This edition of Australian pro skateboarders and companies I did not know existed is brought to you by Ken Macleod, who posted a picture of a Ken Gibbons pro model. I tried to find something about it/him (Ken) and that led me to the photography of Chris Stroh, whose portfolio is primarily surfing, but also includes some 80’s era skateboarding. That’s Ken in the photo above, in the bowl at a place called “Five Dock,” circa 1986. Unfortunately, Ken was the victim of a hit-and-run and died in 2006. I scraped the web for more bits and pieces on Ken and Bonzer and managed to find a few items.

Charlie Brown’s All Stars! (CBAS) originally aired on June 8, 1966. I’m not sure if it ever made it to VHS, but the first DVD release I’m aware of was from 2009. While watching “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown” over the weekend on Apple TV+ I dug around a little and found CBAS was available too. It looks like they remasters it for Apple TV, above and beyond the DVD release. It’s very clean, but there is an odd bit in a scene with Sally and Linus setting up a yard pool. Compared to other versions I’ve seen, the pair look like the attempt to make them look like they have a tan was a little overcooked. I can’t show you what it looks like because screen caps for DRM protected content are disabled on Apple TV. Snoopy does some great surfing before they segue to the sidewalk surfing for an extended segment around the 10 minute mark that includes the world’s first documented footage ollie! No sky hooks here.

Thanks to Don Brown for sending in these pics of a BMW Mini that he picked up. I’ve never seen one of these in the wild. We have covered this before, but it’s nice to have some bespoke pictures. This is luxury, novelty skateboarding circa 2002. Still no idea why there is a strap on it, but It sort of looks like a flip flop. One thing we did learn this board is made out of plastic and not some high performance composite.

Travel way back with me to… 2001, a virtual space odyssey. Oh to live back in those halcyon days, when the future promised to be totally wireless and 3D! Come with us on a magical journey to explore Skateboard Blitz, the MGA Electronics VR3D™ game. It has True Color!

– Thanks to Adam Jett for the tip.

I’m a couple weeks remiss in posting about the death of Otis ‘O’ Barthoulameu. Anyone who read skate mags in the 80’s will remember that “O – Photo” byline. Encinitas Magazine has a remembrance of O that spans several spreads and start on page 24.

This unassembled Ben Lexan Skatewing was won on a cruise many years ago, and has sat in storage since then until Jamie Shain decided to help their mother-in-law do some cleaning. It’s funny because I’ve often wondered how they packaged these boards for shipping, being as unwieldy as they are, and now I know. Trucks (regular, and auxiliary) and handles came unassembled.

– Thanks to Jamie for the pics!

I just made almost 70 additions to the Vintage Skateboard Magazine Ads gallery, bringing the total to 617. This last batch is primarily from Skateboarder 1975 V2 N3 and Skateboard World Nov. 1977.

Old Steve Grover (Remember GVK?) texted me from Puerto Rico to let me know the 70’s channel was playing a video of the Osmonds on skateboards while singing “Do You Know The Way To San Jose?” Tracking down the video was a piece of cake, but because of the lazy nature of the internet, there is no backstory for those with skateboarding ephemera OCD. If legendary and sorely missed Scott Starr was still alive I would have doubtless been able get the answer with a quick email. After some digging around (way too much) I found a reference in the 2006 book Television Variety Shows by David M. Inman. Based purely on the visuals and the fact that it was in color I would have guessed early 70’s, but it turns out it originally aired on the 1968 season 2 premier of the Jerry Lewis Show.

Pep #331 (November 1977) features a one page story with Archie skateboarding titled “Tide Ride,” as well as a Youth Opportunity Sales Club ad in which you can earn a skateboard by selling 16 boxes of greeting cards.

It’s hard to believe that the parties involved in making the infamous Stroker trucks went on to build Independent, a brand that by any metric inspired loyalty above and beyond anything else in the skateboard industry. Check out some painful over-engineering after the jump.