The 70’s was a funny time in skateboarding. At times, the industry and the public at large tended to view it almost as a carnival ride or amusement park attraction. Case in point, Skateball. I received a couple old pictures of a Skateball installation at the Olympic Skatepark in Crystal Lake Illinois a few years back when SnA was being updated on a very infrequent basis. Seeing the Radical post reminded me of them, so I dug them up. Fortunately, I was still able to contact Jeff Hottle for some larger scans, and he obliged with a few bonus shots as well. Skateball was basically pinball on a halfpipe, where the skater simulated the ball. It’s one of those things you hear rumors about but don’t quite give them credit unless you actually see it. Five pictures and a little history after the jump.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? What if there is a better way to do something? The now ubiquitous Independent Trucks were an innovation – the result of two different explorations of the idea of independent suspension in a skateboard truck. So good for slalom that some considered it cheating to use them – but not what most skaters wanted. Somehow they managed to straighten out the axle and improve the turning and the rest is history, or is it mathematics? Metallurgy?

Maputo city in Mozambique has a little scene going there with their own web site called Maputo Skate. I don’t know diddly about Mozambique, but the Wikipedia primer says Mozambique was a former colony of Portugal that gained independence in 1975 after years of war and a Military coup. A one party state aligned with the Soviet bloc was formed and a long civil war followed. Since 1990 they’ve had democratic elections. I can’t make heads or tails of African politics, it can be one messed up place. The point of this sub-par history lesson is to point out that even with all the economic and political strife, skateboarding somehow found its way to Mozambique. Not only that, but the tricks are the same. Maputo Skate has photos and video, and while the equipment is not all to notch (like that sketchy grind rail in the photo above) the fun looks like any other group of kids you might find in the Midwest somewhere, posting pictures and video to MySpace.

According to the The Post Tribune article Doctor: Skateboarding can be fatal: A taste for adventure can be fatal for skateboarders who practice their stunts without a helmet or hang onto the bumper of a car. In a study of skateboarding injuries, one out of every five kids who were hospitalized needed help with feeding after they were released. “Sometimes, these injuries can have long-lasting consequences. Not being able to feed yourself is not that cool,” said Dr. Kyran Quinlan at the University of Chicago. In response to these findings, one local research group has funded further research. Results after the jump.

Ralph Lloyd-Davis has a blog called Skateboarding Now and Then that is an amusing exercise in pointing out some of the differences in skateboard business and culture over the years. Typically it’s two images, a “now” and a “then” with a title. In the case above, the post is titled “Happy Couples” with Rob Dyrdek as the common element. The “thens” are usually from the 80’s or 90’s. Sometimes it’s just one image and a link to a video on YouTube or another feature on a different site. The format of Skateboarding Now and Then leaves a little to be desired. For instance, when external videos or pages are used as they should be embedded or screen captured instead of just linked. Jumping out of the web page to see the punchline of the joke kind of ruins the flow. The posts aren’t updated very frequently, but maybe a little extra web traffic will help stoke Ralph to kick it up a notch. He’s got a good thing going and I’d like to see it fleshed out a little more. I’m not sure what else Ralph Lloyd-Davis has going on, but his name does turn up as an author on…

From Skull Skates comes word of the 22nd Annual Jaks contest at China Creek on Saturday, September 8, 2007 from 12:00pm – 6:00pm. China Creek skatepark is located at Broadway and Clark in Vancouver BC. Skull Skates has video of some past China Creek events on their JAKS page, as well as a few recently added new decks.

The San Francisco Skateboarding Association is holding a Golden Gate Park Horseshoe Pits clean up and Junk Jam on September 15th 2007. It looks like they have a bunch of projects either in the pre-fetal stages or already on the books. Much to the horror and disappointment of every skatepark advocate and teenager in a 50 mile radius, Potrero del Sol/La Raza Park skatepark was designed by Grindline and will be finished by Dreamland some time in 2008. Those poor, unlucky bastards. No word yet on if there are any mafia ties being investigated. Perhaps the large street presence threw invertigators, I mean investigators, off the track.

Nobody has been able to successfully incorporate skateboarding into a fictional movie as a major plot device without making it corny. The 1978 movie Skateboard was probably the first attempt. It stars teen heartthrob Leif Garret in his pre coke binge and DUI days and also features Tony Alva as Tony Bluetile. Here’s a short clip of the archetypal sketchy outsider trying to hustle some teenage kids to form a skateboard team and make a quick buck. It’s very amusing, more so if you imagine our own Grover from GVK as the lead. The last time he tried to talk some teenagers into his van to go skateboarding he had to register his name with the neighborhood as an “offender.” Watch the clip after the jump.

In January we mentioned Grant Britain on some obscure educational network TV program. He’s back on the air again with “A lecture by renowned skateboarding photographer Grant Brittain about his life and work.” I’m not sure if this is the same thing as the last one, but I sure would like to see this. After all, he is our current SOTW. 1958 RCA Deluxe picture from Eric’s Vintage Television Sets

Eco Skateboards has an project placed on iFreelance.com titled Hip looking website for an environmentally friendly skateboarding company: I need a cool looking flash website design done for an environmentally friendly skateboard company. To give you a little background on our company, we are a skateboard producer located in Canada called Eco Skateboards. The philosophy behind the company is really organic and natural, we love bright colours and happy looking designs! We are looking for something with our logo integrated into it. What is their budget for a hip website developed in Flash no less? Between $250 and $499 with two weeks to deliver. I don’t know if the skateboards are made in China, but at that price the web site will have to be made in India.