I post a lot of crappy skateboards here, so it’s nice to have something really… pretty? I can’t say for sure if this was up to snuff when it came out, but it probably was, at least in some circles. The 70’s had a wide range in acceptable design and performance characteristics. This Whip True Glide model is a beautiful skateboard. The colors and the design really pops, though the flexible fiberglass deck likely doesn’t. It’s beautiful, but not $500 beautiful like the seller originally wanted. I like the top graphic, color combination that includes coordinated bushings, and the speckling visible on the bottom. Very sharp, very 70’s.

Kickers looks like it was the 70’s equivalent of Sketchers, only slightly more hip. May not be anthropologically qualified to make that statement, so I depend on UK readers to chip in here. Although that is Rod Stewart in heyday, who was much cooler than Kim Kardashian, Tori Spelling, Britney Spears and even Wayne Gretzky. It’s unclear whether the Kickers shoe brand ever had an actual skateboard team considering the lack of functionality in those high heeled shoes that look more at home on Slade or Rod Stewart than they do on anyone riding a skateboard. They did have a sticker though.

An assortment of drinking glasses with skateboard imagery, two from restaurants and one from a food product. From Australia to the USA, from 1977 to 2002.

The best thing about these vintage 70’s era open bearing wheels from Trickray is the Ed Roth inspired package illustration featuring a guy that is some sort of greasy salesman or evil landlord riding a skateboard. With that striped suit, he’s either escaped from a 1920’s prison or a silent movie. I’m not sure why these “official” Trickray skateboard accessories carry the U2 moniker, but they do. Evidently these urethane wheels were meant for spy missions.

In modern times the skateboard transfer conjures images of going bowl to bowl, or spines on a miniramp. In the 70’s the skateboard transfer was all about t-shirts. This guy either has a gigantic stock of these or he’s completely unable to sell them, because I see these same couple of t-shirt transfers for sale all the time. Hot Dog on the dates to 1977 and Asphalt Animal is from 1978. I like how the seller backlights them so you can see what they look like on a shirt, minus all the parts where it doesn’t adhere or gets wrinkled. As you can tell, I never had good luck with t-shirt transfers as a kid.

I will continue to post photos of NOS skateboard products in blister backs with technical style drawings on the back as long as I continue to find them. I am a sucker for vintage skateboard packaging. This set of trucks sold for $45. Nothing says 70’s like action bolts and open bearings.

It’s been 7 years since I posted the last MG auto advert from 1977. In 1978 it seemed like they couldn’t get enough of the high jump over a car concept. At least part of the photo shoot for this ad took place in the crazy mogul field at Carlsbad skatepark shown on the right.

If this this tart could be shipped from/to the USA, I’d think about buying her. There’s not much information about these Susie dolls from Woolbro, they only seem to exist online in cases where they are for sale. This one looks like it dates back to the 70’s, perhaps a contemporary of Dashing Daisy. – Thanks to David ODK for the tip.

This Free Former skateboarding helmet that Grover picked up at Goodwill somewhere in Western Oregon has to go down as the find of the year or maybe even the decade, considering he only paid $2.50 for it and it’s essentially mint. It may look like a hockey helmet that was made in Canada and sold for skateboarding purposes… well, because it is. Aside from the Free Former logo, these helmets appeared with the Cooper hockey logo as well as the Hobie logo. It’s amazing what passed for safety equipment back in the 70’s. These things are basically a bunch of folded over plastic stitched together with some padded envelopes.

After inspecting the insides, it appears this knitting pattern from Marriner is for chunky yarn, and not chunky kids. It’s pretty awful, and the best/worst part is that they think someone might actually want kneepads and elbow pads knitted out of yarn! Believe it or not, this is the third post about knitting. – Thanks to BPA for the tip.