I’m sorry that this is a couple of weeks late everybody. I could make excuses about how busy the Christmas season is and other shit that’s going on in my life, but truth be told there wasn’t much that went off in December on eBay that got me fired up. When I have lots of exciting stuff to cover I get fired up and this shit types itself. But when it’s an average month with tons of the same old same old to sort through, it gets difficult to get motivated to look for the unusual and type for hours on end. So it was in December. There was some interesting stuff, but very little that got me really excited. Now, looking forward to January I already have some good stuff stored, so that is looking a lot more promising! Anyway, that being said I hope you enjoy this months edition because I worked really hard on it, and tried not to give you the same old Hawks and Gators etc.
This month’s BayWatch is brought to you by the amazing album “Once Upon a Season” by Chicago band, The Rosedales. I meant to feature their first album “Raise Your Spirits” in an earlier Baywatch but never got around to it, but I’m not going to make that same mistake with this, their second full-length release. First a little background. The Rosedales grew out of a Misfits cover band called The Onlys who then started doing their own originals. As they realized that they liked their own stuff they changed their name, and in doing so became so much more than another Misfits sound-alike band. True, their songs do deal with death and monster etc, but they are certainly not “horror punk by numbers” by any means. Their songs have a real depth to them, with killer hooks coupled with a real 50s feel at times. Add a great sense of humor and you have a real winner. The first album was full of straight-ahead rockers, but the second album is a little deeper with some slower songs. Don’t be put off by the cornball storyline that starts and ends the album. I think they’ve outgrown that kind of silliness personally. The first real song “Cold Cold Heart” is classic Rosedales, and is followed by “Murder of Crows” which starts off like a spastic late period Big Country but then comes on like gothic Beach Boys. I love it. The entire album is awesome. The sad thing is that I believe that a couple of the band members have moved to different parts of the country so I don’t think that they even are doing the band fulltime anymore. That’s a real shame. Give it a listen on iTunes; I promise you, you won’t regret it. If you like the more straight ahead stuff, listen to “It’s Midnight” off “Raise Your Spirits”. And then buy them! Support smaller bands and true indy labels!
60s, 70s, early 80s.
First up this month is this Dogtown Jim Muir “Red Dog” complete from 1978. It has Tracker trucks and green Kryptonics wheels. The deck appears to be in pristine condition as do the trucks and wheels, so this is a beautiful example of a late 70s Dogtown classic. This would have gotten you laid in 1978, but in 2009 it would get you $582. I’m not sure which is better.
A couple of historical skateboard decks went off in December 2009, both from Scott Peck, the owner of Boulder Boards in Boulder Colorado. First up is this prototype Shogo Kubo Airbeam from 1979. This is the prototype that Boulder Boards used to sell Dogtown on the idea of a new type of skateboard construction in 1979. The auction has a great detailed history of the deck, but I’ll give you the highpoints. Wes and Jim were sorry to have missed out on the Tri-Beam design (see below) that went to Kryptonics, so they wanted something similar for their top pro. The builders wanted a 6-ply board that was strong yet light, so they built a series of hollow beams into the deck, surrounded by some special resin and glues. The result was a truly innovative skateboard deck that is string and rigid and yet light. Good condition Shogo airbeams regularly go in the thousands of dollars range, but this one is the prototype that sold the idea. As such it doesn’t have any graphics, but it is still a great piece of skateboard history. It sold for $2,550.
In similar vein, here is the prototype of the Kryptonics Tri-Bream. By early 1979 most companies were putting out the same flat, wide and heavy decks from the same wood suppliers. As Todd says, “The market was ripe for some changes”. He was determined to make a strong, wide deck that came in under 3 pounds without compromising strength or durability. He first came up with the K-Beam: a stronger center section and less weight around the edges, using poplar instead of maple. Kryptonics got wind of it and wanted to use the unique decks, so the K-Beam went to Kryptonics and was a huge seller. Micke Alba wanted a concave deck so Boulder made one with very light poplar side rails molded into the deck as a stiffening element, but because it made the edge thicker it needed wheel wells. These side rails were done the same way as the center beam, hence the name ‘Tri Beam”, and this is the master prototype. Obviously it has never been screened or set up, and like the Shogo above, is an important piece of skate history coming from a time when companies were trying to come up with new and exciting products that really worked. $2,424.
