I’ve added 97 ads from the National Skateboard Review to the gallery of Vintage Skate Ads. If you’re counting, the galley is a at 1,441 ads! These latest additions came from scans of used with permission by Di Dootson-Rose, the original publisher. Shoutout to Natalie Porter of Womxn Skate History, which is where I first found a link to Di’s online archive. The scans are not the greatest, as these were printed on newsprint some 50 years ago, but the ads are interesting because you get to see a lot of riders that didn’t hit the big time. The stakes were lower so the companies weren’t as concerned with impact. So far I’ve only goten through 1976-77, but you can view them all, up to the last issue in 1979, at the National Skateboard Review.

Here’s an ad for TDK tapes that brags about being able to “clearly reproduce the complete music spectrum of digital sources.” That looks like Venice Beach, and that looks like Tony Alva. What say you? 1988 is the year of this ad, which seemed doubtful to me until I looked it up and saw that 1988 was the first year that CD’s outsold records. You can buy this ad in the usual place for as low as $8. Photos from this session were used in another TDK ad. Looks like I thought it was Hackett or Olson last time around, but that ad doesn’t really show that TA looking long hair. UPDATE: When you blow it up there is no long frizzy hair, it’s just motion blur and shadowy leopard print.

30 ads from the August, 1978 issue of Skateboard World have been added to the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Ad gallery. It’s a pretty thin issue for 1978, with only 76 pages. A few of the standouts include an all female cast in an ACS trucks ad called “Girls Get Radical Too…“, Starstick, Lazer Truck Stabilazers, and a Vision ad featuring a pro model for 7 year old kid named, Aaron Wienenga. The deck is supposed to be “designed for the younger rippers of today!” The picture of the deck does not have his name on it anywhere, so who knows if it was just a prototype for an idea that they never committed to. A quick google search turns up nothing.

The July/August issue of Osider Magazine has a nice eight page feature on the history and legacy of skateboarding in Oceanside California. The cover features a 1985 photo of Mark Gonzales from the vaults of J. Grant Britain. Osider is one of those local lifestyle mags funded by ads from local business. It’s a fluff piece typical of these types of publications, but the photos are good and there’s even a Steve Rocco sighting. You can read the entire issue online.

I added a measly 9 ads from Volume 6 of Skate Rider magazine. That’s all the ads there were. You see the other half (more like 65%) of the magazine is upside down and is called Wave Rider. I did not include the surfing ads in this issue, unless they appear in the skateboarding side of the magazine. Skate Rider / Wave Rider was based in Coccoa Beach Florida, and as such concentrated more on the east coast side of things, although they weren’t afraid to cover west coast or international sessions, be it skateboarding or surfing. Craig Snyder of The Secret History of the Ollie was on staff at Skate Rider. Check out Skate Rider v 6 in the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Ad Gallery.

I added a second skateboard contest program to the gallereis, the Hang Ten World Pro/Am Skateboard Championships. Still in the hamper, 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.)

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!

I added advertisements from the first two issues of Homeboy Magazine, (AKA Club Homeboy). Homeboy was first published towards the end of 1987 and lasted a grand total of 7 issues before morphing into Dirt magazine. It was oversized and had a glossy cover with mostly color newsprint inside. The photography and layout of the mag was pretty good right out of the gate, but it had one major flaw in the eyes of most skateboarders, it covered BMX as well as skateboarding. I only added the 32 skateboard related (or non-BMX) adverts in these two issues. Skateboarding graced the covers but the advertising skewed heavily towards BMX by about 4-1. Spike Jonze was on the editorial staff, as was Andy Jenkins and Mark “Lew” Lewman. A pretty decent magazine with a good vibe, but so much BMX… Check out Homeboy magazine ads in the Vintage Skate Mag ad gallery.

Well folks… welcome to government sanctioned skate harassment, in fact government sanctioned pedestrian, if not citizen harassment. Read all about the sad state of the USA at Wired.

Apparently they (DHS) are more concerned about skateboarders acting as scouts and surveillance for protest organizers than they are with skateboarders using skateboards as a weapon. The threat bulletin came in advance of the No Kings protests and warns that more Americans are likely to turn against ICE, like maybe… this guy.

Senior ACLU staff attorney Vera Eidelman to the rescue: “Exercising those rights shouldn’t be justification for adverse action or suspicion by the government,” Eidelman says. Labeling something as harmless as skateboarding at a protest as a violent threat is “disturbing and dangerous,” she adds, and could “easily lead to excessive force against people who are simply exercising their First Amendment rights.”

– Thanks to Dustin Michel and Rich at EPM for the tip.

There are a few overpriced “natural” grocery stores in my hood. Someone at this New Seasons keeps putting the Thrasher Magazines up front by the register. The only thing more surprising than the realization that this is still ongoing is the fact that Thrasher is on the shelves here in the first place. What’s next? Alternative music in the aisles?