When We Was Rad:
Skateboard History from UK Vintage Magazine

Month: July 2006

  • Zebra Ramps and Skate Rags Adverts

    Metal ramps were never my favourite thing, although I was over-enthusiastic about metal surface on wood construction at one point. This was at a time when local authorities were just starting to take a vague interest in providing facilities. Things have come on a long way since then. I’m still amazed and delighted when I…

  • Bod, Backyard and Hastings Ramp Advert

    OK. Step up to the challenge: what’s interesting about this page of adverts? For me: Bod Boyle skating the big ramp at Hastings makes the Backyard advert stand out. He doesn’t look too happy in this shot. As for the rest: MyCycles plugged away at it with an advert which looks like a faxed layout…

  • Bod Boyle, fast high lines in Madrid 1989

    On we go with more strange but true Madrid skateboard facts from the pen of Mike John. S.B.T. Fact 5 Street-style wasn’t a ridiculous collection of jump ramps, death walls and other nightmares — it was worse! The ‘course’ was just the four-sided fun-box thing and nothing else. Yup: no-thing else. Christian Welsh and co…

  • Steve Douglas, Frontside Rock’n’Roll Madrid 1989

    There’s an interesting insight into Tim Payne’s ramp building techniques on this page: build it in sections on the ground so that you can have several teams working at the same time without the need for ladders. This was at a time when ideas like that were not common knowledge. Only a few years earlier…

  • Danish Street Skaters in Madrid Comp

    These were the early days of street competitions and the course left much to be desired… Strange But True Fact 1 The competition was held in the skatepark of Madrid, but no part of the park was used: the concrete was shined and ramps built instead. Yes, the big pool was a bit too big…

  • Florian Bohm and Anders Puplanek, Madrid

    “Not another boring European Competion report” says the fictional reader in the opening of this article on the Madrid skateboard content. We suspected that we were keener on the rest of Europe than most of our readers, and sometimes it showed. EL TORRO GRANDE by Jamon Bocadillos “Oh, no”snarled the reader as he/she flicked over…

  • Bod and Guerrero in Madrid Skate Competition 1989

    Jamon Bocadillos = Mad Mike John, who is still working as a skate photographer to this day. Guerrero = fast, second. Bod = humongous Indy, second.

  • Lance Mountain Powell Advert 1989

    What better advert could you run at the end of the Irish story? Lance Mountain, looking like one of the nicest people in skateboarding. A moment of calm…

  • The Derry Hump

    The Ireland article draws to a close with a Bloblands-type hump in Derry and a Wendy House in a ramp. With its maniac skaters, novel spots and macabre sights, Dublin, and the Isle as a whole, gave the impression that anyone failing to have a good time here would probably be the sort who wouldn’t…

  • Grind the paint off your kerbs

    Gavin’s fond conclusion to the Northern Ireland section of this story also includes the advice that golf is “the nearest thing to skateboarding, and don’t let them tell you otherwise”. ‘Troubles’ was the after-dark topic. John Coffey’s troubles were ones of the soul: he’d thrown out all his copies of Thrasher with his scrap- books,…