Think hard. Do you remember where you left your ratty old Zipees skateboard in 1965? Is it still being used to roll garbage cans out to the curb? Did you dump it in a prairie and then weasel a new Black Knight out of Ma?
Better get on the stick then, because those 1960s wooden boards with steel or clay wheels have taken off in value as collectibles. Skateboard aficionados are buying up vintage wood, driving values up to $5,000.
“You want my advice?” asks Gary Sohmers, owner of Wex Rex Collectibles in Framingham, Mass., and a regular appraiser on the PBS series “Antiques Road Show.” “Learn the history of skateboarding before you buy. Learn all you can. Think of 1958 to 1963 as the dawn of sidewalk surfing. Skateboards were built by hand at that point. By 1963 they were mass produced, when Jan and Dean had a hit record with `Sidewalk Surfin,’ and skateboarding was huge for five years–until we had a backlash. Too many kids falling off, getting hurt and skateboards were banned from schoolyards. The first skateboard boom ended by 1968.”
So 1962-1968 examples with plain steel or open ball bearing, Chicago brand clay wheels are what you need to snoop around for this summer when you go junking at the flea market.
Boards with names such as Shark, Surf Bird, Boss Man and Monster. Most are in the $100 to $300 range–dings and all.
But try this one for size: a Willie Mays Say Hey skateboard with the old slugger’s likeness, even in fair condition, is worth $2,000 to $3,000 to the serious collector. And a 34-inch Duke Kahanamoku (surfing pioneer) built from Koa birch wood runs $5,000 to $6,000.
Sohmers favors California boards custom painted by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, Stanley Mouse or Rick Griffin.
“They’d set up with their air brushes at custom car shows and paint your board for a fee,” he says. “Bring me a skateboard with an authentic Big Daddy Roth or Stanley Mouse design, and I think it’ll be worth a $1,000.”
West Coast flea markets and garage sales have been pretty well picked over by skateboard speculators, but in the Midwest one still finds the occasional $2 yard-sale special. Ask Todd Quarles, owner of RQ Boardshop in Naperville. Next to his cash register is a no-name wooden board with Chicago clay wheels that he dates to about 1964. It’s a homemade job, hand-shaped by some kid named “McLaughlin.” (He burned his name into the wood.)
“A young guy brought this in,” says Quarles, who’s 29 and more into collecting Old School boards of the 1970s and ’80s. “He found it at a garage sale. The lady wanted $4, and when he hesitated she said she’d take $2.”
“You know what I think is cool about this skateboard? The kid who built it cut out a magazine picture of a cougar and adhered it to the wood before he added his clear coat. I like that touch. The picture was obviously important to him.”
Rhyn Noll was interested in Quarles’ tale.
Noll, author of what’s considered the skateboard bible “Skateboard Retrospective: A Buyer’s Guide” ($39.95; Schiffer Publishing, 2000), is a second-generation surfboard and skateboard builder. (His father, Greg Noll, is often mentioned in the same breath as Dewey Weber and Hobie Alter when conversation turns to surfing pioneers.) Noll spent two years cataloging 1960s boards and assigning values based on the California collectors market.
“Homemade boards … are really hard to date for certain,” he warns. “I’ve seen counterfeit 1960s boards. Guys’ll pull apart an old pair of roller skates and put the wheels on a two-by-four and call it a skateboard. You need to be careful when somebody’s asking a lot of money for a homemade board. Here’s a suggestion. Check to see if the trucks [suspension] are riveted to the board. In the 1960s, a lot of the companies and people building homemade boards used rivets.
“With the mass-produced skateboards, look for interesting graphics and go for a known logo. Try to buy a known brand. . . . Major brands like Hobie, Dewey Weber and Val Surf are safe, but don’t pass up a lesser-known company if you like the skateboard. Nash, Union, Lauderback–they all have value.”
A lesser-known company? Like, maybe, Adolph Kiefer & Associates?
On Page 38 of Noll’s book is an early 1960s board called the Big Wheeler. Noll credits this to Adolph Kiefer of Northfield. Kiefer, now 83, moved his company to Zion years ago, and the firm remains a top producer and supplier of water sports and water safety equipment.
But the Big Wheeler? And the Surf-n-Suzi?
“I had water-ski factories in Minnesota in the early 1960s,” recalls Kiefer, who’s happy to chat about his foray into the skateboard business. “Skateboards meant alternate business for us, a way to keep two of our factories busy during the off-season. I think we made about 2,000 skateboards. My problem with them involved product liability. I’d go downtown and meet with people at the National Safety Council, and we’d discuss ways to promote safe skateboarding, but too many kids were being hurt and I eventually realized we had to get away from the business. We separated from skateboards by the end of 1964.”
Does Kiefer have any old Big Wheelers or Surf-n-Suzis lying around?
“Not one!” he says. “But I had a lot of kids. They might.”
Well then, is he surprised to learn his old skateboards boards are now worth $300 apiece?
“What? No! I used them for firewood!”
Kiefer makes a point about 1960s skateboards: Thirty-seven years ago, they were considered throw-away toys, not legitimate sports equipment. Mom paid $4.99 at Bargain Town for your Zipees board, then pitched its spent carcass into the dustbin when Dad rolled over it in the driveway.
Todd Huber, owner of the Skatelab skateboard park and museum (www.skatelab.com) in Simi Valley, Calif., has 2,000 wooden skateboards in his collection. He wheels and deals with collectors and swap-meet operators and has a theory why he finds so many ancient boards in pristine condition.
“Injuries killed skateboarding in the 1960s,” he says. “I imagine instances where kids fell and broke arms their very first time on a skateboard. Dad got upset–and said no more! He took the skateboard, threw it in the attic and it stayed there for 35 years.
“You’re in Chicago? I have three old skateboards sold by Marshall Field’s. I was told a pair of grandparents kept them packed neatly away in the original boxes, with a grandkid’s name written on the outside of each box. I have the boards and the boxes right here. I’m guessing the kids would play with the skateboards when they visited grandma and grandpa, and then grandma would carefully wrap and store them away again, because they’re absolutely flawless.”
Huber’s advice to Chicago collectors?
We probably won’t find too many old Val Surf and Hobie boards poking out of estate sale trunks in Stickney. You have a better shot at unearthing the Zipees Sidewalk Surfboard, or a Sear’s Hot Dog, Wipeout, Sportflight and Woody.
“I always point to the Roller Derby as the quintessential 1960s skateboard,” he adds. “They had ’em at every Thrifty drugstrore out here, and I’m sure they sold a ton in Chicago. That’s a good one to look for.”
What about rare wood?
“A couple of years ago I would have told you the Willie Mays Say Hey skateboard. But since then I’ve seen a photo of a Beatles skateboard I never knew existed. I haven’t found that one yet, but I’m looking.”
Does he have a favorite old skateboard?
“The last one I bought is always my favorite.”
Cowabunga!
