Not much newsworthy about the fingerboard fad these days. If you’ve been to the toy aisle of a Target lately you’ll have noticed the the Tech Deck presence has shrunk dramatically from what it was in their heyday. They’ve tried releasing old school shapes, longboards, and even retro plastic cruisers in fingerboard form in an effort to sustain the market. However, they did not try whatever this thing is from China. It’s the mother of all wackyboards for your fingers, featuring alternative bouncy spring trucks and a rotating, detachable deck with built-in bindings. Just when I was absolutely certain I would never buy another fingerboard.
Huck Magazine recaps a history of homophobia in the skateboarding industry Brian Anderson coming out as gay doesn’t let skateboarding off the hook. The biggest news here is that Brian appears to be dating Rob Reiner.
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 been limited to two or three dozen total.
Skate or Die…. or is it Shove-it? I can’t believe they trademarked Shove-it™. The image used for this Halloween costume is just a serving suggestion, as the skateboard and kneepads are not included.
The End of Transworld, Volume 1, #3 that is. Just posted the last of the adverts in the gallery, including Bob Denike for Seaflex, Lester Kasai for Sims, Chris Baucom for Walker, Rector Riot Gloves, and other gems from 1983. So far that’s a grand total of 295 ads in the the gallery. Currently on the scanner: A July, 1977 edition of Wild World of Skateboarding.
I was scanning a Transworld subscription ad from 1983 with a guy who looked like Anthony Micheal Hall, but turned out to be Per Holknekt. I had absolutely no recollection of him so I did quick Google search. The first images that came up said something about him being a fashion designer, so I assumed it was another Per Holknekt. I mean, how many Per’s were there in the freestyle world? Well, it turns out Per Holknekt the fashion designer and Per Holknekt the Tracker freestyle skater are one in the same. The photo above (left) comes from an April 5th, 2016 interview on nouw.com with Per, where he talks about fashion and his skateboard career. At least that’s what I think he talks about, because it’s written in the language of fashion or something else I can’t decipher. The web site for his company Odd Molly features the occasional, 100% gratuitous skateboard in product photos.
Julien Stranger goofs on San Francisco’s real-life version of Perd Hapley, Stanley Roberts. On first watch, I assumed it was just a guy pretending to be on the news, but I’ve been assured he’s a real TV reporter. Apparently he’s got a regular 5 minute spot that airs a couple times a week. His schtick is recording people “behaving badly.” Judging by this clip, his threshold for bad behavior is really low. Julien’s segment is really short, but I got sort of hypnotized by the rest of the video. I kept expecting Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim to show up at any point.
I added 6 more ads from issue number 3 of Transworld Skateboarding, dating back to 1983. First up is Sidewalk Surfer West, a shop that had difficulty spelling Santa Cruz, Zorlac, and even Skateboard. After that we have a Madrid ad with an even split between freestyle and vert, featuring Diane Veerman before she married Primo, Desiderio, and became “Primo and Diane.” Next up, a free subscription to Kona’s Skateboard magazine. It was a borderline zine, but it did act like a legit magazine at times, and not just a thinly disguised skatepark newsletter. Then there’s Rock Socks, company that sold everything you could want if you were an extra on the movie Rad!, except for socks. Gentlemen prefer Hanes, but Infamous surf-skate types prefer Bones. Lastly, here’s a rare shot of Gator on his short-lived pro model for G&S.
