Category Archive: Back In The Day
SOTW 2-16-09: Lance Mountain at Summer Camp
This week’s Shot of the Week comes from Chris Eggers and his web site sk8boarding4life. It’s bilingual (German and English) and features skate photos from his archives over the years. This shot is a Lance Mountain frontside invert over the channel at the Swedish skateboard summer camp in 1986. Check out this week’s Shot of the Week.
More Simon Woodstock, and some Mike V
Believe it or not, one of the more heavily travelled post on this site is the one about Simon Woodstock. Well, Skatebook.tv has a couple entries (one -two) on their blog and a couple videos on YouTube. He was in the Skatebook Paul Sharpe edition. In any case, the new Skatebook is out and it’s the Mike Vallely issue. I wonder what Mike V’s take on Simon… Watch the Skatebook vids on Simon Woodstock after the jump. [Source: Happyfeet]
JGB on ESPN
When he’s not getting accolades from the skateboarding industry in the form of honorary pro models, Grant Brittain is getting props from “the worldwide leader in sports” aka ESPN, who has posted an online gallery of JGB photos. That’s Neil Blender skating the Seylynn skatepark snake run in Vancouver, BC up top.
Hugh Holland’s skate photos
Hugh Holland shot a lot of skate photos in the 70’s. There are some great shots online at Lifelounge. The best part was is that they aren’t a subset of the same photos of the era that have been making the rounds for the past decade. Holland came to shoot skaters after already being a photographer. So, aside from the skate photos, a lot of Holland’s shots are taken from more of a photojournalist’s perspective. The Lifelounge post is over a year old. Hugh’s had some exhibits and possibly a catalog from the show published. I can’t find an active official web site for Hugh, and everyone seems to point back to the Lifelounge collection. It’s good stuff. Check it out.
eBay Watch: January 2009
January 2009. The economy might be in the toilet, but you wouldn’t know it on eBay. There were some BIG auctions that went off this month, and a lot of cash thrown around. Maybe it was early tax refunds; maybe it was just a case of right place, right time, but whatever the case, it was an exciting month. Let me just say something though, something that is really starting to bug me. Sellers, please do a modicum of research before you set your prices. I’m really getting tired of seeing the same decks up, month in month out with the same ridiculous prices. Hello, McFly, your Lance Mountain “family” deck is not going to sell for $200, it doesn’t matter how many times you keep putting it up there. If you did 5 minutes of research you’d see that about 5 family decks went off in the last 2 weeks, all selling in the $50 range. So why you think people are going to pony up 4 times what it’s worth is a freaking mystery. Also, if I see that red Chris Miller “dog” at $500 again I’ll scream. It’s been up for like 3 months. Nobody is going…
Board shops suck
True story. I heard SnA got a mention in “On Board Trash” so I went to pick one up at a local “board shop” here in Sarasota Fl, where I’m staying for a few days. I walk in to this huge store full of skateboards, surfboards, skimboards and god knows what else. I glance around at the counter and see nothing. I ask the guy behind the counter “Do you have Thrasher?” “No, I don’t” “Whaaaa????” “I know…” So I turned around and walked out. the whole thing took less than a minute. I don’t subscribe to Thrasher, but I fully expect any self respecting skateboard shop to carry it. Who is that kook in the picture? It’s Eddie Albert playing Oliver on Green Acres but dressed up as Jethro Clampett. Seriously. I know there’s a couple of real skate shops here. I’m going to search one out.
Student demonstrates a new craze
The ASU Libraries (Part of Arizona State University, don’t ya know…) has an archive of old photographs from the school newspaper that includes this one titled Student demonstrates a new craze – the skateboard. Sweet. I guess there was a time when short boards were the college craze.
SOTW 2-09-09: Mark Holt at Olympic Skate Park
This week’s Shot of the Week came from Dan Hughes Northwest Skater. He’s got three pages related to his old friend Mark Holt. There’s one full page of shots from the old Olympic Skate Park in Olympia, Washington, probably from the last couple of years it was open. It closed in 1982. There’s some great shots in there, some probably better than the one I chose, but I decided on this one despite the obvious out of frame flaw. It’s still rad, and I like the guy in the background. The next page is dedicated to various ramps that Mark had, some without any flat bottom. The last page is assorted skate shots in the street, skateparks and a pool. Check ’em out. (1 – 2 -3)
Honorary Pro Skateboarders
Mumble Online Magazine (Note: Link removed, original site is gone and appears to be malware now.) launched a program to give three people who were/are influential in skateboarding (long terrm) an honorary certificate designating them as “Pro Skateboarders.” The best part is that the certificate comes with a limited edition, wait for it, pro model skateboard, and I mean limited. The first awardee is legendary photographer and photo king of the The Skateboard Mag, you know him as J. Grant Brittain. I don’t know Grant personally, but he was gracious enough to let us use one of his famous photos as a Shot of the Week here on SnA. Grant Brittain is an excellent choice for the first honorary pro skater. Grant’s pro model was made at Powell, and it’s a riff on one of their most famous graphics. It’s kind of funny that Powell is parodying their own graphics after it’s been done by other companies multiple times. It should come as no surprise that it’s already sold out considering that they limited the run to only 99 pieces. Powell wanted to keep things realistic for the time period, so Grant didn’t have a say in what his graphics…
Put a little Squirt in your life
You might think it’s the ad copy from a marital aids catalog, but no, it’s a 1977 slogan from the makers of Squirt soda. This sticker was poached from Jason Liebig’s Flickr stream collection of pop culture. He’s the same guy responsible for putting all the vintage Christmas catalogs online, featured here on SnA. He must have a busy scanner.











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