Thanks to the Facebook-Site “Skateboarding Hall o Fame” for finding that rare video from 1965, featuring italian-born Piccola Pupa on the microphone and Wendy Bull on the skateboard.

Gvk Trip to east coast. Stop. Produces sotw at Northside skatepark in the heart of Norfolk, VA. Stop. The kid had it 4 out of 7 trys. Stop. Old man Gvk Couldn’t make it straight. Stop. Cease Transmission.

The bootleg graphics (on the top picture) look exactly like the ones on the original Variflex decks. Variflex shifted production to Taiwan somewhere in the 80’s, so maybe they made both branded and unbranded decks at some point. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to bootleg such wildly successful graphics. Variflex had a great pro team and produced very decent skateboards in the end of the 70’s and the beginning of the 80’s, but then started to produce rather shoddy completes. You can marvel in the mediocrity in the Living Variflex Museum (of Crap), or read about their history on Skateboard Of The Day.

Thanks to Walter Meus, J.P. Begel and Pat Cash for the pics. Thanks to kilwag for the edits.

Alright, I’m clearly going to have to start a typography tag. This image comes from Butterick’s Practical Typography. Don’t judge me Butterick, I just read the quick guide and haven’t had time to fix all the errors on S&A. I’m also busy gathering all my goofy skateboard fonts.

So yeah, it’s strictly product placement time here. Unpaid, to be sure, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a recent picture of Stacy Peralta on a skateboard. For some reason I remembered he had knee or hip injuries that were keeping him off the board. It’s good seeing him on a board. Here’s one that came with the announcement of (the second version) of his Hipster model, the Hipster 2. Although I don’t see a goatee on that action shot. I don’t know…

Amelia Brodka is featured on the cover of the August 2013 issue of Pacific San Diego magazine. There’s also a 6 page feature inside. Photos by Dan Sparagna. It looks like the web site for her documentary on female skateboarders, Underexposed has been updated as well. You can read the whole issue on Issu, but I’m still getting server time out errors when I visit it, so you can check out the relevant pages after the jump.

[Source: Vert Skateboarding]

Above Coping is seeking skateboarding themed art for a benefit show at Commonwealth Skateboarding on August 30th. See the flyer for details. What is Above Coping?

“Above Coping is a non-profit that brings skateboarding to youth with chronic health conditions and life threatening illnesses. AC has two major programs: “Skating Through It” art clinics where children paint their own blank skateboard deck, and “Getting Over It” skate clinics where children paint decks and we set up complete skateboards while teaching the basics of riding them. The programs are conducted in partnership with hospitals (Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Shriner’s Hospital for Children) and child serving non-profits in Portland, OR (Children’s Cancer Association, Children’s Healing Art Project, Hands and Voices, etc.).”

In this edition of counterfeits we have 2 fake Sims decks. The blue one on the left is an almost exact copy of the Kevin Staab ‘Mad Scientist’ model from 1986, designed by John Lucero. The ‘Pirate’ model on the right was based on a Staab pro deck from 1987, designed by Lance Welborn. The pink complete says ‘Aims’ instead of ‘Sims’ and ‘Ataab’ instead of ‘Staab’, very clever …

Thanks to Matt Bass for the tip.

Gold Cup Skateboards comes to you from the mind of Lance Mountain. The boards are all made in U.S.A. and distributed by NHS. The product looks fully flushed out, right down to the “Power Slider” tail blocks. It’s not all retro nostalgia. Well maybe it is actually, but they do seem to be built with functionality in mind, as long as you are OK with a bizarro Streets of Fire ( Note “of” not “on” fire ) scenario where the technology of the future is wildly available in the past. It’s as if somebody forked a parallel universe on GitHub where certain niche technologies and fashions remained the same while the rest of the world advanced. Maybe they can get a young William Dafoe on the team. It’s a strange but interesting time in skateboarding. You can basically buy skateboard technology form any past generation right now. I can’t think of a similar scenario in any other sport. Imagine a football team where everyone decided to wear the old leather style helmets. I suppose you can still buy a basic wooden tennis racket. Maybe it’s just that skateboard styles and technology are more distinct through the ages.