NASH was a slight step up and had some pretty funny and colorful budget models with hilariously goofy 80’s graphics and board names like “Dog Cheese”, “Locals Only”, “Dominator”, etc.
As for the Corey O’Brien. I remember the design well. He was on Santa Cruz. I know I’ve seen that one come back as reissue before. Not sure if they kept up production or if it was a short run, but I suspect you can get one of the decks for about $60-$70 if you wanted. I’ll check it in a bit . . . Santa Cruz brought back a lot of the classic designs: Rob Roskopp, Slasher, Screaming Hand . . .
For a somewhat out-of-nowhere moment, go look for video of the Sugarcubes playing on Saturday Night Live circa 1988 (I may be off a year, but i think that’s it). I vividly remember their guitarist playing an axe with the Corey O’Brien design on the body. One of those weird moments where culture seemed more connected than it probably was: “whoa, here’s some art school goofballs from Iceland, and they’re Sk8ers too! Radical!”
I just remembered that I was indeed gifted a Nash board one holiday season. I remember they were super heavy in comparison to ‘pro’ models and had plastic tail guards that were like the thickness of a bar of soap.
I have no idea what you guys are talking about. My first skateboard was a piece of plywood screwed on top of one of those sidewalk skates with the thin metal wheels. It would go around a corner and make that “arr arr arr” noise and leave white marks on the concrete. We had a house with a driveway on a hill and kids would come over in the evenings. My dad would eventually go out and say “The skating rink is closing now.” I was little enough back then that I could sit on top of a an old skating rink boot that my dad had and ride down the hill. My first real skateboard was a Nash Goofy Foot like this:
I remember the wheels being a little more translucent, though. I think the ones in the photo are so old that the clearness went away. It had to have been over 40 years ago when I had mine.
No, it’s not dried out in the above pic. That’s just how they are. If yours were a bit translucent and felt as a plastic/rubber wheel should, it was URETHANE. The urethane wheels came on the scene in the early 70’s.
Before that, most of the skateboard wheels were CLAY (as shown in the above pic).
The bumping of clay wheels out with urethane was really what ushered in the modern day skateboarding.
I’ve tried clay wheels (and also steel) on some old clunkers we’d find and play around with. They are so incredibly unforgiving. One pebble in your path and you’re eating concrete.
It was an exciting time. And we celebrated every victory, no matter how small or silly in hindsight. When 720, the game, debuted at Holiday Havoc people were lined up waiting 2 hours for a chance to play it. And they had a large Jumbo screen hooked up so everyone could watch in awe.
“Thrashin’” the movie, was another massive win for us and we all went to opening night with our boards in hand.
I vividly remember their guitarist playing an axe with the Corey O’Brien design on the body.
The only video i could find of them on SNL was late 80s them playinf birthday party. And there was a real quick shot of the guitar that had what looked like a torn sticker of the corey obrien reaper
[reply]I vividly remember their guitarist playing an axe with the Corey O’Brien design on the body.
The only video i could find of them on SNL was late 80s them playinf birthday party. And there was a real quick shot of the guitar that had what looked like a torn sticker of the corey obrien reaper[/reply]
That has to be it then; because that was indeed one of the songs they played. I have some problems with conflating memories occasionally - but I could have sworn his whole guitar body had a replica of that design on it, I wouldn’t have been observant enough to catch a small sticker what with my bewilderment at who the hell this Bjork lady was.
I tried Google images now and couldn’t find anything either. Stupid internet! I demand a refund
OK, so, I’m going to start my own Patreon / Kickstarter / whatever account so I can afford to buy a pair of those sweet Christian Hosoi Vans. 80s nostalgia is devouring my soul and I’m left with no other option.
For perks, I will of course follow the Amanda Palmer tradition and allow you to play in my band (though you must be capable of playing any GG Allin track of my choosing either on bandoleon or pan flute…no time wasters please.)
I will also treat my patrons to a set of SUPER SECRET prongs postings that will go up on this board at a specified time only revealed to supporters; after which they will immediately be deleted so the rest of the non-crowd funding hoi-polloi won’t be able to get them.
I never got into it myself, but I fell in love with some of the music associated with it:
Suicidal Tendencies, Rich Kids on LSD, and the rest of the SoCal punk at the time were some good times.
Al
Punk and skating were totally interconnected back then, and So.CA was pretty much Mecca . . . Suicidal Tendencies, Circle Jerks, D.I., Dr. Know, CH3, Adolescents, Aggression, Social Distortion, Youth Brigade, T.S.O.L, Vandals . . . damn, too many to name. Although I was too young to be active in the punk scene or go to any shows, they were all around us. We listened to it when we skated. We put the stickers on our boards, and we skated in industrial ditches and such around town, all of which were properly adorned with excellent punk rock grafitti.
Punk and skating were totally interconnected back then, and So.CA was pretty much Mecca . . . Suicidal Tendencies, Circle Jerks, D.I., Dr. Know, CH3, Adolescents, Aggression, Social Distortion, Youth Brigade, T.S.O.L, Vandals . . . damn, too many to name. Although I was too young to be active in the punk scene or go to any shows, they were all around us. We listened to it when we skated. We put the stickers on our boards, and we skated in industrial ditches and such around town, all of which were properly adorned with excellent punk rock grafitti.
Yeah, but did you own any of the SKATE ROCK compilation tapes?
There was a skate shop in Evanston IL (Albini’s stomping ground, natch) called “Tom Thumb” that had all the cassettes by bands with pro skaters in them…at the time I thought of course that was an awesome concept; though I bought one ‘Odd Man Out’ album and I honestly couldn’t hum a track from it today if you asked me.
On the other hand, I have the Naked Raygun discography just about committed to memory…if you skated back then and were living within 100 miles of Chicago proper, you were gonna be listening to Naked Raygun a LOT.
Most memorable of all though was my hometown’s hilariously derivative hardcore band called R.E.K.D. (cause the band members’ first names were Ross, Eric, Kris and Dan…GET IT??? Is your mind not blown by this explosion of ingenuity?) I still chuckle when remembering their paint-by-numbers skate / core / thrash jams like “Leave Me Alone” with their paradigm-shifting lyrics such as
Why don’t you live your own fucking life
Leave me alone / Get outta my sight!
And let me do what I wanna do
Forget your morals, they only work for you!
I never owned any of the Thrasher Skate Rock cassettes myself, but remember them. As soon as I hear “Skate Rock” it makes me immediately think of Skatemaster Tate (RIP), JFA, and The Faction (Caballero’s band).
Even Red Hot Chili Peppers were close to the scene at that time. I saw them play a concert atop a skate ramp, haha! Oh, and they were in Thrashin’ too.
HAHAHA!!! Be sure to share some of the highlights for us.
Terrific that Les Initials C.C. is sharing this thread with others. I do notice there’s a bit of an uptick in the “views” of posts on the first page.
I wonder, which is more damning to the Jourgensen brand - the fact that there’s a thread like this calling out Al for his latest money-making scheme, or the fact that even getting pissed off about it eventually becomes tiresome, and everyone shifts gears to chat about 1980s skateboarding?
If Al seriously wants to make money, go on tour playing all of your synth-pop hits (pre-TWITCH) or do whatever it takes to make amends to your ex-bandmates and get the real band back together (late 80’s line-up). Or at the very least re-print some of your old shirts (Psalm 69 and earlier). It was a good start with that early Ministry box set. Nobody cares for your current brand of metal machine music, let alone pay you to maybe work on it. Get it done while you still have some youth yet and people are still alive and able bodied. You only live once.
