Walker Nightmare.

Happy Halloween!

This shape was designed by Mark Lake. The first version was one of his pro models on Walker. It was necessitated by the hot and humid weather in Florida causing problems gripping the board on airs. The weird cutouts by the front allowed a place for your hand to grab without slipping. Mark still rides a shape similar to this today, as was recently documented in a Gullwing ad. If you are way under 35 and all of this seems confusing, think about how boards evolved longer noses so you could do nollie kickflips. It's about having a functional shape for how you are trying to ride your skateboard.

Transworld - February 1989 Volume 7 Number 1

Josh Marlowe.

It's got Skull in the name so of course it gets included in Halloween week.

Skull Skates was started up in Canada back in 1978 by brothers Rick and Peter Ducommun. The team has included a number of legends over the years, such as the OG Steve Olson, David Hackett, Duane Peters, and Tod Swank. Christian Hosoi also partnered with Skull in the mid 1980s. There were several more obscure pros like Phil Esbenshade, Ray Hoover and the Godoys. They made decks for Gang Green, The Vandals, Social Distortion, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, too.

Their ads were a lot gnarlier just before the time I started to skateboard.

The photo is by Geoff Graham.

Transworld - January 1990 Volume 8 Number 1

Mark Lake.

Spooky Hall of Famer.

Mark's been skateboarding since 1967, turned pro in 1978 for Flite Skateboards, started Lake in 1987, and is still riding today. Lake Skateboards is also still in business. He's from Florida and was somewhat recently inducted into the Florida Skateboarder Hall of Fame.

Although these resemble Pushead's frantic scratchings, he did not draw the graphics.

Thrasher - August 1989 Volume 9 Number 8

Mike McGill #2.

"This gore type of blood and bullets... ya know... death, being crushed, and brains coming out the ear... that skull with the dagger through and the snot, you know what I'm saying? I'm just saying... death, gore, dismemberment, whole type of go for it type of thing. After all, that is what skateboarding is all about." - Alan Winters

Mr. Winters of Slash Skates breaks down what skateboarding is from the intro to Powell Peralta's Animal Chin. I decided to focus on board graphics that involved skulls and/or other gross things for the week. Obviously you have to start with Mike McGill's classic skull and snake graphic by VC Johnson, which was pretty much the coolest thing ever seen by most middle school eyes in the mid 1980s.

There's a new clip on Thrasher with a ton of Dan Drehobl footage. I'm guessing he is on Converse now.

RIP Lou Reed.

Transworld - June 1989 Volume 7 Number 3

Real Team 1997.

Everybody's old now.

Sometimes when little kids at the skatepark ask me how old I am, I realize I might be older than their parents. I've also been using the same set of 1/8" risers since like late 1997 or early 1998.

Casual Halloween spookiness all next week.

Slap - December 1997 Volume 6 Number 12

Quim Cardona & Keith Hufnagel.

You guys should try some doubles.

Keith flips as Quim slappys his way from a 50-50 to 5-0, I think. Huf has been pro for Real for two decades now.

Slap - November 1997 Volume 6 Number 11

Matt Field, Mark Gonzales, & Max Schaaf.

Real OGs.

Real always did a lot of ads with multiple team riders in them. Sometimes that works out well and other times the photos end up a little too small. I like the painterly feel of this one.

Slap - February 1997 Volume 6 Number 2