Vogue Magazine asks the question “How the Thrasher Tee Became Every Cool Model’s Off-Duty Staple,” pointing out various models who have appropriated skateboard culture, and even those like Natalie Westling that actually skateboard. Everyone knows that Steve Olson is the original skateboarding model.

[Vogue Photos from top left: Jerome Chrome – Vans – Phil Oh ]

Graava is a camera/app combo that is supposed to make it easier for you to actually do something with all the footage you acquire. Basically, you dock the camera and the open the app, decide how long you want the the end result to be and then let the app make a video for you after it analyzes the footage for… what I’m not sure. A skateboarder is used in their marketing video, and apparently he works in an office where it’s cool to come in late and edit skate videos… hold on, his video is edited for him while he works so he doesn’t have to worry about getting fired. Obviously, this wouldn’t work for any sort of “real” skate video, but it seems to do the trick if you’re just pointing a selfie stick at yourself while you cruise on the bike trail. The question is, why build and sell a separate camera instead of just making an app that takes video from any source? If only someone could invent an app that automatically compiles and writes an Ebay Watch.

Two different Claus Grabke boards featured in unrelated fashion shoots. I’m still trying to track the source of the one on the left,  doubtfully commissioned by the gelato company. The one on the right has an Underwear Expert watermark, which is a good place to go get your dong on.

I saw this add for the online freelance market Upwork.com on Facebook while I was neglecting my own freelance duties. Also, I’m not sure if I’m using the semicolon properly in this post title, so maybe copy proofing is not the job for me. Apparently this guy’s “highly specialized project” was shooting some sort of hybrid freestyle skateboarding/rap video. Unless that’s supposed to be a phone and not money. Freestyle selfies?

I was checking out the Movi camera, which a smart little system that uses a single 4k camera to capture video, combined with an app that lets you zoom and pan through the 4k image in real time, while saving or streaming the final footage. The end result lets you simulate multiple camera angles for live events with only one physical camera. I got to thinking that it would be fun to use at a skateboarding event, but probably not actually very useful due to the unique demands of shooting compelling skateboarding footage. Just as I was writing it off as interesting but not practical for a skateboarding application, I found this image on their web site.

Rich Burton’s significant other acquired this Taco Cabana cup in Texas way back in 1995, some 10 years before before getting together with Rich, and another 10 before Rich noticed it and sent a picture to me. If the hippies had their way, this invaluable piece of cultural history would have bio-degraded and been lost for all eternity. Now it’s up on the Interwebs, where it will last for all eternity, or until I let the domain name lapse, or the zombie apocalypse, or Sky Net becomes self aware. Enjoy this jalapeño pepper frontside 5-0 grind while you can.

These ladies are more core than I am lately. This is a still from an AARP (American Association of Retired People) marketing video featuring ladies of a certain age who skateboard. The leader of The Sisters of Shred is non other than the skateboard mom/cow, Barbara Odanaka.

– Thanks to Charles Glover for the tip.

Another appearance of skateboard as an answer on the Family Feud with Steve Harvey. The question might have been “Name something you ride” instead of “Name something men keep doing even though they are too old.” Not sure if this was a rerun or not, but I did not catch this, nor any other episode.

– Thanks to Daymond for the tip.

It’s Joe Strummer hanging out in an unidentified West London skatepark (UPDATE: It’s Meanwhile Gardens) during an interview that took place some time between 1988 and 1991. Footage from the same interview also appears in the 2007 Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten, which I haven’t actually seen yet, but maybe it lists the source in the credits. This particular digitization is pretty rough. If anyone finds clearer footage and can identify the source please let me know.

I don’t know much about 70’s era R.A.C.O. skateboards other than they loved to use imagery on their products, even their metal boards had some kind of photo sublimation. The collection of fiberglass boards shown here features assorted beverage logos for Schlitz, Budweiser, Olympia, Pepsi, and 7-Up. It’s almost as if R.A.C.O. was the NHS of the 70’s in terms of branded boards. We should be glad that truck hole patterns were standardized. Imagine how much of a pin in the ass it would have been to drill for trucks with a triangular pattern.