Ride the Popularity Wave

When a plain old skateboard isn’t enough and you need to add a motorized sound to get the kids excited, the Irwin corporation has you covered. The advert is most likely from a 1965-66 Playthings Magazine, an industry publication for toy retailers. A suggested retail of $1.98 ( Under $17 according to the US Inflation […]

New Zines added to Galleries

It’s been a long time since I’ve added new zines to the 80’s skate zine gallery. Chipping away at the backlog, here are Skate Edge #2 from New Jersey, circa 1983, and Raw Zine #8 from Connecticut, circa 1988. That’s 32 ages of photocopied nostalgia from the collection of Kevin Johnson.

Invaders of the Heart

I must have sent away for a catalog from Action Sports in 1984. I just found the postmarked envelope with full color one sheet and photocopied price list. I think that tagline is supposed to read “The 1 Ultimate High.” Aside from the vaguely Celtic typeface, it’s an interesting choice for a time when any […]

Some More, Over the Rainbo

Thanks again to Nathan Kipnis we’ve got even more pictures of the fiberglass Skate-Ball ramps at the Rainbo Skatepark in Chicago, Illinois circa 78-79. Includes a bonus shot of Jay Adams and Dave Hackett.

Kevin Thatcher on Trasher, in Thrasher

Apparently in the world of skateboarding there are these things called magazines, and in particular, the longest running skateboard magazine called “Thrasher” is still a thing. Why on earth would Skate and Annoy link to Thrasher? We like to help out the little guys. Yuk, yuk, yuk… You should definitely check out the Kevin Thatcher […]

What is a Swatch?

Girl is Not. 4 Letter Word has a good read on Stephanie Person, a female black professional skateboard from the 80s. I could not recall her specifically appearing in mags in the 80’s but she did, and I do remember the featured “Sugar and Spice” article in Thrasher. Her experiences as a black female skater […]

Tom Thumb Team Skate-ball

There are certain topics here on Skate and Annoy that though old, tend to cycle back into popularity every so often, and Skate-ball is one of them. If you’re not familiar, Skate-ball was a pinball-themed fiberglass ramp setup that had actual scores and scoreboard affected by different sections that you rolled over. Now, thanks to […]

Ocean Bowl Ocean City Maryland 1976

When heros rescue history from the trash! Check out these photo of the Ocean Bowl from 1976 shown here by permission of Marc Emond: The photos on this post were pulled from a dumpster behind The Beachcomber weekly newspaper in the early 80s. The box they were in contained piles of surf and skate photos. […]

100% Recycled Plastic Open Source Skateboard Decks

Sustainability in skateboard manufacturing has to be tackled by the skateboard industry at some point. Bamboo, hemp, whatever… There’s a Kickstarter campaign running right now for a process to make skateboards out of 100% recycled plastic. It’s a little different than most kickstarters, this entire project is open source, and the campaign is essentially just […]