Check out this early 80’s “Street Sucker” from the Netherlands. The graphic and two-tone wheels look like something distinctly American, although there is no visible company name to be found.
– Thanks to Michiel Walrave for the pic.
Read more
Here are som 2021 additions to the the X-treme X-Mas ornaments collection, courtesy of Josh Baker (1-3) and Darren Haugen. Happy Holidays!
Read more
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.
Read more
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
Read more
Ok then, this should be it, the last round up of things to add to past posts about Alf. We’ve got two additional ALF skateboards and a third party sticker.
Read more
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]
With sadness I learned that founding member of the Surf Punks, Drew Steele has passed away after a battle with cancer. Against all odds, the Surf Punks had a huge influence on me as a teenager growing up in the Midwest. I first heard them on the Dr. Demento show, and saw them briefly mentioned in a blurb about “violent surf culture punk music” in Time magazine of all places. The picture above is from Drew’s Instagram feed shortly after Dennis Dragon passed in 2017. Bonus shot of the making of the iconic cover of My Beach featuring the first (?) skateboard-as-guitar after the jump.
Read more
It’s Indigenous Peoples day. Here’s more Joe Buffalo. This video by the New York Times is a little more stylized than perhaps it needed to be, but overall it’s very heavy. What else could you expect from the aftereffects of Kill the Indian; Save the Child and the boarder school assimilation programs?
Read more
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.
