Matt Mahoney hooked us up with some pictures of a relic he owns, possibly the ultimate achievement in wackyboards. It’s either the Nash Jamm Sound Board or the Radio Active, depending on whether you believe the top or the bottom of the deck. In Matt’s own words “It’s perfect for listening to static while skating around town…” I remember seeing adds for this thing before, I can’t imagine they made more than one model. It’s too bad the Nash factory burned down, I’ll bet there was some cool stuff in storage.

While I was (supposed to be) in college, I lived in a house with a bunch of ne’er-do-wells, skateboarders and musicians. Actually, most of the guys ended up being do-wells after all. This particualr shot was the front yard of a house I lived in from 1987-1988. At least 14 people lived there. That’s my glorious 8 foot wide miniramp in the front yard. The platforms butted up against the front porch on one side and the sidewalk on the other. The chopper belongs to a roommate we called Mr. Grubby, who was otherwise known to the punk rock world as Doug “joe” Evans, the bass player for one of the top five most badass band to come out of Illinois, or the whole midwest for that matter, the Didjits. (OK, the rest of the list is Naked Raygun, Big Black, Cheap Trick, Husker Du…) Doug’s chopper had some sort of rebuilt BSA, or possibly Indian, engine on it. It wasn’t a Harley, I remember that much. He had the stereotypical, but awesome Iron Cross side view mirror. This thing was loud as fuck, a fact that did little to endear us to our rich, sorority girl neighbors, especially when…

What to do if your favorite old board hasn’t been reissued yet? You could search it out on eBay, but then you might have to spend $255 to $1033 to relive your youth. If you are more of a sane individual with more time than money, you can grab your old album covers for reference and create your own out of a Moose blank. That’s what reader John Egertson did. It looks uncanny, compared to the original. Although I’d bet the original has a bigger wheelbase. There’s also the matter of the upturned nose, but you know, there’s a reason they don’t make them that way anymore. Actually, last time I checked, Factory 13 made a true, early to mid 80’s style single kick plank. Hang on, it looks like there may have been one iteration with an upturned nose.

Vision Street Wear (through Select Distribution) is pimping a limited release of the Vision “Tribute Series” including, for immediate delivery the “Gator Ramp (with his actual name on the boards)” I pressed the sales rep for information on who gets those royalties, and after a few elusive, vague responses I ultimately received the answer that Select somehow owned the Gator name from the get go, and so they don’t need to pay any royalties. I don’t know how that pans out for the boards “with his actual name on it.” My guess is Mark failed to trademark “Gator” and didn’t think about it since it was already his nickname. He probably figured he didn’t need to. Remember When He started going by a different name? Mark Gator Anthony or something… What does Mark “Gator” Rogowski have to say about the re-issues? He spoke up about it in Sean Cliver’s (great) new book, Disposable The Skateboard Bible. One redeeming (and useful) gesture would be for companies that still sell decks with the old Gator graphics (with or without the name) to please direct what would have been royalties to organizations devoted to ending violence and promoting understanding. That could be really…

Err…. Wha? I’ve never seen the “Highway Fox” brand, but there’s a Highway Fox “Dolphin” model on eBay that looks like a Jason Jesse Neptune “tribute.”Also amusing, the seller claims the board has “has great vintage 60’s 70’s graphics.” And now I’ve officially gone over the limit for using quotations in a post. Check it out. – Thanks to Dennis Dreiling for the tip.

I want to start this month by thanking all of those who contributed to the raffle in my name held on skullandbones. Thanks to everybody who purchased “tickets”, and a big thanks to all who arranged it. I have spent the cash, and you will see the result of the raffle in the July BayWatch. I also want to thank all of the folks who email me with kind words about the column and also those who write in with tips and links to auctions of interest. Keep them coming because finding new and interesting stuff is a constant battle. Also, without the kind words of the folks that write in, I don’t know if I’d still be doing this! A couple of reminders: you can click on the images to see the full size versions. If they don’t get bigger, don’t blame me: I grab the biggest image that is available on eBay, but sometimes the sellers don’t post large images, and in cases like that there isn’t much I can do. Also, remember to leave comments in the Feedback section, whether it is a simple comment or even a correction. If you won one of the auctions I…

The action isn’t in the text this time. Check out the spectacular bail! This is the fifth installment of the Skateboard Action book, courtesy of Carl Warren who still does not live in Hood River. It almost looks like Rodney Mullen, but surely it can’t be? I don’t think his parents let him ride jump ramps.

I can’t recall the date exactly, but I’d say this was taken in 1990, or 91. There was a hipster nightclub in Chicago called Shelter. They would have all kinds of events and promotions, and since I was a partner in the silkscreen business that printed for them, I occasionally got to be involved behind the scenes in a minor way. For instance, I got to hang out with some the famous club kids from NYC, before they became famous murderers. Another event that I didn’t understand but certainly enjoyed, was the outdoor miniramp. Someone came up with the promotion to build a miniramp in the outdoor section of the club, whic was really large, if I recall correctly. The club was located in a sort of derelict industrial area, next to some railroad tracks, so noise wasn’t an issue. Originally I was actually supposed to build the damn thing, but somehow it got puled out from under me, and a guy named Sluggo took charge, which was kinfd of annoying as he was an employee of mine at the time. Sluggo? There are a few “Sluggos” in skateboarding scenes across the nation, this guy lives in Chicago. So they…

Poweredge Magazine is hitting the streets again. The first new issue is scheduled to come out in August. It’s a gutsy move when other mags are getting thinner or moving to online-only presences. Hopefully there is room for another. I was a fan of Poweredge back in the day, even when I considered Thrasher the best, it was nice to have a different voices out there. Check out the covers, the last one from 1991 above left, and the new 2009 one is on the right. It would have been cool if they had Todd Congelliere reprise his cover shot for the new volume. Check out Tod in the Santa Cruz vid Risk it! after the jump. UPDATE: I guess that’s not Todd on the old cover. I assumed it was because his interview has the biggest headline. The guy on the new cover? Dayne Brummet.

I was perusing the back issues of Thrasher (yes, perusing…) when I found MC in the April, 1984 issue of Thrasher. It’s the Photograffiti section. It includes a paragraph where Mark (AKA Max Concave) talks about a ramp some surfers built here in Oregon, and laments about the lack of initiative shown by skaters. Well, 25 years later MC finally remedied the situation. Check it out after the jump… or I suppose you could actually read it at the Thrasher site. Gee whiz, don’t those High Speed Publications guys realize they are putting hundreds of nostalgia skateboard bloggers out of their imaginary, non-paying jobs? Seriously though, that is the MO of a lot of skate blogs out there, scan some old ads or features from the 70’s, 80’s or 90’s, and then reminisce. I’m not knocking them, because I do it all the time.