Category Archive: Skate
One footed rocket air?
You will receive this unique Christmas ornament featuring a boy doing a trick on his skateboard… …This will be a big hit with any young skateboarder you know! Another in a long string of Christmas ornaments, this one on eBay for an hour or so more. Made by the Kurt Adler company
Yeah, but do you have that in a 7.75 inch?
Dan McCabe is an artist who works in metal, and a long time skater. This is his first in a line of sculptural skate furniture. It’s on the opposite side of the scale compared to the rest of the more straight forward skate furniture we’ve seen so far.
Variflex: From Contender to Trampolines
Newsflash. We won’t tell you how much your board is worth if you want to sell it on eBay, so don’t ask. Also, don’t send me a link to your auction or unless it’s freakin amazing, or weird, something like Stacy Peralta’s scalp from the 70’s or the bronzed fire hydrant that Nataas sessioned on in Streets on Fire. That being said, here’s a new one. I’ve never been asked to facilitate a trade, but I was looking for an excuse to post this Variflex advert I found in a circular for a local discount sporting goods chain. I’m going to beat this dead horse. Variflex used to be a legitimate skateboard company as late as the early, early 80’s, and well before this. And now they make trampolines. Right. Tom Livemore has some old Variflex connections trucks in pretty good condition, and he’s looking to trade for a decent set of OJ superjuices (I have some, but you can’t have them.) or a set of multi colored Panther wheels. Whaaaa?????
iPhone skate roundup
There’s a company called Uncommon that makes custom iPhone cases that are pretty cool. You can upload your own artwork and through a unique process, they basically bake it onto the case. The image actually penetrates the shell a considerable distance, so it doesn’t simply scratch off two weeks after you buy it. For those of you who aren’t artistically inclined, they also offer collections of cases designed by artists, as well as a Juxtapoz Magazine and Thrasher Magazine collection. The best offering in the Thrasher collection is one that looks like you covered your phone in assorted Thrasher stickers. Of course you could do this yourself, but they wouldn’t protect your phone, and it would look like hell the first time you pulled it out of your pocket. It may seem like I know an inappropriate amount about the product, but that’s because I know a guy who is one of their handful of employees. I got the tour and a chance to peep the classified video. I’ve even been rocking a blank case for the past three months. As a case without blandishment, I’ve got nothing but positive comments. With a graphic, I can only imagine it would…
Friday T&A on S&A: Female Athletes
As seen on the Berrics. This is a poster for an adult film from 1979 titled Female Athletes. The folks at the Berrics have not “seen the ‘film’ and have no plans to,” but they did appropriate the image for a t-shirt. Come on. If you are going to rip off the poster, at least watch the movie, or don’t pretend to be so demure about the whole thing, Here at S&A, we’ve got no such hangups. I found the whole thing online and skimmed it for skateboarding scenes, but saw none. I had to skim it, the damn thing is 80 minutes long, and that’s way to long for an adult film. Although you have to admire how they at least try to be like a real film, with a story line, acting and all. Nice original soundtrack too. – Thanks to Mike Estes for the tip.
Student sidewalk surfers
From the Duke University archives, as found on Flickr under the headline Cowabunga! It’s not dated, but I’d place it around 1965.
Ultra Flex Primo Alley Cat
Ultra Flex. I’ve never heard of this company before, but they made skateboards and Primo brand wheels. The parent company was actually Special Products, a division of something called I.I.I., located in San Diego. I couldn’t find anything definite for them via google. They must have spent some cash on this brochure though. In the 70’s you couldn’t get a 1000 full color brocures for $100. First you had to have a photo shoot in a studio. The you had to pay for professional film developing, type setting, ad layout, and mechanical color separations. Plus there was stat camera graphic work too, none of this scanning and resizing in Photoshop, and then emailing a PDF. It was all done mechanically, and this would have been expensive. UPDATE: Added pictures of an old Ultra Flex board.
Ankle injuries and finger breaks
Two music videos featuring skateboarding of a sort. The first one is for a Fujiya & Miyagi song called Ankle Injuries. It’s stop action animation made with colored dice imitating pixels, pretty much the same technique Michel Gondry used in the White Stripes video for Fell In Love With A Girl, only with Legos. Still, it’s fun to watch, retro skateboard and Adidas shoes and all. It’s brief though, blink and you might miss it. – Thanks to MC for the tip. He’s hip to the kids and thier music, you know? The second video is for an Atmosphere song called You. It’s a fingerboard session at a party. Not that exciting, but it rounds out the post. Thanks to reader Ticorico for the tip.
DIY bushings for winos
Me, I swear by my Bones Bushings, but if I ever find myself in pinch, I could follow the advice over at Sa Ka Roulé and repurpose some of those newfangled plastic corks and make some bushings. In fact, maybe I’ll start building up a reserve of them tonight. I was saving these things for a while, I thought there must be something I could do with them, but this idea never crossed my mind.
So close, and yet so far
This little piece of perfection can be yours. All you need is $1500, and maybe 4-8 more of these because it’s only four feet wide. The best part is, it was built for BMX. Holy cow. It’s in Mokena, IL. I think that other horribly crappy ramp for sale that we featured was in Illinois too. Remember that one? I can’t find it. At least this one looks really, really well built. It has a the smell of something built by a well meaning but clueless parent. I can imagine the surprise on the kid’s face. “Gee, uh, thanks Dad.” Where else but eBay? Craig’s list, maybe.











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