Friend of the site and undervalued hero of the skateboarding and surfboarding historical community, Scott Starr passed away some time this month. Scott put a tremendous amount of effort and his own money into collecting and preserving old skateboarding and surfing films, which included having them professionally digitized when his finances permitted. His numerous accounts on Youtube wouldn’t last long due to obscure, questionable or pointless copyright claims. The only thing that seemed to matter to him was preserving these films and TV appearances, some of them dating back to the 60’s. I used to email him fairly regularly about things I’d seen or heard about, and he was a willing fountain of knowledge. I also bought a handful of 60’s era comic books from him that featured skateboarding content, you can find many of these on S&A. Scott had some health and anxiety issues he battled with, keeping him out of the public eye and probably contributing to that fact that he is not more widely known to later generations of skateboarders. I consider him an important person in the lexicon skateboarding in popular culture. I don’t know that there is anyone else out there doing the kind of…

Details are slim to nonexistent on this, but you are looking at Tracy Morgan appearing on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, while decked out in an outfit that is assuredly based on the Brand-X Weirdo model. I’ve got a message in to Brand-X and will share what I learn. You know the Weirdo has a special place in our hearts here. UPDATE: It’s an old appearance from 4/01/19 and you can watch it here. The clip available online is not the full interview and the topic of his outfit does not come up.

Once upon a time in the fabled past known as “The 80’s,” I briefly had a miniramp in my front yard. I was supposed to be in college but I was spending all my time skateboarding and hanging out with the bands in the house I lived in. A friend of mine who would later go on to be a veterinarian, once famously received a letter from his parents stating that he needed “less Randys” in his life. Of course I would invite friends over to ride my ramp. And, as one often does after a night out at the bars, a suggestion was made to use box springs for those late night revelers who were uncomfortable on a skateboard. It started out as just dropping in from the platform, but it escalated to dropping in off the porch roof into the transition. Note: No college students, indie rock stars or dropouts were hurt in these photos.

Hey! Swatches are still a thing, and they released a collection called Swatch x Peanuts. One of those watches featrues Charlie Brown on a skateboard. That’s the good news. The bad news is, it looks like they cobbled it together from an illustration where Charlie Brown is running and a separate illustration of a skateboard. – Thanks to Lin Holcomb for the tip.

The Real Ghostbusters in this context refers to the UK based Marvel comic series that ran from 1988-1992 for 193 issues. Issue #53 dates to 1989 and features I was going to try and buy one cheaply but I managed to find the entire issue online at a sketchy website that threw up some security warnings so I won’t post the link here. There is no real additional skateboard art other than the cover because the story is a written one that appears in a feature called “Winston’s Journal,” which is kind of a bummer, but’s a cheap way to fill pages. Check out the cover, and the story, plus a bonus shot of a crab on a skateboard from an advertisement for Tom & Jerry comic book in the same issue. And for the heck of it, a bunch of Ghostbusters skateboards from the late 80’s to present day. – Thanks to David Maes for the tip

The Milwaukee Journal has an article on a documentary in progress about the Turf (AKA Surf N’Turf) skatepark. Much like the Nude Bowl, the Turf just won’t die, and keeps coming back decades after you thought it was gone forever. Opened in late 70’s then shut down and turned into a strip club, then reopened in the 80’s, then shut down again, raised and burried. Then dug up and skated briefly! Then filled in again amidst a community effort to have it saved. It seemed like a pipe dream, but somehow the City of Greenfield ended up buying the land from the department of transportation to save it from becoming offramp. Now, not only will it be dug up and refurbished as it existed, indoors in it’s heyday, it will also be surrounded by a new, modern and public skatepark outside. Stoked to be able to add this to our coverage of The Turf, and anxiously awaiting the premier of “Believe It.” [Photos: L-City of Greenfield. R- Peter DiAntoni]

We just added 15 new-to-you zines to the 80’s Skatezine Gallery. The new titles include Contort, Clueless and Skeezer from the Boston area, Skate Street and Clueless (moved) from Wisconsin, Social Disorder from Illinois, Crakpot from Oregon, Tight Transitions and Naughty Nomads from California, Asphalt Assault from Georgia, Freezine from Ontario, Canada and Vaffanskate from Italy. There are currently 57 complete issues in the gallery now.

Way back in 2014 I saw one of these things on eBay and couldn’t figure out what it was, or even if it was skateboard related. I looked like it might have possibly been made for rollerskating rinks, I couldn’t tell. Fast forward 8 years and turns the this thing was the “Sit Skate,” and it is a skateboarding alternative that is/was “the wave of the future” for people who can’t be bothered to learn how to stand up on a skateboard. If anything, this device looks like its would be harder to maneuver than if you just sat on a regular skateboard. In any case, mystery solved. This advert is from the October 1981 edition of Action Now. The kid in the ad is wearing a t-shirt with the manufacturers logo on it, a lo and behold Mark 10 Industries is still around. They make an odd and small assortment of automotive related products these days, and I’ve contacted them asking for more info on the Sit Skate. If you want see pictures of the Sit-Skate, check out This is a thing. What is this thing?- Thanks to Darren Haugen for the tip.

The Vintage Skate Sticker Gallery has just reached 250, and we’re about at the end of Kilwag’s collection. If you’re interested in contributing, we’re accepting high resolution bulk scans if they are 600dpi.) If you have a sizable collection contact us to make other arrangements. Send a pic before you start scanning and we can let you know what we already have waiting (about 200) to be processed.

It’s been a long time since I’ve added new zines to the 80’s skate zine gallery. Chipping away at the backlog, here are Skate Edge #2 from New Jersey, circa 1983, and Raw Zine #8 from Connecticut, circa 1988. That’s 32 ages of photocopied nostalgia from the collection of Kevin Johnson.