen in the S&A Vintage Skatemag Advert Gallery. That’s Steve Cathey in the photo. Artist of Design offers another retro font based on the Hobie Surfboards logo.

Update: MC pointed out that the original was an old Linotype face called Stilla, which was originally published in 1973.

– Thanks to Jer Warren for the tip!

Two more from Vintage Toy Advertiser. On the left, an ad from a 1977 issue of the French comic book Pif Gadget with a contest to win among other things, one of 300 rolling surfboards AKA “surfs a roulettes” AKA skateboards. On the right, a crazy skateboard shirt from a 1978 issue of Pif Gadget. It’s 1978 and there’s no skyhooks on that skateboard. How did they get that photograph of an unobstructed bottom view of a skateboarder seemingly getting air? Was he skating on a sheet of plexiglass? It’s clearly just a rolling shot, so where’s the harness and the wires?

I didn’t know Target had a skate team besides the Flying Tomato. They made a promo video welcoming Curren to the team with a clever moment where Curren sticks an employee name tag on a red shirt as he’s walking in. It also has the typical Rorschach test response elicited from any skateboarder who’s ever seen a Target store in the form of skate footage on those big red concrete balls that sit out front. So I guess that’s their way of letting us know those spots are not a bust? Probably not. I don’t think Curren Caples is a household name yet, so it’s unlikely we’ll see this air on television. Why are they welcoming Curren Caples to Target? Are the looking to replace the Shaun White clothing line at Target?

This is an undated cardboard advertisement for a toy called the Hobble Wobble, something that looks suspiciously like a snake board without the trucks and wheels. These were allegedly manufactured in the late 50’s or early 60’s in St. Louis, Mo. I say allegedly because there doesn’t appear to be any real information on these out there other than a couple of posters for sale. Again, there are some snake boards manufactured out of almost the same accordion I-beam and platform design. The posters seem awfully crisp too, but I’m not sure what the value would be in such an elaborate hoax. Regardless, the Hobble Wobble reminds me of a time when I went to summer camp and my best friend used large sticks we found in the woods to practice our kick turns with.

UPDATE: Magazine article and patent found. Time period authenticity confirmed.

Today I added ads for Darren Navarrette on Creature, Jason Adams on Sonic, records and skateboards from Beer City, a long dead wheel company called Circuit, a long dead mail-order house called SSBS, distribution from South Shore, clothing from Fourstar, a Thrasher subscription offer for an H2O CD, and a bunch of Thrasher products with a big goofy picture.