From a similar time period comes this Turner slalom rig, complete with Gullwing Phoenix split-axle trucks and red Kryptonics. It’s in pristine shape and looks fast as hell. It went for $700.
So there are sets and there are sets, but this one is something special! It’s a set of three NASA/space themed decks from the 1960s. We have the Roll-A-Board Rocket, the Titan and the Apollo Skateship. All are completes with steel or clay wheels, and all are dirty and beat-up, but what a collection! Each by itself is a sign of the time, but altogether they make quite a statement and show how kids of the day were totally into space exploration. The set sold for $320.
The price on this auction really shocked me. Here we have a set of mint Gullwing Phoenix IV split axle trucks in gold, along with a mint set of G&S Rollerball wheels. By themselves I would have expected the trucks to sell for hundreds, but imagine my surprise when the whole thing only sold for $200. This was the peak of skateboard truck and wheel experimentation and engineering at the time, so that low price tag really shocked me. I hope the buyer knows what he has!
And now we go from the sublime to the ridiculous! The 70s were a time for skateboard experimentation and growth, but the 70s were also the time of skateboarding’s biggest boom time, so every company imaginable was looking to cash in with a skateboarding themed product. The Bay City Rollers were big in the mid 70s, so why not meld the two crazes? And here we have the result: a classic piece of skate exploitation from the 70s. The flat, no kicktail deck with the 3-hole truck-mounting pattern suggests that they found some old decks from the late 60s and painted over the top of them. But the 2-tone wheels are strangely appealing and ahead of their time, so there you go. This is a totally bizarre monstrosity from a bizarre time period, and I bet that Kilwag is kicking himself for not winning this! $61.
Mid 1980s
So let’s start off the 80s section this month with this Vision Agent Orange II deck from 1987. It’s a complete rework from the first version of this deck, both shape wise and graphically. The first was a pig with wheel wells and with the original Agent Orange logo on broken glass graphic. This one has a stinger shape and a circuit board looking graphic. This one was thrown out into the crowd at an Agent Orange show, and is signed by the band. It’s a nice looking deck and it sold for $355.
Now here’s a classic example of an excellent and valuable deck being hampered by the sellers refusal to remove all of the crap. It’s a G&S Neil Blender “faces” deck from 1987, and if you haven’t figured it out yet, the deck can be viewed in either direction. One way the white faces are right side up, and the other way the black faces are right side up. It’s a truly classic and clever graphic, and the colorway here is great. However it’s totally hampered by the crappy black trucks, black rails, red tailbone and lapper. A clever and subtle graphic is totally obscured and dominated by all of the crap. Strip it all away and you’d have a fantastic looking example of Blender at his finest. But right now you have busy mess. It sold for $300.
Now I had my eyes on this one, but it went a little high for me. It’s a Blockhead team deck from 1989, the “Bob O’ Clock” model to be precise. The graphic is classic Ron Cameron and is really eye-catching in that loose graphic style of his. The deck appears to be in mint condition and is a real head turner. There was a lot of action on this one, especially in the last 10 minutes. It started low but ended at $203.
Here is a Powell Peralta “Bug” team model from 1988. You are probably familiar with the much more common checkerboard background bug from 1989, but this one has the much rarer ants background. The shape is different too. This one has a much cleaner shape, while the checkerboard bug has money bumps around the back truck area. That one also has a flat nose, where this one has the classic spoon nose. This one is mint in shrink, and the colorway is excellent. The background is strong and the main bug really pops. There are a ton of the checkerboard bugs around, but the ants version is considerably rarer, as shown by the $648 price.
Staying with the theme of Powell Peralta decks with strong background graphics we have this Steve Caballero “Dragon and Bats” from 1987. It’s the 7-ply, full-sized model, not the more commonly seen “notch nose” street deck. It’s mint in shrink, and in a most outstanding colorway. Man they pulled out all the stops when they made the dragon and bats. Some of the color combinations are just superb. It went for $500.
