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Skate City Bromley Christmas 1989 advert
This was the Christmas issue, so advertisers splashed out on bigger-than-normal ads, or switched to colour. Bike City did both with this page which seems to have a touch of the M-Zone about it. The two shops were based relatively close to each other, on the southern fringes of London and must have been rivals…
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Freestyle In Street Terrain — skateboarding in transition
There’s too many laws in freestyle. The idea comes across that if you’re a freestyler you have to skate on your own. You don’t use banks. Some people think you shouldn’t do Ollie tricks. All these rules come across. Captions: Sam Lewis materialised from Southend, did Varial Inverts and lots of other things, made it…
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When freestyle vs streetstyle seemed like an issue
Chris Howell was a freestyler who organised events under the “F.I.S.T.” banner (Freestyle In Street Terrain). As the caption said: On banks (good), Kick-flip Ollie (good), on a freestyle board (could you hold on while I take a quick attitude check on that please?) This was a slightly uncomfortable period as people who had called…
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Fat Willy’s in R.a.d? Surely not…
Where did Fat Willy’s fit into all this? At the time their stickers seemed everywhere and therefore absolutely no part of the underground skate culture. Both this and the Boogie designs adverts may seem innocent enough now, but at the time they would have stood out like sore thumbs. That sounds very snotty, but at…
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New Deal Skates Mail Order Advert 1989
Ouch! Something of a sensitive subject… Here’s an example of an early New Deal Skate advert from the days when the shop was in the “In Shops” near Harrow and Wealdstone station, before they moved to the skatepark. And, yes: they were doing mail order right from the start, although the “HSC” name came later.…
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Identify Death Box Babies and Win
We could run this competition for real again, since I have no idea who these smiling babies are. Each of them grew up to have a pro model on Death Box. No doubt Sean Goff was one, but who were the others, please?
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USA skateboard manufacturers selling direct in the UK?
Back in 1989 Airbourne Zorlac were premature in setting up their own distribution in the UK (run by the Abrook brothers). Now it’s becoming more and more common. Meanwhile those companies themselves are no-longer necessarily American owned as the skateboard business matures and goes global. Other adverts on this page are from Rodolfos, USAmerican Skates…
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Pete Dossett, Half-Cab to Mayday at Beast Manor
Shooting sequences under floodlight = never easy. But worth it sometimes. Party time wasting is so much fun.