Wednesday, September 14, 2016

California Cheap Skates 1992.







Fantastic Plastic.

Skateboarding was in a transition phase in 1992. Many of the old companies were shrinking or going out of business as fresh new ventures started to gain ground. This catalog reflects that. Slick bottom boards were the hot trend and everybody was making their own version of Santa Cruz's Everslick. I thought slicks were done, but Real has brought them back with their new series of decks. I don't know if that's a good idea or not. Powell still has some decent graphics to go with a solid team. Alien Workshop, Real, Acme, Planet Earth are all looking sharp. The Brain Lotti orange and blue deck is interesting. There were a few boards at the time that tried a symmetrical graphic of squares and rectangles. I don't think they ever did very well for sales, but I like how they look, more so now than back then. Ed Templeton and Mike Vallely's TV and Jason Lee and Chris Pastra's Blue make an appearance in the catalog. Of note are the Museum boards, which was Pushead's branch of Zorlac in the early 1990s. The Metallica Pirate II deck was spoofed by Kris Markovich for 101 at about the same time.

Is Emerica's Made 2 going to be released on a DVD? The first volume was pretty good and I'd like to have the second in a physical format. I'm kind of over online only skateboard video content. And in other news, I'll be yelling at the damn kids to get off my lawn. Stay cranky, my friends.

Steve Kobata took the photo of Matt Pontius doing an ollie over a fire hydrant.

This is the Fall 1992 catalog.

6 comments:

Lucas said...

Was CCS not carrying World boards by this point?

Those New School HPL boards were terrible, but I had a friend who swore by them. The TV slicks sucked, too.

I have zero recollection of Zorlac Neverstick. Wow.

Justin said...

Nope. Rocco stopped selling to them at some time in 1992. I was thinking they were back by 1994, but there aren't any in the catalog from then. I'd assume by 1995 or so they would be back. CCS got a boost by Element getting going as Element in 1994.

nonickname said...

Have to agree with Lucas on the NS boards. Chris McMurter (local legend) was sponsored by them and I clearly remember him giving one of the Mario R decks in this catalog to a mutual friend he owed money to right out of a box at the UPS depot...our buddy promptly went to the local shop and traded it in as he said the wood and concave were garbage. Shop owner said "sure but not for anything World and no slicks, at least I'll be able to sell it as it has a chick on it".

Wonder how many of those "Beauty" decks they sold?

Rikku Markka said...

Did anyone else cut a little piece of the slick off of the tail to get the wood pop? My friends all made a point of doing so, but it made no difference to me. We also bought slicks because boards were so easy to break or crack then, that a slick would be a little more durable.

-- Rikku Markka

Anonymous said...

i rode for new school back in 91/92. the boards they sent me where terrible. the wood was thick as hell, the concave steep as hell, and the nose was flat. i swear some of the boards were left over alva stuff.

Justin said...

I never cut the plastic off on the tail. Slicks were heavy, but durable. I've got a Real Sluggo my friend had and the thing weighs a ton.

It's come up in a few interviews that New School decks were old Alva stock trimmed down.