If you thought this was beautiful, wait to you feast your eyes on the best commercial in the entire world, ever. Yeah, that’s right, the results are in, and this commercial for the skate bike has won hands down. Check it out after the jump, with a bonus advert for the product as printed in a couple of 1984 issues of Thrasher. While you were out… Thrasher has brought the complete back issues online up to 1985. I wish they would go back to the old method of making it a single pdf download. For one thing, the image size was bigger and even the tiny print was legible. I guess they get more page views that way. – Thanks to Matt Beasley and Ben for the tips.

Dan Hughes’ Northwest Skater has an archive of the regional newsletter/zine Skateboard Northwest from 1978. Yes, that’s Mark Conahan on page three. Now that Dan has moved to Utah, will he change the name of his site? Did you know Dan is getting married? For those of you that know Dan, S&A obtained an exclusive sneak peak of the ceremony.

Normally I’d be all over something like this, but I like the board so much that I don’t feel compelled to ridicule the optional equipment shown, namely the $25 aluminum scooter handle. I mean, If you are going to ride a scooter-skate, you don’t want to risk getting hurt on some cheap toy… Right? I think I can see where they are coming from on this, and that means I’m in a weird place right now…. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for these old solid aluminum decks, and I am solidly behind manufacturing a liquor store board that happens to be a near museum quality reproduction. This would probably fall under the movie prop category, since the wheels look the part, but have been upgraded to center set bearings so you could actually turn at speed without feeling like the wheels were about to blow out . The firm known as Roger Brothers Downhill makes these, as well as a surprising host of other machined products, including a skateboard deck with a built in bottle opener (where the skyhooks would go…) Now I’m definitely a fan.

This is a detail of this week’s Shot of the Week, and another one from the archives. I can’t remember who this kids was, but I do remember feeling like I was becoming obsolete when I saw this young kid ollie to 5-0 on an overturned bike rack. It was something I would have thought of, but not pulled off. Anyway, this is one of the last skate shots I took before moving out of the Champaign-Urbana area to start silkscreen business in Chicago with a few partners. Needless to say, I didn’t skate a lot in those first years of trying get the business off the ground. This remains one of my favorite shots, partially because it reminds me of a pinnacle in my life. Dang, that kid looks familiar. Check out the full frame Shot of the Week.

Sure would be nice if I updated the S&A theme to show tags, and yes, threaded comments. This is the fourth installment of the Skateboard Action book, courtesy of Carl Warren who still does not live in Hood River. Steve Schneer, pictured here, is one of the oldest professional skateboarders around.

More Farrah Fawcett skateboarding action. Toys from the past. I’d seen the officially licensed “Jill” doll from Farrah’s Charlie’s Angels days, as seen above left. Reader Hung Chang also found this knockoff “Sport Girl” doll that features a cartoon drawing of Farrah.

Skateboarding’s second (chronological) pinup died today after battling cancer. What celebrity death could possibly top this?

Ron Cameron was the skater/artist who helped define the public identity of Blockhead Skateboards. His web site features his paintings, graphic design, and very meaty sections on his board design, skateboarding and advertisements for Blockhead Skateboards and other companies like Acme. For instance, his board gallery features Disposable type commentary on the background of the designs and what was going on in the industry. The same goes for the ads he designed and the coverage he received as a skateboarder. I especially enjoyed his hand painted boards. The image above is a Grant Brittain photo from a 1990 issue of TWS, with a couple of classic Blockhead designs superimposed. As you can see, Ron was in the vanguard of bringing narrow boards back to skating. Sure that’s a 70’s era deck, but he did actually produce some narrow boards in anticipation of changing times, but he was a little bit too early to make it stick. Definitely worth spending some time at, check out Roncameron.net. Ron says a major chunk of retro content is imminent for the Blockhead site.

…and my camera bag in Lincoln City, for crying out loud. Now I have to drive back in the morning and go get it. I was camping there since Friday. At the camp site there were no less than five kids on skateboards being towed around the camp site behind bicycles, three of them on longboards. Thanks to everyone who ordered a shirt, I will be packing them up to ship out on Wednesday. And now back to regularly scheduled programming, thanks to Carl Warren who does not live in Hood River. Another installment of Skateboard Action. Dig the U-shaped slide.

Let me just nip this in the bud, don’t send me an email asking me to highlight your auction, because I won’t do it, unless it’s a collection of 23 NOS Sims boards from the 70’s and early 80’s, like this one. Wow. 9 days to go and $4k, but it hasn’t reached the minimum yet. I would have thought you could make more money by parting these decks out, but The Skateboard Pimp must be in a hurry. Nice, big photos of the entire collection. Check it out. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip. P.S.: Did you guys forget about the May eBay Watch?