Reposting this because I can relate to the story of starting a skateboard company out of a garage. I can relate to all of it, except the part where the company is successful… From Blockhead Dave: Wow! Has it really been 40 years since I screen-printed my very first batch of skateboards in my parents’ garage?  It was late spring 1985, I was fresh from a screen printing class at Sierra College, and had never printed more than 1 or 2 of anything.  I had 60 red Streetstyle boards manufactured by Uncle Wiggley and I was nervous as hell, but no choice but to just go for it. I pulled the squeegee over and over again, honing my skills as I went along, then I laid each board in the driveway to dry, since I hadn’t built any racks yet. Well, I made it happen, and there were 60 skateboards with my art and my company name on them and just like that I was in business!  You can get on elf the limited Streetstyles in old school or the new school hole patterns starting Wednesday (9/24) at noon PST

These aren’t the first Devo skateboards, there was a possible bootleg as well as an official model from Globe circa 2008, although I never actually saw them for sale anywhere. It’s all moot now, as we dance the pool to these six new official Devo decks you can pre-order a the official Devo merch site. Five of the boards feature art based on the first 5 album covers I can see omitting Smooth Noodle Maps and even Total Devo but what about Shout! and definitely Something for Everyone? Oh yes, we have to mention the truly devolved Energy Dome model! All the boards feature different top graphics as well. These look great, and they should because they cost $120 (!) each except for the Energy Dome model, which is $150.

Another board from the old Canadian company Dominon. It’s no Rood Dood, but it’s still kind of interesting. This one almost looks like they licensed the likeness of Looney Tunes character The Road Runner. Who knows maybe they did. There’s an artist signature that looks something like T. Pailot or T. Millot, and other small text that could be a copyright, but doesn’t look like it says Warner Brothers. – Thanks to Blis Jo Toen for the pics.

I saw a post online from David Whitney looking to sell an 80’s era “Wizard Pro Model” from Action Sports which appears to be a graphic that they barely modified from their 1986 Brian Martin pro model, as seen in our Vintage Skatemag Ads gallery. Barely modified? It looks like they cut out Brian’s name on the black plate and hastily replaced it with the word “Wizard.” You can see where the “Martin” has been knocked out of the blue plate. Brian Martin himself chimed in on the original post in the gallery, and we’d ask him for the rest of the story, but sadly he passed away some time circa 2021. Sure, you can read your Disposable volumes and all to get the low down on your Powells and Sant Cruz variations, but Skate and Annoy is here for your c-grade company minutia!

Well now… this is something. Is this the ultimate eBay auction? You’re looking at roughly 3,000 cut (but not finished) skateboard blanks, NOS from the 80’s wood shop of “Wee” Willi Winkels. Yes, he of the famous Corvette hippie jump fame in the 70’s, and most importantly, the person who brought laminated maple to the world of skateboard decks. The asking price of 90k (!) works out to $30 a deck. As amazing as the find is, it doesn’t seem like a reasonable investment considering they are mostly unfinished and in need of multiple passes on the router, not to mention painting, sealing, and screen printing. It’s an interesting auction for sure.

A glimpse of our trumped future from Paisley Skates, Real and Consolidated. WTF America???

There’s some buzz about a large collection of skate memorabilia up for sale, not only because of the size of the collection, but the method and price. Right now the only way to see it is via Instagram. The seller reportedly is asking $125,000 for the entire lot, and is unwilling to break it up piecemeal. So far the seller has not been identified, but the collection includes a statistically abnormal concentration of gear from Skatemaster Tate and Adrian Demain, which may provide some clues. Is this interesting? Yes, but the thing that really fascinates and intrigues me is the inclusion of a mega-rare, but ultimately valueless (except to Neil and myself) Skate and Annoy t-shirt in the middle of the collection. This is probably second iteration of a design that went through 3 changes. The first batch was screen printed in a house on a makeshift rig with water based inks printed on cheap Hanes undershirts bought in 3 packs at local discount warehouse/clearance type of store. I imagine I screened less than 2 dozen. The version in this collection is likely the second iteration, and may have been printed on slightly higher quality shirts, but again, would have…

Tanner Palm sent in a couple pics of a “Smia” Bootleg of the Kevin Staab Pirate deck. It’s the same board seen in this post, but the pictures are high resolution and the top is visible as well.

Brand new, vintage-style artwork hand painted on a NOS vintage skateboard, an idea close to my heart. I’ve still got that box of NOS steel wheel skateboard truck combos in my basement. Although my intent was to screen print graphics on brand new hardwood decks with the same shape. Grits Co takes it a step further. – Thanks to MC for the tip. 

Pure crap or Pure Genius? In the late 80’s I wouldn’t have been caught dead on a Variflex board, now I kind of want to make a t-shirt out of this old sticker design.  The post on the Variflex XP series still gets a lot of traffic, but I’d never seen a Spittle board… until I googled it after writing that last sentence. I found one from Ebay seller toddtwist, AKA Sean Goff. Turns out the Spittle board looks semi-legit. This one sold for a killing at $280 considering NOS Variflex XP series were going for $70 8 years ago. Art of Skateboarding dates this board to 1988, and they’ve got one in a nice white colorway. UPDATE: Justin Goetz has a mind like steel trap. He recognized this deck from an old Lance Mountain column in the November, 1989 issue of Transworld. It’s actually a pro model for Michel Spitalhouse. I added scans to the end of the post.