Skateboard Retrospective: A Collector's Guide

Rating:
Summary: great starter book
Review: Skateboard Retrospective by rhyn noll is filled with lots and lots of pictures showing skateboard decks/completes. The antique, vintage, & old school skateboard pictures are fantastic! I was able to formulate a plan and execute a purchase strategy using this book. My sidewalk surfer days were 1973-87, on the hills of Univ Calif Berkeley, and flatlands of Palo Alto, Ca. Obviously the vintage section of the book was my favorite!!. I actively buy and use collector books as a guide due to an ebay addition :-). So I have a pretty good idea as to what is a good collector guide book and what is not. I highly recommend Skateboard Retrospective for skateboard collectors or anyone interested in skateboarding history. Oh, this book got me back into sidewalk surfing again! Yep in my suit/tie, bald and fat. Started, 2001 & am going strong as long as I don't fall!! Can be seen on Sand Hill Rd, the venture capital location of the world... Guess a skateboarder never really grows up!

Rating:
Summary: great starter book
Review: Skateboard Retrospective by rhyn noll is filled with lots and lots of pictures showing skateboard decks/completes. The antique, vintage, & old school skateboard pictures are fantastic. I was able to formulate a plan and execute a purchase strategy using this book. I was a sidewalk surfer 1968-79 on the hills of Univ Calif Berkeley, thus vintage section was my favorite!!. As I am addicted to ebay, I have quite an array of different collections. From 1954 trucks, to 1960s pyrex, to 1970s skateboards. Therefore I actively buy and use collector books as a guide. I highly recommend Skateboard Retrospective for skateboard collectors or anyone interested in skateboarding history. This book covers it in written form and pictorial form.

Rating:
Summary: great starter book
Review: Skateboard Retrospective by rhyn noll is filled with lots of wonderful pictures showing skateboard decks/completes. The antique, vintage, & old school skateboard pictures are simply fantastic! I was able to formulate a plan, then execute a vintage skateboard purchase strategy using this book. My hardcore sidewalk surfer days were 1973-87, on the hills of Univ Calif Berkeley, and flatlands of Palo Alto, Ca. Obviously the vintage section of the book was my favorite!!. I actively buy and use collector books as a guide due to an ebay addiction :-)I have a pretty good idea as to what is a good collector guide book and what is not. Thus, I recommend Skateboard Retrospective for skateboard collectors or anyone interested in skateboarding history. Oh, this book got me back into sidewalk surfing again! Yep, in my suit/tie, bald and fat. Started, 2001 & am going strong as long as I don't fall!! Can be seen on Sand Hill Rd, the venture capital location of the world... Guess a skateboarder never really grows up!

Rating:
Summary: A misinformation guide
Review: The selective history of skateboarding thrown into a blender and set for puree. While there's some good historical action photos, and neat collectible skateboards, this book is so full of misinformation and jumbled facts that I don't know what to take for the truth. For example it says that Danny Way was an early pioneer of the air in the 70's. Danny was instrumental to taking vert skating to the next level, but not until the late 80's. The book is also merely a tool for the author to promote his own obscure line of skateboards, and for a small group of collectors to inflate the values of their private collections. As proof that the author has not done his homework, mixed in with the "glossary of skateboarding terms" are rollerblading terms! The book best covers the 60's, but after that it just falls apart. I could site more examples, and rant about how bad it is, but you get the point.

Rating:
Summary: A misinformation guide
Review: The selective history of skateboarding thrown into a blender and set for puree. While there's some good historical action photos, and neat collectible skateboards, this book is so full of misinformation and jumbled facts that I don't know what to take for the truth. For example it says that Danny Way was an early pioneer of the air in the 70's. Danny was instrumental to taking vert skating to the next level, but not until the late 80's. The book is also merely a tool for the author to promote his own obscure line of skateboards, and for a small group of collectors to inflate the values of their private collections. As proof that the author has not done his homework, mixed in with the "glossary of skateboarding terms" are rollerblading terms! The book best covers the 60's, but after that it just falls apart. I could site more examples, and rant about how bad it is, but you get the point.

Rating:
Summary: Noll's Book Is A Landmark For Skateboarding
Review: This is a beautiful, refreshing look into the skateboarding culture that is so misrepresented in today's society. Noll is able to capture the evolution of the sport and cast each documented era into it's own unique subculture bound together with other eras by their love of the sport. It is like a breath of fresh air to open this book and see full page pictures of skaters enjoying their sport before the days of mass communcication turn it into a money making machine. By today's percepton skating, carries many negative connotations, but Noll is able to wipe many of those notions away after a read. This book shows the purity that the sport began with and captures some purists who carry that pure vibe with them into the new millenium. Read "Skateboard Retrospective: A Collector's Guide" for a good dose of "Skate Stoke!"