And speaking of outstanding colorways you have the 80s Alva decks. Some of the graphics weren’t the best, but they went all out when it came to the backgrounds. Most famous are the fades, but they also did solid dips with speckles of white and black, and they even did some freestyle airbrushing on certain decks. That appears to be the case here. It’s a Bill Danforth “circle of skulls” from 1986, but the most interesting thing about it is the background coloring. It looks to be a tan deck with airbrushed green swirls! I would guess it’s one of a kind, and that in itself makes it a rarity. Man they must have had some fun back in the woodshop in those days. I guess they had no rules, and the screeners could do whatever they wanted! It’s in good used condition and sold for $180.
This is the Vision Gator ‘Tailless Monkey Street Scene” deck from 1990. It was Gator’s last pro model with Vision before he signed with Fishlips and then all hell broke loose. We all know the story. Supposedly it’s very rare, but they seem to appear with some regularity. I feature it to show that there was other Gator graphics apart from the classic swirl pattern. Unfortunately they all suck pretty hard, just like this one. It’s too complex, and what might have seemed like irony at conception now seems obvious and clichéd. It still sold for $300.
So there are a number of decks that featured every month in this column, so I try not to focus on them anymore, and this, the Santa Cruz Jeff Grosso Demon from 1987 is one such deck. However, I really like this used specimen for some reason, so here it is. The red dip colorway is strong, but it’s the overall condition of the deck that attracts me here. The original owner wanted to plaster it with stickers, but realized that it had a super strong graphic, so the stickers are plastered on the tail instead, and may tell use something of the original setup. We have an original Airwalk Shoes sticker, 2 Slime Balls, Powell RatNuts, Schmitt Stix Sawblade, Vision Grigley, Tracker Trucks and a Bones Swiss sticker. Plus some rip grip on the nose for grabs. So let’s take this all the way. He had it set up the Trackers, Slime Balls wheels with Bones Swiss bearings, Powell RatNuts mounting hardware, and he wore Airwalks on his feet.
Here’s a deck that’s jumped in value over the last couple of years. It’s the Powell Peralta Tommy Guerrero “Iron Gate” from 1989. Initially this deck was seen as a cheap knockoff of the Guerrero “flaming dagger”, originally released in 1985, but more recently the intricate beauty of this deck has found greater appreciation, and this deck has jumped in value. This is a really nice specimen, being on a metallic dark blue dip that allows the Iron Gate graphic to really pop. This is a really handsome deck, and it went for $282.
Now here’s one that you don’t see very often. It’s a Skull Skates Dave Hackett “Iron Cross” from 1986. It’s a shame that the photo in the auction was so crappy, because this was an interesting deck. It had a really funky shape, with tons of little money bumps, dips and bulges. It’s also an interesting graphic, much in the classic Skull Skates fashion. The plastics appear to have done their job well because the deck looks to be in great condition. It comes complete with Trackers and some kind of tall wheel. The rider must have liked Walker Chopsticks rails because he has put stickers in at least 2 places on the deck. Overall it’s a very nice and unusual complete that sold for $178.
Take a long look at this deck because I’m not going to feature it again for sometime. It’s a Vision Joker from 1989, brought out at the same time as the first “new” Batman movie. Looking back it’s funny how much publicity that movie made because it’s a total piece of crap in hindsight. Michael Keaton as Batman? Are you kidding me? Anyway, this obviously is The Joker, and the companion deck featured a comic book Batman. It’s average and totally uninspired, but for some reason it sold for $600.
How about instead of showing another Mullen mutt or chess piece we show a different 80s freestyle deck this month? Ok, here’s the Santa Cruz Ray ‘Skippy” Meyer from 1987. The graphics feature a businessman doing al kinds of wacky freestyle tricks for some reason. I felt bad for all other freestylers in the mid 80s because if Rodney was at the contest they were guaranteed not to win the gold. This is a happy little deck and it went for $300.
Now this might be the best Dogtown Aaron Murray “Tsunami” that I’ve ever seen. The condition is NOS and the colorway is just excellent. The green waves really pop from that dark blue background. I love pretty much everything about this deck, from the colorway to the shape (love the scallops all the way around). To the way they incorporate the classic Dogtown cross with the graphic that says something about the skater. Awesome. $600.
