One of the best portraits of ’80s skate rats and skate styles I’ve seen, found on Pinterest. Notice that the kid with the bangs over his eye (that was considered rad, kids) has a cast on his left arm—and there’s an elbow pad over the cast. The “Skateboarding is Not a Crime” sticker was standard issue, and it was not an exaggeration. There were very few skate parks around, and starting in 1986 lots of cities started passing laws making it illegal to skate on city property, which, according to the council, we were destroying. According to us, we were simply putting the architecture to good use. Who else could squeeze so much joy (and pain) out of a painted curb, a bench, a wall, a stairwell?
If you want to get a glimpse of just how fast and how insane the best street skaters were, watch The Search for Animal Chin (1987). I still idolize the Bones Brigade.
A few more skateboarding photos here.
2 Warps to Neptune 
Spot on. I still keep my eye out for ditches and banks to skate, even when I pass by elementary schools (a lot of them had awesome banks back in the day…major shreddage!). Kids these days don’t even consider the “sidewalk surfing” and “concrete wave” type of approach that I guess us old (and older) folks lived for. Oh well. Sign of the times, right?
I like how they’re all wearing the standard-issue skate wear from the time. Bones. Gotcha. Even those Vision Streetwear pants! I betcha right off frame there’s a launch ramp. =) Christ Air, dood!
I always wanted those Vision pants. Too expensive. I was working at the time but all my money went to equipment, comics, and records.
Yeah Vision stuff, when it came out, was expensive for sure, especially those darn pants. You should’ve opted for those Skidz, lol
http://www.leftylimbo.com/2012/12/skidz-80s-fashion-flagship/
Good gods, at one point, it seemed like everyone and their mom had those white VISION STREETWEAR t-shirts. Talk about a brand that totally owned the skate market.