Any time I go in to a resale or vintage store I make a beeline for the magazines and grab anything from 1965-1966 as well as the random publications from late 70’s. The very first thing I picked up at Vintage on Third in McMinnville was copy of Hot Rod Show World 1978. Despite no obvious association, something about it was calling to me. Sure enough, there was a two page spread on skateboarding, as well as a ton of hot rods and predictably, hot rod women.

I’ve added 47 ads from the May, 1979 issue of Skateboarder magazine to the Vintage Skatemag Advert gallery, bringing the total number of ads in the gallery to 1093! Some highlights include Wally Innouye for Caster, a skateboard tourism service called Skatour, a Tracker ad with Doug Schneider with some art direction that looks like it might have influenced Thrasher before it came out, Variflex trucks that never stood a chance, and brand new (at the time) Kryptonics vertical beam wood decks.

The bi-monthly children’s magazine Jack and Jill started in 1938 and is shockingly still in publication. On the left are 2 covers from 1977 and 1978. On the right is the August 2024 issue. A quick search of the the golden year of 1965 turned up no cover appearances in Jack and Jill, and a casual search of other decades so far has shown some examples of rollerblades and roller skates, but so far no other skateboards.

– Thanks to Darren Haugen for the tip.

I saw this in issue in an airport but I didn’t get a chance to flip through it. Alex Cooper is the host of an apparently very popular podcast titled Call her Daddy. This is one of the covers from the November 2023 issue of Cosmopolitan, which based on a promo video might also contain some skateboard shots beyond the cover. You have to wonder if the Venice beach locals ever get tired of their skatepark being overrun by fashion shoots. Seems to happen quite a bit.

The magazine that bummed out a generation of skaters… I’ve added all the adverts from issue #1 of Action Now magazine, labeled as Volume 7, #1 published in August of 1980. It’s a pretty thin issue and only has 30 ads total. In a few issues the magazine gets beefy again, I’ll bet they thought they were going to be able to pull it off… We’re just 47 ads shy of breaking the 1000 mark. Check them out.

It’s mid 1980 and the term “music video” had yet to be coined. Meanwhile, Devo had been making films to accompany their music since 1976. The skateboarding industry is slumping, so much so that Skateboarder magazine changes it’s name to “Action Now” to include nascent Extreme!®™ sports coverage in an attempt to broaden the appeal and hopefully stay afloat. Action Now published a 6 page feature on the making of Devo’s “Freedom of Choice” in issue #1 dated August, 1980. They titled it “Freedom of Choice – The Film.” 1980 was an interesting time for skateboarding and music. The magazine’s record reviews covered X, Devo, Frank Zappa, John Foxx, Emmylou Harris, and a jazz fusion act called The Jeff Lorber Fusion (and the album Wizard Island). There’s an ad for Corky Carroll’s “A Surfer for President” album, and an article on up-and-coming LA bands Human Hands, and Wall of Voodoo as well as a couple of random pics of the Stimulators. Devo blew minds. I know they blew my mind when I unexpectedly saw them on SNL in 1978 performing Satisfaction. I did not know what I was looking at or listening to, but it instantly connected with me on a visceral level. I was in grade school, watching it with an older cousin, and when he dismissed it as “weird and gay” my estimation of him plummeted and my desire to emulate him ended on the spot. I did have the good fortune to meet Gerald Casale in the 00’s, and although he seemed more interested in getting laid, he was kind enough endure my gushing. The entire content of the Action Now article follows after the jump.

I just added 23 ads from the issue #30 of German skateboarding magazine Monster to the Vintage Skatemag Advertisement gallery. It offers a bit if a break from the same old ads you probably saw run in multiple issues of USA based magazines. The content of the magazine is in German, but the ads are mostly in English for some reason. Bi-monthly at the time, this is labeled December 87 / January 88 in the masthead, and includes a 2 page spread on a then 10 year old event, the 1977 World Champions as held by the “World and United States Skateboard Association.” Check it out after the jump. Includes a bonus photo of Christy McNicol.

The USPS has a set of Forever Stamps called Art of the Skateboard and set vinyl skateboard stickers that match the stamp designs. This stamp series might have been better off served with a different title as the “Art Of the Skateboard” typically brings to mind the history of production graphics rather than brand new art stuck on the bottom of the skateboard for the sake of art. So maybe “Art On Skateboards” instead of “Art Of The Skateboard.” It’s nit picky for sure, but you are reading this on a web site devoted to skateboarding and popular culture… How did I find out about it? Obviously, by reading the Winter 2023 issue of the official USPS magazine Philatelic. I’ll save you the trouble of looking it up: the collection and study of postage and imprinted stamps. I had a rant locked and loaded about my thoughts on the artistic merits of these stamps and how they looked a little clip art-ish. Then I found out that at least one of them was designed by Navajo artist Di’Orr Greenwood, who is indeed a skateboarder herself. From the Navajo-Hopi Observer: “Greenwood said the opportunity to have her art showcased nationwide is important not only for her but for her community and other Native people.” And so now I am shutting myself up, and hopefully saving some of our readers with very strong skateboarding/art opinions from the opportunity of putting their own feet in their mouths.

91 adverts from Skateboard! magazine #10 ( June 1978 ) brings the total vintage skateboarding magazine adverts in the gallery up to 801! Skateboard! was a UK publication and as such, features some distinctly British ads, companies and slang in addition to the the usual fare from the USA. Half the ads seem to brag about products made in in England, while the other brags bout being made in the USA. Did you know helmets were sometimes called “Bump Hats?” Now you do. Someone in ad sales gave Uniroyal Corp. the hard sell, because they took out two, 2-page spreads in this issue. Check out the gallery.

The Vintage Skatemag Advertisement gallery has been updated with 30 ads from a rare, east coast skateboarding magazine called Skate, The International Skateboarding Magazine. With that addition the total number of adverts in the galley has reached 704! Some notable additions include very early ads from Zorlac and Santa Monica Airlines, in addition to the usual assortment of brands normally associated with the 70’s, like this classic with Tony Alva with no ad copy whatsoever. Skate magazine hailed from Melbourne, Florida. This issue is pretty slick, and the magazine probably would have been able to find a good sized audience if the bottom of the industry had not fallen out within the year.