When We Was Rad: Skateboard History from UK Vintage Magazine

The issue closes with an advert which seems like an enigma now. Why Powell on the back page, not Santa Cruz? The back page was almost always a Shiner advert, but they normally used it for Santa Cruz, so I wonder what was going on here. And what really was the message Powell were trying to get across with this shot of McGill slaloming on a normal pool board? It seems right in parts and wrong in parts. I have a feeling I ought to know what they were saying, but then I realise I have no idea.
For me this issue fizzles out.
Where to next?
Merry Christmas, for now…

So much from this era has survived. Death Box evolved into Flip and soared to success. Their original wunderkid, Alex, is also still very much around as well. Their determination paid off while others eventually fell by the wayside. But all of this did eventually involve both parties in trips to the States, after all.

Oh here is one for the historians and completists out there: a list of dates for skateboard competitions in 1991. Although I personally disliked all the competitive stuff, I was very keen on the idea of sharing information and pages like this seemed important to me. I think many other people thought they were a complete waste of space.
This was at a time when the notion of skateboarders and skateboard events within the Soviet Union seemed very novel and so I would have been particularly delighted to list those.

APRIL
27-28 Kharkov, USSR: Slalom
28 Botley, England: Bowl and street

MAY
18-19 Dublin, Ireland: Squeez AES Street & vert
18-19 Riga, Latvia: Street, mini, slalom & freestyle
25-27 Various, UK: Santa Cruz demo tour
25-27 Milton Keynes, England: Leisureworld ramp demo

JUNE
1 Leigh on Sea: Bowlriding
1-5 Various, UK: Vision demo tour
22-23 Livingston, Scotland: Pure Fun Weekend
28-30 Leningrad, USSR: Slalom
20 or 23-4? Turin, Italy: Slalom, downhill, freestyle
Date? Bulgaria: Street & freestyle
Date Charleroi, Belgium: Street, vert?

JULY
6-7 Swansea, Wales: Vert
7-14 UK, Various: Powell demo tour
13 Southsea, England: SUAS vert
14 Shrewsbury, England: Mini, vert
18-21 Münster, Germany: WM Street, vert, freestyle
24-27 Le Grand Bornand, France: street, vert, freestyle
Date? Antwerp, Belgium: Nike Air Attack
Date? Paris, France: Trocadero mini?

AUGUST
24-26 Coventry, England: Vert
31-1 (Sept) Hombrechtikon, Switzerland: Slalom

SEPTEMBER
7-8 Saratov, USSR: Slalom
Date? (End of Month) Austria: AES

OCTOBER
25-27 Copenhagen, Denmark: AES Final

NOVEMBER
23-24 Switzerland: AES

Don Brider was already a legendary part of the British skate scene when this was published. And still is, I believe. I’m really pleased to see this and to be reminded of him. A few days ago I had to visit Farnborough. So much seemed to have changed. I couldn’t even really be sure I had worked out where the ramp had been. And, sure enough, there’s even a new council ramp-park-thingy nearby. I wonder if they appreciate the part their town played in keeping skateboarding in the UK alive. Don was very much part of that world, even though he’s from Southampton.
This makes me smile.

Skate Legends don’t come much bigger than Don Brider, sardonic wit and ruler of Southampton’s streets. Don’s all-pervasive influence has helped make British skateboarding what it is today, giving it that distinct slant which is the very antithesis of the mellow Californian style foisted on us in the seventies. We also have Don to thank for keeping the spirit of British deck manufacture alive in between Benji Boards and Death Box — any surviving examples of the “Softcore” boards he made with Mark Abbott must surely be worth serious money by now.
Don still lives in Southampton, where he divides his time between running Wear and Tear clothing, house-training Greg Nowak, and providing a stream of firm but fair constructive criticism on the skate scene. If anyone deserves an island all to themself, it must be Don — but what would he take with him?

The Board: I don’t know if you can just say a name like “Davross Model” or something like that for the deck. At the moment it would be the tramline six inch nose with fourteen wheel-base and six and three-quarter tail with a roundish tail, nice un-log-like nose tapering towards the back, with an H Street concave.
Or I could get the jig-saw out… Ooops: desert island — no jig-saw. OK: a Goff street or a Chris Miller. Trucks: just Indys. Wheels: 97, has to be — with a nice slide. It’s hard to name a brand, they’re all made in the same place anyway. Round ones.
The Skate Spot: That’s so difficult because there are things about everything I like. There’s Hastings mini-ramp, which is so rad — just like the first Farnborough vert ramp. Then there’s Dead Rabbit’s Ramp, which I had a big hand (cue joke) in. Then bits of streets everywhere. This is so hard (ooh, er). OK: I’d have Dead Rabbit’s ramp because it’s my baby and I know it would last — but probably kill me.
The Video or Film: You’ll not let me have home videos, will you?* Maybe “Some Like it Hot” because it’s just an all-round nice picture and because ‘being over 25 makes a girl think, you know’. Films are really such a throw away thing once you’ve seen them two or three times… But, yeah: “Some Like it Hot”. I don’t know what that says about me as a person… you decide.
The Person to Session With: It seems now that a lot of the time we all skate alone, even when we’re in a group. That may not make sense to some — but older skaters may understand the glimmer of a thought there.
Is this where I put in the Rob Able “who’s nicked my sarnies” quote? No. Well, I’d go skating with Greg Nowak then, but he trams so much I’d probably go into a coma. You get stoked on everyone really: not just one person. Oh, except GAZZA!!! Wow, foota!
The Record: A record is just that: a record of a live performance, or that’s what it should be. I’m glad you said ‘record’ anyway instead of ‘CD’ because, as usual, money kills everything and now profit hungry people kill the record in favour of the beer mat. Cure, Smiths, Cocteau Twins… oh, so many to choose from. OK: ‘Waterloo’ by Abba, because I haven’t played frisbee for so long.
The Book: Of the film? Well, it has to be my Garfield collection because his character is so rad. The cartoons on tv are crap because of the voice they used. OK, I admit I only read skate mags and the junk mail Sean Goff sends me, so I’m really uncultured, mate! Want a fight?
The Luxury: A girl Friday? No, you said no people….. Um…. A cardboard cut-out of Alex Moul to pray to? “Alexi Moul, Alexi Moul, he’s got a sphincter like a volcano hole…” No, for real: a telephone which I never have to pay for, so I can talk to people I care for and not have to panic about some profiteering bastards ripping me off, and my cat “Robert Smith” because everybody wants to be a cat.

* You can take what you want, as long as it’s printable.