When We Was Rad:
Skateboard History from UK Vintage Magazine

Category: Issue 82 December 1989

  • John Coffee Intro from 1989

    I get the feeling John Coffee would have hit it off with Gavin Hills when Vernon and Gavin went to do their feature on the skateboard scene in Northern Ireland… JOHN ‘Hotte Bnuroot’ COFFEY Last Comment —I’ve got one foot on the golf course already Influences–G. Hotte Wireneck Leyburn and D. Hotte Bubbleneck Anderson Ambitions–To…

  • Rollersnakes Go Big-time for 1989 Christmas Advert

    This double-page advert UK from mail-order stalwarts, Rollersnakes, was a bold change from their normal format. They normally used smaller adverts to generate interest, but in this case they used two pages to list a full range in true home-shopping style. In 1989 the cost of trying to illustrate all those products would have been…

  • Early Jason Ellis Intro from 1989

    David Walsh supplied words and pictures on Jason Ellis, at a time when the Melbourne star had only been skating three and a half years. JASON ELLIS by David Walsh Age — 18 (just) How long skating — Three and a half years Home town — Melbourne, Australia Favourite place to skate — San Jose…

  • BMX Mail Order, 1989 Style

    Al first glance this advert appears to be 100% BMX, but in fact there’s some token skate stuff there alongside the surfwear from Billabong plus Town and Country.

  • Skateboard Mail Order: Everything at Your Leisure: December 1989

    Small Room, Walker, Mike Smith’s Liberty and Shut — there were some interesting smaller brands advertised here alongside the usual suspects. Everything at Your Leisure also stayed true to their BMX roots.

  • Shiny buildings and dodgy plywood in Telford

    Reuben Goodyear is shown on on the dodgy plywood end of the skateboard ramp spectrum. More lamp-post silliness guaranteed to keep skating out of the Olympics. NEW BIT This is not about this town. It is not about these people. This feature is about the shapes and the things some people skated some where. There…

  • The raw materials of skateboarding: banks and bits of ply

    Ben Wheeler, Peter Medlicott and various others are pictured skating those essential items: bits of old ply and brick banks. It’s our world; we enjoy it. The skaters take the spaces the others ignore. They use the junk the builders leave lying around. They explore and enjoy their new surroundings, they don’t feel threatened by…

  • Pacer Complete Skateboards, December 1989

    I’d forgotten that Neil Danns rode for Pacer at one point alongside Gary Lee. An interesting aspect of this advert is that it mentions British Standards BS5715 for skateboards. Pacer were already aiming for the mass-market which was about to appear, but at this juncture they were ahead of the time.

  • Melanchollie Ben Wheeler

  • Pictures of Everyman Skating in Everytown. It could be Your Town. It could be You.

    Attitude check: this is one of those pieces about “space left over” — the way skateboarders occupy the spaces left by the architects and colonise our deserted city spaces. In this case the place was Telford. We’d been lured there by a reader, Peter Medlicott, and made a pilgrimage to inspect yet another new town.…