5 years ago I found a weird looking board on Ebay. The wacky truck configuration and the fact that it was a promotional board for an auto parts manufacturer made me save the pictures. I just recently found an ad for Hooker Headers in the May, 1976 issue of Hot Rod that had a order form for the Hooker Headers skateboard, and amazingly enough, I was able to find those old pictures among the flotsam on my hard drive. It’s got a metal plate between the trucks, similar to the Flex-trol, but it also adds the ability to change your wheelbase on the fly. Hooker was positioning this as the “ultimate suspension system” for skateboards. Was it a way to build brand loyalty for kids to young to drive yet? I can’t imagine they had a longterm business model that involved skateboarding. Still, it was too expensive of a setup (manufacturing wise) to be purely promotional, especially considering that they offered three boards in two colors as well as the suspension system in two different configurations. Maybe someone at Hooker had a kid who skated. The brand is still around but it looks like it has been absorbed by Holley. You have to wonder if drag racer Bill Jenkins was pleased with having to share his ad space with a child’s toy. He received the nickname “The Grump” from his comrades on the track due to his no-nonsense attitude and general avoidance of chit-chatting with fellow racers.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader zeno01 and some scans from Matthijs we have a little more info on the origins of this board. See the Concrete Wave interview with Steve Alba after the advert.

UPDATE: Reader pics of a Hooker skateboard here.

I don’t know how all this works yet, so I am going to try and post a link. This is some footage I digitized from a 1989 Nude Bowl Session with myself, Lester Kasai, and Richard Salazar AKA Sal…

Maybe after I do 10 or 20 bonehead moves like posting this, Randy will teach me how to put a proper link up…

Editor’s Note: Here’s the link He has a YouTube account now, video after the jump.

D*Face is back at the Ridiculous Pool, this time with a contraption that attaches a can of spray paint to a skateboard and leaves a trail. Now you’ll never have to ask “What’s the line over the death box?” Photo essay online at Concrete Disciples or catch the video after the jump.

– Thanks to MC and Ryan Hass for the tip.

I swear Salba must have joined a union or something. It’s like you can’t film a music video with skateboarding unless it features Steve Alba in a pool. Jackass 3 opens today I think.

– Thanks to Matt Beasley for the tip.

Inset: An amusing fake Salba workout video. Good concept, a little sloppy on the follow through. Larger: Skating the wildfire pools of California with Salba. The first quarter is setup, but they get to the pool eventually. Watch them both after the jump.

– Thanks to ColinWalshRules for the tip.