When We Was Rad:
Skateboard History from UK Vintage Magazine

Category: Issue 96 May 1991

  • Mike McGill Powell advert from 1991

    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…

  • Death Box Alex Moul Advert from 1991

    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.

  • Calendar of UK skateboard events for 1991

    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…

  • Don Brider — Desert Island Skateboarder

    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…

  • Sketchy Skates and Yah-Dude adverts plus South African skate company

    Sketchy Skates and Yah-Dude were two of the hard core of skate shops at this time. You’ll find their adverts scattered throughout the issues on this site. I’m struggling to remember what happened with Hi Ramp. Like all the companies trying to make skateboard equipment outside of the USA (or California, really) they would have…

  • Platform views close Goshen Comp report

    I wince when I look at this. You can scarcely see the pictures. Look at the results, though. So many names which still seem familiar: this period produced some legendary skaters. My, Wingy has definitely improved and was skating really well. In the picture he’s doing a varial tail-grab. He did plenty more: mellies to…

  • More pictures from Goshen Ramp Competition in 1991

    OK, so this time we got five pictures in there. Two scans, perhaps? It doesn’t really matter now, does it. Mike Manzouri, Jocke Ollson, Wingy, Stuart Hoyle and Carl Shipman deserve all the attention.

  • Pictures from the Goshen Ramp Comp in 1991

    Economies of style? No: economies of layout. One of the spin-offs of experimenting with shooting high speed colour print film (instead of the transparencies normally used for magazine work in those days) was that we could take four of the machine prints from the chemists, stick them together on a bit of card and count…

  • Goshen Gallery — skateboard ramp competition 1991

    Simon Evans wrote this report on a competition in Goshen, and pointed out one of the favourite themes of Rad Mag: “the words are just a trick to make you look at the pictures” (to paraphrase David Byrne or Brian Eno). Hello, and welcome to another comp report. I guess you’ve probably already had a…

  • Premium Phone Number Competition 1991 style

    Spooky coincidence time. As I write this post the scandal about premium phone-in numbers being used for ITV competitions which have already closed was raging — hot on the heels of a similar fuss over at the BBC. Back in 1991 things were simpler and competitions like this were only just starting to appear. There…