These big, beefy parking blocks are located about a 100 miles east of San Diego, near the Republic of Slowjamistan. The pictures don’t show how big they are. I didn’t have a ruler with me but I estimate they are a good 10″ tall. The sole paved spot outside of restrooms in Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area.

Check out this early 80’s “Street Sucker” from the Netherlands. The graphic and two-tone wheels look like something distinctly American, although there is no visible company name to be found.

– Thanks to Michiel Walrave for the pic.

The Milwaukee Journal has an article on a documentary in progress about the Turf (AKA Surf N’Turf) skatepark. Much like the Nude Bowl, the Turf just won’t die, and keeps coming back decades after you thought it was gone forever. Opened in late 70’s then shut down and turned into a strip club, then reopened in the 80’s, then shut down again, raised and burried. Then dug up and skated briefly! Then filled in again amidst a community effort to have it saved. It seemed like a pipe dream, but somehow the City of Greenfield ended up buying the land from the department of transportation to save it from becoming offramp. Now, not only will it be dug up and refurbished as it existed, indoors in it’s heyday, it will also be surrounded by a new, modern and public skatepark outside. Stoked to be able to add this to our coverage of The Turf, and anxiously awaiting the premier of “Believe It.”

[Photos: L-City of Greenfield. R- Peter DiAntoni]

It’s Indigenous Peoples day. Here’s more Joe Buffalo. This video by the New York Times is a little more stylized than perhaps it needed to be, but overall it’s very heavy. What else could you expect from the aftereffects of Kill the Indian; Save the Child and the boarder school assimilation programs?

We just added 15 new-to-you zines to the 80’s Skatezine Gallery. The new titles include Contort, Clueless and Skeezer from the Boston area, Skate Street and Clueless (moved) from Wisconsin, Social Disorder from Illinois, Crakpot from Oregon, Tight Transitions and Naughty Nomads from California, Asphalt Assault from Georgia, Freezine from Ontario, Canada and Vaffanskate from Italy. There are currently 57 complete issues in the gallery now.

Go around! Go under! Develop skill and style with Skateboard Derby. The professional action course! This is an extremely rare find from 1977. It’s new in the box and never used, and priced accordingly at $499. To be honest, I’m more interested in the packaging and instructions than I am the actual contents. Although the contents are basic pieces of wood, some hardware and vinyl flags, it’s easy to imagine how exciting this would have been to open and set up as a kid in the 70’s. Our plastic banana board-riding crew used chalk and plastic cups for our slalom course. This would have blown our minds… There is one advantage to using chalk though. We used to draw oil slicks, flames, pillboxes with artillery installations, and other assorted hazardous obstacles all over our courses. Skateboarding war is hell.

Oh the things I find to buy when I’m actually looking for something else. A positive balance on a PayPal account does not last long when I’m scrolling through skateboard related ephemera. This is the September 1975 issue of Sports Illustrated, with a feature called “Wheeling and Dealing.” Scanned and ran through the OCR for your enjoyment. File it under Things I buy so you don’t have to.

Well now… this is something. Is this the ultimate eBay auction? You’re looking at roughly 3,000 cut (but not finished) skateboard blanks, NOS from the 80’s wood shop of “Wee” Willi Winkels. Yes, he of the famous Corvette hippie jump fame in the 70’s, and most importantly, the person who brought laminated maple to the world of skateboard decks. The asking price of 90k (!) works out to $30 a deck. As amazing as the find is, it doesn’t seem like a reasonable investment considering they are mostly unfinished and in need of multiple passes on the router, not to mention painting, sealing, and screen printing. It’s an interesting auction for sure.

MotionVFX is selling a Final Cut Pro plugin they call mSythwave. The purpose is to emulate 80’s effects in a manner that is actually a little more advanced than actually excited at the time. The demo real and tutorial features a Back to the Future spoof as well as some dummy titles like “Miami Skating Venue” and “SK8 Crew.” I’ve been thinking about lookingintot some new plugins fro the next installment of Found In a Box VHS Theater, because the channel changing transition was manual and labor intensive, not to mention not very good, and holy $%&@! That last installment was 5 years ago! I need to get back on that horse again.

The thing about OCD is that it’s OCD… We just passed the 400 mark less than 2 weeks ago but I got a bee in my bonnet to finish the rest of the remaining scans. So I powered through it, and now we’re at 502 vintage skateboard stickers in the gallery. Some of my favorites are the authorized dealer stickers because those are hard to come by. Anyway, check out the gallery, stable toy company/brand, product type, decade, and even the pro’s name if it’s on there. Now that I’m out of sticker scans I’m thinking about getting the 70’s bubblegum card gallery up next. If you’ve got (high resolution) scans of anything not in the gallery, hit us up! We can provide a link to the web site of your choice with each listing.