I just wanted to babble on about this week’s Shot of the Week, since the standard format doesn’t allow it, and this one is too good to let go. This shot sums up skateboarding in the Midwest during the 80’s for me. Sure, we were rad, but it seemed like our surroundings were holding us back. This is from the Chi-town Shred photo archives. No further information is available, But it was undoubtedly shot on or near Oak Street Beach, which has more concrete than sand. Brilliant. Chicago!

Day three: Professional Skateboard Simulator for the Commodore 64, from 1988.

Yeah, Commodore 64 again. Noticing a trend? It looks like they Photoshopped (well it was 1988 so MacPainted) Jeff Kendall’s face onto a guy skating a Mark Gonzales board on vert. They used to run the occasional pic of the Gonz on vert, this might have been copied from one of those. Actually, the guy has a Read and Destroy sticker on his helmet, so it’s likely lifted straight form the pages of R.A.D.. UK readers, help a brother out. I heard that the new Pro Skateboard Simulator 10 (Ryan Sheckler edition) has a level where you practice running out of the arena crying if you don’t win first place.

Tim Hubbard sent in a link to more Dunedin opening day pics. Thats Josh Black inverted, and an unknown rider carving over some very chunky stairs. Tim also included a link to Punk On Board which is a mish mash of Florida skateboarding, punk rock and art both past and present. The linka are all over the place, and seem to be in conjunction with another site called Art Gone Bad. It’s not the easiest thing to navigate, but just keep clicking. There are snapshots from a Skateboarder Magazine photo session at a backyard ramp, a weird looking life size paper mache mosh pit circa 82, Mike Weed freestyle action, Monty Nolder at Grigley’s ramp, vintage McGill, backstage at the Warped Tour with Anti Flag and the Buzzcocks, Joan Jett looking tuff as nails and all kinds of good stuff if you dig around for it. If I lived in Florida I’d be hanging out with this guy, provided I was punk enough.

Day Two: Duel AKA Rad Ramp Racer for the Commodore 64, from 1990.

Here we have the classic BMX vs Skateboard battle. Is it a bare knuckled fight to the finish like the duel scene in Thrashin’? Stay tuned to find out. Man I wish I could see a closeup of that video cover. Does anyone recognize the picture?

Rotten Apple Media has an archive of California Cheap Skates mail order catalogs that range from 1991 to 2001. The CCS branding that they switched to made me forget that these guys used to call themselves California Cheap Skates. Aside form being an trip through nostalgia, it’s also interesting from a historic point of view, at least if you are one of the geeks frequenting Skate and Annoy. You can trace the de-evolution of skateboard shapes and graphics. In 1991 most of the boards offered had a distinguishable nose and tail, but the shapes in general had already become homogenized. In 1992 you can see the appearance of the the popsicle stick as we know it, as well as the trend towards copyright infringement in art direction. By 1993 there are no longer any shaped boards available, and the general number of companies starts to increase dramatically so the board pictures get smaller and smaller. It’s not until 1997 that a few alternative shapes start to turn up again, mostly in the form of longboards. Those earlier years are also interesting if you look at the offerings from some of the giant names in skateboarding, especially when you put them in the perspective that they are about to see their world collapse. I have a bunch of these catalogs in a pile as well, but mine mostly start where this collection ends. I think I was aiming at documenting all the board graphics that I could. Check out Rotten Apple Media’s catalog collection if you are feeling archeological. The only downside is that the scans are not very large.

Thanks to Dan Hughes at Northwest Skater for the tip.

I ribbed them about the lack of photos we got from the grand opening of the new Dunedin Florida park, and David Adams replied that they are too busy skating to take pictures. Fair enough. He did, however, take the time to scan and send in this 1979 postcard of the now defunct Clearwater Florida skatepark, which he said was the last park of it’s kind (until Dunedin) in the west central Florida area. (Did you know there’s cement parks in North Port and Sarasota?) The caption reads “GBM in full take off mode! Awwwk Awwwwkk!!” David also mentions that Ed Womble, George McClellan and himself were on the Clearwater Skatepark team back then, and are still skating today. If you take a look at this postcard, your first reaction might be “Yuck!”, but man, wouldn’t it be fun to go back in time and skate one of these sprawling concrete landscapes? I wouldn’t want all my parks to be like this, but you make your own fun, and I see fun written all over the place. If you’re in the mood for something newer, Chuck Dyer has some shots from opening day of Dunedin.

In honor of EA’s Skate and Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, which the Interweb™! can’t seem to shut up about. I’m going to bring you seven days of bad skateboarding video games.

Day One: Cheap Skate for the Commodore 64, from 1988.

Look out! That guy has to dodge meteors! Talk about skate harassment. Giant skateboard with Speed Racer mountain climbing wheels? Check! Button down shirt with smart sweater over the top? Check! (Sorry, this is a U.K. game, so I think “sweater” should read “jumper”)

I thought we would get a lot more pictures from the Dunedin Florida skatepark opening, but so far all I have is a few from local Ed Womble, which includes a shot of Monty Nolder. You guys must have a poser’s scene down there, you don’t deserve a good skatepark! Haw haw! I kid! Check out the pictures after the jump.

It’s amazing how unsophisticated skateboard graphics were in the early 80’s when companies first started to explore designs that were more than just a small logo on the bottom. Believe it or not, some people are going to be pissed off that I posted this picture of a rare old Neil Blender deck that is currently up for auction on eBay. They will say that we are somehow affecting the outcome of the final price, blah blah blah. I’m just using it as an excuse to embed a few Neil Blender videos from YouTube. Notice there is no link to the auction. I don’t want to encourage any (more) of the “Hey, check out my auction!” emails that we already get. After you are done watching these videos, head on over to Neil’s official web site The Heated Wheel.

The latest installment of G.V.K. Watching this video made me realize I have had the same friends for 20yrs +. Good or bad im not quite sure. At the very least this is proof that we are washed up vert skaters. So all we need is a vert ramp so we can go and have a place to talk about the good old days and (re-live) the glory we never had. To be totally accurate this footage is from the end of our low fidelity careers. This footage is from Boulder but the crew lived in Steamboat, Colorado, circa 90-93. Not much vert anywhere, especially Steamboat. We would literally go months with out skating, get antsy head to Boulder (3 hours) to see a show. Most of this footage is from a session before a Ramones show.