This is an advertisement for Jantzen swimwear published int the June, 1966 issue of the Life Magazine. It gives Further credence to the idea that skateboarding was not dead by the end of 1965. Granted, the submission deadline could have been a couple months in advance. Also of note, this advert features 3 future Hall of Fame professional athletes in 3 different disciplines. It has NFL football player Frank Gifford, NBA basketball player Jerry West and NHL hockey player Bobby Hull, all admiring the Jantzen “Chemstrand Sharkskin” fabric wrapped around a skateboard and surfboard.

This is a model named Kate Kondas, who I guess is a thing. She was photographed for the August 2013 issue of Elle Magazine Hungary in a partially finished, partially ghetto looking skatepark somewhere. I’ve never seen a concrete park with asphalt on the top deck. The photographer (and possible anime villain) is named Zoltan Tombor.

[Source: Fashion Gone Rogue] – Thanks to the spawn of MC for the tip.

Vice magazine has an interview with sculptor C.J. Rench who was chosen by the Red Bull panel (including Torey Pudwill) to construct a skateable sculpture for permanent installation in Seattle. Sounds like a good plan, the city gets art, the skaters are allowed to skate on it, and a corporation gets to pay for it. Red Bull has a short video on the “skate space” that shows the other artist who made it to the finalist position, as well as examples of both of works. From the sculptures shown, I’d say the chose the wrong guy. Granted, I wasn’t on the board, but the other guy’s portfolio ( W. Scott Trimble ) had some pieces in it that already leaned towards an impression of being skateable. On the other hand, CJ’s work to date appears to be they type of stationary sculpture that is isolated in a presentation space and not part of a larger environment. In fact, looking at the scale model and rendering, the sculpture appears to be marginally skateable at best. There’s a telling clue in the Red Bull video, a big part of the decision appeared to be based on who could get it done on time for an unspecified and possibly arbitrary deadline. Let me simplify my position on this. I’m all for Red Bull paying for public art under the stipulation that it will also be accessible as a skate spot. It’s just that the (admittedly limited) representations of the final design don’t appear to have considered the actual skateboarding part of the requirement. Show me some alternate views and prove me wrong!

We’ve seen Eddie Munster on a skatebaord before, and now we can add Grandpa and Herman Munster to the list of super cool tough guys. This painting of Grandpa and Herman riding skateboards was found uncredited on Stumpahnds. I couldn’t find the original source, so if you know where it came from, please leave a comment. UPDATE: It’s a coloring book.

No, you haven’t seen the last skateboarding dog post yet. This dog, who might be named Dash, does old school kickflips (well, after a fashion, but it’s still a kind of a kickflip without the ollie) and some sort of reverse Bertlemann slide. He’s an innovator, just like Tony Hawk.

– Thanks to Greg Baller for the tip.

During my last pilgrimage back to Chicago I stopped by Logan Hardware again to buy some records and play some video games. I picked up my favorite Devo release, available on vinyl for the first time. At least I think it was never released on vinyl, but in any format, the Hardcore Devo demo tracks compilation has been out of print for 20 years. ( In gathering links for this post I was saddened to learn that Devo Drummer Alan Myers succumbed to cancer shortly after the release date. ) The last time I was at Logan Hardware, took a pic of 720 video game screen that’s still my cover photo on Facebook. This time I picked up a puffy sticker featuring Alf riding a skateboard, and I played some Bad Cats pinball for the first time in many years.

It’s been a while since we checked in on Gene’s My DIY backyard project. Looks like it’s done except for the decks. Additional coverage available at Confusion. Looks super fun.

It’s 1978 and the Rocket Racer is back in Volume 1 #182 of The Amazing Spiderman. I haven’t seen the first appearance of the Rocket Racer, but the storyline mimics the ’90s animated Spiderman series, except the Rocket Racer in the cartoon is a teenager, while the original Rocket Racer is drawn more like a full grown man. The Rocket Racer has a skateboard that allows him to defy gravity. Not only does it stick to walls, but it magically adheres the riders feet to the board while riding vertical surfaces. Rocket uses his skateboard to perpetrate crimes to pay his mother’s or gandmother’s medical bills. It’s the age old story of a good hearted person forced into a life of crime. The pages with skateboarding in them are available after the jump, as well as the entire episode from the 1994 animated series.

Danny way dropped in off that helicopter in a different decade, so it’s not the first time, but Bob has taken the helicopter thing a step further, also using it as his personal tow-in rope. It’s pretty amazing as far as mega ramp action goes, but there are a couple times when I’m actually more impressed by the pilot in the helicopter. The helicopter doesn’t make an appearance until the last quarter of the video, and the rest is filled with typically high skilled skating that you’d expect from Bob Burnquist. It’s part of a series he’s making called “The Dreamland Series.”

– Thanks to Simon Woodstock for the tip.