Now here’s something I bet you didn’t expect: a month with no Mullens, Mountains or Hawks but two Sims Eric Nash decks! The first is the Lizard mini from 1988 and the second is the full sized Pumpkin from the same year. The lizard is on a stunning silver dip that acts as a neutral background allowing the greens and blues to really scream off of this bad boy. I also really like that the graphic isn’t just stuck between the two trucks; it runs all the way to the nose. The pumpkin graphic also runs all the way to the nose and shape wise looks almost identical to the Schmitt Stix Steve Douglas ‘Brew” from the same year. They came from the same woodshop I believe, so I guess that is understandable. If you are new to collecting and not rich as shit, then you have 2 choices. Either get used decks from the more well known skaters of the 80s or buy NOS decks from some of the guys that weren’t as well known, like Eric Nash. The lizard went for a very reasonable $180 while the pumpkin went for $251.
I don’t feature this Natas graphic very much, but something about this complete appeals to me, so here it is: the Santa Cruz Natas “evil cat” from 1989. Yes it says Santa Monica Airlines on it, but it was made by Santa Cruz. If you take off the back truck you will see the Santa Cruz logo right there. This one is used but in great condition with a little tail wear but not much else really. The graphic is all there and looks great in a dark blue stain. The yellow wheels highlight the yellows in the deck, and he even found blue and black G&S chromolloy trucks to match the colorway. It’s a striking complete and the $250 price tag seems like a good price.
And here’s another Natas. This is the Santa Cruz Wes Humpston penned panther, and this one is in a very vibrant violet. It appears to be NOS, but it’s tough to say because the damned photo is so oversaturated. The price on this one stayed low for a long time, almost until auction’s end, and I was tempted to bid, but it was a zero feedback seller who also talked about selling the deck for charity. Those can both be sure signs of trouble so I stayed away. Whoever won it got it for a nice price: $365.
Here’s a Zorlac Todd Prince “Frog Prince” from 1988. I think of this as the mid period of Zorlac: after the legends like Gibson and Johnson but before the San Diego move. They were still putting out quality decks and great graphics but for a new line of pros; guys like Todd Prince, Rob Mertz, Danny Myhre and the Abrooks from England. This Prince model is NOS on a stunning red dip. The shape is phallic, actually very much so now that I look at the deck on its side. Holy shit does that look like a dick. A dick with flames about to come shooting out. Didn’t Eddie Murphy do a comedy bit about that sometime? But I digress. It’s a nice looking deck– once you turn it vertically that is. $260.
Neil, what’s the deal? A Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp for the second month in a row? Maybe I’m softening up in my old age, or maybe the only one I can stomach is the Roskopp III where the creature is bursting through the target. Whichever one it is, I really love the colorway on this one. The canary yellow works really well with the black and white target and the blue and pink graphic. It all hangs together really well. It is used, but the seller removed all of the plastics and cleaned it up really well, and his endeavor was rewarded to the tune of $432.
Now here’s another Dogtown that I would love to have on my wall. It’s a Dogtown Ben Schroeder “Big Ben” from 1988. Lance Mountain originally did the artwork on this one, and I really like how the Dogtown cross is incorporated into the tower of Big Ben. Now I don’t get the Indian feathers, but lots of Dogtown decks had the feather motif in the background I guess, so I’ll let it slide. Anyway, the purple stain is majestic and this a sweet looking board. It went for $315.
Now last month we had a used Santa Cruz Keith Meek “slasher” in baby blue, while this month we have it in a vivid red dip! I was saying last month that I never remember seeing this deck in anything other than black or white, so it looks really refreshing on these other colors. It almost saves the childishly inane graphic! The deck appears to be in excellent but used condition: it looks like there are holes in the tail and nose for plastic, but that could be just discoloration I guess. Whichever way you slice it, it’s a good-looking deck. $306.
Now, we’ve seen a lot of used Santa Cruz Spideys go off recently, and most go for a few hundred, but how much would a mint in shrink one got for? Does such a thing even exist? Well in December we saw that it did and it was up for auction. Yes, there was a mint, still in shrink black spidey on eBay. Bidding started high immediately as you would expect, and it kept going higher. Is black the best colorway for this deck? For a lot of folks it probably is, but overall I think I prefer the colored dips. There’s no argument that the leopard skin stands out the most on the black though, and this was a fantastic, rare specimen. It ended up at $2,222, which seems high, but this is a very popular and highly desirable deck. So no, it didn’t surprise me.
