Check out this clip of Jan and Dean lip-syncing Sidewalk Surfin’ on American Bandstand. August 22, 1964. Dick Clark talks with audience a little bit about skateboarding (a young man’s game?) and half the “band” actually does sidewalk surf on the stage. There’s even a little bit of dorking around during the lip sync session. See what passes for a “trick” in 1964. All in all, a very interesting clip showing skateboarding and skatesploitation in mid-60’s popular culture.

Ernest Packaging has produced a great series of marketing videos called Cardboard Chaos in which they make unusual things out of cardboard, including snowboards, surfboards, and of course, skateboards. Professor Schmitt and Tony Hawk were brought in to help with the skateboard edition. The first try worked pretty well until they got to the frontside disaster. After they worked out the kinks they let Tony have a go at it. His verdict: It’s essentially as good as any other skateboard, but it’s too heavy. They left out some footage that would have made it more interesting, but perhaps diluted their message. I would have liked to get the details on which construction methods worked well and which ones didn’t. Between the initial testing they went from a board that felt light to one whose heavy weight was practically the first thing that Tony commented on. All this proves really, is that with enough fiberglass and epoxy, you can probably make a skateboard out of anything. Beanies off to Ernest Packaging for finding a way to get exposure through Extreme!™ sports in way that doesn’t turn skateboarder’s collective stomaches. Just think, you could make a skateboard out of recycled issues of…

An entity called Artist of Design offers a retro typeface called AZ YoYo which was “inspired from a ’70’s vintage skateboard logo style.” Just in case the name doesn’t give it away, the logo in question is Yoyo wheels from Gordon & Smith. The advert on the left is from a 1978 issue of Skateboarder, as seen in the S&A Vintage Skatemag Advert Gallery. That’s Steve Cathey in the photo. Artist of Design offers another retro font based on the Hobie Surfboards logo. Update: MC pointed out that the original was an old Linotype face called Stilla, which was originally published in 1973. – Thanks to Jer Warren for the tip!

Two more from Vintage Toy Advertiser. On the left, an ad from a 1977 issue of the French comic book Pif Gadget with a contest to win among other things, one of 300 rolling surfboards AKA “surfs a roulettes” AKA skateboards. On the right, a crazy skateboard shirt from a 1978 issue of Pif Gadget. It’s 1978 and there’s no skyhooks on that skateboard. How did they get that photograph of an unobstructed bottom view of a skateboarder seemingly getting air? Was he skating on a sheet of plexiglass? It’s clearly just a rolling shot, so where’s the harness and the wires?

I didn’t know Target had a skate team besides the Flying Tomato. They made a promo video welcoming Curren to the team with a clever moment where Curren sticks an employee name tag on a red shirt as he’s walking in. It also has the typical Rorschach test response elicited from any skateboarder who’s ever seen a Target store in the form of skate footage on those big red concrete balls that sit out front. So I guess that’s their way of letting us know those spots are not a bust? Probably not. I don’t think Curren Caples is a household name yet, so it’s unlikely we’ll see this air on television. Why are they welcoming Curren Caples to Target? Are the looking to replace the Shaun White clothing line at Target?

This from an advertisement for MPC snap together model kits featuring hot rods for Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. The advert appeared in an 1972 edition of a comic book called The Unexpected. In 1972 MPC models put out a snap together model with Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote. Wile E’s kit came with a skateboard. In 2011 Round 2 Models put out a re-issue of the kit. Wile E. Coyote was a separate PVC vinyl character, but the skateboard still had to be assembled from the model kit. I have not been able to find any pictures of the original kit assembled, but there were only 3 colors used for it as well, black, green, and chrome.

I’ve got two magazines worth of vintage skatemag ads scanned and posted in the gallery, one from the 70’s and another from the 80’s. I’ve got loads of scans from the 70’s ready to add and some interesting UK-based ads to scan from the 80’s but I figured I’d better do at least one mag from the 90’s or I’d likely never get to it since that’s the decade I find inherently less interesting. Shoe adverts are in abundance. Companies and pros sprung up overnight like mushrooms and disappeared just as quickly after you come down from the bad trip. There are companies I can’t ever remember seeing and due to esoteric ad copy I can’t even tell what the product is that is being advertised. For instance, this ad for Silverstar has me scratching my head. While I actually like the aesthetic and the nonsensical message has a certain poetry, I can’t tell you what Silverstar is without a historical reference. One thing I do enjoy about the ads from this era is seeing the once mighty gasp for new life in the changed industry landscape, with companies like Vision stooping as low as to republish pictures of Mark…

Skateboarding on the cover of the September 2015 issue of the American Bar Association magazine AKA the ABA Journal. The cover stunt person looks like a cross between Michael J Fox and Mark Wahlberg. I like the out-of-focus statuesque lady in the background. Is it just me or does her board look like an out of scale (too large) photoshop job. It appears that the cover is just used to illustrate the concept of a “Legal Rebel” and is not skateboarding specific, although it looks like the board in the photo might have actually been produced. Skateboards (still) = Rebels. – Thanks to Sam for the photo.

It’s an advertisement disguised as Muscle & Health magazine. Check out the beanie and please don’t tell him I called him a freak. – Thanks to House of Neil for the tip. I guess he’s into… err… men’s health.

Ronald McDonald shredding a miniramp on this glass coffee mug from a McDonalds in the United Arab Emirates. I didn’t even know that they had McDonalds in the UAE. This is exactly the kind of thing I usually buy, though not when it costs $20.