“Skateboard Action” was a popular title for kids books in the 80’s, as this is not the only book to use it. Skateboard Action from the Fun to Draw series was published in 1989 by Hamburger Press. The illustrations are by Ed Francis, so the blame for mislabeling has to go with the author Debra Rowley. It’s got 36 pages jam packed with goofy little fox on a skateboard cartoons and the typical 4 step drawing instructions you find in these things. The illustrator has the human figure basics down but occasionally has difficulty placing the figure in relation to ramps and coping. It’s as if someone went through a skateboard magazine and cut out the skateboarder from each photograph and the illustrator used them as a reference without knowing how they related to the real world. The illustrator’s take on aftermarket 80’s skate graphics and fashion is spot on and worth a chuckle. Part one of the installment after the jump.

This is an almost identical copy of the Vision ‘Street ghost’ deck from 1986, originally designed by John Grigley. The only thing the bootlegger changed was ‘Vision’ into ‘RB SKEBO’, whatever that means.

Here’s a gallery of photos I shot from Tigard 2009 and Pier 2009 contests, good times, enjoy…

Oregon Bifecta 2009.

Congratualtions son, your photo is going to be used on some product packaging! Millions of people will see it and you’ll be famous! You’re looking at DryNites sleep diapers for rippers and bed wetters aged 8-15. They were spotted (tee hee!) in the Prisma supermarket in Kuopio, Finland. It’s a serious problem that some kids have. These are no doubt super helpful, but they didn’t need to traumatize the kid on the package. He’s surely going to be ridiculed, no matter how many radical (or upside down) skateboarding silhouettes are on the bag. The product is sold in 21 countries, but the US isn’t one of them. There are lots of active lifestyle and bedtime pics on the DryNites sites, but I can’t be expected to go through them thoroughly searching for skateboards because I have to go to the bathroom.

– Thanks to Nicolas Bouvy for the photo

With the addition of this latest Roller Sports ad from 1975, there’s now 101 vintage skatemag advertisements in the gallery. It’s also easier to sort through the various companies and products available. I’ve added (8) dropdown menus that are visible on the top and bottom of the archive pages as well as at the bottom of single ad pages, underneath comments. I plan on refining the way the previews show up on the archive pages, I’ll probably make the thumbs smaller, possibly ditch the categories and show more per page. Right now they show up just like a blog post, with the latest addition at the top of the page. Use the dropdown menus to sort by company, rider, product type, year, decade, magazine, specific magazine issue, and photographer when credited. At 101 ads, I’m still not finished with the two issues of Transworld and Skateboarder magazine that I’ve taken them from. So far it’s only 70’s and 80’s, but eventually I’ll add some from the 90’s as well.

Check out the ski trainer in this Roller Sports ad. I wish there were better pictures of it. I guess I could troll issues of ski magazines from 1975 to see more.

I was standing in the beer aisle in the hipster grocery store and I cracked wise about the 80’s music playing over the PA. It was vacillating between hair bands and pseudo new wave. I guess new wave is a type of hair band as well. The guy stocking the shelves started telling me a story about a DJ playing Journey at a hip hop show when I noticed he had a tattoo with a Rodney Mullen graphic on it. You don’t see too many freestyle tattoos, so I commented on it. Then he shows me his Lance Mountain Future Primitives tattoo on one leg and Grosso graphic on the other. During this exchange I noticed his Green Bay Packers tattoo, which made me think of Wisconsin and the Turf, launching a whole other conversation… We could have shot the shit all night if he didn’t have to get back to work and I didn’t have to get dinner. Nice to meet you Jason!

Not only hot, but hot and gross, as in Gross Graphics.

Skate and Annoy is your source for L’ile Perrot skatepark coverage, can there be a doubt? The sanctioned DIY skatepark in L’ile Perrot, Quebec has a new pour scheduled this Saturday, rain or shine. Say hi to Kevin if you go. I only wish Skate and Annoy could cover the DIY scene in every small Canadian town.

Portland brewery Hopworks has traditionally been bike-centric in their marketing. Recently I heard they were trying to engage skateboarding more. I thought I saw an image of Sasquatch riding a skateboard a few weeks ago but I can’t find it. It might have had something to do with their Sasquatch Strong Ale or possibly Abominable Winter Ale. Now there’s Nonstop Hef Hop, featuring a bunch of “playtime” activities on the can, some more athletic than others, I mean seriously, corn hole? I have not seen this beer in the wild, but I’m looking forward to collecting the skateboard version of this can, even though the art direction in this series is a little sterile. What they really need to do is establish an advertising presence on some sort of local Portland-based skate blog, if such a thing exists.

– Thanks to Pete Lewis for the tip.

As I was adding a cool Dan Wilkes and GSD advert to the archives I remembered that Tracker Trucks has a book coming out chronicling their 40 years of history. You might have watched Jim Gray’s humorous and in-your-face video about it on Facebook. Early reviews are good, but some readers claim that the pages don’t turn. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!