And here’s a head scratcher. It’s a Wiggley Designs “honeycomb” team deck from 1987. You might remember that I won a NOS white one a few months back for around $70 so when this red dip went for $425 I was puzzled. The red is probably more rare, but I actually much prefer the way the white one looks. So I either got a real bargain or the red ones are way more collectible. Either way, I would like to have the red one so I could display them side-by-side. That would be cool.
And to end the 80s section this month, I have this absolute stunner of a deck. It’s officially an Alva John Thomas “Going Off” from 1987, but as you can see, it is as far from a run-of-the-mill Thomas as you can get. Generally it’s a pretty crap graphic, but this one, outlined as it is in rasta green, red and yellow really stands out. However, it is the background that makes this truly a one-of-a-kind deck. The blue dip is super bright: it’s hard to believe that this was made almost 25 years ago. And then they gave it the paint speckle treatment, but big specks of black and bright white. The overall effect is absolutely dazzling. It is bright, loud and just really fun. The guys doing this stuff at Alva were mad geniuses. And oh yeah, it sold for $209.
90s-present day
First up in the 90s section this month is this Santa Cruz Corey O’Brien “Mutant City” from 1992. Corey is most well known for his “reaper “deck from 1988, but he did have 2 more graphics on Santa Cruz after that one, this being his final SC deck. The graphics feature cartoony mutants after a nuclear blast, with the artwork being done by Daniel Clowes. Apparently a lot of these were screened upside down, but this one appears to be correct. I’m not blown away by the graphic, but it was reissued in the Ashes to Ashes series a few years ago. It went for $415.
Here we have the Stereo Jason Lee ”Retirement” deck from 1997. See, the cowboy is riding off into the setting sun? I’m guessing that he was heading off to Hollywood and knew his full time days as a pro were over. He became a big Hollywood and TV star, but skating was still in his blood, so he resurrected Stereo in 2003 and is still putting out decks with his name on them. This one sold for $365.
And here’s another Stereo Jason Lee, but this one is a lot more artistic and esoteric. It’s the “Flower Fairy” slick from 1993. The graphic has three beautifully rendered fairies sleeping inside of flowers while the sun sets behind them. It looks like a 1920s illustration, and is a huge contrast both in content and artistic style to anything else that was going on graphically at the time. It’s really odd but I really like it. Mint slicks of any kind are rare, and this one sold for $610.
Here we have a Powell Adam McNatt “Schiffer” from 1992. It’s a black and white graphic featuring the supermodel Claudia Schiffer obviously, and followed hot on the heels of the Blind decks featuring a different image of Claudia Schiffer. The story is that Sean Cliver had come up with the original Powell McNatt Schiffer red and black graphic, but had been fired, so he took that with him to Blind, who immediately released the graphic for each of their team riders. I guess George was mega pissed but he must have still liked the idea, so he released a similar Schiffer graphic for McNatt sometime later, and here it is. It sold for $455.
Steve Alba: the name is synonymous with Santa Cruz skateboards, but he actually only had four graphics with them: the bevel, the voodoo, the tiger, and this, the “cry baby” from 1990. This is one of those decks that nobody wanted a few years ago, you couldn’t give it away, but then something changed. Slowly but surely this deck sold out everywhere and suddenly it was tough to get. The graphic is totally naff, and I’ve never heard the official explanation, although I’d like to take some credit. In one of our print issue from 1988, I laid into Salba for whining about how cramped their flight to England had been for a contest. I said that nobody should be whining and crying like a baby about getting a free flight and accommodation in Europe. I think I referred to him as ‘Whining Lord Salba” instead of “Screaming Lord Salba”. Of course, this graphic probably has nothing to do with that, but I like to think it does. Anyway it sold for $350.
Now I don’t feature sets of decks very often and when I do it’s normally a full set from the same company, like the Chocolate train series or something. Those sets are misleading because normally there is one deck that is expensive and everybody wants while the rest are worth about $50 or something. But this set is neat. It is a set of Last Supper graphics, but all from different companies and time periods. First is The Unbelievers Scott Bourne from 2003, and then we have the Black Label last Supper team deck from 2007, then the Santa Cruz Emmanuel Guzman from 2008, and finally the Conscience “Happy Birthday Last Supper” from 2005. As a theme set it is really outstanding, and I want to say well done to the collector who put it together originally. It’s a great idea and I hope you enjoyed the $420 you got from the auction.
