Travel Portland commissioned and published a series of “zines” for use in their campaign to entice people to travel to Portland and spend money. Included in the series is FSBS (For Skaters By Skaters) which is a guide to Portland skate spots, shops, parks, etc… We all know skate-tourism attracts scrounges who tend keep their wallets closed as much as possible, excepting trips to the beer aisle. Still packaging it as a “zine” (in quotes again for a reason) does make Portland seem hip. I’m starting my own zine to discourage people moving here from California to buy newly built houses on lots where cool, old buildings with character recently stood.
You could hope for such a thing, but this isn’t really a Grace Jones action figure. It’s a crappy Chinese-made toy. This ninja on a skateboard dates from 1989, courtesy of Stumblebaum.
House of Neil spotted this not-made-for-skate terrain outside Macy’s in Schaumburg. Looks… like so much fun, and not even marked yet. Let the countdown to skatestoppers begin.
Seeing this gofundme campaign from Rob Kendall reminded me of the “Weird Woods of Maine” picture I posted a couple years ago. Yes, that does look familiar. Weird Woods of Maine was the cryptic name given for the spot, which is not so cryptic anymore. Rob owns Weird Woods Skateboards. His campaign is to help finance a 5 mile skate track on the same property, which will probably be the world’s largest. 5 miles of connected transitions boggles my mind. You?
I added four more vintage skateboard advertisements to the Skateboard Scene magazine gallery. Included are some Ace-Flyer Chuck Taylor knock offs, Alta Sports skateboards with a “fantastic set of safety equipment,” the Great British Skateboard from Beadle, and a subscription plug for Skateboard Scene magazine, “the radical read for radical riders.” Enjoy.
Activity Pyramid sounds like something a playground equipment manufacturer would try to sell you in a prefab skatepark, but It’s part of University of Missouri Extension health and exercise teaching aid. In cleaning out my hard drive I found a craptacular cellphone snap of this banner that I took in 2010, but I found better versions online. There are adult and kids versions of the Activity Pyramid. Sadly, the skateboard is not present on the adult version, so stop riding your skateboard if you’re not a kid anymore.
I just added a couple ads to the Vintage Skateboard Mag Ad Gallery. These come from a magazine you’ve likely never heard of titled Skateboard Scene. It’a UK publication, and as such comes with lots of UK-centric companies and products. I love old skateboard ads from the 70’s, and finding this mag made me feel like a kid again. Not necessarily because of the age of the publication, but more because it was filled with all kinds of product I had never seen before. There wasn’t a copyright date anywhere in the magazine, but thanks to VintageSkateboardMagazines.Com I can say it was published in Winter of 1977. This magazine is doubly wacky. It comes with all the usual wackiness of the 70’s and adds the UK skateboarding industry outside perspective. Check out the first two ads in the gallery. Large scan of the cover after the jump.