Put a little color on your ride.
Santa Cruz came up with a way to put graphics in griptape in the late 1990s. This seemed a little distracting to me and didn't seem like something that would catch on. However, companies such as Grizzly Grip, Mob, and Shake Junt are cranking out griptape with artwork and the pros are riding it so I'm thinking it is here to stay. Or at least until skateboarding decides that it isn't cool.
Colored griptape has been around a long time, but I always thought the different colors did not grip as well as the all black kind. I remember a friend had the new Tony Hawk Claw with lime green griptape and that was just an odd combination. Negative One stepped up the game and made a better gripping alternative. Kristian Svitak rides for them and kept the 80s spirit alive by riding boards with colorful tape art in Black Label's Black Out video from 2003.
My personal preference is black griptape in two pieces with a thin line in front of the back truck. A skateboard has to look fast and not be visually confusing. I always liked the drawings that Mark Gonzales and Sean Sheffey would do, but whenever I would try to draw something I would end up not liking it. I have long since given up on having any sort of art or design on the top of my skateboard. It's one thing if you are a pro and can change your board whenever, but most of us are stuck with the same board for at least a couple of months. There's no sense in being bummed out every time you go skating by a stupid drawing.
I swear somebody, possibly even Negative One, was making colored griptape in the late 1990s, but I could not find an ad. I spent most of Sunday afternoon rummaging around the stacks and eventually found the Mike V. ad once I expanded the time frame I was looking in.
Lance Dalgart took the photo of Aaron and Matt Mercaro took the photo of Mike.
Roofies: Big Brother - October 1998 Issue 41
Negative One: Thrasher - August 2004 Volume 24 Number 8
3 comments:
Roofie's grip was insanely rough. I tried a sheet once and it rubbed my thumb completely raw the first day. Had to sell the deck to a friend.
Did anyone here ever call clear grip pizza tape? It was the roughest stuff ever. I used to only ride Madrid Fly Paper. Sometime in the late eighties they put the die-cut fly in there. Also I used to like the World tape that came cut in four pieces. It had the pitch fork and the Morton salt girl logos in it.
I avoid clear grip, but I remember people using it.
I put a Madrid Fly Paper scan on here when I did the first Gimmick Week last year. They had to have been one of the first to make die cut grip.
There was also a Shorty's Squares griptape. I forgot about that.
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