Vintage Skateboard Magazines
Blog for www.vintageskateboardmagazines.com Dedicated to skateboard magazines from the 1960's to the 1980's & beyond.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
Alpine Sports Adverts


Monday, 14 February 2011
The Quarterly Skateboarder
The original and very first Skateboard magazine started by Surfer publications in 1964 - Editor John Severson. It started life as The Quarterly Skateboarder but abbreviated to just Skateboarder Magazine from Issue 3. The magazine only ran for four issues but was later resurrected in the 1970's as Skateboarder, again by Surfer Magazine.
In his first editorial John Severson wrote: Today's skateboarders are founders in this sport - they're pioneers - they are the first. There is no history in Skateboarding - its being made now - by you. The sport is being molded and we believe that doing the right thing now will lead to a bright future for the sport. Already there are storm clouds on the horizon with opponents of the sport talking about ban and restriction.

Unfortunately those storm clouds gathered and due to poor quality equipment (Steel and Clay wheels) which lead to numerous accidents, many American cities banned skateboarding and by Christmas 1965 Skateboarding had died and along with it The Quarterly Skateboarder.
In his first editorial John Severson wrote: Today's skateboarders are founders in this sport - they're pioneers - they are the first. There is no history in Skateboarding - its being made now - by you. The sport is being molded and we believe that doing the right thing now will lead to a bright future for the sport. Already there are storm clouds on the horizon with opponents of the sport talking about ban and restriction.

Unfortunately those storm clouds gathered and due to poor quality equipment (Steel and Clay wheels) which lead to numerous accidents, many American cities banned skateboarding and by Christmas 1965 Skateboarding had died and along with it The Quarterly Skateboarder.
Big Brother

Issue one was deemed to be a failure by Rocco and was given away with a warning sticker 'warning: test copy. Due to the fact that no-one here had any idea what in the hell they were doing this issue has been declared a total failure. Therefore we have decide to give it away for free'.
Early writers included Sean Cliver, Earl Parker (Thomas Schmidt), Jeff Tremaine

The magazine soon established itself at the cutting edge of skateboarding - love it or loath it everyone read it. Issues 1 to 8 were full of Rocco's marketing gimmicks; No2 came in an extra large format, No3 was spiral bound, No5 came with trading cards, No6 came in a serial box, No7 had eight different covers and No8 came with an audio tape. After No8 Rocco had no more direct involvement in BB but allowed it to continue on.
Content was highly controversial and no subject was taboo, as well as skating there was a lot of sex, nudity, drugs and rock n roll not to mention religion and midgets. Articles such as 'how to kill yourself' in No3 and 'field trip to Hustler' in No9 gained the magazine 'outraged' media exposure and a spot on several news broadcasts. Despite all of this the mag was instrumental in publishing video sequences of the newest tricks and covered many rising street skaters. It's coverage of skating was very much 'tell it how we see it' - not always the policy of other magazines. As with World Industries the magazine caught the feel of the times.




Tuesday, 11 May 2010
Skate City
Skate Action
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