Ultra Flex. I’ve never heard of this company before, but they made skateboards and Primo brand wheels. The parent company was actually Special Products, a division of something called I.I.I., located in San Diego. I couldn’t find anything definite for them via google. They must have spent some cash on this brochure though. In the 70’s you couldn’t get a 1000 full color brocures for $100. First you had to have a photo shoot in a studio. The you had to pay for professional film developing, type setting, ad layout, and mechanical color separations. Plus there was stat camera graphic work too, none of this scanning and resizing in Photoshop, and then emailing a PDF. It was all done mechanically, and this would have been expensive.

UPDATE: Added pictures of an old Ultra Flex board.

All hail the return of Saturday Starrs, as well you should. Scott Starr is the ultimate skateboard film historian. He covers the surfing world too, but that’s not for me to judge. Here’s another piece of history that would most likely had been lost to the ages were it not for Scott’s diligence. It’s the opening sequence from a 1977 East Coast skateboarding and surfing film titled Hard Waves, Soft Wheels. Scott’s YouTube channels keep getting shut down, and so a lot of the embedded videos stop working. I’ve gone back and re-populated the ones that he’s uploaded again, in case you are in the mood. It’s like the third or fourth time that I’ve had to do this. We’ll see how long it lasts again. Awesome period piece music in this sequence.

UPDATE: I had the wrong video embedded, but it’s fixed now. If you are jonesing for that Captain Kangaroo appearance, it’s over here.

In the dark days leading up to the apocalypse of Skate and Annoy’s web meltdown I featured the Carvells video for L.A. Run. Well, of course that led me to do some further investigating on the internet, and by “investigating,” I obviously meant draining my Paypal account by having a record shipped from the U.K.. In the meantime, House of Neil uncovered a contemporary (at the time) cover of L.A. Run by the Swedish band Magnum Bonum. And yes, it’s in Swedish.

Another month has flown by and here we have another installment of Baywatch. There’s lost more goodies this month, and hopefully some that you have never seen before. The longer I do this the less inclined I am to keep on featuring the same decks from the same companies, high ticket items though they might be. There’s only so many ways to describe a Hawk birdclaw without it being repetitive, so I’ll choose something else instead. It might not be as iconic, or go for as much money, but that’s not what this column is about. It’s not a price guide, more a sampling of what I find interesting, and hopefully you do too. So, variety is the key for me at the moment.

The Park-Pro, not to be confused with Ken Park and one of the most unlikely re-issues. I thought I had a YouTube video with Ken Park giving a parking lot demo in the 80’s, but I can’t find it. Oh well. At least you can still get a quality skateboard product from Kmart. I’m actually digging that die cut grip tape. Maybe I should try to bring that back.

The Carvelles had a bunch of skateboard songs on their 1977 LP Skateboard Rampage. In fact, out of ten songs, only two are missing the word “skateboard” from the title. Two of those are on the very good This Is Skateboard Music collection. This song, L.A. Run isn’t on that collection. All Music doesn’t have an entry for the Carvells, but they appear to be a vehicle for a guy named Alan Carvell, who had a UK hit in the 60’s and sang backups and harmonies for many well known acts in the 70’s and 80s. This video is a 1977 appearance from Top of the Pops. Check out the stage for assorted skateboard props, a ringer in the audience, and gratuitous stock footage from the U.K.. Who are those guys? The Benji Board team has been suggested, since they are skating U.K. spots. Check it out after the jump.

– Thanks to Eric Shea for the tip.

Yeah, well. here it is. Honestly I didn’t listen to very much of it. I was so sick of this by the time I got to editing it. Basically, Ponch spends the episode trying to convince the kids they should get off the street and skate someplace safe. Eventually they end up taking the kids to a skatepark, in this case, SkaterCross. Happens all the time, right? The classic case of skate harassment. It looks like Estrada and the other dude (who shall perpetually be known as “the other dude”) had actually spent some time on skateboards.

Holy shit. The things I do for you people. I’ve been trying to get this damn episode of CHiPs ready for prime time on S&A for some time now. I rented the damn thing from the library. It got stuck in my computer’s DVD drive and absolutely would not come out. I got a new computer out of it, thanks to the Best Buy extended warranty. Seriously. The tech dudes said it would be too much work to take the iMac apart and get the drive out. Of course, the old one was only a week old. This was back in January, and I never got the disc back so I had to buy the whole season used off Amazon to avoid paying full retail for the replacement. I had a hard time digitizing this too. in the end, the only thing I could get for some reason was the Spanish voiceover. I’m not making this up. So enjoy the first installment of the “Neighborhood Watch” episode. Or rather, the skateboard related parts. I edited out the other unrelated bits like the drunk driving and insurance scam parts. Ponch and John cross paths with a troubled skateboarding youth caught in the crossroads. Headed down a path of self destruction, alienation, and one can only hope.. Punk Rock. Can Ponch and John save him? Holy cow, isn’t that the kid who played Oliver on the Brady Bunch? Catch part one today. Part two is when the skatebaord action really kicks in to high gear. Sorry about the Español. Variflex and Russian YouTube for everyone!

Bugs bunny used always call everyone a “maroon” in those old Looney Tunes cartoons. It might be an intentional mispronunciation of moron, and less likely to be the other definition, a loud signaling firework, or the descendants of escaped slaves living in a certain part of the West Indies. So, speaking of Bugs, what about Daffy? Along with handstands, the daffy is one of the last remaining truly “old school” tricks to make a comeback. High jumps, excuse me hippie jumps came back, so why not the daffy? I guess there are v-sits and catamarans still out there too. I found this this photo on Skate Curiosidade, a site in a language that I can’t decipher, but I’m going to guess Portuguese? In the enlargement you can see the skatepark above appears to bee in a very tropical location, more so than southern California. Who knows? Plenty of daffy, handstand, and even barrel jumping action at Skate Curiosidade.

More Farrah Fawcett skateboarding action. Toys from the past. I’d seen the officially licensed “Jill” doll from Farrah’s Charlie’s Angels days, as seen above left. Reader Hung Chang also found this knockoff “Sport Girl” doll that features a cartoon drawing of Farrah.