Tony Alva talks about what it means to be a renegade both in youth and as a middle aged adult. Part of their Renegades series, this is original content from Playboy Magazine, which seems to be trying to reinforce itself as lifestyle guide for aspiring, hip, professional men, just as it did in the 60’s. I wouldn’t know because I haven’t looked at a Playboy since, you know, shortly after the Internet was invented. – via Eric Smith on Facebook.

This commercial for the 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander GTV features two interesting things; A mother nagging her son to wear his helmet and a soundtrack by The Faction! I would have been more amazed by this had it not been for the fact that bands like the Clash, Ramones, Sex Pistols, and the Buzzcocks have already appeared (via soundtrack) in commercials. Actual skate rock for a skateboarding scene in a commercial? I guess that is unexpected. [Source: Ispot.tv – via Doc SkateRock]

I hope everyone gets the skateboard they asked for for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or whatever you celebrate. This is a still from a short sequence in a new animated Christmas special called Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas.

Empty, anxiety, surprise, encouragement. All of these emotions can be found in these Eurosport station identity spots from 2011. You can watch just the skateboarding bit, but if you have a bit of time to kill you might enjoy some of the overly enthusiastic, awkward english voiceovers featured in the behind the scenes clip. It’s almost like watching an english language release of a Japanese cartoon, except filled with marketing talk. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Station ID for France 3, one of France’s state owned television channels. It actually dates back to 2013, and so French readers, I’m disappointed in you for not letting me know earlier. – Thanks to Nick Dawson for the tortue de la planche à roulettes.

Alf’s Super Hit Parade from 1990. The series ended in 1990, but someone in Germany still thought this was a good idea. Alf is rocking a state of the art boom box and a state of 1984 skateboard. Those pads have cats on them too, which would be like a non-vegetarian person skating with cows or chickens on their kneepads. Alf may not be as prolific as Bart Simpson, so it’s a good thing I’ve got a tag for Alf, because otherwise you’d have to sift through every post with “half pipe” in it if you were doing a search. – Thanks to BPA for the tip.

Vancouver BC resident Natalie Porter is a self described Librarian by day and greasy motorbike wrench-monkey by night. She self-published a book titled The History of Women in Skateboarding, which is available in electronic format from Amazon. There are only 56 pages in the Kindle edition, which seems kind of short, but then again it only costs $6. If you have an iPad or Android there is a free Kindle app. I haven’t read it yet, but I imagine I will. At $6 I feel it’s my (pretend) journalist / historian’s duty. Anyone else? Betsy?

It’s been 7 years since I posted the last MG auto advert from 1977. In 1978 it seemed like they couldn’t get enough of the high jump over a car concept. At least part of the photo shoot for this ad took place in the crazy mogul field at Carlsbad skatepark shown on the right.

You’re looking at the cover of Skateboard Champion, #112 in Edward Packards Choose Your Own Adventure series. And most skateboarder do, choose their own adventures. The kid on the cover chose spandex shorts; a complete set of plastics – noes bone, rails, lapper; tie dye graphics; and counterfeit Nike shoes. The wistful expression on his face? I think the girl in the baseball jersey on the deck just broke up with him. It’s quite a backyard vert ramp though. It looks very 80’s but the book was actually published in 1991, which also looked very 80’s for a while. [Photo: Gamebooks.org]

Random web advertising with skateboards. On the left, Betabrand offers dress pants made out of sweatpants-like material, perfect for toting your longboard. On the Right, Metromile offers car insurance by the mile and rad dudes by the dozen. Neither of these skateboard riding (or at least carrying) consumers appear to be part of a larger branding campaign.