Leo Baker (né Lacey Baker) coming out as transgender has all the narrow-minded and transphobes up in arms, especially because it meant he couldn’t represent his country at the Olympics. Oh for shame, for shame… Yes, the skateboarding community is gradually becoming more inclusive to the LGBQT population, but you know, there’s still a lot of knuckleheads out there, especially when it comes to so-called “core” skaters. Although I’m sure it only scratches the surface, this Time Magazine article provides really good insight into Leo’s journey and decision. It’s a must read for anybody that naively parrots “Why doesn’t he just skate and leave his personal life out of it?”
[Photos: Ethan James Green for TIME]

We’ve added 73 ads to complete the April 1976 issue of Skateboarder Magazine, bringing the total in the archive to 447! There are other galleries out there, some of them are really good, but this one is ours, and it’s the only one that filterable by magazine, issue, year, decade, brand/company, product type, country, and even photographer and featured riders when present. Check out the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Ad Gallery.

I randomly found an old message with link to a bendy Gabriel toys figure of Horshack riding a skateboard. I’ve got the Donald Duck version from the same company somewhere buried in a box, and I’ve posted on the Goofy version before. “What the hell is a Sweathog?” you may be asking yourself if you did not watch TV from 1975-1979. The Sweathogs were the gang of high school kids that were the man supporting characters in the show Welcome Back Kotter, the same sho that made John Travolta famous before Saturday Nigh Fever, Scientology, and arguably his finest work on celluloid, Face/Off…. But I digress.. In doing my due diligence looking for the best pictures I could find I discovered this post had obviously already been done better by Beach Party Attitude. I should have known better, but hey, that’s the online world of skateboarding toys from 1977 for ya…

– Thanks to Tim Jamison for the vintage tip.

I heard he worked there but I did not realize that Jeff Kendall is the president and Chief Marketing Officer of NHS. I guess we can blame him for Santa Cruz’ inability to say no to any co-branding opportunity or strange accessory items. Madrid might be the only skate company out there with a lower bar. Scratch that, Vision is the worst. But I digress…. Jeff Kendall is one of the sources quoted in this article on NPR. Skateboard sales have risen dramatically during the pandemic, much like bicycles did. Kendall says he’s never seen more females involved in skateboarding in his life, and mentions something about that one International competition contributing to the perfect storm… what was that? Oh yeah, the Olympics. The most interesting thing in the article is the link to Proper Gnar, a black, female owned brand out of Ohio that is enjoying great success. The art direction is sort of a less sexualized hiphop influenced Hook Ups style but with women/girls of color and some 80’s retro thrown in.

Photo Left: Ruby Medina by Shayn Almeida on NPR. Right: Proper Gnar

I’m not sure if anyone at Carolina Herrera is paying attention to the interns or not. “Our Revolutionned Hormones” is the kind of thing you’r make up to be poke fun at this sort of thing. What is this sort of thing? It’s 212 a fragrance for male models in NYC judging by the promo video.

– Thanks to Andres Counyo for the tip

I bought another issue of Skateboarding Industry News and included in the auction was an issue of something called Skate & Surf which I had never seen before, and didn’t really pay any attention to it. Glancing at it I thought it was an early 80’s mini mag or pamphlet or some sort of insert or giveaway. Turns out it was the 2nd issue of a new (at the time) trade publication dated March/April of 1978. Contrary to Skateboarding Industry News, the art direction of Skate & Surf made it look closer to something like Action Now than a stodgy industry magazine. Flipping through it you might think it was aimed at skateboarders and not skate shop owners. The huge bonus to me was finally finding a full page ad fro Skate-ball, some 14 years after I found the first one online, and here it is, freshly scanned and transcribed., starting at $25,000 in $1978, and a perfect business opportunity for the absentee owner.

No, but your face is… Speaking of faces…. the only positive from the photo above used to sell the Kodak Pixpro Orbit 360 camera is the fact that when this kid inevitably eats concrete due to having a large object obstructing his field of vision, he won’t have far to fall. Don’t blame the folks at Kodak this image seems to be the brainchild of Office Depo. Actually, it’s both their faults unless someone coughs one up for us to review. The video from this particular setup would probably be highly amusing, half the screen would be that kid’s face pressed up the fisheye.First person to get the title refuse get’s a valuable NoPrize™!

Teen Vogue has a short bio on Navajo Nation skateboarder Naiomi Glasses, who skates in traditional dress, sometimes on not-so-traditional terrain. She’s blowing up on what the kids call Tik-Tok, which has nothing to do with Vine….

When a plain old skateboard isn’t enough and you need to add a motorized sound to get the kids excited, the Irwin corporation has you covered. The advert is most likely from a 1965-66 Playthings Magazine, an industry publication for toy retailers. A suggested retail of $1.98 ( Under $17 according to the US Inflation Calculator) would have gotten you a noisy plastic sled that didn’t really turn. Fun! Time to “cash in on this surfboarding business.” Order your Whoom-m Jr. Sidewalk Surfer now!

Thanks to Darren Haugen for the pics.

While we were out, Playmobil launched an action set featuring Chad Muska as the skateboard bandit and George Michael as the cop… Or maybe that’s not really true. However they currently have 2 sets featuring skateboarded typecast as the bad guys. There not just run of the mill skateboarding-where-they-aren’t-suposed-to-be bad guys either, they are involved in high stakes robbery and… it’s hard to say what that stick is for… illegal water divining?

– Thanks to Josef for the tip.