I was lucky enough to be lent a little piece of history this weekend along with a note which reads…

“This skateboard is 36 years old, being built in Keyham in 1979.

Toy shops would sell a board called a ‘Surfer Flyer’, with cheap roller skate type wheels screwed to the deck from beneath.

We would source old Surfer Flyers just for the decks and this is one of those. We would sand them down, varnish and add grip tape that we would have snuck out of the Plymouth Dockyard.

The trucks and blue spacers were bought from ‘Westcountry Skateboards’ in Notte Street on the Barbican, which is now a spar shop I believe.

I Can’t remember which shop I bought the Kryptonics 70mm wheels from. You were cool in the late 70’s if you had a set of these wheels.

Other skateboard shops of that era in Plymouth were in Market Way, where ‘Wants’ shop is now. Also ‘Sanford & Down’ diving shop on West Hoe would stock boards, trucks and wheels etc.

This skateboard must have covered hundreds of miles of Plymouth back in the day. It has been stored away and hasn’t been ridden for 30 years.

Jon”

Thanks a lot to Jon for lending the board to me and writing this letter I feel really grateful that I got to see this :).

I did actually get to skate the board and it was super fun and really smooth with those massive wheels but also quite a challenge having no concave. I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Stefani

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