What does it all mean?

This week’s Shot of the Week features Larry Martin circa ’88 or ’89 out in the Mojave desert. There were better “skate shots” to pick from his batch, but I wanted to showcase the ramp and not necessarily the action or the photo. Here’s a little more on the subject from Larry:

I built this ramp on poached land in the Mojave desert near Lancaster, Ca. around 88… I had moved there with my wife after living in Ventura/Fillmore Ca. all my life. There wasn’t many ramps in the Antelope Valley at that time. The Palmdale one from the “Great Desert Ramp Battle” was toast. So, I made some new street/ditch skater friends and enlisted them in my idea to just build a halfpipe in the desert for anyone/evryone, and hopefully the police would leave us alone. They did, and we had it for about a year/half before the High School party crowd ruined it. We cut the templates with a jig, but the rest was all done without power tools. The wood of course was scavenged. This was during the savings and loan scandal, and huge housing projects were closed everywhere in the valley. Signs were just the easiest, as they were roadside, and blown over from heavy desert winds. Lots of funny stories of course surround the ramp. After it’s demise out there in the desert we rebuilt it 8 more times in backyards. Ahh, the good old dayz we all know so well.

Bonus shots after the jump.

Durable plastic. Wheelies and spinouts! Goes forward! SkateBot from Playtime, circa 1986. Robot. Varibot. Frontside Indy! Radical? ebay!

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…