Well, despite what I said last month, I was able to pull together a full and complete BayWatch for April 2010. It was a tough month though. I’m assuming lots of people owed on their taxes in April because almost all of the big-ticket decks available went unsold. Only a few decks went for over a thousand. Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen so many decks go unsold with no bids in a single month before. Lots of decks were terribly overvalued with ludicrous starting bids, so there was no action on those. It did make for an interesting month though because I had to dig deeper than usual, and I unearthed some stuff that normally might not have made it in. Hopefully you’ll enjoy looking at what I found. And not to worry, from what I’ve seen so far May looks to be a return to normalcy with lots of interesting decks going off for normal prices. I’m excited about some of the stuff in May already.

Reader Owen Williams sent these pics of yard sale find in New Zealand. He paid the equivalent of $50 for this. Check out the wood inlays on this deck.

Oh Icee bear, who shall remain nameless because it apparently doesn’t actually have a name other than “Polar Bear.” How I love you neo-Igloo Caps type face and your permanently retro identity. You’ve been holding out on me for so long, always on an ice surfboard, and in the past decade, an ice snowboard. Countless are the times that I’ve put a crick in my neck doing a double take while passing an Icee machine, only to find that it was still just a snowboard. I’VE GOT NOTHING AGAINST SNOWBOARDING. I imagine I’d love it if I was still doing it. Talk to me again in a year, my son is dying to go snowboarding on “Mountain Hood.” Icees are perfect on a hot sunny day, so it only makes sense the company is based in a really hot, arid climate like… Ontario, Canada. Huh, there’s no city there.. Oh no, that’s Ontario, California. I thought about lifting this sign from the Icee store at the mall, but the teenager behind the counter was so intent on providing good customer service that she wouldn’t leave me alone long enough to filch it. Turns out you can download a crisp semi-high…

At this point I think there must be a place that sells the logic board for this type of LCD game intact for finishing and repackaging as you see fit. I think I may have picked this up from the dollar bins at Target. Gameplay: Things come down the road and you push buttons to avoid them. Very boring. Kind of funny considering you used to have to pay upwards of $70 ($20 from 1977 adjusted for inflation) for the same programming logic with less interesting graphics. Yes. I’m talking about Mattel Electronics handheld games. Instead of a 2 dimensional LCD silhouette, you were stuck with LED blips. How did those old handheld games cost? I want to say around $20, but it might have been $35 or so. There was no skateboard version, but it was the same game as Auto Race. Aesthetics did pay tribute to Mattel Electronics with a board series. I like them because I’m nostalgic for old toys (HELLO!!!!!!!) but I’m pretty sure these are just lifted straight from the old advertisements.

I swear there is more information on the web about the history of Duff Man than there is about Bud Man. This sticker dates back to the late 70’s or possibly early 80’s. I like that someone drew a cartoon character and then used a photostat to insert tiny photo realistic bud cans in his hand. – Thanks to Scott Starr for the scan. Get a web site so I can link to it Scott!

Butch Patrick as Eddie Munster. Now I have to search out a DVD of the Munsters to look for a skateboarding episode. Sounds like a job for Scott Starr. Enlarge-o-rama.

Ha ha! No excuses this month because this one should be right on time! Midway through the following month is right when you should start looking for Baywatch, and I pretty much made it! Some months are a chore to write, and it feels like pulling teeth, but some months just flow easily, and that was true of March. I think there’s a really good selection of stuff this month, with some high priced items but balanced out by some interesting but cheaper decks too. But enjoy this one because April is looking absolutely terrible so far. I can’t remember a month with so few high priced decks and so many uninteresting mid priced decks! Really, it’s a barren wasteland out there so far this month! And it’s funny because I just had an argument with a guy on skullandbones who asked why there are so few good NOS decks on eBay these days. I argued that he just wasn’t looking hard enough, which was probably true in March, but judging by April he is right. I hope that this worrying trend ends quickly, because this is going to be a damned dull column going forward if things continue at…

Damn, it seems like I make excuses every month for how late the column is! Well this month I have a real excuse: I was in Maui on vacation. I considered taking a laptop with me for about 10 seconds, but then the hassles of getting it through security and having something else to carry made me realize that it was a bad idea. Not to mention the fact that I realized that there would be no way I would be spending 4 hours inside typing while in Maui. Sorry guys, I had other stuff to do. I also became a US citizen in March, so that chewed up some time too! It’s been a busy month all in all.

Agent Orange is playing Sunday 28th at Slabtown Bar in Portland, along with Grindline, the Band. Meanwhile, John Egertson was converting some old vinyl to mp3’s and pulled out this mail order sheet from Agen’t Orange’s This Is the Voice, their ill-fated 1986 semi-major label debut on Enigma records. I think these guys even had an appearance in a movie around this time. Flyer for Staurday’s show and a chance to go back in time to order guitar picks, t-shirts and skateboards after the jump. – Thanks and happy birthday to Steve Turner for the tip.

It’s skateboard polo in the Laff-A-Lympics,There’s a caveman, but no caveman slides, and everyone pushes mongo. That’s 1977 for you. – Thanks to Kevin Cann for the vidcap.