I just added two issues of Skate Life generously donated from reader Will Heesp, some 5 years ago. Better late than never. Funnily enough, I skated with Mark Conahan last night and he told me that he once sold Will a Datsun pickup in the 80’s whose ignition was in such bad shape that it had a screwdriver instead of a key. In other plate-of-shrimp news, one of the tales featured in an issue of Skate Life mentions that Dave Tobin lost a $100 bill and the keys to the van on a road trip to the Chicago Blowout. I was at that NSA contest, but wouldn’t meet Dave (or Mark) until I moved to Portland circa Y2K. Skate Life was based out of Newburryport, MA, and has the distinction of being one of the rare zines that doesn’t seem to include any issue number or title, so it’s hard to tell what order they came out. Check out Skate Life in the 80’s Zine gallery.

Two products for carrying your skateboard. One is cool in a silly way, as in “What if I made the cellphone holder on my car dashboard big enough to hold a skateboard?” That’s the JKT System carrier. Clippy, on the other hand, started off as just a clip you hung on the top loop of a backpack, but evolved into a skate tool that also doubles (triples?) as a cellphone stand for filming your, wait for it… clips. It’s a bit clunky, but it’s way more useful.

– Thanks to Adlan Farazi for the tips.

OK get ready for it, this is a long one. I found a catalog for Athena International Corp in that magical place you’ve all heard me refer to: a box in the darkest depths of my basement. 8 pages of amazing crap in glorious color! Lot’s of bootleg stuff in there too… they even bootlegged the Nash logo! The styles are split between the 70’s and 80’s so it’s difficult to say exactly when this was printed, although there are a couple clues. I have no idea where/when I acquired this, I might have bought it off Ebay or a reader might have sent it to me. ( Was it you? Let me know! ) Enjoy!

This is part 2 of the Nash catalog dump. Part one focused on Joe Cool/Snoopy and Mad Magazine. This is the rest of the 1988 wholesale catalog from 1988. The cover, back cover, and inside cover are all glossy color. There’s a glossy insert for another brand called Freesport, a couple glossy black and white inserts, including the legendary “Jam’n Sound Board” and DOZ’R locker boards, plus an assortment of color photocopied price sheets.

I had a brief not-very-real skateshop that I ran out of my bedroom in the late 80’s. I sent out a bunch of requests for wholesale catalogs and tried to open some accounts. I put together an order based on requests from locals and what I could get ahold of, I ordered some staples like mounting hardware and a roll of grip tape, etc… One of things I got was a Nash catalog. Why get a Nash catalog when the product was so poor? For shits and giggles! It’s one of the few things I kept during the great purge of 1999. Yes, I deeply regret throwing out the rest of it. Joe Cool and Mad could have been their own separate posts, but some of the products appeared on the same page, so click through if you want to see more of Snoopy and Alfred E. Neuman.

I haven’t been to the Cannon Beach skatepark in don’t know… has it really been 18 years? That’s the when the rebuild opened and the last time I posted about this park. I got out of the habit of going to Cannon Beach and have been going to Pacific City instead, but I finally made it back. After a day of hanging out at the beach we hit up the park and found it to be next to impossible to ride on standard wheels because the surface was so rough and slow. That got me thinking about the old park again…

No, this is not a new addition the Skate and Annoy galleries, but an independent effort by Chris Lees, AKA Skatelurker who must have the same strain of skateboard-related OCD that I do. As of publication, there are 309 skateboard catalogs posted in the collection on the Internet Archives. The most recent one I saw added was from 2019, but the bulk of them are from the 90’s and early to mid 2000’s. I did spot a Sunski catalog from 1978(!), and a few from the late 80’s including a California Surf Style from 1988, and a Skates on Haight from 1987. You can use the filters on the side bar to sort by the original publication dates. Fair warning: This will drastically affect your productivity!

I’ve been working on the redesign of the site and it made me realize how long it had been since I updated the Zine Gallery. I’m starting to panic because I’ve reorganized a lot of S&A stuff in storage since preparing for Skate Swap 3, and I can’t for the life of me find my collection of skate zines anywhere. I did find a folder full of some of the original mechanical layouts and most of the early issues of Skate And Annoy. Hopefully the rest of my collection will turn up. In the meantime, enjoy issue #1 and issue #2 of Skate and Annoy, warts and all. These were published in 1986. Some of it is pretty good, and some of it is pretty embarrassing, or “cringe” as the kids probably don’t say anymore. This is where it all started folks.

Skate IQ is offering Andy Anderson Cheat Codes… in the form of a PDF download that also includes embedded links to videos. The cheat codes are being described as “Every mental cue, every pointer, and every insight packed into a PDF.” If you preorder, you’ll get 25% off the cover price of $100 (!!) I guess if it was cheap everyone would skate as well as Andy, and we can’t have that, can we? Skate IQ offers lots of virtual training tips to help you on your journey to the X-Game, Gravity Games, Ramp Locals vs. Daggers skate joust, or what have you.

I love some good prepackaged skateboard parts from the 70’s. It’s rare (for me at least) to see them come from France. Punch appears to be the brand name. I tried to translate “Couvat Oyonnax” but it it came up blank. Nearest I can tell is they are regions in France. Thanks to Dimitri Jourdan for the picture.