Destroy: Vintage Gator Board

Today I'm gonna show off some pictures of a classic board from one of my buddy's collections. I was at work not too long ago, and he rolled in and told me to check out this old board he had. I was floored. It's a pretty cherry Vision Gator, with Venture trucks and Toxic wheels. Straight out of the '80's, and it even has some great period stickers. I would very much like to thank my buddy, Mikey, for finally snagging these photos.

I'd like to give a little history about Gator himself, but I figure if you skate, you probably know. He's an asshole. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read his Wikipedia article. To sum it up, he's a rapist, a murderer, and he converted to Christianity in prison. Seriously, screw that guy. It's still a treat to run into such a nice example of one of his signature boards.

Vert is Dead did a little article about the Toxic Team if you are interested. You can scope it here. I believe they were based in Ocean City, Maryland, which is probably the closest beach to the area where I reside. It kinda makes sense how they showed up on this board. Seriously, look at those guys. Sick. The Toxic sticker on the tail is a nice touch as well.

Thanks again to Mikey for motivating. I'll have some more paint action up for you guys soon, I'm also slowly working on restoring a Hoffman Dirty One-30 BMX frame, and I have some records to rant about. Keep checking back for more shred!

Go Skate!

So in case all you nerds are unaware of where this blog takes its name and logo from, I appropriated an old skateboard slogan and stole the graphics. Skate companies have been doing homages (or ripping shit off, depending on how you see it) for years, so I'm just doing the same. I received a request for some pictures of rare boards, but I wouldn't necessarily call my collection rare, so I enlisted some help on this post. We're gonna start with my crap, move to my buddy Ben's solid collection, and finally I have some shots of a board Todd “Sharkbait” Williams painted up for a gallery show. Then I'll rant about hardcore punk for a little while.

 

I have been a lil lazy (or distracted) lately, but I'll have some cool stuff coming up in the miniatures world soon. Recently I acquired an excellent commission that will be occupying a large amount of my time. I'll be working on techniques to paint a large amount of miniatures somewhat quickly and to a high standard.

 

I've also been selling off loads of rare miniatures, CDs, and records. It built me a pretty rad mountain bike. I'll probably shoot off a good rant about that at a later date.

 

Onto skates!

 

 

 

This is a shop deck from 303 Boards in Denver. It's the best shop in town, and across the street from an excellent punk rock bar, Streets of London. I loved this board, but unfortunately she's dead. Some of my buddies had paint pens one night, hence the grip. It holds a lot of sentimental value, and I was sad when I snapped her.

  This is one of the newer Santa Cruz fishtails. I built it up with Indy 169s, Rat Bone reissues, and Creature rails. Jim Phillips, who did many of the classic Cruz boards, did the art on this guy.

Again, I really dig Santa Cruz. I had wanted one of the Jason Jessee Neptune reissues, and I missed out on them.

Wood. Huh huh huh.

 

These boards both hang over my workbench. Cthulhu and orc drinking beer? Yessir. The art on the Cthulhu board was done by Florian Bertmer, an exceptionally rad artist who does a lot of album covers. See later in this post. Nerd shit for the nerd gods!

This is the rarest thing I have. Sims and Trackers bolted to a slab of wood. 'Nuff said.

 

 

Next up we have my buddy Ben's awesome collection. The Hosoi is a reissue. Still awesome. The McGill and Grosso are original. His buddy ran Body Jar skates, and Ben's pro-model can be seen hanging next to the McGill.

Finally we have a board painted by Todd "Sharkbait" Williams for a show at Rapture Tattoo Emporium in Duncannon, PA. He'll be slinging ink there shortly.

 

 

So while writing up this post I dug some shit out of the vinyl stash that I haven't rocked in a while. Caustic Christ, Ds-13, Utter Bastard, Violent Noise Party comp, Aus Rotten, Bombstrike, Anal Warhead, C.o.C, etc. You know- easy listening, smooth jazz style stuff.

 

I'd really recommend checking out DS-13. Excellent old-school style thrashcore played by a bunch of Swedes. I believe Killed by the Kids is their last album, and it is too bad. It features killer art by Pushead, which is generally a sign that something shreds. Check out Vi Skatar Dom Dor. This album also features a cover of Media Blitz by the Germs.

I mentioned Florian Bertmer while talking about my Creature boards. This is an example of an awesome 7 inch cover he did. This is amongst my favorite records I own. The artwork is rad, AnB always shreds, and TFD covers the Exploited. AnB's track “Self Detonate” is my go to song on this joint. Listen and love.

I leave you with one last tune. Some Spazz, gentleman?

Anyways, I finally motivated and made a post. Enjoy. I'll getchu some interesting miniature/modeling stuff soon.

Take it easy.