Assorted Crap
Yes it’s another one of those super crappy but very interesting knock-off decks that appeared in the late 80s from China. This is a knock off of the Grosso “Alice in Wonderland” deck obviously, but the smoke is spelling “Racer” instead of “Grosso”. It says “Racer” because it was made by the Rolls Racer company that were also responsible for the Jess Kendall amongst other famous knockoffs. It sold for $36. There actually is a second Grosso “Alice” rip-off, and that one does say Grosso on it, but it has this weird crackle background behind the graphic. When I do my knockoffs article one day I will show it off.
OK, rural Illinois appears to be the land of crappy skate ramps for sale on eBay. A few months ago we had the one that was so rickety it looked like the wood was rotten. Now we have this one that appears to be really well made, but it is so narrow that performing anything other than a fakie would be life threatening. Look, I’m not out to knock the guy selling it, but really, why make something that is so fundamentally unsuited to what it was made for? The ramp is less than 5 feet wide. Was the driveway originally only 6 feet wide or something? Or maybe the original owner was Tom Thumb or something. Whichever way you slice it, this is clearly not worth $1001, but hey, what do I know, because it sold!
Bargains!
For the second month in a row we have a G&S Neil Blender deck to kick off the bargain section! This one is the “Pow pow” deck from 1989. It’s set up and used, but it appears to be in really good shape overall. Not much tail mangling and the nose and graphics look pristine. Remove the trucks and wheels and you have a really nice Blender in a rich green stain for $110.
A couple of people really like the SMA everslick that went in the bargains section last month, but here’s an even better one! It’s a SMA Eric Britton from 1993, and this time it’s mint instead of used! The colors are bright and stunning, and the classic SMA seaplane logo looks fantastic as ever. That’s one nice looking piece of early 90s, and it sold for $103.
Whenever I see an original Deathbox deck go off I have to feature it, because that English company has a special place in my heart. The graphics were great, the concave was huge and the shapes were funky. Simply put they were a great company, and it’s a shame that they morphed into the industry followers that are Flip. This is a Deathbox Sean Goff “sun” from 1990 and it features the astrology/tarot card graphic style that he used a lot on his Deathbox decks. It’s in pretty rough shape, but Deathbox decks are tough to come by, so the $122 it went for still feels like a bargain to me.
I’m really pissed at myself that I didn’t bid on this one. It’s a Powell Peralta Tony Hawk “birdclaw w/ forest” obviously, and these have been going huge recently. This one went off just before Christmas, and much like the Lance Mountain below, it is a complete with a bad photo. Can that explain the $150 price tag? I’m not sure. I mean, remove the trucks here and you have a Hawk birdclaw in pink dip with a graphic that is 99% there. It has some minor razor-tail, but still, this is an $800 deck new. The buyer got a real bargain.
OK, here is the Alva John Thomas “Going Off” deck on a plain green stain. It’s not that exciting, but it is NOS and the colors are still super bright. $50? That’s plain silly.
So here’s the Powell Peralta Lance Mountain “Future Primitive”. It’s in the very popular silver dip, and it has wheel wells. It is mounted and used, but the multitude of plastics has done the job well because the graphic is all there and is as bright as the day it was bought. It ahs some crappy stickers on it, but you know what? With some time and patience those will all peel off, and once the plastics and trucks are removed you have a great looking Lance Mountain for the knockdown price of $102. Am I the only one that sees the potential here?
This is a Stereo Jason Lee “New Kid” model from 1995. It’s not well known, but I really like the 50s movie poster feel. It has been set up and used, but it is in very good condition. It sold for $61.
And finally this month we have this Santa Cruz Natas “Humpston Panther” complete. It is in the best colorway for this graphic IMHO, the awesome flat black. The yellows, blues and greens just scream off the background here. It does have a couple of smudges and scratches, but nothing too bad. It also has a couple of big stickers, but do stickers scare you that much? They will peel right off, I guarantee it! So remove the stickers and the one rail and trucks and you will have an awesome original Natas panther for just a little more than the reissue at $200. Just to keep this in perspective, a mint black one sold for $1,400 18 months ago. So that’s it, keep ignoring the completes with stickers everybody, because that means more for me!
See ya next month.
– Neil
