These two boards (Burka and Prayer) were created by Juan James and auctioned off to benefit Skateistan. Sure, these are a few years old, but it’s still a good reason to check out Skateistan again.

I know nothing about Lux Trucks, except they seem to have materialized out of thin air from Epic Distribution. We’ve seen a lot of interesting, gimmicky packaging for bearings over the years, usually in the form of a toy, but this is the first time all that extra plastic might actually be useful. Luxe Bearings come with a free iPhone 5s case, which is pretty cool idea, even if the case itself is uninspired. It’s interesting what it says about the market share of (or public mind share) of smart phones: Suck it, Android and Windows Mobile!

The July, 1965 issue of Popular Mechanics features a five page spread on skateboarding. I had sort of assumed that in 1965, skateboarding was still an “all-American” sport, looked at by the general public as an amusing or cute attempt to imitate surfing. It was surprising to learn that a “prominent psychologist” said that “the skateboard is a symbol of defiance, young people showing their elders that they have scorn for all the things they have been taught about the preciousness of life and safety of limb.” Fortunately the tone of the piece is purely informational, almost instructional in some ways. Vita Pak gets a name check too. Popular Mechanics was (haven’t seen it lately) very DIY oriented, packed with projects and tips for hacking ordinary items for improved functionality. Make has nothing on this.

It’s been floating around eBay for a while, disappearing for a year or so and then reappearing with the same pictures if I’m not mistaken. It’s always at a price that would seem reasonable if it were in fact something that anybody knew anything about and was collectable. However, nobody seems to want to fork over $100 for something that seems to have absolutely no historical reference. It’s nature suggests that it might be a hand made one-off item, but then again, that strange metal plate doesn’t seem like it would be stock for anything I can recognize. Google it, and you’ll get pages of the auction description re-listed. On the Rat Rods Bikes forum someone linked to a patent from 1999, but I would have guessed this is older than that. I can’t even find anything on the Welin roller skate truck online. Is this skateboard-related? Maybe only marginally, but at least it’s not this. I’ve got an email into the National Roller Skating Museum to see if they know anything. As a side note, did you know Sure Grip International is still around?

UPDATE: In 2021 we learned this thing is called the Sit-Skate.

Just added to the Zines Gallery. Swank Zine NSA Issue from 1986.

Ming Ta Supply is/was located in California and they produced Enzo boards from 1991 untill 1997. They couldn’t have chosen a worse moment and using graphics of vert skaters on their boards was definitely a bad move. This is maybe why I could only find one Enzo complete and it was for sale on eBay. Ming Ta Supply also seemed to deal in furniture, building materials, Christmas decoration, sporting articles, toys … I wonder where those came from.

Ah.. so that’s what cavorting means. You’ll know too if you watch this old (2012) promo video for Suiteblanco with Irina Shayk and Adam Senn. Those guys are models, don’tcha know? Yes, it’s Friday T&A with a little beefcake too. Photos mostly from Fashion Rogue, but they were originally on Skategirlinternational.com. I think they changed their mind and decided that these weren’t the sort of photos that promoted women in action sports after all.

“Just for Kids” is a skateboarding storyline in Teenage Hotrodders, Volume 1, #14, published September of 1965. All the drag racers, sprint car drivers and motor sports enthusiasts have cool helmets that look appropriate for the era, or an A-Ha music video. There’s plenty of talk of “Nationals” and championship qualifiers. it seems to be aimed at boys old enough to drive though, because it contains an entire page of sage, but vague driving advice in space usually reserved for talk about characters and upcoming issues. The lettering is strange too. It almost appears like a monospaced handwritten computer font, but obviously isn’t. Still, it’s so badly spaced and placed in some of the sapeech bubbles that it looks mechanical. Just for Kids features a characters actually named Motors Mchorn and Shifty Gears, ao maybe Teenage Hotrodders is aimed at kids who are old enough to drive, but aren’t quite that bright, or maybe it was distributed by the Charlton Comics Group in states where the driving age is 14. Then again, there are other ads for being the life of the party, selling greeting cards for extra cash, and learning to play guitar the Chet Atkins way.

Riding my bike home from work the other day I saw a guy with a fancy camera filming some skateboarding, so I stopped to talk to Tom Bender. He’s premiering a video in Portland this sumer called Fun While it Lasted. You can watch a short trailer courtesy of Transworld and another compilation of offcuts and extras after the jump.

The Police Academy movie series started in 1984 and the last one came out in 1994, which puts this 1990 Police Academy comic book out around the time of Police Academy 6: City Under Siege, which came out in 1989. That’s right, they cranked out the first 6 movies in 6 years! Turns out they are reviving it once gain, with a new sequel scheduled to come out in 2014. If you expect the quality of this Marvel Comics title to show the same commitment to the craft that the movies do, you be entirely right. It’s pretty bad. In fact, the frame above is about the only thing interesting in the whole story, which only takes up part of Police Academy Volume 1, Number 6, published in February of 1990. I don’t think Lance Mountain is in this one.