At first glance you might assume this was a poorly illustrated millennium era skateboarding frog wearing sandals no less. It looks like there are hub caps, which could either be a half-assed reference material used for the illustration, or actual wheel covers which existed on some clay wheel era Nash boards and were also sold as separate accessories in the 70’s. (Ad link coming later). Then I looked at the (long expired) auction info for this poster and it was in the 1950-1979 subcategory of shoes, so there you have it. My guess is early 70’s. Gali was/is a chain of stores in Israel that also manufactures it’s own shoes. According to Hadassah Magazine, besides making skate sandals for frogs, they are also the sole (har, har) supplier of boots to the Israeli military.

We’ve seen basketball once, and tennis not once, but twice. Here’s a California Rampworks build for Nike that combines basketball and golf terrains with skateboarding. The Nike SB Popup Skateboard Park was built for Go Skateboarding Day in 2014.

Before Mark Conahan was a renown skateboard cartoonist and all around ripper, he was a chubby little kid who modeled for Campbell’s Soup. At least that’s what I’d like to think since I lost my notes on this Campbell’s Soup store display featuring a kid on a skateboard. It looks very 80’s but could easily have been from the 90’s as well. Then again, those volleyball kneepads are very 70’s. Even though that board style existed in the late 70’s, the archives of S&A have pretty much demonstrated that art directors always lag a good 5-10 years behind the times whine comes to skateboard illustrations, so we can’t be sure.

This is a 1978 comic book advertisement for a skateboard good luck charm as seen on Etsy. Apparently we skateboarders had some sort of creed that the manufacturer of this charm was willing to send you a hard copy of, along with a list of terminology. What does it mean when a pro says “coping,” “go for it,” “eat it,” or “Kick flip?” I guess I’ll never know. – Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

Oggy and the Cockroaches is a French cartoon that sometimes airs on the Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network channel here in the US. It’s not very good from a writing/directing standpoint but it occasionally has a good gag. There’s an episode called “Skate Fever” from season 4 that features what may be the first ever appearance of fnigerboarding in a cartoon. The cockroaches have glued the cat onto a skateboard, and are following him around as he crashes into things. They make a quick detour into a toy store to pick up cockroach sized skateboards from a giant pile of fingerboards on display. As a whole, the cartoon is pretty heavy handed, lots of gratuitous TNT and slapstick cartoon violence that isn’t set up very well, but there are a few good gags and the art direction is occasionally interesting. The first episode supposedly aired in 1998, so that would date Skate Fever (episode 54) to about 2002 or so. The skateboard that Oggy finds belongs to a pro named “Roller Dude,” and it features a nose bone, which is interesting, at least if you’re the kind of skate nerd who is used to visiting Skate and Annoy… Check out a…

It’s Super Frog, or possibly Amazing or Awesome Frog, riding a skateboard in the pages of the Extreme Animals coloring book found in the bargain section of Target. Quite frankly, I expected a whole lot more skateboarding in this book, but there was only this one image. Still, a frog with a gorilla grip, that’s impressive.

It’s St. Patrick’s day, and so here are some leprechauns.

These are pretty fuzzy pictures of a craptacular skateboard from Valterra. It’s a Beach Boys model, which is shocking to think that someone thought they would still be able to help sell skateboards in the 80’s. Check out the built in handles on this “Grip Stick” and the weird solid black caricature. It reminds me of the comic strip where all the characters have bulging eyes and their heads look like they are made from a pile of bubbles. I think it uses the same sort of negative color space too. Anyone know what I’m talking about? (MC does, it was John Crawford’s Baboon Dooley )The picture quality of this auction would have made me pass on posting it were it not that I’ve been looking for an excuse to repost the “Beach Boys Shred I Get Round” video, still one of my favorite things in the world.

A Gordon the Gopher pin, complete with creepy picture of the the host of the Broom Cupboard, the BBC show where the puppet lived. Straight out of 1987. On the badge he looks like a fully formed Muppet, but the actual puppet looks like an amorphous blob of fur stuffed in some doll clothes.

No, this isn’t an outtake from an episode of The Prisoner. It’s a June 6, 1978 press photo from Leicester Polytechnic School. Yes, it will soon be framed on my wall. Three models wearing the latest in Skateboard fashions designed by the Leicester Polytechnic School of fashions and textiles. They are L-R Cindy wears multi-coloured knitted stripped sweater, shorts andd leggings. Stephanie wears Navy jumpsuit with velour stripe trim and bolero, and Debie wears multi-coloured two-piece in striped velour. I’m going to hop in the old time machine and see if I can get a date with Cindy and tell Stephanie to get a damned skateboard and stop lurking. Maybe I’ll bring back her jumpsuit for GVK.