Old News really, but there’s Wired story on a guy who replicates old skateboard graphics whith shapes he has custom made from our friends at Factory 13. Most of those featured in the photos of John Greeley’s collection have been available as rereleases at some point or another. Others like the Mutt and Hawk’s first model that haven’t. Greeley’s reproductions look excellent, and that’s awesome… Until some show up on eBay five years from now in through a chain of events that ultimately ends up with them being passed off as originals. “I may have the largest archive of original deck graphics anywhere.” Either that or you’re the guy who stole Sean Cliver’s laptop full of all the photos and outtakes form Disposable. For the record, I’m not accusing John. I’m just promoting open discussion on reproductions… and being a smartass. – Thanks to Andrew Wahl for the tip.

I wouldn’t wish these Rector knee pads on my worst enemy, but it’s kind of tempting to have a brand new sweat-free pair on the wall. I remember being so stoked on these the day I replaced my soft padded volleyball-style kneepads for a fresh pair of Rectors. They came in a nice plastic bag with a hard handle that had locking tabs. $15 bucks is about what these are actually worth, with historical/nostalgia value making up the greater part of their worth. Get some at Marcs Board Shop.

Ping has boxes of negatives from various sessions during the golden age of big pipe skating in various desert areas of the U.S. He’s slowly scanning and cleaning them up. You can check out the tip of the iceberg at Desert Pipes Galleries.

I was checking out a 7″ cover of the 720 soundtrack released by a band called Metronome the City, trying to track down an original that wasn’t on eBay, and of course I stumbled on a bunch of other time wasting distractions. Ahh… Interwebs™. Let me count the ways that I love you.

Six months behind the first issue of Thrasher, but still highly influential. Children’s Playmate, the June/July 1981 issue from Children’s Health Publications. No other skateboarding content in this issue. Not bad for a goat, a duck, and a chicken.

This is an ad for a Kramer Floyd Rose Sustainer Guitar that ran in a 1989 issue of an unnamed music magazine. I only know this because I have poor impulse control. This guy is at the height of 80’s fashion, ho-ho street plant and neon yellow shirt with the sleeves and sides cut off. Totally bitchin. Thanks for nothing Kvon!

Sure, his boards have been reissued in life size and on fingerboards, and they are always very active on eBay, but you don’t hear about Rob Roskopp the person anymore. I had heard that he was heading up the mountain bike division of Santa Cruz, but had never actually read anything confirming it. Leave it to a mountain bike site inexplicably named Pinkbike.com to tie it all together. Find out which old pros are hitting him up for mountain bikes, what exactly is the connection between the companies, and exactly how much crack Rob was on when he chose his graphics – that’s an actual question from the interview. Biggest shock? Roskopp used to look like the epitome what the rest of the world thought California surfers looked like. He’s still fit, but those golden locks have moved on. What about the body jars? Check it out. Interesting aside, I’m fairly confident one of the images used in the post is from an old eBay Watch, and yes I realize we lifted it from eBay…

I was never a fan of Alf, so I’m not sure of the significance (or meaning) of the phrase “Yo Luck!” as seen on this sure to be musty smelling Alf shirt. Since he rides a skateboard on his own skateboard, it’s not much of a surprise to see him riding another skateboard on a t-shirt.

Sure they are crappy, but they are so bad that they’re… still bad. Even more so now that they’ve seen an updated, craptacular re-imagining of the graphic. As if there there is a pent up, unrealized nostalgia for the worst boards any given skater has ever owned at any point in their skateboarding life. Blind’s Danny Way Nuke Baby was a brilliant, but these are just as bad, if not worse than the original, especially the most famous of all bad 80’s Nash boards, the Executioner. They did have some cool graphics in the 60’s. It’s ironic that they haven’t tried to cash in on those graphics, even more so because they apparently own the Hobie name. Way to massively miss any sort of reissue connection. Oh well, all the better for someone else. I can’t recall if there was ever a Nash “Blaster” model, but I included it anyway because it’s a confusing mix of 70’s imagery on an 80’s shape that came out some time in the… dammit! What the hell are we calling this decade? The tens? Crap. Nash makes skateboards again. I guess they finally recovered from the fire.

Honestly, not sure why skateboarders of a certain age are obsessed with the skateboarding footage in Back to the Future. After the last BTF post I made I seriously doubted that there would be any recurrences in the near future, but now here we are. It doesn’t hurt that I have little kids and still love Legos. CUUSOO is a project where lego fans design and submit Lego creations to the community. If enough people “like” the design then the gods of the plastic brick mountain will consider releasing a kit version or full commercial version of the model, and the designer gets a small percentage of sales. What Delorean Time Machine would be complete without Marty McFly and his skateboard?