About this time last year I put up a 70’s era advert for a skateboard made by the Hooker Headers company at the behest of the Salba’s father who was working there at the time. Mark Bernard of Detroit actually ordered one of these boards via the mail-order add in Hot Rod magazine. (If you look at the order form, they ask for the weight of the rider.) After recently finding my original post, he sent in some pictures of the very same board which is still in his possession. He bought it in 1976 as a 14 year old at a cost of $80.

As part of QuikSilver’s bankruptcy restructuring, DC shoes is dropping Rob Dyrdek as well as it’s entire BMX team. For the longest time Dyrdek’s name has almost been synonymous with DC. Is it like Nike declining to deal with Michael Jordan? Is it interesting? What does that mean for skateboarding? Absolutely nothing. [Source: Ride via Shop Eat Surf]

These ladies are more core than I am lately. This is a still from an AARP (American Association of Retired People) marketing video featuring ladies of a certain age who skateboard. The leader of The Sisters of Shred is non other than the skateboard mom/cow, Barbara Odanaka. – Thanks to Charles Glover for the tip.

David Bowie dead at 69. R.I.P.. [Photo]

This killer oververt terrain is Wave Rock near Hyden, Australia. Make sure you’ve got some big wheels. If you google images of Wave Rock there’s plenty of people walking and riding bikes, but so far no skateboarding. [Source: Touropia. Photo: Don Pugh] – Thanks to Tallboycan for the tip.

In the decade and a half since I got back in intermittent contact with Art & Steve Godoy we’ve heard stories from them about how they both raised Steve’s son Knox after fighting to get custody from the mother. After hearing about how “rad” the kid had turned out, I was surprised to hear that Art and Steve were no longer having anything to do with Knox because he had “turned into a fuckhead.” It seemed like something Steve didn’t want to talk about, so I didn’t pursue it. A few years have gone by and it appears they may have mended their relationship. Jenkem has just published an interview with Knox that is… Fascinating and disturbing. A real insight, like watching an autopsy. [Photo: Sean Garrison]

Another appearance of skateboard as an answer on the Family Feud with Steve Harvey. The question might have been “Name something you ride” instead of “Name something men keep doing even though they are too old.” Not sure if this was a rerun or not, but I did not catch this, nor any other episode. – Thanks to Daymond for the tip.

It’s Joe Strummer hanging out in an unidentified West London skatepark (UPDATE: It’s Meanwhile Gardens) during an interview that took place some time between 1988 and 1991. Footage from the same interview also appears in the 2007 Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten, which I haven’t actually seen yet, but maybe it lists the source in the credits. This particular digitization is pretty rough. If anyone finds clearer footage and can identify the source please let me know.

I don’t know much about 70’s era R.A.C.O. skateboards other than they loved to use imagery on their products, even their metal boards had some kind of photo sublimation. The collection of fiberglass boards shown here features assorted beverage logos for Schlitz, Budweiser, Olympia, Pepsi, and 7-Up. It’s almost as if R.A.C.O. was the NHS of the 70’s in terms of branded boards. We should be glad that truck hole patterns were standardized. Imagine how much of a pin in the ass it would have been to drill for trucks with a triangular pattern.

Larry Gordon, the surfing pioneer who more or less invented the foam core surfboard, and was the co-founder of Gordon & Smith surfboards and skateboards passed away on January 1st. UPDATE: I originally reported Larry as the possible inventor of the foam core surfboard based on information published by the San Diego Tribune, which has since been revised to: “He was one of the first people to bring polyurethane foam boards to San Diego. Picking up on a nascent trend in the industry, he started experimenting with foam materials at his father’s factory, Gordon Plastics.” [Source: San Diego Tribune.]