The Milwaukee Journal has an article on a documentary in progress about the Turf (AKA Surf N’Turf) skatepark. Much like the Nude Bowl, the Turf just won’t die, and keeps coming back decades after you thought it was gone forever. Opened in late 70’s then shut down and turned into a strip club, then reopened in the 80’s, then shut down again, raised and burried. Then dug up and skated briefly! Then filled in again amidst a community effort to have it saved. It seemed like a pipe dream, but somehow the City of Greenfield ended up buying the land from the department of transportation to save it from becoming offramp. Now, not only will it be dug up and refurbished as it existed, indoors in it’s heyday, it will also be surrounded by a new, modern and public skatepark outside. Stoked to be able to add this to our coverage of The Turf, and anxiously awaiting the premier of “Believe It.” [Photos: L-City of Greenfield. R- Peter DiAntoni]

With sadness I learned that founding member of the Surf Punks, Drew Steele has passed away after a battle with cancer. Against all odds, the Surf Punks had a huge influence on me as a teenager growing up in the Midwest. I first heard them on the Dr. Demento show, and saw them briefly mentioned in a blurb about “violent surf culture punk music” in Time magazine of all places. The picture above is from Drew’s Instagram feed shortly after Dennis Dragon passed in 2017. Bonus shot of the making of the iconic cover of My Beach featuring the first (?) skateboard-as-guitar after the jump.

It’s Indigenous Peoples day. Here’s more Joe Buffalo. This video by the New York Times is a little more stylized than perhaps it needed to be, but overall it’s very heavy. What else could you expect from the aftereffects of Kill the Indian; Save the Child and the boarder school assimilation programs?

We just added 15 new-to-you zines to the 80’s Skatezine Gallery. The new titles include Contort, Clueless and Skeezer from the Boston area, Skate Street and Clueless (moved) from Wisconsin, Social Disorder from Illinois, Crakpot from Oregon, Tight Transitions and Naughty Nomads from California, Asphalt Assault from Georgia, Freezine from Ontario, Canada and Vaffanskate from Italy. There are currently 57 complete issues in the gallery now.

Oh man… I love Obvious Plant in like a twin separated at birth. I myself already have a Sneppy T-shirt, but I can’t get behind these Sneppy themed “Skate Blords” because each one defaces an original Peanuts skateboard toy, which to readers of Skate and Annoy ought to be sacred! Still these are damned funny. The artist behind Obvious Plant makes fake, absurd, and often absurdly funny fake toys. Some of them are akin to bad knockoffs you find in cheap markets, while others are just subversive and weird. These toys are then clandestinely placed the shelves of real stores for the unsuspecting consumers and bewildered register operators. And because you can’t pay your mortgage with fake toys, Obvious Plant sells t-shirsts and the like, as well as the occasional one-off toy at collectable prices. Sneppy and “Wood Sock” both sold for $350, while “Cheppy Brown” sold for $550. These aren’t auction prices, these are list price. I believe the original versions of these peanuts toys date back to the 80’s or early 90’s. These are the plastic versions, and not the metal versions that look very similar. It’s hard to tell for sure because Peanuts merch often lists really…

Longtime astute readers of S&A might remember seeing a previous version of Betty & Veronica in a Wheel Zeal story in a Betty & Veronica comic from 1976. Archie series reuses stories and story titles all over the place. Heck, they even reuse comic book titles. The series from the 1976 issue is called “Archie’s Girls – Betty & Veronica.” This story appeared in issue of just plain old “Betty & Veronica” #138 from 1999. It is indeed a separate series because the numbering sequence is different. I’m not an expert on the Archie series by any means, in fact I’ve always loathed it, even as a kid. Digging into these skateboarding appearances in the Archie series has made me way more informed than I’d like to be. However, just because I hate Archie doesn’t mean I didn’t buy this comic book! In my online archeological dig I also managed to find an expired auction for the “original art” for this story.

Go around! Go under! Develop skill and style with Skateboard Derby. The professional action course! This is an extremely rare find from 1977. It’s new in the box and never used, and priced accordingly at $499. To be honest, I’m more interested in the packaging and instructions than I am the actual contents. Although the contents are basic pieces of wood, some hardware and vinyl flags, it’s easy to imagine how exciting this would have been to open and set up as a kid in the 70’s. Our plastic banana board-riding crew used chalk and plastic cups for our slalom course. This would have blown our minds… There is one advantage to using chalk though. We used to draw oil slicks, flames, pillboxes with artillery installations, and other assorted hazardous obstacles all over our courses. Skateboarding war is hell.

Maybe the preferred domain name already had squatters, or Sick Tricks wasn’t Extreme!™ enough. Syck Trix is an indoor skate training accessory (or complete board) that is made by affixing (via velcro) two small inner tubes contained in nylon or possibly neoprene bags, to the bottom of a skateboard. The inner tubes take the place of trucks and I would imagine cut down on some of the noise if you’re indoors. If people keep making them, we’ll keep posting them. I kid you not, I keep trying to type “syck trix” and it has auto corrected to “suck truck” more than once. UPDATE: So syck, we already covered it 5 years ago! 5 years? I can’t believe they are still in business.

Oh the things I find to buy when I’m actually looking for something else. A positive balance on a PayPal account does not last long when I’m scrolling through skateboard related ephemera. This is the September 1975 issue of Sports Illustrated, with a feature called “Wheeling and Dealing.” Scanned and ran through the OCR for your enjoyment. File it under Things I buy so you don’t have to.

I found this 1960’s era TV commercial for Gleem toothpaste in the Prelinger Archives. I was actually looking for a Bell Telephone commercial featuring Patti McGee but was surprised to find one that I’ve never seen before. The actual date is unknown but it is mostly likely around 1965 or 1966.