I’ve added 59 ads from the February 1978 issue of Skateboard World magazine, bringing the grand total in the gallery to 1,483 vintage skateboard ads! There’s some good stuff in there. There’s definitely some overlap with what you’d see in Skateboarder, but not nearly as much as you’d think.

I’ve added 97 ads from the National Skateboard Review to the gallery of Vintage Skate Ads. If you’re counting, the galley is a at 1,441 ads! These latest additions came from scans of used with permission by Di Dootson-Rose, the original publisher. Shoutout to Natalie Porter of Womxn Skate History, which is where I first found a link to Di’s online archive. The scans are not the greatest, as these were printed on newsprint some 50 years ago, but the ads are interesting because you get to see a lot of riders that didn’t hit the big time. The stakes were lower so the companies weren’t as concerned with impact. So far I’ve only goten through 1976-77, but you can view them all, up to the last issue in 1979, at the National Skateboard Review.

30 ads from the August, 1978 issue of Skateboard World have been added to the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Ad gallery. It’s a pretty thin issue for 1978, with only 76 pages. A few of the standouts include an all female cast in an ACS trucks ad called “Girls Get Radical Too…“, Starstick, Lazer Truck Stabilazers, and a Vision ad featuring a pro model for 7 year old kid named, Aaron Wienenga. The deck is supposed to be “designed for the younger rippers of today!” The picture of the deck does not have his name on it anywhere, so who knows if it was just a prototype for an idea that they never committed to. A quick google search turns up nothing.

I added a measly 9 ads from Volume 6 of Skate Rider magazine. That’s all the ads there were. You see the other half (more like 65%) of the magazine is upside down and is called Wave Rider. I did not include the surfing ads in this issue, unless they appear in the skateboarding side of the magazine. Skate Rider / Wave Rider was based in Coccoa Beach Florida, and as such concentrated more on the east coast side of things, although they weren’t afraid to cover west coast or international sessions, be it skateboarding or surfing. Craig Snyder of The Secret History of the Ollie was on staff at Skate Rider. Check out Skate Rider v 6 in the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Ad Gallery.

I added adverts from Skate Action Magazine to the Vintage Skatemag Advert Gallery. Skate Action was a UK based magazine that first came out in late 1988 and ran for a couple years. In issue #13 the title on the cover was changed to “SK8 Action,” but the inside pages still said “Skate Action.” I have issue #1, #5 and #14 in my collection, thanks to Steve from Jersey (UK). My copy of #1 is missing the cover spread and another 4 page spread. These 3 issues all have 56 pages. The contents are mostly color but there is a substantial amount go black and white pages in there. It’s heavily focused on the UK scene. The issues I have a heavy Deathbox presence, the Deathbox that later morphed into Flip, not Tod Swank’s early 2000’s company. This brings the grand total of adverts in the gallery to over 1300!

I added advertisements from the first two issues of Homeboy Magazine, (AKA Club Homeboy). Homeboy was first published towards the end of 1987 and lasted a grand total of 7 issues before morphing into Dirt magazine. It was oversized and had a glossy cover with mostly color newsprint inside. The photography and layout of the mag was pretty good right out of the gate, but it had one major flaw in the eyes of most skateboarders, it covered BMX as well as skateboarding. I only added the 32 skateboard related (or non-BMX) adverts in these two issues. Skateboarding graced the covers but the advertising skewed heavily towards BMX by about 4-1. Spike Jonze was on the editorial staff, as was Andy Jenkins and Mark “Lew” Lewman. A pretty decent magazine with a good vibe, but so much BMX… Check out Homeboy magazine ads in the Vintage Skate Mag ad gallery.

I just finished adding 73 ads from the 1976 issue of Skateboarder Magazine, V2 #5 . The springs the total number of vintage skateboard magazine adverts to 1,206!

I’ve added 27 adverts from the July, 1990 issue of Skateboard! magazine, published in the U.K.. This is the same publication that started in the 70’s – see Issue #10 from 1978. The issue is kind of thin, coming in at 64 pages. Someone paid for a trip to Brazil and so that’s pretty much the only thing in this issue outside of a page of record review and a couple of comics. The quality of the photographs vary, not quite up to the standards of the bigger mags, but on the positive side, it’s packed full of spots you’ve probably never seen before if you don’t live in Brazil. Theres a thoughtful write up of a visit to a local skateboard factory with discussion of trying to meet the quality standards of the USA based companies. Curiously, the skateboard molds were made out of aluminum. Check out the vintage skateboard magazine ads in the July, 1990 issue of Skateboard!

The magazine that bummed out a generation of skaters… I’ve added all the adverts from issue #1 of Action Now magazine, labeled as Volume 7, #1 published in August of 1980. It’s a pretty thin issue and only has 30 ads total. In a few issues the magazine gets beefy again, I’ll bet they thought they were going to be able to pull it off… We’re just 47 ads shy of breaking the 1000 mark. Check them out.

It’s mid 1980 and the term “music video” had yet to be coined. Meanwhile, Devo had been making films to accompany their music since 1976. The skateboarding industry is slumping, so much so that Skateboarder magazine changes it’s name to “Action Now” to include nascent Extreme!®™ sports coverage in an attempt to broaden the appeal and hopefully stay afloat. Action Now published a 6 page feature on the making of Devo’s “Freedom of Choice” in issue #1 dated August, 1980. They titled it “Freedom of Choice – The Film.” 1980 was an interesting time for skateboarding and music. The magazine’s record reviews covered X, Devo, Frank Zappa, John Foxx, Emmylou Harris, and a jazz fusion act called The Jeff Lorber Fusion (and the album Wizard Island). There’s an ad for Corky Carroll’s “A Surfer for President” album, and an article on up-and-coming LA bands Human Hands, and Wall of Voodoo as well as a couple of random pics of the Stimulators. Devo blew minds. I know they blew my mind when I unexpectedly saw them on SNL in 1978 performing Satisfaction. I did not know what I was looking at or listening to, but it instantly connected with me on a visceral level. I was in grade school, watching it with an older cousin, and when he dismissed it as “weird and gay” my estimation of him plummeted and my desire to emulate him ended on the spot. I did have the good fortune to meet Gerald Casale in the 00’s, and although he seemed more interested in getting laid, he was kind enough endure my gushing. The entire content of the Action Now article follows after the jump.