I just added two Chicago based zines to the 80’s zine gallery, which I may have to rename because after scanning it I realized that Brian Sluggo’s 312 zine might actual be from 1990. The other is Chi-Town Shred #7, which marks the 4th issue of Chi-Town Shred that I’ve uploaded so far, with a couple more to come later.

This may look like a photoshop mishap or AI slop, but it’s actually a real product from 70’s skateboard manufacturer Grentec. For a split second I thought I may have saved some bad photoshopped images of this mini GT skateboard as a goof, but I managed to find another example, just one. And you guessed it, it was on Skate and Annoy, in an old Ebay Watch article from 2013. These guys made fiberglass decks too, but they were primarily known for being the Cadillac of the plastic skateboard world. I’m peppering this post with enough keywords to make sure it shows up again the next time someone searches for a GT aka Grentec mouse mini plastic skateboard. It predates the Doz’r, but I’m not sure about the Skircle. How is anyone supposed to ride this?

If you follow SkateDIY then you know who Clayton Graul is. If you’re ready to level up your DIY skate spot building projects you should check out his new venture California Transitions for your concrete finishing needs. It isn’t cheap, but if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right! They come in handheld and pole mounted version, and since they are hand made, they can be customized if you have a specific need.

Cleaning out the old hard drive again. I found an old 2013 auction for the Sidewinder skateboard at the bottom of the image above. My first thought was maybe it was related to the company that brought you Sidewinder wheels, but that seems more like a coincidence based on the quality of that deck and wheels, not to mention two different Sidewinder skateboards currently being auctioned off, both of which have the same logo as the wheels.

I added adverts from Skate Action Magazine to the Vintage Skatemag Advert Gallery. Skate Action was a UK based magazine that first came out in late 1988 and ran for a couple years. In issue #13 the title on the cover was changed to “SK8 Action,” but the inside pages still said “Skate Action.” I have issue #1, #5 and #14 in my collection, thanks to Steve from Jersey (UK). My copy of #1 is missing the cover spread and another 4 page spread. These 3 issues all have 56 pages. The contents are mostly color but there is a substantial amount go black and white pages in there. It’s heavily focused on the UK scene. The issues I have a heavy Deathbox presence, the Deathbox that later morphed into Flip, not Tod Swank’s early 2000’s company. This brings the grand total of adverts in the gallery to over 1300!

Spotted in near NE Portland, this driveway bank looks like it could be glorious, provided you could clean the decades of driveway moss off the surface. Get your soft wheels ready. I love a good driveway spot.

I added Bodyslam #5 (1987) and the May/June 1988 issue of Focus to the 80’s Skate Zine Gallery. Bodyslam was published by our friend Mark Conahan. You can actually buy a perfect bound compendium of the original 5 Bodyslam issues. I’ve got one, so should you. These two zines offer completely different approaches. Bodyslam is photocopied pure personal expression, while Focus is printed and aspires to be a “real” magazine. There are 63 zines in the gallery now. I was panicking earlier this year because I thought I had lost my box of zines, but I just found them. These are from the collection of Will Heesp.

This is a pristine looking True Glide Streaker deck complete with True Glide Trucks that might be are called “Python,” but not to be confused with the U.K.’s Python Wheels. This one has been available on Ebay Italy for some time now, for about 200 Euro. It has an extremely mellow kicktail that looks more like a memory of an afterthought of a kicktail, but it is sure is pretty. Looks like it’s never touched the ground. There’s an ad for this deck from 1976 in the gallery too.

The Biemme Red Star is a board of Italian manufacture. There’s a company called Biemme that started in 1978, but they seem to be focused on bicycles. Maybe they had a brief foray into skateboard like a few of the other bicycle-centric companies of the era did. A search fro “Red star skateboard” turns up a bunch of unrelated boards. Currently, including “Biemme” in that search returns exactly 2 instances of this skateboard, both auctions cling this is an 80’s era board. It’s got trucks that fit into the bottom of the board instead of having a separate baseplate. That’s not a big deal, we’ve seen that in American boards and Italian boards. The thing that makes this board interesting is the bizarre molded double kicktail, on. appointed nose no, less.

Added to the gallery, a new section for vintage contest programs. Actually, its just on program right now, the 1976 California Free Former World Championship. I’ve got the Hang 10 Pro Am Champ (1975) scanned but not processed yet. In the hamper I’ve got a some 80’s goodness, Chicago Blowout (1986), Seltzer Seltzer V.P. Cup (1987, St Louis), Bluegrass Aggression Session (Louisville, 1988), and the NSA National Amateur Series (1988.)