This is (un)fortunately not a real action figure. It’s AI and photoshop work done by @hypeverse.

I just added 23 ads from the issue #30 of German skateboarding magazine Monster to the Vintage Skatemag Advertisement gallery. It offers a bit if a break from the same old ads you probably saw run in multiple issues of USA based magazines. The content of the magazine is in German, but the ads are mostly in English for some reason. Bi-monthly at the time, this is labeled December 87 / January 88 in the masthead, and includes a 2 page spread on a then 10 year old event, the 1977 World Champions as held by the “World and United States Skateboard Association.” Check it out after the jump. Includes a bonus photo of Christy McNicol.

Here’s two winter board sports products from the April/May 1979 issue of Skate magazine. Surprisingly, there were no ads for these products in this issue, just the product announcements. First up is a Snowboard from Elite. It’s 1979 and this is a far cry from what was right around the corner in the snowboarding industry, say 1982. This one looks like a Snurfer with the addition of a couple of very shallow surfboard-style fins on the bottom. Meanwhile, the Snow Skate is a set of 4 skis that strap on to your wheels.

This was a new one to me. Long time readers know I have a skateboard-based ski-trainer fetish, but I’ve never seen try Ski Trek before, seen here with aftermarket axle extenders on the trucks. The trucks pictured are not original equipment. The Ski Trek appears to be based on the Techni-Ski with the addition of what looks like a front end extension that allows for adjusting the wheelbase. As usual, there is nothing about this on Interwebs™. No amount of adjusting key words, quotes or hyphens seems to help. Check out that bikini girl logo. Yikes. Watch out for road rash! – Thanks to Fernando Linhares for the pics.

Ice Board Blades are a product of a group of kite surfers in Hungary. Their products are a being improved since 2017, and primarily used in conjunction with a kite or wing, but also for riding without the wind, and even a snake board if you’re up for it. The main difference here is the addition of a rigging holes for connecting an elastic band designed to keep the rails parallel to the board. After thinking about this for a little bit, I have to assume this just helps the board return to a straight position after turning. Who knows, maybe blades and cold bushings have a tendency to get stuck in a turn. You could always try Bitter Bushings too. – Thanks to Bob Mechtly for the tip.

Chris of Good Roads Collective is the uncontested the King of D.I. Y. skateboards. In the photo above he’s holding a board where the only things he didn’t make himself are the axles, mounting hardware, bearings, and grip tape. Yes, that is a home pressed skateboard, hand poured urethane wheels, 3D printed riser pads, and home cast trucks complete with hand poured urethane bushings and pivot cup. Let that sink in. He essentially made the whole damned thing himself, and he’s got videos and products that can help you do the same thing. Aside from the stuff he sells, he’s also got open source projects with files you can download for free if you want to save some cash or modify them in any way. In addition to skateboards, he also tackles fingerboard pressing and snowboard construction. It’s an arrogance-free channel. He doesn’t claim to be a definitive expert in any of these concentrations, and freely illustrates the mistakes he makes. If you’re interested in any of this, I’d recommend following any of the links in this paragraph, but be prepared to disappear down a rabbit hole. Chris has a Patreon account if you feel like helping him out. About…

Task and Purpose is an online publication covering US military news and culture. They recently published an article awkwardly titled “Meet the skateboarding Green Beret shredding the civilian-military gap.” It’s an odd fluff piece filled with bits like “Klakowicz describes a Green Beret spending time on the range to improve their shooting skills with a skateboarder trying to perfect a kickflip. You’ll fail, but with attention to detail, you can learn that new trick just like you can master clearing a room.” The article includes a couple of embedded video parts as well. I haven’t watched them yet, I’m headed off to read How many Russian generals have been killed in Ukraine? (Hopefully lots…) – Thanks to Heidi Lemmon for the tip. Photos: Brian Godinez

Hats off to Blast Skates out of Berlin the U.K. for My First Skateboard, an 80’s inspired kids setup that comes in a box with everything you need to assemble, including kid-friendly instructions. The Blast product lineup appears to be a little high end, with their decks going for an equivalent of about $87 USD. This setup for little kids is about $154 USD. Sure, you could find completes for kids at a considerably cheaper price, at least in the US, but what you’re getting here is a fully realized concept that is well executed. It’s an experience that is more than the sum of the parts. Granted, it’s not clear whether a child will enjoy it nearly as much as the adult who gifts it. I love the spot on the top of the deck for writing your name on the board. I’d rock an adult sized deck with that top graphic. EDIT: Turns out Blast is in the UK but uses Berlin for shipping to EU due to Brexit making it expensive to ship to the EU. – Thanks to Matthijs for the tip.

Introducing the Flybar 3-in-1 Skate Trainer, a less elegant version of a concept we’ve seen once or twice before, but hey, it’s been almost 10 years since the original product appeared, and almost 5 since it apparently failed, because you can’t find these for sale anymore and the domain name has expired. This version may look like it exists in renders only, but it’s a real product that you can buy at places like Walmart. In a paradigm shifting development in the multi-use board industry, Flybar adds stationary trucks for ollie training. Hardcore scooter and bouncing enthusiasts may find this a deal breaker. If you’re familiar with the Flybar brand, chances are you’ve seen or used one of their many bumper cars, animal hoppers, hopper balls, “antsy pants” systems, scooters, swurfers, pogo sticks or even pogo stick trainers. It’s OK, we won’t tell anyone. They also make conventional skateboards that are about 80% cheaper than this $50 setup, so you know they are good. – thanks to ____ for the tip.

Way back in the 2000’s Skaters for Portland Skateparks (SPS) started organizing to get a proper city-built public skatepark built in the city of Portland. At the time we had Burnside and funky, poorly designed and constructed Army Corp of Engineers Park in a part of town that was technically Portland, but was isolated on the outskirts of an industrial area that eventually leads to shipping terminals. I don’t know how it happened, but suddenly there was some money to rebuild Pier Park. SPS had an ally high up inside the Mayor’s office staff in skateboarder Tom Miller. He and SPS were pushing for a system of skateparks for Portland instead of just the one. I thought the plan was a little bit naive and was possibly going to blow the opportunity to get anything out of the city. Fortunately for the skateboarding community of Portland, Tom did not suffer from my lack of vision. We did end up getting several skateparks out of the proposed system of 20. This one near the Steel Bridge was always going to be the biggest of the lot, and the most complicated to get approved. It took a long time, and frankly most…