Skateboarding History Lessons

January 3, 2007 4:19 PM

To commemorate their 25th anniversary, Thrasher Magazine has posted their first 12 issues! Tons of skater nostalgia here.
posted by snsranch (18 comments total)

Via: BB
posted by snsranch at 4:20 PM on January 3, 2007

Rad! Maybe the letter to the editor I remember from some poor kid who crapped himself in the middle of a trick on a halfpipe is somewhere in there...
posted by The Card Cheat at 4:38 PM on January 3, 2007

There is a file for Thrasher deep in my brain, buried beneath fluorescent orange and green t-shirts, fingerless leather gloves, a Christian Hosoi board and anything else I might have thought made me look cool in 1988. Thank you so, so much for unearthing these memories.

Cool post, btw. 25 years...jesus.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 5:25 PM on January 3, 2007

You know you are getting old when your girlfriend's 12 year old son tells you that Tony Hawk is "old school"...

Sorry, I never graduated to Thrasher, it was always Skateboarder magazine; all about "Dogtown", Tony Alva, Jay Adams, "tail taps", and something mysterious called "greenies".

Before we figured out Tracker trucks rocked, we were stuck with Bennett trucks, with their plastic baseplates which were advertised as "unbreakable".

"Mr. Bennett" never showed his face in his Skateboarder magazine ads, and I can understand why, as his trucks sucked purulent donkey dick.

Back then we had to make our own skateboards out of old slide rules...
posted by Tube at 5:33 PM on January 3, 2007

OK, that is cool. That really brings back memories of skinned knees, skinned palms, falling on my ass, and other assorted pleasantries. Empty pools are God's gifts to kids though. "Oops, they're home, let's get out of here!"
posted by caddis at 5:46 PM on January 3, 2007

The bits on Iggy and Bow Wow Wow in the December '81 issue are spot on, even if they do have the grammatical style of a sixth grade drop-out.
posted by caddis at 5:55 PM on January 3, 2007

Damn. My time logged in to this game has become a very large number. When did I unlock the "Nostalgia" combo? Anyhow - thanks I think.
posted by freebird at 6:19 PM on January 3, 2007

caddis, yea, I wish I could see the early issues of Skateboarder again. I think I remember an issue that had a pre Van Halen David Lee Roth getting air in a pool on the cover. His hair was so long it looked like it was going to wind around a wheel.

Yea, there was a big difference in the "counter culture" of skating and music between the '70s and '80s. I often wish I was just a few years older. At least so I could have seen Led Zeppelin play live, although I'm told I didn't miss much.
posted by snsranch at 6:38 PM on January 3, 2007

Oh yea, Logan Earth Ski? I probably could have done a better retrospective post, but I was just excited to share the old Thrashers.
posted by snsranch at 6:41 PM on January 3, 2007

Between this and the "anti-wrinkle, anti-blemish" cream I've been using, I am feeling very, very old.
posted by padraigin at 6:43 PM on January 3, 2007

I sold my collection of old skate mags and skate zines a few years ago. It included the first nine "big" issues.
posted by strangeleftydoublethink at 8:22 PM on January 3, 2007

Thanks for the heads up!! This post reminds me why I should have never Ebay-ed my boards.

Does anyone remember the cartoon in the back of Skateboarder magazine,he rode a Shwinn bike.

Stroker/Stoker???

Sims snake conicals,roller balls,OJ's,Magnesium trackers,Sims graphite composite,Logan earth ski's with Gullwing/Sims Pure Juice, 8 wheelers for 360's (What was the guy in TO's name?) The Pepsi Plexiglas tube ramp,ordering Black Flag bootleg cassettes from the small ads in the back.etc .. etc .*SIGH*

Some of us grew up at a great time!I would never change a thing.
posted by plumberonkarst at 8:25 PM on January 3, 2007

*drops in to the pool, carves into a full coping backside smith grind, goes for air bails out 10 feet above the deck and lands in a pile of stinky beer cans*
posted by loquacious at 8:42 PM on January 3, 2007

I wish I could see the early issues of Skateboarder again.

Here are digital versions of a handful of early Skateboarder features under the heading of "The Original Dogtown Articles."
posted by gompa at 9:39 PM on January 3, 2007

Growing up on the side of a mountain outside a tiny rural town in upstate New York, the nearest paved surface almost a mile away from our house, Thrasher Magazine was like a portal into a weird sunshiny world where kids could somehow suspend the laws of physics and hang upside down in the air forever with a skateboard stuck to their up-pointing feet. I loved Thrasher, whenever I was lucky enough to get the 40 miles to the nearest mall and buy it. I envied the guys who were in it and I would have sold my grandmother for one of those nasty little skater chicks.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 10:38 PM on January 3, 2007

They've got my picture
in an issue of Thrasher
I look so fucking raw
I hope they didn't use Photoshop
posted by shakespeherian at 10:44 PM on January 3, 2007

I was trying to remember what type of skateboard deck I had back in the late 80's - I think it began with a G - anyone have any ideas. I feel like an idiot that I can't remember.... but you know how that goes as you get older.
posted by TuxHeDoh at 6:22 AM on January 4, 2007

TuxHeDoh

Maybe you can find it here :

collector site
posted by plumberonkarst at 6:35 AM on January 4, 2007