You would think that being a reporter for the Wall Street Journal would preclude you from writing about skateboarding, but one man found a way to make it happen. Conor Dougherty contacted me in reference to the New York Times piece of failed mortgages and pool skating. Over the phone he mentioned that he’d been trying to figure out an angle to get the WSJ on board with a skateboard story for a long time, and it looks like he finally swung the deal with a piece called Skateboarding Tourney Stirs Its Own Midnight Madness and another called The Economics of Skateboard videos. The first piece is about the recently hyped game of SKATE put on by the Berrics, and the second one is essentially a recap with some information about professionally produced online video, including the fact that you can usually find recently released skate videos on YouTube. I wondering how he pitched the first story, as far as usefulness from a business standpoint. I’m not pointing this out to be critical, but rather to say “way to make it happen.” Both articles use the same video, which you can watch courtesy of the Wall Street Journal after the…

That’s right, “Skurfing.” This is a short clip from a 1965 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation piece on skateboarding. The reporter interviews a gal who says she had to form a “Sidewalk Skurfing Association” to keep from getting kicked off campus. It’s got lots of Peanuts-esque light jazz piano and the soon to be archetypal reporter flailing on a skateboard. Best line, hands down: Do you think this will be obsolete in time, like the hula hoop? There a short excerpt on YouTube, but to see the whole thing you have to go to the CBC Digital Archives. At the end there is a gratuitous shot of the original skateboarding dog with a dire voiceover about the current skateboard sales trends in major Canadian cities. Love the visual quality of that vintage video tape. It looks like it’s ready to catch fire. – Thanks to Curtis for the tip.

Surf and Skate historian extraordinaire Scott Starr turned me on to this clip from Green Acres that originally aired in 1967. There’s a community play production of The Beverly Hillbillies that Oliver and Lisa have to step in at the last moment when the leads get injured. Jethro finds a skateboard by the “cement pond” which was what the hillbillies called their pool. This is probably the first time a skateboard was ever used as a plot device on a TV show – the inevitable “unsuspecting tv character gets injured on a skateboard.” I believe there were earlier skateboarder appearances on talk shows and game shows such as What’s my line?, not to mention some ABC sports action, but if this aired in 1967 it was probably after the skateboard fad had died a seemingly overnight death. According to Starr, 1965 was the big commercial year for skateboarding, and Christmas catalog research seems to validate this. Watch the skateboarding segement after the jump.

I don’t know what the deal is with this Black Label Chris Troy ad in the April 09 issue of Transworld. Estes spotted it and sent in a blurry photo. I’m not sure how to respond to this. Surely someone in the marketing department should have googled “Skate and Annoy.” We’ve been mentioned in Thrasher as recently as the March 2009 issue, as early as 1988, and even made it into the 25 Year anniversary book. We’re certainly not famous, but come on… See the whole advert after the jump.

Joesf sent in some more video captures, this time from Hudson Hawk, circa 1991. I remember this scene vaguely. They used skateboards to roll past some bad guys quietly. I don’t know who made the Shark model, but it’s Guh-narly!

This image comes from the home page for the distance learning portion of the Portland Community College web site. Actually, now they are calling it “Distance Education.” No word on if this is an actual student or a stock photo, as well as whether it’s a boy or a girl. – Thanks to Mrs GVK for the tip.

From a recent Hanna Andersson catalog, offering “quality clothing for kids and families, inspired by our Swedish heritage.”

Ok, it’s more like a lot of late, late 80’s and 90’s nostalgia, but the title should give you an idea. Vert is Dead in a nice collection of magazine pages and flotsam from the era. Pictured above left is a 1989 photocopied product catalog from SMA. On the right we have a 1991 Thrasher advert for the infamous Natas graphic on his 101 skateboards. If you go back to the first post, Vert is Dead kicked it off in May of 2008 with a Tracker advert for GSD’s airplane evacuation graphic board. The advert appeared in the October 1988 issue of Transworld, the first issue of a skateboard magazine that the site’s author Justin ever saw.

Canadian manufacturer Control Skateboards has licensed the likenesses of adult film actresses from Vivid Videos. The series includes Vivid Girls (L-R) Sunny Leone, Nikki Jayne, Hanna Hilton and Meggan Mallone . It’s supposed to be a limited edition run, but they are priced like normal boards. In fact, they appear to be on a bit of a closeout in some locations. I wonder if they aren’t selling as well because Control doesn’t have the same distribution as the bigger brands. [Source: Tacky]

Aero, a candy bar brand popular in the UK, filmed an commercial spot with Bob Burnquist skating at the Lake Cunningham skate park with the bowls filled with brown balloons to resemble the bubbles in the chocolate. It looks great, trouble is, it’s an exact copy of the same concept that was actually shot here in at Portland’s D.O.S.. Ignorance is going to be hard to claim, considering Apple Computer is currently showing the original video in some of their in-store loops for Apple TV. Of course there is a chance that the originators might be getting paid too. Watch the video after the jump. UPDATE: Added for making of interviews. [Source: Brand Republic] – Thanks to Aaron Shims for the tip.