I saw a color version of this floating around Facebook, so I tried to track down the original which it turns out was done by Ben Jensen, and was not a specific response to sad events in Orlando. It’s been out for at least 9 months, and you can get them at Antique Skate as well as No Gods No Masters.

Posts about the blue fiberglass ramps that were used in Thrasherland and Skateball skateparks remain some of the most popular on Skate and Annoy. Stephen Smith was trolling the site and remembered he had saved an old flyer for the Great Bay Skatepark of Newington, New Hampshire:

I went there in the summer of 78 or 79 while on vacation with the folks from Nova Scotia. We got there at like 3 in the morning and all slept in the car so I could go skating as soon as it opened up. What a blast, great memories! Also while at the World Freestyle comp a few weeks ago , I chatted with old school East coast skate legend Bert Mathieson and he had skated there back in the day too. I got the flyer at the pro shop there.

As you can see, as well as “faster and safer,” the Great Bay Arena claimed to be the world’s first indoor fiberglass skatepark. I’m imagining a guy behind the counter at the pro shop mumbling to himself as he crosses off the incorrect session times and rewrites them by hand. He probably stole a coke that day because he was so annoyed.

Here’s an excellent time capsule of skateboard harassment from a local Springfield Illinois news channel concerning a proposed ban on skateboarding downtown. Local business and civic leaders speak out against “skateboard terrorists” in advance of the ban, which ultimately passed. The video was digitized from a decrepit old VHS tape, so there are tracking issues and the sound doesn’t always sync right, but it’s still a good watch. One of the skateboarders makes a reasonable request for a public skatepark to serve the needs of the population, and they did get one after only 25 years.

– Thanks to Nick Rudd for the tip.

Check out Dan Bourqui’s Downhill Disco edit:

The Downhill Disco is an yearly San Diego event which mixes disco music with longboarding, downhill skating, jump ramps and even a smaller megaramp like gap. It also features a mini ramp jam, disco night and Sunday races that are not showcased in this video clip. The entire event feels more like a weekend festival than a contest.

Two skateboard shops from Wales, Dave Friar’s Surf Shop and the Welsh Skateboard Centre. Then there’s Mercury Flyer air freighted skateboards direct from the USA, and the Superb Sitco Rocket.

In this round, not one, but two ads for Alley Cat, some very boring text-only ads from Cardiff Skateboard Shop, and Dolphin Skateboards, plastic skateboards from Alpine Sports, and the creepy, faceless skateboarder of the South London Skateboard Centre.

House of Neil spotted this not-made-for-skate terrain outside Macy’s in Schaumburg. Looks… like so much fun, and not even marked yet. Let the countdown to skatestoppers begin.

Seeing this gofundme campaign from Rob Kendall reminded me of the “Weird Woods of Maine” picture I posted a couple years ago. Yes, that does look familiar. Weird Woods of Maine was the cryptic name given for the spot, which is not so cryptic anymore. Rob owns Weird Woods Skateboards. His campaign is to help finance a 5 mile skate track on the same property, which will probably be the world’s largest. 5 miles of connected transitions boggles my mind. You?

I added six more vintage skateboard advertisements to the Skateboard Scene magazine gallery. This time we’ve got sterling silver necklaces, some mystery boards from Reflex Action, more mystery boards from American Oak Company, Californian skateboards from Scarbourne, plastic GT Coyotes, and Britain’s answer to the American Kryptonic, the Ulon Speedwheel.

Pure crap or Pure Genius? In the late 80’s I wouldn’t have been caught dead on a Variflex board, now I kind of want to make a t-shirt out of this old sticker design.  The post on the Variflex XP series still gets a lot of traffic, but I’d never seen a Spittle board… until I googled it after writing that last sentence. I found one from Ebay seller toddtwist, AKA Sean Goff. Turns out the Spittle board looks semi-legit. This one sold for a killing at $280 considering NOS Variflex XP series were going for $70 8 years ago. Art of Skateboarding dates this board to 1988, and they’ve got one in a nice white colorway.

UPDATE: Justin Goetz has a mind like steel trap. He recognized this deck from an old Lance Mountain column in the November, 1989 issue of Transworld. It’s actually a pro model for Michel Spitalhouse. I added scans to the end of the post.

UPDATE #2: Here’s link to a 1989 Variflex ad that features two Spittle decks in it. This was the street version, and there was a vert version too.