In years to come Billabong were to have a major impact on the skateboard market, but at this point they were still seen here as a surf company. I cannot remember who was their distributor in the UK at this point and have no idea who paid for this ad.
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Billabong On Edge/ Bad Billy’s Advert 1989
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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 dissassociate myself from the more prolific elements in the Northern Ireland skateboard scene and to put an end to the protracted debasement of my life
Music–The Undertones (sic)
Age–29
Favourite trick–Kickturns, cause wher weould you be without those guys
Hopes for the future–To look good on paper
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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 prohibitive: sales would never have justified the cost of scanning all those pictures let alone the charges for page make-up in the days before DTP — so this is a text-only advert. A simple price list in fact.
Decks were all around £40 and wheels tended to be £30 a set. So no big changes there!
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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 warehouse, Nunawading, Torquay, Beaumaris
Favourite food — All women
Who do you skate with — James, Christian Biancardi, Gregor, Gary, Lee, Hugh and the ultimate the Sac
Most under-rated skaters — Steve Salisian, Ross Goodman
Raddest thing seen — Matthew Schroeder at the Vans mini-ramp contest jumping off the handrail of the vert ramp and landing on his board on the flat of the mini-ramp
Favourite trick — Kickturns
Worst slam — Locked up on an axle stall when I was learning how to skate and I broke my wrist and dislocated my elbow
Where have you travelled — Lots of places, Canberra, Sydney, Queensland, Adelaide and California for six months
Do you like backyard pools — yeah, they rule: they are the most fun to skate out of any terrain
Last words — One bourbon, one scotch and one beer
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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.
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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.
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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 is nothing more to be SAID, but plenty more will be SHOWN.
CAPTIONS:
It’s stuff like this that keeps skating out of the Olympics and gives us all a bad name
Like an ocean going liner, this proud building tries to ignore the antics of the ordinary people around it. Reuben.
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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 them. It happens now as it has always happened: the neat little figures on the architect’s pretty sketch are replaced by real people doing real and often different things. In another real world. Our world. Enjoy.
CAPTIONS:
In the indoor market there are these tables… Peter Medlicott
So much building going on, so much space in yet-to-open car parks, so much ply lying around. Ben
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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.
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Melanchollie Ben Wheeler
Curbs, caps and a key move from the period. Melanchollies defined the style of the day, as much as the Chinos defined the look.CAPTION: Free-standing curbs of a kind rare near his home, inspire a melancholy skater. Travel fires the imagination. Ben
