There’s an auction group online benefiting the Tony Hawk Foundation. Alongside opportunities to hang out at the Tony Hawk headquarters or have a Birdhouse session, there are also some items from Tony’s personal collection. The standout gem is Tony’s 2nd place trophy From the 1989 Savanah Slamma II, signed of course.

These images were sparked by a post in the Vintage Skatemag Gallery for a board called the Chaka Zulu. I had a vague recollection of these advertisements from back in the day as being some sort of foil clad foam core deck, but I wasn’t sure. Nathan McDernott saw the post and sent in some pictures of his Galaxy board collection. He has confirmed that these are foam core boards clad in a thin sheet of aluminum. He also mentioned there were some Nash skateboards made with the same technology. Texas Rec Corporation was the manufacturer of the Galaxy skateboards, and their mailing address in Wichita Falls, Texas is about 120 miles from Nash’s location in Fort Worth. These two companies are separate entities, so the Nash models might have come about through geographical proximity and one company or the other reaching out for more business. Both Nash and Texas Rec are still in business, primarily making water sports accessories, with Nash tending towards the more active items you might ride on, while Texas Rec makes a lot of lounge chairs and life jacket related items.

Brand-X skateboards are being re-issued! These are hand screened (not heat transfers) made by Watson Laminates, the same company that produced Brand-X boards before they shut down. However, it gets a little tricky here. Bernie Tostenson owned and screened and supervised the original Brand-X, but he sold the company in 1986, but stuck around to supervise until some time in 1989. The company rereleasing these is the one that bought it from Bernie. It’s unclear whether or not these early Brand-X designs were ever produced by Watson, and they do mention having to recreate the separations, a task that I know to be a time consuming one. The decks have an old school truck pattern but will be distinguishable as re-releases by varied color ways on the top graphic as well as being laser etched in editions of 111 each. The first three models are the Knucklehead and two variations of the Weirdo, one on a natural wood that has not actually been released before.

It’s been a while since I updated the 80’s Skate Zine gallery, so here’s Contort #7 from some time in the mid to late 80’s. Theres no date listed, but both MC’s Bodyslam and Skate and Annoy are listed/reviewed so I’m guessing ’88 or ’89.

I become sick whenever I hear the words “war” and “desert” nowadays, so I almost decided not to post this very crappy board. The drawing has absolutely nothing to do with skateboarding,  besides that it takes us back to the early 90’s when this never-ending war started and skateboarding was about to die. Can somebody please explain to me how you could buy this for your kids? It’s still on sale for an explosive price on eBay.

I have no idea what this pin is supposed to mean. It’s an 80’s era pin, possibly early 90’s. Maybe the 40 down the drain is for your dead homies? All I know for sure is that the first thing I thought of when I saw the weird face on the skateboarder was the movie They Live. Sigh… R.I.P. Rowdy Roddy Piper.

Two comics that were originally sent to me as fuzzy low light photographs by MC. They’ve both turned up online. At the top is Baby Blues, from January, 2013. The second Calvin and Hobbes strip originally ran May 2nd, 1987. Bill waters has a new book out and unfortunately, a bunch of dead links on his website.

Like the Turf before it, a section of the previously thought to be decimated Del Mer Skate Ranch was briefly uncovered and skated earlier this month. I’m actually surprised that this didn’t make bigger rounds on the Interwebs, even if it was a hoax, and I don’t think it was. You never can tell with Tony and his hoverboard videos. The photo below is of another legendary spot that gets dug up every 5-10 years and skated, despite each “last time” being the final demise. The spot shall remain unnamed because, you know, it’s a big secret. Which of you have skated the bottom spot? Leave a comment if you have.

When it’s time to kick up your wheels, do it with one of our deluxe skateboards. All are constructed of maple hardwood with silkscreened designs and sand grip tape surface… Each model has 9″ trucks, precision bearings and kicktails.

From the 1986 Sears Wishbook, featuring the usual suspects from Variflex as well as a couple unknown brands, a “vinyl” skateboard, prepackaged plastic accessories and some craptacular safety equipment. Aside from the Variflex Voodoo, there’s a Bad Moon Rising, Demon, Maze, Shock Treatment, and a Robota.

Blockhead Skateboards holds a strange place in my personal skateboarding history. It is easily one of the top 4 brands that I admired in the 80’s, and yet I never actually owned one. I did own one of those Easter Island head shirts, and we interviewed Sam Cunningham in issue #5 of Skate and Annoy when it was a zine. And our buddy Swiv was on the flow team for a while. Added to the list of things I said I would do but never quite got around to is making a website for Blockhead Skateboards. Well, Dave and Ron have done fine without my help, and now they are back in business with new decks and re-issues as well. If you blinked then you missed the availability of the original Streetstyle deck cut from blanks pressed when the deck was in the final phases of production. These uncut blanks (maple and fiberglass) were almost 30 years old, and were kept in storage by a former manager of the Uncle Wiggley wood shop. Only 30 of these were made available, and not surprisingly, they sold out within a day. So, I apologize to our readers for not getting this out sooner. If it’s any consolation, There’s still lots of Blockhead goodness available, and you can still get a Skate Crate from Dave. I’m kicking myself for not ponying up for one of these…