The year was 1991 and skateboarding seemed to be evolving at hyper speed. Vert and pool skating had pretty much taken the back seat to street skating and all the new tech moves. Boards had almost entirely lost their lumps, bumps, sidecuts and points but still were holding on to a bit of a square tail...the popsicles were just around the corner.
With companies like World Industries smashing the norm of the 80’s where graphics might last for a year or two...now pros would have new graphics every 6 months or even less. Sometimes companies just couldn’t keep up with the constant graphic changes and would occasionally have a board shape with “New Graphics” written over it in their catalogs or ads.
For his 2nd graphic, somehow between Rick, artist Ron Lemen and myself we thought it’d be really funny to just make a board that just said “New Graphics” on the bottom.....it was kind of a social commentary of how volatile and crazy skateboarding was at the time.
It was also kind of an FU to the common graphics.....or graphics in general...it was the anti-graphic. This was intended to just be a short lived joke (likely only one or two batches were made) before moving on to the next graphic ....unfortunately this would be Rick’s final Blockhead board.
A lot of effort however was put into the top graphic with the Ben Davis monkey parody drawn by Ron Lemen. This graphic or some form of it was intended to become the bottom board graphic on the next batch....that’s why we have also made that version available.
An essential part of Blockhead and Rick Howard’s history, this board is limited to a maximum run of 100 (depending on pre-orders). These will be signed by Rick (if he is available but no guarantee) and hand numbered (boards are signed on top).
Photos are mock-ups, actual board and print colors will vary.
Details:
- Deck Colors: Assorted solid and split stains
- Art by Ron Lemen
- Bottom: 2 color screen printed graphics
- Top: 3 color screenprint and laser burn logo, signed and numbered
- Dimensions: 9.625 x 32”, 6.5” Tail, 6.625” Nose,14.25” Wheelbase
- Old school hole pattern
- 1991 era concave
- Construction: 7-ply maple
- Stained laminates, rails are natural
- Manufactured by Watson Laminates, San Diego CA
- Original release date 1991, Reissue date 2018
