Expensive Spam

Sure, $148 might seem like a lot for Spam brand skateboard, but it’s more than it seems. It may look like a generic retro plastic skateboard, but the deck is in fact made out of recycled aircraft aluminum by Alluminati Skateboards. Where does recycled aircraft aluminum come from? Maybe they scour the countryside for airplane wrecks. In any case they have figured out a way to digitally print graphics on aluminum decks, most of which have a different appearance than this cruiser style. The Spam site does a horrible job of selling these decks, there are no alternate views or enlargeable photos.

– Thanks to Adam Jih for the tip.

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Toilet Water Belongs in the…

I’m not sure if anyone at Carolina Herrera is paying attention to the interns or not. “Our Revolutionned Hormones” is the kind of thing you’r make up to be poke fun at this sort of thing. What is this sort of thing? It’s 212 a fragrance for male models in NYC judging by the promo video.

– Thanks to Andres Counyo for the tip

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Midwest Zine Drop

Just uploaded 4 new issues to the 80’s Skatezine Gallery, bringing the total to 42, with plenty more to come. These latest 4 have a Midwest focus, Skate Straight (#8 and #9) from Dayton Ohio, featuring lots of Surf Ohio / Cow Skates action, and Chi-town Shred (#3 and #6) from Chicago. Still trying to figure out who sent me the scans of Skate Straight, email crashed over a decade ago and all I have are a couple corrupt PDF’s.

Skate-Ball Can be Yours for only 100k

I bought another issue of Skateboarding Industry News and included in the auction was an issue of something called Skate & Surf which I had never seen before, and didn’t really pay any attention to it. Glancing at it I thought it was an early 80’s mini mag or pamphlet or some sort of insert or giveaway. Turns out it was the 2nd issue of a new (at the time) trade publication dated March/April of 1978. Contrary to Skateboarding Industry News, the art direction of Skate & Surf made it look closer to something like Action Now than a stodgy industry magazine. Flipping through it you might think it was aimed at skateboarders and not skate shop owners. The huge bonus to me was finally finding a full page ad fro Skate-ball, some 14 years after I found the first one online, and here it is, freshly scanned and transcribed., starting at $25,000 in $1978, and a perfect business opportunity for the absentee owner.

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Is this Movie in 3D?

No, but your face is… Speaking of faces…. the only positive from the photo above used to sell the Kodak Pixpro Orbit 360 camera is the fact that when this kid inevitably eats concrete due to having a large object obstructing his field of vision, he won’t have far to fall. Don’t blame the folks at Kodak this image seems to be the brainchild of Office Depo. Actually, it’s both their faults unless someone coughs one up for us to review. The video from this particular setup would probably be highly amusing, half the screen would be that kid’s face pressed up the fisheye.First person to get the title refuse get’s a valuable NoPrize™!

Fight the Power

Normally I’m against using your local skatepark to film an RC car commercial, hold a nerf battle, drop off your scooter kids like it’s a daycare, or basically any non-skateboarding related usage of skatepark. However, in this case, I’m happy to make an exception, albeit ultimately sad that it has come to this… again. Welcome to the Derek Chauvin murder trial. These pics come from BennyCruz via Public Enemy. Fight the power.

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Rolling Russian Style

Impulse buys, some are good, but this one? VERY NICE!!! I bought his Soviet era skateboard from a seller in the Ukraine. Sure, I paid more in shipping than I did for the actual item but I couldn’t pass this up. That’s Leonid Brezhnev in the upper left, he was the leader in the USSR from 1977-1982, which is the period I’m guessing this skateboard was produced. ( Seller could only add 80’s ) It’s cast aluminum! I LIKE! The text translates to “Rolling.”

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Ads from Skateboarding Industry News

One of my favorite old skateboarding magazines in my Posession is Skateboarding Industry News, a magazine aimed at skateshops and movers and shakers in the skateboarding industry. There’s a lot of interesting morsel to digest like forecasts, reports on injury liability coverage and trademark lawsuits. At some point I may put some of that stuff online, but the reason I bought this was for the adverts. I just added 45 ads to Vintage Skatemag Advert Gallery, which brings the gallery total to 350 (!) adverts. The latest additions include Sims, Banzai, Duke, Rector, Tarwheels, Lazer Trucks, Blazer Trucks, California Free Former, IDI Urethane, Duraflex, California hardwoods, Cooper, Donel, NHS, Starflex, IKS Bearings, Skateboarder Magazine, Excellerator Wheels, Belair Boards, Pavlan Industries, Powell, Composite Materials Inc, Sanjon, Mr B’s, Skyhooks, Pro Class, Bahne, Megatron, Poni-Cones, I.S.A., Sea Breeze, the Stick, Panther Wheels, Eagle, Gull Wing, Vans and more. 45 down and 25 left to go, check out the additions from Volume 1, No 4 of Skateboard Industry News.