The late 70’s gave birth to the plexiglass skateboard. They were fashion over function, more heavy but cool looking. I always wanted one. Somebody over at Pleasant Home made their own. There are no instructions, but I imagine it’s simple enough. Cut it out of thick plexiglass and heat up the tail with a torch and bend it over a pipe. My plexiglass working knowledge is limited to something I saw on TV once, or imagined I did, so take it with a grain of salt. I do know you need a extra fine tooth saw blade to cut it. I’m not sure how that works with a jigsaw though. The old plexiglass board I remember appeared to be molded rather than cut from a solid sheet. Maybe they weren’t technically plexiglass. I wonder if this board is too flexible. Come on Pleasant Home, let’s have a tutorial. That kicktail needs help.

I found this great flyer somewhere on the Interwebs™, but my spotlight comments got wiped out so I can’t credit the source. I’m sorry, so sorry… that I was, such a fool. I think this is from the early 70’s.

UPDATE: Sidewalk Surfer is online. The web site says they’ve been in business since 1977

This gem of a commercial is an adolescent boy’s smorgasbord of dreams. It’s got skateboards, lasers, ATVs, a post apocalyptic Rollerball-style arena and a referee with a big rack. Come to think of it, that sounds like fun to me too. I think it dates to around 1987 because Worlds of Wonder essentially went out of business in 1988. Look the size of that bowl. I think it may have been built for the commercial.

[Source: Pure Skateshop]

From Crust Productions:

Rob Morrow of Morrow Snowboards, located in Salem Oregon managed to get NOFX to stop and play in his basement. NOFX was on their way to do a gig at the now defunct La Luna in PDX when a lucky few got there own personal show in the basement of the Ranch. About 100 were jam packed into the basement. Bad vocals, no lightning and zero room but the show went on! This video has been in storage for over 15 years and thanx to Mr Hauswirth and Mr Price, the footage was transferred from the old VHS to MiniDV.

So there you have it. Video after the jump.

Man, for a cat so heavily into jazz, you’d think he’d be hip to the lingo and not trip over such a simple thing like “skateboard park” instead of laying a clam like “Skate Board Park.” This album dates back to 1979. I don’t know jazz, but Joe Farrell must have been somewhat respected, because I do recognize the name of his keyboard and piano player, Chick Corea. I do know one thing, this album cover is outstanding, even if it wasn’t the record exec’s bag. The CD re-issue has a completely different cover. Dig some fly album artwork and hear Farrell blow on this hot plate after the jump, unless you’re out to lunch, like that crumb behind Joe on the cover.

– Thanks to Matt for the tip, and AllAboutJazz for the translation.

Bootz and Glitz has a roundup of some skateboard exploitation songs from the 70’s. Some of the tracks appear on This is Skateboard Music, and a bunch of them have been featured here already, but there are a couple new ones. These guys up top are the Swedish band called the Boppers. They may look like a late 50’s early 60’s act, but they were in fact a 70’s revival act. I’m still not sure that the first track from the Downhill Racers belongs in that post. Check out Bootz and Glitz.

– Thanks to Eric Shea for the tip.

It’s funny how this column comes together. It’s different every month. Last month for example it took me about 3 weeks to put it all together. I’d do one section, wait to get motivated for a week, force myself to do a few decks, then come back a few days later and do some more. But some months like this one everything just flows and I crank out the whole thing in a couple of days. It feels much better this way; you get in a flow and just ride it out. Hours go by without noticing it. It’s good. Hopefully you guys enjoy them all, but this one feels extra special somehow. Of course the decks that get featured have a lot to do with that too. It’s tough to find new stuff to say when you’re featuring a Hawk birdclaw for the 50th time. So you might notice that there are no Hawks, no Natas and no McGill decks featured this month. That was half by chance and half by choice. I hope you don’t miss them!

Check Out eBay Watch: January 2010.

In Tony Hawk’s book Occupation: Skateboarder he mentions that when his very first pro model was released in 1982 it wasn’t exactly a top seller. Hell, if anything, it was a bottom dweller. To add insult to injury the market for skateboards back then was nonexistent at best, so to not have a remotely popular model translated to mere pennies on the royalty dollar—more precisely, 85 cents, the whopping sum total of which Tony claimed to represent one of his earliest royalty check payments as a paid professional skateboarder.

This spread is from the 1977 Theodor Seuss Geisel book titled Please Try to Remember the First of Octember, written under the pen name of Theo LeSeig, as in the case of all the children’s books he wrote but others illustrated. It seems he saved the Dr Seuss name for books that he both wrote and illustrated. Notice that LeSieg spelled backwards is… Geisel. What a clever man, if I do say so, er, uhmmm, myself. Enlarge-o-rama.

Yes, it’s Jim Henson day on Skate and Annoy. Here’s a bit from the first season of Fraggle Rock, something I have admittedly not seen more than a few seconds of before now. My wife says she loved that show as a kid, but I married her anyway… It’s from a 1983 episode called the Garden Plot. A Fraggle Rock regular known as Traveling Matt makes a visit Venice Beach and takes a spin on some sort of weird Powell knock off deck. Check out the Carrot Top lookalike.

Thanks to Kevin for pointing the camera at the TV!