Retro/'old skool' skateboards - anybody got any....??

[LikeClockwork]

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I have been obsessing over longboards and cruisers all weekend, but I think at least two of these fall into that category....??

Bought the delightfully named 'Rimable' for the trucks on it, until I realised it's a penny board, and £70 odd brand new (and this is almost new) so I may sell it on. The orange thing is a Carver, apparently, also bought for it's trucks but they look plasticky to me?

The Zip Zinger one is my favourite, just love the colours/design. Have no idea what the one with the swear word on is, but equally, I love the crackle finish and car crash graphic!!

 

[torqueless]

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I remember buying the first ever issue of 'Skateboard' magazine in summer of '75 or '76? Couldn't afford a skateboard though.

The board to have back then was maybe a G&S Fibreflex with Tracker trucks and Kryptonics. None of the decks back then were wider than about six inches. The trucks came in three widths, which in Tracker terminology were called 'half tracks', mid tracks' and 'full tracks'.
I dunno why, but aesthetically boards didn't look right to me unless the wheels extended out beyond the width of the board, which meant using wide trucks, but they were prohibitively expensive. I never worked out how kids my age could afford this stuff! I seem to remember a good board being about fifty or sixty quid. For comparison, back then a new 531db frameset was about seventy quid... and my paper round was earning me about two quid a week.

I bought most of my skateboard stuff cheap(er) at the tail end of the initial craze- In a collapsing market, I guess the shops could barely give the stuff away.. but the full width trucks were still prohibitively expensive.
Never bought a deck though- Used to make 'em. it's just a plank, innit? Well.. A G&S Fibreflex wasn't... it was some thin plywood with fibreglass veneer top and bottom.
I was shite at skateboarding though...gave my little collecton of Bennetts and OJs, Trackers and Kryptonics away to a friend in about '86.

 

[LikeClockwork]

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Brilliant stories and info... I love stuff like this, wish they did degrees in this type of social history (maybe they do...??!), I would be signing up like a shot. Rained off work today, so instead I am sat researching and drinking too much coffee

Anyone have any clues of what the 'crackle finish' one is, I have not the first idea. The sweary sticker could have been added, I suppose, I see there is a clothing brand so named.

 

[firedfromthecircus]

The graphic on the crackle finish one is 'F*cking Awesome' which is a decent pro level brand.

The one you called a Carver is not the Carver brand that make the surf skates. Looks like a POS toystore board. I would just bin it.

Don't know anything about the Penny style board except that it's not a Penny. Might be of a similar quality though. Who knows.

Pick of the bunch is definitely the Krooked Zip Zinger. Krooked is the brand of Mark Gonzales who is a bona fide legend and the Zip Zinger is a 70's style deck. Could be built up as a nice wee cruiser if you are so inclined.

 

[LikeClockwork]

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Aha!! That is the conclusion I have come to after a day on coffee (and now cider) researching. Have put the Rimable up for sale, will flog CV (not a Carver) at a boot sale, and keep the FA one...

Love and adore the Krooked one, it is temporarily wall art, but I will definitely be building it up. Funny how some things just instantly appeal, that being one of them.

Thank you for your help!

 

[M-Power]

a longboard or cruiser may be easier to get the hang of if you've never skated.

I had my wife rocking the halfpipe at the local skatepark within 6 weeks

:shock:

Got into this as a distraction soon after my dad passed in 77. My Grandfather came over from Ireland to stay with us and bought me one and i was hooked. Washed a ton of cars, got the mags and eventually upgraded to a Benjyboard, red Kryptonics and Cali slalom trucks which I still have. My mates and I would harass our mums to take us to the Sobel Centre so we could ride some of the first London ramps - happy days indeed. One friends mother, lovely woman was a scary driver. I remember she reversed into the car park wall knocking a large section of it down then carried on as if nothing had happened....Fkin hilarious. Her youngest Ben had what we now know as extreeme food intollerance, so of course we would intentionally give him all our yellow smarties washed down with a Tango....and...he would go proper bat sh1t crazy for an hour.

Sorry to rant :roll:

 

[torqueless]

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the first ever issue of 'Skateboard' magazine in summer of '75 or '76?

Just done a bit of research myself. Turns out those old mags are online.

The first issue was not '75 or '76, it was August '77.

 

[LikeClockwork]

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Loving all the info and stories, thank you!

Extreme food intolerance...